The Dartmouth 2/28/17

VOL. CLXXIV NO.39

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Student survey examines social programming

RAIN HIGH 48 LOW 39

By VIGNESH CHOCKALINGAM The Dartmouth Staff

ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

ARTS

OSCARS RECAP: AWKWARD BUT PROGRESSIVE PAGE 8

The survey regarding social programming conducted by The Dartmouth had 334 respondents.

PAGE 8

OPINION

LI: ACTIVE CLASSROOM FEMINISM PAGE 4

FISHBEIN: MY MENTAL HEALTH BATTLE PAGE 7

STANESCUBELLU: THE VALEDICTORIAN PAGE 7

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SEE SURVEY PAGE 5

Study investigates impact of road ecology

By SONIA QIN

FILM REVIEW: ‘GET OUT’

A survey released to the student body found that social programming events, such as those hosted at the Collis Center, had a positive impact on 61.5 percent of students who responded, whereas 33.6 percent said that the programming had no impact on their lives.

From Tuesday, Feb. 14 to Monday, Feb. 20, The Dartmouth fielded the online survey for Dartmouth students — to which 334 responded — on community-related topics surrounding social programming. Students answered questions ranging from

The Dartmouth Staff

Former Dartmouth postdoctoral fellow Steven Brady published a paper in mid-February on the evolutionary impact of roads on wild populations of plants and animals. This study of road ecology will appear on the cover of the upcoming March 1 print edition of scientific journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Brady said that a key message of the paper is that roads have significant

evolutionary consequences for plants and animals.

“In some cases, that means they develop a higher tolerance to the nasty conditions of roadside dwelling, and that’s when we see rapid adaptation,” he said. “For conservation, that’s potentially a useful thing — populations that aren’t doing so well over time may have a chance to do better over evolution.”

He added, however, that the same process of evolution can also lead to maladaptation in certain species, which end up “developing lower tolerance over

time.”

There is a universal theme that roads cause problems, and they cause populations to become different from each other through evolution, Brady said.

The paper cites the fact that globally, roads are projected to increase 60 percent in length by 2050, according to a 2013 International Agency study. Brady said that it becomes crucial to understand how roads are impacting the planet due to their abundance.

“The evolutionary piece is really important for the way we think about

Q&A with biology professor Kevin Peterson

By FRANCES COHEN

The Dartmouth Staff

Professor of biological sciences Kevin Peterson is currently researching microRNAs — a form of non-coding RNA that is involved in regulating gene expressions — and their role in the macroevolution of metazoan body plans. His research generally focuses on using a molecular paleobiological approach, combining molecular biology and paleontology, to work toward an

managing landscapes,” he said. “There is a lot of effort that goes out into protecting species and trying to create healthy ecosystems or restore systems, but that message about evolution still isn’t really picked up in applied conservation.”

He added that he hopes the paper will prompt people to think about designing roads in a way that facilitates adaptation or reduce selection pressures. When people think about roads as driving evolution, other strategies might emerge for helping SEE ROADS PAGE 3

COLLIS AT CAPACITY

understanding of early animal evolution, especially the explosive rise of animals roughly 530 million years ago, termed the “Cambrian explosion.”

Two years after graduating maxima cum laude from Carroll College, Peterson, reminded of his childhood fossil collection, rediscovered paleontology and was accepted into the geology department and the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life at SAPHFIRE BROWN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

SEE Q&A PAGE 2

Students enjoy the variety of culinary options that Collis Cafe has to offer.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAILY DEBRIEFING After the mix-up at Oscars yesterday, accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is facing review by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as reported by Financial Times. During the ceremony, actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, who were handed the wrong Best Picture envelope by two PwC accountants, announced “La La Land” as the winner instead of Moonlight. As the crew and cast of “La La Land” were in the midst of giving thank-you speeches, they were informed that the real winner was “Moonlight”.

PwC, which has overseen Oscar vote counting for more than eight decades, apologized and accepted responsibility for the mix-up.

The mistake aside, the crew and cast of both “Moonlight” and “La La Land” received multiple prizes. “Moonlight” won Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor, while six awards, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Production Design, Best Original Score and Best Original Song, went to “La La Land”.

According to the White House, President Donald Trump’s first budget blueprint proposes a $54 billion increase in defense spending as well as cutbacks to non-defense programs, as reported by CNN. The proposal was sent to government agencies today, and officials from the Trump administration are expected to explain the budget plan to Congress in the near future. The budget blueprint is in line with Trump’s 2016 campaign promises, in which he claimed that he would focus on increasing defense spending and reducing government waste. According to Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney, the blueprint seeks to increase defense spending to $603 billion and cut non-defense discretionary spending to $462 billion.

Mulvaney also said that Trump’s 2018 budget will include funding for the U.S.-Mexico border wall. According to another senior administration official, Trump also looks to solicit $30 billion in supplemental defense budget for the fiscal year 2017.

-COMPILED BY HEYI JIANG

CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.

Correction appended (Feb. 24, 2017): The original version of the Feb. 24 column “The Need for Conservative Faculty” referred to the Government course “Women in Politics” as course number 70.01. The article should have stated that the course is number 20.01. This column has been updated to reflect this correction.

Correction appended (Feb. 25, 2017): The original version of the Feb. 24 Verbum Ultimum “Ode on a Rejected Application” incorrectly stated that 9,654 students submitted applications through Dartmouth’s recruiting program this past fall. This should have stated that 768 students submitted 9,654 applications. This article has been updated to reflect this change.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017

Peterson discusses ‘paleobiology’ FROM Q&A PAGE 1

the University of California, Los Angeles, where he began to look at paleontological issues from a molecular point of view.

Can you start by telling me a little about your work and research in “molecular paleobiology”?

KP: I was trained as a paleontologist and my Ph.D. is in geology. And then for my post-doc I went to CalTech and learned developmental biology, and my goal is to use every means at my disposal to understand the issue of life on earth. So traditionally paleontologists have focused on the geologic record, but starting with one of my mentors at UCLA, it became obvious that there is this wealth of data in the genomes of living organisms called the genetic fossil record. And so molecular paleobiology is simply just using both records to understand the history of life with equal facility and testability.

So if a pattern emerges from one of the records, can we test predictions from that inference using the other fossil record and vice versa. And so, despite everything you see in my office, I don’t actually study fossils in the traditional sense.

What inspired you to delve into this realm of study, especially having little exposure to it until two years after graduating college?

KP: Well, I was pre-med in college, and I worked in mouse developmental genetics ... the goal was to go into neural surgery, and something dawned on me, after I already had my degree and still hadn’t taken the MCAT and still hadn’t applied to med school, and maybe I just didn’t want to go to med school. And I remembered my love of paleontology and my first fossil that I found at four years old, which doesn’t look like much, but I remembered I had it. It took me a long time to find my fossil collection, and I decided that yeah, maybe I knew something as a 4-year-old that I had lost track of. The next day, I had to go to the library and there were these books called Peterson guides for graduate students, and I looked up paleontology. But I knew — ­ and I don’t know how I knew this or why I wanted to do this — but I knew I wanted to do something molecular in paleontology, which seemed weird. But I found an individual at UCLA who was actually doing this sort of work by the name of Charles Marshall, and I ended up being his graduate student. Charles was focused a lot on understanding interrelationships with organisms and stuff, and what I was really interested in was the development.

And so for my postdoc I worked with a very famous developmental biologist to learn how to do that work. I did that work for maybe 10 years while I was here, and I don’t do it anymore.

What is the current focus of your research?

KP: We work a lot on understanding the evolution of these RNA coding genes called microRNAs. And they weren’t known, for example, when I got here — they were discovered in the early ’90s, but no one knew what they were working with or working on until the early 2000s. They just captured my interest and had something potentially interesting to say about evolution that the genes that I was currently working on weren’t really giving me. So we do a lot of work now trying to explore how these genes evolve through time across the animal kingdom.

Can you talk a bit about the “Cambrian Explosion” and how it ties into your work?

KP: So the Cambrian Explosion is this seemingly sudden appearance of animal fossils starting about 520 to 530 million years ago. I got intrigued in this event in the very beginning of graduate school. It’s an event that Darwin writes about in “[On] the Origin [of Species],” and he had a solution to the problem. Where are all the ancestors if natural selection is actually right ... why does everything just show up at one point in time?

And it looks like a creative event.

And so what was so fascinating is that the problem actually got harder the more time that had elapsed since Darwin wrote “The Origin” because the pattern became just more and more stark. We couldn’t keep explaining it, as we just haven’t found the right rocks because people had been looking for 150 years around the entire planet and the pattern had largely held up. So I got very interested in this because I was interested in origins and this was the biggest origination event in the fossil record, basically. And it had a great tie to the molecular biology in two ways. One of them was thinking about using sequences as indicators of time. So we spent a lot of time the first 10 years I was here working on molecular clocks and trying to get an understanding of when animals actually evolved to see if we could tease apart the difference between origination versus first appearances in the rock record. And then the second thing was that these animals are just showing up out of nowhere so there has to be a developmental component that makes a bug versus a clam versus a person. And that’s why I got interested in the development — I was trying to understand how all that’s encoded in DNA. And if

we could understand that a little bit better, maybe we could understand how these unique body plans show up suddenly in the record.

What courses are you currently teaching?

KP: So, I teach a course right now called [Biology 28,] “Macroevolution,” and in the fall I teach a class called [Biology 11.07,] “Major Events in the History of Life and the Human Genome,” which is a molecular paleobiology course that uses the human genome to understand the top 10 things, in my opinion, that have happened — the top ten evolutionary events. And then in the spring, I teach a course on RNA [Biology 63, “RNA: The Real Secret of Life”].

Why did you choose to come to the College?

KP: Well, I mean it was an advertisement ... I had never even heard of Dartmouth. I grew up in a small town in western Montana — I didn’t know the Ivy League from any other league basically, so I had never heard of Dartmouth. I was applying for jobs that year and for some reason I still remember Dartmouth’s ad because it had the little tree, and I thought, “That sounds interesting.”

And it was kind of up my alley, and it sounded rural, kind of like where I grew up. It was just one of a series of interviews, but I got here and I was at home. So I was just so grateful that I got offered the job because it was such a perfect confluence of events. I mean, I could’ve ended up somewhere I hated if that was the only job offer, because you just take the job. A long time ago, a gentleman I worked with at the Montana Department of Transportation said, “You gotta make a choice between what do you want to do and where do you want to do it, because you rarely ever get both.” And so I knew a lot of people who stayed in Helena and just worked whatever job they could get because they wanted to live in Helena. And I was the sort of person who said I wanted to be a scientist, so I was going to have to work wherever I got a job. So to be able to get a job here, well it was really wonderful.

Do you have any hobbies or activities that you do for fun outside the classroom?

KP: Well, music’s a big love of my life. I used to play in a band — I’m not playing in a band right now.

Hiking in the summer. I used to ski, but I discovered this weekend that my skiing days are now over, through knee injuries. And gardening, I love gardening.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017

PAGE 3

Paper looks at impact of road development on evolution FROM ROADS PAGE 1

to sustain these systems in healthy ways, Brady said.

Brady added that he was intrigued by the impact of salt applied to roads in the winter.

“I thought for sure that this world would’ve been saturated with research when I got to grad school, so I didn’t really put my eye on it too closely,” he said. “When I started thinking about

it more and looking around, I noticed there wasn’t a ton of information on it. It seemed like an area to start asking questions.”

Biology professor Ryan Calsbeek said that salt washing off of roads and entering the water can have big evolutionary impacts. Some animal species can better adapt to salty environments than others, he said.

There is a lot of research on road ecology and how roads affect plants

and animals, but not as much work Arctic circle and is even capable of done specifically on their evolutionary living while being frozen solid. impact, Brady said.

“We’re watching right now as the “Other fields of conservation, temperature climbs this week; wood or disciplines, [that] are dealing frogs should start emerging,” Calsbeek with climate change, invasive species said, adding that the wood frog is one of and overfishing, have all considered the first types of amphibians to emerge evolutionary consequences,” he said. for breeding when the snow melts.

“In road ecology, He said that he it just hasn’t been and others in “Other fields of picked up that his laboratory conservation, or much.” will soon begin B r a dy s a i d disciplines, [that] catching wood his work in frogs and recording graduate school are dealing with their mating calls. at Yale University climate change, “The most focused mainly exciting thing is invasive species on the interaction really working with b e t w e e n and overfishing, the frogs because environmental have all considered they’re really cool changes and little animals,” evolution. He evolutionary Calsbeek said, principally studied consequences. In adding that they roads and runoff are also well-known road ecology, it just but also examined creatures to the disease emergence hasn’t been picked local townspeople. in the context of up that much.”

He added that urbanization, as he is working looking at how locally in Hanover, landscape changes - STEVEN BRADY, it is much easier can cause new to involve other FORMER DARTMOUTH diseases to emerge members of the POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW community in in wildlife.

Prior to scientific research. pursuing research The lab has worked at the College, Brady was a postdoctoral with undergraduates, high school researcher at the Northeast Fisheries students and even fifth-grade science Science Center, the research arm of classrooms at Windsor Elementary the National Oceanic and Atmospheric School, Calsbeek said.

Administration. During his year there, Since leaving Dartmouth in he used passive acoustic techniques to May 2015, Brady has worked at the monitor whales.

University of Vermont, developing an In 2014, Brady came to Dartmouth open source R software package for to work in Calsbeek’s evolutionary wildlife harvest data analysis. It was ecology lab and collaborate with him. during this time that he wrote the road Calsbeek had just transitioned into ecology paper, he said. working with wood frogs, a species that Brady now works with a group Brady had worked with in the past. of scientists for the King County “We study how natural selection government in Washington state. He shapes the evolution of wood frogs in is part of a program that monitors the this area,” Calsbeek said. “We study health of streams. interaction with predators, competitive “We have almost 200 sites throughout interactions, female mate choices.” the country that we monitor every year,” He added that the wood frog is the he said. “We go and collect samples from only amphibian found north of the the streams and write reports about

how efforts to restore these streams are doing.”

Brady added that he maintains a working relationship with Calsbeek.

Brady’s interest in the impact of roads on evolution started early on in his life, he said. When he learned about evolution in grade school, he said he wondered if squirrels were evolving into faster runners because of the threat of cars.

Brady mentioned this idea to Calsbeek, who suggested that they “get a radar gun and go measure the sprint speed of squirrels darting across the road.”

Roads also have significant impacts on the environment from a nonbiological aspect. Roads negatively change the albedo — the amount of light that a surface reflects — of the surface of the earth by absorbing, rather than reflecting, heat from the sun, Thayer School of Engineering professor Benoit Cushman-Roisin said.

Cushman-Roisin said that bigger road networks further disperse human populations, creating suburbs and even “exburbs,” a term coined to refer to areas beyond suburbs.

“People drive more because it’s possible,” Cushman-Roisin said. “As they drive more, they burn more fossil fuels and they contribute to the greenhouse gas effect.”

Freight transportation by trucks also generates significant CO2 emissions in the U.S., especially compared to Europe, where most freight is transported by electric train, Cushman-Roisin said.

He added that distances are also much shorter in Europe, so even if transportation were done by trucks, energy consumption would still be lower compared to the U.S. Not only does the presence of roads adversely impact the environment, but Cushman-Roisin also said that even the building and maintaining of roads emit large amounts of CO2.

Cushman-Roisin said that short of reducing the number of miles of paved roads, it is difficult to produce a solution that would mitigate the adverse environmental effects of roads.

WORK AND PLAY AT COLLIS CAFE

SAPHFIRE BROWN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Students make the most of their time at Collis Cafe by socializing, working and enjoying dinner.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST WASSIM HASSAN ’19

STAFF COLUMNIST LUCY LI ’19

Transfer Students’ Unfair Deal

Active Classroom Feminism

The College is deficient in handling the needs of transfer students.

Every year, Dartmouth accepts a few dozen transfer students. This number usually hovers around 30 to 40 among a pool of approximately 700 applicants. The transfer students come from a vast array of backgrounds, from veterans to varsity athletes. As expected, many of the transfer students come in on a credit deficit, because Dartmouth does not always accept every credit the student has to offer. This can cause transfer students to fall behind, and Dartmouth’s restrictions and protocols only make the situation increasingly difficult for those students.

I am a transfer from the University of Illinois at Chicago. I spent last year as a freshman at UIC, then found myself matriculating into Dartmouth for my sophomore year. I faced and currently still face many of the troubles that transfer students experience, and it’s about time our voice was heard by the College.

First and foremost, Dartmouth’s refusal to provide transfer credit reports before Orientation is problematic in itself. Whether or not a student will have to spend an extra quarter, semester or year at a university is a significant factor in the decision to matriculate. The College strictly refuses to provide any information about credits until mid-June, when they send out instructions for the process. This is after the deadline to commit, and a full credit report was provided to me only upon arriving to campus.

In choosing Dartmouth, I was essentially gambling with my graduation date. This is an effective policy to turn away students from transferring to Dartmouth, as I am sure those able to be admitted have other options as well.

Then comes the process of the actual credit evaluation, which is done without the input of the student. Rather, the student is presented with a list of credits received and told that it was thoroughly evaluated, discouraging any challenges to their conclusions. I, however, would like to focus on the most detrimental policy.

On the official Dartmouth website, there is a link for a petition to take an additional

four-course term beyond the allotted limit of four. On the form, it reads, “transfer students matriculating as a sophomore have the option of three four-course loads; as a junior, two four-course loads.” Given that transfer students are often not awarded enough credits to be at a comparable standing as the rest of the students in their class, one would think that transfers would be given more flexibility in overloading to catch up to their peers. The reality of the policy, however, is contrary to that logic. Transfer students are inhibited by their credit evaluations then assumed to be on the standing of someone who has already used up one or two of their four-course loads. This has and still does result in students matriculating after their freshman year at another university and having to spend an extra year at Dartmouth.

The problem with all of this, aside from the fact that it is contrary to common sense and is blatantly unfair, is that Dartmouth is almost unique in implementing these policies. For example, one of my transfer options was Northwestern University. A week after they notified me of the acceptance, a Northwestern admissions officer emailed me a transfer credit evaluation. While, admittedly, I did receive less credit there than I did at Dartmouth, Northwestern had the courtesy to notify me that I could be looking at an extra semester or summer school if I matriculated. They also notified me that I had the choice to dispute any decision they had made on my credit evaluation and encouraged me to bring resources such as my syllabi and course assignments from UIC. The transfer process is grueling for students and often ends in dissatisfaction and disappointment. I don’t expect Dartmouth to change its policies anytime soon, given that its transfer population is so small.

Perhaps the change will come only when transfer students begin overwhelmingly choosing other universities over Dartmouth because of its shady procedures. Until then, transfer students will continue to deal with the questioning and confused stares when their peers find out they’re on their second or third four-course load.

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ISSUE

NEWS EDITOR: Heyi Jiang, NEWS LAYOUT: Peter Charalambous

SUBMISSIONS: We welcome letters and guest columns. All submissions must include the author’s name and affiliation with Dartmouth College, and should not exceed 250 words for letters or 700 words for columns. The Dartmouth reserves the right to edit all material before publication. All material submitted becomes property of The Dartmouth. Please email submissions to editor@thedartmouth.com.

Women should take classrooms from men through identity politics.

In my government classes at Dartmouth, there being a feminist in an age where even feminism is always “That Guy.” He speaks too loudly, he has become dangerously exclusive. Even as I leans so far back in his chair you wish he would write this, I recognize that I have described a just tip over, he thinks he speaks God’s word and world in which gender is dichotomous, failing his monologues are long enough to make the to acknowledge the experiences of those who professor cut him off. are agender and transgender. I recognize that At least in my experience, That Guy is my experiences are responsible for my limited always a male student. worldview; however, I do While not every male “Men must be not discount the struggles student is That Guy, there I have not seen firsthand. I is a level of ease that male socialized to listen to understand that as I argue students manage to achieve women, and women for gender equality, I am in class that I see very not just fighting for equality must be socialized to rarely in female students. for the heteronormative Male students speak not stop apologizing and female. I understand that only louder but with more speak up.” my argument for improved assertion and with fewer women’srightsencompasses qualifications than their those who may or may not female counterparts do. have female genitalia, who The socialization of male confidence is even may or may not always identify as a woman, obvious in body language: male students generally who may or may not be straight. We cannot raise their hands higher and keep them up longer, fight oppression without fighting all kinds of hold their chins up and lean back in their chairs. oppression.

It sends the message that they are confident in Part of overcoming the problem is being their ability to express their views without much able to identify it. In Goldthree’s talk, she spoke concern for what others may think. about prefigurative politics, the idea that we Meanwhile, I see many eloquent and intelligent can shape the world around us and create women in my classes speak softer and hold their the society we envision through participatory bodies with more caution. They raise their hands democracy, as well as identity politics, the idea halfway, and they make insightful statements but that the most revolutionary politics comes out of rarely forget to qualify them or consider arguments ourselves. Goldthree discussed how, by studying that could refute their point. I’ve met several prefigurative politics and identity politics, which women who have recounted the times that they emerged from the Combahee River Collective, made a point in class only to have a male student we can create a revolution that transforms us, not mirror their exact argument in different words, just the legislation and semantics that build our with fewer qualifications and in a louder voice. political system. In modern times, we spend so This dynamic is one that will follow us into much time talking about social injustice through the professional world, where women face a policy and legislation that it makes us shortsighted. myriad of hindrances, driven by our oppression How do we fight the way we have been socialized and socialization to submission. This is ostensible through words and documents? in many career fields, where women fight uphill Society needs a new normal, and that can battles to gain a leg up, especially in traditionally only happen through ourselves. Men must be male-dominated occupations. Women balance socialized to listen to women, and women must the precarious tightrope of being viewed as shrill be socialized to stop apologizing and speak up. and unfeminine when being assertive and being We live in a reality in which social equality exists viewed as incapable or unintelligent when we fail on paper, and people have forgotten that there to be vocal enough. are institutional problems in our society that take In 1920, female suffragists left their legacy for more than legislation and policy to fix. This is why the future women of America by winning the unaffected people like Michael Flynn, Jr., the son battle for the right to vote, for representation in of President Donald Trump’s former national what was claimed to be a democracy. This was security advisor Michael Flynn, somehow believe a legal victory that altered our Constitution and that women’s desires are irrelevant. In classic gave us something tangible to wave in the faces “mansplaining” fashion, on Jan. 21 he tweeted: of our opponents.

“What victory? Women already have equal rights, However, political progress is by no means and YES equal pay in this country. What MORE equivalent to social progress. We can create new do you want? Free mani/pedis?” laws, change the Constitution and make Supreme What more do we want, you ask? We want Court decisions in favor of women’s rights, but this those equal rights to manifest on more than just won’t teach men who were socialized to believe paper. We want less mansplaining and less egothemselves to be better than women that they fluffing. We want to be heard in class, and we are wrong. Nor will it teach women who were don’t want to be made to feel inadequate when socialized to be submissive to live up to their we pursue our careers. We don’t want to be talked potential. Currently, we are fighting a battle for about like inanimate objects, and we want to equal vocalization. We are fighting a battle to be end the epidemic of gender-based violence. We heard, and this is a battle that women cannot don’t want to have to work twice as hard to be fight alone. considered worthy enough for this world, but if At Link Up’s 2017 Proud to Be a Woman we have to we will. Because we are not raising Dinner at Dartmouth, professor Reena Goldthree the future generation of women under a glass gave a talk entitled, “Another World is Possible: ceiling, and we want to be quantified as more Intersectional Feminism in an Age of Trump,” than just manicured mannequins to decorate where she discussed the precarious balance of your patriarchy.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017

PAGE 5

Student survey reports mixed responses to programming FROM SURVEY PAGE 1

the impact that College programming had on them personally to the types of events that they attended. The results were broken down by demographics such as class year, affiliation or gender.

TheCollege’snewhousecommunity system, which places each student in one of six housing communities, was first implemented in fall of 2016.

The system’s introduction followed almost a year of planning by the Moving Dartmouth Forward steering committee, a campus-wide effort to create policies that address a set of key issues College President Phil Hanlon had identified, including high-risk drinking, sexual assault and exclusivity on campus.

“We realized very early on that addressing some of the issues that we were seeing on campus, that having more community in the residence halls, and more continuity in the residence halls and more intellectual engagement, was one of the best ways we could address [these issues],” said physics and astronomy professor Ryan Hickox, West House Professor and an MDF steering committee member.

Hickox added that the creation of a robust housing system was the number one recommendation of the MDF. Since the fall term, the housing communities have pursued different ways of bringing together intellectual and cultural life, Hickox said. West House has hosted several community dinners, weekly teas with faculty and a number of other intellectual and cultural events. In addition, the house communities have organized intramural sports and several other social events, which are especially concentrated during special weekends on campus such as Homecoming and Winter Carnival.

Results from the survey show that

members of the Class of 2020 are the most integrated with the housing system. Freshmen are more likely than any other class to have attended a house community dinner or social event.

Thirty-nine percent of freshmen said they have attended a house community dinner, while 45 percent have attended a house social event.

In comparison, 29.5 percent of all respondents have attended a house community dinner and 31.1 percent have attended a house social event.

“We try to provide opportunities in many different ways for people just to get together and engage with each other,” Hickox said. “I think it’s going to take time for the community to really build cohesion as people live in the same place and come back to the same place over and over. But I think already we are making some progress.”

Assessing the reaction of students to the new housing system, Hickox said that overall the reaction has been fairly positive. Especially among ’20s, Hickox said that it has been a positive for first-year students to come to campus already part of a community, as was found in the survey results.

“Automatically having that sense of home on campus is a really powerful thing,” he said.

However, Hickox also said that while providing students with social programming is part of the house system’s function, it is not its main goal.

The Collis Center contains three groups — Collis After Dark, Programming Board and Collis Governing Board — whose main purpose is to provide students with social programming.

Katy Sprout ’17 and Josue Ruiz ’17, interns with CAD, said that CAD focuses on creating inclusive social spaces at Collis for students on different nights of the week, especially Fridays and Saturdays.

“The purpose [of the organization] I saw ever since joining as a freshman was creating an additional space, not necessarily an alternative space,” Sprout said.

Sprout added that CAD’s events in the past two terms have included Pinterest nights, spoken word nights, comedy shows, late night skates, hypnotists, movie nights, laser tag, magic shows and vast assortments of food and drinks, with alcohol served at times for students over 21.

After going to the National Association for Camps Activities Convention, Ruiz said that he realized that Dartmouth “arguably has the most college-sponsored programs of any university in the United States,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz said that Dartmouth offers a social event for students each night of the week, including Microbrew Monday, Tuesday Night Trivia, Open Mic on Wednesdays, Barhop on Thursdays, Collis After Dark on Fridays and Saturdays and Hopkins Center for the Arts events, such as concerts, on Sundays, “There is something to be said about the ways in which the social scene at Dartmouth has changed over the past four years,” Ruiz said.

“When we came here, we didn’t have a guaranteed budget. The Hop didn’t do as much programming that was focused on students. In the past four years, Dartmouth has done a good job of creating programming, sponsoring it and making sure that it takes root.”

Microbrew Monday and Tuesday Night Trivia are two of CGB’s many events. Sean Cann ’17, chair of the CGB, said that the board’s goal is to “create a welcoming and inclusive space at Collis through social and environmental aspects.”

In addition to those two events, which each draw 50 to 100 people

Numbers are expressed in percents.

ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Social programming events have a somewhat positive impact on a plurality of students.

nightly, CGB hosts several larger events, including viewing parties for the Super Bowl and the Oscars and several events cosponsored with other groups, including the Poker Society and V-February.

“It’s important that we are able to be so consistent and so regular with all of our events that are focused on welcoming everyone,” Cann said.

Cann said that CGB’s main focus is not only offering students consistent social programming, but also an inclusive space and community to all students.

Ruiz said that it is always beneficial to have multiple options for social spaces.

“For a lot of reasons, you have people of color, women of color, trans people, marginalized folks on this campus who don’t feel comfortable walking into a fraternity and don’t feel comfortable at a lot of spaces on this campus,” Ruiz said. “The Collis Center provides that space in ways in which other spaces on campus don’t.”

Sprout and Ruiz both said that CAD events are well attended. Ruiz said that, based on CAD’s own surveys, a full cross-section of Dartmouth students attends CAD events. Results from the survey concur, as 63 percent of Dartmouth students have attended a CAD event.

However, when students were asked how frequently they have “participated in or attended social programming events on campus,” less than 10 percent said that they “often” attend such events. Thirty-one percent said they have “rarely” attended such events while almost nine percent say they have “never” attended a school-sponsored social event. Sprout and Ruiz attributed these numbers to two things: lack of awareness and campus culture.

“I don’t think Dartmouth students realize how much programming is [offered] at Dartmouth,” Ruiz said.

However, Sprout said that CAD has made many attempts to get students to come out to events, from campus-wide blitzes to vibrant posters to running through the ’53 Commons dining hall dressed in PacMan costumes to advertise CAD’s Arcade Night.

“I think a lot of it has to do with social dynamics of Dartmouth,” Ruiz said. “If you’re someone who just goes to frat basements every weekend, then you have a sort of tunnel vision for the social scene at Dartmouth. If you only go to CAD events, you might also have that tunnel vision. It is about understanding that there is always something happening at Dartmouth and something to be explored at any given point.”

The survey showed results regarding a campus culture around schoolsponsored social programming. While 61 percent of students say that social programming has a positive impact on them, only 43 percent of students believe other students take some or full advantage of campus social programming.

“There has long been a distinction between how Dartmouth students perceive each other’s values and priorities and what they actually are,” Hickox said.

He said that he hopes the house communities can help build genuine relationships and create opportunities for meaningful exchange, which he says together can mitigate the differences between perceptions and reality.

Sprout and Ruiz said that all it takes to change campus’ hesitance around social programming is a little bit of initiative and open-mindedness on the part of students.

“If you see a poster, keep an open mind about it and if something sounds interesting, maybe you should try to go.

People are definitely hesitant,” Sprout said.

Numbers are expressed in percents.

ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Most students agree that Dartmouth needs more alternative social spaces to Greek houses.

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

PAGE 6

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017

DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY

8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Exhibition: Breakfast with the Arts, Nearburg Gallery and Arts Forum, Black Family Visual Arts Center

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Colloquium: “New Perspectives on Magnetic Reconnection — From Plasmoid Instability to Self-Generated Turbulence” with Princeton University professor Yi-Min Huang, Wilder 104

4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Lecture: “The Secret of our Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating our Species, and Making us Smarter” with Harvard University professor Joseph Henrich, Rockefeller 001

TOMORROW

4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Lecture: “Inference in Structured, Combinatorial and Complex Domains” with Carnegie Mellon University postdoctoral fellow Siamak Ravanbakhsh, Carson L02

5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Department of Music Event: Hop Hop and House Dance Workshop with Ephrat Asherie, The Hop Garage

RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 __ New Guinea 6 Closest buddies, for short 10 Cleaning cloths 14 Three through nine, in many golf club sets 15 On the sheltered side, at sea 16 Old flames 17 “The Daily Show” regular Black 18 *In Hades, euphemistically 20 Back to square __ 21 Ballet skirt 23 Every bit 24 Béarnaise sauce herb 26 Pearly whites 29 Escorted by 30 *Puffy Chinese dog 33 Where to find a sleeper hit, perhaps 35 Lascivious look 36 “Good point!”

37 “Raggedy” doll 38 601, to Seneca 40 Obstinate mount 42 East, in Essen 43 Fishing poles 45 Leave out 47 Actor Cary __ of “Kiss the Girls” 49 *Bovine yogurt brand 51 Part of a process 52 Adjust just a bit 53 “Way to go, sister!”

57 Hook shape 58 “Very cool!”

59 Where bovines graze 60 Pained expression, and a hint to two cries hidden in each answer to a starred clue 64 Makes angry, with “up” 66 German automaker 67 Commuter’s choice 68 Popped up 69 Fountain of jazz 70 Poet St. Vincent Millay 71 Poked at, catstyle

DOWN 1 First sitcom episode 2 Hockey venue 3 *Auto feature that doesn’t need a crank 4 College, to Aussies 5 Per what was previously mentioned 6 Mistreating 7 Frilly addition to a skirt 8 “A __ Good Men” 9 Capitol Hill lawmakers 10 Put back in office 11 Rock singer Rose 12 Prefix with political or logical 13 NNE opposite 19 Failed, as a fuse 22 “That’s awful!”

25 Divested (of) 27 *Head rest on a sofa 28 Lawmaking body 31 Oil or gas follower 32 Dampens 33 Stinging remark

34 Stifled laugh 35 Long ride, for short 39 Intolerably confident 41 Put out bait, say 44 Beau or boo 46 “Sign me up!”

48 Relay race part 50 Trio member with Crosby and Stills 51 Metro stop: Abbr.

54 Electrical pioneer Nikola 55 Dodger Pee Wee 56 Zapped with a beam 60 Activate, as a phone app 61 Tint 62 Home security giant 63 “Cool!”

65 Nest egg initials

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02/28/17

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 7

STAFF COLUMNIST DAN FISHBEIN ’19

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST SOFIA STANESCU-BELLU ’20

My Mental Health Battle

The Valedictorian

Students at Dartmouth face many struggles — we should reach out for help.

It’s time to stop clinging to our titles and embrace ourselves.

One day the sun will blow up, and humanity happen five or 10 years from now, I doomed will cease to be. You and I will have died long myself to a dull and dreary existence, one that before that. In the grand scope of the universe, would negatively impact the idea of a bright our lives amount to nothing. future that I clung to.

My freshman fall, I found myself standing This past term, in my literary theory class, on the edge of the bridge that goes to Norwich, I had the pleasure to read and write an essay Vermont, staring down at the icy water on a short paper by Friedrich Nietzsche, called below me as my mind “On Truth and Lie in an struggled to comprehend Extra-Moral Sense.” That “My freshman fall, I this existential truth. I might sound weighty, remember feeling lost found myself standing but if you feel down or and alone. I had come to on the edge of the stuck, I could not urge Dartmouth without any you strongly enough to plan for what I wanted bridge that goes to read it. Philosophy, while to do with my life. As a Norwich, Vermont, dense, has a unique ability generally asocial person to challenge your entire staring down at the who spent almost all his worldview. Nietzsche, time in high school by icy water below me aware of the existential himself, I desperately as my mind struggled state of the human missed the stability that condition, challenges his my family provided to me to comprehend the readers to think critically when I got to college. For existential truth.” about the truths that we a while, I felt as though I accept in our lives. In his wanted to take away the view, all truths that we have pain that coming to college had inflicted on are invented by humans. Whether with science my psyche. or with words, we invent our own systems of I’m happy to say that I have turned the knowledge. To me, Nietzsche’s argument boils corner. Both psychological therapy and a strong down to a claim that, since we will all die one support system of family and friends have day, it is foolish to blindly accept the truths that helped me in conquering my social anxiety, society tells us to accept. Rather, we should controlling my emotions and finding positivity challenge ourselves to be individuals and in my life. formulate our own unique values.

I want to use this article to encourage those Looking back on it, I see many of the of us currently facing mental health struggles challenges I faced in my freshman year to stay strong and persevere. According to depression as the product of societal pressures the American Psychological Association, in I felt placed on me. Growing up in a staunchly 2013 41.6 percent of college students had Catholic and socially conservative hometown, anxiety, while 36.4 percent had depression. I felt confined to certain notions of masculinity Yet, despite this prevalence of mental health and sexuality. Coming to Dartmouth, I took issues, discussions surrounding these topics several computer science courses, as I, like most remain oddly taboo. As a columnist, I believe students I met, was caught up in thinking about that I have an obligation to voice my opinion career prospects and earning power. Socially, that this taboo must end.

I struggled to align my own often insular At times it might seem like everything personality with the vivacity and extroversion operates against you. Last winter, I did not of fraternity life. want to leave my room. I would go to classes, Now, though, as I’m rediscovering my but I felt scared the whole time, that others confidence and enjoyment for life, I’ve found would judge me and say that I did not belong myself accepting a more Nietzschean way to on this Ivy League campus. The buildings at live. I have my own values and feel empowered Dartmouth loomed over me, making me feel to live by them. I can define myself and small in their shadows. Away from home for the my personality as I wish. Instead of taking first time, having made few friends at college and computer science classes to get a good job, I not wanting to worry my family, I turned even can take classes where I can read Nietzsche further inward. I bottled up all of my emotions, and work toward a career in education — not determined to focus solely on my schoolwork because it offers a good salary but because I while neglecting all other aspects of my life. have a passion for helping others discover their I had this idea that, since good grades could own individuality. ensure a bright future, I could will myself to Because of the struggles I have faced in endure whatever I faced in the present. college, I have not been able to meet as many Life, though, as the saying goes, is about the of my classmates as I would have liked. We are journey, not the destination. I developed this all here for each other, though. After reading mentality, in which I completely abandoned this column, I implore you to reach out to me my present happiness while working toward through email (you can find me in Dartmouth’s future goals, that ultimately did me more harm directory) if you need someone to talk to, than good. I would stress so much about my any time about anything. I also encourage academic performance that I got, caught up anyone struggling with mental health issues to in nerves, unable to function to the best of my contact Dartmouth’s Counseling and Human ability. To escape my depression and free myself Development services and other professional from this angst that jeopardized my capacity to resources. achieve, I had to learn to live in the moment. Yes, we will all one day die. But before that If I spent all my time caught up in what would day comes, we can live life on our own terms.

The other day, I felt compelled to check currently 61,305 undergraduates enrolled the website for my high school’s student at the eight Ivy League schools and 16,000 newspaper. Since arriving at Dartmouth, I Software Engineers at Apple, according hadn’t paid any attention to current events to LinkedIn. Sure, going to Dartmouth at my old school, and I was curious to see sets me apart from the 99.6 percent of what changed during my first five months college students that don’t attend an Ivy at college. Sports highlights, interviews League school, but within this subset of with teachers, movie reviews — typical the population, what differentiates me from high school journalism filled the paper, another student at Dartmouth? until I stumbled upon an article titled, It’s not my “Ivy League student” title “Valedictorian and Salutatorian titles will that makes me unique or speaks for who I no longer be offered as am, it’s my personality, GPA recognition during “A title should be my Romanian heritage, graduation.” my ability to play chess, At this, I felt a rush an afterthought — my passion for French, of annoyance and anger. our passions, drive, my love of peanut butter, Removing the title of interests and identities my fascination with valedictorian? Were they computer programming kidding? I thought back should speak first and that make me, me. While to those long nights titles second.” it is true that attending junior and senior year Dartmouth and being when I stared dejectedly valedictorian of my high at the piles of unfinished work on my desk, school class speak for my drive and ambition, wondering if I should just go to bed. My that’s not all there is to me. In clinging to goal of being valedictorian was the only these shallow titles, we lose a sense of who motivation that kept me up through the we are and the little nuances that make up seemingly endless hours of work, countless our identity. We begin to identify with those tests, exams and quizzes and 14 Advanced typed words on our résumé so much so that Placement classes. The goal of walking they consume us and leave nothing behind across the stage at graduation, delivering a but those Times New Roman 12-point speech in front of my friends and classmates precision typed letters. and being able to tack on the title of In saying all of this, I still don’t agree “valedictorian” next to my name fueled my with the stripping of the valedictorian and drive to succeed. And I was successful — I salutatorian titles from my former high remember the euphoria I felt when I met school. While being valedictorian will no with the principal, and he told me that I longer matter in a few years and doesn’t was number one in my class. represent all aspects of my identity, I still The title of valedictorian isn’t the value the hard work and grit that I put in only honor out there that people like me to attain this title. It is still a validation of dream of adding to our résumés, LinkedIn the attainment of my goals and proof of profiles, Facebook pages and Twitter bios my abilities, and these titles should still be or casually sneaking in awarded to recognize during conversations “Looking into the individuals’ hard work. with others. “Ivy League There is nothing wrong Student,” “4.0 GPA,” mirror, I see me: Sofia. with having these titles “software engineer at Not ‘The Valedictorian’ or enjoying the feeling A pple,” “investment and prestige that comes or ‘The Ivy League banking analyst at with them. There is Goldman Sachs,” “MBA Student,’ just Sofia. s o m e t h i n g w ro n g, candidate at Harvard And that’s all that however, in letting these Business School” — titles define — and strip the list of titles and matters.” away — your identity. status symbols goes on.

You don’t have to be These titles have become the holy grail of valedictorian to have a passion for learning many students at Ivy League schools, and and an ambition to succeed. You don’t have Dartmouth is no exception. Why do we to work at Goldman Sachs or Apple to be cling to these words and to the prestige considered a success. You don’t have to have they invoke? a title to have an identity.

At the end of the day, these titles mean A title should be an afterthought — our little in determining what we are worth as passions, drive, interests and identities individuals. It hurts me to say this after should speak first and titles second. The title wearing the valedictorian sticker for so long should be the icing on the cake, a garnish and aiming to add more coveted titles to that makes the cake sweeter but doesn’t my résumé. But it took some self-reflection represent the whole flavor. When we remove to realize the brutal truth: these titles don’t the crutch of our titles and stand alone, hold as much weight as I once thought. we can see the full picture of who we are: As David McCullough said in his “You Are our triumphs, our defeats, our past and a Not Special” graduation speech, each year glimpse of our future. Looking in the mirror, there are 37,000 valedictorians graduating I see me: Sofia. Not “The Valedictorian” from high schools across the country. Based or “The Ivy League Student,” just Sofia. on fall 2015 enrollment figures, there are And that’s all that matters.

PAGE 8

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Despite awkward mix-up, this year’s Oscars are a step forward

By SEBASTIAN WURZRAINER The Dartmouth Staff

After last year’s “Oscars So White” controversy, I didn’t think a more uncomfortable Oscar ceremony would be possible. But somehow, the last five minutes of this year’s ceremony managed to top it and then some. In one of the most awkward moments in Academy Awards history, it was revealed that “Moonlight” had actually won Best Picture, even while the “La La Land” team was giving speeches on stage.

“Moonlight” was my favorite film of 2016, though “La La Land” follows behind as a close second. On the one hand, I’m thrilled that these were the top competitors for Best Picture, particularly considering the Oscars’ track record. On the other hand, I felt like a parent forced to decide between my children.

However, before last night, I mentioned to friends and family that I felt “Moonlight” should win Best Picture for being the superior and more relevant film, while “La

La Land” should still be recognized for its magnificent accomplishment via a Best Director win for Damien Chazelle. Ultimately, this is exactly what happened, and I think it was the only reasonable way to honor the best films of a truly exceptional year.

Aside from the major mishap, this was a relatively uneventful ceremony. Even the upsets weren’t that “upsetty.” Jimmy Kimmel was tame but funny, dropping his japes at our “Supreme Leader” right on cue. While many of the speeches were political, particularly in the foreign language film category, most (except for the force of nature that is Viola Davis) lacked the intensity that defined last year’s Oscars, instead opting for a tone of compassion. Nonetheless, here are a few thoughts on some of the highlights and surprises: Best Original Screenplay: “La La Land” didn’t sweep the Awards like everyone thought it would, winning only six of its 14 nominations, which left room for other great films to win. I’m still not

entirely sold on “Manchester by the Iran. It was possibly the most Sea” and would have happily seen moving moment of the evening.

“Hell or High Water,” or maybe Best Animated Feature Film: even “The Lobster,” win in this We all knew “Zootopia” would win category instead. on charm alone, but how I would Best Adapted Screenplay: have loved to see “Kubo and the T his Award Two Strings” divided my get the loyalties between “[The Oscars were] recognition the elegance of a great wrap up to it deserves.

“Moonlight” and Best a great year at the the intelligence Original o f “A r r i v a l ” movies. It’s clear Song: Fellow (incidentally, my that when the lights Dartmouth t h i rd f avo r i t e Film Society film of the year). go down in the members After watching theater, we can all m a y Bar r y Jenkins vehemently still experience some and Tarell Alvin disagree with M c C r a n e y ’ s cinematic magic.” me, but I will speech, though, continue to I think the right a rg u e t h at film — “Moonlight” — won.

“City of Stars” will one day be Best Foreign Language Film: recognized as one of the great songs Iranian director Asghar Farhadi in a musical film. I’m glad to see won for “The Salesman” but did that it won. not attend the Oscars. Instead Best Sound Editing: Well, at a prepared statement was read least “Arrival” won an Award for revealing that he was protesting something (I’m still peeved that Trump’s travel ban, which affects Amy Adams wasn’t nominated

for her beautifully restrained performance).

And finally, I think I’ll wrap this discussion up by mentioning the Award for Best Cinematography, which is where Martin Scorsese’s haunting masterpiece “Silence” had its only nomination (it didn’t win). I think the film will be remembered as one of Scorsese’s best, and it just goes to show that even this year the Oscars couldn’t get everything right.

Nonetheless, this year represents huge progress; for one thing, it was the first year in Oscar history where every acting category featured a nomination for a black actor.

Progress never happens all at once, though, and next year I certainly hope another woman (or women) is nominated for Best Director, as only four women have ever been nominated and only Kathryn Bigelow has ever won (for “The Hurt Locker”). But, for right now, this was a great wrap up to a great year at the movies. It’s clear that when the lights go down in the theater, we can all still experience some cinematic magic.

‘Get Out’ is a chilling and relevant take on the horror genre

By SEBASTIAN WURZRAINER The Dartmouth Staff

“Get Out” begins with a beautiful, stylistic long take following an African-American man trying to navigate a suburban neighborhood in the middle of the night. The scene sets the stage perfectly, as the man attempts to evade a car that starts to harass him. “Get Out” is a horror film to be sure, but its predominant interest is actually in the realworld horrors inflicted daily on the African-American community.

It’s amazing that Hollywood, known for thinking the world is composed of entirely white, straight, cisgender males, allowed this film to be made — a film which unmasks the casual, passive and insidious racism that remains deep-seated and systemic in our society.

After that opening scene, we’re introduced to Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), also African-American, visiting Dean and Missy Armitage (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener), the parents of his

girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams). members. All I could think to Chris quickly begins to sense that myself was, “I know people something is amiss in the Armitage from back home who would say h o m e , something just commenting like that!” All t h a t a l l o f “The screenplay is the horror in the D e a n a n d sprinkled with deft movie aside, the M i s s y ’ s apt portrayal of humor that always friends act casual racism lik e th ey ’ve has an undercurrent might be the “never seen a of brutal honesty.” scariest thing black man.” about the film.

Moreover, he That being said, notices that once the evil plot every other black person in the is revealed in the last half hour, neighborhood is in a servile “Get Out” becomes a full-fledged role. Matters are made worse horror story. On one hand, I when Chris learns that Missy admire how well done the horror is a hypnotist, and he begins to is on the technical front. This is suspect nefarious motives in the one of the few horror films I’ve community. ever seen that manages to justify its The first two-thirds of this film jump scares, which is an impressive are brilliant, slow-paced build-up feat in and of itself. Nonetheless, as Chris becomes increasingly I’ve never been a fan of horror concerned for his personal safety. films; if you are, then more power The screenplay is sprinkled with to you, but personally I’m just not deft humor that always has an a fan of being terrified. And this undercurrent of brutal honesty. film goes for full tilt horror near The movie hit home for me the end (or at least as full tilt as when Chris endures the ignorant Sebastian Wurzrainer is willing to comments of the community watch before running out of the

theater in his urine-stained pants). certainly beat the odds. His lead I have to reiterate, though, that actor, Kaluuya, is also a natural this is less a flaw with the film and star with infectious charisma, and more my own personal inhibition. I hope to see him in more films in I do, however, have one legitimate the years to come. In fact, all of complaint about the ending: I wish the actors do excellent work. the villainous motivation had been I anticipate that some audience more intrinsically connected to the members might complain about film’s discussion of modern racism. the film’s lack of subtlety. This is I must be vague to avoid spoilers, a fair comment but not, I think, but suffice it valid criticism. to say that if “Peele clearly has no Peele clearly has the film had no intention to be placed more intention to be subtle; subtle; instead, he e m p h a s i s instead, he intends to intends to use the on those framing of a horror use the framing of a themes in film to discuss t h e f i n a l horror film to discuss pertinent issues act, i t pertinent issues while while having fun might have at the same time. avo i d e d a having fun at the same His attitude seems few minor time.” to be “subtlety be plot holes. damned,” and I “ G e t happen to support Out” is the this position. I directorial debut of Jordan Peele found the horror sequence at the of “Key and Peele” fame and end so unsettling that I may never his work is sur prisingly self- watch the movie again, but “Get assured. Actors-turned-directors Out” is absolutely worth seeing at generally have a 50/50 chance of least once. being incompetent, but Peele has Rating: 8/10