VOL. CLXXII NO. 69
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Faculty discuss changes to distribs, grade inflation
PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 59 LOW 38
By EMILIA BALDWIN The Dartmouth Staff
Potential changes to distributive requirements, class meeting times, grade inflation and upperclassmen advising were discussed at yesterday’s meeting of the faculty of arts and sciences. The meeting served as an open forum for both proposal and discussion, as several of the ideas discussed will potentially be put to a vote on June 1, dean of the faculty Michael Mastanduno said. The session, which was introduced by College President Phil Hanlon and led by Mastanduno, featured both a vote on the proposal to revise an open-access policy JEFFREY LEE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
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Dean of the Faculty Michael Mastanduno discussed changes to distributive requirements yesterday.
SEE DISTRIBS PAGE 3
Pre-health advising program undergoing restructuring
B y LAUREN BUDD and ERIN LEE The Dartmouth Staff
Geisel School of Medicine professor Tim Lahey will become the faculty director of the health professions program, replacing longtime program leader and biology and Geisel professor Lee Witters, who elected to step down. The program is currently undergoing restructuring and will expand to hire a staff member for the new position of associate director, associate dean of faculty for
the sciences and computer science professor David Kotz said. Kotz said that the program is changing partly due to increased student interest and that last year, the program received funding from the College for hiring and restructuring. “It’s not necessarily a huge change — our goal is still the same,” he said. “We want to support students who are interested in health-related careers with a team that can provide one-on-one advising and a broader set of programs.”
Lahey said that the program supports more than 1,000 undergraduate students. “We wanted to make sure we made the services more robust, partly by building out the number of staff members in the program and partly by trying to centralize the programs,” he said. The health professions program offers advising to pre-health students and helps with medical school applications. Currently, the program includes two staff members, pre-health
AkbarAhmed discusses role of understanding in diplomacy B y PARKER RICHARDS The Dartmouth Staff
Akbar Ahmed, the former Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland, said in a lecture yesterday that his mission is “to heal a fractured world.” He said he has set out to undo the narrative of clashing civilizations that has arisen in academic circles and the public sphere since 9/11 to explain the conflicts between East and West and replace it with ideas of dialogue and education.
advisor Sarah Berger and program coordinator Annette Hamilton. “They’re doing a great job, but they would like to be able to do more if they had more hours in the day, so having new staff is going to help achieve those dreams,” Lahey said. Witters said Lahey’s appointment is part of a larger restructuring of the program. “I felt that since I’m close to retirement, though I’m not retiring, that it SEE HEALTH PAGE 2
MEET AND GREET
Ahmed spoke to a crowd of over 100 in Filene Auditorium Monday afternoon in an event hosted by the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. “I think there is nothing more important than promoting the idea of the dialogue of civilizations, because the idea of the clash of civilizations has dominated the narrative after 9/11, especially among people who don’t want to think too deeply into what are the issues that are creating so much FAITH ROTICH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
SEE LECTURE PAGE 5
Panhellenic Council’s sorority-blind event featured discussions with each sorority.
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
PAGE 2
DAily debriefing The College’s annual Formula Hybrid Competition kicked off this Monday and will run through Thursday, according to the Thayer School of Engineering. Hybrid and electric cars are racing at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon for the competition, which is run by Thayer. The race cars were built by 27 teams of engineering students. The competition involves various aspects from design to endurance, while also focusing on energy efficiency and sustainability. The competition will include autocross and acceleration challenges on Wednesday, as well as Formula Hybrid School Day on Tuesday, when students in middle school and high school can take guided expert tours. Researchers and medical professionals from the College presented their work surrounding findings in immunology, ovarian cancer and glioblastoma, among other cancer-related topics at last week’s annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, according to the Norris Cotton Cancer Center. Norris Cotton researcher and post-graduate fellow at the Geisel School of Medicine Nandini Sakurikar presented his research with other colleagues on a new method of using a Chk1 inhibitor, which researchers have attempted to use against cancer since the 1980s and has shown preclinical success for about 15 percent of cancers. Peter Sutoris ’11 has been named a Gates Cambridge Scholar for 2015, making him the second College alumnus to receive the award in its 15-year history, according to the College. The scholarship, endowed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is intended to support those who aim to improve others’ lives through the pursuit of an advanced degree at Cambridge University. Sutoris plans to pursue a master of philosophy degree at the university as one of 94 students selected for the scholarship this year. Ingrid Nelson ’05 was named a Gates Cambridge Scholar in 2005. —Compiled by Laura Weiss
Corrections
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015
Lee Witters will step down FROM HEALTH PAGE 1
might be best for people who are carrying on this vital program to really be on the ground floor of the re-planning and reorganization,” Witters said. The program is moving from the Dean of the College’s office to the dean of the faculty’s office, a shift that reflects the program’s academic mission, he said. “You can think of it as a major in some ways — but a different kind of academic program that’s also involved with planning and executing extracurricular activities,” he said. “I thought having it under faculty direction was really what it needed, so I am quite pleased to see that has occurred as part of this transition process.” Kotz said that the shift will help the health profession program coordinate with other academic advising programs, including firstyear advising and undergraduate research initiatives like the Presidential Scholars and Women in Science Program. Lahey said he is interested in learning from Witters and the other program staff members, as well as students, to understand what aspects of the program are effective and valuable before he implements significant changes. “I think the first year is a year of listening and learning,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll see people coming newly into a program and they’re just full of great ideas and kind of don’t learn enough about what exists first, and I want to make sure I know what it is first before I do anything big.” Tailoring the program to stu-
JEFFREY LEE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
The pre-health advising program supports over 1,000 students.
dents’ needs and interests through programming and focused networking is part of Lahey’s ultimate goal, he said. “Could we leverage [T he Dartmouth Institute] and [Geisel Medical School] and connections in a way that isn’t being fully realized now, and could we get even more for our undergraduates?” he said. “I think that is an exciting thing to explore.” Kotz said that Lahey is a good fit for the program because of the his various clinical and educational involvements. He noted that Lahey has clinical expertise from working at DHMC and is an active faculty member at Geisel, in addition to teaching undergraduate courses. “He brings that full breadth of experiences that I think will help
him advise undergraduates,” Kotz said. Kotz said that the program has expanded considerably under Witters’ leadership. Witters said that he has directly or indirectly advised nearly 6,000 students and taught about the same number. He added that he will continue to work with the Nathan Smith Society, a student organization for those interested in the health professions, advise alumni and help with the health professions program transition. “Giving up things that you’ve done for a long time and that you’ve really enjoyed doing and where you think you’ve made an impact is sometimes bittersweet, and it is something I am going to miss,” he said.
We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com. The April 27 story “Moody’s study finds wealth disparities among colleges” ran a photo of South Fairbanks Hall with the caption indicating that the Dartmouth College Fund is located in this area. The Dartmouth College Fund is actually located in North Fairbanks Hall, which has a separate enterway.
JEFFREY LEE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Pre-health advisor Sarah Berger meets with students to discuss academics and applications.
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015
PAGE 3
Changes and proposals fit with larger goal of increasing academic rigor FROM DISTRIBS PAGE 1
that was originally proposed this past fall, as well presentations from Mastanduno and biology professor Mark McPeek about the means to increase academic rigor through a reexamination of current distributive requirements and grading practices. Geography professor and chair of the committee on organization and policy Frank Magilligan began the meeting by proposing a revised resolution for an open-access policy, which was debated at the faculty’s last meeting in November. After Magilligan presented the revised measure, it was put to a vote and passed unanimously. The goal of the policy, Magilligan said during his speech, is to allow publishers to access research produced by Dartmouth faculty for wider dissemination by developing an open college institutional repository, which will archive all subsequent research. Previous concerns about the proposal addressed in the meeting included the difficulty of obtaining waivers to the policy. The revised policy will allow professors to access waivers online, both before and after publishing. After the vote, the discussion turned toward academic rigor, with Mastanduno and McPeek discussing different aspects of the topic. Mastanduno spoke about strengthening the College’s academic advising program and revising the distributive requirements for graduation. While he said the first-year advising program is strong at the moment, the College must further bolster upperclassman advising, particularly in a student’s sophomore year. “The second year is really important since its the bridge year
before the major,” he said. “We have a great first-year advising program, but after that it doesn’t really exist.” He said that upperclassman advising is imperative to thinking about the distributive requirements’ place in a broader liberal arts education. Much of the later part of his talk then turned toward a discussion of distributive requirements, which he said were last changed in 1992. Mastanduno explained that prior to the change, students at the College were required to take three classes in the social sciences, three in the natural sciences and three in the humanities, contributing to a much broader and less specific distribution of courses. He further noted that possible scheduling changes, with more time slots for course meetings added in the morning and the evening, as well as the implementation of 15-minute breaks between classes in order to allot more time for students to walk between buildings. Mastanduno said that he thought that students were losing the core message of a liberal arts education. “With the current system, students feel like they have to go around the curriculum, rather than work with it,” he said. In order to aid this problem, Mastanduno said that the main focus of the curriculum review committee is to give students more ownership of their education by broadening distributive requirements and potentially reverting back to a model more similar to what existed at the College before 1992. Mastanduno also discussed a possible change to the nonWestern distributive requirement and proposed lowering the number of courses which satisfy it from 200 to approximately 40 or 50. He said the change will provide students
with a broader world view. In the following discussion, several professors, particularly from the humanities and social sciences, voiced concerns about the proposed change to the nonWestern requirement. Native American studies and anthropology professor Sergei Kan said in response to Mastanduno
“If you challenge a Dartmouth student, they’ll step up to the challenge.” - MICHAEL MASTANDUNO, DEAN OF THE FACULTY that he felt that this change would diminish cultural understanding at the school and expressed concern that these classes might focus around a central bias dictated by administrators. Other suggestions by the present faculty members were to develop a common core system similar to Columbia University’s model, though no concrete steps were offered. After the lecture, Mastanduno said that he anticipates vigorous discussion amongst the student
body about the proposed changes once they are officially announced to campus. “There will definitely be a lot of different opinions,” he said. “It was obvious in this meeting that there are a lot of discussions to be had.” He added that the increase in academic rigor serves only to show other institutions the high expectations that exist at the College for both students and faculty. McPeek spoke after Mastanduno about diversifying grades at the College. He explained as well as showing on a graph that since 1974, when the College switched from a 5.0 grade point average scale to a 4.0 scale, A-letter grades have become increasingly more common, with As and A-minuses making up just under 60 percent of the grades awarded to students at the College. He said that professors must remember the fact that As are indicative of excellence, not adequacy. “It’s not the grading system, it’s the graders,” he said. He said that grades have increased at the same rate, saying that all grades will eventually all be a 4.0 if the trend of inflation does not end. McPeek refuted the reasoning that students admitted to the College are of higher caliber, saying that SAT scores are not indicative
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of projected performance in higher education. He also addressed concerns about graduate school placement, saying that even poorperformers in the pre-medical program have been admitted to medical school from the College. Several professors, including Kan, said that professors are more likely to award higher grades before achieving tenure, since professors with good student reports are rewarded with promotions and pay raises. Professors also said that standards of grading have changed, with stigmas around Bs and Cs becoming increasingly common among students. Biology professor Ryan Calsbeek, a member of the faculty coordinating committee, said that he felt many of the points made in the meeting were legitimate. He also said that he understood the worry amongst humanity professors in regards to changes in distributive requirements. “Enrollments might go down as students don’t take a class to fulfill a requirement,” he said, “I agree largely with the sentiment that a liberal arts education is about exploring all disciplines to a certain extent.” He also said that he was frustrated by some of the backlash to diversify the grades given to students at the College, saying that he felt only excellence should be rewarded.
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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
PAGE 4
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015
Staff Columnist WILLIAM PETERS ’15
STAFF COLUMNIST JON MILLER ’15
Embracing Difference
Too Tempting to Resist
Students outside the mainstream can transform peers’ perceptions. The past three years have seen a great deal of commotion concerning the nature of student life, particularly in regard to the role of Greek organizations and the issue of exclusivity. I cannot help but believe that a large portion of the grievances are borne from those who, for whatever reason, feel they have been shunned by those who are already members of certain groups. Feeling as though they do not and can not fit in at the College, some have taken to protests, demonstrations and making demands of administrators, such as those outlined in 2014’s “Freedom Budget.” Yet, while their methods of spectacle were effective in garnering the attention of administrators and fellow students, I feel that they overlooked the value of a sense of “otherness.” While I cannot speak to the experiences of every student who feels different from his or her peers, I want to offer my perspective on how being different at Dartmouth can be a profound and positive experience. When I arrived on campus, I was a 26-year-old veteran who had transferred from a community college and grew up in a low-income situation. Since the fall of 2012, I have certainly found my own form of community on various parts of campus. That is not to say, however, that I feel as though I have always “fit in” here. Students are usually very inquisitive and, on many occasions, socially tactless in their attempts to discover and understand new people — especially those who come from a background so unfamiliar to their own. I could have lashed out — and I did so on many occasions early on — but as time passed and I started to understand the nature of the students who attend Dartmouth, I began to learn how to be patient. I began to realize that I have a very apparent sense of “otherness” to myself, and instead of trying to change it or replying with anger when people pry, I decided to
embrace it. Every course, every house, every meal in the Class of 1953 Commons or Collis Cafe, I feel the eyes on my “otherness” — scanning my older face, the clothes I wear and the ink on my skin. I allowed this to bother me for a while, until I decided it was okay to say “this is me, and I am a student just like them.” When I began to accept that people would look at me differently, I was able to focus on how to share my experiences with them in a constructive manner. Yes, I have been to war. Yes, I came from a junior college. No, my high school didn’t have graphing calculators. And no, I didn’t take the College Board SATs. When you own something that stands out from the majority of your peers, when you wear it proudly like armor, then no one can use it to hurt you. Furthermore, you can share a story about your “otherness” that can contribute to a community in an invaluable way. I get the sense that the atypical, poor students who come to the College often find it difficult to find their footing on this campus. While the issues of exclusivity and misunderstanding need to be addressed, I want those students to know that they have something profound to offer the Dartmouth community. Those who come from modest places can inform their wealthier counterparts about the lower socioeconomic parts of society, circumstances many would otherwise never be familiar with. No, I don’t always fit in. In fact, I rarely do. Yet standing out allows me to be exceptional. And if you’re at Dartmouth — particularly if you are from a non-traditional background — you are exceptional. So the next time you think you are being ostracized for being different, before you go start a protest in College President Phil Hanlon’s office, think about how you can make your peers see things differently. Maybe you can teach them something an Ivy League professor never could.
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Fund requests for student activity fee money need more oversight. Jon Miller ’15 is a member of the undergraduate finance committee. The current system of allocating the student activity fee should be fundamentally changed — particularly to prevent inaccurate attendance estimates and duplicitous funding requests submitted to multiple student organizations. As it stands now, the $1,045,000 derived from the student activity fee is distributed to nine large campus organizations — including Collis Governing Board and the Greek Leadership Council — under the undergraduate finance committee. If one of these organizations is particularly skilled at ensuring that smaller student groups use the money effectively, then it may have a positive balance at the end of the fiscal year in which it was allocated to them. Rather than rewarding the smaller groups for prudent spending, however, the UFC retains control over any surplus. Organizations that spend money inappropriately, then, may benefit from the reallocation of these surplus funds. One high-profile instance of the misuse of student activity fee money was Student Assembly’s purchase of custom Patagonia jackets for executive council members last November. It would, for example, be likewise unethical to request $8,000 in funding for a dinner and inflate the estimated attendance to 400-500 people if the event will, in reality, only have 40-50 people. This type of behavior is not uncommon, though no single student would have the time to tally instances when student activity money was essentially pilfered in several thousand dollar lumps at a time on programming with low attendance. The current system encourages student groups to not only request gratuitous amounts but also to inflate estimated attendance. If a group holds an event it knows will cost $2,000, it may ask for $4,000 from various funding sources, knowing it likely not receive the full amount. This pattern incentivizes many groups to submit with undoubtedly inflated cost estimates. Since high costs can often be justified on the basis of strong attendance, groups might exaggerate those numbers. I wouldn’t be surprised if nearly all students working to review funding applications from one of the nine groups under the purview of the UFC have come across such attendance inflation.
Another major problem faced by students charged with the equitable use of student activity fee money is that a student group looking for funding can request it from multiple sources. In the case of co-sponsorship, this is ethical and doesn’t present any problems. What is concerning, however, is when one group, having been denied by one of the funding sources under the UFC, solicits funds from another source but declines to mention their previous funding denial. Even worse — a student group might double- or triple-dip into the student activity money by submitting requests to multiple boards without informing them of having received funding from similar sources. As the current system works, there is not a centralized way for the nine UFC organizations to quickly and easily communicate with one another about those seeking funding. To address these problems, the College should assist the UFC in creating a centralized database of current funding requests from across the nine organizations. Additionally, decisions about which groups and events receive funds from the student activity fee and how those funds are spent must be transparent. Funding requests, denials and approvals should all be made public. In theory, the student activity fee must only fund programming open to all of campus. Yet this line is sometimes hazy. If, for example, an event caters to a narrow, niche interest — perhaps shared by only 30 or 40 students — should it receive lavish funds because it is technically open to all? The UFC and the nine organizations below it should be required to publish detailed annual expenditure reports alongside funding data. The student activity fee is supposed to serve students, who have a right to know how their money is being spent — or misspent. If a group wishes to spend $3,000 on a relatively exclusive event or spend $800 renting a moon bounce or something equally ridiculous, then by all means, they probably will. In doing so, however, the group will be accountable not just to the students on the UFC, but to campus as a whole, and greater transparency will increase pressure on student groups to take ownership of how money is spent. It is one thing to have the 18 members of the UFC asking you in private to spend responsibly and quite another when you have 4,000 of your peers watching you.
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
PAGE 5
Ahmed advocates for greater understanding in Middle East conflict weakness of national governments, Ahmed said. turmoil,” he said after his lecture. A lack of infrastructure and Ahmed, currently chair of conflicts with centralized governIslamic studies at the School of ments hamper development of International Service at American these tribes, he said. The primary University, has written 27 books, conflict in the Middle East is not, including many on relations be- in Ahmed’s thesis, between Muslim tween the Middle East and the and Wester n West. forces, but be “T hese are “It’s critical that tween Muslim dangerous times c e n t r a l g ov we’re living in scholars, particularly ernments and and therefore Muslim scholars, Muslim petimes that we ripheral, tribal must talk about do the rounds, go areas. these issues,” to campuses and R e he said at the sponding to opening of his promote the idea of an audience lecture. question about dialogue, of bridge In the lecture, the potential Ahmed empha- building and of fo r v i o l e n c e sized the role friendship.” against feof education male students i n p ro m o t i n g if more funds peaceful rela- -AKBAR AHMED, were invested tions between in education different groups. former pakistani high in Muslim arRather than apeas, citing the commissioner to the proaching counabduction of tries individual- united kingdom and 276 female stuly and providing dents by the ireland them with militerrorist group tary aid, Ahmed Boko Haram said, Wester n in April 2014, nations should provide educational Ahmed said that a lack of educaaid and facilities to tribes who were tion was primarily responsible for invested in educating their youth. the violence itself. Tribal loyalties play a major “Those girls were not taken role in violence in the Middle because they were in education,” East, Ahmed said. He cited the he said. “They were taken because example of the 9/11 attacks, in Boko Haram is not educated.” which 18 of 19 hijackers came In addition to emphasizing the from the same tribe. As national importance of fostering educagovernments directly threaten tional opportunities in the Islamic tribes’ sovereignty, these groups world, Ahmed also discussed the engage in extreme, violent actions lack of education about other in an attempt to demonstrate the cultures. FROM AHMED PAGE 1
JEFFREY LEE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
The Rockefeller Center hosted former Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland Akbar Ahmed.
“It’s critical that scholars — particularly Muslim scholars — do the rounds, go to campuses and promote the idea of dialogue, of bridge-building and of friendship,” Ahmed said in a subsequent interview with The Dartmouth. He said that students and young people today should work to have an “understanding [of] the history of each others’ communities and societies, understanding [of] the cultures they’re coming from, so as future leaders they understand that the world is wonderful — it’s
WELCOME TO THE SPACE JAM
JEFFREY LEE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Philosophy and physics and astronomy professor Marcelo Gleiser explores the universe in last night’s lecture.
rich with different communities, reading about him and you realize this is a voice we should have on and results are complicated.” Additionally, Western societies campus,” Samwick said. can become more proactive in Ahmed said that he had atpreventing Muslim youths from tempted to come to Dartmouth for joining extremist groups like the several years. Over the course of Islamic State, also known as ISIS, Ahmed’s visit, he will attend three classes, a dinner with students and Ahmed said. Young Muslims in Western a lunch with faculty, Samwick said. countries have been leaving in the Samwick said that Rockefeller’s hundreds and thousands to fight programs are valuable for both the for the Islamic State, and many, Dartmouth community and Upper Ahmed said, may view it as their Valley residents. “We do these public lectures only real option. to make sure “They have that everybody n o g u i d a n c e “The one thing that on campus and to move them in the commualong a rational stuck out from what path so they are he said is that we need nity has the opportunity to making these hear from the choices that are to educate the leaders speaker,” he blatantly irra- and, compiling on top said. tional,” he said. Dalton “When people, of that, decentralizing White ’17, who men especially, to give each tribe their attended the commit violence lecture, said in God’s name, own individual leaders that Ahmed’s are they really to best formulate their emphasis on understanding expanding edthe nature of own interests.” ucational opGod and what portunities and God is telling decentralizing them to do?” -Dalton White ’17 current Middle Ahmed came Eastern states to Dartmouth at the encouragement of Louis to render more tribal autonomy Goodman ’64, former dean of the stuck with him. School of International Service Ian Abbott ’17 said that he at American University, where found Ahmed’s idea of investing he and Ahmed are both currently in education at the tribal level interesting. professors. Director of the Rockefeller “An anarcho-syndicalist orgaCenter and economics professor nization around these tribes is Andrew Samwick said that he probably the most effective stance reviewed Ahmed’s career history for implementing his educational decided to invite him to speak after plan, because right now with cenGoodman, who sits at the Rock- tralization as strong as it is, there is efeller Center’s Board of Visitors, too much room for abuse of power and abuse and misappropriation recommended Ahmed. “You do even a little bit of of funds,” he said.
PAGE 6
THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015
DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 12:00 p.m. “Cherenkov Imaging and Biochemical Sensing in Vivo Radiation Therapy,” Wilder 202
12:30 p.m. “The Global Calculator” with Jeremy Woods of Imperial College, Class of 1953 Commons, Paganucci Lounge
4:30 p.m. “State Department Counterintelligence” with former Robert David Booth, Haldeman 041
TOMORROW 4:00 p.m. “Trillion Dollar Economists,” lecture with Robert Litan of the Brookings Institution, Haldeman 125
4:15 p.m. “Theory in Dispute,” comparative literature lecture with Neil Larsen of the University of California, Davis, Reed Hall, Room 108
4:30 p.m. “World Without Order,” lecture with former Defense Intelligence Agency director Michael Flynn, Moore Hall, Filene Auditorium
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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015
PAGE 7
Beyond the Bubble: This festival brought to you by...
B y andrea nease The Dartmouth Staff
Woodstock, America’s first music festival of note, took place on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, from Aug. 15 to 18 in 1969. For those three days of peace and music, concert-goers were expected to fork over only $18 — a little over $115 when adjusted for inflation. Today, a three-day general admission pass to see Drake, Florence and the Machine and other performers at Coachella will run you $375 — and if you factor in shuttle privileges with your pass, the cost will rise to $435, with an $85 minimum required just to camp out overnight. These prices, of course, don’t include food, drinks and initial transportation to the event. Times have changed. Unfortunately, with this pricing change has also come a dramatic shift in festival culture toward elite commodification of the festival experience. Music festivals like Woodstock began with the simple hope of bringing people together over the common bond of music. A festival’s focus was the music — shocking, right? — and the attendees were there for just that — good music and good times. But in our age of consumerism, festivals like
Coachella have transformed from music-centric weekends to walletexhausting fashion shows that treat the music as near secondary.
Driven by consumerist impulses, today’s festivals have transformed into advertising zoos. Now, I understand that advertising is necessary, that branding is essential to business and that good marketing strategies are the key to success. What upsets me about this abudance of ads, though, is their lack of boundaries. Driven by consumerist impulses, today’s festivals have transformed into advertising zoos.
Now, I understand that advertising is necessary, that branding is essential to business and that good marketing strategies are the key to success. What upsets me about this abundance of ads, though, is their lack of boundaries. Festivals like Lollapalooza in Chicago name their stages after brands — such as the Samsung Galaxy stage — and companies have continued to push the envelope in finding ways to interact with participants. As a result, festivals have evolved into completely different entities than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Remember, Coachella wasn’t always $435. When the festival launched its first performances in 1999, tickets were $50, which translates to $70.44 in today’s dollars. What else has happened in the last 20 years besides a general rise in the presence of consumerism? Technology. Digital music has induced a notable decline in physical album sales and streaming has caused a visible decline in the presence of digital music. Facing dropping sales, many musicians have turned to modern music festivals as a primary source of revenue, and in turn festivals have begun to lose their individualized personalities and become obsessed with profit margins. Now, the need to make money far exceeds the importance of the music or the community of concert-goers. Sasquatch music festival held in Washington, for example, canceled its July festival last year citing poor ticket sales. The staff of Live Nation Entertainment, the concert promoter that runs
Sasquatch, blamed the decreased sales on the shortage of big-name talent — not on a shortage of local sounds who could have created a wonderful atmosphere. For me, this introduces another problem with current festival culture — it’s all about the headline performers. As I’ve already mentioned,
Looking back on the beginnings of music festivals and where they are today, I have to say it’s heartbreaking. I wish we could see festivals renew their focus on the music, creating unique lineups that craft a personality for the festival. Most of all, I’d like to see festivals put focus on building community around the musicians we love. But I don’t think they will. music festivals were constructed for the enjoyment of music and a completely transformative experience with the musicians you love. But just like concert-goers have begun flocking toward festivals with greater name recognition
— perhaps for more Instagram likes? — festivals have been forced to book artists with greater name recognition in order to remain popular. This convention has led to many music festivals, ranging from Coachella to Lollapalooza, Electric Daisy, Electric Zoo, Made in America and others, to have incredibly similar lineups. Taken in sum, the changes — wrought by consumerism, advertising and technology — have diminished the true purpose of music festivals to little more than another commodity for upper class America. At this point, I would rather attend a coffee shop open mic night than waste hundreds of dollars on a weekend where I will be too busy worrying about buying eight-dollar soft drinks to actually listen to high-quality live sets. Plus, I’d probably be critiqued for whether my clothes are fashionable enough. Don’t forget the pressure to Instagram and Snapchat every moment too — because if it’s not on social media, did I even attend Coachella? Looking back on the beginnings of music festivals and where they are today, I have to say it’s heartbreaking. I wish we could see festivals renew their focus on the music, creating unique lineups that craft a personality for the festival. Most of all, I’d like to see festivals put focus on building community around the musicians we love. But I don’t think they will. Until then, I guess I’ll be staying home — and looking forward to live music that I know will at least be free over Green Key.
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM...
KATELYN JONES/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
The Dartmouth Rockapellas met last night during their regular rehearsal to hone a cappella melodies.
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS
PAGE 8
SPORTS
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015
TUESDAY LINEUP
BASEBALL VS. AMHERST 3 PM
Baseball sweeps Harvard, goes undefeated in Red Rolfe play B y gayne kalustian The Dartmouth Staff
With a clean sweep of Harvard University this past weekend, Big Green baseball (20-19, 16-4 Ivy) has completed its regular season, going undefeated in divisional play for the first time in 23 years and extending its win streak to 14 games — the third-longest win streak in program history. The team’s perfect record over the last three weeks has been a testament to the its dominance in the Red Rolfe Division — yet, a perfect record does not a perfect team make. The streak, third baseman Nick Lombardi ’15 said, is not what is on the players’ minds. “I think we’re just taking it one game at a time right now,” he said. “We’re trying to just win every game. It may not always be by big margins or it might be a come-from-behind win.” Lombardi is referring to two close calls the team had this past weekend — game two of the doubleheader on Saturday in Hanover and Sunday’s first game in Cambridge. On Saturday, a would-have-been loss was turned around by a seventhinning, four-run offensive spark in what was otherwise a shutout against
the Big Green. On Sunday, the men allowed a game to push into extra innings against Harvard. The contest started off with a three-run lead for Dartmouth following a strong opening inning, but the advantage was turned by the combination of a throwing error and wild pitch by the Big Green in the third inning. The errors allowed the Crimson to score three runs of their own and tie the score. After the men collected another run in the sixth, Dustin Shirley ’18, a freshman who has recently been on the rise offensively for the Big Green, ended the game in the eighth and batted in two of his teammates to put pitcher Patrick Peterson ’18 in the position to close out the win. “We kind of didn’t play our best baseball the first game yesterday and maybe the second game on Saturday,” catcher Matt MacDowell ’15 said. “We made some errors that aren’t really what we’re used to, and we just ended up finding a way to win. We’re not going to be able to make mistakes like that and expect to win in the Ivy Championship.” The team becomes subject to this sort of microscopic criticism because it has not lost since the beginning of the month — pulling apart victories and finding out in what ways they could
have been more sure-handed. From a confidence perspective, it is not a bad thing to see a team claw its way back to a win from behind or work its way out of a jam with solid showings of situational hitting, particularly when considering the level of competition the team will have to play to in order to take the Ivy League’s top honor in May. While the weekend provided some necessary pressure for the team, the two softer wins were bookended by an 8-1 win, thrown mostly by Mike Concato ’17 and finished up by Sam Fichthorn ’18, and a 7-2 win, started by Chris England ’15 and finished by Adam Frank ’15 and Chris Burkholder ’17, the two of which allowed just a single hit in two and one innings of work, respectively. “[England’s] been pitching great all year,” captain Louis Concato ’14 said. “He got an opportunity today, and he continued to pitch well, which is good to see and hopefully he can continue it in the next weekend or whenever we play.” England, an unusual face in the weekend rotation, was not the only amendment to the rotation. Louis Concato said Duncan Robinson ’16, now sporting a 1.31 ERA in conference play, was moved to start the second
ANNIE DUNCAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
The baseball team finished its regular season with a 4-0 sweep of Harvard University.
game in preparation for the Ivy League Championship Series set to take place in two weeks. The team shuffled around players in the lineup and on the field — Bo Patterson ’15 played some center field, John Melody ’17 caught a game, Justin Fowler ’18 took over for Matt Parisi ’15 at shortstop for a game and Jay Graham ’15 was slotted in as the designated hitter. Graham was responsible for one of the weekend’s offensive highlights, hitting a two-run shot over the fence — his first career home run at Dartmouth — batting clean-up for the Big Green in the final of the four games.
Graham deserved, MacDowell said, the opportunity to enter the game in light of the “hard work” he has put in for the team during practices. Kyle Holbrook ’18 collected his first collegiate home run on Saturday, as both Shirley and Fowler continued to ramp up their offensive contributions, finding, perhaps, the swing in collegiate baseball not a moment too soon in the season. Shirley, Fowler and Holbrook — who can catch but mostly plays in right field — are almost certain to be on the field for at least part of the championship series, set to take place at an undetermined location on May 9 and 10.
Men’s golf finishes sixth in Ivy League Championships B y JASPER BINGHAM The Dartmouth Staff
The men’s golf team hit the links this weekend for the final time this season as they squared off against the rest of the Ancient Eight at the Ivy League Championships in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Shooting a 921 for the weekend, the Big Green placed sixth and came away 36 strokes behind the top-finishing University of Pennsylvania Quakers. The championships were held at the par-72, 7,091-yard Grace Course at the Saucon Valley Country Club. The weather conditions on the course were a bit difficult the first two days but improved by Sunday, Charlie Edler ’15 said. “The [physical] condition of the course was immaculate the entire week,” Edler said. “The first day it was super windy, pretty cold, the second day it was cold but not as windy and the third day was beautiful.”
Scott Jaster ’17 was the standout performer for the Big Green, as he has been for much of the season, shooting a 228 for the weekend and finishing in 14th overall among the field of 40 golfers. Edric Wung ’18 started the tournament hot, shooting a 75 the first day, good for fourth place and only three strokes behind the competition leader. Wung could not maintain his momentum, however, and dropped to 11th on the second day before landing a 24th-place overall finish for the tournament. Edler also made the most of his final round as a collegiate athlete, marking a team-best of the day with 72 to bring him to 16th place overall. “On the last day I played well, but on the first two days I definitely left some strokes out there,” Edler said. The Big Green improved their group score with each day of competition but was outpaced by the other
squads. It finished day one tied for fourth place with Yale University, before dropping to sixth after the second round, where it would remain through Sunday. The real story of the championships was the duel between the Quakers and the Princeton University Tigers, who fought neck-and-neck for the top spot nearly the entire weekend. Going into the final round on Sunday, Penn sat four strokes behind their local rivals, but some impressive play from Quakers sophomore Dane Walton and senior Austin Powell helped the team surge and finish one stroke ahead in the final tally. Walton managed eagles on the 10th and 13th holes, while Powell, their last golfer, birdied four of the last six holes, carding a stellar 67. Penn became the first team in history to win the Ivy League golf championships after placing last in the league the year before. A lack of facilities in the Hanover
area to work on short game has been a persistent problem this spring for the team, men’s golf head coach Rich Parker said. “Our course [at the Hanover Country Club] opens this Saturday. We haven’t been out, we haven’t had a chance to pitch balls,” Parker said. “We still could be better at it than we were in the spring in tournaments, but that’s a built-in excuse — one that we’re not going to use. We’ve faced these winters before. We need to chip and putt better.” He added that the Big Green had excellent drives, but that effective chipping and putting was what separated the top teams. “We hit the ball really well,” Parker said. “Our team has great ball strikers, starting to play a little bit smarter, [but] we need to chip and putt. That’s what the good teams did this weekend, and that’s what we’ll do going forward.” Edler agreed with his coach’s
assessment. “We’re always good at driving and our iron play is pretty strong,” Edler said. “It’s kind of a consistent theme throughout the season. We’ve always been a great ball-striking team but we’ve struggled around the greens, and I think that was kind of the case this week as well.” Looking forward, the team looks to shift the way they handle adversity. “We’re looking to have a more positive attitude when we go out and play,” Wung said. “[We can’t] be so negative and down when things aren’t going well.” The team will also welcome two new players in the coming year, including John Lazor from Belmont Hill School in Massachusetts, who Wung called “one of the best recruits in the country.” Parker added that he believes Jeffrey Lang ’17 will return to consistent form after struggling this spring and improve team’s depth.