VOL. CLXXII NO. 73
MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Students protest in solidarity with Baltimore events
PARTLY SUNNY HIGH 81 LOW 53
By HANNAH HYE MIN CHUNG The Dartmouth Staff
KATELYN JONES/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Carrying posters bearing the phrases “Black lives matter” and “We can’t breathe,” as well as the Dartmouth-specific “Where are our black profs,” roughly 150 students participated in a protest on Friday afternoon in response to recent events in Baltimore. The following day, a group of about 20 students protested outside of Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity’s annual Pigstick party and Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority’s Derby event, chanting “There are two Dartmouths, and they’re right here,”
A group of about 20 students protested police brutality outside the annual Pigstick and Derby parties.
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SEE PROTESTS PAGE 3
Pride Week highlights diversity of experiences
B y ESTEPHANIE AQUINO The Dartmouth Staff
PRIDE Week, a week-long celebration dedicated to raising awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and transgender issues, wraps up today with a talk by keynote speaker and prominent transgender activist Janet Mock. Highlights of the week included an HIV screening in Collis Common Ground on Wednesday, a cookout on the Collis Center patio on Thursday and a series of lectures and discussions
throughout the week. Gustavo Mercado Muñiz ’16, one of three PRIDE committee chairs, said that the goal of this year’s PRIDE week was to highlight the identities and experiences that are normally ignored in mainstream media. He noted that he hoped the programming of this year’s events helped raise awareness of the movement for people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. Francis Slaughter ’16, who served as co-chair for this years’ event programming, added that although he
believes there is a general consensus on campus that gay rights are important, he wanted programming to highlight other issues that are over looked. He said that every event was intentionally planned to achieve this goal. “It was important for us to complicate the conversation so that more voices were heard, specifically persons of color and other marginalized identities,” he said. Both Slaughter and Mercado said attendance and participation has increased during their time at Dart-
#DartmouthIAmHere campaign aims to showcase socioeconomic diversity B y Rebecca Asoulin The Dartmouth Staff
Ramtin Rahmani ’16 said he keeps thinking back to one anecdote submitted as part of the #DartmouthIamHere campaign — a new project using student submissions to showcase socioeconomic diversity on campus — where the student wrote about how at the end of each College tour he gives, he mentions that he is
the first person from his family to attend college. This act, Ramtin noted, is this student’s way of expressing that there is diversity on campus. This project, which Rahmani helped organize through his role as co-director of Dartmouth Quest Scholars, was spearheaded by Hui Cheng ’16 and Quest SEE CAMPAIGN PAGE 5
mouth. Slaughter said that as a freshman he was not aware of PRIDE Week’s existence, but that he credits recent years attendance growth to the emphasis the programming committee has placed on creating greater awareness through advertisements. “Honestly, I think that PRIDE has grown in as an event in people’s consciousness and attendance to our events and support has definitely improved,” SEE PRIDE PAGE 2
A MAN’S HOME IS HIS BOUNCY CASTLE
PREETI RISHI/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Weekend festivities included a bouncy castle on Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity’s lawn.
monday, may 4, 2015
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
PAGE 2
DAily debriefing Local property owners Kay and Peter Shumway and Elisha and Anne Huggins plan to donate to the conservancy 33 total acres to the Hanover Conservacy, which aims to protect the seven-mile ridgeline of Moose Mountain, the Valley News reported. These donations are contingent on the conservacy’s ability to raise $20,000 for surveying and stewardship, and as of Friday afternoon only $7,400 remains to be raised. Donations have come from Quabbin to Cardigan Partnership and the Elizabeth Parkhill Charitable Trust. Mill Pond, the new area created by the donation, will provide an environment for beavers and various other wildlife. Bernie Sanders hosted a casual brunch event in Man-chester this weekend to kick off his presidential campaign, the Concord Monitor reported. Sanders addressed unemployment, income inequality, equal pay for women, climate change, student loan debts and other issues and potential solutions in his speech. Sanders especially emphasized his dislike of campaign finance laws. In the first 24 hours of his campaign, he raised $1.5 million with an average donation of $43, although he will need $40 to $50 million to run competitively in primary states. Four new members were elected to the Hanover Coop’s board of directors after voting ended April 26, the Valley News reported. Harrison Drinkwater, Victoria Fullerton, Brett Tofel, and Anthony Roisman are the new directors, with Drinkwater receiving the most votes. A total of 2,608 ballots were cast, and though the winning margins were close and 224 ballots were invalid, no recount was requested. The new members hope to address employee treatment policies and better engage with members. —Compiled by Lauren Budd
Students attend PRIDE events FROM PRIDE PAGE 1
Mercado said. Slaughter added that he has been pleased with participation turnouts because it is often difficult for Dartmouth students to make room in their schedules to attend these sorts of events. The growth in attendance was visible Thursday afternoon from the steps of Collis Porch as crowds of students surrounded the steps of the porch to eat free food at the cook out. Students who attended the event said they were delighted to see the community come together to support the movement. “I didn’t know that our school celebrated PRIDE week until the cookout,” Angelina Lionetta ’18 said. She added that event inspired her to continue learning more about LGBTQ issues. “PRIDE week got me interested in learning more about current issues,” Lionetta said. “I went online and started reading more articles.” While this PRIDE week’s activities included programming to encourage casual conversation, more serious topics were discussed intimate group settings.
An HIV screening co-sponsored by Dick’s House was included in the weekly programming. Slaughter said that he looks forward to the HIV screening each year. “We had made great strides in the ’90s to reverse the trend of the disease and it is extremely important that we don’t rest on our laurels on this deadly disease,” Slaughter said. Mercado Muñiz said that planning for this year’s PRIDE week began early in the winter term. The schedule for this year’s events included those ranging from discussions with professionals about transgender mental health to social events such as a barbeque cookout. Justin Maffett ’16, co-chair of Spectra, which cosponsored some PRIDE Week events, said he felt the dialogue was a valuable way for students from across campus to interact in a safe space. Some students told him they came away feeling they saw a new perspective, he said, though some told him they felt there were not strong takeaways. Maffett said there was some tension among those planning events since while there are some elements of a common experience for members of the queer community at Dartmouth, in many ways every individual has a unique experience depending on individual identities and backgrounds. “There’s a lot of privilege that some members of the community have that others don’t in terms of getting through Dartmouth,” Maffett said. Some planning PRIDE events felt a greater effort could be made to be in tune to experiences of those that may not have the same privileges as others within the community, he said. In planning a dance party at Bones Gate fraternity in particular, he said some had concerns over holding the event at the fraternity, partly due to a bias incident that occurred there in the past. Maffett said there is a need for a non-Greek social space for LGBTQ students on campus. This PRIDE week’s activities included programming that encouraged casual conversation and those that addresses more serious topics in intimate group settings. Women and gender studies professor Eng-Beng Lim facilitated a discussion and dialogue titled “I Am my Own Queer Life” last Saturday. The event included intimate conver-
sation among students who shared their experiences embracing their queer identities. The event looked at issues regarding Asian queer sensibility and queer experiences within Asian cultures. Other events held included a discussion and performance by the Ballroom institute in Sarner Underground. Members of the Ballroom Institute facilitated this event and opened the event with a brief explanation of their work. The event concluded with a brief tutorial where the audience was given the opportunity to participate in “voguing.” The Ballroom Institute discussed how the American ballroom scene acted as an underground LGBTQ subculture. One of the performers elaborated on the strong sense of community that is shared in the groups. He added that since his adolescence, the ballroom scene provided him with social support and fostered creative expression as it has for many queer people of color. He said that he found stability and acceptance from the ballroom community after not receiving support from family or friends. “I was 19 and had exhausted my resources, moving into and out of my friends’ homes after being kicked out of my own,” he said. “I had nowhere to go, then I found the Ballroom Institute.” On Sunday, students and community leaders were honored for their work related to the LGBTQ movement at the PRIDE awards banquet. “I’m hoping that this year’s PRIDE events start to bring together the LGBTQ community and educate people on the leagues we still have to go in the movement for equal rights,” Mercado Muñiz. Maffett found the week as a whole to be successful but stressed the importance of keeping the conversations raised during PRIDE Week active through the rest of the year. “It’s unfortunate that Dartmouth stops for a moment — only for a week — to discuss these issues that are becoming more relevant to a growing demographic on campus,” he said. “Overall I think the student body and the administration need to start becoming more in tune and aware of what we discuss during PRIDE Week but also see how that applies to students’ lives and perspectives every day.”
Corrections We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com. In an Instagram post on Friday, The Dartmouth wrote that the march in solidarity with the Baltimore Uprising was organized by Dartmouth CoFIRED. CoFIRED distributed information, but did not play a role in organizing the march.
monday, may 4, 2015
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
PAGE 3
Students demonstrate outside social events on Saturday FROM PROTESTS PAGE 1
and “Single-sex organizations like your fraternity are part of the problem, Alpha Chi Alpha is part of the problem.” Officially titled “March in Solidarity with Baltimore Uprising and in Protest of Dartmouth’s Willful Ignorance: Let’s fight police brutality and complicity/complacency at Dartmouth,” the demonstration was advertised by several campus groups on Thursday and Friday. The participants gathered in front of Filene Auditorium at 5:30 p.m. before passing by BakerBerry Library and Dartmouth Hall. They continued down Main Street, then Lebanon Street toward Hanover High School before returning to campus. While marching, the demonstrators chanted, “Black lives matter,” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, these racist cops have got to go,” among other phrases. The march elicited honks from passing cars and caught the attention of pedestrians. Demonstrators have been protesting in Baltimore since late last month in response to the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man who died in police custody due to spinal cord injuries a week after his arrest, according to The Wall Street Journal. On Friday, Baltimore prosecutors ruled his death a homicide, and charges were issued against six officers involved in the case, the Journal reported. Sadia Sheikh-Hassan ’13, who participated in Friday’s march, said that her motivation to join was not just a single episode that has happened in Baltimore but “continued assaults on black lives in America.” She added that she thinks the College does not sufficiently protect students of color from these kinds of assaults. “We come to this place and we are supposed to be convinced that things are better or that we matter now because we go to an Ivy League institution,” she said. “But this Ivy League institution in particular continues to remind us that we don’t matter and what we want to study does not matter.” Hassan addressed the lack of resources for African and AfricanAmerican studies and the continued departure of professors from the African and African-American studies program as examples of the struggles that students of color face on campus. She said that the College seems to invest its time and effort in issues such as alcohol policy and Greek life instead of the issues of academic interests and safety of students of color. Si Yon Kim ’16, who participated in the march, said that she believes the march’s themes
regarding the struggle for justice and equal rights affect students from all backgrounds. “I think the people who attended were from a lot of different communities on campus, which validated to me that this is a universal struggle and that we all have a stake in this fight.” On Saturday, the demonstrators first marched down Webster Avenue before settling in the parking lot behind Alpha Chi, where they remained for approximately 20 minutes. Several students attending Pigstick joined the demonstrators as they were chanting. Immediately after, the demonstrators moved to KDE to protest during Derby. Alpha Chi president Henry Joyce ’16 said he thought that both the demonstrators and Pigstick attendees were respectful. He had heard that there may be a protest during the event and had hoped for mutual respect from both sides. “I can’t speak for the values of every member of the house, but we want to be an open place and encourage that kind of dialogue,” Joyce said. While the demonstrators were visible from most vantage points, they could not be heard from Alpha Chi’s balcony or past the first several rows of onlookers due to the high noise levels of the event. Daniela Pelaez ’16 said that she did not participate in the protest today because she walked yesterday afternoon as a part of the “March in Solidarity with Baltimore Uprising.” “I thought that it was awesome that they were trying to raise awareness for police brutality because it’s an important issue,” she said. “It’s alright to take a pause from a party.” She added she felt the demonstrators were not trying to cause problems, but simply raise awareness. “It’s a perfect environment,” she said. Terren Klein ’17, who attended Pigstick, said when he first heard there may be a protest, he was wary of how Pigstick would serve as a venue. “I was actually surprised at how well it was received,” he went on to say. “I think for them to get a warm welcome is a pretty substantive change.” Alfredo Gurmendi ’18, who also attended Pigstick, said he thought the demonstrators advocated for an “honorable cause,” but added that he felt the protest was out of context. Gurmendi added that he thought most people would agree with the message, but said “Pigstick is not the place for the protest.” In addition to the demonstrations, other events have been
KATELYN JONES/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
About 150 students participated in a march on Friday to protest policy brutality in relation to the Baltimore Uprising.
organized to address the Baltimore Uprising. Alpha Theta coed fraternity hosted “No Justice: No Peace” Sunday afternoon, where participants made phone calls and wrote letters to administrative bodies of Baltimore to urge them to make just decisions. President of Alpha Theta fraternity Noah Cramer ’16 said that
students from various backgrounds attended “No justice: No Peace” and wrote about 30 letters to various stakeholders of the Baltimore Uprising. “Alpha Theta doesn’t want to stay neutral,” he said. Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity has organized a discussion on the events in Baltimore, which will be
held today at 4 p.m. Cramer added that the series of events addressing the Baltimore Uprising is a testament to the fact that the College is becoming increasingly open to various discussions and more involved in diverse issues. Gurmendi is a member of The Dartmouth business staff.
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
PAGE 4
MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015
CONTRIBUTING Columnist REEM CHAMSEDDINE ’17
GUEST Columnist PETER TSE ’84
Updating Sophomore Summer
Liberating Minds to the Core
Sophomore summer should be redesigned or made voluntary.
Over the last year and a half, there is perhaps one word that brings more hype with it than any other on campus. Many upperclassmen laud sophomore summer, and most underclassmen eagerly anticipate what is supposed to be the pinnacle of their Dartmouth experience. Yet, with about a month and half to go, I have serious reservations about the upcoming summer term. That’s not to say I don’t love the idea of “Camp Dartmouth.” Warm weather on the Green and reuniting as a class are all things to which I can look forward. Sophomore summer, however, should not be held to the same weight as other terms — at the very least, it should be an optional experience, rather than one that demands administrative hurdles to opt out from. The range and number of courses offered over the summer are disappointing. Within my major, for example, I could not find a single class that interested me — not surprising, given that, barring seminars, there were only five from which I could choose. It does not make sense to pay the same tuition or use precious academic credits on classes in which we are not interested. It is no wonder that many students take only two classes. Of course, many students take fewer courses because of the legendary and hallowed reputation of sophomore summer — the name itself evokes images of nice weather, fun parties and easy classes. It is certainly possible for students to take classes and enjoy themselves, but I’m wary of an academic term that is associated so strongly with barbecues and river challenges. To add to this, the peculiar timing of the summer term compounds the inconvenience of the term as compared to others. This year, summer classes begin on June 25, while spring final exams end on June 8. Graduation and commencement may impact this timing, but that largely affects graduating seniors — not incoming sophomores. Two-and-a-half weeks is long enough to get away from campus, but too short for one to work, get an internship or anything similar. The same applies for the interim period between summer term and fall term. For those of us whose hometowns are far from campus, the interim periods can be unfulfilling and stagnant.
More inconvenient is the summer’s requirement that many students change residence halls simply because only a select few remain open. It is absurd that the residential office compels the majority of students who remain on campus during interim to move to the Choates or the River Clusters — only to have to move to their assigned summer housing only a couple of weeks later. The only exceptions to this rule are for those living in Maxwell, Channing Cox or Ledyard apartments, and those students who will be staying in the same room for spring and summer terms. There are clear solutions to these problems. First, the College should move the summer term closer to the end of spring term. The Office of Residential Life should allow students to remain in their spring housing over the summer interim, and departments should offer a wider variety of classes. Understandably, these are not simple solutions that could be implemented without logistical or financial obstacles. The alternative, then, is to make it an optional decision to spend the summer in Hanover. Without being a requirement, many students will likely continue to stay on campus for the fun and tradition of sophomore summer. Others, however, would not be limited to fewer classes and inconvenient academic calendars for the sake of a requirement. Instead, the College should institute a “summer study” program, similar to shorter or more open terms that many other schools offer. Williams College, for example, mandates a “winter study period,” and Colby and Amherst Colleges both have short January terms. During these terms, often only a few weeks in length, students take one intensive class or undertake a project with a faculty mentor, but are otherwise free to enjoy campus without the full number of commitments that come with a full term. Another alternative is to hold a “sophomore week,” the sophomore version of senior week, complete with trips, big lunches and evening programs. There are so many options outside of a mandatory sophomore summer — it is time we start thinking about making significant change.
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The College should institute a first-year core curriculum.
It is possible to graduate without a basic understanding of many of the central ideas, facts and issues that shape our world. As a student here in the 1980s, I fulfilled distributive requirements that were as confusing as those we have today. Now the curriculum review committee is suggesting that we return to a variant of those requirements. This will fail to address the root of the problem, which is that our education outside of the major is scattershot. We must require all first-year students to take core courses, which should cover the critical ideas, issues and knowledge that are essential to understand our world. Imagine if each of our three divisions offered one first-year core course. Humanities, social sciences and sciences could each decide what was most important to discuss. This would not only offer young minds a rigorous framework for making later choices, including which classes to take or what major to choose, it would unify the now scattered Dartmouth experience via shared intellectual engagement while the entire first-year class lived on campus. An 18 year-old has little basis for knowing what is fundamental. Because I was not required to take economics or government classes, for example, I left Hanover knowing nothing about our economic or political system. Instead, I haphazardly chose what seemed both interesting and aceable. Most advisors then, like now, were swamped and unable to serve as intimate mentors. I ended up taking “Olmec Civilization,” “Black Social Movements” and “Romantic Poetry” Though good, such courses were like looking at the world through a pipe. I had no way of seeing how these topics connected to broader themes. Neither in high school nor in college was I required to read the Vedas, the Bible, any Greek tragedy or philosophy, Adam Smith, Shakespeare, Marx or the United States constitution. I did not learn about genetics, Islam, evolution, the brain, statistics or even the Cold War through which we were living. Even worse, upon graduating with my prestigious degree, I felt educated. Only years later, after living abroad and meeting others my age who knew and understood much more, did I realize just how superficial my education had been outside of my physics major. What I lacked was context and understanding, and it took years of selfeducation to fill in the gaps. I realized that I had graduated without much exposure to the key ideas and issues that shape our world. In the name of intellectual freedom I had been sent to a buffet to sample whatever seemed enticing. There was little structure to guide a hungry mind that, on its own, had no way of knowing what to eat first or what was most nourishing. Now a professor, I often begin my classes with various questions to probe my students’ understanding of what I regard as basic knowledge. Who was Siddhartha Gautama? Pericles? Kant? When was the Cambrian Explosion? The Reformation? The Mongol sacking of Baghdad? What is a mitochondrion? The Enlightenment? Existentialism? Often
I am met with wildly incorrect guesses. Our high schools have often failed students, and we continue failing them in college. It is not our students’ fault. It is the fault of a culture that replaced the pursuit of deep understanding in liberal arts with wishy-washy electives. Not all information is equal. Some facts and issues are more valuable to study and confront, if the goal is the cultivation of the kind of understanding that can set a human mind free. In failing to provide a “big picture” of the world, we are not only hurting our students, we are hurting the society that many of our students will later lead. How can someone understand a pivotal event, say 9/11 or the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, without understanding much else that triggered it? How can a person know how to respond wisely if, lacking basic knowledge and context, events seem to happen randomly? The generation of professors now retiring, who were in college themselves in the late 1960s and early 1970s, rightly dismantled a core tied to an oppressive value system. The many social movements of that era aimed to liberate minds from a patriarchal, racist and sexist hierarchy that stifled most people who were not straight white men. In dismantling core curricula, though, professors threw the baby of understanding out with the bathwater of oppression. Their fear may have been that making a judgment about what is most valuable would be patronizing. But in shunning value judgments, this generation failed to create a new liberating core that would provide young people with guideposts that could set them on a path to freedom through global understanding. After two generations, it is time to recreate a core that is not the old core of ancient Greek, Latin, the Bible and other canonical books, but is instead a modern core that fosters understanding of our world. A new core would make it difficult for students to graduate, as I did, with a scattershot, disjointed worldview. Everyone who leaves the College should understand the major events and ideas of Western and non-Western civilizations and histories. Yes, specialization is also desirable, but only after one has developed a broad view of how the specifics fit together. There would surely be heated disagreements about what is important to include in our core courses. This is a debate we professors should welcome no matter how contentious, because otherwise, I fear we will shirk our responsibility to act as guides in the cultivation of understanding. We will fail to live up to the core mission of our liberal arts ideal, which is to foster an education that can liberate minds through understanding. Haphazardly met distributives are an intellectual cop-out. They are tantamount to a refusal to offer a map to young minds that want our guidance and mentorship. Students want to know what we professors regard as most fundamental. Yes, the 1950s core had to go — but so should the 1970s buffet. It is time to develop a 21stcentury core curriculum for Dartmouth. Peter Ulric Tse ’84 is a psychology professor.
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Students hope to increase dialogue on socioeconomic issues FROM CAMPAIGN PAGE 1
Scholars co-director Emily Chan ’16. The organizers, who were inspired by similar projects on other campuses like Princeton University, hope to launch the Facebook page, “Dartmouth Class Confessions,” sometime next week, Cheng said. Julietta Gervase ’16 and David Cordero ’16 worked as photographer and graphic designer, respectively, for the project. Gervase is a former member of The Dartmouth senior staff. Around 30 students submitted personal stories to the project, of which 15 to 20 will be publicly presented alongside a photograph of the student on the project’s Facebook page, Chan said. The project aims to increase knowledge of the experiences of those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, noting the tangible effect of increasing campus dialogue through similar projects at other institutions such as Northwestern University. In part because of these false character connotations associated with coming from different class background, people are reluctant to speak about these issues, Ilenna Jones ’15, who helped co-found Dartmouth Quest Scholars in 2011, said. She showed Cheng and others the Princeton page that helped inspire the project. “It causes a tension and an awkwardness so people avoid the issue,” Jones said. “It’s like talking about religion or politics.” She said because colleges like Dartmouth were built for the elite, there is a tension as they become more accessible to those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The presidential steering committee’s final report for “Moving Dartmouth Forward” indicated that the socioeconomic distribution of students at Dartmouth is “in stark
contrast to national demographic norms.” Fifty-nine percent of students come from families with incomes of $200,000 or above, while the U.S. Census records that only six percent of U.S. families earn that level of income. Comparatively, 11 percent of the student body at Dartmouth comes from the bottom 40 percent of U.S. households.
“It causes a tension and an awkwardness so people avoid the issue. It’s like talking about religion or politics.” -Ilenna Jones, ’15, DARTMOUTH QUEST SCHOLARS COFOUNDER, ON SOCIOECONOMIC ISSUES Cheng said the disproportionate level of wealth on campus can be very alienating to those from backgrounds that seem different from the norm or the perception of the norm. She noted that she felt uncomfortable speaking about class as a freshman, but became more comfortable through her socioeconomic advocacy work with OPAL and the Inter-Community Council. She added that the submissions were all unique and that to see “the human dimension” through personal stories is different from simply looking at financial aid statistics. Common threads among the submissions were discussions of holding jobs, often multiple, while on campus and the intersectionality of class with other identities. The project is timely, Cheng said, considering the high level of dialogue regarding class on other Ivy League campuses, citing the inaugural All-Ivy
STUCK IN THE MUD
First Generation Conference hosted by Brown University this winter as an example. She said that because Dartmouth’s Office of Pluralism and Leadership and the Tucker Foundation are both in a period of transition, there is a lack of institutional support for these kinds of projects. This, compounded with students being uncomfortable with discussing class, contribute to the dearth of conversation at the College, Cheng said. Chan said that the oft-repeated tagline that class is a hidden minority is really crucial when thinking about why the subject is often taboo. Chan said that there is a divide along socioeconomic lines that people do not notice on campus. “When you’re here you surround yourself with people who are similar to you, and you don’t realize that there is another side of campus,” Chan said. She said that these divisions became clear for her and for many others on foreign study programs and language study abroad programs. What students can do and where they can go throughout the program depends on how much money they have. Jones said based on her experiences at the College, she knows that students want to talk about issues surrounding class. She helped found
the Quest Scholars program in 2011, which is the campus extensions of QuestBridge, an organization that helps high-achieving low-income students as they apply for college. In 2011, the first students who applied through the College’s partnership with QuestBridge matriculated at the College. That year, Dartmouth Quest Scholars was recognized as a student organization.
“When you’re here you surround yourself with people who are similar to you, and you don’t realize that there is another side of campus.” - EMILY CHAN ’16, #dartmouthiamHERE CO-FOUNDER Quest Scholars is currently negotiating a name change to Dartmouth Socioeconomic Alliance in order to emphasize its openness to all students, not just those affiliated with QuestBridge, Chan said. The role of the
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group, she noted, is to create a safe space for dialogue around issues of class and socioeconomic status. She noted that in discussion on the subject, people “crawl out of the woodwork” and express their excitement at finding others who want to have a discourse. She noted that discussing socioeconomic status is charged with “character evaluations.” “If someone is successful, monetarily, in this country, then they are seen as good people who know how to take care of themselves, who make good decisions, who are people of good character,” Jones said. “If you’re poor, you’re irresponsible or your family doesn’t work hard enough, or you’re lazy and somehow also entitled.” As someone who identifies as working-class poor, Jones noted that as a freshman she also didn’t feel comfortable discussing her socioeconomic status. “The place is for them, not for me,” Jones said. “The silence is a product of the imbalance in distribution of socioeconomic backgrounds.” Even if the project promotes only “fleeting reflection,” Jones said it will be beneficial to everyone by prompting students to question what it means to come from a certain socioeconomic background.
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THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015
DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 3:00 p.m. “The Impact of Weakly Coupled Fields on the Accelerated Expansion and its Observables,” thesis defense by Jannis Bielefeld, Wilder 111
4:00 p.m. “Mitigating the Impacts of Transportation Electrification with Power Grid Enterprise Control,” Thayer School, Cummings 200
4:30 p.m. “Black Haunts in the Anthropocene.” with Marisa Parham of Amherst College, Kemeny Hall 008
TOMORROW 11:00 a.m. “Red Cross Blood Drive,” online registration, Hopkins Center for the Art, Alumni Hall
2:00 p.m. “Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Magnetic Nanoparticles in Biomedical Applications,” Wilder 202
4:30 p.m. “Transforming India: Development and Diplomacy” with Ambassador Asoke Kumar Mukerji, Haldeman 041
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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015 FROM LEVI PAGE 8
He challenged me to think more critically about dominant systems in society. He pushed me to a more radical place compared to culture itself. I don’t want to use radical as objective term because it is a relative one. I’m conservative relative to natural systems. I’m quite conservative in lifestyle but relative to dominant culture, I’m radical relative to that system. And that, relatively speaking, that radical system is the re-education I give myself building on Dartmouth education and graduate school. During that time, I got into foraging wild foods, delving into nutrition. I found the cuisine I was developing was the perfect dovetailing of ecological consciousness, rebuilding sustainable communities and nourishing people. What are the challenges of having a 100 percent local restaurant? DL: It’s the only restaurant I’ve ever had. The challenges we have around finding ingredients we need to have totally satisfying and uncompromised cuisine are welcome challenges to me. Whatever challenges I face are a small price I pay for the benefits of the form. I don’t have to worry very much about what it is my basis for doing Maine food or maritime food. The form itself has that covered. I’m only using local ingredients. Looking to hold to Maine or maritime or Acadian French tradition, but most of all, I’m looking to the land. By working strictly with land, it’s a pretty strong case that it’s a cuisine of place. The form is incredibly liberating in that sense. The challenges of sourcing aren’t even challenges. It’s a joy really to be constantly engaged with farmers and craftspeople and know that the menu has to be fluid and that sometimes we either have to change a dish or replace a dish. The really tough parts are challenges common to all restaurants, of getting word out, controlling message, maintaining quality control, keeping organization in the space, dealing with ups and downs of the individuals of my staff, dealing with things breaking and having to replace things I can’t afford and having to raise money in the first place. The biggest challenges aren’t unique to Vinland as 100 percent local restaurant. Things that are unique are a joy. What advice would you give to current students who want to go into the culinary industry? DL: Oh boy. That’s a great question… it’s a tough one. I would say, for one thing, be sure that it’s something you’re passionate about. And be sure you’re going into it for the right reasons. It’s a low-paying industry and Dartmouth grads have lots of opportunities for high-paying careers. Go into it with open eyes. It always has been a low-paying industry. It demands long hours and physically uncomfortable and dangerous environments. You will get cut and burned. It can be a gruff industry.
It’s not one where people are in any way coddled. If you have a clear sense of why and willing to make certain sacrifices, I would say don’t do culinary school. Go and learn on the job. Learn as much as you can. Stay in places long enough that you aren’t transient but don’t get stuck in one place for many years and not experience anywhere else. A great thing about the industry is that there is a well-established, vital tradition of apprenticeship. It’s typically not paid at all, maybe just a small stipend or room and board and you will work long hours with a lot of work, but you will be there behind scenes, seeing how everything is done. A month of apprenticeship is worth more than a month of culinary school. People have to have clear sense of why. Regardless of anything around them, political or environmental reasons which are of interest to many students, virtually everyone in this industry who stays in it for very long is in it and loves it because of the human connections. Unlike so many other jobs these days, including many open to Ivy graduates, it is not sitting all day. You’re doing a variety of tasks involving hands, body and brain and not staring at a computer screen. You’re engaging with people day in and day out. There are long days, but stimulating days. In terms of being immersed in human community, it is a wonderful job. As long as you’re doing with integrity, providing something undeniably good and needed. Also would advise a student or graduate to be ambitious. It’s a world where there is every opportunity for visionary person, enterprising person who has desire to be successful entrepreneur. You need to have confidence and chutzpah and you need to keep your eye on the prize because it’s really a grind working in any pro kitchen, especially anyone who will push you to grow. ... If you manage to do that, you have the opportunity to do something great. Nothing is like being your own boss. It comes with slew of unique challenges, and can be very difficult in many ways, but people who are working for others often long to be their own bosses. People who are their own bosses rarely want to go back to working with others. You can be the master of your destiny. It’s an industry where people graduating from Dartmouth, in terms of being a very highly-selective school, have advantages that a lot of people don’t. It can cut both ways, but it can be the basis of thinking outside the box and seeing ways to bring in ways of thinking that maybe haven’t been used in culinary world and do incredible things. Anyone who feels a passion for it should pursue it and with very open eyes. Anyone who thinks it’ll be anything but extremely hard work might want to think twice. This interview had been edited and condensed.
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Photo Essay: PRIDE at Dartmouth “It was important for us to complicate the conversation so that more voices were heard, specifically persons of color and other marginalized identities.” -FRANCIS SLAUGHTER ’16, PRIDE WEEK CO-CHAIR
KATE HERRINGTON/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
A rainbow flag hangs outside Collis in celebration of PRIDE Week.
“It’s unfortunate that Dartmouth stops for a moment — only a week — to discuss these issues that are becoming more relevant to a growing demographic on campus.”
KATELYN JONES/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
-JUSTIN MAFFETT ’16, SPECTRA CO-CHAIR
Students and alumbi were honored during this week’s PRIDE awards.
2015 Kemeny Lecture Series Presents
What is the h-‐principle? Yakov Eliashberg Stanford University
Tuesday, May 5, 2015 5:00 – 6:00 PM LSC 100 Arvo J. Oopik 1978 Auditorium Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center https://math.dartmouth.edu/activities/kemenylectures/2015-poster.pdf
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
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ARTS
MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015
“Ex-Machina” Makes Artificial Intelligence “Scary-Sexy”
B y andrew kingsley The Dartmouth Staff
If you took HAL from “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) and put him inside the body of the bathroom woman from “The Shining” (1980), you’d get Ava, the sleek, sultry artificial intelligence robot of “Ex Machina” (2015). The film itself lies somewhere between these two Kubrick movies, combining the claustrophobic horrors of the Overlook Hotel with the supercomputing callousness of HAL. Like Siri sexified, Ava epitomizes the male fantasy — an erotic subservient who deifies him — and the consequences of its fulfillment. Think “Her” (2013), but with a Samantha who would kill to be more than just a voice. The road to Ava begins with a lowly milquetoast of a programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) winning a week’s stay at his CEO’s secluded forest Xanadu. The creator of Bluebook, the world’s dominant search engine, Nathan (Oscar Isaac) combines Steve Jobs glasses with
“Breaking Bad” anti-hero Walter White’s bald with a beard look, the unsettling blend of genius and psychopath. Like Dracula himself, Nathan overwhelms his guest in intellect and strength, barring most doors, especially one filled with sleeping prototypes. Soon Caleb is stuck inside this palatial labyrinth, only to become the lab-rat for the latest in Nathan’s line of Frankenstein’s monsters, Ava. Ava (Alicia Vikander) eschews the flip-switch killer robot cliché and instead harbors the dormant potential of caged animal twitching for release, with Caleb as her bait. Over a series of “Silence of the Lambs” (1991)-esque Turing tests, Caleb observes Ava behind a highly monitored glass cage. These sessions reveal a mind less than human but more than robot — a naïve, prepubescent psyche desperate for human connection, possibly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. She sketches and dresses up for Caleb like a sentient Barbie, slowly seducing him with catlike cunning.
Ava soon discovers how to disable the security cameras, drowning the lab in red light as she warns Caleb to save her and mistrust Nathan.
“Like Dracula himself, Nathan overwhelms his guest in intellect and strength, barring most doors, especially one filled with sleeping prototypes. Soon Caleb is stuck inside this palatial labyrinth.” While dramatically unsettling at first, this device loses its potency with overuse, and could have been escalated more intensely. The trapped trio enter into a dance macabre, with Caleb the
hopeless marionette becoming more aware of his manipulators’ strings. Isaac and Vikander are deliciously unstable like the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat, ensnaring Caleb like a nascent Alice in a web of words, taunts and seductive smiles. From tormented folk singer in “Inside Llewyn Davis” (2013) to belligerent immigrant “A Most Violent Year” (2014), Isaac now adds manic, inhuman genius to his acting bouquet. With Caleb, we become infected with paranoia, reading into Nathan’s inflections and Ava’s self-infantilization, unsure of the truth until Nathan delivers his villainous — and quickly ironic — “I got away with it, too” speech. After a couple more surprise twists, some bloodletting and “circuitletting,” “Ex Machina” comes full circle, with the helicopter picking up an uncanny new guest. The title comes from the Latin phrase “deus ex machina” translated as “god from the machine,” and signifies a plot device that solves some of the film’s Gordian Knot
for a writer. But there is no God when man becomes creator, inverting the cliche to “machina ex deo.” However, when the lines between man and machine vanish, with man slowly losing his hardwiring and machine developing superhuman cunning, we lose god and machine, and become as indistinguishable as our shadows. “Ex Machina” adds a sexy, chrome finish to the robot takeover thriller genre, like “Alien” (1979) with a killer supermodel. But filmmakers are too hell-bent on these invasive species of machines, attacking like an electric Ebola. I think the real horror could be the documentary on the slow-burning effects of our phones and computers, like cancer mutating our attention spans and social responses. But we are not a good long-term planning species, so for the here and now, go see Ava go ex machina ad humanam. Rating: 8/10 “Ex Machina” is playing at The Nugget at 4:20 p.m. and 6:50 p.m.
From Italy to Portland, Levi ’00 meshes sustainability and cuisine B y amelia rosch
The Dartmouth Staff
For David Levi ’00, his First-Year Trip was an experience that foreshadowed his environmental consciousness. After stints teaching high school and working as an apprentice for restaurants in Sweden and Italy, Levi became the executive chef of Vinland in 2012, a 100-percent locally-sourced restaurant in Portland, Oregon. What was your time at Dartmouth like? DL: I had a wide range of experiences and I look back on it fondly. I grew tremendously. ...My first experience at Dartmouth was my DOC trip. It was a life-changing experience for me. I had never been on an overnight camping trip before, never been that deep in the woods. It was really beginning of the awakening of my ecological consciousness for me. The following year, I led a trip. It was a wonderful experience and foreshadowed the teaching I would do later. At Dartmouth, I got to try on lots of different hats, so to speak. I decided I was going to drop my preconceptions about what did or didn’t fit my
sense of who I was or what I would do. I went in being very turned off by the Greek system, but wound up joining it, but then put distance between myself and it. I got involved in Jewish life, even though being Jewish had not been a huge part of my life before. I got involved because they needed people to do Friday night dinners. That seemed to be a hit. I then ended up being president [of Hillel]. It was an interesting experience. I did some acting and was in production of Othello. That was the first time I really performed in front of a large group. It helped give me confidence in being a teacher. From Dartmouth, if I had to do over again, there are plenty of things I’d do differently. I had opportunity to live in London for the history [foreign study program]. I got grant from [the Dickey Center] and lived in Venice, [Italy], and studied Jewish ghettos. I had an incredible array of experiences and was surrounded by dynamic and intelligent peers who played a great role in my life. I’m very grateful for the time I had at Dartmouth and I still go back every now and then, since I’m a lifetime
DOC member.
Where did you interest in cooking come from? DL: My family on my dad’s side, which is the Jewish side, is northern Italian. I grew up with certain things in household, which my classmates did not have and which have been somewhat less common in this country. When I was growing up in the ’80s, it wasn’t common for Americans to have olive oil of any decent quality or any real parmesan or prosciutto or things like that. My family, being Italian, for us, these things were as normal as they are for people in Italy. When I started seeing how uncommon that was, and when I got to Dartmouth and saw my friends couldn’t put together decent bowl of pasta — which to me was the simplest thing — I was surprised I got appreciation for being able to make a nice bowl of pasta. I liked to make people happy and give them something to eat. Being involved in [Dartmouth] Hillel my freshman year, we were by the food co-op, and I was amazed that basically any student who was willing to cook Friday night dinner could do it and
would get a check or credit card from organization and buy whatever was needed as along as it was kosher and just whip up dinner. We ended up having a lot more people coming, not just because of dinner, a lot of cool things happening. That following year, the Roth Center opened. At the end of freshman year, I became president. I was president during opening. We had an incredible, great kitchen and two times as many people coming for dinner. To me, my involvement was always first and foremost about food. I never before had to cook for those kinds of numbers. I was interested in showing something new and challenging myself. I learned to cook quite a bit from that, more than as an organizational leader. Also, having the experience of living in London and Venice had an impact on me on consciousness around food and desire to get into industry after graduation.
How did you decide to open a restaurant? DL: It was quite a long time after graduating. I graduated in 2000. My first years out of college, I was working in a restaurant. In 2001, I did
low-residency [masters of fine arts] program at Bennington [College]. Living in New York, I was interested in low-residency and it seemed to be the best one. I was very pleased when I got in, since I didn’t know what else to do with myself. It was…in many ways what I needed. I encountered a poet through the program who gave lectures, Robert Bly, who became the most important mentor I had in my life. [Bly’s] influence led to substantial growth as writer and a person and in all facets in my creative life. He taught me the value of form in my work. Form exists everywhere in nature and makes life and beauty possible. I started to think about ways to bring form into my work. I appreciated that form’s essential in any work, including cooking. In cooking as in poetry, lots of technically proficient people who have focused so much on the technical that they haven’t thought enough about what they’re trying to convey, what they’re sense of form may be. He was also someone involved in progressive movements in the 1950s, against Vietnam War but also about corporate capitalism more broadly. SEE LEVI PAGE 8