The Dartmouth 02/23/15

VOL. CLXXII NO. 35

SUNNY HIGH 11 LOW -19

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Students plan for Dimensions Tuckstudents

spendthousands onnetworkingtrips

By KATIE RAFTER The Dartmouth Staff

mouth Forward” social policy initiative announced last month that touched on plans to mitigate high-risk drinking, sexual assault and exclusivity and included a new plan for residential housing, directors said there has so far been no direction from administration on changing programming.

“I think they trust us to represent campus,” Glick said.

Around 30 freshmen will be chosen to write songs and skits

According to a recent study carried out by Bloomberg Business, Tuck School of Business students pay on average over $10,000 for “non-essentials” during their job search. which puts them among the top 12 MBA programs whose students spend the most on discretionary purchases. Most of this cost derives from students traveling to visit potential employers.

Aviran Sethi Tu’16, Apurva Sacheti Tu’16 and Mathew Sevin Tu’16 all said that the value of these trips are larger than their costs, especially compared to Tuck’s tuition — Tuck’s total estimated costs are over $93,550 for the Class of 2016, with $61,605 going towards tuition alone.

Tuck’s career development director Jonathan Masland said that students commonly travel out of Hanover for networking purposes and, in his opinion, networking trips cost very little for students overall.

Masland did comment on the specific cost.

He added that the career development office encourages students to travel to cities where they can meet people face-to-face and make personal connections.

Masland said that there are many advantages to traveling to different cities to meet with recruiters or alumni at different businesses, because a willingness to personally visit companies conveys a genuine interest and enthusiasm to recruiters.

“It shows a lot of dedication and commitment

SEE DIMENSIONS PAGE 2

SEE TUCK PAGE 5

SPORTS

MEN’S BASKETBALL SPLITS WEEKEND PAGE SW2

OPINION

SELLERS: NOT YOUR TYPICAL RESUME PAGE 4

ARTS

“ROMEO AND JULIET” REQUIRES TECHNICAL WORK PAGE12

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Prospective students attend the yearly “Dimensions of Dartmouth” weekend.

B y NOAH GOLDSTEIN The Dartmouth Staff

As student directors sift through applications for this year’s student show at Dimensions of Dartmouth — the College’s prospective student weekends — they said that no major changes are in store for the program, following administration-mandated changes between the 2013 and 2014 shows, as well as the Dimensions weekend programming

as a whole, such as barring current students in the Dimensions performance from posing as prospective students.

The only concrete change from last year’s show and programming is pushing to have the Dimensions show all three weekends instead of during the last session only, show directors Sam Glick ’17 and Rosie Mahoney ’17 said. Currently, the show is scheduled for April 23.

Despite College President Phil Hanlon’s “Moving Dart-

MLA reports decreased language enrollment B y LAUREN BUDD The Dartmouth Staff

Though a recent Modern Language Association survey reported that 100,000 fewer college students enrolled in foreign language classes in 2013 compared to 2009 — while college enrollment rose by over 150,000 during the same period — Dartmouth professors and students remain confident in the strength and relevancy of their respective language programs and with the

College’s foreign language enrollment as a whole.

The overall percentage drop marks the largest decrease since 1995, and the number of students enrolled in Spanish classes dropped by the largest number since the association began tracking language classes in 1958.

Spanish and Portuguese department chair Raúl Bueno said that he did not see a problem with national SEE MLA PAGE 3

BARE YOUR SOUL

CHERRY HUANG/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Street Soul performs as part of the Dartmouth Asian Organization’s culture night.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAily debriefing Vermont municipalities are opposing a proposed increase in pollution fees from Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-VT) because the state government has not allocated any money to assist with the effort, according to VTDigger. The proposal, part of a plan to restore the water quality of Lake Champlain, will require cities to reduce pollution runoff from developed land and roads through infrastructure upgrades such as drainage ditches. The government wants to increase pollution fees on stormwater and wastewater pollution by about 60 percent over last year, among other new permit programs. This program would raise $1.5 million to pay for 13 new staff members at the Department of Environment Conservation who would be used for public outreach and inspections. A 2013 report reported that it would cost more than $100 million annually to address stormwater runoff.

Routine maintenance of roads and bridges in New Hampshire has slowed because less federal money is coming into the state, as reported by the Concord Monitor. Within the past decade, the rate of federal money flowing in for highway improvements has decreased, meaning that secondary roads are being neglected. Rather than spending relatively little money on preventive maintenance, the state will have to pay more for reconstruction. From 2008 to 2013, money from the Federal Highway Trust Fund dropped by more than five percent. About a third of the 4,600 miles of state roads are rated as “poor,” meaning they are rough and in need of major work.

New Hampshire has experienced more than two months of “widespread” flu activity, though the worst of the season may be over, according to the Concord Monitor. Officials are urging people to be vigilant and take preventive measures, as there could still be two more months until the flu season is completely over.

Thirty adult deaths, mainly older individuals, have been linked to the flu so far, but no pediatric deaths have been recorded this year. According to state data, the peak of the season was toward the end of January and beginning of February. Since December, New Hampshire has seen 59 respiratory outbreaks, up from 20 last year. Federal agencies have warned that this season could be particularly severe, partially because one circulating flu strain has mutated.

— Compiled by Erin Lee

Corrections

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Dimensions will see few changes FROM DIMENSIONS PAGE 1

and perform them for prospective students. Over 1,000 prospective students are expected to attend one of three sessions of the Dimensions of Dartmouth weekends, which feature student panels, information sessions, tours, academic showcases and the student-organized show.

Once chosen, members of the Dimensions performance team will also take the time to get to know current freshmen. The directors said that they will be trying to talk to a diverse group of members of the Class of 2018 with the aim of gathering feedback from as many diverse viewpoints as possible. “‘Moving Dartmouth Forward’ will affect ’18s experiences, and we want to express that,” Glick said.

In recent years, the Dimensions performance has been a subject of controversy. During the April 2013 show, a campus group called Real Talk Dartmouth protested the show, chanting “Dartmouth has a problem” and holding signs that criticized the College for homophobia, racism and lack of action on sexual assault.

A video of the protest was posted to YouTube, titled “Another Dimension of Dartmouth.”

Last year, the administration stopped students from posing as prospective students, a prank which had been a tradition to help facilitate social interactions between current students and prospective students.

Glick and Mahoney said they applied to Dimensions last winter despite not attending the program when they were prospective students.

The performance will feature six songs touching on topics such as academics, social life, food, traditions, Hanover and general fears about college. Skits will portray the College’s diversity, the array of student backgrounds and students’ opinions on Dartmouth and issues the school faces, Glick said. The show will be an hour and a half to two hours long.

Mahoney said that the purpose of Dimensions is not to try to show what the College will be like for each student, but rather what the experience of being a Dartmouth student has meant for each student involved.

The performances are also designed to show students how much current students want them to attend the school, Glick said.

The programs will attempt to present as accurate a representation of student life at Dartmouth as possible, directors said. Glick and Mahoney said that they have been consulting with both administrators and prior directors while planning this year’s program.

Last year’s Dimension’s director Emily Leach ’16 said that she became involved because Dimensions played a large role for her feeling a sense of home at the College, as anyone who was willing to spend that much time on the show is probably content with their choice.

While Dimensions is not exactly indicative of life at the College, Leach said the show is an accurate representation of how students involved feel about the school.

While it’s difficult to integrate serious dialogue into the show, Leach said the show could help start

dialogues on campus regarding the issues Dartmouth has been facing.

One benefit of the show is that current students can talk about fears that they had coming into Dartmouth, Leach said.

Talking to the prior directors made the transition smoother as Glick and Mahoney have been able to receive advice as to how to contact freshmen and how to gain access to the Class of 2018 Facebook group, Glick said.

Mahoney said she became involved partially to help students make the decision about where to enroll.

“I think it is a great feeling that you could help someone make a decision that really is a turning point in their life,” Mahoney said.

Devina Kumar ’18 said that the Dimensions weekend last year was the deciding factor in her choice to attend Dartmouth. Kumar said that the students involved made her feel like she was already a member of the Dartmouth community when she attended the event. As she attended the two-day Dimensions program, however, Kumar said she would have liked for there to be more engaging activities earlier on, as opposed to having the skits and songs at the end of the weekend.

The directors of the Dimensions performance are chosen from students who participated the prior year.

“Rosie and [my] job is to make sure things run smoothly, but the ’18s do everything,” Glick said.

Starting in spring term, rehearsals for the student-organized show will be held every Sunday.

BRACE YOURSELF

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

The original version of the Feb. 20 article “Students report success following ‘Repcoin’ launch” identified “The Pitch” as solely being sponsored by the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network. The event was originally started by the DALI lab and is now co-sponsored by both DEN and the DALI lab.

FAITH ROTICH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Dartmouth African Students Association hosted a meeting in Brace Commons to discuss potential future events.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

PAGE 3

Professors believe language enrollment, importance remain strong FROM MLA PAGE 1

enrollment trends in foreign language because though the amount of students majoring in foreign languages are comparatively low, the depth of interest in the field remains constant.

He was confident that Spanish enrollment numbers at Dartmouth would remain steady because he said knowing Spanish in particular is a valuable skill. The United States’ proximity to Latin America and high flow of tourism to Spanish-speaking regions also helps keep enrollment numbers constant, he said.

Bueno also noted that enrollment numbers in specific languages rise and fall for a variety of reasons — universities may offer more languages from which students can choose, languages can experience increased enrollment for economic or political reasons and languages can even go “in and out of style.”

“I think the discrepancies reflect, to some extent, a healthy interest of the United States in the entire world — not just one region or language,” Bueno said.

The level of Spanish knowledge that Dartmouth students obtain is particularly impressive, Bueno said. Students increasingly enter the College with more advanced knowledge thanks to the Advanced Placement program and other similarly accelerated programs, and the Spanish department’s language programs provide a deeper understanding than at most institutions, Bueno said. He also noted that the popular Spanish study abroad programs the College offers are particularly important in establishing these strong language skills.

In order to keep up with the increasingly advanced levels of knowledge students are obtaining at a high school level, the department has had to develop some new programs to maintain interest, Bueno said. Newer classes go beyond advanced levels of language learning to delve into Spanish culture and linguistics of the language.

“Our commitment to the language is great and we are doing everything possible in the department in order to cope with the high demands of our institution and student body,” Bueno said.

German studies department chair Ellis Shookman echoed Bueno’s assertion that foreign language study remains popular at Dartmouth.

“The numbers compiled in the MLA survey tell only part of the story,” Shookman said. “This is because they are quantitative, not qualitative.”

Shookman said that the two primary reasons to study a language are entrepreneurial and cultural.

In business, knowing a client’s native language can help drive better bargains and sell more of a product, Shookman said. In the context of a liberal arts education, however, learning a foreign language is important for more personal reasons.

“Studying foreign languages enhances, enriches and improves our lives in ways that are, in every sense of the word, immeasurable,” Shookman said. “The MLA cannot tally this humanistic benefit.”

As for the national repercussions of decreased language enrollment, Shookman said that this trend could bode ill for the economic competitiveness, national security and general education level of the

United States.

Shookman also suggested that Dartmouth should aim higher, in terms of striving for greater understanding in the languages and

“Studying foreign languages enhances, enriches and improves our lives in ways that are, in every sense of the word, immeasurable.”

- ELLIS SHOOKMAN, GERMAN DEPARTMENT CHAIR setting a higher standard for student learning, as well and require a fourth term of language study.

Asian and Middle Eastern languages and literatures department chair James Dorsey said that the survey results were disconcerting, yet unsurprising.

“We don’t have the automatic, enthusiastic buy-in of students that we did in the past,” he said.

“We have to work a little harder to convince them of the importance

of foreign languages.”

Dorsey speculated that student and parental concerns about the relevancy of foreign language study could be behind declining enrollment numbers — students are increasingly concerned about taking classes and choosing majors that translate directly into career skills, he said. Dorsey said he has spoken to many students considering a major in Asian and Middle Eastern languages whose primary concern is the practicality of such a major.

Dorsey also said that many students see a study abroad experience as an essential component of their Dartmouth education. There was a two-year period in which there was no Arabic language study abroad program and enrollment in Arabic dropped dramatically, he said. As soon as the summer LSA program in Rabat, Morocco was reinstated, enrollment numbers shot back up, Dorsey said.

“Dartmouth culture” also works against language learning in some cases, Dorsey said, noting that the D-plan can often hinder or interrupt learning a foreign language.

Dorsey said this can be especially difficult for students studying non-romance languages such as

Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Hebrew.

Dorsey said that, despite the nationwide decline in foreign language enrollment numbers, the amount of students learning languages to more advanced skill levels was encouraging, and he hopes to see more students pursue their respective languages in such depth.

Ledah Geller ’16, a double major in Spanish and sociology who plans to attend law school after graduation, spoke positively about her decision to major in Spanish.

Geller said that her language major forces her to think critically and honestly, a skill that would help any student regardless of their career path.

The idea that a language major is useless or inapplicable to real-world jobs is a misconception, Geller said, noting that learning a language enables students to make meaningful connections and unify people around the world.

“I think learning a language and falling in love with that language is one of the most useful skills one can acquire, especially in college where many of us are attempting to form our adult identities,” Geller said.

President Hanlon invites you to

Open Office Hours For students:

For faculty:

Tues, February 17, 4-5pm Mon, February 23, 5-5:45 pm

Fridays, 3-4 pm

Meetings are offered on a first-come, first-served basis and are held in

Parkhurst 207 Please check dartmouth.edu/~president/officehours for any changes in the schedule

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 4

Staff Columnist EMILY SELLERS ’15

STAFF COLUMNIST AYLIN WOODWARD ’15

Not Your Typical Resume

The Road to Intellectualism

Student jobs are just as worthwhile an activity as any other extracurricular.

You can tell when it’s about to happen — you’re talking with a relative stranger and then there’s a lull in the conversation, an anxious eagerness in their eyes — “So what do you do on campus?” I’m sure this usually receives an agreeable response, with the addressed student shooting off club after club until finally the two can form a connection, even if peripheral. This is not, however, the case with me. My clubs and activities are limited, but I spent quite a bit of my time working on campus. Far from seeing this as a social or professional deficit, I have gained valuable experience from my work, and I think jobs can solicit as much growth as a more typical student activity, if not more.

Not only do student workers — and all workers — deserve the same amount of respect regardless of whether they are on the job or not, but students must also recognize and appreciate that student jobs are as legitimate and meaningful of an on-campus activity as more conventional involvements like extracurriculars or athletics.

First, some students simply cannot afford to not work, and their financial situations mandate that at least a portion of their time be devoted to on- or off-campus jobs to cover the cost of living or tuition. As student schedules are notoriously packed as it is, there often remains little time for much else besides classwork. I get it, though. Saying that I work as an usher or as a bartender at BarHop fails to communicate much about me or my interests. Unless one assumes that I just really enjoy tearing tickets or opening warm beers, the only thing that comes across is that I need to work — and, with 59 percent of students coming from families in the top six percent of the income distribution, that information might make more than a few students feel awkward.

This points to one of the most important realizations I’ve gained from working service jobs here — the disparity in treatment between Emily the student and peer and Emily the worker. When I’m in class or in a social environment, I rarely confront any blatant rudeness. When I’m working, however, students

I’ve seen around campus — student leaders, even — often display a level of disrespect that betrays a basic lack of concern for anyone not considered currently or potentially useful. It fluctuates from casual dismissal to explicit belittling, usually if the aggressor is drunk. Despite the unpleasantness of these interactions, they have built in me a healthy skepticism of my peers and others who regularly are condescending to workers.

Furthermore, I think I’ve learned just as much from campus jobs as I could have from general club participation. Though I don’t want this to read like a cover letter, I’ve fostered friendships, patience and all the other professional prerequisites that we expect an activity to fulfill. Perhaps the most efficient way to develop leadership and cooperation skills is to actively lead and cooperate — components of most jobs where you work as a member of a team. If anything, student workers have the chance to gain actual, on-the-job experience that is less common in other student activities.

Whereas I initially viewed my work schedule to be a sacrifice of meaningful opportunities elsewhere, I am confident that my time spent working has not been wasted.

Although “I work a few campus jobs” does not sound very revealing and perhaps won’t impress others as much as activities that are seen as more desirable, it should tell you a few things. One, I’ve seen how you treat workers and I’ve noted whether or not you gave us the respect we deserve. Second, I know all those tedious resume skills. Third, how I spend my time outside the classroom isn’t going to be an easy shortcut to what kind of person I am.

Just because student jobs aren’t immediately identifiable with a certain personality type or group of people doesn’t mean that they are any less valuable than a more typical time commitment. More students should realize that their peers who work a job, regardless of the motivation, are doing something just as challenging and commendable as their peers whom they watch perform in a cappella groups or play sports.

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The path to a more academic atmosphere lies in student-faculty interaction.

A major point of College President Phil Hanlon’s “Moving Dartmouth Forward” plan is the emphasis on strengthening academic rigor. As I discussed with my peers and some faculty members at the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning, however, perhaps the phrase “academic rigor” is merely a red herring — one that has become conflated with Hanlon’s goal of a more intellectual campus. I maintain that the best way to have a holistic “positive impact on student life and behaviors” at Dartmouth is not “to increase the rigor of our curriculum.” Rather, we should strive toward a culture that rewards and prioritizes learning and curiosity outside of the classroom, where conversations among friends and peers are dominated by relevant academic discourse instead of trivialities and student life issues. Curbing grade inflation or increasing the number of early classes will not achieve that end.

If Hanlon wants us all to be “24/7/365-day-ayear learners,” he must focus on encouraging the development of our collective intellectualism in lieu of proposals that will likely change nothing but our already excessive stress levels.

The road to a more academically engaged and intellectual campus lies in strengthening student and professor relationships and creating more opportunities for them to interact in new settings. How can we break down the barrier between the roughly 10 to 15 hours we spend in the classroom each week and the rest of time we spend living our day-to-day lives?

Some programs are already in place to help bridge this gap. The “take a faculty member to lunch” program is one fantastic example of such a program, but it represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of what can be done. The College must consider creating more opportunities for students to interact with professors outside of office hours and lectures — interactions that go beyond having simple conversations. Perhaps there should be a program that encourages more faculty to join and interact with students in dining halls, in which students bring their professors to a meal in the Class of 1953 Commons. This would give professors the chance to chat with past and present students about topics that extend beyond the next

class assignment or problem set.

Events hosted by Greek houses that invite student-nominated faculty to come for meals already facilitate student-faculty interaction. As a student community, however, we need to do more to bring professor and student relationships out of the classroom, and administrative groups like DCAL can help create and support these forums of interaction. The new residential house system in “Moving Dartmouth Forward,” which envisions professors and graduate students living with undergraduates and is one of the strongest points in Hanlon’s mosaic of changes, is one example of an initiative that DCAL can contribute to.

Student-faculty meals in less formal settings may also enable students to be more open about their feedback — an improvement to the anonymous and impersonal course evaluations required by the College. Such conversations could eventually form a culture that heightens student interest in professors and the courses they teach, while simultaneously allowing professors to teach more effectively, as day-to-day student feedback would provide them with a moving metric of their relative success.

A culture of increased student-faculty interaction could have further advantages. Perhaps instead of “layup” lists circulating the halls of Greek houses or the blitz lists of athletic teams, we might see more “best-courses-I’ve-ever-taken” lists shared among students, lists of the most intellectually stimulating or valuable classes. Students would hopefully seek out academic excellence rather than easy, high-median courses. If students select and enroll in classes with an expectation of first-rate teaching, then faculty who are well regarded by students will have an incentive to keep up their work, and their colleagues could be inspired to adopt the same high standards.

New interactive environments and experiences that bring students and faculty together would yield a push in the right direction not just for students — who would benefit intellectually — but also faculty, who would benefit from honest feedback on their classroom teaching practices, ultimately paving the way for a concrete change in Dartmouth’s academic culture.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

Tuck students spend over $10,000 per year on networking trips companies where alumni work.

He said networking trips provide to a certain sector or company,” students with the opportunity to Masland said. learn a great deal about the com These meetings not only benefit panies they are visiting, as well as Tuck students, he added, but also develop relationships with people help potential employers develop that might be able to guide them an idea of who they might be hir- through the recruiting process. ing in the future, as well as form The Economist recently carried a more personal image of Tuck out a survey asking students to students. rate their school’s alumni network, Masland said that many stu- and Tuck was rated highest by its dents particstudents. ipate in “in E ve r y “It is easier at Tuck dustry treks,” year hundreds which are when than at other business of alumni and a group of stu- schools to network recruiters come dents visit a seback to Tuck ries of compa- because the alumni and hold prenies in a specific feel very close to the sentations for place. current stuschool and involved.”

Sethi went dents, Masland on an industry said. trek to the Bay - MATHEW LEVIN TU’16 H e Area to visit added that the venture capital alumni comfirms, a field for munity at Tuck which Tuck had not organized an is very strong, citing the fact that industry trek in previous years. over 70 percent of alumni donate He called Tuck alumni and other every year to their alma mater and potential employers to set up meet- noting that alums are always eager ings for the group, and said within to support the careers of current about 10 calls, he had arranged students. eight meetings.

Sethi said that alumni are eager Treks help students figure out to show their commitment to the what steps they want to take and school, and this is not only shown help them learn about opportuni- through their donations, but also ties and meet people, he said, and through the time they dedicate to the cost of the trip is not significant interacting with current students. compared to what students gain “You have very similar shared from it. bonds with alumni who have all Masland said a large part of gone through similar experiences networking for Tuck students in- to you,” he said. volves building connections with Sacheti said that Tuck’s career FROM TUCK PAGE 1

GABRIELLE KIRLEW/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Students at the Tuck School of Business spend more than students at the majority of other business schools on “industry treks.”

development office played a significant role in training him and his fellow students for the job recruiting process by holding workshops.

Sacheti said that Tuck’s alumni network is “extremely responsive,” — in the past, all of the alumni he has reached out to have communicated with him promptly and have been very willing to help him.

His networking experience included a trip to Silicon Valley, where he visited a number of venture capital firms and technology

21 DAYS LATER

KATELYN JONES/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Dartmouth on Purpose celebrated the end of their 21-day challenge by hosting a brunch in Paganucci Lounge.

companies, and said that it was helpful to experience the environments and meet people working at the companies.

In terms of cost, Sacheti said that for students considering working in a certain area, it is worth the cost to travel there to experience it.

“If you are investing this much in business school, these costs are negligible,” he added.

Sevin said the strong alumni network has made networking easier, because they are more eager to respond and help current students.

“It is easier at Tuck than at other business schools to network because the alumni feel very close to the school and involved,” Sevin said.

Along with Sethi, Sevin also participated in the Bay Area in-

dustry trek. He said that alumni made it easy for them and were helpful in setting up meetings.

Sevin said that the majority of networking is done at Tuck, so spending money on networking is not always necessary.

The people who spend money on these treks see it as correlative to what they want to do, he added, because visiting and exploring the areas where they are considering moving is necessary.

“The value of the trip is higher than the cost of the plane ticket,” Sevin said.

Stanford Graduate School of Business was ranked highest with students paying about $18,000 in discretionary spending, followed by students at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business school.

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 4:00 p.m.

“Business & Sustainability Panel,” interactive discussion with alumni panelists, Haldeman 41

6:00 p.m.

“Letterpress Specimen Book Project,” book arts workshop, Baker Library, Rooms 23 and 25

7:00 p.m.

“Leviathan” (2012), film screening and question and answer session, Black Family Visual Arts Center, Screening Room 001

TOMORROW 12:30 p.m.

“Smiting the Gods,” lunchtime gallery talk with Steven Kangas, Hood Museum of Art, second-floor galleries

4:00 p.m.

“Vocal Master Class” with Cecile McLorin Salvant and student vocalists, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Faulkner Auditorium

4:15 p.m.

“Taming the Swarm,” lecture with Michael Rubenstein of Harvard University, Carson L01

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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

PAGE 7

Hanff Korelitz ’83 talks being a female writer at the College

B y maya poddar

The Dartmouth Staff

Novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz’s ’83 most recent book, “You Should Have Known,” is a literary thriller about a therapist and her family in New York City. Her other novels include “A Jury of Her Peers,” “The Sabbathday River,” “The White Rose” and “Admission,” which was adapted into a 2013 a film starring Tina Fey. She is also the founder of Book the Writer, a website that connects authors and book clubs.

Why did you come to Dartmouth, and how was your time on campus?

JHK: I got into Dartmouth off the waiting list, which is something you’re supposed to not mention to anybody, but, you know, those of us off the waiting list we have the kind of number-two, “we try harder” feeling about us. Believe me, we all knew one another.

I would have gone to Wellesley [College]. I think that my life would have been very, very different at Wellesley than it was at Dartmouth.

For me, the challenge was growing up in a pretty liberal milieu — a very Jewish, not Jewish religious, but pretty much everybody I knew was Jewish and everybody was liberal. To come to Dartmouth in the 1980s, or technically

in the fall of 1979, was really to step through the looking glass. I had probably met conservative adults, but I had never met conservatives my age. That was a huge revelation. The Dartmouth Review was just starting.

Suddenly I was this exotic creature, this liberal feminist Jewish woman, and I maintain that this is why you go to college. This is why you leave home. This is why you don’t just stay in your comfort zone — a phrase I hate, by the way. You go to meet people who are as different from you as they can be, and you talk to them.

You tell them how you see the world, and in articulating your opinions you form your opinions. That was a great experience, and it also was a very, very beautiful place to spend four years.

Did you write while you were at Dartmouth?

JHK: Yes, I did. I was a poet at the time. Dartmouth, at that time, we had just gotten [poet] Cleopatra Mathis [as a professor] I think half way through my time there. The only poet teaching was Richard Eberhart who was a [1968] graduate of Dartmouth.

He taught his classes in his home on Webster Terrace. We would all walk down there and sit in his living room and his wife would serve us cider and donuts. It was a very kind of older version of that teaching experience.

I really, really wanted to write

fiction, but I was afraid to. The only fiction class that I took — which is to this day the only fiction class I have ever taken — was my senior year at Dartmouth with a woman who only

“Having spent all those years working on poems, what you retain is the respect for the language and the care of language, even if it’s in prose. I care what a sentence sounds like. I can’t knowingly leave an ugly sentence on the page.”

was there in the real-life experience that inspired this story.” She said, “I don’t care if he was there, if he wasn’t there, all that matters is the story.” It was like this light bulb just went off.

It doesn’t have to be true.

-Jean hanff korelitz ’83, novelist

How did you become interested in writing novels?

JHK: It was always what I loved. In fact, even though I wrote poetry, I think my heart wasn’t really in poetry.

Given a choice between reaching for a book of poems and reaching for a novel, I was always going to go for the novel. When I stopped writing poetry, it was a big relief in a way.

And yet, having spent all those years working on poems, what you retain is the respect for the language and the care of language, even if it’s in prose. I care what a sentence sounds like. I can’t knowingly leave an ugly sentence on the page. I have to make it pretty, so that’s the legacy of the poetry for me.

taught for like a year or two. The only thing you can ever really learn in a creative writing class for fiction, in my opinion, is the fact that it doesn’t have to be true. It sounds so obvious, but I wrote this short story and I remember having a consultation with this teacher.

She said, “What is this character doing here? This character doesn’t do anything,” and I said, “Yeah, but he

What were the challenges of being a writer at Dartmouth in the 1980s?

JHK: Our class was the last class that had a quota for women. I believe we were 40 percent [women] to 60 percent [men].

For me, I mean, the Dartmouth Review were just such schmucks.

There is just no other way to put it.

They were mean. They were low.

They were just ugly. They were ugly people. I had, what I now consider the honor, of being described by Dinesh D’Souza [’83] as “a scraggly-haired writer of mediocre haiku.” I am actually very proud of that. I did not in response create his campus nickname, which was Distort D’newsa. That was a big challenge.

The other challenge for me was [that] I came into Dartmouth deeply aware that I, as Dartmouth woman, stood on the backs of the women who had come before me at Dartmouth, but in a broader sense the women’s movement, because if ever there was a college that went coed kicking and screaming, it was Dartmouth College.

The fact that we turned up as women in the ’80s with plans and dreams for our lives and our careers was directly due to the fact that the trustees had been strong-armed into accepting coeducation and yet, the women in my class by and large would not refer to themselves as feminists. They rejected feminism. I felt that they were very, very ungrateful. They were going to be doctors and lawyers, but if you said, “Are you a feminist?” They’d say, “Oh god no, I like men.” Well, I like men too. That sense of ingratitude was the biggest challenge for me kind of personally and politically.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

“Big Hero 6” goes big on visuals, laughs and sidekicks

B y andrew kingsley The Dartmouth Staff

Call Disney what you want, but one thing they’ve always mastered is the sidekick. From chameleon Pascal in “Tangled” (2010) to snowman Olaf in “Frozen” (2013), their anthropomorphic pals are experts in comic relief. Like Shakespearean fools, they package comedy and wisdom together into a digestible pill for whenever the protagonist needs that little dose of reality. Yet, you will never see one of them up for the Oscar for best supporting actor.

It is a shame, because Baymax, the cuddly, awkward Michelin Man doppelganger in “Big Hero 6” (2014) rivals J.K. Simmons in “Whiplash” (2014), this year’s winner in the best supporting actor category.

Before the film even starts, we are treated to Disney’s Oscar-winning animated short film “Feast” (2014).

The short is about the delicacies an adorable Boston terrier devours, which demarcate his relationship with his owner. Tight, stunning and without dialogue, “Feast” is a scrumptious appetizer to the feature film and worth the Nugget’s seven dollar snack pack alone.

“Big Hero 6” is set somewhere in the near future in San Fransokyo,

a hybrid utopia of the best of East and West, where the Golden Gate bridge meets pagodas and the Transamerica Pyramid meets a traditional Japanese temple.

Marvel and Disney combine their manpower to create a lush, kaleidoscopic urban paradise.

The film’s titular character Hiro Hamada, a precociously inventive teenager who hustles underground robot sumo competitions, must find out who killed his older brother, Tadashi. Joining Stephen Hawking from “The Theory of Everything” (2014) and Alan Turing in “The Imitation Game” (2014), Hiro makes 2014 the year of geniuses in cinema, as he attends San Fransokyo Institute of Technology at the old age of 14. Before he dies in a suspicious explosion, Tadashi had invented Baymax, a shuffling, bumbling nurse robot who acts like Pixar’s WALL-E hiding inside a marshmallow. Having no mother or father since he was an infant, and now without a brother, Hiro finds a mix of all three in Baymax.

Banking off the warm, snuggly whiteness of Olaf, Baymax stumbles through the illogical human world, misreading fist bumps for punches and the expression “sick!” as meaning literally diseased. As robots

grow more and more human-like, how many more years will the clumsy robot have in Hollywood?

A lover of hugs, prone to deflatinglike flatulence and stumbling and slurring his words like a somewhat drunken sailor when on low battery, Baymax is the type of imaginary friend all parents wish their kids had — an airbag, first aid kit, pet, jokester and sibling all rolled into one. Lacking a mouth or expressive eyes, Baymax is still moving and evocative, a testament to Disney’s creativity and craft.

Joining Hiro’s hero team are his friends from college, an adorkable band of misfit engineers whose superpowers are their science projects. It’s “The Incredibles”(2004) — John Lasseter was actually the executive producer for both these films — a la Thayer School of Engineering, with the kids up against a masked villain who stole Hiro’s microrobot invention to make a Doc Ock-esque monster of himself. If cinema has taught us anything, it’s that kids can and will defeat unimaginative, crusty adults no matter what.

Since the film focuses so much attention on the relationships between Baymax, Hiro and his friends, the villain plot feels anemic

and rushed. There’s a nice twist thrown in regarding the villain’s identity, but he is still an afterthought.

When you’ve got a robot as brandable and funny as Baymax, however, the antagonists will be an afterthought to the audience anyway, so why distract us too much?

A colorful and witty Disney offering, “Big Hero 6” ironically moralizes about “looking at things from a new perspective,” even though it

rehashes the best of “Frozen” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.” But standing on the shoulders of giants is always a good move in cinema, so it’s worth a rent from the Jones Media Center or a night in on Netflix.

Rating: 9/10 “Big Hero 6” is winner of Best Animated Feature Film and “Feast” is winner of Best Short Film, Animated.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ROMANCE

NATALIE CANTAVE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

“Romeo and Juliet” explores a non-traditional balcony scene.

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

PAGE 8

ARTS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

“Romeo and Juliet” required technical expertise

B y amelia rosch

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

From the heavy use of multimedia to multiple sword fights and acrobatics to two functional swings, the Theater Department’s production of “Romeo and Juliet” required a large amount of behindthe-scenes work and technical knowhow.

In addition to the use of a professional fight choreographer Ron Piretti and the talents of set designer Georgi Alexi-Meskhishvili, costume designer Laurie Churba Kohn, lighting and projection designer Dan Kotlowitz and video designer Andrew Reichsman, the production involved the help of over 40 students, including the members of three separate theater classes.

The use of cameras and screens served a variety of purposes, from live filming to projecting historical information, and were one of the major technical aspects of “Romeo and Juliet.”

Assistant director and videographer Heather Oudheusden ’15 said that the filmed and projected aspects of the show were used to help break down stereotypes that surround “Romeo and Juliet,” like that it is just a love story.

She said that she and director

Peter Hackett sat down with a copy of the script and went through it to determine where they wanted to add filmed aspects and which portions they wanted to be filmed live or pre-filmed.

Oudheusden said that they decided what to film live based on

“I knew how I wanted everything to look, and I had the idea in my head.

Taking the step and doing it with a camera in hand is a whole other thing.”

-heather oudheusden ’15, assistant director and videographer

what would be technically plausible, visually pleasing and add a new perspective to the play.

“With the live filming, we wanted to provide perspective besides looking straight at the stage because

that’s what audience is going to do,” she said. “We had to add a different angle or add some cool new element.”

She said that some of the parts that were filmed live were not fully developed until the rehearsals began, such as Juliet’s monologue after receiving the “poison” she drinks.

Oudheusden said originally that scene was just going to be filmed using a mirror, since she wanted a reflective element, and that she did not add in the water on top of the mirror that alternatively blurred and reflected Juliet’s face until during rehearsals.

Oudheusden said that the biggest challenges of filming the production were technical, since she did not have much experience with live filming and needed to figure out all of the logistics.

“I knew how I wanted everything to look and I had the ideas in my head,” she said. “Taking the step and doing it with a camera in hand is a whole other thing.”

To help her with the postproduction side of filming, such as editing, Oudheusden recruited her friend, film major Hughie Sagona ’15.

Sagona said that his job mostly involved editing the pre-filmed portions of the show, such as the

NATALIE CANTAVE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The opening of “Romeo and Juliet” emphasized the technical skills needed in the production, from sword fighting to video.

montage that occurs during the play’s prologue and the background video of people in masks that plays before Romeo and Juliet meet, as well as the trailer for the play that was shown throughout the Hopkins Center. He said that he spent about two to three weeks filming and editing.

Both Sagona and Oudheusden said they enjoyed creating the mask video. Oudheusden said that their desire to give the video a spooky feel allowed them to experiment with different camera techniques, such filming from a wheelchair.

Sagona said that he enjoyed putting together that piece because of his love of horror movies.

“All those Friday nights watching horror movies, like “Chucky”

“With a show that’s so much about action and movement, you have to make sure it’s movable.”

-julie solomon ’17, assistant to the set designer [“Child’s Play” (1988)] really paid off,” he said.

Oudheudsen said that she also enjoyed creating the prologue video because it allowed her explore the stereotypes of “Romeo and Juliet” and then subvert them.

“People don’t even know what [“Romeo and Juliet”] is about,” she said. “That’s the whole point — everyone has own their interpretation.

The video allowed us to break down what it is.”

Julie Solomon ’17, who has worked as Alexi-Meskhishvili’s assistant since last spring, said that the production was highly focused on the concept of creating a new image of “Romeo and Juliet” and that they wanted the concept of putting on a rehearsal, not a final version, to come across in the show’s set.

“With the set, we were trying to recreate a rehearsal, to think about what would be in the room,” she said. “We had chalkboards, costumes racks, pretty much trying to make it look like what a studio would look like. It was very meta.

It was a very meta show.”

Solomon said that compared to other shows that she has helped Alexi-Meskhishvili with, the set for “Romeo and Juliet” was fairly straightforward because there was not as much that needed to be built.

She said that Alexi-Meskhishvili began planning the sets in the fall, which is fairly typical for his process.

Solomon said that she was mostly involved with researching the design and generating ideas to help inspire Alexi-Meskhishvili. She said that some of the details of the set, such as the red accents and the two swings, reflected Alexi-Meskhishvili’s sense of whimsy and fantasy.

Celeste Jennings ’18, who worked in the costume and wardrobe crew, said that most of the work the costume crew did was on the period clothes that the actors wore, since the non-period pieces came from the costume department’s stock room and only required minor changes, such as fixing the hems. She said that all the period pieces had to be made by hand, except for some undergarments which the department already owned.

Jennings said that her favorite piece was the period costume worn

by Max Samuels ’15, who played Mercutio.

“The legs were really so cool, the way they were sewn,” she said.

“The volume involved in them was just really cool.”

Both Jennings and Solomon said that the biggest challenge was making sure that what they created would not inhibit the movement in the show, such as its multiple sword fights.

“With a show that’s so much about action and movement, you have to make sure it’s movable,” Solomon said. “You have to make sure it’s all the right height and size.

We had to make sure it works with the multimedia.”

Jennings said that some of the quick changes involved in the production, especially the one involving Tess McGuinness ’18, who played Juliet, were difficult because they wanted to give the actors time to compose themselves before going back out to perform.

“It was nerve-wracking to get them in costume and have time for them to put themselves together,” she said. “We didn’t want to just push them out on stage.”