The Dartmouth 09/25/15

VOL. CLXXII NO. 114

MOSTLY SUNNY HIGH 69 LOW 43

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Endowment sees 8.3 percent return, a 10.9 decrease

Grade inflation proposals stall

By laura weiss

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

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The ad hoc committee on grade inflation cited concerns over amount of time spent on academics.

B y KATIE RAFTER The Dartmouth Staff

Little progress has been made since the initial spring term release of recommendations made by the ad hoc committee on grading practices and grade inflation. The committee, emphasizing the concern of grade inflation at the College, had recommended harsher grading practices and the elimination of the non-recording option, among

other suggestions in its 16-page report.

Committee chair and biological sciences professor Mark McPeek said the College has not informed him about any ongoing plans related to the committee’s recommendations.

Susan Ackerman, religion professor and committee member, said the group presented its recommendations to the Committee on Instruction, and any future action is in its hands.

Thayer will offer mini-courses

B y BRANDON APOO The Dartmouth Staff

Baker-Berry Library will be silent. Few people will be heard chatting in the halls of Fahey-McLane residential hall. But the machine shop at the Thayer School of Engineering will be whirring between Dec. 7 through 10, as engineering students learn to engrave with state-of-the-art laser cutters.

Some students will spend

time in Hanover during winter break learning new skills at the Thayer School of Engineering, which will offer several free, skills-based courses during the first few weeks of December to both undergraduate and graduate engineering students.

The four courses range in length from a few hours to four days. Thayer students hoping to knock off a few requirements out-of-term will be disapSEE THAYER PAGE 3

Meredith Braz, College registrar and Committee on Instruction member, said in an email that the Committee on Instruction did not meet over the summer to discuss the recommendations.

McPeek said he hopes the College is working on the issue, saying that the College should always be considering the level at which the faculty is teaching students.

SEE GRADE INFLATION PAGE 5

The College saw an 8.3 percent return on its endowment for the 2015 fiscal year, the College announced yesterday.

The endowment saw a recent growth high of 19.2 percent growth for the 2014 fiscal year, 12.1 percent for 2013, 5.8 percent in 2012 and 18.4 percent in 2011.

When the fiscal year ended at the end of June, Dartmouth’s endowment was $4.7 billion, $196 million higher than at the end of the previous fiscal year.

Chief Investment Officer Pamela Peedin said in the College announcement that this year’s endowment return rate is consistent with the College’s long term goal. The annual investment return rate has been 8.8 percent for the decade before the end of the 2015 fiscal year.

Harvard University reported an endowment return of 5.8 percent, while Yale University saw an 11.5 percent return.

Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania have not yet released their endowment returns for the fiscal year ending on June 30 as of press time.

Based on 2014 endowments, Dartmouth ranked eighth in the Ivy League. In terms of endowment per student, however, the College ranks fourth, behind Princeton, Yale and Harvard.

Alum nominated Army Secretary B y RACHEL FAVORS The Dartmouth

Eric Fanning ’90 was nominated to be the secretary of the Army, which, if confirmed by Congress, would make him the first openly gay secretary of a military branch.

President Barack Obama nominated Fanning on Sept.

18 to replace outgoing secretary John McHugh.In this position, Fanning will be responsible for all matters relating to the Army, including personnel, manpower, finan-

cial management, communications and weapon systems.

In terms of his ability to lead a military branch, Fanning’s outstanding leadership matters more than his sexuality, East Tennessee State University’s Roan Scholars Leadership Program director and Fanning’s freshman roommate at Dartmouth Scott Jeffress ’90 said. Fanning’s leadership and impeccable character enabled him to navigate some of the Army’s most challenging and complex issues, he said.

Fanning currently serves as the acting under secretary of the Army and chief management officer. Fanning previously served as the special assistant to the secretary and deputy secretary of Defense.

His career in the Department of Defense extends across other military branches where he gained experience through his roles as acting secretary of the Air Force, under secretary of the Air Force and deputy secretary of the Navy. Fanning SEE FANNING PAGE 2

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAily debriefing The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has created a new way to tackle binge drinking on campuses through the form of a comparison tool called the College Alcohol Intervention Matrix, or CollegeAIM, that will allow college officials to weigh the effectiveness of different prevention strategies and guide policy choices through the information they gain, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. CollegeAIM features nearly 60 strategies focused on either changes in college drinking environments or interventions and educational programs for students, and evaluates each one. The strategies used are not completely new, but the comparison structure of multiple strategies fills a gap in the field. The tool is not meant to rank strategies based on their effectiveness, but to determine which combination is likely to be the best choice for a particular college.

One limitation of the tool is that it does not tell colleges how to carry out the strategies or pay for them. While it is not perfect, it could become one mechanism in a broader movement to change attitudes about drinking on campus, the Chronicle reported.

A report published Thursday by the Education Trust, an advocacy group for low-income students, compiled and analyzed data on how well Pell Grant recipients perform at 1,500 public and private nonprofit colleges, making it among the most comprehensive looks at how Pell Grant recipients fare at specific colleges and universities, Inside Higher Ed reported. Among the report’s key findings is that colleges that serve similar student populations can differ dramatically in their outcomes for those students. The study found that students who receive a Pell Grant to attend Michigan State University are 20 percent more likely to graduate within six years compared to their counterparts at the University of Alabama, despite both being similar public research universities. The report also showed gaps on the same campuses between how frequently Pell Grant recipients graduate compared to their non-Pell peers.

Nationally, Pell Grant students graduate in six years at a rate of 51 percent and non-Pell students graduate at a rate of 65 percent, but on the same campus, Pell Grant recipients lagged behind in graduating by an average of only 5.7 percentage points. Of the 1,500 colleges included, more than one third had virtually no gap, but another third had completion gaps greater than nine percentage points. However, the report said that the bigger problem is that too many Pell students attend institutions where few students of any sort graduate, and not enough attend colleges with higher graduation rates.

Princeton University announced on Wednesday that it has been cleared by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights of allegations that it discriminates against Asian and AsianAmerican applicants in its admissions process, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Princeton came under the scrutiny as a result of separate discrimination complaints in 2006 and 2011 filed by rejected applicants with Asian backgrounds who argued that they had been treated differently because of their racial and ethnic backgrounds. A letter from the Office to Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber said that the University had been found to promote diversity within legal parameters outlined by the Supreme Court in its past decisions on affirmative action.

The Supreme Court’s stance on race-conscious admission policies could change as a result of its decision this June to revisit a lawsuit challenging the University of Texas at Austin’s undergraduate admissions policy.

— COMPILED BY KELSEY FLOWER

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

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

Fanning’s peers say offer is well-deserved FROM FANNING PAGE 1

himself never served in the armed forces.

Fanning’s sexuality is important for some, but it is not why he was appointed secretary of the Army, Jeffress said.

“He is an exceptional leader and has worked hard since he graduated 25 years ago,” he said.

Fanning ascended to his current role because of his drive, judgment and the relationships and sound reputation he has built in Washington, D.C., his close friend and director of the Connor Integrative Health Network at University Hospitals of Cleveland Susan Luria ’89 said.

She explained that Fanning did not come out as gay to any of his friends until a few years after college, but when he did, his friends were incredibly supportive.

Although Luria said that she is thrilled to see him in this role, she dislikes it when the headlines of news articles about his accomplishments lead with his sexual identity rather than his character and expertise.

Fanning’s recent appointment is a result genuine nature and not playing politics, she said.

“He is about competence, authenticity, respect and integrity, even

when others around him may not display it,” Luria said. “It’s great to see someone who has done this through every step of his life.”

The opportunity that has been presented to Fanning is entirely deserved, New Jersey senate minority leader Tom Kean ’90, R-New Jersey, said. Kean and Fanning were both members of Psi Upsilon fraternity while students at the College.

While at Dartmouth, Kean recalled Fanning as being involved in a multitude of different activities, and said he was someone who spent a lot of time volunteering. Psi U organized a camp for diabetic children over the pair’s sophomore summer and Fanning helped to organize the event, Kean said.

While at Dartmouth, Fanning was a history major. He was also involved in the World Affairs Council, the Tucker Foundation, the Rockefeller Center, the government department, Dartmouth Special Olympics and tutoring at Hanover High School, friends from his time at the College said. He also served as an undergraduate advisor for first-year students.

Fanning was the recipient of Dartmouth’s Barrett All-Around Achievement Cup upon graduating from Dartmouth, according to the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. The

cup is awarded to the senior man who shows the greatest promise of becoming a factor in the outside world.

Fanning was compassionate, articulate and intelligent as a member of the World Affairs Council, fellow member Robert Harris ’90 said. Harris said Fanning would be a major asset as secretary of the Army.

“I am personally excited that he is in that position,” Harris said. “The country is lucky to have him in that capacity. I hope he gets confirmed.”

Fanning was one of the first people Jay Matson ’91 met when he arrived at the College, where he was Matson’s UGA. “I liked the fact that he was balanced,” Matson said. “On the one hand, he could provide us with guidance that we needed as we were learning the campus, classes and professors, but at the same time, he was relaxed and he had a sense of humor. You knew you could turn to him for support if you needed him.”

“I am so proud of Eric,” Jane Williams ’90 said. “Of all of my friends, it makes the most sense that he would be at this level of leading our country. Even back then, he was wise beyond his years.”

Fanning was not available to comment for this story.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

PAGE 3

Thayer will offer free mini-courses during winter interim

KATE HERRINGTON/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The Thayer School of Engineering will offer mini-courses during winter interim.

FROM THAYER PAGE 1

pointed, however, as the courses will not be worth any credits and will not appear on students’ transcripts, Thayer assistant dean of academic and student affairs Holly Wilkinson said.

One course will analyze small engines. Another will teach students how to use lasers on several different materials.

A third course, titled the “Internet of Things,” will teach students to program tiny computers, and a final class is an English workshop that will teach technical writing skills, with an emphasis on grammatical details that are often difficult for non-native speakers.

They have been designed to supplement students’ academic experiences

and cater to the interests that students cannot pursue given the truncated nature of the academic year, Wilkinson said. The short courses are not only geared toward the engineering community, despite the fact that they are all taught by engineering professors, he said.

Engineering professor Charles Sullivan, who is teaching the English course, said that he will direct his course toward an audience of the international students who do not choose to return home during winter break, frequently because of the expense. That is one reason the courses will not cost tuition, he said.

Enrollment for the courses is capped at 45 students, with sections ranging

from six to 15.

“We didn’t know what to expect this first year so we kept it small, hoping that it would fill, and it looks like by all means that courses will fill,” Wilkinson said.

Thayer dean Joseph Helble, who recognized that many students remain on campus after fall term, had the idea for the program, Wilkinson said.

Helble was not available for comment by press time.

“The dean was responding to requests from folks who are on campus during this long interim break that we have that wanted to know how they could make productive use of their time here and indulge hobby interests,” machine shop manager and instructor Kevin Baron said.

Thayer professors are under no illusions — three or four days is not enough time to grasp the inner workings of an engine fully or become a programmer destined for Silicon Valley. Baron agreed that there are limits to the curriculum imposed by the short duration of the courses, but he said that the students will nonetheless walk away with a better understanding of and deeper appreciation for difficult concepts.

“Of course, nobody is going to come away from this as a mechanic, but they are going to be able to identify the essential components that make a fourstroke engine work,” he said. “Almost

Take-Out

all of us reach a point in our lives where we find it enjoyable to spend a day with an expert on any topic.”

Baron said that Jason Downs, a faculty member at Thayer’s machine shop, has determined that small engines course is best taught “in a single sitting.”

Thayer’s new initiative accompanies the College’s shift to emphasize experiential learning, Baron said, noting that the short courses will allow for academic liberty and individualized attention.

“We have more time to address smaller classes on activities of interest and to learn something in a low-pressure environment,” he said.

Cora Phanord ’16, an engineering and computer science major does not know if she will be in Hanover over winter break. But she agreed with Baron, noting that the intensity of an academic term can sometimes force students to prioritize finishing their assignments rather than embarking on intellectual discoveries.

“So many times because a class is stressful, and you just need to do well in it. You focus more on just getting the work done as opposed to learning,” she said. “This would be an environment where I could learn just for the sake of learning.”

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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 4

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

Staff Columnist Michelle Gil ’16

Verbum Ultimum The Dartmouth Editorial Board

A Distressing Discrepancy

Poorly Executed Policy

The Association of American Universities Survey on Sexual Assault results are troubling.

Earlier this week, the results of the Association of American Universities sexual assault campus climate survey were made public. When reading through the report tables that broke down the survey’s responses along several factors, including sex, race and class year, I came across one statistic in particular that jumped out at me. The survey question asked students to respond to the following statement — “Initial university orientation included information about sexual assault or sexual misconduct.” The answers included 2.6 percent of male undergraduate students responding “no,” while 8.5 percent of male undergraduates responded, “I don’t remember.” In contrast, only 0.7 percent of female undergraduate students responded “no,” while 1.0 percent of female undergraduates responded, “I don’t remember.”

Indeed, Orientation week does include a workshop on consent that discusses sexual assault at some length. I find it extremely concerning that more than one in 10 male students either does not recall this workshop or incorrectly believes this workshop never occurred. For females, this number is closer to one in 50.

It was this particular contrast in survey answers that struck me most when reading through the results, more so even than the difference in percentage of students who have experienced some form of nonconsensual penetration or sexual touching involving physical force or incapacitation since entering school — 27.9 percent of female undergraduates versus 4.5 percent of male undergraduates.

Why was I more surprised by the question about Orientation information than about the actual instances of sexual assault? Because I believe that the answers regarding the existence or lack thereof of the Orientation workshop shed light on a failure of one of the most important tools in combating sexual assault — education. The fact that, even when education on consent and sexual assault is provided, such a large percentage of male students do not even recall ever having received the lessons — let alone the information provided within — is startling. I think the answer to this survey question may actually provide some insight into the vast difference in percentage of

female versus male undergraduate students who ultimately fall victim to sexual assault, as well as the fact that the vast majority of perpetrators of sexual assault are males.

Why is it that so many more males than females on campus cannot recall the consent workshop? Perhaps women, statistically more likely to become victims of sexual assault, are thus more likely to remember being educated on the topic. Maybe male students are not expecting to become victims — and, of course, are not necessarily planning to become perpetrators — and thus tune out and quickly forget the education.

Or perhaps it is the other way around — because males are more likely to forget learning about sexual assault, they are subsequently more likely to become perpetrators. Most likely, it is some combination of the above. Men entering college, not expecting to become victims or perpetrators of sexual assault — or perhaps believing sexual assault statistics to be overstated by radical feminists, as has been claimed in many a national opinion columns — so easily forget ever learning about the topic. But it is precisely because they forget about what they learned that can so dangerously lead some men to commit sexual assault.

Of course, there is always the chance that the 11 percent of male Dartmouth students who don’t remember the “Sex Signals” workshop are not the same male students who have led to so many female students becoming victims of sexual assault — but for some reason I find that possibility unlikely.

Something needs to be done to amend this appalling statistic. Part of the onus may be on the College to provide sexual assault education that is more memorable for male students. A large part of the responsibility, however, lies with the male students themselves. I believe that this statistic should be a wake up call to Dartmouth students. It cannot just be on female students to safeguard themselves against sexual assault. It must also be on male students to pay attention to education on consent and sexual assault and to remember that information, even if they do not think sexual assault is an issue pertinent to them.

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

When it comes to the College’s new need-aware policy, transparency is key.

Last week, the College ended its eight-year-old “need-blind” policy for international applicants in favor of a “need-aware” policy, meaning that the College will consider the financial need of international applicants as an admissions criterion. College spokesperson Diana Lawrence has stated that the goal is “to increase and stabilize” the international student population on campus.

Our primary concern is that the College has again exhibited a glaring lack of transparency in making this decision. We believe that there may be justifiable reasons to return to need-aware admissions for international applicants, but we are ultimately disappointed that the College has not been more tactful and upfront about the factors that motivated this policy change.

This announcement should not have taken international students, nor the rest of the Dartmouth community, by surprise. The apparent lack of even a superficial effort to collect community input does not inspire confidence. Instead, we must be satisfied with the provided administrative talking points — which are wholly unsatisfactory. The justification that need-aware international admissions will bring the College more in line with its peers is particularly deficient. Dartmouth was a leader among its peers with respect to international admissions — this is one area where we should not conform.

Then there is the issue of money, which is clearly a central consideration in any change to financial aid policy. Yet any detail about the costs of the previous policy or the predicted savings from the new one is conspicuously absent from administrators’ initial comments. When asked for further comment, Lawrence wrote in a follow-up email that elaborated on the goals of the policy.

But even now, we must decipher administrators’ sometimes-cryptic remarks.

Though we generally do not reproduce emailed statements in full, we believe that it is important to provide Lawrence’s response without paraphrase.

Lawrence wrote that the policy change “frees up funds and allows us to strengthen our financial aid offers to the students we admit. This will help us compete with our peers for newly admitted students.” While this is a worthy goal, the College should not have left students and the broader public in the dark about the benefits it seeks.

She continued to write that the overall financial aid budget will not be reduced and that the College will still meet 100 percent of demonstrated need for admitted students, international or otherwise.

Lawrence wrote that this policy “does not alter our

pursuit of the most talented and accomplished students, no matter where they reside” and will allow the College to “recruit those we admit.” Finally, she wrote that the College anticipates a trend of increased enrollment of international students, but that administrators are willing to revisit the policy if they do not see the intended results.

We appreciate the added detail, but precisely how the policy will enact these changes remains somewhat elusive. At the same time, the potential costs of this policy change do not. They are obvious to many students, as evidenced by the numerous columns submitted to this paper protesting needaware international admissions and mounting student opposition.

The College, compared to its peers, suffers from poor name recognition overseas. By all accounts, need-blind admissions for international applicants provided students who had never heard of Dartmouth with a compelling reason to apply, and this surely encouraged a greater degree of socioeconomic diversity in the international applicant pool. We cannot see how this change can have anything other than a negative effect on the College’s reputation and its appeal.

What is most regrettable is that this decision reflects poorly on Dartmouth chiefly because of the opaque reasoning. Ending need-blind international admissions could potentially be a wise choice — if that means that the College can devote more resources to recruiting low-income American students. Schools in rural parts of the country remain low on the priority list of the admissions offices of elite universities.

The College has a much better chance of improving socioeconomic diversity — 11 percent of students at Dartmouth come from families with incomes in the bottom 40 percent of U.S. households — if it gets serious about attracting talented students from outside its established sources of applicants.

Administrators could have used this opportunity to announce a new approach to admissions that would have placed the end of need-blind international admissions in the context of a renewed commitment to attracting students from all income brackets in the U.S. — and do so transparently. At a time of administrative turnover in the admissions office, it would have been a bold signal of leadership. And though we hope for a more detailed plan for the use of these freed up funds, in the meantime, the College’s name has undoubtedly taken a hit.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

PAGE 5

Committee recommended measures to curb grade inflation FROM GRADE INFLATION PAGE 1

“When 60 percent of students can get As, one has to ask oneself, why are we at that level?” McPeek said. “And why is it that 30 or 40 years ago, As were at 20 percent of grades?”

Committee member and government professor Lisa Baldez said the data gathered by the committee shows that grade inflation is present in all departments at the College.

Faculty should consider whether their classes are appropriate for a college level course, McPeek said. If not, they should ask themselves how to make it more rigorous, by increasing the intensity of the material and what is expected of the students in the course, he said.

“Most of what we propose is just the deans and the administration changing their behavior about how they do things,” he said.

Baldez said faculty should clearly outline what they expect of students.

“If you’re very clear about the steps that students need to take and what they need to show, then you can be confident in whether or not a student actually deserves the grade that they have gotten,” she said.

Student Assembly president Frank Cunningham ’16 said while he agrees that students must deserve the grades they earn, he does not agree with increasing the rigor of the College’s academic offerings.

“What is it going to look like when this increase in academic rigor comes into existence here at Dartmouth, and what is it going to do to the mental health of the students?” he said.

Cunningham said that students already struggle to balance their academic workload with other aspects of college, including social lives and sleep schedules, and raising the academic intensity of classes will have a negative effect all of these aspects.

Ackerman said the purpose of the committee was not to discuss how to increase academic rigor at the College. Instead, she said the

“When 60 percent of students can get As, one has to ask oneself, why are we at that level? And why is it that 30 or 40 years ago, As were at 20 percent of grades?”

- AD HOC COMMITTEE ON GRADE INFLATION CHAIR MARK MCPEEK

problem facing the College is that the median grade has become an A minus, which means it is difficult for faculty to appropriately reward good work, and students are unaware when they are not performing well.

“If we’re not giving grades at the lower end, we’re also not suggesting to students that they’re not doing adequate work,” she said.

She said the goal of the committee was to encourage Dartmouth faculty

to use the grading scale according to the goals of the grading scale. She said the College should raise awareness about the grading scale and some small steps have already been taken in this direction.

The Class of 2019, for example, was given materials about grading practices during Orientation, which had not been included in past years’ Orientation programming, she said.

She hopes the deans of faculty will speak to faculty members about grading practices and suggested that faculty members turn in an annual report that includes a section on grading.

“We have not recommended what I would refer to as more absolutist kinds of measures, like a faculty member can only give a certain number of As,” she said.

These practices have been tried at other institutions and failed, she said.

“If every student in a class deserves an A, every student should get an A”, Ackerman said.

McPeek and Ackerman said there has been a mixed reaction to the proposal.

“There was a substantial [amount], maybe even a majority, of the faculty that was supportive of it, and there were a few that did not like it,” McPeek said.

He said he has heard from a number of alumni who agree with the proposal, because they are not in support of the direction grades have taken and the resulting consequences.

Baldez said when they presented their recommendations, faculty raised questions about how to inter-

pret the committee’s data and how to react to it.

“I hope that these discussions will continue and we will keep working on this as a faculty,” she said.

The committee also suggested removing the non-recording option.

According to the Office of the Registrar’s website, the non-recording option is in place “to support and encourage students who would like to elect courses that may pose greater than usual academic risk.”

McPeek said he thinks the College created the non-recording option in 1967 as a failed attempt at preventing

further grade inflation.

He acknowledged the logic behind the NRO, but he concluded that the majority of students abuse it.

“There’s a very high-minded and legitimate reason for having that on the books, saying that students can sample classes that are outside of their comfort zone,” he said.

The problem is only a small fraction of students are using the NRO for this purpose, he said, instead choosing to use it as a safety measure to prevent grades they are not happy with from appearing on their transcript.

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THE DARTMOUTH ADVERTISEMENTS

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 3:30 p.m.

“Convection of Low-Mass Stars” with Gregory Feiden of Uppsala University, Wilder 104

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“Trainwreck” (2015), film screening, Black Family Visual Arts Center, Loew Auditorium

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

PAGE 7

Shoot for It: With Alex Lee ’16 and John Beneville ’16

B y ALEX LEE and JOHN BENEVILLE The Dartmouth Staff

Alex Lee ’16 and John Beneville ’16 are back for the second week of “Shoot for It.” This week, we’ll be talking about the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers and what we expect to see from them this upcoming season.

The 2014-2015 season was brutal for big money basketball. The Lakers went 21-61 and the Knicks went 1765, and both teams saw their major stars — Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony — sit for a significant portion of the year due to injuries.

Both teams, however, have made a considerable number of off-season moves that could turn their fortunes around for the upcoming season. The Lakers signed power forward Brandon Bass, traded for center Roy Hibbert, drafted No. 2 overall pick point guard D’Angelo Russell and signed the reigning sixth man of the year, shooting guard Lou Williams. The Knicks signed shooting guard Arron Afflalo, center Robin Lopez and drafted No. 4 overall pick Kristaps Porzingis. In this week’s column we’ll tackle the following question — who will have a better

record next season, the Lakers or the Knicks?

Alex’s take: This is less of a question of who will have the better season and more of a question of who will have the worse season. Both of these teams are circus shows of weak leadership and low commitment, exacerbated by egomaniacal players, but — if I had to choose — I would definitely say the Lakers will have the worse season.

Some people may ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at the Lakers offseason, but the fact remains that the Lakers signed a bunch of Kobe Bryant imitators, who add no value to any team unless they literally have the basketball in their hands.

While I do admit that every team in the NBA will benefit from having one or two pure scorers, there aren’t enough basketballs in North America for D’Angelo Russell, Swaggy P, Lou Williams AND Kobe. Don’t even get me started on their “Kobe at PF” plan. I actually think one of the Lakers with the brightest future is sophomore point guard Jordan Clarkson, but how many minutes is he going to spend on the bench watching Swaggy P brick up 3’s? If it was 2012 and we were all jamming out to “Call Me Maybe,” then the Brandon Bass and Roy Hibbert signings would be fantastic. However,

it is 2015, Bass and Hibbert are washed up, and Carly Rae Jepsen is even less relevant.

The Knicks, on the other hand, have made several solid moves. Forget about Melo’s Instagram feud and the “summer reading” that coach Derek Fisher gave to his players. The bottom line is that the Knicks signings might be low key, but they have plenty of grit — a factor that has kept the Chicago Bulls relevant even during their Rose-less years.

Incoming from the Portland Trail Blazers, Lopez is an athletic 7-footer who can physically hold his own against the majority of centers in the league.

Twenty-nine-year-old shooting guard Afflalo has a career stat-line of .385 three-point percentage and 11.4 points per game. On top of that, he is a solid defender and good at spacing the floor.

Lastly, despite the controversy and crying in the city that never sleeps, Porzingis is the real deal. From what we have seen in the summer league, Porzingis has the potential to develop into a premiere player in this league.

He is a lean 7’1’’ with good hands and a great vertical for his size. He moves well with the ball and can curl off screens for a quick pick-and-pop. He can drive to the basket or pull up and launch a

three. Porzingis’ versatility in scoring will prove to be a defensive nightmare for most of his defensive assignments, power forwards and centers who are likely not accustomed to defending the perimeter. Furthermore, 20-year-old Porzingis will continue to fill out into his mid-20s, and I believe that the questions about his strength will soon become a non-issue. All in all, this upcoming season expect the Lakers to be terrible and the Knicks to be only slightly under par.

John’s Take: First of all, who cares about the Knicks? They haven’t been relevant in my lifetime, and I see no reason for them to start mattering now. They recently drafted this big European guy, but we all know that unless your last name is Gasol you aren’t going to be a successful center in the NBA. Porzingis will get eaten alive by more physical defenders — such as Tristan Thompson, the star of last week’s column — and probably end up wishing he never left Europe.

Besides Kristaps “The Big Question Mark” Porzingis, the Knicks haven’t done much of anything this off-season.

The Phil Jackson cult has unfortunately struggled to get much of a following in the Big Apple, but the Zen Master is still getting paid over 10 million dollars

this year so I’m sure he doesn’t mind.

My advice — stop meditating and start making moves. Alex does mention a few pickups, headlined by the league’s perennial punching bag — Robin Lopez. Robin is an absolute clown from head to toe, starting with his ridiculous hair and ending with his lack of balance and coordination. Sorry, Knicks, this is not your year.

More importantly, the Lakers are looking to improve this year with the addition of Williams, Bass and Hibbert and hopefully a different and revitalized edition of Nick “Swaggy P” Young. If these players live up to their potential the Lakers could be a playoff team.

Hopefully, this year Julius Randle doesn’t break his leg in the first game, if only so that we don’t have to see Robert Sacre play another minute of basketball.

Of course, the X factor will be Kobe Bryant. He’s been completely cleared to play, but he’s on the wrong side of 35 years old, and that doesn’t make things easy. He’s struggled with injuries the past couple of years, but before he went out with the ruptured achilles he was an absolute force. My prediction — Kobe comes back as a star and the Lakers outperform the Knicks this year.

Ron Rainey’s circuitous career leads him to Hanover FROM RON RAINEY PAGE 8

“He’s been true to his answers, and he’s been a great coach and he’s a really great person, so it’s worked out well,” Delaney said.

“He’s just a really nice guy. ” The team’s strategy didn’t change much upon Rainey’s arrival, Wilkins said, as the team stayed with a possession game that encourages getting wide and getting crosses to the middle. Yet she did notice that the team’s last two coaches had different motivation styles, and Delaney agreed. “[Rainey is] more reserved and kind of gives direction after the game or at half time, not as much during the game, whereas [former head coach Theresa Romagnolo] was more vocal and kind of told you what to do during the game,” Delaney said. “But both great coaching, just kind of different styles, and I think we’ve responded well to both.”

Wilkins felt that Rainey’s more reserved style was still effective because, “He’s the kind of coach players want to play for and want to do well for.” This, she said, was because he “genuinely cares about how you’re doing.” “[Rainey is] really personable,” Delaney said, adding that he asks his players about their academic and personal lives as well as checks in with them each day to see how their legs are feeling. He also uses

his captains as sounding boards.

When the team is feeling down, he’ll mix things up, she said.

“He’s just very in tune to what’s going on,” Delaney said.

As much as Rainey’s players love him, he is possibly even more excited to be on Dartmouth’s campus coaching them. There are many things Rainey likes about this school, but first on his mind is soccer.

“I feel like Dartmouth really represents some things that are good about athletics and academics,” he said.

Rainey’s last job before Hanover was as the head women’s soccer coach at the University of Iowa.

To some, a transfer from a Big Ten school to the Ivy League might sound odd, but Rainey said that most things women’s soccer are the same at both schools.

“Some of the players in the Ivy League can do things better than some of the players in the Big Ten,” he said, “And some of the players in the Big Ten can do things better than some of the kids in the Ivy League.”

Rainey is familiar not just with college-level coaching, but also with non-scholarship athletics through his father, who coached at the University of Delaware when it was a Division I non-scholarship team.

“It was still competitive, they

still played great teams, they still competed and worked hard,” Rainey said. “The balance that our [Dartmouth] players have in regards to the education that their getting but also playing at the highest level soccer-wise, I feel like it’s cool to be a part of.”

In addition, he said, the Hawkeye and Big Green teams draw similar crowds, and, the Upper Valley is kind of a “soccer area.”

“We want to be kind of a community-oriented sport, allow young female players, young boys, young girls, to come out and see us play, and hopefully enjoy the sport,” he said.

Rainey likes other things about the College, too, including the fact that athletic administration is made up of coaches he can consult with and that his Dartmouth players have a brother program in the men’s squad to cheer them on and add to their understanding of the game. Iowa fielded only a women’s team.

Additionally, he appreciates the Upper Valley area, from getting to work outside in a beautiful place to having “good people, great values.”

Rainey, though, is not just here for his own benefit. He was hired after the departure of Romagnolo for Notre Dame University.

Rainey’s previous reputation was based partly on his ability to turn fledgling and low-ranking

teams into title competitors.

Before Dartmouth, he brought the Hawkeyes, who had won nine games over the three seasons prior to his arrival, to the Big Ten finals in his eighth and final season and left with one of the best records of any coach at the school.

Before that, he headed up a new Ball State University program and in his seven years took the team to a 70-52-17 record. The Cardinals hit 15-3-2 during his final season.

Before that, he assistant coached the University of Iowa women in their first two seasons.

In fact, before that, it was at Towson University that Rainey first showed his abilities to bring cellar-dweller teams to the top. In one season as head coach, he took the Tigers from a three-win team to America East champions.

Dartmouth, however, did not need a rebuild. The team was already competitive when Rainey arrived. Yet impressively, despite the head coaching turnover, the women still found themselves in second place in the Ivies last year, with an 8-5-4 (3-1-3 Ivy) record.

This season the team is at 5-1-1, a record built partly on two 6-0 wins. If Rainey can keep the Big Green defense solid as ever, while also pushing the attack to improve, players and coaches alike believe in the possibility of an Ivy League championship.

“I learned a long time ago not to worry about why somebody chooses you, but if they choose you, and the fit is there, that you just run with it and work as hard as you can for them,” he said.

He also gave credit to his predecessors for having recruited such a strong team.

Rainey first made the transition to coach soccer when he headed to Trenton State College — now The College of New Jersey — in 1992 for a master’s degree in education and a position as a graduate assistant coach for the men’s soccer team. But soon, he began to transition to the women’s soccer world.

“I started doing things with the New Jersey Girls [Olympic Development Program] and a club there, and I just enjoyed it more,” he said. “And then there’s the reality of just applying for jobs, and when somebody is nice enough to take [you], that’s the direction that it led me.”

Things got rolling in the women’s world after that, with roles at the University of Wisconsin at Parkside, University of Cincinnati, Towson University and in the Olympic Development Program.

Rainey’s circuitous route eventually led him to his new home in the Upper Valley.

“I consider myself pretty lucky to do this.” Rainey said. “The next 20 years are going to go real fast.”

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

PAGE 8

SPORTS

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

SATURDAY LINEUP

MEN’S SOCCER VS. HOFSTRA 5 PM

FOOTBALL VS. SACRED HEART 7 PM

Football prepares to take on Sacred Heart University

B y ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN The Dartmouth Staff

Off the back of a comfortable 31-10 defeat of Georgetown University (1-2) in its season opener, the football team will undertake one of its more onerous challenges this season on Saturday night.

In a home opener clash on the newly renovated Memorial Field, the Big Green (1-0) will face two-time defending Northeast Conference champions in Sacred Heart University (2-1).

Against the Hoyas last week, the Big Green’s defensive and special teams units stole the show. Reigning Special Teams Player of the Week Ryan McManus ’15 offered momentous shifts in field position by accumulating 102 punt return yards — two returns of which indirectly led to Big Green scores — and two key turnovers by the defense definitively changed the game’s balance within the first 20 minutes of play.

The defense had a quick and opportunistic start to the season, but in the estimation of the unit’s linchpin Will McNamara ’16 — who recently received Ivy Defensive Player of the Week honors — the defense still displayed some shortcomings.

“I think our defense came out and played pretty well for the circumstances,” McNamara said. “We played a bunch of guys on defense, showed our depth a little bit, got a lot of guys snaps and made some plays… [But] we can get much better. We missed a bunch of tackles. I felt we could have stopped them on a couple more plays.”

On the other side of the football, Dartmouth initially struggled to find footing in its first game. First half totals against Georgetown were dismal as the Big Green only garnered 25 yards through the air on 5-for-11 passing and 42 yards on 10 rushes. Some of the low output early can be chalked up to the Big Green’s disproportionate posses-

sion time — an occurrence unlikely to repeat itself — which in turn resulted in an absence of established offensive stability.

The third quarter, however, revealed a more accurate picture of the Dartmouth offense. In two consecutive drives to open the second half, quarterback Dalyn Williams ’16 led a revitalized Big Green offense to a field goal and then a touchdown. The air attack yielded 115 yards at a 10-for-12 clip, while four runners combined for eight touches for 52 yards on the ground during this 12-minute span. Williams said he believes that the second-half performance provides a nice springboard for the offense moving forward.

“As an offense, we can take the momentum we built in the second half forward to the next game,” Williams said. “[Early,] we kind of stalled because we didn’t build a rhythm, whether [it was] confusion, focus [or missing] a couple of throws. I think our biggest thing to improve on is going out the first drive and getting that first first down.”

Across the entire contest, the wealth of capable rushing options emerged as a positive sign for Dartmouth as well.

Four running backs — in addition to Williams at quarterback — combined for 156 yards on the ground and two touchdowns on 31 carries. If the progress and multifaceted quality in this area continues, it can potentially become an excellent complement to the passing game — a point Williams commented on. “[All of our running backs] have their own unique running style,” Williams said. “It varies which is good for attacking the defense.”

In squaring off against Sacred Heart — a team that finished in the top 25 of the Football Championship Subdivision in 2014 — this Saturday night, Dartmouth will face a distinctive style of football proven to reap benefits.

Though picked this year to finish third in their conference after the departure of four All-Americans from last season, the Pioneers have remained a stout team, out-scoring opponents 126-56 through two wins and a loss in 2015.

On offense, Sacred Heart’s strength skews toward it passing game. This season, 55 percent of the team’s first downs have come through the air, and senior quarterback RJ Noel has averaged a proficient 8.3 yards per pass — along with seven touchdowns and four interceptions — compared to the 4.2 yards per rush rate of the run game. Three games worth of plays make for a small sample, but a parallel pass-run disparity from 2014 confirms that Sacred Heart thrives when passing.

Noel’s primary target, fifth-year senior Tyler Dube, has produced 338 yards and five touchdowns on 19 catches so far this year.

But it is the other in-game matchup — the Pioneers on defense and the Big Green on offense — that could prove the most pivotal factor. The Sacred Heart defense has proved much more susceptible to the pass, yielding 6.6 yards per opposing throw while stifling rushers to 2.9 yards per play. Additionally, the Sacred Heart defense has averaged more than four sacks per game, pulled down five interceptions and forced seven total turnovers over the first three games.

Most notably, though, the Pioneers employ a defensive system rarely seen

by Dartmouth, as noted by Big Green head coach Buddy Teevens.

“They play a lot of man-to-man, really close press coverage, [which is] a challenge for our wide receivers,” Teevens said. “With that, they have more people pressuring the quarterback, so that strains your protective element a little bit. The [quarterback has] to stand in under pressure and make throws. If you pressure, you might get to the quarterback, but you might give

KATE HERRINGTON/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The football team is looking to continue improving in its game this weekend.

up a big play.”

Speaking to Teevens’ point, Sacred Heart’s last opponent, Marist College — who beat Sacred Heart 34-27 — scored two of its four touchdowns on a 78-yard pass play and 69-yard rush, the latter of which clinched the game.

Moreover, Marist totaled five plays of at least 30 yards in the air and three plays of more than 25 yards on the ground, illustrating the Pioneers’ poor big play prevention. Knowing he will soon encounter this man-to-man coverage and blitz-heavy defense, Williams felt confident that he and the team offense could exploit possible weaknesses.

“I’m really excited,” Williams said, “because we don’t play man [defense] that much and given that we make some big plays — and also if I escape the rush and I get out — there’s no one accounting for me, so that will create some big plays as well.”

Playing a schedule dictated by conference play, Dartmouth would ostensibly strain itself less in out-of-conference games that do not determine its ultimate fate. In terms of developing a successful team mentality, though, that’s hardly the case for the Big Green.

“We take every game seriously,” McNamara said on the issue. “Obviously

we know the Ivy League [title] is the one that matters and the one we could win, but Sacred Heart is going to be a good challenge for us and get us ready for Ivy League play.”

Williams said that the matchup would gauge the team’s development and hold extra importance as the team’s home opener.

“We can use this as a measuring stick,” Williams noted. “Where are we?

What do we need to work on going forward? It doesn’t go on our record, but that really doesn’t matter. We still want to go in our first game at home under the lights, we want to win. So whatever that entails, we want to accomplish.”

Teevens reiterated similar sentiments, and explained how a contest against Sacred Heart served as a stage in his team’s growth process.

“This being our second game, you generally see great improvement from game one to game two,” Teevens said.

“I thought we were sloppy in some areas with our first game, we had too many penalties offensively. We had missed assignments that are easily correctable.

There are a lot of good elements that you can build on, that’s what we need to do, to take another step forward this week.”

Coach Ron Rainey: From the Big Ten to the Ivy League

B y EMILY WECHSLER The Dartmouth Staff

Women’s soccer head coach Ron Rainey knew what it was like to be a coach long before he became one. The son of a high school and college-level basketball coach, Rainey took his soccer skills to the sideline almost as soon as he graduated from Wilkes University, where he had been a two-time

captain and team most valuable player on the men’s soccer team.

After gaining experience at a number of different colleges and universities, Rainey made the move last year to Dartmouth. Now in his second season with the Big Green, Rainey has settled into the Upper Valley and does not seem poised to leave any time soon.

His athletes seem quite happy with their new coach.

“These last couple years we’ve had really good team chemistry, and I think the team is gelling really well,” co-captain Corey Delaney ’16 said. “We’ve gotten stronger at that the last two years.

Relationships and communication have been really big for us.”

Indeed, it seems that his players are most excited about the culture he has helped grow with the team.

“I think we really have found a

way to kind of bond and have a good relationship with each other on and off the field, which is really important, I believe,” Delaney said, “And I think that he has helped instill the culture of community and loyalty to teammates that I think will be with us for a while.”

Tasha Wilkins ’15, who spent most of her career under other coaches, also appreciated Rainey’s

ability to come into the team’s “community and family” with an open mind. She felt this culture was somewhat unique to Dartmouth in general and was happy to see it continue under Rainey.

The players had a chance to speak with Rainey before he was hired and said they liked the way he answered their questions.

SEE RON RAINEY PAGE 7