The Dartmouth Mirror 10/31/14

10.31.2014

MIRROR

‫אנטישמיות‬ (anti-shemit — anti-Semitism)

APPROPRIATE HALLOWEEN| 2

FACULTY VOTES| 3

anti-semitism | 4-5

cultural tool kit| 8

2// MIRROR

EDITOR’S NOTE

An Appropriate Halloween story

Over the summer I commuted almost an hour and half every day to Burbank, California. As a Los Angeles native, I’m familiar with the cathartic process of driving. I relish the time spent alone in my car — one of the only times I know I can’t be doing other things. My parents, as liberal Jews, spent much of my childhood listening to NPR. When I was younger I was always bored by talk radio, and even today many parts of the more traditional news stories still make me a little sleepy. But I made a commitment myself to be more culturally aware last summer and made an effort to listen to NPR at least once a day.

As a self-identifying Jew, many of this summer’s top news stories troubled me immensely. I spent my commute listening intently to Israeli and other Jewish correspondents analyze how anti-Semitism has lay dormant for generations after World War II, only to be reawakened by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My parents were shocked by my constant desire to talk about the antiSemitic incidents that occurred in Europe. I, on the other hand, was shocked that these events could actually have occurred. From a shooting in a Jewish museum in Belgium to the “heil Hitler” used by followers of French comedian Dieudonne, the fact that our society could possibly have regressed to the views we held prior to World War II mesmerized me. I have considered these events in conjunction with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and recent anti-Semitic occurrences on college campuses. For that reason, this week’s centerfold hits very close to home for me. In fact, all of the rather serious pieces this week relate to my identity as a Jew, anthropology student and Dartmouth community member.

In the past few weeks, it’s been hard not to question some of those aspects of my identity that I used to consider givens. At the same time, this self-reflection has enabled me to understand what parts of me I’d like to keep and what parts I’d like to throw away. Sometimes at Dartmouth it’s easy to feel unhinged, and I find myself returning to bad habits and mentalities I thought I’d abandoned freshman year. As our back page writer posits, I need to dig deeper into my tool kit and recognize that the fluidity of my identity as a college senior is completely understandable.

follow @thedmirror

MIRROR R MIRROR EDITOR ERIN LANDAU

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LINDSAY ELLIS PUBLISHER CARLA LARIN

EXECUTIVE EDITORS MICHAEL RIORDAN STEPHANIE McFEETERS

By kalie marsicano

If there’s one lesson “Mean Girls” taught me, it’s how to do Halloween like a champ — just add animal ears.

This rule of thumb has brought me consistent success (recent hits include “sexy cat” and “sexy Mickey Mouse from ‘Fantasia’”) but my over whelming lack of creativity just doesn’t do it for ever yone, and I get that. On Halloween, we dress to scare, amuse and impress, sometimes all at once, and the rules that dictate our daily attire disappear.

For me, that means throwing in a furr y-eared headband, but for many others, it represents a chance to assume a totally new identity. But that’s exactly why we have to be careful when scouring our closets on Halloween, and make sure to get creative without appropriating another culture.

“I think that Halloween can be a positive time for people to wear things that maybe they wouldn’t be comfortable wearing other times, and that’s fine — I’m all about freedom of self-expression,” Annie Fagan ’15 said.

But, she added, the holiday has become “extremely commercialized, sexualized and culturally appropriative.”

On Halloween, Fagan commented, traditional clothing takes on a different, usually more sexual, meaning that is completely separate from the original context in which the clothing is worn. Think “Indian Princess Costume,” “Asian Persuasion Costume” and “Fiesta Mexican Costume,” for starters.

If the titles of these blatantly racist getups aren’t enough, let’s consider what wearing one signifies.

Is it funny? Sexy? Both? In any case, adopting (and often misusing) the traditional garb of another culture, especially one that has faced historic oppression, is not the way to go.

“To be able to dress up as a particular group for a day, and then not have any association to the baggage that comes with the particular culture or the particular people, and not having to live with the discrimination [is problematic],” Bennie Niles ’15 said.

Costumes using ethnic concepts are inappropriate, he said, because they reflect popular stereotypes and generalize or distort elements of the cultures they portray. For example,

’15: “Did you get my dick pic last night? ’15: “No?” ’15: “Oh, thank god.”

Blitz your overheards to mirror@thedartmouth.com!

most Native American cultures do not use headdresses, and especially not the way Halloween costumes imply, Corinne Kasper ’17 said. Kasper, who comes from the Great Lakes region, has a different religion and distinct traditions that dif fer substantially from the inaccurate “Poca-hotties” often encountered on Halloween.

“When I see someone dressed up in an Indian costume,” Preston Wells ’15 said. “It’s like they’re tr ying to be like me, they’re tr ying to be an Indian, when they don’t know anything about it. They think it’s all fun and games, when it’s not all fun and games to be Indian at times. It’s hard.”

Such costumes misunderstand and generalize the peoples they take from, turning one group’s traditions and heritage into another’s entertainment. But it get’s worse — as Wells explained, these outfits can also make light of ver y real issues.

“Oftentimes, Indian costumes or Native American costumes are ver y ‘slutty’ which is really problematic because one in three Native American women are raped or sexually assaulted,” Wells said.

Seeing these costumes, he added, forces him to think of his mom and sister back home, and the real dangers they face because of their identity.

So, if the costume mimics a people, culture or race that isn’t your own, the answer is definitely no, but what about historical cultural costumes?

Kasper argued that as long as the costume portrays a people that are no longer around, like Vikings, it’s not offensive to wear.

But for Christian Ledesma ’16, times are getting a bit “too PC.” The way he sees it, as long as you’re tr ying to authentically replicate another culture, rather than playing on negative stereotypes, the costume is probably acceptable.

“Dressing up as an ‘illegal alien,’ or as a ‘tequila bandit’ — that’s blatantly racist,” Ledesma said. “But other stuff, like dressing up as a ‘matador’ or a ‘mariachi member,’ that’s not racist.”

Ledesma is not alone in this sentiment — other college publications such as The Dar tmouth Review and Dartblog both argued that the ambiguous nature and the difficulty of defining cultural appropriation

’16: “My national rep leaves tomorrow at 8 a.m. Who wants to do pre-9L shots?”

’17: “It’s so annoying when you keep winning at pong. I just wanted to lose a game so I could leave.”

makes navigating the Halloween costume waters challenging.

Both pieces said students should exercise common sense and choose a costume not intended to offend, instead of focusing on being politically correct.

In that case, where do we draw the line?

“If you’re tr ying to decide what to wear on Halloween, anything that is tied to a culture, a language, a countr y, a people or an identity that is maybe not your own, you should probably think ver y carefully about that,” Fagan said.

As Niles put it, if you have to take a moment to process whether or not a costume is problematic, it’s best not to wear it.

So I think we’re definitely all clear on what not to wear on Halloween. As it turns out, the rest of the student body seems to be with us, because most of the people I spoke to hadn’t encountered any culturally appropriative costumes firsthand at Dartmouth. Even so, the issue definitely exists on campus, and it’s our responsibility to address it.

“One time, I guess it was Halloween, and I walked by Collis, and I saw a girl in an Indian costume with feathers,” Wells said. “We actually confronted her, and she said that she was going to go change and that she didn’t know that what she was wearing was offensive.”

It might feel like a party foul, but calling someone out in these situations is key. It’s an uncomfortable moment for the offender, but it’s just as hard for the individuals whose culture has been appropriated to see their lived experience made into something funny, sexy or just plain inaccurate.

“If you have the feeling that someone’s costume is of fensive, don’t just ignore it,” Ellen Plane ’15 said.

“Mention it to them. Even if it’s hard, it’s the right thing to do.”

Whether you’re in it for the candy, the pumpkin car ving or the haunted houses, Halloween can and should be a day to enjoy.

There are tons of options to look hot, silly and spooky without insulting others, so let’s take it as a challenge to get inventive and promote social awareness. Maybe I’ll even ditch the animal ears this time.

’16: “This is Dartmouth.

If you’re not oneupping someone, you’re not doing it right.”

’15: “I almost cried summiting Moosilauke, but I didn’t want to get dehydrated.”

MIRROR //3

Faculty Reflections: A Timeline

Trending D @ RTMOUTH

A letter is circulating among faculty members advocating for the abolishment of the Greek system. This isn’t the first time faculty have taken a stance — we examined previous votes faculty have taken on the matter as well as other letters and petitions they have distributed. Faculty may call a vote on the issue at the upcoming faculty meeting on Nov. 3. History may indeed be repeating itself.

happy halloween

— 1978

1989 We really can’t stop listening. Come out of the woods and shake it off this weekend.

Con: “I would hold that some of these residences would be populated by Pro: “Dartmouth’s overbearing anti-intellectual — or anti-critical — climate is people inclined to behave in much the same way as they now behave.” a fact and, because it is not inherent in the student when admitted, I suggest — written statement by government professor Howard Erdman it originates in the so-called “Dartmouth Experience.” — Allen Grunes ’78

Pre-formal season

Flitz early. Flitz often.

Fall formals are on their way.

2000 —

last-minute lunches

Remember that person you said you would get lunch with week one? It’s time to reconnect.

Citing figures from the steering committee report, which shows affiliated students tend to be mostly white and more affluent than other students, [religion professor Susan] Ackerman called the system one of “power and privilege.”

“Isn’t it clear by now that reform has not and will not work?”

— comparative literature department chair Marianne Hirsch

“It is inaccurate to regard these dreadful events as the incidental deeds of a few ‘misguided individuals,’ and irresponsible to sidestep the harder questions concerning the institutionally sanctioned structures that foster and even encourage them ... because of our utter frustration with current events, we want to invite the Board of Trustees to attend our next general faculty meeting on May 14 to revisit the question concerning the future of the Greek system at Dartmouth College.”

— 2001 2012 — “ We c h a l l e n g e t h e K i m administration to require these organizations and others on campus to adopt Dartmouth’s core values, and hold them accountable as every other group and member of this institution is held accountable every day.”

Giant Steps All those San Franciscans are walking on the moon after Wednesday’s World Series Win.

Snow Check your forecast, everyone. This Sunday, winter will have officially came.

Liquor Treat

4// MIRROR

‘We Stand Together’: Centerfold

B y Luke mccann

As the first hints of a Southern autumn began to creep onto the glimpses of burnt oranges and overcast grays, Emor y University saw its campus flourish in a sea of blue. When the university’s student government executive board urged individuals to wear blue on Oct. 6, the initiative blossomed throughout campus. Blue bed sheets hung from windows, and several Emor y students passed out free shirts they had spent the previous night stenciling by hand. Greek organizations soon took the charge — several fraternities covered their windows in blue crepe paper, and sororities painted their windows blue, with messages of support across them. “We stand together,” read one window, its blue and white color scheme accentuating the Star of David in the center of a heart.

The rally responded to recent anti-Semitic graffiti discovered on the outside of a campus fraternity house. Only hours after the end of Yom Kippur, one of the holiest holidays of the Jewish faith, the brothers of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity spotted black swastikas spray-painted outside their house. The student newspaper The Emor y Wheel, found additional swastikas painted outside another house on the street, although it was unclear if these were newly painted, or had been committed with the original ones found at AEPi. AEPi, while open and non-discrimator y to students of any faith, bills itself as one of “the world’s leading Jewish social fraternities.”

A mix of confusion, anger and unity in the face of intolerance met the incident, said Jake Lerner, a student at Emor y University and member of the programming board of the campus Hillel chapter. While the vandalism itself represented an awful act of hatred, Lerner said it ultimately created a stronger sense of community among the student body.

“As a community, we knew it was wrong and that we absolutely have to stick together against these kinds of actions,” he said.

“It almost seems as if it’s had the opposite effect of its original intent, and seeing something like these has actually brought campus closer together against the issue.”

The sense of solidarity with the Jewish community of Emor y, which boasts one of the largest Jewish student population percentages of U.S. universities, was not limited to students’ clothing and sorority windows alone.

University President James Wagner condemned the act in a campus-wide email shortly after the discovery of the graffiti, in which he described the swastika as “a repugnant, flagrant emblem of anti-Semitism.”

Similar acts of intolerance continue to plague college campuses across the countr y. During a National Pro-Life Chalk Day, university students across campuses take to the sidewalks to write messages like “Life is precious, let’s support it.” At Eastern Michigan University, students found that their messages had been doused in water and covered with drawings of swastikas.

On Oct. 13, only a week after swastikas were found at Emor y, Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway sent an email informing the university’s community of three swastikas that had been found drawn in chalk outside of a freshman dorm shortly after midnight. A month earlier, swastikas had been discovered on a whiteboard in another Yale freshman dorm. In March, pro-Israel students were reportedly called “kikes” and received threats of violence from anti-Israel students during a sit-in at the University of Michigan. Nearly a decade ago, tensions between students and allegedly anti-Semitic professors at Columbia University escalated to the point at which students called for the university president’s resignation.

While many universities across the countr y continue to face anti-Semitism among both students and faculty, the Dartmouth community has largely avoided similar high-profile events. Sandor Farkas ’17, president of Dartmouth Students for Israel, said that Dartmouth’s Jewish community does not often experience incidents of anti-Semitism, and the open atmosphere at the College does not make it easy to imagine an anti-Semitic incident occurring.

“At Dartmouth, there’s nothing that people immediately see that would give them the idea that something like [the events at Emor y] could ever happen here,” he said. “I think some people dismiss that as something that’s only happening at other schools, and that would never happen here because of the welcoming environment.”

Several members of the Jewish community cited the emphasis on open dialogue and commitment to work with other faith groups as one of the primar y reasons that anti-Semitic events have not reached Dartmouth. Elana Folbe ’15, president of Dartmouth Hillel, cited previous cooperation between Hillel and Al-Nur, the Muslim students association. The groups hosted a vigil together to honor the lives that have been lost on both sides of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

“I think we’re a campus that has so many multi-faith events that it promotes dialogue between ever yone,” she said. “We don’t face much anti-Semitism here because all of the religious communities work peacefully with one another.”

MIRROR //5

Uniting Against Anti-Semitism on College Campuses Sam Libby ’17, Dartmouth Hillel vice president of religion, echoed similar sentiments about the close working relationship and emphasis on discussion between various faith and political groups.

“We haven’t seen a lot of similar violent or heated protests as other college campuses, and having a dialogue and engaging with other groups has kind of allowed us to avoid that and productively talk about it,” he said.

The lack of blatant anti-Semitism, Libby added, should not allow the Dartmouth community to become complacent in their daily lives.

“[Anti-Semitism] isn’t something that people at Hillel are thinking about daily, being in Hanover and more isolated from the national ties,” he said. “But the events at Yale show that if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. We need to stand up and say that as an entire community, this is not acceptable.”

Dartmouth Hillel executive director Rabbi Edward Boraz emphasized that creating an open, inclusive environment predicated on facilitating dialogue about faith and politics is a core value of Dartmouth Hillel.

He cited the interfaith living learning community, a program that seeks to foster conversations among students of different faiths who live together on the same residential floor, as a program that can “move past just tolerance.”

“When we engage with one another productively, you can see a community that ever yone can be proud of,” he said.

While Dartmouth’s campus may be one of community and tolerance for Jewish students today, the College has a dark history of anti-Semitism. In late 1997, then-College President James Freedman confronted some of these past attitudes of intolerance during his dedication of the Roth Center, a physical space for Hillel and Chabad, two Jewish organizations at Dartmouth. Freedman read from archived documents, which included a brief exchange of letters between an alumnus and then-Director of Admissions Robert Strong.

“I am glad to have your comments on the Jewish problem, and I shall appreciate your help along this line in the future,” Strong wrote. “If we go beyond the 5 percent or 6 percent in the Class of 1938, I shall be grieved beyond words.”

The letter followed the alumnus’s comments that the school was growing “more Jewish” each time he returned to campus and that students “seem to be the ‘kike’ type.”

Freedman also included a 1945 New York Post issue, in which then-College President Ernest Hopkins was quoted saying that several Jewish students who had applied to Dartmouth were turned away because of their religious affiliation, asserting that “Dartmouth is a Christian College founded for the Christianization of its students.”

While the days of turning away students solely because of their Judaism have ended, anti-Semitism clearly has not been completely eradicated. The impetus for these recent events on university campuses is not clear-cut, and several members of the Jewish community disagreed on what may have caused the resurgence in these events.

For some, like Farkas, the correlation between anti-Semitic events and the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is impossible to deny.

“People talk about the new anti-Semitism as it related to Israel, and I think that can’t be ignored,” he said. “Regardless of your views on Israel, you can’t deny that anti-Semitism is an integral part of the topic.”

Farkas emphasized that taking an anti-Israel stance does not immediately indicate an anti-Semitic one, but that separating the two from one another is difficult. He said that events like those at Emor y or Yale are not only representative of anti-Semitic trends in the countr y, but also the world, citing recent events in France and Hungar y. Events such as the shooting at the Jewish Museum in Belgium this summer, in which four were killed, and the firebombing of synagogues in Germany indicate a growing worldwide trend.

Others were more hesitant to associate the conflict with a potential cause of the acts.

“I don’t believe one is causing the other, but that’s not to say the conflict can’t be utilized for furthering one’s personal beliefs,” Boraz said. “Someone who dislikes a group of people within the conflict can use it to promote their position, and rather than engage in the complexities of the issue and promote peace and unity, they use it to strengthen their own positions of hate.”

Jewish studies professor Susannah Heschel said that a resurgence of anti-Semitism in parts of the world, especially in Europe, is occurring, but sufficient evidence does not exist to identify one absolute cause of the recent acts on college campuses.

“These events need to be studied in greater depth before we can completely understand what is going on,” she said. “It’s unclear if these are examples of widespread animosity towards Jews, if they stem from a specific group or if we are experiencing a copycat phenomenon.”

Shuoqi Chen // THE DARTMOUTH

6// MIRROR

Through The Looking Glass A Different Reflection COLUMN

B y Gisele Phalo

Whether you are into it or not, this thought has crossed each and ever yone’s mind in one way or another at some point during their Dartmouth career. By sophomore year, it becomes a burning hot topic, making the question more exciting for some, and increasingly harder to avoid for others.

“Are you rushing this term?”

This question, along with its variants, waits for an answer that can conjure labels with various preconceived notions of a sorority or fraternity. You see it in the reaction on someone’s face whether or not he or she feels comfortable giving you the answer. Maybe it is because, ideally, no one wants his or her identity and reputation to be summed up in a combination of Greek letters — or lack thereof.

At the same time, no short answer to a question like this exists if you yearn for an identity outside the Greek system. But one time, I think I came close.

“Yup, I am rushing this term!” I told a friend as we sat together at FoCo one night.

“Oh yeah?” my friend questioned, with a look of surprise and amusement. “Which sorority?”

“Coed actually,” I corrected her.

“Delta Omega Chi.” It took her a moment to realize that I was jokingly referring to the Dartmouth Outing Club, or DOC. Ever y incoming class gets the chance to experience the outdoors during first-year trips with the DOC. I remember the experience vividly.

Sitting on the lawn of Robinson Hall with my rental equipment and my newly acquainted trippees, I was excited and scared at the same time.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, coming to Dartmouth was a big step for me. Most of the people in my neighborhood did not have the slightest clue that this college even existed. I had never done anything related to the outdoors, and I felt silly for not knowing the purpose of half the equipment I had just taken from the Robo basement. By the end of it all, however, I fell in love with the Lodge. I had two wonderful trip leaders. I slept for the first time under the stars.

It did not take long for me to realize that the extreme openness and friendliness of the “Trips World” was not as prominent on campus as I had expected. As my first fall term went on, I found it hard to find a niche or a place that felt like home, despite the big “Welcome Home ’17s!” that colored my imagination the first time I stepped in front of the Hopkins Center. I did not think that things would get better.

My first Cabin and Trail meeting of freshman winter changed ever ything.

KATE HERRINGTON // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

After a tumultuous freshman fall, Gisele Phalo ’17 discovered a love of the outdoors and a home away from home at the Dartmouth Outing Club.

I was captivated by the introductions and loved the trip descriptions and trip reports. I could not believe that people were willing to come together in this basement ever y Monday at 10 p.m. to talk about the outdoors. I barely knew half of the mountains that were mentioned during the meeting and could not believe that they were all just a van ride away from being summited. I was hooked. My first Cabin and Trail trip was an overnight cross-countr y skiing trip at Great Bear Cabin. It was ridiculously easy to sign up for, and only $5 was charged to my DA$H to pay for snacks. I loved the sound of the cramp ons attached to the bottom of my hiking boots, crunching into the snow. One of the leaders helped me put on my skis for the first time, and it reminded me of Trips all over again. I was sad to leave the next day, but I felt excited for the next Monday to give out the trip report.

I had no idea at the time that this trip would be one of many.

I kept going to the meetings, and I began to meet more and more people who were outside of my major, residence hall and normal way of thinking. By

freshman spring, I was obsessed with the outdoors and discovered and explored my own trails around campus at least once a week.

When my second fall term finally came around, I spent some time debating whether I should rush. But I realized that a big reason for being part of the Greek system is to connect with people whom you probably would not meet other wise.

I was already doing that with the DOC. I was surprised that other people in my class felt this way, too — we all wanted to connect with people and be in a social circle that did not necessarily involve such exclusivity or pressure to drink.

There are many people both in and outside of my class who still do not feel as though they have found their home at Dartmouth. What if it could be somewhere in the DOC? Identifying myself as part of the DOC has helped me move for ward in tr ying to make it a better place for others who were like me just a year ago, confused about having a sense of place and yearning for a space to connect with others who share a common bond in something, whether hiking the White Mountains on

the weekend or building something at a student workshop.

At the end of the day, we all want to feel that we belong somewhere and that we can be around people who are willing to do things together, even if it requires us to make fun of ourselves.

This fall term I was elected as the group’s “fun chair.” I am in charge of the main event or an activity that promotes social bonding after ever y meeting on Monday night. I now know what things people want to stay up late for and I have the chance to help foster a positive and uplifting spirit within Cabin and Trail that goes beyond a meeting and mountain summits. It has taught me how rewarding it can be to work together with others to make the DOC community more open to anyone.

It was nice opening up my blitz after missing my first meeting of the term and seeing the subject line “Where were you? You were surely missed at the meeting!” That’s when I understood how important the DOC is to me, because I am important to the DOC.

FRIDAYS WITH MARIAN COLUMN By Marian Lurio

Boots and RallIES

MIRROR //7

COLUMN

By Aaron Pellowski

Late Wednesday night, I received a push notification on my phone from my New York Times app that the San Francisco Giants had won the World Series in Game 7. My first thought was — “wait, the World Series started already?”

This was followed by an intense wave of nostalgia. Has it really been six years since the Phillies (my home team) won the World Series?

Then, being the politically-minded individual I am — or like to pretend I am — something else hit me. How have six years passed since the fateful 2008 presidential elections? Then I remembered — Sugar! I forgot to print out and send in that pesky absentee ballot. Thank goodness I can register on (midterm) election day right before I vote. Crisis averted.

In case you were cryogenically frozen from 2006 this very second, allow me to fill you in. In 2008, Barack Hussein Obama became the first black president of the United States of America. In 2012, he was reelected. I don’t have the time or desire to get into the affairs of Congress, so don’t worry about that. Back to Obama — depending on who you ask, he’s a Muslim communist and he was NOT born “here.” Just to keep it interesting, I’m going to skip over Vice President Joe Biden and Republican candidate John McCain (love them both) — and Mitt Romney (boring, don’t worry about him) and Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan, who claims he runs a three-hour marathon. What I really miss about the world circa six years ago was Sarah Palin being a serious contender for the vice presidency.

When McCain announced Palin as his running mate, I was pleased to see at least one woman having a shot at the presidency (people were worried about McCain’s health). My dad had just gone on a salmon fishing trip to Alaska (we ate salmon for dinner every night for the next four months), and said that Alaskans loved Palin — just loved her. And according to approval ratings, they really did at the time.

Had Palin’s time in the national media spotlight ended with McCain’s failed run for office, the world would be a less humorous place.

Actually, the only thing that really ended in the wake of the 2008 elections was her career as a public servant. Since her 2009 resignation from her position as Governor of Alaska, I’m pretty sure there have been multiple reality shows involving the Palin family, Alaska and Bristol’s spurned lover-babydaddy, Levi Johnston.

Over the summer, Palin debuted her own online news channel. As much as I love my Netflix account, I’ve gotta say I am tempted to put that money toward a subscription to the Sarah Palin Channel. And yes, it is more expensive than Netflix. It’s a place for mavericks and hockey moms to escape the liberal media — just what I’ve been looking for! She just gets me.

But you don’t have to pay to be entertained by the antics of Palin, her snowmobiling husband Todd or any of their five children.

In case you’ve been living under a rock these past few weeks, let me fill you in. Although the full-ish story wouldn’t come out until weeks after the incident, the Palin family was recently involved in a brawl. A violent brawl at that, and during Todd’s birthday nonetheless! The entire time that this crazy free-for-all was going on, however, Sarah was in a white stretch limousine (I’d expect nothing less) parked outside of the party. Is it too much of a stretch to compare her role in the brawl to Beyonce’s in the Solange/ Jay-Z elevator incident? I think not. And I know what you’re thinking — I thought they only had helicopters in Alaska, too. Well, you learn something new every day, and apparently there are roads somewhere.

Things I learned from the police department’s audio recording of Bristol Palin post-brawl: 1. “They” took her $300 sunglasses. Bristol wears her sunglasses at night, and so do I. 2. There is such a thing as a thong dress, and Bristol Palin owns one.

3. Korey K. (his last name is too long to remember) was involved. Is he a long-lost member of the Kardashian krew???

Sarah Palin posted on Facebook Sept. 19, saying “As you can imagine, they and my extended family have experienced so many things (liberal media-driven) that may have crushed others without a strong foundation of faith, and I’m thankful for our friends’ prayer shield that surrounds them, allowing faith to remain their anchor.” Okay then.

Speaking of things inappropriate in public settings, does anyone have a good Halloween costume suggestion for me? I remember wanting to be Sarah Palin for Halloween that crazy year — but I just couldn’t compete with Tina Fey — and I hadn’t fully embraced my love of wigs at that point in my life. Plus, I don’t want to have to take one of my many skirt-suit combos to the dry cleaners after a raucous evening of trick-or-treating. I’ve already done fitness personality Richard Simmons in fifth grade ... yes, that happened. Curly afro wig, a little pizzazz and some ’80s workout clothes. I nailed it. Couple’s costume, Phil? Or can I be Bruce Jenner? His changing looks just can’t be ignored. I guess the best thing to do is to rule out some options.

Things that are not appropriate for Halloween: 1. Ebola hazmat suits/Ebola patients/missionaries who have contracted Ebola (although would a 21-day quarantine be so bad? I could use a vacation to watch the Sarah Palin Channel).

2. Any member of Honey Boo Boo’s family.

3. Amanda Bynes. It just ain’t right. UGH. A sixth grader told me Thursday morning, “You should be someone from the ’80s because of your hair.”

First of all, I’ve already done that. Secondly, that was me on a good hair day. Hopefully by the time this issue of The Mirror hits newsstands, I will have come up with something slightly provocative yet passable and not culturally appropriative.

An important woman in my life once told me that “minor distinctions make the man” — a token aphorism whereby she justified her ceaseless vituperation of others, often me, for transgressing upon “Good Style” so criminally as to put prepositions at the ends of sentences (something up with which she simply could not put). “Fitzgerald said that,” she said, after saying it herself two or three times. “He always had his suits tailored at Brooks Brothers, you know.”

Later, I would learn that Fitzgerald bore also the minor distinction of habitually passing out and nearly dying of fever after two glasses of wine, a behavior that Hemingway, to paraphrase, considered quite unfrat. I additionally failed to ever discover any textual source for the quote, provoking some wonderment over whether its transmitter had just dreamed it up in her memory — which would be unsurprising, since this same woman also told me that she had been raised on an Apache reservation and once impersonated a college admissions officer, offering me a fictional scholarship over the phone.

Big laughs at my expense. Nevertheless, I can always appreciate a mind that deliberately disregards the partition of reality and fantasy.

If we’d never mixed red and blue, there’d be no purple, which Plato said is the most beautiful pigment. And if we kept our lies and truth quarantined, we’d live in a world without art — or porn, for that matter.

Anyway, the span of years between taking the “minor distinctions make the man” catchphrase to heart and the moment it occurred to me to sit down and Google it was sufficient time to for it to ingrain itself deep in my person. Uncloseted narcissist that I am, I have always hunted down ways to stand out. But rather than wait for the moment to stand out in a big way and skyrocket myself to heaven’s center-stage, I’ve found it easier, and more enchanting, to follow the pseudoFitzgeraldine advice, and make distinction a lifestyle, microscopically exploiting the outer rims of possibility and permission.

Here are a few tips.

Bring a scented candle to class. I find nothing more relaxing amid the stressful havoc of Public Policy 5. And if I hold my laptop on my lap and my notes on my knee, there is plenty of room atop my desk to accommodate both a full-size Seabreeze Mist and my cup of African peanut soup. My professors may object, but I let them bear the awkwardness before I have to.

Hold Fancy Italian FoCo Fridays. With three like-minded friends, I like to pick out a table on the “dark side” of FoCo at the end of the week and lay a nice tablecloth over it.

We play classical Italian music over portable speakers and put gourds and a candlestick at the center as a decorative garnish. Then we avail ourselves of DDS pizza and pasta and,

being all over 21, pass around a little Tuscan wine.

From time to time, I set up a table outside the glass-walled Jaffe-Friede Gallery, pretending that the entire space is itself a large conceptual art installation. I tape up a label: “The Museological Panopticon. Mixed Media: Glass, Tile, Found Art, Student Employees, Laptop. This installation explores the power dynamics of inverting museological space by turning the locus of the gaze into the object of a higher-order gaze. The living elements are cognitively doubled according to the aestheto-Hegelian Master-Slave dialectic, being at once the guardians of art and appropriated artworks themselves.” In this age of anything-goes polysyllabic Francophilic mumbo-jumbo, I find my sassy metacommentary quite well-received!

Go camping on the Green. Build a better snow sculpture and trick freshmen into running around it 118 times. Trick-or-treat on Webster and go all the way to the president’s house. Establish a scholarship in your name.

The Aaron Pellowski Memorial Foundation for the Pursuit of Excellence, if you do not know, is a real scholarship. Because why not?

They tell you that part of being creative is learning how to “think outside the box.”

I guess this is true, but not helpful — just kicking the can down the road. After all, if everyone knows this rule, then how come most to all of our “edgy” choices seem to remain comfortably prosaic? I see a young lady with a nose ring and an ankle tattoo and dyed streak or feather clipped into her hair, or a boy with a Skrillex cut wearing all denim with YOLO in gothic lettering on his knuckles and a Che Guevara T-shirt and I think “Wow, this look just screams — ‘hey, I’m unpredictable in the most predictable way possible!’”

These sorts of minor distinctions make the man worse than dull.

The real challenge is not thinking outside the box, it’s detecting the box in the first place. The box is invisible. It’s made up of all the little passive mental obstacles that choke out inspiration before it can even be knocked down by doubt and deterrents. I am pretty sure that none of the aforementioned activities are even technically forbidden by Dartmouth’s rules, but then why doesn’t this occur to people? We may be just a little too imprisoned in the quotidian, taking relief in the art and porn that are always the handiwork of others. But why not make our own?

An important man in my life used to tell me: “Create the true fiction of your own reality,” something that made even less sense at the time than the false Fitzgerald. But as my mind’s grip on reality becomes increasingly relaxed, the words begin to reveal their meaning, like a split geode. The box is what protects truth from lie and lie from truth. You have to learn to see it before you can think outside of it.

8// MIRROR

SAM HEATH // THE DARTMOUTH

STORY

By Mary LIza Hartong

When you came to Dartmouth, you probably brought your backpack, notebooks and pillow. Did you know you also brought your tool kit?

In her book “Talk of Love,” sociologist Ann Swidler describes what she calls “an oddly assorted tool kit,” or, in other words, a set of skills, assumptions and experiences that makes up each person’s personal culture.

Your tool kit, she writes, is what you bring with you to any interaction or situation, and it is what you draw on to make decisions.

College counselors and high school teachers often speak of preparing students for college, but my question in starting this article was this — are certain people, armed with certain tool kits, more prepared for Dartmouth than others? I’m not just talking about academics. In fact, if there’s any aspect of the tool kit that is pretty similar across the board for most Dartmouth students, it is probably academics.

I wanted to understand just what it is that makes freshmen so vulnerable and what may be missing from their tool kits that causes such a cultural difference between upper- and lowerclassmen. What tools do Dartmouth students bring with them to college? What tools do they leave behind? What tools would they give to freshmen if they could?

Two of the six students I spoke with had taken a gap year before starting Dartmouth, an experience they believed had heightened their feelings of security.

Leah Alpern ’18 lived in Casablanca, Morocco, after graduating from a diverse, mid-sized high school in Portland, Oregon.

“I felt secure in my ability to make decisions that I was comfortable with and that I wouldn’t regret later,” Alpern said. “I feel like I know myself really well as a person and I know kind of, not what I stand for, but what situations I like and what situations I don’t.”

Alpern said before college she felt uncertain about how the people around her at Dartmouth would act, as she grew up in a very accepting community and was unsure

how this would translate to her new home.

Max Jentzsch ’15, who is from Germany, used his gap year to work at a center for drug addicts, which he said shaped how he approached his initial time at the College.

“That was one of the things that I was sure about and that had shaped me before coming to Dartmouth, working in that consumption room,” Jentzsch said. “You talk to people. You hear a lot of really fascinating stories.”

For Jentzsch, “everything else” was uncertain, especially Dartmouth’s academic standards.

Academic standards as well as the party culture were common concerns among those I interviewed, despite their high school experiences that range from home schooling, to public, private and boarding schools.

Eva Petzinger ’15 graduated from an innercity public school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before attending Dartmouth. Because her high school curriculum was less demanding, she learned to teach herself and others outside of school. When she came to Dartmouth, she began to feel a type of pressure that she had not experienced before.

“I felt like I had to quickly start building myself up into something or make myself into something prestigious,” Petzinger said.

“It seemed like everybody had a goal that they were working towards, and I didn’t have anything like that, and that made me feel inferior or less successful or less about-to-be successful.”

Ledah Geller ’16, a Miami, Florida, native and graduate of an Episcopalian private high school, expressed a similar sentiment — that it is acceptable to reinvent yourself in college.

“I wish I would have known that it’s okay not to know what type of person you want to be when you walk on this campus,” Geller said. “I think a lot of people make the mistake of trying to continue the reputation they had in high school, and when that doesn’t happen they get disappointed, but it’s a different environment.”

An issue that came up in all of my interviews was freshmen vulnerability — a trait that so

ANNIKA PARK // THE DARTMOUTH

NATALIE CANTAVE // THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

many first-year students come in with, which often puts them in danger. I wanted to know why.

Andrew Pillsbury ’15, a homeschooled Hanover native, hypothesized that some of this danger stems from the quest for acceptance.

“You come in as a freshmen, and you’re pretty insecure and you want to fit in somewhere, and you want validation and acceptance from outside yourself,” Pillsbury said.

“You want to be someone who is cool even if that’s not what makes you the happiest.”

For Petzinger, making sure that what you’re doing makes you happy is the best way to check in with yourself.

“In every chunk of your life, just take a step back to evaluate, ‘Am I happy to be doing what I’m doing?’” she said. “I think sometimes people just do things because they get swept along by what a bunch of people are doing.”

Alpern added that had she not taken her gap year, she might not have perceived the real dangers that can arise from blindly following the crowd.

“Now I realize that I’m not in control of everything — I’m only in control of myself,” she said. “It’s the realization that it’s not always safe. Unfortunately, there are people in the world who won’t think twice about hurting you.”

In questioning others about vulnerability, I often came across the concept of the Dartmouth X — the idea that women are at their peak value freshman year and lose prestige from there, while men start at their lowest point and gain value over time. In essence, it suggests that Dartmouth values inexperience in women and experience in men.

This concept felt antiquated and insulting to many students I interviewed. Mae Hardebeck ’18 attended a mid-sized public school in Needham, Massachusetts, and had not heard of the Dartmouth X. “That sounds like an ancient myth of the past that I would hope people would use ironically,” Hardebeck said. “I think that’s a horrid idea and so old-fashioned and not something that I would expect of a place

where intellectuals and smart people come together.”

Jentzsch agreed, adding that the phenomena is representative of gender dynamics on campus that are “absolutely appalling.” To counter these challenging gender norms, Jentzsch called on Dartmouth students to value each other more as equal human beings.

Jentzsch’s statement got me thinking about relationships between upper-and underclassmen, and how they could be the answer to this dangerous vulnerability.

“When I was a freshman, I found this girl in one of my classes who I wanted to be just like,” Geller said when asked about the dynamic between upper- and underclassmen. “Her confidence in class was so cool and she kind of embodied what I wanted to turn into in college. I picked her brain. I told her my story. My advice — find someone who you look up to in the classroom setting and become friends.”

Bonds between older and younger students, as well as a mutual respect for everyone’s value here, would certainly help freshmen make the transition from high school to college. But what do we do about vulnerability? As much as we can try to respect and protect younger students, we can’t be with them in every situation. In the end, we can’t put tools into anyone else’s tool kits because we have to cultivate them on our own.

“I can think back to a lot of advice that I got as a freshman that didn’t make sense then that makes sense now,” Petzinger said.

Yet Geller said that while people tried to give her good advice, she’s glad she didn’t live by anyone else’s experience.

“It’s been my college career — I’ve made my own mistakes,” she said.

Whether you’re a senior or a freshman, or somewhere in between, take some time to reflect on the tools in your own personal kit. How do these cultural tools help you navigate your time on campus? What would you take with you out of the confines of Dartmouth?