The Dartmouth 10/26/15

VOL. CLXXII NO. 135

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Faculty respond to end of Geisel 2020 plan

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By EMILIA BALDWIN The Dartmouth Staff

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Geisel faculty and experts responded to the Geisel School of Medicine’s decision to drop the Geisel 2020 Strategic Plan for Excellence — aimed at improving Geisel’s rankings — with mixed opinions about how the change would affect Geisel’s admissions.

Interim Geisel dean Duane Compton announced last month that Geisel will no longer pursue its 2020 initiative — through which Geisel sought to move into a top-20 position by 2020 in the U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of the nation’s top medical schools — as part of a larger overhaul of Geisel. The change came

Due to budgetary constraints, the Geisel School of Medicine has moved away from its strategic plan.

SEE GEISEL PAGE 2

Student-run groups assist with seniors’ job hunt

B y PAULA MENDOZA The Dartmouth

Student-run groups and their leaders provide a variety of opportunities for business-minded peers at the College. From learning to shake hands to developing technologybased marketing strategies, groups at the College provide workshops and direct experience for enterprising entrepreneurs.

The Council on Student Organizations oversees over 24 pre-pro-

fessional student organizations on campus, including the Dartmouth Minorities in Business Association, Women in Business, the Dartmouth Investment and Philanthropy Program and the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network. These organizations provide support, guidance and opportunities to students interested in specific fields such as business, math, health and science.

Dartmouth Minorities in Business Association is an organization started in 2006 to help minority stu-

dents on campus gain opportunities afforded to everyone else, DMBA president Goodwill Batalingaya ’16 said.

DMBA aims to provide undergraduate students with potential business opportunities, including internships, full-time employment and preparation for joining the workforce.

T h e o rg a n i z at i o n s e e k s t o bridge the divide between minority students and opportunities in the business field. Batalingaya said

Environmental studies class blends policy and learning B y SAMANTHA STERN The Dartmouth

In recent years, the environmental studies program has made a push to encourage students to get their hands dirty — literally.

Last spring, students in an environmental studies course, “Environmental Problem Analysis and Policy Formation” with professor Nicholas Reo, worked with Thetford Academy — an independent secondary school

that DMBA provides skill-building exercises and opportunities to help with company recruiting.

The skill-building exercises range from stock management to handshakes to dressing professionally.

Last Friday, DMBA hosted a Google recruiter who helped students write a Google-specific resume. Because Google has its own prompt for its application, writing a companyspecific resume as opposed to an SEE PRE-PROFESSIONAL PAGE 3

LARPING NOT NARPING

in Vermont — to foster environmental conscientiousness both inside and outside the classroom, and the students collectively authored a report titled “Fostering Tomorrow’s Environmental Leaders.”

After its two-year partnership with the College ended, Thetford signed a new licensing agreement with the state of Vermont on Oct. 15 that will give the school access to the adjoining JESSICA AVITABILE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

SEE ENVS CLASS PAGE 5

Medieval Enthusiasts at Dartmouth stage a battle outside Collis Center.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAily debriefing Vermont legislators reviewed two draft bills last week that could raise the tax on gasoline by as much as 88 cents as part of a push for a statewide tax on carbon dioxide pollution, the VTDigger reported. Both bills, reviewed by the Joint Energy Committee, would affect fuels like coal, diesel, gasoline and propane, among others, and is proposed to begin in 2018. Co-sponsor of one bill Rep. Mary Sullivan, (D-Burlington), said that 90 percent of the revenue generated by the carbon tax would be used to cut other taxes, and the largest tax cuts will go to low-income people. The bill would also affect sales tax, lowering it from 6 percent to 5 percent. The other bill, written by Rep. Chris Pearson, P-Burlington, would also remit 80 percent of the tax revenue to taxpayers.

The Hanover Selectboard will allow downtown street vendors to renew their locations outside of Town Hall, considered the best spots, before they are offered to newcomers, the Valley News reported. Last Monday, board members voted 4-1 to give three vendors right of first refusal on their locations, which were previously awarded on a first come, first served basis each year. Despite the vote, the ordinance will need time to take effect, as the board must first approve specifics of the agreement will be presented later by that town manager Julia Griffin. The ordinance is not likely to have a large effect, as Griffin said there has been little competition for these spots, for which vendors pay $1,200 for nine-month placements.

A civil lawsuit has been filed against Guatemalan businessman Roberto Montano in the Grafton County Superior Court, and federal charges of wire fraud have also been filed. Montano allegedly stole $9 million from a pension fund and other investors in a Central American teak plantation project that was organized by a financial manager in the Upper Valley. Montano, along with California biofuels developer Kirk Haney and their respective companies, are charged for breach of contract, theft, fraud and other violations. Financial firm Global Forest Partners began investing from a pension plan to develop teak plantations in Guatemala in 2007. Montano, is accused of pocketing $2.6 million in operating funds, $1.4 million in subsidies from the Guatemalan government and $5.3 million in proceeds from loans that improperly mortgaged properties owned by Global Forest investors. Montano and Haney are also defendants in a civil lawsuit filed by Global Forest and other investors wanting to recover more than $10 million.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015

Geisel distances itself from 2020 Plan FROM GEISEL PAGE 1

as a part of a budgetary overhaul that affects both the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Geisel, resulting from a roughly $27 million annual deficit at the medical school.

When the strategic plan was announced in 2011 by former Geisel dean Wiley “Chip” Souba, Geisel ranked 32nd in research. The school peaked at 31st in 2013, but has since been unable to match its former spots. Geisel dropped back to 38th in the 2014 rankings, followed by 34th and 37th in subsequent years.

Geisel neurology and anatomy professor Rand Swenson, who formerly served in Geisel’s admissions office and said he has been involved in discussions about resolving the school’s budgetary shortfall, said that the school chose to abandon the 2020 plan because of insufficient federal research money.

“The plan depended on federal research money expanding, but in reality we were spending a lot of money on these programs while the money was flatlining,” Swenson said.

Swenson also said that he thinks that Geisel is acting as a pioneer, since several medical schools across the country are also facing the same financial crisis.

“The sequestration of funds by the [National Institute of Health] has affected medical schools across the country,” Swenson said. “It’s getting to a point where schools have to adjust.”

While Swenson said he is not privy to the final plans, he said that he believes that the medical school will decrease in size in the coming years. He also said that he thinks the abandonment of the 2020 program will not play a significant role in Geisel’s admissions, as the institution

is still committed to always working at its full potential.

Swenson said that while rankings play a small part in the admissions process, they are by no means the only determinant on whether or not a student applies to Geisel.

Geisel biochemistry and medicine professor Surachai Supattapone agreed with Swenson, noting that he thinks that the 2020 plan was financially unsustainable in its previous form because of the shortfall in federal grants.

But Supattapone did note that a top-20 ranking would give Geisel an advantage against other peer institutions — a rise in rankings, he said, might lead to a jump in application numbers.

He also said that Geisel has not had trouble finding committed applicants, so he does not view the abandonment of the plan as a significant loss for the school.

Second-year Geisel student Raphaela Gold said that she thinks that Geisel faculty has handled the current financial situation well.

In her opinion, Geisel must ensure that it stays financially viable not only in the long term, but in the short term as well. She commended Geisel on reassessing its goals as an institution.

“Geisel had all these lofty plans that were great for the long term, but it’s definitely important that we think of the situation in the short-term, too,” Gold said.

Gold also said she does not think that the current restructuring will damage the institution’s reputation, as it still remains a top-tier institution. She added that she has not noticed the school’s financial shortfall in her daily life — the faculty, she said, have shielded the students from budgetary questions as much as possible.

University of Southern California clinical education professor Mark Robison, who has served as a consultant for institutions of higher education in the past, said that he thinks Geisel has acted shrewdly by reassessing its goals for the future. Robison also said that he does not think Geisel’s specific rank affects its admissions numbers on a yearto-year basis, adding that Dartmouth’s reputation as an Ivy League university precedes somewhat-arbitrary rankings numbers.

Robison also said that it is important for institutions of higher education to maintain long-term goals, adding that not meeting these goals on schedule does not necessarily constitute failure. “[Abandoning] something like Geisel 2020 isn’t a failure if the institution maintains its dedication to improving itself in the future,” Robison said.

He said that while it is always difficult for an institution to come out from a deficit, reform and restructuring can ease the process.

Geisel pathology professor Joseph Schwartzman, who was formerly the chair of Geisel’s admissions committee, agreed with Robison. While he did not have the numbers at hand, Schwartzman said that admissions numbers at the medical school did not correlate with any change in the rankings year-to-year.

Robison added that the College’s status as a small research university must also be taken into consideration when analyzing projects like Geisel 2020.

“Schools like [the] University of Texas and Ohio State [University] have a lot of research money in part because of their sheer size,” he said.

Compton was not made available by the office of communications to comment by phone.

MISSED CONNECTIONS?

—COMPILED BY SONIA QIN

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

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The Rockefeller Center hosts a Campus Connections event for students to network with community members.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015

PAGE 3

Student groups aim to expand professional opportunities, skills FROM PRE-PROFESSIONAL PAGE 1

industry-wide resume is the best approach, Batalingaya said. Two weeks prior to this clinic, DMBA held a resume workshop in which students could receive feedback from their peers.

Batalingaya joined his freshman year and has been involved with the organization ever since.

DBMA has helped him think about the difference between leadership and management, he said.

As the president, he said wants to build DMBA around three main principles — prepare, polish and present.

“The most personal impact is the connections you make,” both professionally and socially, he said.

Women in Business, an undergraduate women’s network organization, seeks to expose women to the business field though networking, professional development workshops and conferences.

WIB offers women on campus many opportunities to engage with the business world by hosting corporate panels and speakers.

This term, WIB hosted a lecture with Tuck School of Business assistant dean Stephen Lubrano T’87, who presented on how to

sell oneself at an interview, WIB co-president Jasmine Xu ’16 said.

WIB also has a mentorship family within its organization in which a senior executive is paired with six or seven younger students interested in business, she said.

“The most personal impact is the connections you make.”

- DARTMOUTH MINORITIES IN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT GOODWILL BATALINGAYA ’16

Xu said she was inspired by her own mentors before she became a leader in the group.

“I really enjoyed the people, first and foremost, which kept me in the organization,” Xu said. “I definitely would not have been able to get where I am in my career without the help of the people I met through WIB.” Xu is a member of The Dartmouth senior business staff.

The Dartmouth Investment and Philanthropy Program provides a platform for students to learn about finance. Funded in 2007 by a group of alumni that believed in hands-on investing experience, the organization emphasizes education of its members.

DIPP focuses on giving back to the Dartmouth community by donating its earnings from investments into student-initiated philanthropic endeavors.

The organization has a main focus each term. In the fall, students are introduced to the basics of finance, stocks, presentation and company evaluation. DIPP co-president Bob Klingenberger ’16 notes the increased interest in the fall, saying that the group has moved its weekly Thursday meetings from Wilder Hall to Carson Hall to accommodate its new members.

“It’s pretty neat we have such interest,” Klingenberger said. “It’s a great opportunity. It’s not about making money, it’s not for the donation. It’s for the education.

I think a lot of people, including myself, have gotten a lot out of it.

Especially at a liberal arts school, you don’t really get a lot of exposure to these sorts of curricula.”

DIPP has collaborated with the Center for Professional Development for events. Recently, DIPP has been doing more work with employers including recruiting sessions with finance and consulting

“It’s not about making money, it’s not for the donation. It’s for the education.”

-DARTMOUTH INVESTMENT AND PHILATHROPY PROGRAM CO-PRESIDENT BOB KLINGENBERGER ’16 firms. DIPP tries to create a bridge and make sure everyone in the club are aware of the opportunities that are happening, Klingenberger said.

Since College President Phil Hanlon’s was inaugurated, he has emphasized the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network.

“It was a result of [Hanlon’s] emphasis of experiential learning at the College,” student leader Bailey Miller ’18 said. “DEN focuses

on entrepreneurship from a fairly early stage up to later stages, in addition to providing experiential learning opportunities for students that don’t have an idea, but are very interested in learning more about entrepreneurship.”

DEN offers many opportunities for students to get involved. There is an event almost every day of the week, with a sales course on Mondays, group meetings on Tuesdays and entrepreneurial boot camps on Thursdays.

“We have all these resources, but part of our role is to engage Dartmouth students in entrepreneurship and help them build this entrepreneurial skill set that we think is very valuable,” Miller said.

Miller, who got involved with the DEN even before matriculating, lived in the DEN Living Learning Community his freshman year.

“It’s obviously been a good experience because I’ve stuck around since the beginning,” Miller said.

This year, the annual The Pitch competition will be on Nov. 9 in the Black Family Visual Arts Center.

The winner receives as much as $3,000 and will collaborate with the Digital Arts, Leadership and Innovation Lab to bring the entrepreneur’s vision to life.

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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 4

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2015

CONTRIBUTING Columnist HANSA SHARMA ’19

CONTRIBUTING Columnist STEVEN CHUN ’19

Avoiding Yak Mentality

Generally Misinformed Opinions

Anonymity does not validate threatening statements regarding anybody.

I do not usually check Yik Yak, but when I do, there always seems to be some source of inspiration for an upcoming column. All jokes aside, Yik Yak was very active Thursday night — not in a fun or exciting way, but rather in an unsettling manner which raises significant concerns about the benefits of anonymity.

Thursday evening, The Tab Dartmouth — a new campus media source for students — published an article on a freshman’s introduction to the nightlife of Webster Avenue after the ban on freshman entering Greek organizations had ended, titled “My first night in a frat basement.” When this article popped up on my Facebook news feed, I did not pay it much attention, though I did do a quick skim. Besides the poor copyediting, I was alarmed by the pictures of underage drinking and references to specific Greek houses — it felt a bit too risky to have that information published for all to see. I did not dwell on the article for too long, though, and after the short study break I returned to my readings.

Within an hour, a friend sent me a funny Yak about a completely different subject, leading me to open up the app for myself. I saw the forum blow up in real time, with Yak after Yak focused on one topic — “Tab Girl,” the female author of the article. The first Yak I saw was a supportive one, condemning the cyberbullying of her by some various other users. I was, at first, confused — I did not realize The Tab Dartmouth, which is relatively young, had become so widely read as to spark such a heated and ubiquitous discussion.

As I scrolled through the feed, I was deeply troubled by some of the disparaging posts.

Yes, I understand Yik Yak is anonymous and meant to be taken as a joke. And yes, once a journalist — including columnists like myself — decides to publish something, she makes herself vulnerable to criticism. Sometimes it is constructive, and sometimes it is baseless and demeaning.

That being said, I am not talking about the silly jokes poking fun at The Tab or naïve first-years who do not know any better than to

post pictures taken of themselves with alcohol.

Instead, I am talking about alarming posts which threatened violence and objectified the article’s author. This is unacceptable. Anonymity should not enable anyone to intimidate a member of the campus — online or otherwise.

While it is important to foster an environment that promotes free speech and diversity of opinion, it is equally important to do so in a safe way.

Ironically, most of the criticism for the article came from concerns regarding the privacy and safety of the individuals and organizations explicitly represented in the article. But in doing so, the anonymous Yak critics completely disregarded the privacy and safety of one individual — the writer herself.

As a campus, we should feel more comfortable addressing our concerns directly rather than hiding behind a veil of anonymity. If you feel strongly about something, you add legitimacy by addressing the issue personally and outright, rather than letting an anonymous thread and upvotes define your opinion.

This, of course, does not mean that the majority of Yik Yak users demean others — in fact, I would argue that most do not. By the end of the surge of critical Yaks, many more were positive and often condemned the offensive and threatening posts, most of which had already been downvoted into oblivion.

It is intriguing to observe how quickly our campus can rally against and then for someone. We obviously feel very strongly about the organizations that are so historically significant to us, as well as the wellbeing of our community. It should not be difficult, however, to defend our traditions and respect the privacy of an individual student simultaneously. If a comment is so caustic that you might never say it out loud, think twice before posting it online. As Dartmouth students, we should hold journalists and each other accountable for what we write and say — but we should do so in a manner that is safe and welcoming for everyone involved. Only then can we make a difference moving forward.

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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.

The fight against genetically modified organisms is uniformed.

It is fantastic that people are trying to eat better, but the clean-eating movement needs a cleanse.

An otherwise well-meaning trend has become a source of misinformation and fear-mongering.

Let us get a few things out of the way. One, your quinoa habit has made it prohibitively expensive for the people who grow it. Many Bolivians can no longer afford their traditional grain — one of the few things that grows in the arid Andes Mountains — as international demand has led to a tenfold price increase over the last decade and half. Two, you do not need to drink eight glasses of water a day, a myth our own Heinz Valtin, physiology professor emeritus at the Geisel School of Medicine, dispelled. And finally, three — I could slap an “all-natural” sticker on a mozzarella stick from Late Night Collis, sell it to you for double the price and not only would I not be violating any consumer information laws, but you would still probably buy it. According to the United States Food and Drug Administration, the phrase “natural” and its many variations have no legal meaning.

One of the more prominent issues of the clean-eating movement has been the bitter fight against genetically modified organisms. It has gained huge amounts of political support — Maine and Connecticut have already passed and implemented GMO labeling laws, and 32 more states have legislation pending. Like much of the clean-eating movement, it is a passionate grassroots effort rooted in a deep concern for health. Unlike much of the movement, though, its contention — that GM foods are toxic and inherently bad for you — is uniformly opposed by the scientific community. As reported by The Atlantic in May 2014, impressive names line the literature debunking GMO fears: The National Academy of Sciences, the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, the United Kingdom’s Royal Society, the European Commission and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. But when has conclusive scientific evidence ever ended a debate? These fights are wars of words and rhetoric. GMO was never a great tagline with which to get stuck in the first place. Behind the acronym, however, is a simple concept — we alter the genes of a food so our crops are more bountiful, nutritious and resistant to disease. We have always been doing this through

selective husbandry of certain crops. Now, we are just a lot better at it.

While GMOs may invoke the image of resistant crops sitting in a chemical bath of pesticides and herbicides, the truth is that the chemicals used on your typical GMO crop are far safer than those used on organic crops. This begs repeating — organic crops use just as much, if not more, pesticides than non-organic crops. The only difference is that organic pesticides are non-synthetic. A comparison by the Scientific American between the lead synthetic pesticides, chlorpyrifos and chlorothalonil, and organic pesticides, copper sulfate and pyrethrum, found that “not only were the organic ones more acutely toxic... they are more chronically toxic as well, and have higher negative impacts on non-target species.” That’s right, your organic canvas bags are soiled with the poison of pesticides you thought you were avoiding.

There are many who argue that the consumer has a right to know about their food. Despite the fact that labeling GMO products falsely implies that they are dangerous, I could live with GMO labeling laws. Yet, there’s another right at stake — the consumer’s right to know which foods are safe to eat, the right to be free from misinformation.

The anti-GMOs movement’s fear-mongering and demagoguery infringes on this right.

There is a larger argument to be made here.

The optics of the fight between Just Label It — a trendy pro-labeling organization with great web design backed by an army of caring moms — and Monsanto — the behemoth corporate monopoly that patents entire genomes — puts the whole “social justice, save the world” momentum squarely on the side of anti-GMO activists. But fighting against GMOs does the opposite. One in nine people suffer from hunger. As our population grows, we have to grow more food in less space with less water. Au-naturale crops could never keep pace with how quickly climate change alters our environment. GMOs are critical for reasons that the clean-eating movement cannot seem to grasp. Seven hundred and ninety five million hungry people just seem like a more compelling cause than “Celebrity Moms Unite: Make GMO Labels Mandatory.” So please, put away the naturally-sourced pitchforks and clean-burning rosemary torches. There is too much at stake to let misinformation infect our food supply.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

Environmental studies class uses community-based learning education team generated a model for an extracurricular outdoor 177-acre Thetford Hill State Park. club, the solar power group exam Thetford Academy also re- ined the viability of solar power ceived a $55,000 grant from the at Thetford and the trail design Woodbury Foundation following group was tasked with identifying the conclusion of its partnership potential sites for new trails that with Dartmouth. With full access could increase student’s educato the state park and funding from tional opportunities in the school’s the Woodbury grant, the school backyard. is implementing several projects Several students who took the p r o p o s e d by class said that the Dartmouth “I try to take as many t h ey e n j oye d course’s report. the hands-on experiential learning An outdoor nature of the club is meeting classes as possible, so I coursework. biweekly and was definitely attracted

“I try lear ning outto take as many door skills — to the fact that we would experiential including fire be able to work with learning classes building, navias possible, so I people outside of the gational sports, was definitely knots, shelter classroom.” attracted to buildin g a n d the fact that we first aid. Clubs would be able to d e d i c a t e d t o - Bean Crane ’16, WHO work with peomeditation and TOOK THE CLASS ple outside of nature photogthe classroom,” raphy have also trail work group been active at Thetford this fall. member Bean Crane ’16 said.

The recommendations came “[Practice-based classes] seem from the spring ter m course, more real-world and applicable.” when students were split into five Annelise Sauter ’16 said she groups to address central themes in took the course because she wanted sustainability and environmental to improve at community-based leadership with the goal of fos- participatory research — usually tering experiential, place-based known as CBPR — the framework learning on Thetford’s campus, upon which the class was based. according to the report. Among CBPR is the idea that one forms the topics evaluated and addressed his or her research proposal with were food sustainability, a cur- the community rather than coming riculum based on the Ompompa- into the community as an outsider noosuc River, outdoor education, and observing. CBPR works with solar power and trail development community members to produce and maintenance. a result that is mutually beneficial The group of students in the to all parties, Sauter explained. course worked with Thetford “I had already done a little bit of faculty, staff and outside experts this [CBPR] in the [environmental in order to present a range of studies] foreign study program, but recommendations to the school only for a couple weeks in Namibia. in their report.

I really liked it as a type of research The sustainability group recom- and wanted to learn more about mended introducing aquaponics it,” she said. to help students learn about food The course has been taught systems and critical scientific since the 1970s and is designed concepts. They also recommended for students to work collectively creating a “food day” to promote to formulate and justify policy discussion of sustainable and measures appropriate for a specific organic farms, healthy eating, local environmental problem, enefforts to address hunger and fair vironmental studies program chair working conditions for food and Richard Howarth said. The course farm workers. is a culminating experience for An aquaponics project is un- the environmental studies major derway in the school’s greenhouse. and acts as a bridge between the Soil-free growing for plants in academic and professional spheres which they are fertilized by a con- by encouraging students to synthenected tank of tilapia. In a sym- size and incorporate disciplinary biotic process, the nutrients from knowledge in order to solve realthe plants feed the fish while the world problems. waste products of the fish nurture Past iterations of the course the plants. have dealt with problems in the The students focused on the immediate Dartmouth and local Ompompanoosuc River built a community with varied degrees detailed classroom curriculum of success. In the 1990s, one class with field labs based on the lo- produced a report on the nature of cal river ecosystem. The outdoor Dartmouth’s recycling program, FROM ENVS CLASS PAGE 1

while the Dartmouth Organic Farm was the brainchild of another group of students. In another year, students established the outlines of a sustainable living center at Dartmouth, Howarth said.

Typically, the professor teaching the course chooses to delve into an environmental problem in the Upper Valley. Students take on that problem and generate an in-depth report throughout the course.

Reo, the professor who led the course, is interested in environmental education and himself lives in the town of Thetford, Howarth said. Through his personal relationships with Thetford Academy faculty, Reo developed the multiyear program linking Dartmouth and the academy, Howarth said.

“The teachers came up with a menu of different things that students could work on, and the students chose a set of those to work on in the first year and the project went so well in the first year that they decided to do a whole follow-up and second report covering some additional topics,” Howarth said. “The students were really able to grab on and do something that the school could implement.”

Howarth believes that the benefit of working with communities is multi-fold. Students’ recommendations can be a real resource for the general public while partners like Thetford profit from having a number of smart people immerse themselves in an

issue and approach it from a fresh perspective. For students, engaging with external institutions can also be particularly stimulating, he said.

“A lot of [students] are restless to not just be working on tests and be focused on test scores. Surely, formal classroom experience provides a foundation, but students tend to be restless to get out and make a difference in the world, and the campus and the region here are a kind of laboratory for how that can be accomplished,” Howarth said.

Another advantage of the partnership was that students got to understand the mechanisms underlying group work. Sauter said that she visited Thetford Academy with her group weekly to meet with teacher Chris Schmidt.

There, they surveyed Thetford’s land and plotted GPS points to inform Thetford where trails could be built or extended.

Environmental studies professors are particularly interested in what Howarth calls praxis — the bridge between understanding and action.

“Environmental studies is a field that is very interested in integrating biophysical sciences, social sciences and humanities. Problems need to be addressed using a whole variety of tools, perspectives and frameworks,” Howarth said.

Environmental studies professor Terry Osborne believes in making students aware of the “permeability of classroom walls.” He

currently teaches two communitybased courses, “COVER Stories: Community Building and the Environment” and “Ecopsychology,” two courses focused on non-profit action and the link between emotion and environmental studies.

The environmental studies program also hired Karen Bieluch last fall as a “practice-based learning specialist” dedicated to integrating the program’s faculty and staff with Upper Valley communities to bring experiential learning into the classroom.

Both community-based work and research programs are integral to experiential learning, Howarth said.

“There’s a pretty systematic commitment to bring students into [research]. That’s what keeps me going,” he said.

Partnerships and community engagement at the College are also strengthened through the Sustainability Office, which, although not formally connected to the environmental studies program, is also housed in Fairchild Hall and collaborates frequently with students in the department.

According to sustainability office project manager Jenna Musco ’11, many students in the major are inspired by courses to work at the office and use skills from class in a real-world context.

“Dartmouth is like a small town in itself, so there are a lot of world issues that students can tackle right here,” Musco said.

LEADING FROM BELOW

MAY NGUYEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Rockefeller Center’s Leadership Fellows work with engineering professor Peter Robbie.

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THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015

DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 4:30 p.m.

Public lecture by Salman Rushdie, internationally acclaimed author, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Spaulding Auditorium

6:45 p.m.

Tango workshop with master teachers and performers Adriana Salgado and Orlando Reyes, Collis Common Ground

7:00 p.m.

“Masterworks of American Avant-Garde Experimental Film 19201970,” Black Family Visual Arts Center, Loew Auditorium

TOMORROW 3:30 p.m.

Physics and astronomy space plasma seminar with Dr. Aaron Breneman of the University of Minnesota, Wilder 111

4:30 p.m.

“The Real Deal: A Conversation with Former Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman,” Moore Building, Filene Auditorium

7:00 p.m.

Italian rap music performance by up-and-coming artist Amir Isaaa, McLaughlin Cluster, Occom Commons

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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015

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“Pawn Sacrifice” gives up its full story for Fischer’s glory

B y andrew Kingsley The Dartmouth Staff

The current genius fetish in cinema — with “The Social Network” (2010) about Mark Zuckerberg, “The Imitation Game” (2014) about Alan Turing and “Steve Jobs” (2015) — highlights our obsession with the computational masterminds that have shaped our technocratic landscape. Edward Zwick’s “Pawn Sacrifice” (2015), however, looks back at Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire), the 1972 Chess World Champion who single-handedly conquered the Soviet Chess Empire during the Cold War, showing us that irascible geniuses didn’t just work in ones and zeroes but also in pawns and knights.

Robert James Fischer began chess at age six in Brooklyn, devouring chess magazines like they were comic books, toying with pieces like action figures and decimating opponents with his sneakers still dangling off the floor. His monastic discipline robbed him of a childhood, friends and his single mother, Regina (Robin Weigert), whom Bobby saw only as an impediment to his meteoric ascent. Kings and queens became his parents, teaching him the Sicilian Defense and English Opening rather than humility and balance.

But chess demands that one

sacrifice humanity and even sanity for glory. A psychiatrist admits to a

“With approximately 300 billion ways to play the first four moves and more possible moves than atoms in the universe, chess has caused many greats to crack under its immensity.” worried Regina, “There are worse things to be obsessed by than chess.”

The film offers a different thesis, however. With approximately 300 billion ways to play the first four moves and more possible moves than atoms in the universe, chess has caused many greats to crack under its immensity. A grandmaster must be paranoid to anticipate his opponent’s next dozen plays while enduring countless hours of isolated, dogged studying. It is a game of destabilization, breaking the aesthetic order of neatly arranged pieces into an entropic web of war. Like a young Alice, Bobby jumps down chess’s rabbit hole.

Unfortunately, he never escapes

and becomes quite the Mad Hatter, offing his own head in pursuit of chess sublimity.

At 15 he becomes the thenyoungest chess grandmaster , then rises through chess olympiads, wiping the floor with hall of famers and eventually earning the chance to play Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber), the Soviet World Chess Champion, in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1972 for the world title. Indeed, Spassky was the Red Queen of the dominant Soviet chess empire. The Fischer/Spassky match was a Cold War microcosm played on an eight by eight grid, with the ideological weight of the free world bearing down on this Brooklyn-raised Atlas.

As Fischer’s lawyer (Michael Stuhlbarg) admits, “We’re losing China.

We’re losing Vietnam. We sure better not lose this one.” Televised across the world, this was the fight of the century for chess, inspiring a global chess-mania and making Fischer one of the most recognized faces in America.

Even the match preparation was a quasi-Cold War, with stalemates, unmet demands and exhausting tension regarding Fischer’s willingness to play Spassky. The games themselves seem less concerned with castling and checkmates and more with the psycho-dramatics of camera noises, espionage and sabotage. Even the iron-willed

Spassky seems infected with Fischer’s paranoia, as he demands his chair be X-rayed for possible bugs. Ironically, all they find are two dead flies.

Yet Tobey Maguire seems to crumble under the weight of Bobby Fischer’s immensity and fails to capture his awkwardness and nervous stutters while camping up his arrogance with a permanent Cheshire grin. There is too much method to Maguire’s madness — all seems precalculated, with all his screaming

“Unfortunately, the film has no end game and tips its king halfway through Bobby’s life by relegating his implosion to an ending credit montage.” and bluster the trappings and suits of insanity. In addition, Maguire’s small frame cannot embody the imposing stature and physicality of chess’s Cold War colossus.

Unfortunately the film has no end game and tips its king halfway through Bobby’s life by relegating

his implosion to an ending credit montage. There was no détente for Fischer’s psychosis, which only intensified after his victory against Spassky. Indeed, Fischer’s companion theorizes Fischer was not afraid to lose, but afraid to win — there are no more moves after conquering the chess world.

Fischer peaked at 30, and that’s where the film leaves him, alone on his pedestal after his Icelandic heroics, while the second half of his life, rife with its anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism, is practically swept under the rug. While not a pretty sight, his checkered latter years are a fundamental aspect of his mythology, a cautionary tale for any young Icarus approaching the glowing flame of Fischer’s genius.

By omitting his self-destruction, the film becomes a pawn stuck halfway across the board from becoming a true queen.

Rating: 7/10 “Pawn Sacrifice” is playing at the Nugget Theater at 4:20 p.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with additional showing over the weekend. *For the full story, watch “Bobby Fischer Against the World” (2011) a tight gem of a documentary covering all of Fischer’s life, which feels more immediate and intense than “Pawn Sacrifice.”

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

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ARTS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015

Barbary Coast explores Latin jazz in weekend’s show

B y kate schreiber The Dartmouth

The Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble brought the music of Latin jazz, with its non-traditional 3/2, 2/3 and 6/8 rhythms, to life on Saturday, under the leadership of music director and bassist of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Carlos Henriquez in a program called “From Mambo to Now: Big Band Latin Jazz.”

The program, which Henriquez adapted from a program he created for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra last summer, featured compositions by Afro-Cuban jazz icon Frank “Machito” Grillo and American Mambo musician Tito Puente, as well as works by Henriquez himself.

Barbary Coast director Don Glasgo said that all the music at Saturday’s show came from the Orchestra’s show.

Isabel Hurley ’19, the group’s lead alto saxophonist, said that the music in Saturday’s show was different than the music the group normally plays.

“It’s a unique modern take on the traditional rhythms of jazz,” she said.

In addition to Henriquez, vocalist Marco Bermudez, trumpet player Ray Vega and percussionist William Rodriguez were other professionals who played in the Saturday performance. Glasgo said that these musicians participated in a residency with Henriquez leading up to the show. Rodriguez directed the Barbary Coast’s Latin rhythm section, which includes bongos, congas and timbales, during Saturday’s show.

Hurley said that working with professionals gave the performance a new enthusiasm and energy.

“It’s amazing getting to work with professionals and having their input,” she said. “It brought out even more energy and excitement from the songs in the band.”

She said that playing alongside the composers of the music was also a new experience for her.

“We’re playing it as it’s meant to be played,” she said.

Barbary Coast’s lead trumpet Kathryn Waychoff ’16 said that visiting musicians brought the group a new perspective to their

performance.

“They give us a better understanding of the music,” she said.

“Without them, we don’t have the background or the personal stories that create the music.”

Barbary Coast violinist Emmanuel Hui ’17 said that while he did not spend much time working with the visiting musicians, he learned a lot from them because they have “an unspoken ability to understand of where each of us are and our abilities and what we offer to the group.”

Hui, who had three solos in the concert, said that one of the bassists could tell that he had perfect pitch just by listening to him play.

“They give us a better understanding of the music.

Without them, we don’t have the background or the personal stories that create the music.”

-kathryn waychoff ’16, barbary coast lead trumpetist “They can hear playing style so effortlessly and break it down,” he said. “They can take their vocabulary and put it into my playing.

They helped us think in a different way.”

Henriquez, who is originally from the Bronx, began playing music at a young age. He studied the guitar and bass at the LaGuardia High School of Music and Arts and Performing Arts.

After high school he joined the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and began to tour the world. He has played with a range of bands and musicians, including Chucho Valdes, Tito Puente, Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder. Since 2008 he has taught at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music.

Barbary Coast director Don Glasgo first met Henriquez in 2001, when the bassist led jam sessions at a jazz seminar at Goddard

College. Glasgo invited Henriquez to play with the Barbary Coast after learning about Henriquez’s summer concert series and the two agreed that Bermudez, Vega and Rodriguez would be great additions to the show.

The three other visiting musicians are also well-known luminaries in Latin jazz music. Bermudez is currently a vocalist for the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and sings with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra during its summer series. Vega is a three-time Grammy-winning trumpet player, and currently teaches at the University of Vermont. Rodriguez, who teaches Afro-Cuban percussion at the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro, Vermont, also runs his own professional band.

Hui said his favorite piece was Tito Puente’s “Que Sera Mi China” (1956) in which he traded solos with a flute soloist.

“It’s a really fun song about having a mistress and [the] mistress driving him crazy,” he said. “It’s a very cheeky song.”

Hurley said that she enjoyed Henriquez’s piece “2/3’s Adventure” (2015) because of the groove

that song had from its switches between a traditional swing and a more Latin sound.

“They can hear playing style so effortlessly and break it down. They can take their vocabulary and put into my playing. They helped us think in different ways.”

-emmanuel hui ’17, barbary coast violinst Waychoff said that she also enjoyed the energy of the Saturday performance. She said that during the performance’s final piece Glasgo kept extending the song to focus on the solos and keep the excitement high.

“The audience was really into

it,” she said. “It was a real high note.”

The Barbary Coast usually specializes in African-American and Afro-Caribbean jazz traditions, but Saturday’s program explored the intersection between Latin music and traditional jazz. Machito, whose pieces were featured at the performance, was a forerunner in the Latin Jazz movement.

Hui said that he enjoyed the performance’s Latin rhythms.

“It’s not your typical big band standards,” he said. “It’ll make you want to get up and dance. It’s pretty fun.”

The Barbary Coast features a visiting jazz musician in their fall and winter concerts every year.

The visiting artist plays their own music with the ensemble and rehearse with the group for one week before the performance. Past visiting artists have included Joe Bowie, Peter Apfelbaum, Craig Harris and Gregorio Uribe. Uribe will return to Dartmouth for the ensemble’s winter concert, which will take place on Feb. 12 as part of Winter Carnival.

Saturday’s show was held at 8 p.m. in Spaulding Auditorium.

ROCK ON

PAULA MENDOZA/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Music professor emeritus and experimental music pioneer Christian Wolff was celebrated at multiple concerts this weekend.