The Dartmouth 4/21/16

VOL. CLXXIII NO.65

SUNNY

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Geisel to lay off 30 as part of restructuring

WHITTLING AWAY THE TIME

HIGH 74 LOW 47

By THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

KATE HERRINGTON/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

This week, the Geisel School of Medicine began notifying employees whose employment statuses will change, the latest step in a series of measures aimed at accommodating the school’s budget deficit.

According to an email to employees from interim dean of the Geisel School of Medicine Duane Compton, human resource staffers and department chairs were scheduled to begin

Students work on projects in the Woodworking Shop in the basement of the Hopkins Center.

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SEE GEISEL PAGE 5

ROTC members discuss identity within the program

By SONIA QIN

The Dartmouth Staff

The armed forces can often seem like a far removed subject from the lives of most — especially for college students living in isolated Hanover. For the students enrolled in Dartmouth’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, however, the knowledge that they will serve as officers in the United States Army one day has shaped their view of their time at the College and beyond.

Currently, 14 students are enrolled in the College’s ROTC program, although numbers in recent years have been as high as 20. Women account for almost

50 percent of students enrolled in the College’s program — currently eight of the students are male and six are female.

Nationwide, this gender balance is not reflected, with women accounting for 15.3 percent of active-duty personnel in the U.S. military today. In recent years, women’s roles in the armed forces have expanded. With the repeal of the Direct Ground Combat Exclusion rule in January 2013, women can now be assigned to previously all-male units such as infantry, artillery, armor, combat engineers and some special operations units. These units all have a primary mission of engaging in ground combat.

Captain Keith Schnell, who oversees

the College’s ROTC program, said that it has become routine to have women in leadership roles in the army, especially after the decision to open up all military career fields to women.

Rachael Rhee ’16, who joined ROTC during her sophomore winter, hopes that women in leadership roles in the army will affect both the culture of the military and the societal perceptions of women.

As a woman of color, Rhee emphasized the importance of a junior officer seeing examples of females of color in positions of leadership.

“I’m here today because of those that came before me,” she said. “You have to set the example and be a resource and

be a pillar of mentorship for females.”

Rhee said that while she has never felt discriminated against as a woman of color in Dartmouth’s ROTC, in the real army, “you have to earn your place every day.”

“There’s one standard, and that’s the army standard,” she added. “Everyone is held to that, no matter who you are.

Seniors spend a minimum of 10 hours per week in a combination of both physical and classroom training, while freshmen, sophomores and juniors spent between six to nine hours in the program weekly. Many ROTC members said that engagement in the program has taught SEE ROTC PAGE 3

New Hampshire culture fosters Libertarian ideals

By PARKER RICHARDS The Dartmouth Staff

This article is the second in a three-part series on libertarianism and liberty in New Hampshire. The final part will be published Friday, and the full story will be available on TheDartmouth.com the same day.

New Hampshire is in Henry David Thoreau’s backyard, a region north of Massachusetts’ Walden Pond where individual responsibility, community cohesion in the small valleys of the White Mountains and personal liberty have always been valued. The small, isolated

towns of northern New England may contribute to Alexis de Tocqueville’s concept of “self-interest rightly understood,” the tendency of people to view aiding their communities through private action — for instance, by removing a fallen tree from a roadway without waiting for government agents to do the task for them — as a self-serving goal, helping others by helping oneself.

But today, that limited-government ethos and the “New Hampshire advantage” former Gov. Steve Merrill touted during his time in office in the 1990s may be under threat — and Merrill is not the only one who thinks so.

Darryl Perry, the secretary of the New Hampshire Libertarian Party, said that although the major parties pay “lip service” to a limited government approach, their actions could lead to the implementation of a sales tax or an income tax in the coming years.

“They don’t actually believe any of what they say,” he said.

Although major programs that spend more money are frowned upon, according to Ronald Shaiko, associate director of the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, the state is not above nickel-and-diming its residents.

“There is a willingness on the part

of lawmakers here, like anywhere else in the country, to add a little charge here and a little charge there,” said Charlie Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy. “One of the things we want to point out to people is that little things add up.”

The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy is a nonpartisan think tank that advocates for individual liberty and fiscal responsibility in New Hampshire.

Named for the leader of the state’s congressional delegation to the Second Continental Congress — that’s the one SEE LIBERTARIAN PAGE 2

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

Low taxes and geography build on Libertarian culture in the state FROM LIBERTARIAN PAGE 1

where a group of men gathered in Philadelphia and voted to declare some self-evident truths — the organization operates with a small staff and advocates to policy leaders throughout the state.

The state’s tax policies create “an impression in people’s minds that New Hampshire people value freedom and don’t want to spend money,” Arlinghaus said. “The difficult thing is when you look at the details, it mitigates that a little. Yeah, there’s a preference for freedom, but it’s not as strong as you would hope with our motto. Yeah, we don’t like to spend money, but we’ll spend it on this and that, and slowly eke up here and there.”

New Hampshire’s libertarian credentials are hardly unassailable, and — as Arlinghaus observed — the devil is in the details.

Policy is not everything. Political attitude matters, too, and in that regard, New Hampshire is more libertarianleaning — in spirit, at least — than most areas.

“There is an old fashioned spirit in New Hampshire, sort of an old Yankee spirit: people want to be left alone and do things themselves,” Arlinghaus said.

“Because of that, there is a general notion that neighborhoods and communities should help themselves, and that leads to a more generic libertarian feeling, although that’s less than it once was.”

Nicholas Sarwark, the chairman of the Libertarian Party of the United States, agreed. Sarwark is a signatory to the Free State Project, although he said his life circumstances — including leading the third-largest political party in the U.S. — will likely keep him from moving to New Hampshire.

“I think it’s something about the culture of the Northeast, especially up in the mountain areas,” he said.

“It’s just kind of, ‘Leave me alone, I’ll do my own thing, you do your own thing.’ People are a lot less interested in other people’s business.”

Government professor Jason Sorens, the Free State Project’s founder, referenced The Vermont Papers: Recreating Democracy on a Human Scale, a 1990 book by Frank Bryan and John McClaughry that argued for the existence of a unique form of northeastern libertarianism.

“They argue that Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine have a distinctive form of libertarianism, which is the libertarianism of keeping government close, being close enough to your officials to grab ‘em by the neck, or by the lapels if you have to,” Sorens said.

“Whereas, the libertarianism of the

Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains is more a libertarianism of isolation, of ‘I just don’t want my neighbors near me.’”

Sorens is an avid hiker and gardener. He knows the lands of New Hampshire and New England well, although he was not raised here.

“Our geography lends itself to villages and towns nestled in valleys, people live close together, but the population is still spread out into all these smaller units, so I think that does lend itself to a distinctive set of institutions and maybe even a distinctive public policy,” he said.

New Hampshire’s system of government reflects those trends, Shaiko said. There is essentially no county government to speak of in the state, so policymaking must be done either on the near-microscopic level of town meetings in little far-flung hamlets that hold a few thousand people at most, or at the state level, where representatives vote on behalf of just 3,000 constituents, the smallest legislative constituencies found in any state.

“What’s government’s role in our daily lives? It’s not much,” Shaiko said. “Everyone is fine with not having government be that intrusive in our daily existence.”

New Hampshire was the last state in the nation to adopt mandatory kindergarten. It still does not budget a cent for its state parks, nor does it have much in the way of funding for many other government programs viewed as essential in many states.

“Pretty much, if you look at New Hampshire versus all the other states, they’ll do the bare minimum of what the federal government mandates are, and nothing more than that,” Shaiko said.

And that’s a good thing if you ask the state’s libertarian factions.

Government spending in New Hampshire is small, consistent with libertarian views. New Hampshire has 1.3 million citizens, but compared to the states around it, New Hampshire’s budget is not representative of its population. Vermont’s budget was $5.2 billion in 2014, or about $8,200 per capita. The state’s population is a little over 620,000. New Hampshire — population 1.3 million, well over twice Vermont’s — had a budget of $5.1 billion that year, spending around $3,800 per capita.

Vermont is not the only nearby state that contrasts New Hampshire. Maine spends $6,000 per capita, Massachusetts $8,400, Rhode Island $7,400.

All those states have income taxes and sales taxes, unlike New Hampshire.

But there isn’t much of a debate in New Hampshire about the matter.

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

The state’s Democratic and Republican parties are both largely opposed to implementing those taxes, Shaiko said.

“Both Democrats and Republicans say they will never create an income tax or a sales tax, so it’s not a partisan thing,” he said. “It’s not Republicans saying that or Democrats saying that, it’s both parties, and every governor has signed the pledge.”

Libertarianism is not without its critics, however. Aside from ideological critiques, the movement is frequently targeted for being young, male and pale. A 2015 CNN poll of the Republican primary field found that Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — son of former Texas Rep. Ron Paul who helped galvanize libertarian voters in New Hampshire in the 2015 primary, in which he placed second and won Coös County, where PorcFest takes place — performed far better with men than with women.

Critics of the movement have accused it of being racist or sexist — or simply a fantasy, charges Sorens disputes. Rather, he said, libertarianism is a byproduct of strategic thinking that is partial to rules, systems and clear-cut ideologies.

Diversity is not libertarianism’s strong suit, Sorens acknowledged, but “that alone I don’t think is a critique of an idea,” he said, adding that today,

discrimination is only a factor in distant “corners” of the movement.

And being male and pale may not be as much of an issue in New Hampshire, where 94 percent of residents are white. Max Frankel ’19, a libertarian-minded student who is a member of many right-leaning groups on campus, said New Hampshire may

lend itself well to introspection necessary to defend unusual political views.

“There’s an interesting exchange of ideas that you might not get from a more traditionally liberal campus,” he said of Dartmouth.

But can the Libertarian Party make a breakthrough in New Hampshire under its own name?

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

PAGE 3

ROTC provides a different perspective on time at Dartmouth FROM ROTC PAGE 1

them skills they otherwise would not have attained at the College.

David Berg ’16 said ROTC has been “hugely transformative.” He discovered and joined the program his freshman fall. He contracted to the Army in his sophomore fall and is now committed to eight years of service following his graduation this spring.

Rhee said there was something about her Dartmouth experience that was “not enough.” The program has given her a deeper understanding of the value of leadership and how to inspire trust and loyalty in others, she said. She contracted to the army during her junior fall.

“I needed something more challenging, more tangible than a lot of the

social jousting that a lot of us do here at Dartmouth,” she said.

Morgan Corley ’18 said she started thinking about doing ROTC in her senior year of high school and reached out to the program during her freshman fall. She has not yet contracted, but plans on doing so in her junior year.

Corley added that the program has shown her a wider picture of the world outside the Dartmouth bubble.

Dartmouth’s ROTC program is less visible these days, but in the past, the program stirred controversy and made national political conflict felt in Hanover. In the early 1970s, student-led protests, which spoke out against the Vietnam War and ROTC as a military presence on campus, led to the program’s abolishment. Most notably, in 1969, about 80 students

sat in Parkhurst Hall for 12 hours to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the College’s military ties and the Board of Trustees’ decision to continue supporting ROTC at the College.

Prior to its hiatus in the 1960s, almost 400 students participated in ROTC, which offered scholarships and course credit for participants. In the early 1980s, College President David McLaughlin allowed the return of Army ROTC, but the Navy and Air Force programs have not since reemerged.

ROTC gives a scholarship to college students who want to contract to an eight-year service commitment with the Army. Chris Aguemon ’17 is a recipient of this scholarship and chose to commit early in his freshman fall because it was a strong fit for his

personality and future plans, he said.

He said that the ability to be more patient has been the biggest way in which he has grown since joining the program.

“Everyone has a role and in order to fulfill your role you have to trust the people around you to fulfill their role as well,” Aguemon said. “This translates to leadership because if you’re patient with the people you’re working with they’ll be more likely to trust you and to perform better.”

Aguemon played for the College’s varsity football team his freshman and sophomore years. He said that his friendships from ROTC are very similar to the ones formed on a varsity team.

“That bond goes deeper because we realize the decisions we’re making can affect not just ourselves but also

whoever we end up leading in the future,” Aguemon added.

Schnell said the commitment to serve in the army is the biggest difference between ROTC students and their peers.

“Dartmouth students have a lot of opportunities open to them,” he said.

“In spite of that, they’ve chosen to commit at least three or four years of their life, if not longer, to serving their country and to doing something not a lot of other people do.”

ROTC students also identified differences between their ROTC experience and their academic experience on campus. Aguemon said that the courses in ROTC are more goal-oriented while Corley said that the atmosphere in ROTC is more structured and professional than the atmosphere of a Dartmouth classroom.

The 42-page essay, “Message to Garcia” — which has been on the Marine Corps’ Commandant’s professional reading list every year since the list began in 1989 — highlights a difference between skills taught in ROTC and those taught in the classroom. Rhee said that this essay emphasizes the necessity of “getting the job done” rather than questioning orders, which highlights a difference from the academic culture at the College.

“I feel that a lot of the time at Dartmouth, we’re constantly challenged to criticize, to ask ‘why?’ and ‘how?’” she said. “As a leader in the army, you shouldn’t be asking your superior why and how to do everything.”

PAGE 4

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

“Afro-Pessimism & the Paradox of Affirmation,” lecture by Frank B. Wilderson III ’78, Wren Room, Sanborn House

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

“Why Is College So Expensive?” a panel discussion featuring Harvey Silvergate, Richard Vedder, and Richard Mills, Moore B03

4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

“Meritocracy and Its Discontents,” lecture by Yale Law School professor Daniel Markovits, Rockefeller Center 003

TOMORROW

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

“Technology for the Other 3-4 Billion Inhabitants,” talk by Dr. Victor Lawrence, Spanos Auditorium, Cummings Hall

7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

“Requiem for the American Dream” (2016), documentary featuring Noam Chomsky, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center

8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

“The Milliner’s Daughters,” production by Nicole Allen ’16, Bentley Theater, Hopkins Center

ADVERTISING For advertising information, please call (603) 646-2600 or email info@thedartmouth. com. The advertising deadline is noon, two days before publication. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Opinions expressed in advertisements do not necessarily reflect those of The Dartmouth, Inc. or its officers, employees and agents.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

Geisel could run up to $30 million deficit FROM GEISEL PAGE 1

meeting with employees whose statuses will change yesterday. Some employees’ statuses may remain the same, but others will be left without a job after June 30 or be shifted to employees of the state via Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

While a majority of the Geisel employees to be let go will receive comparable offers from DHMC, about 30 Geisel employees will not be offered new positions at either Geisel or DHMC. College spokesperson Justin Anderson said that he does not anticipate any further layoffs of this magnitude.

The clinical psychiatry department will be transferred from Geisel to DHMC and restructuring will also occur within existing Geisel departments.

In an email to the DHMC community on Tuesday, DHMC CEO and president James Weinstein wrote that the 182 employees of Geisel’s psychiatry department will become DHMC employees and 103 finance and operations employees will also be transferred. By July 2017, DHMC will be the awardee for all clinical research grants, Weinstein wrote.

In September, College President Phil Hanlon announced at a town hall meeting that Geisel would undergo an overhaul due to budget concerns. At the time, Compton shared that he had developed a three-year plan to stabilize the budget and reallocate the school’s resources. Currently, the medical school runs a $26 to $28 million annual deficit, which could soon exceed $30 million if left unchecked.

The restructuring process has been going on since Oct. 2013, Anderson said, when then-dean Wiley “Chip” Souba announced the launch of the Geisel budget improvement group. He added that he hopes that the changes will strengthen collaboration between Geisel and DHMC. In 2011, Souba announced the Geisel 2020 Strategic Plan for Excellence, with the goal of pushing Geisel into the ranks of the top 20 medical schools by the year 2020.

On its 2016 best medical schools list, U.S. News and World Report ranked Geisel 37th for research and 29th for primary care.

Several medical schools across the country have faced deficit concerns and restructuring in recent years, including Harvard Medical School and Wayne State University Medical School.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 6

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

STAFF COLUMNIST DANIEL FISHBEIN ’19

STAFF COLUMNIST BEN SZUHAJ ’19

Bernie’s Political Revolution

Deceit in Advertising

The revolution has only just begun.

My “New Hampshire for Bernie” poster has started to look forlorn lately as it rests against my dorm window. Senator Bernie Sanders was an upstart back in February, when I cast my vote in the primary for him.

But whatever small chance Sanders had has all but disappeared in light of the New York primary. He received 42 percent of the vote in New York, placing him 741 delegates behind Hillary Clinton. FiveThirtyEight, a website that focuses on statistical analysis stories, suggests that Sanders is struggling to stay within 90 percent of the delegates he would need to win. A Clinton Democratic nomination, and likely presidency, seems to be the foregone conclusion.

But instead of treating the New York vote as the end, I hope that my fellow Sanders’s supporters will join me in embracing the candidate’s loss as just the beginning. All along, Sanders has championed himself as the progenitor of a “political revolution.”

By appearing on national television, receiving attention from international news sources and pushing for a United States that is truly “by the people, for the people,” Sanders has already shown himself to be a serious candidate for the Democratic nomination. Not only did Sanders gain popularity quickly, he also managed to push his issues to the forefront of the national debate. Climate change has managed to emerge as a key issue in this election cycle Now it’s time to ensure that this momentum has not all been for naught.

One consequence of Sanders’ success is transforming Clinton into a stronger candidate. Clinton is poised not only to win the general election but also to create new policies rather than merely extend President Barack Obama’s. Sanders forced Clinton to acknowledge her strong ties to the corporate elite and to defend her previous support for the Iraq War, issues that she will undoubtedly have to address in the general election. Sanders has also appeared to push Clinton to the left on

several issues. Clinton’s plans for “debtfree tuition” seem to be, at least in part, inspired by Sanders’ free college proposal.

Sanders has also popularized progressivism, a political philosophy he continues to push even as his campaign dies out. Recently, I have observed that Sanders himself has accepted the reality of his eventual loss. In the emails his campaign has flooded my inbox with, Sanders is now advocating for progressive candidates running on tickets around the country, from prospective representative Zephyr Teachout in New York to Pramila Jayapal in Washington. Teachout is running on a campaign against political corruption while Jayapal has worked on the $15 minimum wage and paid sick leave in Seattle. The momentum behind Sander s’ campaign could probably encourage progressive candidates to come out from the woodwork. In short, Sanders has changed his campaign to focus on political revolution, rather than winning the nomination.

By winning states from coast to coast and making the Democratic primary far more interesting, Sanders has shown that America is ripe for change. We can capitalize on this progressive streak in many ways. At Dartmouth, we’ve seen #DoBetterDartmouth push the administration to acknowledge that diversity is an issue that needs to be addressed and acknowledged. Divest Dartmouth and NextGen Climate are pushing the College administration and the U.S. government to act more responsibly in the face of an intensifying climate crisis.

These student organizations and others seem poised to continue the fight Sanders has brought to the national forefront, a fight that needs to continue when Sanders concedes at some point in the coming months. Sanders may have lost, but the political revolution he has inspired has only just begun.

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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.

Many products falsely advertise their health benefits.

It’s getting hot in Hanover. And as the certain studies. Kellog recently settled a temperature rises, so does the number of class action lawsuit after claiming that their people wearing sunglasses, boat shoes, Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal improved kids salmon shorts and, you would hope, ability to focus by 20 percent. In reality, sunblock. Unfortunately, a 2013 survey they were rounding up from 11 percent, and reviewed by the Center for Disease Control the control group of children in that study and Prevention found that a minority of weren’t given any breakfast at all, a fact respondents, only 14.3 percent of men which, aside from being cruel, seems more and 29.9 percent of women, regularly use to endorse the concept of eating something sunscreen on their face and other exposed — anything — for breakfast, rather than the skin. Those of us who both buy and apply magical properties of Frosted Minis. sunblock on a regular basis will know that Perhaps the final stroke of corruption the drug store has a whole litany of options in this chain of falsifiable health claims is available when it comes to lathering up the funding of dietary studies by the very before going outside. companies examined in those studies. A Many products try to differentiate few weeks ago, the University of Maryland themselves from the competition by disavowed the result of a study which claiming higher SPF protection or other claimed that Fifth Quarter Fresh chocolate skin-saving properties. In reality, SPF milk helped high school football players doesn’t matter past a to recover faster certain point. In terms both physically of UVB rays absorbed, “Perhaps the final stroke and mentally from the diff erence between of corruption in this exertion, and SPF 30 and 50 is less than from the effects of 2 percent. And yet, the chain of falsifiable health concussions. Fifth fact that companies make claims is the funding of Quarter Fresh, and market sunblocks claims its dietary studies by the very which that provide statistically milk comes from insignificant increases companies examined in “super, natural in sun protection must cows,” paid those studies.” mean there is a demand nearly $230,000 for them. The claim “100 to fund the study.

SPF!” written in bold While this study letters is akin to Colgate’s was found to be “OPTIC WHITE” or blatantly flawed, Crest’s “GLAMOROUS WHITE.” All it is still legal to fund scientific studies of the adjectives have no basis in science conducted by the producer of a given to back up their effectiveness, and yet, product on the effects or benefits of that same somehow, product names such as “optic product. It brings into question the validity white” seem to suggest a toothpaste better of “delicious, nutritious, bone-strengthening at teeth whitening than the more prosaic milk.” “whitening toothpaste.”

And that’s really where the problem lies.

The use of suggestive adjectives in Those three claims, “delicious,” “nutritious” advertising is most egregious in the aisles and “bone-strengthening,” should not be of the grocery store. Take, for instance, held to the same low level of scrutiny. Yes, Odwalla, which claims that its fruit you’re allowed to lie in advertising, but smoothies are “100% juice/purée blend.” only as long as you are putting forth an Its “Original Superfood Fruit Smoothie” opinion. To you, the producer, your milk is (the green one) boosts a whopping 51 grams “delicious.” “Nutritious” is the middle level, of sugar per 15.2 fluid ounce bottle. The where opinion borders fact. “Nutritious” sugar content is comparable to that of Coke is nebulous, difficult to pin to an exact which contains 59 grams of sugar per 16 definition. So an increasing number of fluid ounces. And yes, Odwalla might claim products, including cookies and sugary all that sugar is from fruit, but the juice itself breakfast cereals, can get away with using it. contains none of the fiber of the original But that final claim, “bone-strengthening,” ingredients. Essentially, Odwalla has taken suggests a definite cause and effect between the otherwise humble fruit, squeezed out drinking milk and strengthening bones. A any derivable health benefit, bottled the producer can include those types of claims sugary fruit liquid and sold it back to us at as long as they include a minuscule asterisk an exorbitant price. And they can, because and the disclaimer that often goes unread: words like “superfood” and “smoothie” “these statements have not been evaluated are unregulated. Companies can use them by the FDA.” freely despite the connotations carried by In the end, it isn’t about whether or not these terms. milk strengthens your bones, or if cereal It doesn’t stop there. “Nutritious” and helps you concentrate or any of those other “healthy” are also claims that product claims. It’s about misleading the consumer manufacturers and suppliers are allowed to who has a desire to remain in good health, make even if they lack the numbers to back who spends money on a product, but does them. Additionally, companies can include not gain the value they expect and has now “data,” such as numbers and figures, on wasted money that could have been spent their product’s packaging if they are citing elsewhere.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

PAGE 7

STAFF COLUMNIST JESSICA LU ’18

STAFF COLUMNIST IOANA SOLOMON ’19

Considerate Correctness

The Hardest Match

Political correctness has an important place in discussions.

Recently, I’ve been undergoing a crisis of identity. I consider myself liberal, progressive, woke — all those buzzwords that The Dartmouth’s frequent commenters love to decry as a disease of foolish millennials.

I’ve spent most of my opinion-writing career on issues of intersectionality, on bringing light to problematic behaviors that are overlooked despite the profound impact they have on those they target. I’ve used this space to contribute to a discourse that may be one of the defining conversations of this generation.

This time, and I think perhaps for the first time, I’ve finally figured out where I stand and where I think we all should stand.

Students on college campuses across the United States are currently having an important conversation about what is wrong and what is right, a conversation rooted in the language of “PC culture” and “safe spaces.”

My gut feeling is to support the liberal cause, to stand by political correctness, to defend the importance of safe spaces. But for a while now, I haven’t been able to truly define what those ideas mean.

Earlier this month, University of California, Berkeley student Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight for no greater crime than speaking Arabic on the phone to his uncle.

What struck me most as I read about his story was not the casual Islamaphobia or the unapologetic racism, all of which are unfortunately a given in the age of Donald Trump and American racist hysteria. What struck me was what an Arabic airline employee said to him after he was forced to leave the plane: “Why would you speak in Arabic on the airplane?” the employee asked him. “It’s dangerous. You know the environment around the airport. You understand what’s going on in this country.”

For anyone who is non-white and dares to speak Arabic or any language that could be mistaken for Arabic, America isn’t the land of the free. It’s a landscape of landmines where you’re not sure what’s safe and what isn’t, and the only thing you can be sure of is that you’re constantly in danger. The story is the same for black and Latinx Americans, who stare down the possibility of police brutality, of unfair deportation, of life as a second-class citizen because of the color of their skin. For these Americans, life is a constant battle to avoid danger. Parents tell their brown children to speak English in public or else they’ll be labelled terrorists.

Parents tell their black children to never wear their hoods up and to keep their hands in plain sight at all times or else their life might end with a white man saying, “Well, I was just standing my ground.”

For Americans of color, for Americans who are “other” in obvious ways, safe spaces are few and far between. A safe space is somewhere you can be who you are without coming under attack for any aspect of your identity, be it the color of your skin or who you love. America is not a safe space for a young black man when someone who looks like him is killed every 28 hours, when he is

more than twice as likely be suspended than his white classmates, when a racist criminal justice system will give him a sentence 20 percent longer than his white peer for the same crime.

At the core of it all this is the idea that because of who you are, you are unwelcome and unsafe. That’s how a lot of students, particularly students of color, feel on our campus. They are surrounded by reminders that this isn’t their place, that they don’t belong here, that they aren’t wanted here.

And these reminders can take many forms­ — a word that dehumanizes them, a Greek system that excludes them, a silent majority that refuses to stand with them because having a party is more important than making sure they feel safe. These reminders may be comparatively small to the things people of color face outside of the campus bubble, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t create a campus that makes people of color feel unsafe.

This conversation about safe spaces and political correctness was recently reignited

by Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority’s decision to change its annual spring party theme from Derby to Woodstock. As a member of KDE, it was no-brainer for me — changing the theme would not cost us anything and would make hundreds of my peers feel safer and happier on the campus we all want to call home. Whether or not the theme of Derby is racist is an important question to ask, but it is not the most important issue at play here. What matters is that our peers felt the theme was problematic. Derby contributed to making students of color on this campus feel like they were unwanted and unsafe. I do believe Dartmouth does a better job than most colleges at creating a welcoming and diverse culture, but that certainly doesn’t mean there aren’t things we can and should change. Is Woodstock a perfect theme? No. Does it make people on this campus feel unsafe? Not that I know of. If it does make people on this campus feel unsafe, should we have a conversation about it and then change it? Yes. An important part of college is disagreeing with each other, building and maintaining dialogues and having important conversations about tough topics. So-called “PC culture” isn’t meant to stifle those conversations, and it shouldn’t. Instead, a culture of political correctness helps us create a space that is safe for everyone anywhere along the ideological spectrum. People on both sides should be vocal and unafraid to share their opinions.

Does political correctness sometimes go too far and prevent people on the ideological right from speaking out for fear of backlash?

Unfortunately, yes, and that’s something that shouldn’t happen. But it’s also too rash to dismiss political correctness altogether as people being too sensitive or trying to stifle speech they don’t agree with. What political correctness should do is to ensure that vulnerable groups feel safe. By spurring the change from Derby to Woodstock, the culture of political correctness did just that.

The gender pay gap is a taxing battle to fight, specially in sports.

Most of you probably remember that unique in the sports world or even to the United States women’s national soccer one level of competition. While tennis is team won the Fédération Internationale often considered one of the leading sports de Football Association World Cup last in promoting and embodying gender year. And if you do not recall this exciting equality, it faced similar scrutiny when victory, I’m willing to bet that it was far both Roger Federer and Serena Williams more popular news than the men’s team defended their singles championship titles coming in 15th place the year before. This at the Western & Southern Open last year. polarity in international prestige between Federer earned $731,000 while Williams the men’s and women’s soccer teams is not earned just $495,000. The tournament, just a recent phenomenon. The U.S. men’s in which the U.S. Tennis Association is a national soccer team has participated in stakeholder, explicitly pays female athletes several World Cups, with their best season 63 cents for every dollar earned by their male occurring in 1930 when they came in third, counterparts. The pay gap extends down followed by their more recent second best in the competitive ladder. A 2014 study by the 2002 when they reached the quarterfinals. International Tennis Federation compared By contrast, the women’s the average costs team has won three World involved in playing Cups and four Olympic “If the women’s team wins professional tennis gold medals since 1991. 20 exhibition matches, to prize money, and In 2015 alone, they that 336 male it would earn $99,000 found generated $20 million players could earn more in revenue than the per player. For a similar enough to cover men’s team. The catch? expenses, performance, the men average The women are paid a while only 253 mere fourth of what the would earn $352,000 women could. men earn. there each. They would still top are stillNaturally, Just three weeks ago, debates about five members of the women’s earnings with a how viewership rates women’s team, speaking payday of $100,000 even if factor into wages for on behalf of their fellow professional athletes. players, decided they the men’s team lost every I’m not going to were going to fight the single match. ” claim that women institutions and employers deserve equal pay that subject them to such in absolutely every flagrant injustice. The sport, and I’m also women filed a wagenot going to argue discrimination action that women and men with the national Equal Employment get equal numbers of spectators. But almost Opportunity Commission against the U.S. everyone can agree that female athletes Soccer Federation. This isn’t their first deserve to be paid, if not equally to their attempt to speak out, and it likely will not be male counterparts, at least proportionally their last. However, by bravely demanding to the tickets they sell and the revenue they what is rightfully theirs time and time again, bring in. the U.S. women’s soccer team has opened The wage gap outside of sports is an more eyes and raised more eyebrows to the ongoing and equally contentious fight. gender pay gap.

However, athletics are a particular and There are, of course, those who claim that important part of this problem — a women just simply do not bring in as much problem that seems to further exacerbate revenue as men. Therefore, demanding existing symptoms of systemic sexism and equal pay for unequal contributions is that seems to hit closer to home, especially sexist against men. To the uninformed, at Dartmouth. As a community with a those claims might appear valid and even particular appreciation for and emphasis on compelling — but they couldn’t be further athletics, we should ask ourselves what we from the truth. According to projections can do to better balance the playing field detailed in the EEOC filing, the women’s for many of our friends, classmates and team is expected to bring in $5 million in future alumni with aspirations to become profit and $18 million in revenue over the professional athletes. The fact that most of coming fiscal year, yet players will earn only a us have preconceived notions about women’s quarter of what the men will. Even if we look sports characterize them as exciting or beyond projections and focus on the salaries interesting is part of the problem. If nothing and rates currently in place, things aren’t else, convince yourself to watch a women’s any less grim. If the women’s team wins 20 match once in a while, whether on television exhibition matches, it would earn $99,000 or on campus. If it’s not your cup of tea, per player. For a similar performance, the that’s fine, but at least you gave it a chance. men would earn $352,000 each. They would Achieving gender equality in wages is the still top women’s earnings with a payday of hardest match female athletes are fighting $100,000 even if the men’s team lost every ­— dismantling stereotypes and promoting single match. open-mindedness is an easy way for us to Unfortunately, the wage discrimination contribute, without even a drop of lactic that the women’s soccer team faces isn’t acid moving up our limbs.

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

PAGE 8

Panelists discuss digital rights in today’s online world

By ELISE HIGGINS

Patents give producers a limited duration property right to inventions Piracy is often viewed as a victim- while trade secrets — confidential less crime. The months film editors information regarding an entertediously spend editing a movie prise’s manufacturing, industrial and the long hours singers invest or commercial processes — help in recording studios are neglected producers maintain a competitive for the instant gratification expe- edge.

The panelists discussed how rienced when downloading digital works right as they hit the market. their industries utilize these means.

Content creators can suffer from Gerngross said artists do not use illegal downloading or file-sharing trade secrets because their work is because they do not receive proper meant to be seen, while technology companies rely on patents for the compensation for their work.

Hoping to stir conversation about right to their products.

Still, there are many layers to this nationwide problem, the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network the debate on intellectual property. hosted a panel talk this past Mon- Casey’s work in music, which he day at the DEN Innovation Center described as a compilation of diftitled, “Digital Rights and the Art- ferent songs, challenges traditional ist.” Thayer School of Engineer- understandings of who the creator ing professor Tillman Gerngross, is.

“It’s kind of a provocative act to music professor Michael Casey and digital humanities professor Mary create art out of other people’s art,” Flanagan spoke at the panel. New Casey said.

Casey emphasized the process York University senior university counsel Mark Righter and musician rather than the product. He said and composer Maria Schneider that he does not view it as theft were also present. All five panelists because the small pieces are used to discussed how contemporary digital create something new. Despite this, rights affect their respective fields. Casey still believes that he does not Gerngross, an entrepreneur have the right to sell his creation. and co-founder of two technology Through his work, however, he companies GlycoFi, Incorporated does have several patents for his and Adimab, LLC, moderated the technology, which include a voice activated music playback system and talk.

Because each field has differ- a method for recognizing, indexing ent approaches toward protecting and searching acoustic signals.

Flanagan also talked about creators’ rights and eventually the occommercializing casional products, Gerng ross said the “If musicians take control d i f f i term intellectual of their work, they have a culty of defining property has a difthe line ferent interpre- hell of a lot of power.” between tation across his fair use colleagues’ indus- -MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER a n d tries. theft.

“This panel ex- MARIA SCHNEIDER As the plored a different founder version of what of Tiltpeople normally understand intellectual property to factor, a game research laboratory at Dartmouth, she discussed her be,” he said.

Righter touched upon the experience with creating a relatively various ways to protect or identify successful online game under a intellectual property. To distinguish particular name before seeing other the source of a good, producers websites launched under similar use trademarks, which are usually names. Although these sites did words, phrases, symbols or designs. not steal the actual game, they stole To protect the expression of an idea, online traffic and therefore gained whether in the form of songs, mov- advertisement revenue. Flanagan ies, books or works of art, creators said she disagreed with this tactic purchase copyrights, which last but did not necessarily view it as between 70 to 120 years depending theft.

Flanagan’s work has been used on when the work is published and the duration of the creator’s life. without her knowledge before. She The Dartmouth Staff

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

A panel of artists and entrepreneurs shared their perspectives on digital rights at the DEN Innovation Center on Monday.

said the anonymous nature of the in retail stores. ArtistShare also proRighter acknowledged the irony online world makes it difficult to duced her 2007 album “Sky Blue” of this apparent cultural belief by monitor illegal downloading and and 2014 album “Winter Morning comparing artists to entrepreneurs unauthorized usage. The panel- Walks,” which won three Grammys. like Steve Jobs. ists agreed that the act of stealing Schneider said she felt as if this “There is a cultural belief that it is music does not feel so concrete okay for a person to have [large when modern consumers often “There is a cultural belief amounts of] money for creating purchase content online rather something,” Righter said. than physically buying an al- that it is okay for a person Righter said this ideology bum at a store. to have [large amounts of] appears to be missing with muSchneider discussed her sicians who are often criticized experience as a musician in a money for creating for trying to receive adequate world in which downloading something.” compensation for their creations. is extremely prevalent and Righter emphasized that all fair compensation is harder to creators are equal and that receive. Due to her frustration -MARK RIGHTER, NEW YORK intellectual property is needed with the industry, she decided UNIVERSITY SENIOR UNIVERSITY to reward them for their work. to publish her music through Schneider encouraged artArtistShare, a fan funded plat- COUNSEL ists to manage their own music form for artists to share their and publishing in order to solve creative process. Schneider said this problem.

ArtistShare allows her to cut out the collaboration truly liberated her “If musicians take control of middleman and be in control of her and recommended that all artists their work, they have a hell of a lot own database. take control of their own music. of power,” Schneider said. “[ArtistShare] worked unbelievHowever, many artists do not Musicians have tried to conably well,” she said. “It created use the platform and often rely on front Congress about the issue, but this respect and this relationship streaming sites to promote their Schneider said this has proved largely between the audience and myself.” music. Schneider said that artists ineffective. Instead, she recommends In 2005, Schneider’s collabora- are desperate to be noticed and consumers try to change their beliefs tion was rewarded with a Grammy are easily enticed. She questioned about intellectual property and artAward for “Best Large Jazz En- if the perception that publicity is ists’ rights. If musicians and fans alike semble Album” for “Concert in the beneficial to artists’ careers actually change, she said she believes artists Garden” (2004), the first album to does any good when the artist does will begin to be fairly compensated win the award without being sold not receive compensation. for their work.