The Dartmouth 05/28/15

VOL. CLXXII NO. 90

MOSTLY SUNNY

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

IF A TREE FALLS ON THE GREEN, AND NO ONE YAKS ABOUT IT...

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Committee submits academic rigor proposal

By PARKER RICHARDS The Dartmouth Staff

KATELYN JONES/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

SPORTS

SENIOR SPRING: KRISTEN RUMLEY ’15 PAGE 8

OPINION

OPINION ASKS: NON-RECORDING OPTION PAGE 4

ARTS

SENIOR EXHIBITS INVITE FEEDBACK PAGE 7

The ad hoc committee on grading practices and grade inflation released its proposal to address grade inflation at the College on May 11. The proposal, sent out to faculty, outlines a strategy to curb grade inflation by adhering more strictly to the Dartmouth Scholarship Ratings system of awarding As for excellence, Bs for “good master” and Cs for “acceptable mastery.” The proposal hopes to incentivize faculty to adhere to stricter grading policies rather than mandate departmentwide medians or curves or limit the number or percentage

A tree in front of Parkhurst Hall fell during a thunderstorm Wednesday afternoon.

SEE DEFLATION PAGE 5

Five awarded Alumni Council Awards

B y LAUREN BUDD

The Dartmouth Staff

Five Dartmouth alumni will be recognized for their lifetime contributions to the College and other achievements. Three will receive the Dartmouth Alumni Award, which recognizes service to the College, career achievement and other community service, and two will receive the Dartmouth Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award. The awards will be presented during the Alumni Awards Gala, which will be held in the fall.

Lynne Gaudet, director of alumni leadership, said the awards

are significant because they were recognized by the Alumni Awards Committee of the Alumni Council, not by the College itself. The committee is also comprised of former recipients of the award, so committee members have an understanding of the criteria, she said.

In order to be selected for the Alumni Award, the recipient must have graduated more than 25 years ago, Gaudet said. They must also demonstrate extraordinary achievement in their profession or career and volunteerism for Dartmouth as well as within their community or global philanthropy, she said.

“They place a lot of importance on the volunteerism for Dartmouth and they really looked for depth and breadth and quality of the volunteerism,” Gaudet said of the committee.

The Young Alumni Award is also selected by a committee of the alumni council, which is also made up of former recipients of the award. To be eligible for this award, the recipient must have graduated within the past 15 years. The major focus of this award is volunteerism for Dartmouth, Gaudet said.

The deliberations are confidential, and Gaudet said that often the recipients are surprised when the

committee contacts them regarding the award.

In the past few years, she said the alumni councils have begun making films about each of the award recipients for the public to view. Rather than just citations about each of the winners, the clips include each of them talking about what Dartmouth means to them, their memories of the College, why they give back and why they are so passionate about the College, as well as footage of three alumni speaking on their behalf, Gaudet said.

Before these videos were made, SEE AWARDS PAGE 3

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Rare Essentials owner will sell Main Street location

B y EMILIA BALDWIN Dartmouth Staff

Rare Essentials, a women’s clothing store on Hanover’s Main Street, is closing following the sudden death of one of the co-owners.

Lynn Kochanek, the owner of Rare Essentials and Essentials for Men, is selling both of her Hanover locations after the sudden passing of her husband

and business partner, Walter Kochanek, in late December of last year.

Kochanek and her husband began Rare Essentials to bring retail brands to the New Hampshire and Vermont area, and the couple opened their first store in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1981.

Though she wants to continue working in retail in the Upper Valley, Kochanek said she is not exactly sure what her next step will be. She said

that she does not want to stop working entirely, but feels that she must reevaluate her business plan to ensure it is better suited to a single person.

“I’ve established myself here, so I’m determined to work in something similar in the area, just in a way that is more suited for one person,” she said.

Town manager Julia Griffin said that she and the rest of the community

are sad to see Rare Essentials go.

“It’s always sad to see a familiar business leave town,” Griffin said.

Griffin also said that she feels Kochanek is making the right decision in the wake of her husband’s death.

She said she predicts that Kochanek will use the current Rare Essentials location on Main Street for her new endeavor, whatever that may be.

SEE RARE ESSENTIALS PAGE 2

thursday, MAY 28, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAily debriefing Following a thunderstorm, main campus lost power shortly before 5 p.m., associate vice president of facilities operations and management Frank Roberts announced in an email to campus. Liberty Utilities, the College’s power provider, did not have an estimate for when power would be restored to main campus.

Services at the western and northern parts of campus remained operational, but Baker-Berry Library, the Class of 1953 Commons, the Hopkins Center and the buildings surrounding the Green were all without power. Residence halls without power included the East Wheelock cluster, Massachusetts Row, the Fayerweather cluster and the Choates cluster.

Facilities with power included the Tuck School of Business, the Thayer School of Engineering, the Geisel School of Medicine and the River and McLaughlin residential clusters.

Students experiencing problems related to the power outage were encouraged to call Safety and Security.

Power was restored to main campus just before midnight.

— COMPILED BY JESSICA AVITABILE

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

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Griffin discusses challenges for retailers FROM RARE ESSENTIALS PAGE 1

Recent years have seen an increasing number of national chains, including J. Crew, Starbucks and Verizon, moving into the downtown Hanover area. Griffin attributes this trend to the fact that Hanover — and the broader Upper Valley in general — provides challenges to individual, small retail stores. Despite the large population of students in Hanover, Griffin said, retailers in town have issues with attracting the potential customers to their businesses.

“One of our biggest goals is to get students to venture off-campus and go downtown, but that becomes harder when you factor in the popularity of online shopping,” she said.

Griffin added that J.Crew was eager to open a location in Hanover given the brand’s popularity among the student body, a sentiment she said was shared by The Gap, which previously occupied the same location. She said that Starbucks added a Hanover location for this reason as well.

“It’s obvious how these brands appeal to students,” Griffin said.

She added, however, that Hanover’s demographic is significantly different than that of the larger Upper Valley, creating another challenge

for retailers and store owners.

Griffin also said that small-scale retailers have a harder time accessing students and knowing their customer base, adding that the expensive costs of renting store space in Hanover makes it much easier for large chains

“One of our biggest goals is to get students to venture off-campus and go downtown, but that becomes harder when you factor in the popularity of online shopping.”

- JULIA GRIFFIN, HANOVER TOWN MANAGER to afford operating in the town than for individual shopkeepers.

These rent costs, Griffin added, are significantly higher in Hanover than the surrounding towns, which makes it difficult to attract small business owners to the town.

The College represents a significant portion of the Hanover

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population, and the relatively small population of the Upper Valley outside of the student body also presents difficulties for incentivizing individual retailers to bring their business to Hanover, Griffin said.

“We’re what’s called a ‘micropolitan area,’ meaning we don’t even have enough people to be considered a small metropolitan area,” she said.

“Sometimes there isn’t a strong enough customer base for retailers to even consider the area.”

Griffin said her goal for Hanover is to continue to have an even distribution of local businesses and national chain stores, as long as both recognize their student-heavy customer base.

“The key for businesses here is just to get familiar with the unique customers we have here in Hanover,” she said.

Currently, there are several vacant retails spaces in Hanover, including the previous locations of Amidon Jewelers, Lemon Tree Gifts and College Supplies.

Madison McIlwain ’18, who recently bought a jacket from Rare Essentials, said that she is disappointed that the shop will be closing.

“They offered a lot of brands which aren’t offered anywhere else in the area, like Barbour, so I’m really sad to see it go,” she said.

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 3

Alums awarded for lifetime ser vice to the College FROM AWARDS PAGE 1

recipients could select where they wanted to receive their award, she said. Two years ago the Alumni Council began hosting one evening ceremony in Hanover instead, Gaudet said. Gaudet added that she believes the ceremony is a great way for the Alumni Council to recognize extraordinary alumni.

Fall of 2014 marked the 60th anniversary of the award.

Gaudet described her classmate and award recipient Pat Berry ’81 as a selfless person and brilliant writer. She added that Berry had done a lot of work to support their class’ upcoming reunion and has also been nominated to be the incoming president of their class.

After her time at the College, Berry spent eight years at Time, Inc. and was a founding editor of Sports Illustrated for Kids.

Ellis Rowe ’74 will also be receiving the Alumni Award. Rowe participated in an ad hoc committee on diversity and inclusion and was on the Tucker Foundation board of visitors, Gaudet said.

Rowe is thoughtful, charismatic and very caring, she added.

After Dartmouth, Rowe worked with Exxon/Mobil Oil and Mars incorporated, and though he is now retired, he remains involved in business development and consulting.

Ellie Loughlin ’89, another Alumni Award recipient, works in admissions at the Buckingham Browne and Nichols School and is involved in volunteering for Dartmouth, Harvard Graduate School of Education, local school boards and the National Pancreas Foundation.

Gaudet said that Loughlin, while young to receive the award, is “incredibly well qualified,” energetic and enthusiastic. Loughlin served as her class reunion chair

as well as on the Alumni Council.

Gaudet extended her praise to the two young award winners.

S. Caroline Kerr ’05, a former College admissions officer, is now

“I think that experience was so valuable to me and has continued to be so valueable, beause you are constantly meeting Dartmouth people, and your whole experience is improved by eing a Dartmouth graduate.

Your whole life is improved.”

- ELLIE LOUGHLIN ’89, RECIPIENT OF AN ALUMNI AWARD CEO of the Joyce Ivy Foundation, which provides higher education opportunities for high-acheiving, low-income women from the Midwest. Kerr was involved the Triangle House and the president’s gala, and she also serves as chair of the young alumni committee, Gaudet said.

Michael Vidmar ’03, the other young alumni reward recipient, is currently president of his class, just completed his graduate studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was chair of the athletic committee when on the Alumni Council, Gaudet said. He was the president of his local alumni club while having a career and going to graduate school, she added, and

played on the soccer team during his time at Dartmouth.

“We’re absolutely thrilled about all five of these recipients,” Gaudet said.

Loughlin said she was shocked to receive the award and did not think she had even been out of Dartmouth long enough to have been considered. She said that the responses from fellow alums, coworkers and current students are also amazing.

Loughlin said being at Dartmouth changed her life, because she gained confidence in herself and met her closest friends as well as her husband.

“I think that experience was so valuable to me and has continued to be so valuable, because you are constantly meeting Dartmouth people, and your whole experience is improved by being a Dartmouth graduate,” Loughlin said. “Your whole life is improved.”

Having children at Dartmouth and attending the ceremony in the fall will be especially meaningful for her, she said.

Loughlin said that she was honored to be included in a group with her fellow recipients, and she looks forward to receiving the award with them because she knows how

much time, effort and energy they give to the College.

Loughlin added that she intends to continue to give back to the College.

“It’s a part of who I am and

“It’s one thing to love a place of institution, it’s another to actively contribute to sustaining it and strengthening it.”

- S. CAROLINE KERR ’05, RECIPIENT OF YOUNG ALUMNI DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD what I do with my life, and I hope to continue that forever,” she said.

Alumni Council president Lou Spelios described this year’s award recipients as “the best of the best.”

Spelios emphasized that the selection process was holistic and that the awards are important because of the special way in which alumni contribute to the school.

“This is really the highest honor an alum can receive,” Spelios said.

Kerr said that she had the opportunity to work with the other award recipients in the past, and that she had great respect for them and their dedication to the College.

Kerr described the ability to give back to the College as a defining feature of Dartmouth’s alumni community and the community as a whole.

“It’s one thing to love a place or institution, it’s another to actively contribute to sustaining it and strengthening it,” she wrote in an email.

Rowe said he was surprised by the award and will cherish it.

“It really is a surprising and wonderful acknowledgement of many hours of work with the College and in many ways an unexpected reward for what I think are common sense things we should all be contributing to,” Ellis said.

Rowe went on to say that he believes the relationship between the College’s alumni, administrators and students is special.

“I hope that’s something that never dies,” he said. “I hope we don’t get too big or too administrative to allow alumni to have a voice in that way.”

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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 4

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION STAFF

GUEST COLUMNIST KATIE WILLIAMSON ’15

Opinion Asks

Not Green Enough

What are your thoughts on the proposal to end the non-recording option? What are the benefits or disadvantages of the NRO? I think the NRO has a place in that it allows you to prioritize some courses above others, while still exposing yourself to all the learning that interests you. It does not represent a lack of rigor to recognize that receiving your desired grade in three hard classes is not always possible here. Rather than making classes less intense, the NRO gives you the option not to work as hard in a class that perhaps is not in your major path but still interests you a great deal. You get to learn what that class has to offer without negatively impacting your grade point average. Getting rid of NROs will not make students work harder — it will make them less likely to take a class out of interest.

— Isaac Green ’17 The proposal to end the NRO is one that seems as informed as a Bush administration foreign policy advisor and as responsible as Lindsay Lohan after a few vodkatinis. I see no advantages to it, besides further supposed implementation of “academic rigor,” all in the name of the College’s craven public relations purposes. In reality, the end of the NRO stands to both dissuade students from intellectual exploration and betterment and devalue Dartmouth’s mission as a liberal arts college. I am not only opposed — I am offended.

— Ivan Hess ’15 I have been saving my NROs for my last two terms here, when my heart is heavy and my motivation is low. College President Phil Hanlon’s lock on improving academic rigor is not only insulting, but dangerous. Every year, a little more than a thousand new students matriculate to the College. Most of them are extremely bright. And while every student admitted has the potential to succeed, not all of us are going to be Phi Beta Kappas with 4.0 GPAs. Some students excel at courses in one area and struggle in another, but in the spirit of the liberal arts, many students venture out of their comfort zones to get a taste of the unfamiliar. A senior English major might not have the best capabilities in a physics class, but the NRO provides the opportunity to experience a new field without threatening his or her academic standing.

Many athletes on campus elect the NRO in season to balance academics and athletics without worrying about playoffs interfering with finals.

I have heard it time and again — athletes are providing a service to the College. While not every professor is willing to accommodate athletes with extensions, the NRO allows them to go about both school and sports without fearing the choice between failure in one or the other.

The NRO is a valuable asset at a school that schedules classes for fewer than 10 weeks at a time and has a sizable workload, particularly for engineering and pre-med students. GPA should not be the most valued part of an education — the academic experience should. Outside of major and distributive requirements, let the kids have some breathing room.

— William Peters ’15 Far from eliminating the NRO, I believe it should be expanded — other than distributive courses, seminars and major or minor courses.

Departments, like the government department, should not be able to disallow the use of the NRO. The NRO, contrary to certain vocal professors’ assertions, enables students to leave their intellectual comfort zones without fear of wrecking our GPAs. I would never have taken a course in the physics department this term without the option of setting an NRO limit. But does this mean I plan on getting below an A in this course? Certainly not. Too often professors inaccurately conflate a student choosing an NRO option with his or her distinct lack of effort in that course. The repercussions of having an “NR” on one’s transcript, for most, are serious in and of themselves, as we have to explain them away in job interviews. Choosing to NRO a course is not equivalent to “checking out.” It’s our prerogative to choose risky courses that we may have to NRO. The stereotypical argument that students who choose an NRO do not contribute to discussion and therefore negatively affect the learning environment is, quite frankly, fallacious.

Fluctuating effort levels have nothing to do with NROs — if a student wasn’t going to try hard to begin with, the NRO won’t affect that trait.

— Aylin Woodward ’15

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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 Dartmouth community deserves a more sustainable campus.

As my last chapter at the College comes to a close, I’m thinking about sustainability differently than I was four years ago. It’s natural to assume a liberal arts college in the New Hampshire woods would score high on any “green” meter. After all, the College was a pioneer in university recycling and energy efficiency — the College power plant was one of the country’s first to use cogeneration. Yet Dartmouth is now lagging behind. The College created the sustainability coordinator position in 2005, but the institutionally-funded sustainability office launched in 2010. There is still a lot of work to do.

Let’s look at some recent numbers. The College generates 7.9 million British Thermal Units of clean, renewable energy, while Middlebury College generates over 12,000 MMBtu, and Cornell University generates 14,000 MMBtu. The College diverts 45.7 percent of its waste from the landfill — the respective percentages for Cornell and Middlebury are 72 and roughly 60.

Dartmouth Dining Services spends about 77 percent of its budget on non-sustainably produced animal products. Meanwhile, the same numbers for Cornell, Middlebury and Princeton are 34, 31 and 13, respectively. The College scores 20 percent on the campus as a laboratory metric, which judges campus resource management, diversity and affordability, health and investments.

Cornell and Middlebury scored 100 percent.

Clearly, these numbers could be better, even if Dartmouth has challenges specific to its location. These statistics matter because as an Ivy League school, we should be at the forefront of modeling sustainability. Furthermore, as a school surrounded by a bounty of natural resources, we should take advantage of the opportunity to experiment and explore better options.

In some areas, we’re already making progress.

The College has a robust energy efficiency program, and we have reduced our annual consumption of No. 6 fuel oil from 4.5 million gallons as I finished my first year to 3.7 million gallons as I graduate. The College is actively researching ways to diversify its energy portfolio and shift away from solely burning our current fuel. The sustainability office provides experiential learning opportunities for students to do real projects with a real impact. While these initiatives are making a difference, we have a lot more work to do across the board to be a truly green campus.

Support from students, faculty and staff for initiatives like these and related experiential learning opportunities are invaluable to their success. Sustainability goes beyond the basic things

people think of, such as composting or turning off your dorm room lights. Despite its crunchy stereotypes, sustainability’s real meaning extends into broader realms, from health to social justice to mindfulness. Most majors and minors intersect with sustainability in some way. Sustainability is about how we treat ourselves, others and the environment. From the annual sustainability and social justice dinner and Dartmouth On Purpose events, to senior consultancy projects with Dick’s House and the Tucker Foundation’s West Virginia alternative spring break trip, programs across campus touch upon issues of sustainability. Diverse perspectives are critical to improving sustainability, including the metrics I cited above.

Some of us who are passionate about sustainability might own some flannel, shop at thrift stores or eat vegetarian. Some of us don’t.

Regardless, we are connected through deeper interests and actions than these. We’re eager to learn on and off campus through designing and testing projects. The Dartmouth Organic Farm began as a student initiative to connect with the environment and provide educational opportunities. Today, it’s not only a place to learn in and out of class, but also a popular social space with a beautiful setting. Another student idea, Farm Fresh Friday, is a social event that brings local food to Webster Avenue. Students are experimenting with change — we deserve a campus that spearheads these efforts as well.

It is time for the entire Dartmouth community to ask itself — and its administrators — to step up. Let’s set and meet bolder goals. Sustainability needs more leaders in every corner of campus — in residential life, Greek houses, the Hopkins Center, DDS, athletic teams and in every department and academic program. This should be a campus-wide priority that collaborates — not competes — with other initiatives.

I recognize that the sustainability community could be more inclusive, but it also suffers from labels that misrepresent its values and prevent students from getting involved. For instance, I believe V-February, Pride Week and this spring’s #BlackLivesMatter course are as much about sustainability as Earth Week. All social movements ultimately have a stake in sustainability — in sustaining human wellbeing. Unequal power balances and oppression challenge the stability of our community. But let’s not just “sustain” — let’s thrive and improve. Because it’s only through a united effort with strong administrative leadership, faculty support and student energy that Dartmouth will truly become “green.”

thursday, MAY 28, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

Committee calls for end of the NRO, lower grades FROM DEFLATION PAGE 1

that may be awarded.

The committee also advocates ending the non-recording option and changing the process for promoting faculty.

The proposal was first obtained by website Dartblog. The Dartmouth later obtained a copy.

The ad hoc committee was formed jointly by the Committee on Instruction and the Committee on Organization and Policy to address grade inflation early in winter term, committee chair and biological sciences professor Mark McPeek said.

McPeek said the committee essentially formulated its policy recommendations at its first meeting, as most members were well-versed in the issue.

“The fundamental principle of the proposal is simply to start holding faculty accountable for the kind of courses that they teach and the rigor of those courses,” he said.

McPeek said the committee has found that either students are given higher grades than they deserve or that the level of rigor in courses has fallen in recent decades.

“I am as guilty as everyone else of giving grades that [do not conform] to the Dartmouth Scholarship Ratings,” computer science professor and ad hoc committee on grading member Thomas Cormen said. “Going forward, I will have my grades conform to the Dartmouth Scholarship Ratings.”

Cormen said that while some believe that today’s students themselves are smarter or say that teaching has improved due to increased emphasis on undergraduate education at the College, he was not able to provide an opinion on either.

“We need to make our courses more challenging as students are able to handle more of a challenge,” he said.

McPeek emphasized that the proposal includes no recommendations for curving grades or mandating a certain grade distribution, as Princeton University did for a decade before reversing the policy in October 2014. He also said that the proposal does not intend to level out grades between academic disciplines, as the differences between comparatively high-grading fields and comparatively low-grading ones have remained consistent since the 1970s.

“We could really care less if the grades are higher in one discipline or another,” he said.

Cormen said that the proposal does not recommend limiting the number of As that can be given out, in part based upon the experience of Princeton, his own alma mater.

“They found that students were competing with each other too much for this limited resource of As,” he said.

Cormen said that he is in favor of students learning cooperatively rather than in competition with each other.

In addition to the recommendation to adhere more closely to the Dartmouth Scholarship Ratings system, the proposal also recommends making public data available relating to grading practices both past and present to ensure that graduate schools, employers, students and faculty understand the changes to the College’s grading system.

Additionally, the report calls for the abolishment of the non-recording option, as it allegedly promotes laziness in certain courses. The proposal also suggests that course syllabi have more clarity around grading expectations to reduce the amount of questioning from dissatisfied students regarding their performance, and that the College lift the five-student minimum course enrollment requirement so that faculty will not be incentivized to create easier courses in an effort to attract more students.

The proposal also discusses faculty promotion practices and reporting policies between academic departments, the registrar and the Dean of the College’s Office. It recommends that departments offer reports to the registrar on grade distribution with regard to historical trends and that academic unit chairs consult with their associate deans each fall term to relay information on the rigor of courses offered within that unit.

When a faculty member applies for a promotion or tenure, he or she must submit a dossier of various qualifications. The proposal recommends including a requirement that these dossiers should include information on the faculty member’s use of the Dartmouth Scholarship Ratings system and assessments of the faculty member provided by colleagues within his or her department. The report proposes that evaluations for non-tenure-track faculty be carried out in a similar fashion.

Faculty would also be required to discuss their grade distributions and adherence to the Dartmouth Scholarship Ratings system in a yearly meeting with their associate dean and to report their grading standards and grade distributions each year as part of the Faculty Record Supplement.

Near the report’s conclusion, a portion is dedicated to students’ extracurricular involvements, and the proposal suggests that students limit these involvements to focus more fully on academics.

Students, Cormen said, are helped in the college admissions process by having a long and varied list of extracurricular activities, and many continue to pursue similar activities after matriculation.

He said that he has seen many students who have numerous time-consuming extracurricular commitments.

Some, he said, have the equivalent of a full-time job.

“It does make us wonder sometimes

if there are students who think of Dartmouth as, ‘Well, I eat here, I sleep here, I do these extracurriculars and, when I have time, I do my coursework,’” he said. “Maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but I don’t think it’s a huge exaggeration.”

English professor Thomas Luxon said that he feels the idea that students are overcommitted to their extracurriculars is a simplification of the issue.

He cited seniors working on theses who do little but their research and writing as one example of students who have fewer extracurricular responsibilities and many academic ones.

“It’s an overgeneralization from student to student, and it’s also probably an overgeneralization for any single student, term-to-term,” Luxon said.

The proposal contains a section responding to potential concerns others may have with its recommendations, including the frequently raised issue of admission to medical, professional and graduate schools. The proposal cites research on Dartmouth graduates applying to medical schools, conducted by biology professor and former pre-med advisor Lee Witters, that found that, in the years 2002 and 2014, one student in each year with a GPA of 3.7 gained admission to no medical schools, while one student in each year with a GPA of 2.4 gained admission to at least two.

On average, admitted students’ GPAs were only about 0.3 higher than those of the average un-admitted student.

“Having a higher GPA will marginally help you, but that is not the determining factor for anything,” McPeek said.

Witters declined to comment for this article.

Going forward, the proposal is largely in administrators’ hands, McPeek said, as few elements would need faculty approval to be enacted.

All faculty evaluation procedures are overseen by academic deans, not by faculty members, meaning that administrators can make changes to its promotion and tenure-granting policies without a faculty vote.

Luxon said while he believed the data compiled by the committee were useful, he did not fully agree with the committee’s findings and he thinks there should be a discussion surrounding the report’s conclusions.

Luxon also called for more student involvement in the process, citing potential student anxiety over the prospect of decreased grades.

“Students have way more anxiety about grades than is healthy, and I know that as you start talking about grade inflation, that just feeds the anxiety,” he said.

Luxon also called on professors

to make syllabi clearer in regards to expectations and grading standards.

John Damianos ’16, who served as a member of the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” presidential steering committee, said that, on the whole, his initial reaction to the report was very positive.

“The idea here is to say something has gone wrong in the grading system — let’s bring grading back to where it should be,” he said. “It makes common sense to say an A is going to be for excellence. That is very intuitive. I think they researched it very well.”

He added that he believed the report could have gone more in depth in its analysis of potential stress and mental health concerns for students.

In the section addressing potential concerns, the proposal rebuts criticisms regarding students’ mental health by stating, “Stress is a part of life. We cannot remove stress from our students’ lives.”

Damianos said the committee should have pursued questions such as which elements of Dartmouth’s intellectual and cultural environment may contribute to students’ stress levels and potential ways to mitigate those factors.

“My prediction is students aren’t going to be satisfied with the answers they gave,” he said.

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PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 10:00 a.m.

“Emotiscope,” an interactive video installation from Ellie Peterson, Black Family Visual Arts Center, 2nd Floor Gallery

12:00 p.m.

“Efficient measurement of personality,” seminar with Jacob Montgomery, Rockefeller Center, Class of 1930 Room

8:00 p.m.

“Sugarplum Dance Showcase,” full-length showcase, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Moore Theater

TOMORROW 2:00 p.m.

“Workshop on Ethics and Practical Reason,” Class of 1953 Commons, Paganucci Lounge

3:30 p.m.

“Utility of Breath Analysis to Diagnose and Monitor Systemic Disease,” Charles C. Jones seminar with Dr. Raed Dweik

6:30 p.m.

“Introducing...Walt Cunningham,” fil special, Black Family Visual Arts Center, Loew Auditorium

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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Senior showcase invites feedback B y haley gordon The Dartmouth Staff

When Corinne Romano ’15 first proposed her idea to represent Mayan hieroglyphs as real-life creatures for a senior studio art project, she said that some members of the faculty did not understand the point of view she hoped to present through her work. Despite the uncertainty of some professors, Romano was intrigued by the concept — which built on her interest in “creature concept design” — and she decided to commit to the idea.

“I worked nonstop for two terms on that piece, and over spring break as well,” she said.

Romano’s work is now on view as part of the senior majors exhibition, a showcase of work by graduating seniors in the studio

“[The professors] did a really good job using my work to get at the heart of what my thesis was. It’s been really cool for my friends to see a snapshot of what I’ve been working on.”

-NOAH SMITH ’15 art department that is open to the public in the Hopkins Center’s Jaffe-Friede and Strauss Galleries and the Black Family Visual Arts Center’s Nearburg Arts Forum.

Two weeks removed from its May 12 kickoff, the exhibit will remain open until June 21.

Janine Leger ’15, a honors major in the studio art department whose work is also displayed in the exhibition, said that studio art professor and head of exhibitions Gerald Auten headed the selection process for the showcase, which allowed students to submit pieces of which they were particularly proud for potential placement in the show. Professors then selected work for the showcase, Leger said, focusing less on organizing the show around a particular theme and more on selecting students’ best and most interesting work.

Pieces were selected close to the beginning of spring, she said.

Noah Smith ’15, another honors major in the department, said that he had six pieces chosen for the showcase. Describing his selected pieces as slightly “random,” he said they still captured the thought behind his thesis, which examines the experience of African-American males who choose to affiliate in

mainstream, predominately white fraternities. “[The professors] did a really good job using my work to get at the heart of what my thesis was,” Smith said. “It’s been really cool for my friends to see a snapshot of what I’ve been working on.”

In addition to sharing their work with friends, those students featured in the showcase have also had the opportunity to receive feedback from gallery viewers over the past two weeks, Leger said. Leger had four pieces in the show, including an 82 by 52-inch paining titled “Calm Catastrophe.”

“I’ve been asked to submit work to a gallery called ‘Castle in the Clouds,’ which is in New Hampshire,” Leger said. “Someone has even offered to buy one of my pieces…You get a lot more feedback over an extended period of time versus just one day when everyone goes to see it.”

Romano, who eventually decided to present her hieroglyphinspired creatures in the Victorian style as a “cabinet of curiosities,” also said that she has enjoyed sharing her work and receiving feedback.

“A lot of the community was really excited to be able to touch and interact with the piece,” Romano said. “My professors very much enjoyed it, especially the level of detail.”

Work in the exhibition, which

PAGE 7

BACK...TO THE FUTURE?

includes work from 16 other student artists in addition to Romano, Leger and Smith, spans various styles — from interactive sculpture to Leger’s paintings, which she described as abstract and “similar

“A lot of the community was really excited to be able to touch and interact with the piece.”

-Corinne romano ’15 to American expressionism.”

“My work is very textured,” Leger said. “It’s more about people getting a sense of light and texture and tone out of the work...versus a physical object that they see.”

In discussing their work, all those interviewed mentioned how exciting it has been to share their work with peers and community members. Romano described the wide viewership as the most meaningful part of the exhibition.

“This is my first gallery showing at this scale, and it feels really damn good,” she said. “Just to be able to put my work forward and have people react the way they did is so gratifying.”

HOPkiNS CENtER fOR tHE ARtS

CHERRY HUANG/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

“Emotiscope,” an interactive video installation, is currently on view in the BFVAC.

Fre

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You are invited...

ArTs AT

dArTmoUTH AwArds Ceremony

Guest of Honor

Sharon WaShington ’81 Accomplished theater, film and television actor

sun MAY 31 2 pm spaulding audiTORiuM

dartmouth symphony orchestra

MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO. 6 ANtHONY PRiNCiOtti conductor One of Mahler’s darkest works, his Sixth is an unforgettable trip through human heights and depths, complete with special percussion meant to sound like “hammer blows of fate.” The third Mahler symphony the DSO has played in the past five years, it’s an extraordinarily rich universe of experience, emotion and expression from one of the giants of classical music. hop.dartmouth.edu • 603.646.2422 • Dartmouth College • Hanover, NH

Celebrating the talent and accomplishments of students in the arts tue jun 2 4:30 pm the moore theater • 2015 A reception will follow in the Jaffe-Friede Gallery

hop.dartmouth.edu • 603.646.2422 • Dartmouth College • Hanover, NH

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

PAGE 8

SPORTS

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

FRIDAY LINEUP

TRACK AND FIELD NCAA EAST REGIONAL

SAILING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Senior Spring: Kristen Rumley ’15 leaves a legacy on the mound B y Ray lu

The Dartmouth Staff

Softball captain Kristen Rumley ’15 has had one of the greatest careers in Big Green softball history. She now holds the all-time records for strikeouts with 669 and wins with 46, has pitched the most innings in program history and was the first player to be named the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year for three consecutive years.

During the recruiting process, however, Dartmouth nearly did not get to her in time.

At the end of Rumley’s junior year of high school, she received a scholarship to play softball at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The University was also relatively close to her hometown of Katy, Texas. Rumley verbally committed but waited to signing her letter of intent.

“The only reason I would ever back out is if I do get accepted into an Ivy League school,” Rumley said of her thinking at the time.

During her senior year, Rumley had one last tournament in Houston. She told San Antonio that she would officially commit if she did not hear from other schools after the tournament.

The tournament came and went without any news, and Rumley prepared to call the coaches after practice.

“I was on my way to batting lessons on Monday night,” Rumley said. “I [got] a phone call from the Dartmouth coach, and she was like, ‘Have you committed?’”

Dartmouth’s then-head coach was Rachel Hanson, who departed the Big Green after Rumley’s junior year at the College to take the same position at Stanford University.

“She contacted me the next day and was like, ‘We can get you in, are you interested?’” Rumley said. “I committed to Dartmouth without having met the coach, without having been up here.”

Rumley was born in California, but she was raised in the Texas suburbs. She began her athletic career playing soccer but switched over to softball around seven or eight years old.

“I was horrible actually,” Rumley said. “I sat the bench, I never played and I started in the outfield, and then I moved to first base when I started to actually be OK.” An only child, Rumley was very close with her parents, who played a big part in fostering her love of sports.

“I’m a dad’s girl — did the whole Indian Princesses [YMCA program] with my dad, camped with him,” Rumley said.

In junior high, Rumley wanted to

switch to pitching. Rumley’s skills on the field were improving quickly, and she was bored of playing first base. “[I] would just wake up in the morning at 6 a.m., spinning a ball while I was sitting on my bed, still half asleep,” Rumley said.

Still, her father, a former high school catcher, was reluctant to let her.

“He said, ‘Okay, you need to sit in your room spinning a ball for six months. If you do that every single morning, then we can start to pitch,’” Rumley said.

He served as her pitching coach and had a mound in the backyard for her to practice. Most days when he got home from work, he and Rumley would toss a ball around.

“Both of my parents were super supportive,” Rumley said. “My mom was always that ‘team mom,’ all gungho, always placing orders for uniforms.

[She] was very, very involved. My dad was always the athletic side of it.”

Rumley played on her high school team as well as a summer traveling team, the latter being more important to her recruiting process because of the opportunities to play in showcases and national qualifiers.

Rumley said she never dreamt of playing for a school like the University of Texas or Texas A&M University, but simply wanted “any opportunity [she] could get.”

While she nearly became a UT San Antonio Roadrunner, Rumley was always interested in playing at a private school, in part due to academics.

“I didn’t really know much about Dartmouth in general,” Rumley said.

“I just knew it was an Ivy League, it was a really good school and the coach was from Houston.”

Rumley committed to play for the Big Green in October of her senior year, and was able to visit Hanover the next month, which unfortunately coincided with final exams on campus. Luckily, she was able to visit again later on.

“Nobody was all too thrilled to be hosting a recruit on campus during finals week,” Rumley said. “But, when I came up with my family we drove around and it was just gorgeous.”

While her hometown is halfway across the nation, Rumley was not bothered by the move. As an only child, she says that she was adjusted to being alone at times.

“I’m very much an individual, so going halfway across the country didn’t really scare me,” Rumley said.

Her freshman year, the softball program was in the midst of a culture change.

“Our team my freshman year here was very different from what it is now,” Rumley said. “When I came in, I knew we weren’t all that good, but Coach Hanson had only been here for a year and she was trying to turn the program around.”

Dartmouth had not clinched the North Division, which consists of Harvard, Yale and Brown Universities, since the 2008-2009 season, when the Big Green lost the Ivy League championship series to Cornell University. When Rumley arrived on campus, the softball team had yet to win an Ivy championship.

Rumley said that workouts became harder and commitment to the team became increasingly important during her freshman year. The atmosphere shifted from Ivy League students that picked up softball for fun to a more serious focus on competitive play.

“It wasn’t just about having fun and having a great time,” Rumley said. “It was more about fighting to win an Ivy Championship.”

Her first year, the team finished 14-25 overall and 7-13 in the Ivy League, and Harvard clinched the North Division for the third straight year. The next year saw continued improvement as the team finished 26-20 overall and 15-5 in the Ivy League, yet still finished second behind Harvard for the division title.

Along the way, however, Rumley was quickly emerging as one of the stars of the program. As a freshman, she won the team’s MVP award and was named to all-Ivy honorable mention. Her sophomore season, she was a unanimous all-Ivy first-team selection and was named the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, setting Dartmouth single-season records for strikeouts and wins with 185 and 22, respectively.

With the emergence of the Class of 2016 as strong players, everything fell in place for the Big Green in the 2013-2014 season. The team finished 31-19 overall and 18-2 in the Ivies, brining home the program’s first Ivy League Championship. Rumley picked up her second consecutive Ivy League Pitcher of the Year award, broke her own strikeout record with 197 and hit the game-winning twoRBI double to clinch the championship against the University of Pennsylvania.

“Just to know that [through] all the hard work we put in our entire lives, we changed a program — that was just the best feeling in the world,” Rumley said.

This past season, the Big Green defended their title against Penn once more, sweepingtheQuakersintwogameswhile allowing just one run Rumley also pitched the fifth no-hitter in program history —

JEFFREY LEE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Three-time Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Kristen Rumley ’15 will return as an assistant coach.

and the first of her career — on March 28 against Columbia University.

Rumley was recently awarded with the Kenneth Archibald Prize, the College’s highest athletic honor awarded to “the member of the graduating class who has been four years in attendance, who has been the best all-around athlete, regard also being had to moral worth and high standing in scholarship.”

Nonetheless, the first title in school history was still the sweetest memory for Rumley.

“The cliché answer is winning the first Ivy League championship,” she said.

“That was by far the best moment ever.”

Rumley also contributed inside the batter’s box, hitting her only two home runs of the year in two separate games on April 4 against Cornell.

“She hit two home runs this year in the same [day],” teammate Maddie Damore ’17 said. “She calls herself now ‘the home-run hitter.’”

Damore also recalled a story about Rumley’s fielding prowess.

“During one of the games, there was a ball hit to her side… [Pitchers] field their position, but the joke is to ‘stay inside your circle,’” Damore said.“But, she came out of the circle, bare-handed the ball and got the out. She was super excited about it.”

In the classroom, Rumley took some time before she figured out what field suited her best.

“When I came in my freshman year

I wanted to become a veterinarian and work with big cats, and now I’m not doing any of that,” she said.

Rumley will graduate this spring with a major in anthropology and a minor in sociology. Up until the end of her sophomore year, Rumley had planned on becoming an economics major.

“I loved it. I liked the material, but I sucked at it,” she said.

In terms of balance, Rumley said that the first two years were the most difficult because she was still finding her bearings. Once she found that balance, however, she was able to appreciate her experiences.

“I knew that this was going to be my last four years of softball, so I really wanted to enjoy that,” she said.

Her dedication transferred into leadership skills as the team captain. Rumley also served as co-captain her junior year.

“She is a great example of leading by example,” Damore said. “She’s not very boisterous and she doesn’toutwardly express, but she very much so leads by example and she does a great job of that.”

Her experience will translate well to her next job — an assistant coach for the Dartmouth softball team. Rumley will continue to be a part of the sport that she loves and the program that she has already given so much to after she graduates.

“I think just enjoying my experience here was really what I wanted to live by,” Rumley said, “and that’s what I did.”