The Compact Mirror 9/11/13

MIR ROR

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

THE ORIENTATION ISSUE

DARTMOUTH INSTRUCTIONS // 2

MEASURING UP WITH THE MOVIES // 3

MAINTAINING TRIPS RELATIONSHIPS // 4

MAKING SENSE OF REVOLT // 4 REBECCA XU // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

2// MIRROR

EDITOR’S NOTE If you’re reading this, and you’re a ’17, the first thing I have to say is congratulations.

I’m not going to tell you the hard part is over, but making it this far probably required a lot of time outside your comfort zone. Stepping on Robinson lawn for DOC First-Year Trips, saying bye to parents and those first few dinners in the Class of 1953 Commons are sure to bring ner ves and tears.

In this special Orientation issue we take a look at Hollywood depictions of college life, reflect on some features of Dartmouth we wish had come with instructions, inquire how relationships from Trips may be affected by the new Greek Leadership Council policy and hear a student’s first-hand account of the events unfolding in Cairo, Egypt. We hope these articles will not simply be informative to the incoming class, but rather invite discussion on issues we as a community continue to grapple with. There surely are par ts of Dar tmouth — mostly logistical ones — that require individual adjustment to an existing environment. But the parts of Dartmouth that truly define it are constantly changing, shaped by the ideas and actions of community members old and new. It’s never too early to start thinking about the impact you want to make. Happy Orientation!

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H T U O M T INSTRUCTIONS R DA THAT

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MIRROR EDITORS AMELIA ACOSTA TYLER BRADFORD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JENNY CHE PUBLISHER GARDINER KREGLOW -

EXECUTIVE EDITORS DIANA MING FELICIA SCHWARTZ GRAPHICS EDITOR ALLISON WANG

OVER HEARDS

’16 Girl to three ’14s: Are you guys ’17s?

Blitz overheards to mirror@thedartmouth.com

’14 Girl 1: Oh my gosh this guy on my Trips section is so cute I have the biggest crush! ’14 Girl 2: Trips is for trippees

’17 Guy at the Sustainable Move-in Sale: Is this where I pick up my keys?

’17 Guy: My trip leader is a pathological liar.

’17 Guy: Why can’t I bring my garden gnome on Trips?

’17 Girl after HCroo breaks into song and dance at Trips safety talk: Should I still be taking notes?

MIRROR //3

MEASURING UP WITH THE MOVIES College life is one of Hollywood’s favorite themes, and depictions can have a loose basis in reality. BY ALEJANDRA HERRERA

TRENDING @ Dartmouth

DISC ’17s JERSEYS

Sport your freshman pride!

BLITZ ATTACKS Learning how to deal with massive overloads of emails is one of the most important skills to acquire as a Dartmouth student.

Courtesy of Collegepartyguru.com

The night before your first day at Dartmouth will be a fitful one – you’re probably nervous thinking about where you’ll live, who you’ll meet and how you’ll fit in – but rest assured it’s nothing like what Hollywood tells you it’ll be. You don’t immediately have to find your best friends or sign up for every club. We all know how college students are portrayed on the screen: lazy, alcoholic party animals, or the complete opposite – loner, boring library dwellers. Here are a few college student stereotypes and how they measure up at Dartmouth.

The Roommate If you haven’t seen the movie with this same title yet, congrats, I definitely don’t recommend it. Spoiler alert: Girl becomes obsessed with her college roommate and goes crazy. The reality is, you and your freshman roomie(s) will have different interests and sleep patterns. If you do become instant BFFs with your roommate, then good for you. But if not, that’s okay too. This doesn’t mean you two will hate each other (though having a roommate that constantly sleeps through their alarm and is forever late to their 9L may do the trick). Most people fall somewhere in the middle. Some stay close friends with their roommates, while others make a point to avoid eye contact with them as they pass each other in FoCo. All in all, as long as you are willing to be flexible and considerate then you’ll be just fine.

The Animal House Frat Bro Trust me, no one hates the Animal HouseDartmouth link more than I do, but this needs to be addressed. In this portrayal, frat bros never show up to class, always look like slobs and drink until they pass out. While this may be the case during meetings (you’ll figure out what those are later), one quick look at all the khakis and button downs on campus will show you that most of the guys here look pretty put together. In fact, Dartmouth has a huge percentage of athletes, many of whom are required to be dry while in season.

Frats may have one or two guys that rarely

ever leave, but most of them also have lives outside of the basement.

The Sorority Girl Despite what you’ve seen in Legally Blonde or that movie starring a pre-breakdown Amanda Bynes (you need to follow her on Twitter), sorority girls at Dartmouth are relatively normal. Sororities aren’t actually full of gossiping and “betchy” girls and aren’t at war with one another. Everyone I know has good friends in different sororities, and most are just groups of girls who watch bad rom-coms together and ask each other for wardrobe advice.

Rest assured it’s nothing like Hollywood tells you it’ll be. You don’t immeditately have to find your best friends or sign up for ever y club.

The Dumb Jock You’d be amazed at how many students here are varsity athletes with 3.5+ GPAs. They have a whole awards ceremony for kids like these. There may be some recruited athletes that fulfill this stereotype, but the vast majority certainly don’t.

The A Capella Zealot Full disclosure, I’m not in an a capella group, but I’m 90 percent sure that they don’t have underground sing-offs. I want to also debunk the myth that they prefix every other word with “aca” like in Pitch Perfect. In fact, most of my friends just roll their eyes at me whenever I ask if their rehearsals were “acaawesome.” Overall, we do have some great talent on campus.

The Overachiever We were probably all in this category at one point or another, but we must move on.

There’s nothing more annoying than the kids

who talk about how they were only 10 points shy of a 2400 on their SATs and how they were placed in Math 32 right off the bat. It will only make other people roll their eyes at you, guaranteed.

The Hot Mess The friend who rarely shows up to class, and if they do they may still be drunk. This friend may have his priorities mixed up, but we love him anyway. In reality, the hot mess actually does more work than you give him credit for, and he’ll graduate eventually.

The Friend Who Doesn’t Tr y In every college movie, there is always the stoner kid who is secretly a genius. I hate this friend. I want to be this friend. The person who does everything last minute and studies for half an hour and gets the A. If you are lucky enough to fall into this category, congratulations, but most of us don’t. Most Dartmouth kids actually have to work hard to get good grades. Go to office hours to get some facetime with the prof and talk to them about any concerns. People who go to office hours often end up with better grades in their classes.

The Friend Who Always Has the Most Work I have to mention the person who thinks that she has the most work out of anybody in school. We all have that friend who frantically runs up to you in the library and starts listing all the work that needs to get done and how many hours of sleep have been lost.

If you’re in the library, people will assume you are there because you have work to do.

Complaining about work to your friends is fine, but no one likes a one-upper. Unless you are a math/physics/chemistry triple major, you need to get it together.

You rarely see a Hollywood movie with college students who are both studious and party hard, but most kids here at Dear Old Dartmouth fall under this category. It’s important to know when to work hard and when to have fun. You’re only here for four years; make sure you enjoy the ride!

RED CUPS The red cups in Foco are a great way to meet new people. Freshman fall is one of the few times it’s socially acceptable to walk up to a random group of people you’ve never met and eat a meal with them.

DEBUNKING MYTHS

Your trips leaders probably made up a bunch of things about Dartmouth just to mess with you. Don’t worry, slowly you’ll figure out the actual names for DDS locations.

DYED HAIR

Trips may be over, but it’s still impossible to miss the Croolings roaming around campus. Hopefully their hair doesn’t fall out.

THE COLD

4// MIRROR

Through the Looking Glass

MAKING SENSE OF REVOLT B Y ALA’ ALRABABA’H This past summer, I interned at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. Afterwards, I planned to spend a few weeks home in Jordan, like I do every year. However, my visit to Jordan was cut short. My father started working in Cairo, and my family moved there.

So at the end of the summer, I had the opportunity to visit Egypt.

For those not familiar with the events in Egypt, Egyptians took to the streets in 2011 to call on Hosni Mubarak, president since 1981, to step down. After Mubarak resigned, the Egyptian military led a turbulent transitional period before Egyptians voted for Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood to become their next president. Egypt’s 2012 presidential election was its first democratic election in, well, a few thousand years. Nevertheless, during his rule Morsi abused his authority and increased presidential power. Perhaps more important, the economic situation in Egypt deteriorated during his year in office. Thus, Egyptians went into the streets again on June 30 to call for his ouster. At the beginning of July, the army forced Morsi out of office and took control of Egypt.

Despite these events, I worried that my time in Egypt would be dull. A few days before my plane landed in Cairo, the military installed a month-long curfew between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. everyday.

This not only meant that all shops closed early (by 5 p.m.), but also that I could not witness many protests (I saw only two during my stay in Cairo).

Still as soon as I arrived, I started talking to Egyptians about the unfolding situation. I was surprised by the strong support for the army. During my first conversation in Egypt, with the cab driver who picked me up at the airport, I was told, “nehna met’awedeen” — we are used to having the military rule over us. While the driver was not optimistic about the return of civilian rule, he did not seem sad at the loss of democracy.

The more Egyptians I talked to, the more I witnessed the strong hatred for the Muslim Brotherhood and the deep popularity of the army. This was shocking to me. The Egyptian military has essentially ruled the country since it became a republic in 1953, and its rule was far from democratic. Moreover, when Mubarak stepped down in 2011, the military took direct government control for a year before Morsi was elected president. The military rule during that year grew extremely unpopular.

Have Egyptians forgotten all that?

I started looking for explanations.

I thought the media campaign led by the military could explain this support. Or maybe Egyptians viewed the army as the only alternative to the Muslim Brotherhood. Perhaps the charisma of Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, the commander-in-chief of the military, is the reason behind the support for the army. However, over the next couple of weeks, I came to a different conclusion.

Egyptians do not view the military as its own separate institution. Instead, they feel the military is a part of the Egyptian

people, and the people are part of the military.

I arrived at this interpretation the first time I broke the curfew. One night, a few hours past curfew, I decided to offer Jordanian coffee to the guards at the checkpoint outside our apartment.

The guards outside invited me to sit down. After some time, I asked them how they joined the security forces.

They told me they were recruits. Most Egyptians have to serve in the military or other security branches, they explained. Those who did not graduate from high school serve for three years.

Egyptians with a high school degree serve for two years and those with a college degree serve for one year. Since almost all Egyptian families have had members in the military, they view the military as a people’s institution.

This realization was confirmed when I talked to Ahmed, an Egyptian I met near Tahrir Square. Ahmed told me to avoid Tahrir Square, as thugs often go there. This increased my resolve to visit the Square (I later found it too safe, the military was everywhere). When I saw protesters there, I asked about the reason for their protest. Ahmed explained that they were expressing their support of the military. But the military already took over, I wondered.

Yes, he responded. But should they leave, Brotherhood thugs could take over the Square. Thus, they decided to stay indefinitely.

Ahmed explained that he too supports the military. He served for two

Courtesyt of Ala’ Alrababah

While in Egypt, Ala’ Alrababah ’14 has saught to understand causes and reactions to the country’s recent turmoil. years, and he feels for soldiers. After he left the military, he got engaged. He has been engaged for a full year now, but has not married because he could not afford an apartment. Even though the military paid him a salary during his service, the salary was essentially too small for him to save anything. Soldiers are “ghalbaneen,” — helpless. Another reason why many Egyptians feel with the military.

Ahmed added that he misses the years of Mubarak’s rule. In those times, there was stability, and Egypt’s economy was better. This left me disillusioned. Don’t Egyptians want democracy? I started asking Egyptians: what if the military becomes as oppressive as the Mubarak regime? What if they start torturing people? One cab driver

replied by saying that Egyptians are now eager for stability. But they also tasted freedom. Egyptians now understand and discuss politics more than ever before. Should anyone take that away from them, even the military, they would go to the streets again. Egyptian support for the military did not prevent them from going to the streets in 2011 and 2012, against the military. As he explained, “Mesr Um Ad-Dunya” — Egypt is the mother of the world. Nobody can harm Egypt and escape with it.

Through The Looking Glass is a weekly feature of submissions from community members who wish to write about defining experiences, moments or relationships at Dartmouth. Please submit articles of 1,000-1,200 words to mirror@thedartmouth.com.

MAINTAINING TRIPS RELATIONSHIPS B Y LINDSAY KEARE By now, most Dartmouth students presumably know that freshmen will not be allowed inside Greek houses until after Homecoming weekend. While there are many obvious reasons for and concerns surrounding this new policy, one of the more subtle ramifications is the impact that the regulation will have on the relationship between DOC First-Year Trip leaders and their trippees.

In the past, while primarily serving as upperclassmen mentors and friends, many trip leaders have also been the means through which freshmen are introduced to pong and the Greek system. Indeed, immediately knowing an upperclassman who is in a fraternity or sorority can provide a low-key welcome to houses on campus. Learning to play pong with a trip leader on a Tuesday evening is arguably a much less stressful way to learn than in a crowded basement on a Saturday night.

“Trippees can learn how to play it in a safe environment where there’s no one judging them,” Nata-

lie Salmanowitz ’14, a member of Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority, said of Trips pong tournaments. “Since you’re there with your trip leaders, you can ask questions and really get to know certain houses on a closer level.”

Garrett Watumull ’16, who will be a trip leader this year, echoed this sentiment, saying that simply knowing an upperclassmen one trusts within the Greek system is an added benefit to starting college, regardless of whether one’s trip holds pong games or events involving alcohol. Still, he imagined that “it’s a hard line to walk” between being a trusted member of a fraternity or sorority and simply being a means through which one’s trippees can obtain alcohol.

Salmanowitz, who did not initiate pong reunions when she was a trip leader — her trippees would contact her if they wanted to play — acknowledges that the new restriction could help form closer bonds between trip leaders and trippees, because reunions centered around alcohol might not make all trippees

feel comfortable.

Alex Wolf ’14, a trip leader trainer, said that trainers have stressed the importance of maintaining healthy relationships with one’s trippees outside of the Greek system.

“The goal of Trips both during the program itself and back on campus is to provide an inclusive welcome for all incoming students,” Wolf said. “With that in mind, pong or other drinking related activities are not always fully inclusive for everyone, as some new students may be uncomfortable with, scared of or just simply not interested in alcohol or Greek life.“ Wolf and the other trainers, concerned that freshmen’s restricted access to fraternities might cause more freshmen to ask their trip leaders to supply alcohol, strongly discouraged trip leaders from buying their trippees alcohol, as they believe doing so could be “unhealthy for the trip leader-trippee dynamic.”

Wolf also said he believes that the relationships between trip leader and trippees will be more sustain-

able if they are not centered upon alcohol.

“That means being very attentive to how alcohol can alter that important connection,” Wolf said.

Both Watumull and Salmanowitz said they emphasized that most of their post-Trips interactions with their trip leaders or trippees had not been focused on alcohol, and instead consisted of periodic dinners or lunches.

Wolf highlighted how Trips training also emphasized that leaders should work to have one-on-one interactions with their trippees as well as larger group bonding. Most incoming students already know that the Greek system can be a significant part of Dartmouth life, so showing trippees the lesser-known gems of Hanover and the Upper Valley is often much more valuable, he said.

For example, “How many new students will immediately be aware of Mink Brook, the indoor climbing gym or Gile fire tower during their freshman fall?” Wolf said. “We hope that leaders will take their trippees to

places they have personally enjoyed on campus and introduce them to a wide array of opportunities.”

While it is possible that Greek houses will see a large number of Trips pong reunions once the ban on freshmen in frats is lifted in October, presumably by this time trippees will have strong relationships with their leaders that are not based upon alcohol and the Greek system.

“I still think [pong tournaments] will happen because [they are] a good way to get together, it’s a social game,” Watumull said. He emphasized that these types of interactions, later in the year, will simply be a way to spend time with one another, rather than a way to consume alcohol.

Regardless of how trip leaders choose to interact with their trippees — both during the integral first few weeks of fall term and beyond — if leaders succeed in forming solid, meaningful and long-lasting relationships with those on their trip, they will have done their job exceedingly well.