The Dartmouth 04/30/2021

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VOL. CLXXVIII NO. 2

FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 2021

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

New Hampshire’s COVID-19 Q&A: Provost Joseph vaccination campaign leads nation Helble reflects on 16 years at Dartmouth BY ANDREW SASSER

The Dartmouth Staff

Provost Joseph Helble has been

KYLE MULLINS/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

BY Kristin Chapman The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on April 29, 2021. As the nationwide vaccine rollout continues, residents of New Hampshire have more than just the hill winds in their veins. According to data from The New York Times, the Granite State leads the U.S. in vaccine distribution both in terms of percentage of allocated vaccines distributed and the percentage of the population with at least one shot. Over 90% of doses allocated to New Hampshire by the federal government have been administered as of April 28, the highest of any state according to the data set published by the New York Times. Trailing closely behind New Hampshire are

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North Dakota with 88% of allocated doses administered and Wisconsin and Minnesota with 87% each. Nationwide, 78% of doses allocated have been administered. New Hampshire also leads in terms of the percentage of population with at least one shot. Roughly 60% of the state’s residents have received at least one dose of the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, according to the New states doing best in terms of share of population with at least one shot are the Granite State’s New England neighbors: Massachusetts with 55%, Connecticut, Vermont and Maine with 54% each and Rhode Island with 52%. Nationwide, 43% of the population has received at least one shot. According to New Hampshire

Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Laura Montenegro, the state’s vaccination effort has been “very carefully planned from the beginning.” “Initially, distribution was limited and long-term care facilities through the federal pharmacy partnership program, but, as allocation increased, we expanded our distribution to pharmacies and other providers,” Montenegro said. New Hampshire has taken part in the federal pharmacy partnership program, a collaboration connecting national pharmacy partners and independent pharmacy networks with the federal government and states to increase access to COVID-19 vaccines across the U.S., according to SEE VACCINES PAGE 2

19 courses to be taught fully in person this summer BY BEN FAGELL

The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on April 29, 2021.

an in-person or remote with in-person components section of a course if they same course. This summer, however, a a corresponding remote section if the

This summer, students will have limited opportunities for on-campus instruction, available fully in person. Only 21 course sections in 19 undergraduate courses will be taught fully in person this summer, up spring.

OPINION

VERBUM ULTIMUM: SLIM PICKINGS PAGE 3

ARTS

RETROSPECTIVE ON DMX PAGE 4

SPORTS

TRACK AND FIELD PLACED WELL IN FIRST MEET SINCE MARCH PAGE 5

MIRROR

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

sections this summer, excluding individualized study courses — roughly a dozen more courses than an average summer term, according to interim registrar for academic policy and operations Eric Parsons. Parsons added that additional courses may be added to the timetable between now and the start of summer term, some of which may be in person or remote with in-person components. that faculty may choose between four course delivery methods: remote with synchronous components, remote and entirely asynchronous, remote with optional on-campus components and on campus subject to limitations. Individualized study courses with single person. Excluding graduate courses, 28 course sections will be taught remotely with onremotely with synchronous components and seven are remote and entirely asynchronous, according to the timetable. An additional 75 undergraduate courses

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its students need a particular course to remain on track for the major, according to Parsons. The “new amended class schedule” used in the fall, winter and spring will be are to revert to the typical class schedule for fall term,” Parsons wrote. Starting in the fall, the class schedule was adjusted to classrooms, extending the passing periods from 15 to 20 minutes. In a letter to the social science department chairs, associate dean of faculty John Carey noted that “the goal is to use [21X] as a transition to the planned in-person opportunities.” But some members of the community were disappointed in the College’s continued limited on-campus course in-person classes, Matthew Biberman ’88, Julia Bricklin, Howard Price and Valerie Price ’88 — parents of members of the Class of 2023 — created a petition on April 25 for parents of students in the Class of 2023. As of Wednesday, the petition has garnered nearly 300 signatures. The petition argues that the low risk of infection after vaccination and the “vanishingly smaller risk if interacting with vaccinated, socially-distanced, masked students” makes “widespread faculty resistance to on-site teaching …

Faculty must adhere to the registrar Valerie Price said she does not view only 13 faculty members committing to teach a fully in-person class this summer

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the upcoming academic year or the

in order to accommodate the College’s For the summer term, some

to in-person instruction. SEE CLASSES PAGE 2

the Dean of the Thayer School of Engineering and more recently as the College’s Provost. During the pandemic, Helble has led the College’s COVID-19 response and hosted the regularly scheduled “Community Conversations,” in which he has shared updates about the College’s pandemic response and led discussions and live Q&A sessions with a wide range of experts and College administrators. Most recently, Helble was appointed as the newest president of his alma mater, Lehigh University — a role for which he will depart Dartmouth in August. The Dartmouth sat down with Helble on Thursday to discuss his time as Dean of Thayer, his work as Provost and his new role at Lehigh.

During the pandemic, you’ve been one of the most important updates through the “Community Conversations” that you’ve led. How would you describe your experience in helping to develop and communicate the college’s response to the pandemic? JH: This is without a doubt the most challenging thing I have worked on professionally in my entire career. The word unprecedented is overused. But it’s unprecedented. As a community last March, we had to pivot essentially overnight, to send our students home, to store student belongings and to work with the faculty to say, “Okay, everything you’ve ever done in your entire career to deliver education and engage students now when spring term starts.” That was extraordinarily challenging, but the

who supported my education and

feet and said, “Let’s do this to support the students.” We had to do all of that in the face of the uncertainty of a global pandemic. But from the beginning, we made a commitment to be data-driven, to look at federal guidance — principally from the CDC — to listen to our own epidemiologists and health experts and to be honest and open with the community about what we knew and what we didn’t know. And it was in that spirit that the “Community Conversations” started. We’ve really tried, and I’ve really tried, to be open about the challenge in front of us, the decisions we’re making and why we’re making them.

extracurricular activities was something I didn’t appreciate at the time; it is only as I became older that I appreciated it. As I got to Dartmouth 16 years ago and started to hear the stories of our alumni and how Dartmouth had

What are some of the other important, if lesser known, accomplishments or roles you’ve taken on as Provost? JH: There are two things I would mention. First, while many think of the Provost as

Your alma mater was Lehigh University. How does it feel to become the next university president there? JH: It’s really hard to describe how it feels and how meaningful this is to me. I’m the oldest of three children and my grandparents were immigrants. Neither of my parents had gone away to college. For me to go away to a residential university, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Being in that environment and having faculty who cared about me as an individual student, classmates

about the incredible transformative impact that the education and being at Lehigh had on me. When I was approached and asked to think about considering this opportunity, I can’t this stage in my career back on all that I have been provided to have a chance to lead and help shape the institution for the next generation of students. During your time as Dean of the Thayer School of Engineering, the school saw its enrollment double program in the nation to award more bachelor’s degrees to women than men. What steps did you take in your role as Dean of Thayer to fuel this growth of interest in engineering? JH: Part of it was the moment and part of it was recognizing the moment and taking advantage of the moment with intentionality. When I started as dean in 2005, it was a moment when had not been growing in more than a decade. It was a moment when it became clear that technology was playing an increasingly important role. And yet interest in engineering was not growing. So it was a moment, but also an opportunity, because working with the faculty, even as the new dean, I recognized that what we did here at ways of approaching engineering through the liberal arts provided opportunity. So we very intentionally began speaking about that much more directly. With the leadership of Thayer, I began to speak very directly about the opportunity for us to be a leading player in educating a diverse community of engineering students. I did that when I saw that our numbers of women studying engineering were slightly above meetings I started to say, “What if we to achieve this goal [of graduating an engineering]?” I honestly didn’t know if we’d be able to achieve it. There was certainly a lot of luck involved. But it was hard work in the commitment of educate female engineering students, but really to make sure that engineering was seen as open and accessible to the broadest cross section of the community.

about the time that President Hanlon asked me if I would take on the role of Provost, it was becoming increasingly evident that we were facing long term projected operating budget deficits. There is a lot of deferred maintenance that’s needed on this campus. The steam tunnels need to be replaced, we need to upgrade our heating system. We also knew that we needed to upgrade our IT infrastructure. But all of this led to a situation where we were projecting $30 to $50 million in annual operating Working with the community, the Board

challenging. Now we are at a point where are balanced budgets. We’re addressing deferred maintenance because of the work that the board has done to help create an infrastructure renewal funding drawing on the endowment. The other thing I’d say that’s not well known was being part of the leadership team that created the Campus Climate and Culture Initiative. The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine had issued a report in summer of 2019 talking about tremendous challenges of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment in the workplace. We say we’re going to tackle this head on and set up a program that adopts every single one of the National Academies’ recommendations. We still have a long way to go with implementation of this initiative, but we’ve made great progress. If you could give your successor as Provost any advice, what would you say? JH: Listen carefully. Go to every alike. Be an open and transparent communicator, even when you don’t have the answers. I have found that the Dartmouth community is a smart, engaged and trusting community. and certainly the alumni community, all appreciate the value of honesty and transparency, even if the answer you’re giving is not the answer they hope to receive. Communicate openly, honestly, transparently. Do a lot of listening and make sure you’re attentive to the budget. SEE HELBLE PAGE 2


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