VOL. CLXXVI NO. 121
PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 39 LOW 25
OPINION
LEVY: THE LOWDOWN ON LONG DISTANCE PAGE 4
VERBUM ULTIMUM: GAMING THE VOTE PAGE 4
ARTS
“WU MAN AND FRIENDS” USHER IN LUNAR NEW YEAR ON CAMPUS PAGE 7
SPORTS
FROM THE BLEACHERS: THE POWER OF THE SITUATION IN THE NFL PAGE 8
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Jewel of India, unable Over 30 professors criticize New to renew lease, will York Times’ coverage of suicide close by end of June B y JENNIFER CHEN The Dartmouth
Jewel of India, a familyowned Hanover mainstay, will not be able to renew its lease with the College — the owner of the property on which it resides — and will close by the end of June. Jewel of India co-owner Surjit Kaur said that she wants to renew the lease on the building, but the College is interested in developing a mixed-use structure on the property instead.
College spokesperson Diana Lawrence wrote in an email that Jewel of India was notified about the lease not being extended in December 2018. Kaur said that she only learned about the lack of a lease renewal two weeks ago when she and her husband visited the College’s real estate office. A few days ago, a Jewel of India customer posted on the Upper Valley Facebook group page, SEE JEWEL PAGE 3
Panel at Rockefeller Center evaluates New Hampshire primary B y CAITLIN MCCARTHY The Dartmouth
As the New Hampshire primary approaches, students volunteer with their favorite candidates, register to vote and attend campaign events. With all the buzz about the first-in-the-nation primary, three political experts — Ned Helms, Tom Rath ’67 and Andrew Smith — discussed the political phenomenon during a
panel titled “Polls, Pundits and Predictions: Sizing Up the NH Presidential Primary Race” hosted by the Rockefeller Center on Wednesday. Helms, a for mer commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services for New Hampshire and chairman of the state Democratic Party, co-chaired Obama’s New SEE PRIMARY PAGE 5
PETER CHARALAMBOUS/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Moore Hall houses the psychological and brain sciences department.
B y GIGI GRIGORIAN AND BERIT SVENSON The Dartmouth Staff
A group of more than 30 Dartmouth faculty members wrote a column in the Valley New s earlier th i s week criticizing a Jan. 4 article in The New York Times about the circumstances around the suicide of former psychological and brain sciences chair David Bucci last fall. In the column, the professors argue that the Times article, written by n at i o n a l c o r re s p o n d e n t Anemona Hartocollis, excluded “any discussion of the ongoing pain of the young women who were targeted
by the predatory behavior of their male professors” as well as what they call a “misogynist culture” in the PBS department and across the College. They also write that the article “leaves the impression that the plaintiffs were #MeToo radicals gone too far,” noting that the plaintiffs have received hate mail blaming them for Bucci’s death since the article was published. Bucci died by suicide in October 2019, following what had been a tumultuous period for the PBS department. In 2017, Bucci and PBS professor and director of g raduate studies Thalia Wheatley fir st received complaints from students
in the department of sexual misconduct. In fall 2017, former PBS professors Todd Heatherton, Bill Kelley and Paul Whalen were put on paid leave; by the summer of 2018, all three had retired or resigned after an investigation had been conducted and College officials concluded that their tenures be revoked. In November 2018, seven women filed a $70 million class action lawsuit against the College in which Bucci was significantly implicated in the alleged wrongdoings of the PBS department. The lawsuit alleged that Bucci was aware of abuse in the department and did not act SEE PROFESSORS PAGE 3
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Study by DHMC doctors evaluates efficacy of snowsports helmets B y LAUREN ADLER
The Dartmouth Staff
A new study authored by trauma surgeons at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center suggests that wearing snow sports helmets may not protect against serious head injuries. The study, published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, found that while helmet use could mitigate the damage of some injuries — injured patients who wore helmets were half as likely as unhelmeted patients to suffer cervical spine injuries and only a third as likely to suffer skull fractures or scalp laceration — there were more injuries among skiers and snowboarders who wore helmets than those who did not. Helmeted patients were much more likely to sustain serious injury, intracranial hemorrhage, chest injury or lumbosacral spine injury. The researchers, led by Andrew Crockett and Eleah Porter from DHMC, also observed that even though helmet use nearly doubled
over the course of the study, the rate of head injuries decreased by only six percent. “[We noticed] an alarming trend — that more patients were coming in helmeted, but they were coming in severely injured,” Porter wrote in an email. “At times, more severely injured than their counterparts who were not helmeted. This was counterintuitive to us and most of the literature on helmets in ski trauma show the opposite.” Porter and Crockett said they suspect that helmet wearers are lulled into a false sense of security that leads to more reckless behavior: while helmets do make people safer overall, they do not keep us as safe as we think they do. Most helmet manufacturers voluntarily test their equipment to the standard set by the American Society of Testing and Materials’ Standard Specification for Helmets Used for Recreational Snow Sports, better known as ASTM F2040. This metric requires that helmets are tested in four different conditions (ambient, hot, cold and wet) by
CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.
one- to two-meter drops onto three differently shaped anvils (flat, hemisphere and edge). The helmets hit these anvils with impacts of 98.1 joules, 58.8 joules and 49 joules, respectively. However, a relatively skilled recreational skier weighing about 200 pounds and traveling at about 40 miles per hour would hit a stationary object like a tree at about 14,500 joules. Additionally, ASTM F2040 does not require a shell penetration test — in which a 6.6-pound weight is dropped onto the helmet to determine the durability of the helmet’s hard shells — or a chin bar test, in which an 11-pound weight is dropped onto the helmet’s chin bar to determine its sturdiness. However, this test is more popular for motorsports helmets, as many snowsports helmets do not have chin bars. Crockett referenced a joke from Seinfeld about skydivers: ‘You jump out of a plane, the chute doesn’t open, the helmet is now wearing you for protection.’
“This makes intuitive sense when you consider the forces involved in free-falling from the sky and smashing into the ground at high speed,” he wrote in an email. “It also makes sense when we discuss ski injuries. There, simply, are speeds at which the helmet may not be as protective as we would like, and it is at those speeds that it is ‘wearing you for protection’ and not the other way around.” While snowsports helmets may not always fully protect users, skiers and snowboarders can still employ safe practices to keep themselves safe on the slopes. PE Ski program director John Brady recommends that students not measure their progress by the steepness of the slopes on which they ski, as many injuries result from skiers and snowboarders attempting to tackle slopes outside of their ability. “Stay in your comfort zone and learn to ski before you progress to more difficult terrain,” Brady said. “And, of course, skiing in control is the best way to prevent injury.”
Sean Norton, snowsports school director at the Dartmouth Skiway, also recommends that participants in snowsports follow the seven points of the National Ski Areas Association’s Responsibility Code: always stay in control and be able to stop; people farther down the mountain always have the right of way; do not stop in a location that obstructs a trail or is not visible from above; look uphill and yield to others when starting downhill or merging into a trail; always use devices to prevent runaway equipment; observe posted signs and warnings and keep out of closed areas; and before using any lift, know and be able to get on, ride and dismount safely. But despite the equipment’s shortcomings, Porter, Crockett, Brady and Norton all strongly advocate for helmet use. “ We c e r t a i n l y e n c o u r a g e everybody to wear a helmet,” Norton said. “We require our students to, and everyone in our staff; we try to set a good example by wearing them.”
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
PAGE 3
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Article described Bucci as victim of “scorched-earth legal strategy” FROM PROFESSORS PAGE 1
sufficiently upon it. According to the Times article, the College advised Bucci to not speak out and tell his side of the story publicly because they believed the best solution was to let the legal process clear his name. The article, which includes an interview with Bucci’s wife, reports that Bucci grew distressed after being named in the lawsuit and that people close to him believe Bucci was “a casualty of a scorched-earth legal strategy to pin blame on the Ivy League college.” After reading the Times article, English professor Ivy Schweitzer — who spearheaded the Valley News column with history professor Annelise Orleck — said she felt renewed grief regarding Bucci’s October suicide. “He was part of our community,” Schweitzer said. “It was reliving the whole sadness again.” However, she said she then felt angry that the College did not give
Bucci an opportunity to tell his side of the story, which she called a “moral failing on the part of the College.” “When you ‘lawyer up,’ that’s what the lawyers do,” Schweitzer said. “The lawyers are concerned with winning or losing. They’re not concerned with taking an ethical position or a humanitarian position.” Schweitzer also said she believes that the Times article implies that the lawsuit caused Bucci’s suicide. “[The article] implied such malice on the part of these nine young women who, I feel, had been victims of abuse by their older professors who were supposed to be their mentors,” Schweitzer said. The column was published a week after a group of alumni members of the Dartmouth Community against Gender Harassment & Sexual Violence condemned the Times article in a letter to the editor in The Dartmouth. Diana Whitney ’95, the lead author of the letter, said she
was appalled by the article and its “victim-blaming angle.” Whitney added that she believes this angle stems from a wider culture that punishes victims of sexual violence when they speak out. “I was really shocked that the angle of the piece seemed to be to blame and shame the student victims for this tragic suicide,” Whitney said. Specifically, the line in the Times article about Bucci being “a casualty of a scorched-earth legal strategy” proved problematic for some readers. According to Anne Pinkney ’20, who serves as executive chair of the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault, this characterization was “particularly irresponsible,” as it trivialized the pain inflicted by members of the PBS department. Pinkney added she was disappointed with Hartocollis’ decision to interview Heatherton, one of the three PBS professors who was accused of sexual assault and
elected to retire in July 2018. “[Heatherton] labeled the entire lawsuit as unfair, which I feel is just a gross misunderstanding of what actually occurred at the hands of three tenured professors,” Pinkney said. The use of Heatherton as a source drew the attention of Whitney and Schweitzer, too. Both pointed to Heatherton’s quote in which he said he was glad to be out of the “toxic” PBS department. “This is a toxic environment that he allegedly helped create and he helped maintain,” Schweitzer said. “The way in which the article seemed to push the blame away from the perpetrators and onto the plaintiffs — I thought — was unconscionable.” Pinkney said she supports the Dartmouth faculty member s’ response to the Times article and felt that their response was an important addition to the discourse surrounding Bucci’s death. She added, however, that she was
disappointed by the lack of a student response to the article’s portrayal of the plaintiffs. “I think [the Dartmouth faculty members] properly defended the actions of the plaintiffs,” Pinkney said. “[Their response] seemed to be a reminder that the plaintiffs are not at fault for Professor Bucci’s death.” According to Whitney, DCGHSV members would like the College to show “institutional courage” and issue an apology, show increased accountability and transparency going forward, and investigate more deeply the PBS department and its underlying issues. Whitney pointed out that it would not be unprecedented for a university to issue this kind of apology. After an investigation concluded in summer 2019 that a psychiatry professor at Yale University had been sexually assaulting students for decades, Yale President Peter Salovey apologized for the professor’s behavior.
College considering development of mixed-use structure on property FROM JEWEL PAGE 1
bringing attention to the restaurant’s lease issues and prompting concern in the Hanover community. Kaur said that since 1992, Jewel of India has served the local community with traditional, North Indian cuisine at affordable prices. She added that Dartmouth began buying out town property in 2002, including Jewel of India — which has leased the building from the College since. “I don’t know how we can solve [the building issue],” Kaur said. “If Dartmouth allowed us to repair the second floor, we can do it.” According to Hanover town manager Julia Griffin, the building has been in “really poor shape” for years. Griffin noted that the top floor, which used to be an apartment rented out to Dartmouth students, has been uninhabited since Dartmouth bought the property in 2002 because of its
buckling floors and walls. She added that the basement has mold issues, leaking and significant plumbing problems. “It’s a very tired, old property,” Griffin said. Lawrence echoed similar concerns about the property. “The building that they occupy — which was constructed in 1910 — requires significant capital improvement, and the cost to repair and remediate hazardous materials is greater than the cost of tearing down the building,” Lawrence wrote. Griffin also expressed concerns about the restaurant’s struggle to abide by New Hampshire’s health code. According to New Hampshire Department Health and Human Services documents, the restaurant has had past health code violations. After a routine inspection on May 29, 2018, the restaurant was found
to have seven priority violations. The violations included cleanliness issues such as storing food in coolers that had flies, storing raw chicken that dripped over sauces and handling ready-to-eat food with bare hands. The restaurant passed a followup inspection with zero priority violations on June 5 of that same year, according to public inspection records. These reasons, according to Griffin, led the town to pressure the College into making a decision: either invest in significant renovations or schedule the building for demolition. Dartmouth has chosen to raze the building without clear plans for future development, Griffin said. “The College will begin longterm planning this year for future development of a mixed-use structure on the property within the Sargent Block area,” Lawrence wrote. Lawrence added that although
Dartmouth does not currently have available restaurant space to rent, the College has referred the owners of Jewel of India to commercial brokers in Hanover. This decision has left the restaurant owners with few options. “We don’t know after June 30 where we can go,” Kaur said. “We don’t know yet. We want to run the restaurant more years ... We love students. We love the Hanover community.” Students have expressed mixed feelings about the news that the only Indian restaurant in town is closing. Janvi Kalra ’21 expressed her disappointment in the loss of the restaurant, but she remained optimistic. “I would hope that, similarly, the Orient got shut down, but Han Fusion came, which is kind of a better version,” Kalra said. “I would hope that it’s an opportunity for
another Indian restaurant to pop up or perhaps for the Jewel of India to find another location in Hanover.” Sunpreet Singh ’20, who said he knows the owners well, voiced his disappointment that the College has not found an alternate location for Jewel of India. “I think that there’s gonna be conversations between the South Asian society and the administration to ... see if they can help them find another place,” Singh said. Kaur, whose daughter graduated from Dartmouth a few years ago, said that she hopes to stay in Hanover. She noted that if they cannot find a place to lease in Hanover, they would consider opening a restaurant in West Lebanon, where they live. “Or maybe after this, no more,” Kaur said, with a small laugh. “My husband, he is already 69. I’m also 56, 57. We don’t know how many more years we can work right now.”
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
STAFF COLUMNIST GABRIELLE LEVY ’22
THE DARTMOUTH EDITORIAL BOARD
The Lowdown on Long Distance
Verbum Ultimum: Gaming the Vote
Long distance relationships aren’t such a bad thing.
State officials must be clear about the meaning of new voting laws.
Let’s be honest: long-distance relationships become fully independent and immerse aren’t anyone’s first choice. They can be sad myself in the college experience. Turns out and frustrating and lonely; the list goes on. that I was completely wrong: distance and Yet, by one estimate, up to 75 percent of good, healthy relationships are anything but college students find themselves in a long- mutually exclusive. distance relationship at some point during The skills needed to make a longtheir four years at school. distance relationship successful are every Some college students try their hand bit as important for a “normal” relationship at long distance to — wh e t h e r ro m a n t i c extend the life of a high “Turns out that I was or platonic. It’s just a school relationship. At lot easier to notice the completely wrong: Dartmouth, long-distance absence of these skills in a relationships seem to be long-distance relationship. distance and good, even more common due to one, long-distance healthy relationships For the D-Plan, which forces teaches you to value the are anything but most couples to test their time you spend with your long-distance prowess at significant other. You have mutually exclusive.” one point or another — to consciously make an whether due to a study effort to “hang out” — for abroad program or an off term. Conventional instance, by planning FaceTime calls and wisdom has it that long-distance relationships visits. Those who have the luxury of seeing are too much trouble. But despite their their partners every day, on the other hand, challenges, long-distance relationships can be might begin to equate things like studying in valuable learning experiences and all-around the same room or simply sitting next to each beneficial for growth both as individuals and other with quality time — and devote less as a couple. time to truly bonding with the other person. Personally, I never thought I would be in If you don’t have to rely on FaceTime or a long-distance relationship. I could only see texts and have the luxury of talking to your them leading to negative outcomes, whether partner in person, it can also be easy to lapse that was resentment or cheating or perpetual into the routine of exchanging words but sadness. Before I came to Dartmouth, I not really talking about deep or meaningful thought I’d do the noble thing and call topics. Long-distance relationships force you off my relationship with my high school to make the most of your time together and boyfriend before it had the chance to fizzle remind you to be a better communicator. out. I was made to believe that breaking off SEE LEVY PAGE 6 the relationship was the only way I could
This editorial board has previously criticized with being a New Hampshire ‘resident.’” It will the New Hampshire state government’s efforts probably come as no surprise that the memo to restrict student voting — and we remain did not answer the pressing questions on the concerned about how laws passed in 2017 and requirement of vehicle licensing in order to 2018 by Republicans in the state legislature vote. can hinder students’ ability to vote. In December, the state released further But what stands out the most in this guidance on the law, but that guidance still multiyear struggle over voter registration rules is left things unclear. It failed to address the big confusion. In the run-up to the New Hampshire question: Can students who don’t own a car presidential primary, many register to vote in the state? Dartmouth students have what makes a student “The constant lack of And been unsure if they can count as a “driver?” A clarity on the part of recent NBC News article vote in Granite State. The short answer is the state government featured testimony from that yes, they can. But that a Dartmouth student who leaves many students now avoids the car-rental answer has been hidden in what seems to be a service Zipcar because the here in doubt.” deliberate pattern of vague state failed to make clear answers and inconsistency whether the term “drivers” on the part of New Hampshire’s government refers to car owners or to any students who and some of its political leaders. drive. The law in question redefines the definition Let’s make it clear: Students at New of “resident” and requires inhabitants of New Hampshire colleges are able to vote in the Hampshire who both vote upcoming primary election. and drive in the state to Whether you own a car or “For their part, we register their vehicle in not, you currently have the the state — since vehicle urge state government right to vote in this state. But registration requires a trip officials to make their the constant lack of clarity to the DMV during work on the part of the state intentions clear: What government leaves many hours and registration fees that often exceed does this law mean for students here in doubt of $300, opponents of the bill that — doubt that could student voting?” have decried it as a voterlead to the unfortunate suppression tactic. result of decreased turnout The bill first appeared in 2017 as SB 3 among students. and HB 372, then resurfaced in 2018 as the One might hope that the troubling lack of essentially identical HB 1264. Even at this point, clarity on behalf of the state government stems members of the state government presented from a kind of ineptness. But given the original an inconsistent line. Governor Chris Sununu intent of the bill — to restrict students’ ability to (R) first promised to veto the bill, claiming vote — the continuous pattern of obscurantism that he was “not a fan at all” of the nearly- and mixed messages gives the impression of a identical HB 372. He then said he was hoping deliberate tactic to reduce student turnout. that “the legislature kills it.” When HB 1264 The votes of students matter in New came on the table, Sunnunu maintained that Hampshire, and it’s no secret that some people his “position has not changed.” That comment in this state don’t like that fact. We applaud was evidently disingenuous; a few months later, efforts by campus groups to give students the Sununu signed the bill. information they need to get to the polls on Feb. Despite an ongoing series of court battles, 11. For their part, we urge state government the bill came into effect last July. But that has officials to make their intentions clear: What hardly made things clear, as state officials does this law mean for student voting? Until consistently declined to clarify what the law New Hampshire students have a clear answer meant. Their only statement was a four- to that question, the state government has failed page memo with the appropriately garbled them. title: “Information on the legal definition of ‘resident’ for the purposes of determining The editorial board consists of the opinion editors, rights, privileges, and responsibilities associated the executive editor and the editor-in-chief.
DEBORA HYEMIN HAN, Editor-in-Chief
AIDAN SHEINBERG, Publisher
ALEX FREDMAN, Executive Editor PETER CHARALAMBOUS, Managing Editor
PRODUCTION EDITORS TEDDY HILL-WELD & MATTHEW MAGANN, Opinion Editors KYLEE SIBILIA & NOVI ZHUKOVSKY, Mirror Editors ADDISON DICK & JUSTIN KRAMER & LILI STERN, Sports Editors LEX KANG & LUCY TURNIPSEED, Arts Editors NAINA BHALLA & LORRAINE LIU, Photo Editors SAMANTHA BURACK & BELLA JACOBY, Design Editors GRANT PINKSTON, Templating Editor JESS CAMPANILE, Multimedia Editor
ANTHONY ROBLES, Managing Editor
BUSINESS DIRECTORS JONNY FRIED & JASMINE FU Advertising & Finance Directors HIMADRI NARASIMHAMURTHY & KAI SHERWIN Business Development Directors ALBERT CHEN & ELEANOR NIEDERMAYER Strategy Directors VINAY REDDY & ERIC ZHANG Marketing, Analytics and Technology Directors
ELIZA JANE SCHAEFFER, Social Media Editor WILLIAM CHEN & AARON LEE, Data Visualization Editors
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.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
PAGE 5
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Political experts talk student participation, media coverage FROM PRIMARY PAGE 1
Hampshire campaign in 2008. He has endorsed Joe Biden for this election cycle. Rath has been involved in eight campaigns, was a delegate to the last nine Republican National Conventions and was the New Hampshire attorney general from 1978 to 1980. Smith is the director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center and also teaches political science at UNH. The event allowed the three to discuss their experiences in New Hampshire politics, offer advice to voters trying to make sense of the whirlwind of events that will come in the next weeks and predict the likely outcomes in the early primary states. The three spoke with The Dartmouth before the event to offer insights on the upcoming election. According to Helms, UNH, Keene State and Dartmouth are a “huge resource” for campaigns that send students to canvas voters. Helms noted that the opportunities that come with these campaigns offer students a chance to have an impact on future governing. “This is the only place you can be, while you’re still in college or a year out, that you can change the world,” Helms said. “This is probably gonna be the closest job you have to changing the world in your whole life, and you’re doing it now.” Smith added that students from across the country come to New Hampshire to work on the primary. He said that he knows of five colleges this year that brought students to New Hampshire to learn about the primary. “They just want to be part of the action,” Smith said. Rath emphasized the importance of the tradition of New Hampshire residents meeting their politicians directly before an election. “The essential validation for the New Hampshire primary is it brings the race to very human dimensions,” Rath said. “Meeting people is still really important.” In order to coordinate that kind of connection with voters, campaigns need to aggressively organize in the state. Rath talked about the tradition
of New Hampshire residents participating in politics at a civic and a statewide level, pointing out that “we’re never more than about three months away from an election.” This then sets the “groundwork” for more political participation. When defending against claims that a small state such as New Hampshire should not “decide” an election, Rath said that New Hampshire winnows the field and allows voters to have a more intimate look at the candidates, outside of ad campaigns and debate performances. “We don’t decide it,” Rath said. “We thin the field, we give people chances and the coverage that New Hampshire receives because of when we are helps other people in other places see candidates in human situations.” New Hampshire receives a great deal of media coverage during the primary, which Smith said he believes makes winning in the state a key to success for a campaign. “You get so much publicity from winning or doing better than you should — you look at it like a half a billion dollars of positive PR coming out from here,” he said. “And if you lose, people are asking ‘Where did it go so wrong?’” According to Smith, New Hampshire’s influence can be seen in the fact that in the modern era, candidates who have won their party’s nomination have always come either in first or second place in the New Hampshire primary. Ellis Robinson and Vivian Dolkart of Grantham, who are both involved in Democratic politics in that town, attended the panel. Robinson said that she appreciated the access to the candidates that comes from living in New Hampshire. Robinson previously lived in Florida, about which she said “You were lucky if you ever had a candidate come to your town.” Dolkart also said that seeing the candidates in person is important. “Here you can really get to see their intellect and their amazing range of knowledge, and also whether they listen or not to people who are asking questions,” Dolkart said.
LORRAINE LIU/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
The panelists shared their experiences and knowledge about the New Hampshire primary.
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DARTMOUTHEVENTS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
JUST DO IT
CHARLIE PIKE ’22
TODAY 12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Talk: “DEC Energy Lunch Series,” Professor Ian Baker. Sponsored by the Irving Institute, Occom Commons, Goldstein Hall.
7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Film: “Harriet.” Sponsored by the Hopkins Center, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center.
8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Astronomy: “Public Astronomy Viewing.” Sponsored by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shattuck Observatory.
TOMORROW 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Music: “Lunar New Year Celebration HopStop.” Sponsored by the Hopkins Center, Alumni Hall.
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Exhibition: “Hood Highlights Tour.” Sponsored by the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum.
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Film: “For Sama.” Sponsored by the Hopkins Center, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center. FROM LEVY PAGE 4
When you can’t actually be with a person, you have to go out of your way to keep that person updated on your life and feelings. And that intentionality does a lot for any relationship. Being in a long-distance relationship during college also teaches you to remain independent instead of becoming codependent. Romantic relationships can seem all-consuming, and it can be easy to neglect other important relationships. Long distance forces you to not be overly attached to someone else, if only because the other person isn’t physically present. They encourage you to develop a healthy relationship with your partner and still spend time developing other social ties. In this way, a long-distance relationship can allow you to explore other dimensions of your Dartmouth experience. I don’t deny that there are disadvantages that come with long
distance, even beyond the usual longing to see your significant other. For instance, long distance usually means having to miss out on some things in order to fit FaceTiming and visits into your schedule. It’s tough when you can’t experience stereotypically college-y things — like sorority and fraternity formals and double dates with your college friends — with your significant other. But those don’t have to be a deal breaker. Many students on campus are likely concerned about going abroad or taking an off term next year and having to try a long-distance relationship for the first time. After all, the transition point between a “normal” relationship and a longdistance relationship can be rough for some couples — long-distance relationships do require a lot of communication and planning. But I encourage Dartmouth couples to not shy away from long distance and all it has to offer. The lessons you learn just might surprise you.
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
PAGE 7
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
“Wu Man and Friends” usher in lunar new year on campus B y MIA RUSSO The Dartmouth
In celebration of the Lunar New Year, the Hopkins Center is hosting globally renowned Chinese musician Wu Man tomorrow in a one-time performance titled “Wu Man and Friends: A Night in the Garden of the Tang Dynasty.”Wu Man is best known for her revolutionary work with the pipa, a traditional Chinese instrument similar to the lute. Through the pipa, she is able to masterfully blend time periods and cultures, from ancient to modern and East to West. “[The Lunar New Year] is a significant event in the world recognized by the Asian countries and diaspora” said Rebecca Bailey, the publicity director at the Hopkins Center. “It’s a significant time of year where there’s a lot of celebration and family coming together traditions.” T he shared experience of celebrating the Lunar New Year transcends physical location and is encapsulated by the universal l a n g u a g e o f mu s i c . T h i s i s reflected in the concert through the combination of two unlikely genres: ancient folkmusic and modern composition. Listeners can expect to hear this blending of culture and tradition at the performance, as Wu Man has assembled a group of master musicians including Yazhi Guo on suona and percussion, Kaoru Watanabe on taiko and Japanese flute and Tim Munro on Western flute. Wu Man said that this grouping of instruments, though initially thought to be unconventional, makes the concert all the more intriguing to the listener. “During New Year in the
northern part of China we always play with those wind instruments, so we’re bringing a lot of Chinese folk tradition and folk tunes” Wu said. “The whole concert is kind of a telling of our story and a journey taking you through the early years in Japan as well, as we play Japanese folk tunes and also early European flute music from the same time.” Wu plays the pipa, the main instrument of the evening, alongside the wind instruments and percussion. This selection of instruments will not just be a new experience for viewers, but for Wu too, as she said that she has not performed with this grouping before. “Somehow I want to believe that that big contrast to the listener — the instruments of the East and West, the ancient music to the modern — will illustrate how we tell the story using those instruments,” Wu said. Often unheard of in the West, the pipa is a very common instrument in China, with a strong base in traditional Eastern repertoire. Though similar in appearance to a lute or guitar, the pipa only has four strings and is played upright instead of on its side. Wu has been playing the pipa since she was 12 years old. She was trained in classical Chinese conservatories but later moved to Boston. Upon coming to the United States, Dartmouth was one of her first stops, sparking a long friendship with music professor Theodore Levin. “[The pipa] is like a boisterous child,” Levin said. “It has emotions. It can be loud and arrogant. It can whine, it can cry, it can be sharp. It’s an extremely expressive instrument. It can be funny, because there’s a lot of humor in some of the sounds and some of the techniques and it can also be meditative, contemplative.”
The pipa has such a moldable sound that it is able to cross many different, seemingly distinct musical genres with ease. This allows the instrument to tell many different stories. Wu Man takes advantage of this in her concerts and repertoire as she performs transcribed manuscripts from thousands of years ago as well as pieces composed last month. In this particular concert, the pipa functions as the narrator of the ‘story’ while the other instruments serve as characters in the ‘plot.’ “What [Wu’s] really made her name on is creating this world of pipa music that brings elements of traditional Chinese music into contemporary musical languages using, and at the same time expanding, the techniques of the pipa, to make it into what is essentially a contemporary musical instrument,” Levin said. “She’s single handedly inspired a large new repertoire of music for
pipa by contemporary composers. She moves effortlessly between the worlds of this contemporary music and the classical pipa repertoire.” When discussing her upcoming performance at Dartmouth, Wu said that the title of the performance reflects the poetic, story telling nature of the show. T hough exploring music from around the world and across time periods, it is appropriately centered around the Tang Dynasty, which is known as a period of cultural revival. “T he Tang Emperor s had elaborate courts and they had a need to offer entertainment,” Levin said. Levin described this need as creating a demand for foreign musicians and dancers. These artists gradually became absorbed into the Tang Dynasty culture, bringing with them new genres of music. “So Tang dynasty music became a kind of melting pot that fused very old traditions of Chinese music… combined with other kinds of music
from Persia, from ancient Iran, thus creating a very lively and utterly original court culture of music and dance that flourished during this dynasty,” Levin said. Attendees can expect this fusion through an immersive auditory experience. Bailey said she hopes that everyone enters with an open mind, as the concert emphasizes sounds that are commonly unheard of to Western listeners. However, she said this makes commemorating the Lunar New Year to be all the more authentic and valuable. “I hope [viewers] would come just with their sensors ready to be fired,” Bailey said. “The sounds are going to be there. They’re beautiful. They’re a little different to the ear, and they kind of take you to a different place.” “Wu Man and Friends: A Night in the Garden of the Tang Dynasty” will be performed on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Spaulding Auditorium.
COURTESY OF THE HOPKINS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Wu Man, pictured with her pipa, a traditional Chinese instrument
SPORTS From the Bleachers with Baily Deeter ’22
From the Bleachers: The Power of the Situation in the NFL As I write this column two weeks into the winter quarter, I find myself to be infinitely smarter than I was when I arrived on a frigid Sunday two weeks earlier. Why, you ask? Because, after taking two weeks of social psychology, I have solved the most fundamental debate facing NFL fans. In 2006, a study in the journal Psychological Science compared American media coverage of goldmedal winning athletes to Japanese Olympic accounts. The results showed that the American media tended to describe the athletes’ performances in terms of their unique abilities and talents, whereas the Japanese media focused far more on situational factors such as the athlete’s family, upbringing or socially important others. The study also exemplified how American athletes can credit their successes to unique talent rather than acknowledge situational factors. An infinite amount of factors go into the outcome of a single play in football, let alone who wins a game, who makes the playoffs or who
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wins the championship. Yet many humans have self-serving biases and tend to credit themselves more than they should for their successes. After the 2014 NFC Championship, in which Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman tipped a pass intended for 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree, Sherman said that “when you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that is the result you are going to get.” But if Malcolm Smith wasn’t there to intercept the deflected pass, the 49ers would have had three more chances to score, and Sherman might not have been viewed so favorably. Basically, it’s natural for people to overestimate the role of the individual in the group accomplishment of a Super Bowl championship. Rings are great, but they’re overrated. If you don’t believe me, read Chapter 4 of Pearson’s “Social Psychology” textbook. Go ahead! I’ll give you my login credentials if you want to enlighten yourself. Each team has 53 active players, 10 practice squad players, 15 to 20 coaches and a multitude of other actors like doctors, executives, nutrition consultants and agents. Yet when we talk about championships in football, it almost always seems to come back to the quarterback. Tom Brady is considered the greatest quarterback of all time because he has won six championships. But a plethora of other factors went into those championships — many of which had nothing to do with Brady. Let’s say that Walt Coleman never reversed the infamous “Tuck Rule” no-call and instead, the Patriots lost Brady’s first playoff game way back in 2002. Would the Patriots have ever emerged to be the dynasty they are today (although the Tennessee Titans might have something to say about that)? Would the Patriots have kept Brady — who
would have only scored 10 points in a home playoff game — as the starter over Drew Bledsoe for the next season? Would the scrappy sixth-round pick out of Michigan have stuck around? To answer that, I’m going to draw upon another one of my course concepts from econometrics: You fundamentally cannot observe the counterfactual. Now, that’s a lot of five-syllable words for a football guy like myself to digest in one gulp, but the essence of that statement is that we will never know what would have happened. If Brady were drafted by Cleveland instead of New England or if Bill Belichick had never decided to coach the Patriots, Brady might have found himself behind a desk at Merrill Lynch at the age of 27 instead of fitting himself for a third Super Bowl ring. Some stock broker definitely got the raw end of that deal. It’s not practical to live in such a fantasy world, but it’s hard for me to accept that Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time when so many variables are involved in his six championships. Having a topeight scoring defense in all six of his championship seasons certainly helped. Belichick certainly played a role as well. Being in the AFC East, which has been weak for the vast majority of Brady’s career, couldn’t have hurt. On the other hand, Aaron Rodgers is often considered to be more talented than Brady. Brady himself said that Rodgers would throw for 7,000 yards every season if he were New England’s quarterback. But thanks to Brady’s old backup and the San Francisco 49ers, Rodgers finds himself watching the Super Bowl from his couch for the ninth straight season. What if the Packers had won the coin flip in overtime of the
2015 NFC Championship game against Seattle or the 2016 NFC Divisional game against Arizona? Maybe Rodgers would’ve scored an opening-drive touchdown the same way that his opponents did in both games, and maybe he would have won another ring or two in the process. What if he had a more innovative head coach than Mike McCarthy? What if he had a defense that didn’t rank 15th or worse in yardage per game in each of the last seven seasons? This season, Rodgers has an offensive-minded head coach in Matt LaFleur, a top-flight wide receiver in Davante Adams and a top-10 scoring defense. The result was a 13-3 regular season and an appearance in the NFL’s final four. Yet at the end of the day, it was Jimmy Garoppolo — who threw eight (eight!) passes in the game — and company getting the better of Rodgers while journeyman Ryan Tannehill’s Titans bowed out of the playoffs in the same round as the two-time NFL MVP. Garoppolo will face another elite quarterback in the Super Bowl, one by the name of Kermit the Frog Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes, the NFL MVP last season, is looking for his first ring in his second full season. His career will be an incredibly interesting case study for the debate of individual talent versus championships. Mahomes has the natural talent to be the greatest quarterback the league has ever seen and win an extraordinary amount of championships ... if the situational factors work out in his favor. Last year, Mahomes carried a defense ranked second-to-last in yardage to the doorstep of Super Bowl LIII. In last year’s AFC Championship, he had four drives in the fourth quarter after closing
the third quarter with a touchdown. Mahomes scored touchdowns on two drives and marched the Chiefs down the field for a last-second field goal on the fourth drive, but the coin toss gods didn’t want the young quarterback to taste championship glory so early. He didn’t get a chance to touch the ball in overtime and could only watch helplessly as Rex Burkhead trotted into the end zone for the game-winning score. This year, Mahomes is backed by the league’s seventh-best scoring defense. But even that defense surrendered 31 points in the Divisional Round, requiring a Herculean effort from the ketchuploving gunslinger for the Chiefs to advance. Thanks to two special teams miscues, four drops and a couple of defensive breakdowns, Mahomes found his team down 24-0 even though he was playing well. He deserves all the credit in the world for willing his team to 51 points in the final three quarters, but credit also goes to a brilliant Mecole Hardman kickoff return, a failed Texans fake punt, a fumble on a kickoff return and the reliable hands of Travis Kelce. Football is a funny game, with the end goal of hoisting a Lombardi Trophy largely deter mined by random factors out of the players’ control. Mahomes might play the game of his life in Super Bowl LIV and still come up short, or he might flounder on the big stage but emerge victorious thanks to a few miscues from Tom Brady 2.0. Mahomes and Garoppolo should be judged on how they perform under the bright Miami lights, but not purely on a win-loss basis. Thanks to the first couple weeks of sophomore winter, I am now 100 percent sure that there’s more to a quarterback than the number of rings on his finger.