The Dartmouth 01/31/2020

VOL. CLXXVI NO. 126

PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 36 LOW 21

OPINION

HOPPE: MAY THE BEST WOMAN WIN PAGE 4

VERBUM ULTIMUM: DINING DISCONNECT PAGE 4

ARTS

DARTMOUTH IDOL SEMIFINALS FEATURE NEW AND RETURNING PERFORMERS PAGE 7

SPORTS

SWIMMING AND DIVING TEAMS WIN TATE RAMSDEN INVITATIONAL PAGE 8 FOLLOW US ON

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Unlike other schools, Dartmouth Winter rush sees 112 bids extended to does not track students via WiFi women, 37 to men

B y ALLIE KENT The Dartmouth

Campus was abuzz last week as this year’s winter rush recruitment cycle concluded, with 112 women receiving bids from sororities. The total number of bids extended was roughly similar to last winter, when 117 women received bids, and 2018, when 116 women received bids.

In total, of the 136 women who registered and participated in this year’s winter rush process, 82.3

percent received a bid. Last winter, 144 women registered and participated in the recruitment process, with 81.3 percent receiving a bid. In 2018, 125 women registered for the recruitment process, with 92.8 percent receiving a bid.

In comparison, fall recruitment saw 63.7 percent of participants receiving a bid.

According to Office of Greek Life program director SEE WINTER RUSH PAGE 3

Proposed ordinance would make Hanover akin to a sanctuary city B y AMBER BHUTTA The Dartmouth Staff

At the Hanover Selectboard meeting on Monday, a group of town residents introduced a proposed draft of a “Welcoming Hanover Ordinance” to prevent local law enforcement from enforcing immigration law — which would make Hanover similar to a “sanctuary city.”

Dozens of community members,

including a large portion of Dartmouth students, attended the meeting to voice support for the proposal.

The proposed standards would prohibit police officers from considering “personal characteristics or immigration status” when determining reasonable suspicion, probable cause or other qualifying SEE ORDINANCE PAGE 3

LONA GIRARDIN/THE DARTMOUTH

Students glance at their phones as they walk through campus.

B y EILEEN BRADY The Dartmouth Staff

Is Big Brother watching you?

Probably not at Dartmouth.

Despite a nationwide increase in the number of colleges using WiFi and Bluetooth to track studentathletes on their campuses — or in extreme cases, planning to track all students for attendance purposes, such as at the University of Missouri — Dartmouth has no plans to engage in such practices.

The College’s ability to track students using data in rare circumstances shines a light on the nature of technology at the College.

According to chief information officer Mitchel

Davis, despite having the largest storage of wireless information of any institution in the country, Dartmouth rarely accesses this data or utilizes any form of WiFi tracking. He said that, in theory, Dartmouth could access the location information and WiFi usage patterns of its students, but said the school has no reason to.

“As soon as you connect to the wireless network, and as soon you connect to AT&T, that triangulates and lets us know — if we wanted to know where you were, we could do that,” Davis said.

Davis said that the College does not utilize this information, though very rare circumstances could permit it. In fact, Davis

added that such activity would be “countercultural to who Dartmouth is,” given the trust that he said is characteristic of the College community.

According to Davis, WiFi tracking may not be problematic as long as the individual being tracked can choose when they are being monitored and can end the surveillance activity without consequence. He said that this type of service exists within applications such as LiveSafe, which allows users to request that their location be “watched” as they walk home at night or in other situations where they may feel unsafe.

He added that he can envision other services for which this SEE WIFI PAGE 5

PAGE 2

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Q&A with former NAACP president Cornell William Brooks B y EILEEN BRADY

The Dartmouth Staff

Civil rights attorney and ordained minister Rev. Cornell William Brooks is a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, the director of the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School and a former president of the NAACP. He visited Dartmouth last weekend as the keynote speaker at the Tucker Center Martin Luther King Multifaith Celebration. The Dartmouth sat down with Brooks to learn more about his past experiences, advice for student activists and perceptions about the civil rights movement today.

What has Martin Luther King, or his work, meant to you?

CWB: When I was in college, I listened to a speaker who spoke to an auditorium with 200 or 300 people, and he asked the students three questions. “How many of you believe America’s a great country?” Everyone raised their hand.

He asked, “How many of you have read the Constitution in its entirety?” No one had. He asked, “How many of you believe in God?” Everyone raised their hands. Then he asked, “How many of you have read the Bible?” And he meant the Christian Bible, in its entirety. No one. Then the last question he asked was, “How many of you believe that Dr. King was a great man?” Everyone raised their hand. And then he asked, “How many of you read all of his books?” No one.

And so I left the room with a deep sense of shame and embarrassment, but also a profound sense of determination to read all of Dr. King’s books, the Constitution and the Bible — all of which set me on a path to ministry as a form of social justice.

Was that mainly what inspired you to get involved with civil rights, or were there other motivations?

CWB: Every day in college, I had to

walk across what you would call The Green or a quad, and there were statues of two students who were killed in the 1970s during the time of the Kent State massacre. You had Kent State, but people sometimes forget Jackson State, which was my undergraduate college.

So I had to walk past this memorial of students my age — one of whom was a high schooler, the other was a college student — who were killed when police came onto our campus in the midst of a demonstration. So those kinds of things really motivated me and inspired me to try to make the activism of my youth not just like a youthful hobby but a lifelong endeavor.

You’ve had a very diverse set of experiences. What is something you never thought you’d be doing?

CWB: I never expected to be a minister.

The reason is that my great grandfather was a minister. My grandfather, my great, great grandfather — all ministers.

And so I really didn’t want to be one.

I also thought the church was socially anachronistic. I didn’t really appreciate the intellectual depth of ministry.

And so I just kind of thought this is a backward institution that is behind the times, socially irrelevant — and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I really wanted to be a social justice warrior. I wanted to do civil rights.

But the thing that was surprising is, by reading out the King, I was coming intellectually and philosophically faceto-face with someone who did have that intellectual death — who was, way before the term was coined, woke, in a multidimensional sense. Woke intellectually, philosophically, but also somebody who was willing to put his life on the line.

During your time as president of the NAACP, you faced tensions between the older, more established NAACP organization and the newly formed, generally younger Black Lives Matter Movement. Can you address this

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

divide and the implications it might have for the future of the civil rights movement?

CWB: It’s dangerous to have people affected by the problem divided by age and experience. Here’s why: So I’m not 19, but I’ve been picked up by the police many times. I’ve been patted down. Right out of Yale Law School, a police officer stopped me in front of the U.S. Capitol. I got out of my car to find out what was wrong. He asked me for my ID; I gave it to him. While he was talking to me, I reached for my glasses; he reached for his gun. That’s happened many times. And so what I’m saying is that many people are affected by issues that some young people think only they are affected by. Young people have the energy and fierceness and perspective.

Older people have networks and money.

So once you protest the injustice in the streets and you need to meet with the senator, who makes the meeting? When you need to get the governor in the room, who does that?

At the Tucker Center Martin Luther King Multifaith Celebration, you mentioned the protests in Baltimore following the 2015 death of Freddie Gray and noted that you chose not to call the events “riots” at the time and instead to categorize them as a “prophetic uprising,” given that the vast majority of people were not violent. During those events, however, 113 police officers and many others were injured. Is there a point at which violence must be called out for what it is, regardless of intentions?

CWB: The thing that I wanted to lift up in my speech was that 99.9 percent of the people were not engaged in the violence, and that’s the case all across the country. And here’s the thing; it was also this kind of generational condemnation.

It’s like, if you’re young and you’re in the street at two o’clock in the morning, the presumption is you must be willing to throw them all Molotov cocktail through a window. That’s not the case. Now you have people who are bystanders, they’re onlookers, they’re curious — and then you have kids who get caught up in the moment. But to categorize aberrant, episodic, regrettable and condemnable

violence as being emblematic of an entire movement — let’s think about when Dr. King went to Memphis, his last trip to Memphis where he was assassinated. Why was he there? He was there because a group of young people lost discipline and engaged violence, and the march that he went to support got out of control. So then he goes back to Memphis to do it again. The point being here is, yes, there are times when people lose control. There are times when there is violence. Generally speaking, those aren’t the people that the organizers are organizing.

My point is, all violence is bad.

It should always be called out and condemned, but there should be some proportionality. In other words, don’t beat up young people and then excuse older people for their routinized, systematized and legally closeted and protected violence.

On Feb. 11, many Dartmouth students will cast their votes in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary. What do you think Dartmouth students should be considering as they vote? What we can take from Dr. King as we head to the polls?

CWB: I would say, first of all, appreciate the moral importance of your vote.

I don’t know what the numbers are at Dartmouth, but I was shocked at Harvard that voting participation was far below 50 percent. It was absolutely shocking to me. At Dartmouth, I suspect you may have the same challenge. What I would like to suggest is that no one should celebrate Dr. King without celebrating on his birthday and voting on the day he literally sacrificed much of his life for — namely, election day. You’ve got to vote.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Policy would prevent information-sharing with federal authorities FROM ORDINANCE PAGE 1

circumstances, according to the same document. The policy aims to reinforce standards of “fair and impartial policing practices” and is based on similar legislation passed in Chicago Exeter, NH and Winooski, VT. Efforts to implement similar legislation are currently underway throughout the Upper Valley in Lebanon, NH, Hartford, VT and Norwich, VT. “What I’ve learned over time is that often the police in these areas are illequipped emotionally — and in some ways in their analysis of the world, to deal with people of color, to deal with disabled people, to deal with poor brown people,” said Kale Camara ’21, who delivered testimony during the meeting and has advocated for similar legislation across the state. “I know people who’ve been pulled over for being brown and driving, basically.”

The proposed ordinance also includes provisions that prevent the sharing of information with federal

immigration authorities, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

The proposal further stipulates that should any member of Hanover law enforcement become aware of the presence of federal immigration authorities, they must inform the town manager and Selectboard members.

From there, the town manager and Selectboard must alert town residents through “any reasonable means and channels available to the Town.”

According to Asma Elhuni, lead organizer for the United Valley Interfaith Project, the proposed policy could make undocumented people and their families feel safer by officially separating local police from immigration authorities. She said during her testimony that the Selectboard has an obligation to pass the ordinance to acknowledge the concerns raised by people of color in Hanover.

“We’re telling you, we don’t feel safe and we need you as people in power to do the right thing and say, ‘If you

don’t feel safe, we’re gonna help you get there,’” Elhuni said.

Last month, the Hanover police department reapproved a fair and impartial policing standard operating procedure. Advocates for the Welcoming Hanover Ordinance, however, consider the SOP insufficient on its own.

“I think to recognize that whenever it comes to civil rights issues, it’s always better to have a law because people are afraid,” Elhuni said.

Similar ordinances across the Upper Valley have faced legal challenges.

Vermont National Lawyers Guild president Kira Kelley, who specializes in constitutional and municipal law and testified at the Selectboard meeting, anticipates that such challenges may arise in Hanover once the ordinance goes to the town officials for review.

“We’ve seen a lot of folks poking holes in these ordinances and trying to grasp a legal argument that they can craft around their desire to prevent change from happening, though that actually has nothing to do with what the truth

of the law is,” Kelley said.

Kelley noted that issues have arisen from 8 U.S.C. 1373 — a statute that prohibits local and state governments from restricting employees from sharing information regarding immigration status with the federal government. In the past, compliance with this statute has been used as stipulation to receive federal funding — a concern which has arisen in Lebanon regarding a similar ordinance. Kelley said she thinks that the statute was unconstitutional on the basis that the Tenth Amendment states that the federal government cannot regulate activities that fall within a state government’s purview. She added that a number of courts across the country have also struck 8 U.S.C. 1373 down.

“It’s not a valid argument to say that this local law violates a federal law because the federal law violates the Constitution,” Kelley said. “If you’re giving credence to an unconstitutional federal law, then you yourself are picking and choosing what laws you want to follow based on your own racism,

prejudice [or] fear of change.”

After the ordinance goes through a review and approval process, Elhuni said the Selectboard will hold an official hearing to adopt the ordinance. She added that she and a number of other advocates hope the Selectboard will adopt the ordinance rather than having it voted upon by town residents during Hanover’s annual town meeting, which will take place in May. “When we look at things like desegregating schools in the past or we look at gay marriage, if we allow that to go to the voters, we wouldn’t have those things today,” Elhuni said. “I think the right thing to do is actually having our representatives pass [the ordinance] and then making sure we teach people after that. It’s incredibly difficult when you just give it to the people, because especially in a very white town, people are scared about what does that mean for them, and they think it means taking away their power instead of sharing power and sharing the ability to feel safe.”

Rush numbers roughly similar to those from last winter term FROM WINTER RUSH PAGE 1

Jessica Barloga, 16 bids were extended at Alpha Phi sorority, 15 at Alpha Xi Delta sorority, 13 at Chi Delta sorority, 17 at Kappa Delta sorority, 15 at Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority, 17 at Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, 15 at Sigma Delta sorority and four at Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority. However, EKT is still adding additional members though its continuous open bidding process, which takes place after formal recruitment, meaning the number of bids they extend is likely to increase.

APhi, Kappa and KD extended slightly more bids this winter compared to last year, whereas AXiD, Chi Delt and EKT extended slightly fewer and Sigma Delt and KDE extended the same number.

According to Barloga, these numbers point to the emergence of a potentially positive trend.

“More [potential new members]

started the process and finished the process than we have seen in a couple of terms, which is exciting,” Barloga said. “So, if they are staying through it, that probably means they are having a good experience.”

Nevertheless, Zoe Wortzman ’22, who accepted a bid at Kappa Kappa Gamma this winter after dropping rush in the fall, said that winter rush was “pretty similar to the fall, just less crowded,” despite “expecting it to be more different than it was.”

Wortzman added that she believed that rush “took up too much time,” especially as a member of the varsity swim team.

H o w e ve r, Wo r t z m a n a l s o acknowledged it is difficult to make the rush process any shorter, as it is already a relatively impersonal decision when a potential member is only talking to someone for 15 minutes at a time.

Although the women’s recruitment process is far more formal and

publicized, during the winter, fraternities also have the option of participating in the recruitment process.

This winter recruitment season saw 37 men receive bids from fraternities.

According to Interfraternity Council recruitment chair Noah Piou ’20, one bid was extended at Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity, four at Sigma Nu fraternity, five at Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity and 27 at Zeta Psi fraternity. Zete did not participate in rush last term due to a suspension by the College.

Compared to women’s rush, where all houses must participate in the recruitment process during both fall and winter terms, fraternities are allowed to decide whether or not they want to participate.

Piou said that whether or not a fraternity decides to participate in winter rush depends on whether or not the organization wants new members.

“For the ’22s, they can advocate and voice for their friends who maybe were off or didn’t participate in the fall,” Piou said.

Regarding the differences between men’s and women’s rush, Piou said that he likes how casual the process is for men, as there are no set times and

limitations to how often a potential member can visit a house.

“Say you mess up or I meet you for the first time and am super awkward, that doesn’t end my life there,” Piou said. “I can go again multiple times, which is really great.

You have multiple opportunities.”

NAINA BHALLA/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Rush for the winter term recently concluded.

PAGE 4

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

GUEST COLUMNIST EMILIA HOPPE ’22

THE DARTMOUTH EDITORIAL BOARD

May the Best Woman Win

Verbum Ultimum: Dining Disconnect

Why I’m voting for Amy Klobuchar on Feb. 11.

The woman sitting next to me at the nail salon on a sunny January morning extended her french-tipped fingers to be massaged as we engaged in that timeworn ritual of womanhood: chatting with the stranger sitting next to you at the beauty parlor.

“I’m a student over at Dartmouth, but I was just at the field office for Senator Amy Klobuchar’s campaign here in Lebanon,” I explained to the woman as I watched her brow furrow in alarm.

“When a woman gets too much power, it goes to her head,” the woman said, rather nonchalantly, inspecting her nails for any imperfections. “She becomes a complete b—.”

Internally, I groaned. How could any adult woman still think like this in 2020?

How could she tell me, a 19-year-old college student, that women should not aspire to powerful positions?

It was the end of my second week working as an intern for Amy Klobuchar’s campaign, and somehow, this was the first time I had run into such a blunt statement of the reason that many voters are hesitant to cast their ballots for female candidates like Amy Klobuchar.

It is a fact that there has never been a female president of the United States. But this fact emerges from a society whose history is inextricably bound up in patriarchy. As liberal arts students at Dartmouth, we are taught to think critically about implicit messaging, to critique society’s flaws and to make our world a better place. I encourage students at Dartmouth who are skeptical

DEBORA HYEMIN HAN, Editor-in-Chief

about a women’s electability to keep an open mind.

Women do win elections in America.

Hillary Clinton had to contend with Russia’s interference, her email scandal and the weight of the Clinton name. Despite all of this, she won nearly three million more votes than Trump did in 2016. Had Clinton won the Electoral College, my conversation in the nail salon would have centered around reelecting our first female president rather than debating the viability of electing our first. Since America seems to be stuck on the latter conversation, I will contribute to the dialogue by making the case that Klobuchar should be our next president.

Over the past 13 years, Klobuchar has proven herself to be a leading progressive voice in the United States Senate. She has led the way on key issues including domestic violence legislation, comprehensive immigration reform and increased access to health care for all Americans.

Klobuchar has also gained a reputation for her pragmatic approach to politics, with a track record to prove it. Since being sworn into the Senate in 2007, she has has been the lead Democrat on over 100 bills, including more than 30 since President Trump took office. Klobuchar’s efficacy as a legislator who works across the aisle is widely known, and a recent Vanderbilt University study ranked her as the most effective Democratic lawmaker currently in Congress.

SEE HOPPE PAGE 4

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.

Dartmouth’s dining policies hurt local business.

Just this month came the announcement that Jewel of India, a restaurant that has stood as a Hanover landmark for the past 28 years, will close by the end of June. The restaurant, which operates out of a Dartmouth-owned building, is one of many Hanover businesses that have closed in recent years.

The College justified its decision not to renew Jewel’s lease due to the estimated cost of structural repairs for the building. We won’t comment on the details of this specific case, which remains ongoing. But as the College chooses not to renew the lease and to allow another small Hanover business to fade, the time seems optimal to focus on the broader question on the College’s relationship with the Hanover community.

Dartmouth’s policies, especially its insistence on an expensive and limited dining plans, drastically curtail students’ ability to support local businesses. If Dartmouth wants to truly engage with its community, it needs to change its policies.

The College and Hanover depend on one another. Dartmouth does a lot for the Hanover community — art exhibitions at the Hood, music and theater performances at the Hopkins Center, film screenings at the Black Family Visual Arts Center and a host of free public lectures and guest speakers draw people from across the Upper Valley. And Hanover’s local businesses certainly benefit from the presence of over 6,000 students at the College — not to mention faculty, staff and visitors.

But while the College has remained the central institution of downtown Hanover for over 200 years, the businesses around it have not experienced the same staying power. Since the Class of 2020 arrived on campus, at least a half-dozen retail and restaurant locations have been forced to close their doors — the Dartmouth Bookstore, Wheelock Books, Canoe Club, Kata Thai, Orient and longtime favorite Everything But Anchovies have all gone out of business since 2016. These businesses, especially EBAs and Jewel of India, have not just been random components of the Hanover landscape. These restaurants were a regular presence in student life, whether it was through club meetings with Jewel catering or late-night trips to Allen Street for pizza at EBAs. Of course, part of this turnover may well be due to the difficulties inherent in running a small business. Twenty percent of small businesses fail in their first year, and only

around half make it past the five-year mark.

But especially when it comes to restaurants — and five of the seven Hanover businesses faced with closure in the past four years have been restaurants — the College’s dining policies explicitly disadvantage local small businesses.

For students living on campus — who make up nearly 90 percent of the student body — meal plans are mandatory. The cheapest option for students living in a dorm costs $1,900 for a 10-week term, or $190 worth of food per week. Even the few students living off-campus must spend at least $1,000 per term on a Dartmouth Dining Services meal plan.

With so much money already spent for them, the student body hardly has the luxury of supporting Hanover restaurants. Many students — particularly those on financial aid — have a hard time justifying eating out in town when they are already required to enroll in a campus meal plan. The effective cost of dining out becomes far higher for students than for those not bound by the meal plan; after all, money spent at a restaurant is in addition to the amount already extracted

by DDS’ meal plan. For many students, that excess spending simply isn’t feasible. And local businesses suffer for it.

Many of Dartmouth’s peer institutions — including Swarthmore and George Washington University — have implemented some version of dining credit reciprocity, allowing students to spend their dining plan at local restaurants. Dartmouth would be wise to do the same. Hanover restaurants would see a surge in customers, while students would see a welcome increase in dining options. DDS, meanwhile, would lose its current monopoly on dining. This would benefi t everyone; faced with competition from other restaurant providers, DDS would have a greater incentive to fine-tune its options to better meet student needs. And, faced with price competition from local restaurants, DDS would perhaps finally lower the cost of what are widely regarded as overpriced snacks and meals.

We are not proposing a complete overhaul of Dartmouth’s dining system. But a simple change — allowing meal plans to work at local restaurants — can make a big difference, both for students and for the Hanover community.

Dartmouth relies on Hanover. Let’s do our part to support its small businesses.

The editorial board consists of the opinion editors, the executive editor and the editor-in-chief.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

PAGE 5

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Some colleges use WiFi to track attendance of student-athletes FROM WIFI PAGE 1

opt-in monitoring technology may be useful.

Dartmouth athletics director Harry Sheehy said that he hopes that the College would never have to use software like SpotterEDU, citing the high level of trust he believes exists within the Dartmouth athletics program, the academic support offered to athletes through the Dartmouth Peak Performance program and the small size of many of Dartmouth’s classes as reasons the software is unnecessary at the College. Software on platforms such as SpotterEDU, which is being used at dozens of schools nationally, allows Bluetooth transmitters to connect with students’ phones when they walk into a room or building, logging their time of entry into a database that tracks their attendance over time.

Sheehy also said that he believes monitoring Dartmouth athletes to this degree would be unnecessary given the academic capabilities of the students who come to the College to play sports.

“The student that we’re bringing here is a fairly savvy, sophisticated student,” Sheehy said. “I think the raw material [of athlete] that arrives here — and at our other seven brother and sister schools in the league — is really high quality.”

A Dec. 24 article in The Washington Post noted that Columbia University was among the schools using SpotterEDU. The Columbia athletics department declined to comment for this article.

Sheehy emphasized the importance of personal responsibility for student athletes — especially considering the high cost of attending Dartmouth, which does not award athletic scholarships. He said he believes that, even without monitoring, most Dartmouth athletes are prepared to be “students first” to make the most of their education.

Liam Davidson ’20, a member of the heavyweight rowing team, said he agreed with Sheehy’s assessment and added that he appreciates the trust given to student athletes at Dartmouth. Davidson said the idea of

SpotterEDU is “deeply infantilizing” and that technology like it has no place at Dartmouth.

“If the purpose of institutions like Dartmouth is that students should want to come here because they want to implicate this sense of being wellrounded and thoughtful and caring about their education, you shouldn’t need a system that’s going to track 6,000 locations per student per day in order to assign them a grade,” Davidson said.

Davidson said that while the athletic community cares about the success of Dartmouth studentathletes, it’s not expressed in a way that is “patronizing or controlling.”

Coaches might casually ask him how a class is going, but never address his grades in a way that seems intrusive, Davidson added.

While Sheehy conceded that monitoring software might be useful in the athletic departments of some schools — such as large state schools that offer athletic scholarships — Davidson said he believes this type of activity is unacceptable regardless of institution.

“It’s a philosophical question of like the carrot and the stick,” Davidson said. “Do you penalize students for not showing up, or do you try to incentivize them to show up by showing them what good attendance in class and showing up for things like office hours does for not only the quality of your education, but your outcomes in life?”

Computer science professor V.S. Subrahmanian said that — even from a faculty perspective — he has little interest in the idea of monitoring student attendance using software like SpotterEDU. “As professors, we would like to deliver the best possible education to our students, but we can’t force them,” Subrahmanian said. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink.”

Davis said that software like SpotterEDU is very different from the opt-in applications for tracking that he and others might support.

“If they have software, then they’re either putting an AI against it or they’re putting a set of criteria against it to say, we want to know these things

about these people,” he said, adding that this could have more problematic consequences. “The problem I have is when it’s on all the time and they’re using that information to basically control you.”

Subrahmanian also echoed the importance of an opt-in feature for any monitoring activity and expressed concern about the use of data obtained by monitoring software, which he noted may be run by companies focused on financial incentives with little regard for student wellbeing. He added that some of the forms of tracking that may happen at the College — such as in the case of scientific studies administered by external organizations — might not follow the protocols typically needed for studying human subjects.

“Unfortunately, companies don’t necessarily adhere to these standards,” Subrahmanian said.

Davis and Subrahmanian both said that — were it to be useful — Dartmouth could create a histogram of student movement patterns over a period of time. This feature, Davis said, is used in very rare circumstances by the Department of Safety and Security.

Interim director of Safety and Security Keysi Montás said that there are only two circumstances in which Safety and Security might use WiFi tracking. Both, he noted, are classified as emergencies.

The first situation is in the case of a missing person, Montás said.

In this circumstance, Safety and Security might check to see if the missing person’s device has utilized the Dartmouth network recently.

The other situation would result from a threat of imminent danger or violence on campus, during which tracking might entail checking to see if any devices on the Dartmouth network have accessed a certain website linked to the threat.

“Let’s say somebody calls and says, ‘I was on this website and somebody said [something threatening] about Dartmouth,’” Montás said. “We can get the information for that website and see if anyone in our network accessed it.”

He emphasized that to take this

type of action, the threat would need to be immediate and something that “must be looked at to maintain [the] community’s safety.”

Montás noted that taking either of the above steps would require approval from both the College administration and the Office of the General Counsel.

In other cases, such as criminal investigations, other forms of tracking might be used, Montás said. This tracking might include searching access control data, which indicates where and when Dartmouth students have swiped their ID cards. Montás noted that if this data were to be accessed, the information retrieved would be specifically limited to a

particular time and location.

As a matter of policy, access control data cannot be used as an attendance tracking system; further, under no circumstances can a professor or department request information regarding when or if a student might be swiping into a building in an effort to monitor presence or timeliness, Montás said.

Moving forward, Davis said, the College may be able to take a more proactive stance on information usage.

“What could happen is that Dartmouth could sit down with the students and we could actually draft a sort of agreement as to what kinds of things can happen on a wireless network,” Davis said.

PAGE 6

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

20WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

CECILIA MORIN ’21

TODAY 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Art Event: “Hood After 5.” Sponsored by the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum.

7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Film: “Pain and Glory.” Sponsored by the Hopkins Center, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center.

8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Astronomy: “Public Astronomical Observing.” Sponsored by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shattuck Observatory.

TOMORROW 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Performance: “The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Presents: ‘Porgy and Bess.’” Sponsored by the Hopkins Center, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center.

7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Film: “Marriage Story.” Sponsored by the Hopkins Center, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center.

7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Film: “Oscar-Nominated Shorts: Animation.” Sponsored by the Hopkins Center, Spaulding Auditorium.

FROM HOPPE PAGE 4

Klobuchar’s track record and Midwestern background position her as the only candidate who can win back Rust Belt and suburban, middle-class voters. Klobuchar has won every race, every place, every time. This is because she understands the issues important to Americans and bridges the gap between liberal metropolitan cities and rural small towns.

Back in the nail salon, our conversation eventually made its way to the topic of grandmothers.

“My grandmother would have made an amazing president,” the woman said as she walked out the door, tossing her scarf over her shoulder, “She would have led with her heart and she would have done the right thing.”

I do not know whether the woman from the nail salon will vote in the primary or for whom. I will be casting my ballot for Klobuchar

because she can win, because she can lead, because she is the best candidate in a talented Democratic field and yes, because she is a woman.

I encourage students at the College to think hard and realistically about the issues that are important to them.

Vote for the candidate who will be best-equipped to deliver on those issues, whoever those candidates may be. As for me, the choice is clear — that’s why I’ll be supporting Klobuchar on election day.

Emilia Hoppe is a volunteer for the Amy Klobuchar presidential campaign and a member of the Class of 2022.

T he Dartmouth welcomes guest columns. We request that guest columns be the original work of the submitter.

Submissions may be sent to both opinion@thedartmouth.com and editor@ thedartmouth.com. Submissions will receive a response within three business days.

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

The Dartmouth, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation chartered in the state of New Hampshire. USPS 148-540 ISSN 0199-9931

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

PAGE 7

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Dartmouth Idol semifinals feature new and returning performers B y Sathvika Korandla The Dartmouth

The semifinals of the 13th Dartmouth Idol will take place tonight in Spaulding Auditorium.

The show will feature 29 Dartmouth students who were chosen based on an a capella audition out of more than 80 students.

Walt Cunningham, the director and founder of Dartmouth Idol, said he is excited to see the students perform since there is a large balance between new and returning contestatnts.

“It makes the job worthwhile,” Cunningham said. “My biggest excitement is seeing the student who has never spoken on a mic, or the student who has never sung in front of a group go in front of all those people and perform. It’s those experiences that are transformative for the student.”

Cunningham also said that for the past few years, the number of students auditioning has gone up, so there was no set limit on how many students could become semifinalists this time. For many students, Dartmouth Idol is also a program which they participate in more than once during their college career. One of the semifinalists, Vi Alvord ’20, said they auditioned for Dartmouth Idol every year and also made it to the semifinals last year.

Making it from semifinals to finals is harder every year, as partipation and competition increases. Since only six contestants will move on, the audience plays an important role in the semifinals. Their votes, in addition to judges’, decide which of the semifinalists will make it to the finals, which will be held Friday, March 6. The first-place finisher will receive a $500 prize, while the

second and third-place finishers will receive $250 and $100, respectively.

In addition, the winner also has the opportunity to record demo tracks in a studio. Cunningham said that sometimes students who didn’t necessarily win were also offered the opportunity to record some tracks in the studio as well.

Cunningham also said that each year, the number of students who participate in the show through hosting, dancing, singing backup and filming increases as Dartmouth Idol gains popularity, so that anyone interested in other aspects of the production can be a part of the whole experience.

“Being a part of the Dartmouth Idol production for so long — being in the background, being in the semis — it sort of gives you a tight connection with the people who are on that journey with you ... even if you don’t win Dartmouth Idol, you still have a chance to be a part of the group of people who sings the background vocals and you’re still a part of the show and there’s still opportunities,” Alvord said.

Cunningham describes seeing students who were part of the show in previous years, such as Alvord, returning this year as “sheer joy.”

Alvord attributes coming back each year to the experience they have gained through being one of the co-presidents of the Dartmouth Rockapellas and a part of the student leadership for the Dartmouth Gospel Choir. They said these groups raised their confidence, and that “without them, I wouldn’t have come back to try auditioning for Dartmouth Idol for a second, third or fourth time.”

While some of the semifinalists, like Alvord, are part of a capella groups on campus, many students in Dartmouth Idol are not part of

performance or musical groups, due to other commmitments on campus.

However, Dartmouth Idol fills the gap for those who wish to have the experience of being in a intensive production without the year-round time commmitment.

“I always wanted to sing on campus and perform with others — something of that nature,” said semi-finalist Will Shepherd ’23, who maintains a busy academic and athletic schedule. “It’s a great opportunity to put yourself out there, because I’ve never had that musically.”

Shepherd did not have an extensive musical background prior to Dartmouth Idol, and this is one of the reasons why he wanted to try out his freshman year.

“When you take a student who says, ‘I’ve never done this,’ and then

they walk off the stage and they feel a sense of accomplishment and they feel confidence — that to me is the reason why Dartmouth Idol exists,” Cunningham said.

To help students who have never performed in front of a large audience, Cunningham works with each musician during individualized practice time and gives advice on how to best approach the lyrics and mood of their song. “[Cunningham] pushes and encourages us,” Alvord said. “He says, ‘Even if you don’t think you’ll make it, you should still do it because it’s a great experience and you’ll never know what you’ll find.’ He’s been so great to all of us ... [He] helped us find our individual niches within singing.”

Gia Kim ’22 auditioned last year but did not make it to semifinals. This

year, she recalled how Cunningham’s encouragment during her audition gave her more confidence.

“Walt was telling me things like, ‘Try holding that note longer’ or, ‘Try this,’ and even that made a lot of change,” Kim said, adding that these tips helped her to realize she was capable of having a wider range than she initially thought possible.

New performers such as Kim are just as excited going into the semifinals as returning performers such as Alvord. Both recognize the high caliber of every student involved in the show and use this as inspiration to self-motivate.

“I’m kind of nervous to compete against other people, but I’m also so excited to hear other people sing, because obviously there are so many talented people here at Dartmouth,” Kim said.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

PAGE 8

SPORTS

Swimming and diving teams win Tate Ramsden invitational B y anna may mott The Dartmouth Staff

Last weekend both Dartmouth swimming and diving teams defeated the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Tate Ramsden Invitational, their last home meet of the season. The men finished with a score of 187.5 to UMass’s 142.5, while the women won 189-136.

On the men’s side of the diving board, the Big Green’s four divers took the top four spots in both of their events. For the women, Maggie Pionzio ’20 came in second in both of her events, with Isabella Lichen ’22 following her in third on the 1-meter board.

“I’m pretty excited with my divers; they’re diving really well, and they’re getting better every day,” said head diving coach Chris Hamilton.

That improvement is a heartening prospect, with the Ivy League championships just a few weeks away. Justin Sodokoff ’21 — who won both of his dives — echoed Hamilton’s optimism, and he emphasized the special importance of the team’s success at last weekend’s meet. Not only was the Tate Ramsden Invitational the team’s senior night, but the meet also honored late Dartmouth swimmer Tate Ramsden ’17, who passed away at the end of 2015.

“We’ve all made strides from where we started, and the Tate Ramsden was a great meet to show that in front of a big home crowd — supporting, of course, Tate Ramsden,” Sodokoff said. “It was a great tribute to him and to the team too.”

The swimmers also came out strong last weekend. The women

not only won the first 10 events they competed in, but also took second in all but two of those races. They dominated the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard individual medley, taking up the top five slots in both events. Adding to Pionzio’s success on the diving board, senior swimmers Sophie Smith ’20 and Sarah Finlay ’20 rounded out their four years of swimming at home with multiple solid performances, with Smith garnering three golds.

The men found plenty of success of their own, with nine first place finishes out of 16 events, including eight of the first 11. Four of those wins involved Connor LaMastra ’21.

LaMastra already held four individual records for the Tate Ramsden Invitational alone, and last weekend he added three more pool records to his list. One of those pool records, the 1650-yard freestyle, was set by Columbia University swimmer Tony Corbisiero back in 1981. It was the longest-standing individual record left to be broken at 39 years. LaMastra had his sights set on it for a while, as he set the meet record last year but finished a few seconds short of the pool one.

The junior also passed two Harvard University swimmers for pool records in the 200-yard individual medley and 200-yard freestyle.

“I’ve been aiming for that record for two straight years, because I don’t like that Harvard has records on our board,” LaMastra said.

LaMastra said that he only gets to race this event once a season, so he knew he needed to be at the top of his game when the opportunity came around this year. The record-breaking swimmer credited his coaches and the crowd for motivating him.

“My coaches were yelling at me for 15 straight minutes,” LaMastra said. “There were a couple moments in the race when I started to drop off, and they picked me back up, and people were running alongside cheering me on.”

The meet was not without its difficulties, however. According to LaMastra, the team went into the meet plagued with injuries and illness. Some athletes had to drop out of events, and some pushed through pain to finish, as the Big Green struggled in its final races.

LaMastra specifically mentioned Tim Cushman ’23, who had suffered an ankle injury and could not kick

for the whole 200 yards but still had one of the best races of his season, according to LaMastra.

Christina Cianciolo ’23 — who took first in the 500-yard freestyle and broke the pool record in the 1650-yard freestyle — credited the team’s attitude and support of each other with propelling the swimmers through adversity. The families and friends of the seniors also helped bolster the team at its final home meet this season.

L a M a s t r a s a i d t h at g o i n g forward, the teams are beginning to taper and recover in preparation for the Ivy League championship in a few weeks, focusing in on technique

and getting healthy.

In terms of outlook for the Ivy championship, both LaMastra and Cianciolo were optimistic and are already impressed with the growth on the team so far this season. LaMastra stressed that the men’s relays — in particular the 800 — have seen improvement as the year has progressed, and Cianciolo called attention to her fellow freshmen, who have stepped up and contributed to the team’s success.

The teams have their eyes set on the championship, but first, they will travel to New York to face Columbia University this coming weekend.

5

4

12

individual pool records held by LaMastra

men’s divers sweeping the top four spots of both events

races won by women’s swimming

2

4.1

1

Harvard pool records broken by LaMastra

the number of seconds Cianciolo beat the women’s 1650-yard freestyle record by

more regular season Ivy meet next weekend against Columbia