The Dartmouth 04/26/2019

VOL. CLXXVI NO. 25

RAINY HIGH 51 LOW 45

OPINION

VERBUM ULTIMUM: SYMBOLIC SUSTAINABILITY PAGE 4

KHAN: ADMITTING OUR ATHLETES PAGE 4

ARTS

REVIEW: ‘CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND’ FINISHES STRONG THROUGH REPRISES PAGE 7

SPORTS

PLAYOFF HOPES DIM FOR BASEBALL TEAM AFTER LOSING TWO TO HARVARD PAGE 8

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FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

College joins national Corporate recruiting beginning sexual harassment significantly earlier for some firms prevention collaborative B y Lorraine Liu

The Dartmouth Staff

The College has joined the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s national collaborative on preventing sexual harassment in higher education as a founding member. Announced on April 10, the four-year initiative for higher education institutions aims to increase sexual harassment awareness, foster collaboration on policies and research and create a standard for measuring progress in sexual harassment

reduction.

“Dartmouth joined the action collaborative to access emerging research and identify additional data-based, effective strategies for addressing and preventing sexual harassment,” College spokesperson Diana Lawrence wrote in an email statement.

She added that the collaborative works well with the College’s Campus Climate and Culture Initiative, which aims to implement changes

NATALIE DAMERON/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

SEE COLLABORATIVE PAGE 3

Dutch elm disease proves a challenge for Dartmouth’s trees B y LUCY TURNIPSEED The Dartmouth Staff

In his 1971 book “The Lorax,” Theodor Geisel ’25 wrote that the titular creature “speaks for the trees.”

But if Dr. Seuss were to give that label today, the recipient would not be the Lorax, but rather, the College’s arborist Brian Beaty, who cares for the roughly 2,000 trees on campus,

often monitoring for signs of Dutch elm disease.

Dutch elm disease, which has largely eradicated elm trees in North America, remains a problem on Dartmouth’s campus as well, threatening the trees that surround the Green, among others. However, with the help of the Beaty and a committed SEE ELM PAGE 5

The CPD has pushed back against efforts by major companies to recruit Dartmouth students earlier.

B y KYLE MULLINS The Dartmouth Staff

How early is too early for corporate recruiting?

Efforts by major companies to recruit Dartmouth students for junior summer internships earlier than in previous years — officially as early as the spring of sophomoreyear—havebeenmet with pushback from the Center for Professional Development including occasionally barring companies from campus events, according to CPD director Roger Woolsey and senior associate director Monica Wilson.

Campus recruiting, especially for major banks and consulting firms, is a key way firms build their ranks. Yet a recent spike in the competitiveness of recruiting

has led companies to push their processes earlier and earlier.

That has consequences for students, Wilson and Woolsey said.

“We want students to have the opportunity to reflect on their experiences and make … informed decisions, and so we’d prefer recruiting happen later than it does,” Wilson said.

Recruiting for junior summer internships used to begin in earnest in the fall of junior year, but only for the companies with “robust recruiting needs,” Woolsey said. Most others came to campus in the winter or spring.

However, about six years ago, the CPD allowed some of those firms to come to campus during sophomore summer because the vast majority of the rising

junior class is present on campus, according to Woosley.

“You have the attention of rising juniors already on campus — only that audience — to give those students an opportunity to interview with those employers,” Woolsey said.

He added that because of this advantage, Dartmouth students can often interview and receive an offer before the fall term when students at schools on the semester calendar would begin the process.

However, over the past six years, recruiting has become increasingly competitive. As a consequence, some companies have moved their Dartmouth recruiting to as early as SEE RECRUITING PAGE 5

PAGE 2

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

As Green2Go program expands, students seek changes B y Joey Chong

with the initiative. A common issue among students was the need for more drop-off locations.

Two years after the implementation Valeria Andrade ’22 said she wanted of Green2Go, the program adopted an easier system for dropping off the

by Dartmouth Dining Services that to-go containers. replaced disposable to-go containers “I think there could be more dropwith reusable ones, students are calling off places,” Andrade said. “Maybe if I for more accessible drop-off locations remember to bring it, I can drop it off and more simplicity in the to-go system. at Collis or the [Courtyard Café]. But Currently, Green2Go has been if I don’t remember it, it’s just sitting implemented in the Class of ’53 in my room forever.”

Commons as the only to-go option In addition to the abandoned and at the Courtyard Café as the only containers, some students said they to-go option for most food items. At the had bought more than one container Courtyard Café, the switch is expected for an array of reasons, including lost to reduce waste by seven tons per year. carabiners and moldy containers.

When finished with the containers, “It’s a good idea in principle,” Clay students can drop them off at any DDS Foye ’22 said. “The idea of reusable location on campus, where they will be containers is appealing to me, despite washed for continued use. the fact that I have three of them in At ’53 my room.”

Commons, The missing around 400 “There is growing containers and slow disposable to- concern that if return rate has led go containers students continue DDS to worry about a day were the feasibility of the used before to purchase new program. the switch to containers vs.

“There is G r e e n 2 G o, growing concer n a c c o r d i n g returning old ones, it that if students to Madison will become difficult continue to purchase Sabol ’18, who to keep the program new containers vs. helped launch returning the old going.” the program. ones, it will become In an email difficult to keep the statement, prog ram going,” Plodzik wrote -JON PLODZIK, DDS Plodzik wrote. that DDS had DIRECTOR To incentivize purchased students to return over 2,400 their containers, the containers for the Courtyard Café Courtyard Café offered free drinks since the Green2Go containers were in exchange for returning Green2Go made mandatory in early February of containers the week that the containers this year. He added that roughly 5,000 became mandatory. containers for ’53 Commons are in Members of the College’s circulation.

Sustainability Office, including Of 30 students waiting in Courtyard the students who spearheaded the Café line around lunchtime last Green2Go initiative at the Courtyard Saturday, 19 of them said that they Café, said they are aware of these owned a Green2Go container or issues. Abby Bresler ’21, Meriem Fouad carabiner. Students who didn’t own ’21 and Samantha Newman ’22 led the containers explained their concerns the campaign for mandatory to-go The Dartmouth

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

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Reusable Green2Go containers have become ubiquitous on Dartmouth’s campus.

containers in the Courtyard Café. They said they are open to hearing how they can improve the initiative.

“Constructive criticism is the most important thing we can get from students,” Fouad said. “I would want to encourage anyone who has thoughts to approach us or DDS.” Newman said that the team behind the implementation of the Green2Go containers has shifted its focus to trying to eliminate the $4 buy-in and the carabiners by linking the Green2Go containers to a student’s ID. Although some students may have not have a favorable opinion of Green2Go, the initiative is making a significant sustainability impact, according sustainability director Rosalie Kerr ’97.

“The numbers are not small,” Kerr said. “There were thousands of plastic containers being thrown away before Green2Go.” While Kerr recognized students’ concerns, she also explained how Green2Go is about “asking students to do something” by returning their containers and remembering their carabiners, which helps keep students

accountable.

Some of the students behind Green2Go said they also want the student body to understand its responsibility in creating a synergy between individuals and sustainability through the use of Green2Go. “Anytime you want food to-go, it means you’re interacting with the idea of sustainability,” Bresler said.

Newman agreed with Bresler, while

emphasizing sustainability at large.

“I think [Green2Go containers are a] very visible symbol of sustainability on campus, which hopefully helps people think about it,” Newman said.

“It has really highlighted the room for growth we still have as a student body with thinking about sustainability.”

Newman added that the Green2Go team is working to expand the existing program to the Collis Café.

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019

PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

CPD has barred firms from campus events for recruiting early FROM RECRUITING PAGE 1

sophomore spring.

The CPD has pushed back against employers recruiting earlier than sophomore summer, as well as other objectionable techniques, such as scheduling interviews during finals week.

Woolsey said employers have been put on “probation” in the past, essentially barring them from campus events.

“I don’t want the students to go through sophomore year fall and winter having this other additional stressor in their life,” Woolsey said. “I just think that’s unfair.”

The probation works, according to Wilson, because without the CPD’s support, companies have difficulty promoting themselves or scheduling interviews and events on campus.

“Some of these employers that have gone around us have come back because they realize it’s all about yield,” Woolsey said.

The CPD in February also implemented a undated policy mandating that any companies recruiting during sophomore summer or earlier to agree to “renege” conditions.

The most recent CPD policies for recruiters notes that employers are “asked” to give students two weeks from the offer or until Aug. 26, 2019,

whichever is later, to decide on the offer.

The CPD will not punish students who renege on a summer 2020 offer that does not meet those conditions.

“It’s really important that you have the time you need to decide if you get an early offer, whether you want to take this early offer,” Wilson said.

Ultimately, however, there is no way for the CPD to block companies entirely from recruiting earlier from off campus locations, such as the Hanover Inn. “We can’t stop them from doing that, but we can reach out to them and tell them that we don’t appreciate them doing that — that they should be going through our office for this type of event,” Wilson said.

Dartmouth is not the only campus seeing these tensions play out between career advising and major companies.

Molly Burkot, assistant director of employee relations for the Washington University in St. Louis Career Center said that investment bank recruiting there has jumped from junior fall to sophomore spring over just two years.

“When one bank hears that another is coming earlier and earlier, then the other banks fear that they’re going to lose out on the best talent, so they continue to recruit earlier and earlier as well,” Burkot said. She added that this dynamic is “not nearly as drastic” in industries outside

of investment banking and finance.

Burkot also noted that some companies have events that help them build “their brand” among first-year students, an indication that they may want to recruit even earlier in the future. “[Earlier recruiting] could potentially cause a great deal of stress for students to be making decisions life decisions two years in advance,” Burkot said, adding that even the move to sophomore year spring has the potential to “exacerbate students’ stress levels.”

The Career Center at WashU has also pushed back on earlier recruiting.

Burkot said that 15 years ago — the last time she said this became an issue — a number of colleges banded together to confront the major investment banks “for the sake of our students.” She indicated, however, that the investment banks were unreceptive.

“The investment banks more or less hinted at the fact that they were going to go ahead and recruit at whatever pace they chose,” Burkot said. Ultimately, the Career Center wants to keep the companies on campus, and does not want to see WashU’s student body “left without those opportunities,” she added.

Representatives from other schools offered comment on the recruiting process. Robin Mount, director of

career, research and international opportunities at Harvard University’s Office of Career Services, wrote in an email that her office “feels strongly that students should have the time and space to explore their interests and options.”

Barbara Hewitt, executive director of Career Services at the University of Pennsylvania, declined an interview but wrote in an email that “early recruiting … is not a helpful practice for students or employers.”

Princeton University’s Office of Career Services directed requests for comment to their website. Brown University’s Center for Careers and Life After Brown did not reply to requests for comment.

Jacob Meister ’20, who said he went through the recruiting process sophomore year but ended up working elsewhere, said that the “pressure” usually begins during sophomore summer to get involved in recruiting. He elaborated on his distaste for recruiting a year in advance during sophomore summer.

“I think it’s insane, and I’ve talked to recruiters, and they think it’s insane,” Meister said. “It basically takes up the effort of a fourth class.”

Clara Batchelder ’19, who said she did not go through the recruiting process, characterized what she has heard

about it as a “well-oiled pipeline.” She also expressed skepticism about early recruiting.

“My kind of instinct is that [early recruiting] would increase the competitiveness and pressure of being here,” she said.

Wilson said that students feeling pressured by recruiting should attend CPD events, such as a June 21 “speed dating” recruiting event for companies outside of finance and consulting, and schedule advising appointments.

While some companies have promised to cut back on early recruiting — both Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have publicly committed to beginning formal recruiting in junior fall — it seems unlikely that the rest of the industry will follow, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Informal events, including the brand building mentioned by Burkot, seem to be starting already for the Class of 2022. Goldman Sachs has three events on campus in May, including a “Demystifying Goldman Sachs” event.

According to the event’s description on Dartboard, it is “primarily” for sophomores, but juniors — and freshmen — are “welcome to attend.”

Several firms which recruit at Dartmouth could not be reached for comment at press time.

Dartmouth is among 28 founding members of collaborative FROM COLLABORATIVE PAGE 1

recommended by the National Academies’ 2018 report “Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.”

In an email statement, C3I director Theodosia Cook wrote, “I am thrilled that Dartmouth has joined the Action Collaborative because it allows us to connect with our peers to identify best practices based in research that we can apply to support all of our constituents students, staff and faculty in creating a more inclusive environment at Dartmouth.”

The action collaborative first drew membership from 28 founding institutions, but 43 in total have since

joined. A meeting was held in March to discuss the details of the collaborative, according to Frazier Benya, senior program officer at the National Academies and director of the action collaborative.

Benya said that in supporting the action collaborative, the National Academies will provide information and recommendations for institutions on preventing sexual harassment on campus and help organize meetings for institutions to share their strategies.

“We have the knowledge and connection with many of the research experts in this base at this point to help bring everyone to the table,” Benya said.

Benya added that the National Academies will help also organize meetings for institutions to share their

latest policy implementation results and research findings on sexual harassment prevention.

“Our role, in this case, is to help convene these institutions to bring the research and expertise to the table, to bring key perspectives to the table that need to be involved and to help these institutions make the changes to actually address and prevent sexual harassment,” she said.

Institutions that joined the action collaborative provide “modest” financial support and invest time and efforts to move the action collaborative forward, according to Benya. She said that members of the action collaborative are committed to sharing promising practices and evaluations of sexual harassment prevention and

publicizing their participation in the action collaborative to community members.

Benya emphasized that the action collaborative requires institutions to identify a variety of community members to become involved in the initiative, including school leaders; research experts in the field; campus officials who work on promoting diversity and inclusion; and key stakeholders such as students, faculty, staff and individuals who have experienced sexual harassment.

“We ask [institutions] to include individuals who have experienced sexual harassment and have perhaps been through their process for handling sexual harassment, so that these individuals can help inform the work that we are doing

as well,” she said.

Benya said that the National Academies works to include a wide range of institutions in the action collaborative, ranging from large public and private institutions to small private liberal arts schools and even some technical schools.

According to Fiona Lee, the University of Michigan associate dean of diversity, equity, inclusion and professional development, Michigan joined the action collaborative to look for solutions to address campus sexual harassment from the National Academies’ report. She acknowledged that although the action collaborative is in an early stage, the school plans to communicate with other members of SEE COLLABORATIVE PAGE 5

PAGE 4

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

GUEST COLUMNIST OSMAN KHAN ‘21

VERBUM ULTIMUM THE DARTMOUTH EDITORIAL BOARD

Admitting Our Athletes

Symbolic Sustainability

Athletic recruitment is fundamentally unfair.

Dartmouth students aren’t so great at most of the sports they play. Not on a national level anyway. Barring specific winter sports, which we often excel in, as well as a few other exceptions, our athletic performance isn’t anywhere near as impressive as our alumni’s professional and academic showings are. Don’t argue with that; the last time our roughly 100-man football team produced an NFL player was a full 15 years ago, and the last time our basketball team produced an NBA player was in 1990. And yet, we hand out some of the most coveted seats in higher education to recruits in the name of upholding the strength of our athletic programs: over a fifth of the current student body is comprised of varsity athletes.

More unsettling than how many athletes we admit is how we admit them. Ask almost any student-athlete you know and they’ll tell you how early they received a promise of admission to Dartmouth College. Some athletes receive verbal promises of admission from coaches or “likely letters” prior to the main application period. Importantly, though they’re called likely letters, according to the Ivy League Agreement, they have the “effect of letters of admission” and can only be revoked on “the same terms as letters of admission.”

We don’t know how easy it is for studentathletes to get into Dartmouth specifically. But we do know how easy it is at our Ivy League sibling, Harvard University. In a recent piece in “The Atlantic,” Saahil Desai outlined how applicants who are given a four out of six in academic performance by Harvard’s admis-

Performance is no substitute for true sustainability.

sions staff see drastically different admittance rates depending on their athlete status. It’s not two times or three times easier for athlete applicants with this score to receive admission. It’s nearly 1,000 times easier for them compared to non-recruits. That number is mind-boggling.

The arguments for maintaining priority admissions for athletes are flimsy. First, while athletic programs pull in donor money, I find it hard to believe that alumni donations to a school this loved by its students would dry up if the system for varsity athlete admissions changed. Athletics isn’t a core source of revenue for Dartmouth; we aren’t Duke or Notre Dame, and our brand isn’t heavily reliant on athletics.

So why are athletic admissions the way they are? Well, it may be just another way to push affluent but academically mediocre students into top colleges. Sixty-five percent of Ivy League athletes are white — a figure far higher than that for the general student population. The issue of specially protecting the affluent, the connected and the white in the admissions process is a tough one to solve.

But we can start by not letting in academically mediocre students two years early just because they do well at a sport.

I want to be clear about something. I know for a fact that there are some athletes at the College who are smarter than I am. I know for a fact that most all athletes work brutal hours and spend weekend after weekend on the road representing the Big Green. But lowSEE KHAN PAGE 6

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DEBORA HYEMIN HAN, Editor-in-Chief ALEX FREDMAN, Executive Editor PETER CHARALAMBOUS, Managing Editor PRODUCTION EDITORS TYLER MALBREAUX & MATTHEW MAGANN, Opinion Editors NIKHITA HINGORANI & KYLEE SIBILIA, Mirror Editors LUKE GITTER, JUSTIN KRAMER & LILI STERN, Sports Editors LEX KANG & JORDAN MCDONALD, Arts Editors LILY JOHNSON, Dartbeat Editor DIVYA KOPALLE & MICHAEL LIN, Photo Editors

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ISSUE ANDREW CULVER 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.

Given Dartmouth’s proximity to the Connecticut River and the White and Green Mountains, it’s easy to see why the outdoors is such a big part of campus culture. It’s even in our motto, “vox clamantis in deserto” — “a voice crying out in the wilderness.”

Almost every student’s first experience with Dartmouth — First Year Trips — is an outdoor one. And that focus on the outdoors continues while back on campus. The Dartmouth Outing Club, the oldest and largest college outing club in the U.S., boasts over 1,500 student members. Students walk around campus clad in flannels and Patagonia jackets and go for runs, hikes and ski trips. This is a campus that clearly values its connection to the outdoors.

But as we reflect back on Earth Week, we want to turn attention to protecting that environment. As threats to the environment increase, Dartmouth’s outdoor culture has the potential to serve as a catalyst for sustainable change. But that culture in and of itself isn’t enough to avert environmental degradation.

In some cases it even backfires, encouraging performative sustainability over concrete action — and that puts the environment at risk.

Symbolic activism risks undermining truly significant efforts at sustainability. One case of this is the campaign for Dartmouth to divest its endowment from fossil fuel companies.

As of 2016, Dartmouth’s direct holdings in the fossil fuel-related assets amounted to $43 million. Though the College likely invests more indirectly, that figure still makes up a tiny fraction of Dartmouth’s $5.5 billion endowment. And that’s nothing to say of the $4.5 trillion value of the global fossilfuel financial market. Given the scale of the problem, divestment by Dartmouth would do little to stem the flow of investment revenue to the fossil-fuel industry, especially since others would quickly buy up the stock.

Divestment is a largely symbolic act. We laud efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption since climate change is both real and increasingly threatening. But divestment won’t substantially reduce carbon emissions.

It might raise awareness of climate change, but it does little in and of itself to combat unsustainable practices. And by spending energy on symbolic actions, how much less energy goes towards advancing concrete solutions?

Dartmouth still has room to reduce its environmental impacts, but on both the

institutional and student levels, the College has begun to take concrete steps towards sustainability.

On the academic front, Dartmouth professors and students work to understand climate change, pollution and environmental degradation. The College has reexamined its own energy system: Dartmouth recently announced plans to replace its current fossil-fuel heating plant with one that relies on renewable biomass fuel, part of a plan to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent from their 2010 levels by 2050. Granted, the College should take a more ambitious timeline on emissions reduction, but pragmatic steps like the new heating plant still deserve praise.

Students, too, have taken initiative, whether through the student-led introduction of reusable food containers or the DOC’s recent efforts to offset its carbon emissions. These changes aren’t always as publicized as things like symbolic divestment. But their beneficial impact for the planet is far and away greater.

Ultimately, transitioning to more sustainable systems will come with a cost. That cost is both monetary — the new proposed heating plant is estimated to cost over $200 million — and societal — the way people use energy, food and transport, among other things, will need to change. There’s no way around it. In its mission statement, Dartmouth aspires to educate students for “responsible leadership.”

And in the modern day, when the most pressing global issues are ones that require transnational collective action, that means tackling environmental issues. The “College on the Hill” should serve as an example to others, and that extends to sustainability. By exemplifying sustainable progress, Dartmouth will offer something far more impactful than any symbolic show of support.

Dartmouth has shown itself plenty willing to adopt the appearance and imagery of an outdoorsy, sustainable place, and both the institution and its students have taken some real action to help the environment. But the transition to a sustainable Dartmouth will require substantial changes at a substantial cost. Symbolic gestures aren’t enough. Are we willing to go beyond performance and make the actual sacrifices needed for a sustainable future?

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

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019

PAGE 5

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Dartmouth sees four to five cases of Dutch elm disease each year FROM ELM PAGE 1

grounds-keeping staff, a rare amount of healthy elms remain a part of Dartmouth’s aesthetic image.

Paul Marino ’04, who worked on research regarding the vectors of Dutch elm disease with biology professor Matthew Ayres, said he was struck by the elm trees on campus when he was a student.

“I suppose a lot of people are [struck by the number of trees], which is why they’re worth fighting for,” Marino said.

Dutch elm disease originated in the Himalaya region and first manifested in Europe, according to both Marino and Ayres. It then traveled across the Atlantic to North America as global trade proliferated, either through wooden pallets or live plants, before again going back to Europe in an evolved form.

“With this research, we were understanding some of the complexities that we missed in the past,” Marino said.

The 2006 study that Ayres and Marino worked on — looking at the community ecology of the disease in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Galicia, Spain — focused on one of these new complexities: mites.

According to Ayres, the vector of the disease is a bark beetle that spreads a fungus. He added that the fungi

establishes itself in the outer branches of the tree and affects the cells in the leaves that control the stomata, essentially paralyzing the water control of the tree and permanently dehydrating it.

Once the fungi gets into the vascular tissue of the tree, it eventually makes its way into the trunk unless steps to intervene are taken. “[The elm] was an iconic urban tree, and within a matter of a few years, they were all gone,” Ayres said of the first outbreak of the disease, which occurred in the United States in the 1950s.

“We’re lucky at Dartmouth — we have some of the biggest elm trees you’ll see almost any place.”

Ayres and Marino’s principal focus in the 2006 study was the discovery of mites traveling on the bark beetles.

They, along with their research team, hypothesized that these mites were mutualists that carried and cultivated the spores for the fungi, which the mites then consumed.

Although the study brought scientists closer to understanding how the disease spreads, a cure is not on the horizon, according to Ayres and Marino. They both added that Dutch elm disease continues to evolve and is quite aggressive — the combination of which proves impossible to halt completely.

But, over the course of the next

Collaborative seeks to add more institutions FROM COLLABORATIVE PAGE 3

the collaborative soon to discuss the details.

“It is a very preliminary stage, and we’re going to have another meeting soon to really solidify how the action collaborative works,” Lee said.

Lee noted that Michigan is currently working on publicizing the action collaborative to the school’s community members as well as people outside of the university.

“It’s a very important thing just telling

people that this is happening, [that] we are working in this way [and that] collaborating with other universities,” Lee said.

The first meeting for the members of the collaborative will be in June, and the first public event for the collaborative at the end of the year, according to Benya.

“We are welcoming of more institutions that want to join the action collaborative at this point.” Benya said.

Dartmouth general counsel Sandhya Iyer declined to comment.

SYDNEY GILLMAN/THE DARTMOUTH

The trees on Dartmouth’s campus are threatened by Dutch elm disease, which has killed most elm trees in North America.

thousands of years, Marino is hopeful that the elms will have developed an immunity on their own.

“If they can survive global capitalism, then I think they’ll stick around,” Marino said.

In the meantime, Beaty keeps a vigilant eye out for Dutch elm disease on the 200 acres that comprise main campus. Nowadays, Dutch elm disease is by far the biggest threat to tree health at Dartmouth, he added.

There are typically four to five cases a year of Dutch elm disease on campus, according to Beaty. He added that the yellowing of branches is a sign that they need to be cut off because the effects of the disease cannot be reversed.

Beaty said he closely watches trees with a diameter of over 18 inches, as trees smaller than that are young and easily replaceable. All the new elms planted on campus are genetically engineered to be resistant to the disease. These trees are not immune but fare much better when infected with Dutch elm, according to Beaty.

Additionally, as a preventative measure, fungicide is pumped into

most of the elm trees on campus every three years or so.

Beaty said that, as the arborist, he feels some pressure to keep up the aesthetic image of Dartmouth.

Part of this focus may come from the founding myth of the Lone Pine and the centrality of nature to the College’s identity, Beaty said. He added that the College is very supportive of all the work he does for the trees.

One of the difficulties facing the preservation of tree health on campus is construction projects, Beaty said. He noted that during construction, trees can be damaged by equipment. Beaty said he has been in communication with the crew working on the new Arthur L. Institute for Energy and Society to protect the safety of the trees in the surrounding area.

According to Beaty, most organizations and people across the College cooperate in maintaining tree health; however, he noted that when a tree that resides on a fraternity’s property is in need of treatment, there have been times when he has not been given permission by the organization to treat the tree.

“It’s just politics,” Beaty said.

“There’s a lot of times conflict between the frats and the College about controlling property.”

Chelsea-Starr Jones, who is a prospective ’23 who was recently on campus for Dimensions of Dartmouth, said the tree upkeep is a “noble” cause.

“At a lot of the other colleges I’ve visited, the trees haven’t really been cared for, but here they are and I think that’s really important at a place that’s so focused on the outdoors,” Jones said.

Scott Tamkin ’22 said that a major reason he decided to come to Dartmouth was because he was impressed by the image the trees created on campus.

Elm trees can be recognized by a few defining factors, according to Marino. Their asymmetrical leaf patterns, staggered branch growth, overhanging limbs, distinctive forks and a vertical bark pattern.

“People just have to keep looking up,” Beaty said.

Marino is a former member of the Dartmouth staff.

PAGE 6

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

APRIL SHOWERS

Uuganzul Tumurbaatar ‘21

TODAY 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Meditation: “Free Lunch Time Mindfulness Meditation,” sponsored by the Student Wellness Center, Robinson Hall, Room 322.

7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Film: “Transit,” sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center.

9:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.

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

TOMORROW 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Tour: “Hood Highlights Tour,” sponsored by the Hood Museum of Art, Russo Atrium, Hood Museum of Art.

7:00 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.

FIlm: “National Theater Live in HD: ‘All About Eve,’” sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center.

FROM KHAN PAGE 4

income applicants all over America who work just as many hours as someone with enough money to play sports like crew and lacrosse get rejected every year. And that isn’t fair.

Everyone has something that gave them a boost in the application process. Be it race, upbringing, a predisposition to intelligence or family wealth, your admission was not wholly a product of your effort.

With that in mind, I’m usually willing to give students of most stripes the benefit of the doubt and assume they deserve to be here as much as anyone else. But it’s time to admit that some athletes shouldn’t be here. They shouldn’t be admitted in such high amounts, taking spots from more academically-qualified applicants.

Let’s admit this is a problem and start fixing it. Athletes should

have to go through the grind of the full admissions process like the rest of us. Of course, admissions officers should consider athletic achievement just like any extracurricular accomplishments.

But athletes should not have a special pipeline to admission. As Dartmouth’s acceptance rate drops ever lower, athletic recruitment increasingly stands out as unfair and unwarranted.

Osman Khan is a member of the Class of 2021.

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FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019

PAGE 7

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Review: ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ finishes strong through reprises

B y lex kang

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

The CW Network’s show, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” has been my favorite TV show since I binged the first three seasons of it last term, which is also when I learned that the next season to my newfound favorite would be its last. My experiences with last seasons for personal favorites in television have not been great, so I was nervous and disappointed about the end to a TV gem that I had just discovered. Luckily, the fourth season of the show was yet another strong addition of a chapter in the protagonist’s journey of self-acceptance and learning to navigate personal relationships, while also fulfilling its role as a final season well by tying the story together in a satisfying conclusion.

To give some context to this criticallyacclaimed, yet tragically unpopular show, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” follows the life of Rebecca Bunch: a Jewish lawyer (portrayed by Rachel Bloom, who also wrote the show), after she moves from her high-profile position at a law firm in New York City to West Covina, CA, an underwhelming suburb of Los Angeles.

Rebecca’s decision to move across the country came on a whim after running into her high school summer fling Josh Chan on the streets of Manhattan, where he told her he was moving back to his hometown West Covina.

After falling in love with him after a brief conversation, she threw away her “perfect” life and packed her bags to follow Josh in hopes of winning his affection. Sound crazy? Hence the title.

This surreal start to the show leads to Rebecca pulling wild stunts to try to get Josh’s attention, but they serve a greater purpose than cheap laughs. Rebecca’s antics foreshadow her diagnosis of borderline personality disorder in season three episode six, appropriately titled “Josh is Irrelevant,” to signify that

all of the impulsive, manipulative and downright creepy scheming Rebecca did was never about Josh at all, but rather due to her unmanaged personality disorder.

The remainder of the show takes a turn here and becomes focused on Rebecca learning to accept and manage her mental illness and its consequences.

This is where one of the strongest points of the show comes in, something that isn’t lost in the final season: its accurate portrayal of living with mental illness. Rebecca’s struggle with her personality disorder isn’t a gratuitous sob story, nor is it an oversimplification of mental illness in which — thanks to a diagnosis, therapy and/or medication — everything becomes okay. Rebecca’s journey with BPD is unpredictable.

She starts out with improvement as she regularly attends multiple types of therapy, but as she feels like she has more control over her illness she starts to feel less inclined to sustain the hard work she put into self-care. Once she begins to “slack off” on her treatment, things crash and burn again. She lashes out at her boyfriend, gets drunk, attempts to have sex with not one but two ex-boyfriends and then ends up sleeping on a bench.

This storyline has two points of realism that many media sources fail to demonstrate. One: a diagnosis, a therapist and even medication doesn’t solve everything in a neat linear progression. Two: managing mental illness is hard work. After her diagnosis, Rebecca had to put both her career and her romantic relationships on hold to make time for multiple therapy sessions a week and workbooks for BPD. It’s natural that as her condition improved and she returned to a more active lifestyle, it became harder for her to devote her entire life to working on her mental illness. The show teaches viewers that it’s not “lazy” or “stupid” for someone to struggle with getting help and improving, assuming that they can even afford to

take so much time and money to do so.

On top of this sustained excellence, the fourth season is a strong ending as well. The writers paced the story perfectly throughout the entire show, developing all of the major characters at a believable pace in a believable direction. This strong foundation led to all conflicts — even little, forgettable subplots — being resolved neatly, giving a sense of finality to the audience. For once, even I, a huge cynic, wasn’t doubtful about the happily ever after — and the creators of the show pulled it off by utilizing the “reprise.”

In musical theater, a reprise is a song that uses previous musical themes or elements, often in a setting that mirrors or resolves an earlier plot line.

In the fourth season of “Crazy ExGirlfriend,” many of the characters’ relationships (whether with themselves or with others) seemed to express that they have reached a conclusion in their character development or resolution in their relationship through a reprise.

Using reprises is genius because it is essentially a correction to an older version of the song. It’s a musical device that shows evolution. A reprise makes it clear to the audience that a conflict has been resolved because first, the familiar theme reminds the audience of what the conflict was, and second, the noticeable change in the song makes its resolution unambiguous, making the “happily ever after” feel secure and satisfying, with no lingering questions.

These reprises that tie up loose ends in the show are sprinkled throughout the fourth season, and they are essential for avoiding the pitfall many final seasons go through: either making too abrupt an ending or an ending that feels way too dragged out and overdeveloped, like the final season of “The Office” — a show that I believe should have just ended when Michael Scott left. The corrective reprises conclude one plot line at a time,

letting the audience down gradually and gently, making it clear that though it’s been a good run, it’s time for it to end.

It’s a lot like an effective cool-down after a workout.

Furthermore, a reprise allows the ending to be a simple happy ending, a non-cerebral feel-good show — nothing like “Inception,” for example — without feeling anticlimactic and short-changing the audience. One might argue that the basic “And everything worked out!” ending that “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” goes for is un-nuanced, unsophisticated and derivative, but it works because it is delivered through the reprise — maintaining its entertainment value and avoiding feeling like a cliché through the unique musical production. Many of the choices that the show makes would have felt like a lazy, tacky, childish ending lacking the grace of subtext if it had been communicated simply through dialogue.

Take Rebecca’s rivalry with Audra Levine (played by Rachel Grate), for example. Rebecca’s relationship with Audra represents Rebecca’s conflict with her former self, a competitive and successful but miserable workaholic created through maternal pressure rather than self-motivation. Both women were pitted against each other by their mothers since they were children, and both end up becoming successful lawyers at illustrious firms in New York, prolonging their rivalry. Rebecca, however, moves on from that life to seek happiness, while Audra continues to be the perfect daughter by excelling at her law firm, marrying rich and having children. The tension between the two persist throughout the show because, though Rebecca has physically moved on from New York, she is haunted by her past because she has doubts about her choice to leave — at one point she almost moves back — and feels inferior to Audra, who represents what she could have been had she stayed in New York.

On top of that, her mother constantly shames her for her new life. This sour relationship is made evident with a song in season one titled “JAP Battle” (JAP means Jewish American Princess), in which Audra and Rebecca insult each other through competitive rap.

However, in season four, Rebecca stands up to her mother and demands that she either accept her new life or plan on not being a part of it, to which her mother ultimately acquiesces, signifying that Rebecca accepts and loves both her past and present self, as well as ending her mother’s torment.

Soon after, her relationship with Audra is repaired following a brief encounter with Audra at her lowest, when the two realize they have a lot in common and actually secretly admire each other. The result? “JAP Battle (Reprise),” a rap battle in which Audra and Rebecca compete to compliment one another. It’s hard to understand just how heartwarming and satisfying this conclusion to Audra and Rebecca’s antagonism to one another is without listing all of the lyrics for both the original and the reprise, but you can see that it would have been predictable or too on the nose if it were in dialogue.

Can you imagine two sassy, interesting characters suddenly becoming robotic and saying, “I actually really like you and think you’re cool! Let’s be friends!” without it feeling abruptly juvenile?

All in all, the fourth season of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” has smoothly executed a shameless, feel-good ending without accidentally watering-down its nuance and wit with clichés through reprises that provide originality as well as a platform to make a definitive resolution to conflicts.

Combined with all of the progressive messaging, the fantastic acting, dialogue and production value, I can confidently say that though I’m disappointed the show had to end, I’m happy it ended now, when all of the characters are undoubtedly happy too.

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

PAGE 8

SPORTS SPORTS

Playoff hopes dim for baseball team after losing two to Harvard B y baily deeter

The Dartmouth Staff

Arguably the most overused phrase in sports is taking the season one game at a time. But as the baseball team enters its last two weeks of Ivy League play, it is going to need to stick to this cliché in order to have any chance of reaching the Ivy League championship in spite of its current sixth-place standing.

The Big Green dropped two of its three games against Harvard University this past weekend, falling to 11-21 overall after their first two matchups. Dartmouth won the finale against Harvard on Monday and defeated Siena College 6-4 on Wednesday to build up some positive momentum and give the team its 12th and 13th wins, but the series loss versus the Crimson dropped the Big Green to 6-9 in conference play.

Due to rain, the Saturday doubleheader was pushed back to Sunday, with the finale moved to Monday. Sunday proved challenging for the Big Green, which lost the first game 2-1 in heartbreaking fashion.

The team gave up the tiebreaking run with two outs in the final frame and stranded six of its seven runners during the course of the loss.

“The difference between winning and losing is really small,” head coach Bob Whalen said. “When you’re not able to [bring runners home], it makes things harder.”

While the Big Green struggled offensively in the opener, captain Cole O’Connor ’19 shined on the mound with seven one-run innings.

Despite the loss, O’Connor’s effort was critical. He kept the bullpen fresh for the remainder of the series by going deep into the game and

gave the offense chances to take the lead by keeping the game close.

“When you get a well-pitched game, you put your team in a position where you always have a chance to win,” Whalen said.

While the first Sunday game was close throughout, that was not the case for the second game.

Dartmouth lost 11-3, with fourrun fourth and fifth innings from Harvard leading the Crimson’s offensive charge. Justin Murray ’22, who won Ivy League Rookie of the Week the week prior for a masterful start against Brown University, had a tougher time containing Harvard.

The defining factor in the game was how Dartmouth continued to struggle with runners in scoring position whereas Harvard did a great job bringing runners home.

Eleven of the Crimson’s 20 runners who reached base scored, compared to only three of Dartmouth’s 14 runners made the full 360-foot trip to home plate.

This problem of hitting with runners on base continued to plague the Big Green early in Monday’s game. After loading the bases in the first inning, the Big Green scored a run when Steffen Torgersen ’19 was hit by a pitch, but it failed to break the inning open. In the second inning, however, Dartmouth finally came through with runners in scoring position, exploding for a six-run inning.

“It felt good for the bats to come out and bust the game open early,” Nate Ostmo ’19 said. “It was on the forefront of our minds to capitalize with guys on base and in scoring position.”

After that second-inning outbreak, the Big Green continued to plate runners en route to a 15-7

victory, the only time the team has scored more than 10 runs in its last 10 games since its 21-inning loss to the University of Pennsylvania.

Ostmo led the team with a two-run home run to go with three other hits on the day, while Torgersen added a long ball of his own.

Even if the offense had not been as dominant, the team would have still been in great shape due to a pitching gem from Nathan Skinner ’22. Skinner pitched six brilliant two-run innings, which was critical at the back end of a tiring Ivy League season with a bullpen that has accumulated plenty of wear and tear over the course of it.

“He had to pitch well today,” Whalen said. “For us to have a chance on the back end with our bullpen, we needed at least five or six innings out of him. He was really the key to the day.”

Skinner attributed his success to being relaxed and comfortable on the mound.

“Today felt great,” Skinner said.

“We’re at the point where we aren’t nervous anymore; we’re part of the team. The offense played great, so I didn’t feel a lot of pressure.”

On top of being recognized by his coach for his superb outing, Skinner was honored by the conference as he received the Ivy League Rookie of the Week award. Skinner is already familiar with the honor, as he was recognized earlier in the season after a stellar start in early March against Farleigh Dickinson University.

The team built on the positive energy from Monday in its midweek road trip to Siena in Upstate New York. Dartmouth won the game 6-4, largely due to more strong pitching. After Alec Vaules ’20 pitched five innings of four-run

ball, the bullpen slammed the door with four scoreless innings.

The first-year pitchers capitalized on key opportunities as Chase Jeter ’22 and Trystan Sarcone ’22 pitched 1.2 and 1.1 shutout innings, respectively. Jonah Jenkins ’21 succeeded Sarcone and put the nail in the coffin for his first save of the season.

Offensively, Ostmo continued his success at the plate by hitting another home run and knocking in three. A four-run fourth inning was the key for Dartmouth, giving the Big Green a lead it would not squander.

With the Siena game in the books, Dartmouth will not leave the friendly confines of Hanover for the remainder of the season. The team has seven consecutive home games remaining, six of which are in conference play. Yale University will

make the trip north this weekend, the University of Maine will come for a Wednesday tilt next week and Cornell University will come during the final weekend of the season to finish up the 2019 campaign.

Dartmouth is four games back of second-place Harvard, which it would have to pass in order to make the Ivy League championship featuring the top two teams. The team’s only hope is to win out and hope for a wild series of events to occur. The odds of everything falling into place are slim, but the team’s focus right now is simply on its next game. In this case, that means turning its attention to Yale this coming Saturday.

“I think the players will tell you that [focusing on the next game] is all we talk about,” Whalen said.

“Yale is a good team, they always are. But so are we.”

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The Big Green currently sits in sixth place in the Ivy League.