VOL. CLXXVI NO. 32
RAINY HIGH 63 LOW 38
OPINION
ELIAS: DARTMOUTH DIS-CHORD PAGE 4
SCHUETZE: WHAT HAPPENED TO RAVEN HOUSE? PAGE 4
ARTS
REVIEW: ‘GLORIA BELL’ IS A NEW TAKE ON THE COMINGOF-AGE STORY PAGE 7
FILM THOUGHTS: PREDICTIONS, SPOILERS AND NARRATIVE AS EQUATION PAGE 8
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TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2019
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Seat saving, hotel prices HHS secretary Alex Azar ’88 make commencement talks healthcare, pharmaceuticals an expensive affair
B y ANDREW CULVER The Dartmouth Staff
Wi t h a ro u n d 1 0 , 0 0 0 people expected to come to Hanover for commencement weekend, hotel rooms and commencement seats come at a high price. Dartmouth’s 2019 commencement weekend will take place from Friday, June 7 to Sunday, June 9, with the main ceremony
taking place that day. Each year, Dartmouth’s graduation sees around 10 to 11 thousand visitors to campus, executive director for conferences and events Ernest Kiefer said. With the high number of visitors to campus come high hotel prices and limited availability. At the Norwich Inn just across the river in
SEE COMMENCEMENT PAGE 3
Former Colorado governor speaks on capitalism at Tuck B y KYLE MULLINS
The Dartmouth Staff
Former Colorado governor and Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper spoke at the Tuck School of Business to around 50 undergraduates, graduate students and community members on Saturday. In the talk — titled “The Future of Capitalism” — and the subsequent question and answer session, Hickenlooper discussed a series of policies that he
said would help address the “problems” in capitalism as an economic system in the United States. Hickenlooper’s proposals, rooted in the more marketfriendly wing of the Democratic Party, contrast sharply with ideas for more radical change from progressive Democrats such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the latter of whom held an event in Hanover SEE HICKENLOOPER PAGE 5
ELSA ERICKSEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Azar, seated right, engaged in a discussion at the Rockefeller Center with professor Charlie Wheelan.
B y JOEY CHONG The Dartmouth
On Friday afternoon, an audience of around 100 students and parents gathered to join U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar ’88 and senior lecturer Charlie Wheelan ’88 for a “fireside chat” in the Rockefeller Center. Azar discussed his journey from Dartmouth to Washington, D.C. and his work in the HHS department. He also answered written questions from the audience about religious protections for healthcare providers and the separation of migrant families who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
Wheelan started the discussion by reflecting on their shared time as Dartmouth students. He also mentioned their fellow classmate, New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand ’88, who used the name Tina Rutnik as a student. “Did you think you would be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tina would be running for president and I would write a lot of books with ‘naked’ in the title?” Wheelan said, referencing his series of books on economics. Azar described how he attended Yale Law School after graduating from Dartmouth, then interned and clerked throughout Washington. He talked about his transitions
between the private and public sector and his initial work with the HHS department as general counsel in 2001. After serving as the president of Lilly USA, the largest division of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company, he returned as HHS Secretary in January 2018. “I have an enor mous department,” Azar said. “My budget is $1.3 trillion a year. If we were a country, we would be the fifth largest country on earth.” Azar said that his four main goals after being confirmed were to reduce drug prices, “turn around” the opioid crisis, create more insurance options SEE AZAR PAGE 2
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TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2019
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month kicks off B y Felipe opazo saravia The Dartmouth
Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which primarily takes place during the month of May, kicked off this year’s programming with Lei Day on April 30 — a celebration of Native Hawaiian culture. This year’s theme, “Pearl: Of Great Individuality and Worth” celebrates uniqueness and creates a space to understand what it means to be part of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, according to AAPIHM student coordinator Nalini Ramanathan ’19. Last year’s theme, “Counter Currents: Beyond the Surface,” focused on activism and awareness movements. This year, Ramanathan said the theme intends to showcase the individual stories and experiences within the Asian American and Pacific
Islander community. “Our theme is about the individual experiences, like the hardships or moments of joy that each individual in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community has,” Ramanathan said. “This month we are just highlighting a lot of those stories. Typically, we try to highlight stories that we don’t usually see represented in the media.” Mikaila Ng ’22, a member of the planning committee involved with marketing this year’s programming, said that this year’s theme reflects the experiences — both good and bad — that make individuals in the community unique. “At an individual level, we all go through different experiences, sort of like a pearl, where we have troubling experiences — hard stuff, whatever that may be — but all those experiences make each person unique
and special,” Ng said. According to Ramanathan, a group of around 15 students from the Pan Asian community were in charge of organizing many of the AAPIHM events through the Office of Pluralism and Leadership. Events planned for the month include Lei Day, a performance by gender non-conforming artist, writer, educator and entertainer Alok Vaid-Menon, a keynote address by Vietnamese-American novelist Monique Truong, a “Moveable Feast,” a “Nightmarket,” a dumplingmaking event, a Boba bar and a dinner discussion about faith and spirituality. Filipino, South Asian and Korean groups will also present culture nights. There will be a panel about academia and activism, as well as another panel titled, “Where are the Asians?” An AAPIHM gala will take place on May 24 at the Hood Museum of Art, which
will be followed the next day by a Lu’au. A presentation of Korean food and dances will close the celebrations of the month. Lei Day volunteer Sara Lockwood ’22 described the event as an opportunity to preserve Hawaiian culture. She said that thousands of orchids were flown in from Hawaii, and a cultural practitioner from Maui, Kumu Pono Murray, spoke about the importance of recognizing, preserving and continuing to practice one’s culture. “We were making Lei and we had a cultural practitioner from the island of Maui, Kumu Pono Murray, who spoke about the importance of recognizing one’s culture, preserving and continuing to practice it.” According to Ramanathan, one of the main purposes of Lei Day and other AAPHIM events is to help people reflect on their identity and
also create a sense of community and shared experience. “It was really interesting hearing students’ reactions to Kumu Pono about the importance of preserving culture and continuing culture,” Lockwood said. “They seemed to really agree with what he was saying, and I think it does make students reflect upon their stories.” Another AAPIHM event that has already happened this month was the official AAPIHM kick-off event in Collis Common Ground, featuring a performance by gender nonconforming performer Vaid-Menon. “Sometimes we forget about the queer community within communities of color and Alok represents that,” Ng said. “[These people] not only represent [part of] the Asian culture, but also the queer community and how there’s an interesting cross-section between these two.”
Azar faced questions about e-cigarettes, family separation at border FROM AZAR PAGE 1
in the private market place and add “value” to the healthcare system. On the topic of reducing prescription drug prices, Wheelan asked how Azar’s experience working for a phar maceutical company has influenced his tenure as HHS secretary, and Azar cited his experience with Eli Lilly as helpful for the job. On his goal to end the opioid crisis, Azar outlined the rise of the opioid epidemic and how he hopes to solve it. He noted that one of the main factors that has led to the epidemic is addiction stemming from legal painkiller prescriptions. Azar proposed the use of “medicationassisted treatment,” which helps users recover from their addictions. “Opioid addiction is a medical condition, not a moral failure,”
Azar said. “If there’s one part of Washington that is functioning, it is actually dealing with the opioid crisis.” Azar also discussed how he wants to “add value” to the healthcare system by moving from paying for procedures to “paying for outcomes and value.” He claimed that medical facilities make more money from sick patients by pushing diagnostics and procedures. “The only way we’re going to bend the curve in this country is by starting to pay for values and paying for outcomes and results,” Azar said. To solve this issue, Azar explained a new program that launched a few weeks ago using the “Primary Care First” model, which incentivizes healthcare providers by creating a perfor mance-based payment system, encouraging reduced hospital utilization and producing an overall
CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.
cost of care, according to Azar. Finally, Azar discussed creating more affordable options for people in the individual insurance market, which he stated is the “most partisan” issue of all of his goals despite the fact that it is “a fairly small portion of our system.” Following his talk, Azar answered some questions submitted from the audience and discussed topics, including e-cigarettes and vaping. “If a minor gets onto e-cigarettes and vaping and becomes addicted to nicotine, that is a catastrophe,” Azar said. “We can’t allow the off-ramp we’re trying to create for combustible tobacco to become an on-ramp for teenagers to nicotine addiction.” Azar was also asked about the finalized HHS policy that protects “life and conscience” — providing safeguards to healthcare providers who refuse to offer services that they object to on a religious basis, including abortions. Azar responded by saying the previous administration neglected this issue, and the policy is simply an affirmation of existing statutes.
“We do believe we can both respect access for people, as well as protect the rights and conscience of healthcare providers,” Azar said. On the role of HHS in separating families at the Mexican border, an issue that has grown into a major political controversy in the last year, Azar underscored that HHS is not responsible for separating families but merely providing care for the children who come into their custody. “Our number one mission with them in addition to keeping them safe and secure while they’re with us is to have them to not be with us,” Azar said. “We don’t separate kids from parents. We get kids.” Azar has faced some scrutiny, however, for the responsibility of HHS to keep children safe and healthy. On May 1, HHS announced that a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy died while in federal custody. During the conversation, however, Azar focused on the success of HHS in reuniting many families. “Kids should be with their family,” Azar said. “They should be with their
parents. They should be with their relatives. They shouldn’t be with me. That’s what we work to do as safely as we can.” Azar was also asked a question from an impromptu student as he was leaving the room. Khari Jarrett Th ’21 asked how Azar was planning to lower drug prices when he increased drug prices during his tenure as President of Lilly USA. “We’re actually changing that so every company will have the incentive to lower prices,” Azar said. “I’m committed to it. The President is committed to it.” Jarrett interrupted Azar with the final word. “I hope your future is different than your past,” Jarrett said. In an interview following the event, College President Phil Hanlon expressed his appreciation for Azar’s visit. “Secretar y Azar has huge responsibilities,” Hanlon said. “That’s what we want from Dartmouth alums — that they go out and lead lives in leadership and impact.”
TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2019
PAGE 3
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Hotel prices, seat saving at commencement can be expensive FROM COMMENCEMENT PAGE 1
Norwich, VT, a standard room for graduation costs around $470 a night with a three-night minimum stay and non-refundable full payment at the time of reservation, making the total cost for the weekend around $1500 — not including tax, according to Norwich Inn employee Kate Ohaus. Ohaus said that, the chance to reserve a room for graduation weekend at the Norwich Inn comes by invitation only. Each year, the Inn sends out reservation invitations about a year in advance to frequent guests. Priority is given to former guests based on the total number of nights they have stayed at the Inn previously, Ohaus said. Six South Street Hotel in Hanover has a similar model with a non-refundable three-night minimum stay with rooms at $809 dollars a night, according to the hotel’s website. Guests with the “highest number of room nights” stayed at the hotel previously will be given first priority for reservation, according to Six South Street’s website. A three-night stay for commencement — if a person is even given priority to book the reservation — would cost a guest $2,427. The Hanover Inn, the closest hotel to campus, is completely reserved by the College, which then allocates the rooms mainly
to special guests and members of the class celebrating their 50th anniversary, according to Hanover Inn general manager Brian Hunt. Only the limited rooms not used by the College are allocated to individuals on the Hanover Inn’s graduation wait list which opens a year in advance. Hunt said that any available rooms would be upwards of $500 dollars a night with a minimum stay of three nights. However, the College does offer a much lower cost alternative to high hotel rates. For $50 a night per person, families are able to stay in any unoccupied residence hall room, according to Kiefer. Kiefer said that the College is typically able to accommodate all the families seeking housing in residence halls. College spokesperson Diana Lawrence wrote in an email statement that more 2,000 beds are available for commencement guests on campus. Kiefer added that while residence hall rooms do not come with the amenities of a hotel, they are a lower cost alternative and are within walking distance of the graduation ceremony and events. In addition to the cost of a hotel room, ensuring a good seat at commencement ceremonies can increase the bill for graduation. There are around 9,000 seats on the Green for commencement, which is not enough seats for the
DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Commencement at Dartmouth always brings large crowds to the Green — leading to the practice of seat saving.
total number of attendees, Kiefer said. However, he said that he believes “anyone who wants a seat can get a seat,” adding that some commencement guests, such as those with pets or small children, do not want to sit on the Green for the entire ceremony. All graduation seats — with the exception of those reserved for
the Board of Trustees, faculty, the 50th anniversary class who march each year, graduating students and special guests of the College — are first-come, first-served and open early the morning of graduation, Kiefer said. The open availability of seats gives rise to the popular practice of “seat saving,” in which an individual saves up to three seats for the family or friends of a graduate, often in exchange for formal compensation. While prices may vary between individuals offering saved seats, Brook Leigh ’22, a former student at Hanover High School, said that he has saved seats at $100 per seat in the past. Brook worked with a group of three other friends, saving a total of 12 seats between them. Leigh said that most seat saving is set up through friends and people who know commencement guests coming to town who want good seats reserved for the ceremony. Leigh added that when he saved seats, he was first allowed onto the Green at 5 a.m. on the
day of commencement. Within 20 minutes, Leigh recalled that all the “prime seating” and “at least half ” of the total seats were taken. “It’s kind of wild,” Leigh added, citing the rush to save seats when the Green officially opens. Kiefer said the College is aware of seat saving but “does not condone it.” While on-campus accommodations are significantly less expensive than hotels, and high seat saving costs are by no means a requirement to attend the ceremony, the high cost of the weekend can still be prohibitive to some families. Lawrence wrote that while the College also provides free food at the graduation gala, there are no programs in place to help lowincome families with the costs of attending graduation. “Family members who cannot afford to travel to Hanover to watch the Sunday commencement in person can now view the ceremony via livestream with captioning,” Lawrence wrote.
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TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2019
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
STAFF COLUMNIST CHANTAL ELIAS ’22
GUEST COLUMNIST BRENDAN SCHUETZE ’18
Dartmouth Dis-chord
What Happened to Raven House?
Dartmouth must create inclusive spaces for music. Music has always been a central part of my life. into, I didn’t find the right match. The Glee Club In high school I sang in two choirs, performed in is an audition-only choral group, and choral singing musicals and played the flute in band. Every day I is not my thing. I’m not a jazz singer either, so looked forward to rehearsal and music-making with Jazz Ensemble was ruled out. In my haste to find my friends. It was a chance for me to pack up the a non-audition music group, I went to a Gospel textbooks and give time to one of my passions. Choir practice. I absolutely loved the enthusiasm I knew that to succeed academically and and the camaraderie, and I can certainly see why remain balanced at Dartmouth, I needed to many people find a home in the Dartmouth Gospel incorporate music into my schedule. But early into Choir. The major issue I had was with the type of my freshman fall, I realized this goal was going to music — gospel music simply wasn’t the right fit be harder to achieve than I had initially thought. for me. I love to sing pop, folk, and just about every I had a vague awareness other genre. The problem was before matriculating about the that, except for the exclusive “There ought to be a exclusivity of acapella groups, acapella groups, a non-specific but I was still shocked by place where student genre vocal group didn’t exist each group’s low acceptance musicians and singers for me. rates. Suffice to say, I was There ought to can have a low-stakes, be a place where student unsuccessful. As I came to know welcoming community musicians and singers can Dartmouth extra-curriculars a low-stakes, welcoming of other artists, similar have better, I was surprised to community of other artists, learn that a wide variety of to the community I similar to the community non-exclusive opportunities found in high school.” I found in high school. My existed for athletics, outdoor experiences with musical activities and a plethora of exploration at Dartmouth other clubs. In addition to and the similar stories shared varsity teams, there are club sports and non-tryout by my peers emphasizes the need for a multi-genre, intramurals. Regardless of one’s athletic abilities non-exclusive and low-commitment vocal group. It or preferences, there is a school-sponsored space is vital that an inclusive musical space exist for all to exercise that interest. But such variety does not students — for those who don’t consider themselves exist with respect to music groups. If such variety musical experts, or those who don’t want to face the exists in other parts of campus life, why does the palm-sweating audition process, or those who want same not exist for vocal groups? a supportive community to sing with or those who After I realized that competitive acapella groups just want to try something new. By providing such a were not the right fit for me, I looked into three space, incoming students will have greater chances other groups: the Glee Club, Gospel Choir and to reap the immeasurable benefits music provides Jazz Ensemble. But for each vocal group I looked to the mind, body and soul.
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Dartmouth must invest in its education department.
Under Dartmouth’s 2018 “Telling Our Story” brand image guidelines, the College seeks to position itself as a “basecamp to the world,” where “scholars … love to teach” and “liberal arts [is] at the core.” Reading these three tenets of our identity, it is clear that the College places teaching and education at the center of its mission. And as the guidelines acknowledge, education is a broadly transformative force. At its best, the education system has the potential to expose students to new possibilities and remove their economic prospects from pernicious cycles of poverty. At its worst, the education system discourages critical thinking, reduces selfefficacy and reproduces inequality. With its ability to profoundly shape the development of its students, education deserves to be studied at the most comprehensive and rigorous level. But the College’s support of its own education department does not adequately mirror the significance of the system being studied. Whereas other social sciences departments, such as economics, government and psychology have 29, 29 and 21 tenured or tenure-track professors, respectively, the education department has four. Compared to peer institutions straddling the liberal arts college-university divide, Dartmouth is also relatively under-invested in education scholarship. With an enrollment half that of our own, Colgate University, for instance, has seven tenure-track education professors; Colgate also offers a master’s degree in teaching and a teacher education program. Another undergraduate-focused university, the College of William & Mary, is home to an entire School of Education in addition to a substantial teacher education program. The comparison of Dartmouth’s education offerings with fellow Ivy League institutions is less kind. Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University all host teacher education programs, and all of these schools, except Princeton, offer rigorous graduate programs in education. While many peer institutions have teacher education programs and offer a major in this field, Dartmouth’s teacher education program has quietly disappeared in the time since I matriculated in 2014 , and only a minor in education is offered. Without the ability to become a licensed educator at Dartmouth, students who want to teach are
forced to choose ad-hoc teacher preparation programs, such as Teach for America or to teach at private schools. Neither of these options represents an ideal way to reverse the problems inherent in the underprivileged public schools so often in need of well-trained teachers willing to stay for the long-term . In writing this piece, I seek to diminish neither the important work performed by teachers certified through alternate means nor the scholarship of the existing education faculty. Rather, I write to draw attention to the limited resources available to these scholars and their department. Fellow R1 institutions, such as Harvard and the University of Texas at Austin , house entire departments dedicated to human development, education policy, curriculum, instruction and more. Dartmouth’s education department, in my experience, is tightly focused on educational psychology and neuroscience. Although I benefited from this specialization as an undergraduate, enabling me to gain entrance into a Ph.D program in the same field, my graduate school experience has awakened me to the breadth of education scholarship. Broad swaths of academic inquiry are simply not covered by the existing faculty’s knowledge base — and how could they be? There are fewer tenure-track faculty in the department of education than there are departments in the College of Education at UT Austin. Dartmouth’s education department is at a crossroads. If the number of programs and resources associated with this department continues to decline, so will student enrollment in its courses. Eventually, this feedback loop will cause the department to offer even fewer classes and research opportunities to undergraduates. A renewed investment in education faculty and resources presents the best way to reverse this pattern of reduced programming and recruit educationally-minded students. Ultimately, education is the peak of human society and Dartmouth ought to be a solid basecamp. Schuetze is a member of the Class of 2018. The 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.
TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2019
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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Hickenlooper, low in the polls, stakes a moderate platform FROM HICKENLOOPER PAGE 1
in April. The purple state governor shunned progressive policies such as Sanders’ “Medicare for All,” Warren’s wealth tax and Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez (D-NY)’s “Green New Deal” in favor of more moderate plans: a public health insurance option, cutting spending through attrition of federal workers, and streamlining the construction of carbon-free power plants. Despite being on the campaign trail since early March, Hickenlooper has yet to earn more than one percent in any New Hampshire Democratic primary poll since February. Nationally, he has not broken two percent, but has earned enough support in enough polls to qualify for the Democratic National Committee’s first debate in late June. Hickenlooper served two terms as mayor of Denver and two terms as governor of Colorado. Executive director of Tuck’s Center for Business, Government and Society John McKinley said in his introduction that when Hickenlooper left office in Colorado, the state had the top economy in America for two years running according to U.S. News and World Report. The governor emphasized his combination of private and public sector experience as qualifications for the presidency. Prior to entering politics, he first had a career as a geologist until he was laid off. He and his friends then opened a brewing company that expanded within Denver before he sold his stake in it. Hickenlooper tied his success to economic conditions that existed then, but he noted that the current economy may not foster the same opportunities. “There was a sense that the system [was] open to an entrepreneur,” Hickenlooper said. “I’m not sure that’s true anymore.” The governor described what he saw as “broken” in the American economy. He noted that since 1981, roughly half of Americans’ wages have stagnated in inflation-adjusted terms, which he said hurts the middle class. Hickenlooper blamed this phenomenon on a combination of “trickle-down” economics and
deregulation, as well as rising costs of housing and health care. He called for taking an “entrepreneurial approach” to solving these problems. “That’s what I think we really have to do to rehabilitate capitalism,” he said. In terms of specific policies, Hickenlooper called for phasing in a national $15 minimum wage over several years and creating a “sliding scale” for supporting parents that need child care. He also panned “industries that are dominated by two or three or four corporations,” arguing that this hurts job creation and entrepreneurship. In a contrast to other Democratic candidates, Hickenlooper emphasized that lobbyists, especially for trade associations, are “not bad people.” He said that their efforts to gain tax breaks and subsidies for their industries, however, are damaging to the economy. “Over a long period of time, [efforts to gain tax breaks and subsidies have] ... provided layer after layer after layer of economic advantage for corporations and has put working people at a disadvantage,” Hickenlooper said. He also lamented the nationwide decline in union membership. Throughout the talk and the Q&A, the governor sought to portray himself as a policy wonk interested in bringing different sides together. He characterized his proposals as policies that his team had examined, but he acknowledges counterarguments to his ideas. When asked about immigration, Hickenlooper offered a proposal that contained elements of liberal and conservative ideas. He called for a fully secure border, a nationwide, counterfeit-proof ID system for citizens and a tripling of penalties for businesses that employ undocumented workers. At the same time, he called mass deportations “laughable” and proposed giving renewable 10-year visas to every undocumented immigrant without a criminal record. “Right now, we, all of us, need them,” Hickenlooper said, emphasizing the role undocumented workers play in industries like agriculture and construction. On climate change, Hickenlooper emphasized his ability to bring together industrial and environmental groups.
COURTESY OF ROBERT STRONG
Hickenlooper called for a minimum wage increase, action on climate change and a public option for health insurance.
He told an anecdote about working as a go-between for an organization looking to stop methane emissions and an industry group. After discussions with both, he said he found out that both sides were simply concerned with who would get credit for the emission cuts — so his administration ensured both groups were credited. “We gotta go [take action on climate change] right now, and we’re not going to win by having people fighting,” Hickenlooper said. “We’re going to win by getting market forces and explaining why it’s in everyone’s advantage to do this.” Calling basic health care a human right, Hickenlooper proposed a public insurance option in competition with private insurance companies but dismissed “Medicare for All” as damaging to Americans satisfied with their private insurance. “In this country, we don’t go and take stuff away easily,” he said. He said that the buy-in for the public option would be on a sliding scale based on income and could be implemented through the Medicare system. He
also called for more transparency in hospital pricing and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug costs. Fabian Kissing Tu ’20 said he appreciated hearing about Hickenlooper’s experience dealing with “politicians from different political camps.” He added that, as an international student, he had already heard about the “prominent” candidates in the Democratic primary. “It was really interesting for me to hear about a candidate I hadn’t heard of before,” Kissing said. Archana Vamanrao Tu ’20 said she felt that Hickenlooper “considered things in a framework that is very familiar” to the ones students at the Tuck School of Business consider. “People will act according to incentives, and you really have to look deep to the root of things to see what the incentives are,” Vamanrao said. Center for Business, Government and Society program manager Rachel Brooks said that the Center is hoping to “bring other candidates” in the months leading up to the New Hampshire
primary in February 2020. “This was really opportunistic, knowing that he was coming through New Hampshire and being able to bring him here to Dartmouth,” Brooks said. Hickenlooper is not nearly the first presidential candidate to recently visit Dartmouth’s campus. In February, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) Former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro (D), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Warren and author Marianne Williamson (D) all came to Hanover in April. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang (D) is scheduled to come to Beta Alpha Omega fraternity on Thursday, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) is speaking at the Top of the Hop on Friday. The Upper Valley is a Democratic stronghold in New Hampshire, and Hanover in particular tends to vote Democratic. Former New York senator, secretary of state and Democratic nominee for president Hillary Clinton won 84.9 percent of the vote in Hanover in 2016, her best performance in any town in the state. Clinton will visit campus as well on May 8.
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DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY
THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
WANT IT OR NOT — IT’S ALWAYS THERE!
TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2019
Lamees Kareem ’22
12:15 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Workshop: “Dartmouth Health Care Foundations Information Session,” sponsored by The Dartmouth Institute, Room 218, Collis Center.
12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
Talk: “Representation in an Age of Negative Partisanship,” Mia Costa, Dartmouth College, sponsored by the Program in Quantitative Social Science, Room 215, Silsby Hall.
4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Talk: “Independence Corrupted: How America’s Judges (Really) Make Decisions,” by Charles Schudson, sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Oopik Auditorium, Life Sciences Center.
TOMORROW 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Dog: “Visit from Winston, VT Therapy Dog,” sponsored by the Student Wellness Center, House Center B.
4:45 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Talk: “In Conversation with Hillary Rodham Clinton,” sponsored by the Dickey Center, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center Center for the Arts.
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TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2019
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
PAGE 7
Review: ‘Gloria Bell’ is a new take on the coming-of-age story B y mia nelson
The Dartmouth Staff
The film “Gloria Bell,” written and directed by Sebastián Lelio and starring Julianne Moore as the eponymous main character, is a meandering slice-of-life film beautifully unfolding what can only be called a coming-of-age film, only later in life. Gloria, the titular protagonist, is divorced, has an ordinary job and entertains herself by dancing in various nightclubs across Los Angeles and having unextraordinary interactions with her adult son and daughter. All of a sudden, a new romance blossoms for Gloria when Arnold, portrayed by John Turturro, picks her up at a nightclub. The two spend the night together and, at first, the relationship seems over just as quickly as it started — infinitely unimportant to Gloria. Her life is interesting with or without a lover, laced with subtle and grand disappointments such as her son’s wife abandoning him and their son, her daughter’s relationship with a Swedish big wave surfer, her work best friend’s
imminent firing and her own mother squandering all the money left by Gloria’s father. The film treats such events with mundanity, as they are, after all, just parts of life. When Arnold calls Gloria to invite her on a date, it is clear she has forgotten him as much as the audience has, since she is caught up in her own life. We see Gloria answer the phone and respond, softly puzzled, “No, I’m not mad. Why would I be mad?’ Her nonchalance demonstrates her own self-contentment in life, based on a self-worth not rooted in someone else’s love or approval. Despite the fact that Gloria does not go to the nightclubs looking for a husband or any semblance of a longterm relationship, Arnold slowly embeds himself deeper into her life, reading her poems, telling her that he is in love with her. Fueled by his affection, Gloria invites him to her son’s birthday party, which Arnold abandons mid-way, feeling he is not receiving enough attention. Arnold’s neediness seems to appear out-of-theblue, since their relationship has been brief. After Arnold ignores Gloria’s calls,
Gloria chooses to ignore him. While avoiding Arnold’s calls, Gloria learns that her daughter and her Swedish boyfriend are expecting a baby. Her daughter, showing Gloria footage of him surfing a gigantic wave, tells Gloria that she has never been so happy and afraid at the same time. Gloria, smiling, tells her daughter, “I think it’s called love.” Though she is not close to her daughter, since her daughter is young and distant, the two share great, if subliminal, love for each other. Their relationship, side-by-side with Gloria and Arnold’s relationship, demonstrates an interesting comparison in love: Arnold claims over and over again that he loves Gloria but leaves her behind and lets her down, constantly demanding more from her, while her daughter acts distant but shows up to help look for Arnold and gives Gloria a tearful hug before departing for Sweden. The movie forces the audience to ask, “Isn’t a love that is present better than a love that promises, over and over, that it will be?” Gloria finally rids herself of Arnold
by taking his paintball gun and blasting both Arnold and his house while wearing a beautiful, turquoise dress. As his daughters and ex-wife run out of the house, we see that Gloria is free again. She laughs as she drives away in her car, a scene similar to scenes earlier in the film of her driving alone listening to ’80s music, signifying her return to her free, independent self. Gloria, after a long jourey astray, comes back home to her own identity. And personally, I like it that way, and I liked that she went out with a bang in her relationship with Arnold — it was in that act of defiance that the movie transcended our typical expectations of middle-aged women, minimized to people dependent on their family to both define and burden them. Following the climax of Gloria breaking free of Arnold’s grasp, Gloria drives to her friend’s daughter’s wedding. She declines an invitation to dance with a man, comfortably sitting by herself at the reception. Only getting up when her friend begs her, Gloria dances alone to the 1982 Laura Branigan song, “Gloria,”
a song about all the men the fictional woman in the song is trying to date. At first the song tells her try and get the men, but at the end the song encourages the fictional Gloria to leave the men behind and not pick up their calls. It is at this point in the song that the film’s Gloria dances freely and smiles. This end scene adroitly wraps up a film that, even in its meandering, has a sharp purpose: the lives of ordinary, pained, loved, joyous, alone women like Gloria deserve to be honored through story-telling. The greatest realization I left the film with was that society views single women of Gloria’s age as lonely, when she was really anything but without Arnold. It was only with the wrong person, Arnold, that she felt truly lonely. Gloria says at one point during the film that if the world is ending, she would want to go down dancing. Audiences should be inspired by her zeal and strength, despite what it means in society’s eyes to dance alone. Because, as I think Gloria would agree, dancing alone is still dancing.
Review: Taylor Swift’s new single ‘ME!’ is uninspired but catchy B y shera bhala The Dartmouth
With the release of her new single “ME!” this past April 26, Taylor Swift has evolved once again. A bubbly and bright pop song, “ME!” marks Swift’s departure from the mood of her previous album, the inspired and aggressive “reputation,” and her persona’s transformation to the glaringly upbeat and pastel imagery of “ME!” A significant change from old, country-pop princess Swift and even more so from the edgy version of Swift expressed through “reputation” — an album full of dark colors and gothic script — “ME!” highlights Swift’s ability to radically reshape her profile. The new song stuns with its gushing, rainbow-colored scenery and unfailing enthusiasm. With lyrics like “But one of these things is not like the others. Like a rainbow with all of the colors,” “ME!” is decidedly more amusing and carefree than many of her past releases. The music video for “ME!”
exemplifies the cheerful tone of the song. Beginning in an elegant villa with turquoise walls and mustard yellow furniture, Brendon Urie (front man of Panic! at the Disco and Swift’s musical collaborator) and Swift, acting as a couple, argue in poor French. The video proceeds to burst into a fantasy world of pastel color, where Swift and dancers line a candy-colored street wearing rose pink, robin’s egg blue and lavender suits. Sitting on the roof of one of the gem-toned buildings, Swift, whose pink gown flows down the structure like melted strawberry ice cream, accepts Urie’s proposal of a kitten as he sings “Baby doll, when it comes to a lover, I promise that you’ll never find another like me.” Urie’s heart opens to a Candyland-inspired universe of go-go dancers and then up to a shimmering rainbow castle. The video ends with the vibrant surroundings melting around the couple in a “Dancing in the Rain”inspired rainstorm to the lyrics of the peppy chorus. Despite the rebirth “ME!” provides
to Swift’s musical career and presence as a public figure, the music video for “ME!” still features symbols from “reputation” — a connection to and perhaps recognition of — Swift’s past, which adds interesting layers of nuance to the video. For example, the video begins with a slithering, pink snake akin to the black snake imagery that frequented her music, costuming and other visual elements of her career during her “reputation” era. However, the snake, after hissing, bursts into a flurry of multi-colored, fluttering butterflies. This image can be interpreted to mean that Swift has moved on from the drama that fans speculate inspired “reputation” (namely, the tense feud she had with Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West) and embraces a new, exciting era. Additionally, the phone Swift uses as a prop in her music video for “Look What You Made Me Do” as she sings “I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, ‘cause she’s dead!” makes a re-appearance in the “ME!” music video, signaling that
Swift is alive, recovered and as spirited as ever. While these symbols contribute some substantive value to “ME!”, the song generally lacks creative depth and fits into the mold of a back-to-basics, cliché pop song. Musically, the single follows the format for trite tunes with short-lived spots on Billboard charts. The lyrics are similarly uninspired, despite Swift’s capability for simple yet moving and articulate lyrics that she’s demonstrated in her previous work. In fact, her lyrics for “ME!” are so simplistic and juvenile it borders on cringeworthy. For example, at one point Swift sings “Hey, kids! Spelling is fun! Girl, there ain’t no ‘I’ in ‘team.’ ”Swift’s lackluster lyrics are certainly disappointing, given that the positive nature of the new song and its savvy collaboration with Urie provide ample opportunity for smart, meaningful lines and images that resonate with listeners. Despite that opportunity, by-and-large, Swift failed to replace the darker, but more intelligently vindictive characteristics associated with
“reputation” with smart, witty lyrics for “ME!” However, what the single fails to achieve in substance, it manages to achieve in light-hearted, sing-along fun. Through “ME!” Swift is pleasing her enormous fanbase with an infectiously happy song that celebrates the star’s own happiness and success. Posted on her Instagram story shortly after the song’s release, Swift shared that the music video to “ME!” received 65.2 million views in its first 24 hours, which has since more than doubled to nearly 150 million views in the first ten days. The celebrity of Taylor Swift continues with her effervescent, resilient personality and dedication to her fans. In terms of Swift’s upcoming music, the soft, pastel aesthetic of “ME!” provides context for the rest of the album, yet to be released. Judging from the exuberant character of the single, more bright, catchy songs await in an album inspired by revival and love. As for me, sometimes, a simple, radiant song is all that is needed.
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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2019
Film thoughts: predictions, spoilers and narrative as equation B y Sebastian Wurzrainer The Dartmouth Staff
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the film “Avengers: Endgame.” It’s been a little over a week since “Avengers: Endgame” came out. I’m not exactly sure when the moratorium on spoilers ends, but here goes: Thor lops off Thanos’ head in the first five minutes. Iron Man and Black Widow die. The Avengers save everyone through time travel. The thing about listing spoilers like they’re items on a grocery list is that none of them really mean much without the context of the film. The Avengers use time travel? Cool. Does it actually work as a convincing narrative conceit or is it trite? Iron Man and Black Widow die? Well, we always knew not everyone would live to the end. Thanos dies in the prologue? That’s weird. Why would they dispose of their most intimidating villain so early in a three-hour film? On their own, all of these moments are “spoilers,” but they don’t actually “spoil” anything about the actual film. It’s not until you see “Avengers: Endgame” that you appreciate how all of these elements are synthesized and contextualized in a larger narrative that I would argue is mostly satisfactory. Nevertheless, “Avengers: Endgame” was subject to the most intense “No Spoilers” campaign that I’ve ever seen. Not only did the directors create the hashtag #DontSpoilTheEndgame, but Disney even had Spider-Man actor Tom Holland record a PSA, warning audiences that there would be “Endgame” spoilers in the upcoming “Spider-Man: Far From Home” trailer. Moreover, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe turned borderline aggressive in their insistence that no plot details whatsoever be revealed
before their viewing experience. Just to be clear, I am not trying to condemn anyone who politely requests “no spoilers” before entering a conversation with someone about such a highly anticipated film. The joy of a story you’ve been looking forward to surprising you because you got to watch it unfold in real-time is genuine. Desiring that experience makes perfect sense, and it’s a request that any decent fellow filmgoer should be able to honor courteously. But for some fans, spoiler avoidance tips over into what I’m going to call active “spoiler aversion” — wherein spoilers are policed in a manner that is tinged with hostility. This attitude leaves one to wonder whether or not it potentially indicates a broader trend reflecting how certain individuals choose to create and consume narratives. Frankly, I think that “spoiler aversion” culture is just a symptom of a much larger attitude to cinematic narratives that has grown increasingly prevalent as of late. Moreover, “Avengers: Endgame” is the perfect vehicle through which to discuss these various issues. As is often the case with big-budget genre films like this, the months leading up to the release were dominated by fans making predictions about how “Endgame” would wrap up what Marvel apparently insists we call the “Infinity Saga” (i.e. “Endgame” plus the 21 MCU films preceding it). Sometimes the prediction machine relies on the seemingly endless stream of “leaks” that seem to filter onto the internet, but just as often, they are built around paying attention to the most minute and inconsequential details in trailers and other related films. As a result, many fans enter the film not just with expectations, but elaborate theories, having practically mapped out their own version of the story in their heads before the opening credits
even roll. Yet from what I’ve observed in my personal experience, these same fans are often those who perpetuate active “spoiler aversion” culture. Of course, once these fans do actually see the film, they get to decide how accurate or inaccurate their carefully researched predictions were (spoiler alert: they are almost always wrong). Thus, these fans return to the internet, creating articles and videos using granular, nitpicky details to determine whether or not the film’s actual “spoilable” moments make logical sense. These very details become the subsequent fuel for predictions about future films, and the cycle repeats itself. On the surface, this may seem to reflect little more than an enthusiastic — if potentially extreme — obsession with geek culture. And in many cases I suspect it is little more than that. But often it tends to result in a mode of film spectatorship that treats narrative as equation and not “narrative as equation” in the way Russian Formalist literary critics attempted to understand how narratives and storytelling function from an almost mathematical perspective. Rather, I’m referring to a mindset which views stories as puzzles and which understands the role of the spectator as the person who needs to out-think the filmmaker by solving the puzzle. It’s an approach that demands that every aspect of a narrative conforms to the fan’s specific understanding of “logic” — thereby conveniently bypassing meaningful discussions about themes, ideology, etc. This line of thinking insists that films are good just as long as E does in fact equal MC squared. Recent video essays like Lindsay Ellis’ “That Time Disney Remade Beauty and the Beast,” Dan Olson’s “Annihilation and Decoding Metaphor,” Bob Chipman’s
“Plothole Surfers,” Patrick Willems’ “Shut Up About Plot Holes” and Sage Hyden’s “Can You Judge Art Objectively?” have all noted this problem Indeed, these essayists document how such an approach is not just pedantic but frequently insidious. Efforts on the part of fans to logically outmaneuver filmmakers often manifest as a means of declaring a film with an ideology that they disagree with is “objectively” bad. The “narrative as equation” approach permits an irate fan to seem as though they take issue with a character like Admiral Holdo from “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” because it isn’t logical for her to not tell her plan to protagonist Poe Dameron. However, in reality that fan’s worldview can’t fathom why an assertive woman who is also decidedly at ease with her personal approach to femininity would be in a leadership position and then subsequently not choose to divulge top-secret information to an arrogant man who initially fails to respect her. Therefore, the “narrative as equation” approach can easily be used to make such a regressive worldview seem palatable because it is presented in a context that purports to be objective. I want to clarify that I don’t think all the people — or even the majority of the people — who make fan predictions, avoid spoiler, or chat about plot mechanics are also trying to hide troubling worldviews behind the veneer of logic and objectivity. Rather, I argue that extreme versions of these tendencies are a starting point that lead all too quickly to these problems. Seeking to outsmart a film and its creators this way doesn’t make someone look smart. It makes that person look like they’ve completely missed the point of storytelling — which they kind of have. The thing
about elaborate prediction theories and extreme spoiler aversion is that they treat “big” moments in anticipated films as somewhat separate from the context of themes or filmmaking. No matter how shocking, a twist simply doesn’t work if it doesn’t possess thematic resonance. Similarly, a film that fulfills all of your predictions still isn’t good if the filmmaking and execution is awful. The cultural value and impact of narratives emanates from their totality. In the wake of “Avengers: Endgame,” I’ve seen a myriad of articles and videos trying to explain the mechanics of the film’s time travel subplot. Everyone wants to know how this has managed not to rip a giant hole through the franchise’s fictional space-time continuum. I reiterate that this is not an inherently bad thing. Predictions are fun. Walking into a film without any foreknowledge is great. And speculating about the odd technicalities of a film’s fiction machinations can be extremely entertaining. I certainly do all of these things to some extent. The problem is that you can’t just stop there; one needs to be willing to approach these stories in terms of ideology and themes because that’s where they leave an impact beyond mere entertainment, whether it be for good or for ill. Have all the fun you want debating the physics of the time travel, but also acknowledge that the film actively tried to hand-wave away these kinds of logic questions; the time travel ploy is used purely because it allows each of the major characters to receive a sense of closure by revisiting the past. By approaching the whole affair as a prediction, a spoiler or an equation, though, these moments of thematic resonance become nothing more than ones and zeroes in a story stripped of its potential to actually mean anything.