The Dartmouth 9/28/18

VOL. CLXXV NO. 71

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Dartmouth Hall renovation planning begins

PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 67 LOW 50

B y aNDREW CULVER The Dartmouth

OLIVER BYLES/THE DARTMOUTH

The Dartmouth Board of Trustees authorized spending to start renovating Dartmouth Hall.

At its annual fall meeting, the Dartmouth Board of Trustees authorized $400,000 for planning and feasibility studies to begin the process of renovating Dartmouth Hall and began considering alternate management options for the Hanover Country Club, which is currently owned and operated by the College. The

three-day meeting, held from Sept. 13 to 15, was followed by a retreat to the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge.

Renovating Dartmouth Hall is a key initiative of Dartmouth’s $3 billion Call to Lead capital campaign .

The College’s ultimate goal is to raise $25 million for the renovation project.

The project is still in the SEE PATENT PAGE 5

OPINION

MAGANN: THE NEW MIDDLE EAST PAGE 4

VERBUM ULTIMUM: DELIBERATE THIS PAGE 6

ARTS

MONTGOMERY FELLOW ULRIKE OTTINGER IS IN RESIDENCE THIS FALL PAGE 7

SPORTS

ONE-ON-ONE WITH ISIAH SWANN ’20 PAGE 7 FOLLOW US ON

TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2018 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

The Dartmouth Bookstore to close, lease not renewed B y abby mihaly

The Dartmouth Staff

In a few months’ time, Hanover will be left without a place to buy newly released books. The Dartmouth Bookstore — Hanover’s Barnes and Noble — will close at the end of the calendar year, following a decision not to renew its lease, according to owner Jay Campion.

“Our lease expires this year at the end of December, and unfortunately we have been unable to come to terms

with the landlord on a new lease,” vice president of Barnes and Noble College stores Paul Maloney wrote in an email statement.

Town manager Julia Griffin said that Barnes and Noble was a “core store” in town. On busy weekends it was “hopping with people” browsing shelves, sitting in the café area and talking with one another, said Griffin.

Griffin called the loss a “real blow” to the town.

Dartmouth government professor Herschel Nachlis noted that, should

Hanover lose Barnes and Noble, it would likely be one of the only communities with a prominent college not to have a bookstore for new books.

“If Barnes and Noble were to close, this town would need an independent bookstore far more than it needs another Farmhouse Pottery,” Nachlis said, referring to the artisanal homegoods store which will be replacing Rambler’s Way. Owner of Hanover’s used bookstore Left Bank Books Nancy

Cressman emphasized the importance of bookstores to many towns.

“Bookstores are the hub of many communities, and Hanover needs a fully vibrant bookstore that sells newly published books,” Cressman said.

Prior employee Monica Alvarez ’18 worked at Barnes and Noble for a year and a half, before leaving last May. During her time at Barnes and Noble, the store continually cut back hours, closing the store earlier. She said employees spoke of the corporate office giving SEE BOOKSTORE PAGE 3

Professors awarded for teaching and research

New Hampshire colleges to develop biomaterials

The Dartmouth

The Dartmouth

B y EMILY SUN

This year, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences recognized 12 professors with awards for their academic work as scholar-teachers. The winners include professors whose fields span subjects ranging from music to history to mathematics. Each awardee was selected by the deans of their divisions, while history and Native American studies professor

Colin Calloway received the Jerome Goldstein Award for Distinguished Teaching, an award given to one professor each spring by a vote by the graduating class.

“It was a very pleasant surprise, but it was a surprise,” Calloway said.

“For me, [teaching and researching] is almost like a balance. Any chance I get, I gravitate back to my research and my writing, but I think that if SEE AWARDS PAGE 3

B y vivek hazari

The College may be on its way to developing biomaterials with the potential to improve human quality of life. Faculty at Dartmouth have joined the New Hampshire Center for Multiscale Modeling and Manufacturing of Biomaterials or N.H. Biomade, a statewide research effort recently awarded

a $20 million five-year grant by the National Science Foundation.

The program includes a collaborative research effort between Dartmouth and other New Hampshire-based schools, including the University of New Hampshire, Keene State College and the Community College System of New Hampshire.

The objective of N.H. Biomade is to advance the field of biomaterials in SEE NSF PAGE 5

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Study ties fracking to Twelve professors awarded radioactive wastewater arts and that their dedication to both their work and students reflect I was only doing that all the time, I Dartmouth’s highest values. wouldn’t like that.”

“I think that it’s a really nice Calloway said that he is not sure thing that the administration does why the Class of 2018 voted for to recognize some faculty,” said him to receive the award, but noted anthropology professor Jesse Casana, that he teaches who received without notes. the Elizabeth According to “For my purposes, Howland Handhim, this unique I’ve always thought I Otis Norton Pierce teaching Award. had particularly good m e t h o d Psychology “maybe makes incentive to be a good professor John an impression.” teachere because I’ve Pfister received the “ Wh at i t Dean of Faculty means for me is had particularly good Teaching Award. that every class students.”

Pfister said that is something he always tries to that you cannot prioritize teaching m e n t a l l y -JOHN PFISTER, and is humbled by prepare for,” PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR receiving such an Calloway said. award.

He added “You only have that his classes prompt students to to look at the people who’ve received “question the standard narratives it in the past to realize what a great and accepted stories and think for tribute it is,” Pfister said. “Some of themselves.” those names of past recipients have According to the College’s press been the people I’ve thought of as my release, dean of the faculty Elizabeth role models.”

Smith said that the professors honored As a former chair of the writing this year represent the ideal of liberal department, Pfister said he believes FROM AWARDS PAGE 1

B y graYce gibbs The Dartmouth

Two Dartmouth studies recently established a link between fracking and the production of radioactive wastewater. Lead researcher and earth sciences professor Josh Landis and his team found that the prevalaent radioactive material in wastewater after hydraulic fracking comes from the interaction between slick water and black shale.

“Prior to our work, everyone was assuming that the radium was from pre-existing [briny water] found underground,” Landis said.

However, Landis added the study points to the controversial oil and gas extraction method as the cause of this radioactive waste.

“We are able to argue pretty vigorously that the fracking itself is producing the fluid,” he said. “[This] shows that the frackers are responsible for its creation, and if you want to minimize its production, you have to do that through their process.”

According to Sharma, radioactive wastewater cannot currently be treated. It is either mixed with fresh water and used to frack again, or it is sent away to be buried into the ground. For example, radioactive wastewater from fracking locations in Pennsylvania may be sent to Ohio, Sharma said.

Over the past 10 years, the p revalan c e of fracking has greatly increased and grown more controversial due to its environmental impact.

“Fracking is an important invention that has allowed us to become more or less sufficient [in the U.S.] in terms of energy,” Mukul said.

During the process of fracking, slick water — water with added chemicals — is pumped deep into the rock to release the gas inside.

The fractured shale absorbs about three-quarters of this water, and the rest returns to the surface, full of radium. The first study — focused on the rapid desorption of radium from black shale — found that radium comes from both organic and mineral surfaces as the wastewater moves toward the surface. The second study contextualized the first study’s findings with the available data from research in fracking on radium isotopes.

Landis said he got the idea to look at radium after seeing the work that his future co-authors, earth science professor Mukul Sharma and earth sciences professor Devon Renock, were doing with barium.

Sharma and Renock had been researching the chemical reactions during fracking that produce the

toxic metal barium in wastewater.

Since radium and barium belong to the same periodic family, Landis said he was able to adopt aspects of their methods to study the radium found in the wastewater.

The team of researchers carried out experiments on rock samples taken from the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania and New York.

They found that the radium came from the rock, not preexisting brine as previously thought, and the experiments focused on understanding the conditions needed for radium to be released from the rock itself.

The radium is originally found within a few nanometers of the surface in two distinct locations: a clay mineral surface that transfers one type of radium and an organic surface that transfers another type of radium. Landis and his team found that when high salinity water passes by the mineral or organic surface, radium is ejected from its surface and added to the solution, turning the saline water radioactive.

An important question researchers are still examining is the source of this saline water, Sharma said. The original slick water that is ejected into the rock contains a mixture of chemicals including biocides and hydrochloric acid, which help to increase the flow of fluids. Though this water contains little to no salt, the wastewater that comes back up is 10 times more saline than ocean water. The salinity of wastewater from fracking is important because the slick water alone does not extract radium, according to Sharma.

Rather, the high saline composition of the wastewater is responsible.

However, the oil and gas produced poses environmental concerns.

Divest Dartmouth, a sustainability group on campus, is pushing the College to divest from the fossil fuel industry.

“The fossil fuel industry is pretty exploitative of communities that live in the area they are extracting from,” Divest Dartmouth member Camille Pauley ’21 said. “Even if there are the economic gains from jobs, they do come at strong environmental costs. This research shows the seriousness of some of those costs, and I don’t think we really know what the consequences are going to be.”

Sharma added that he thought about researching the “serious problems” surrounding fracking as the study progressed.

“The key here is to try to optimize its production so we don’t foul up the places all around,” he said.

“These communities should not get impacted substantially.

that teaching is a partnership between the teacher and the students. He also said that this award is a tribute to the students who help him aspire to be a better teacher.

“For my purposes, I’ve always thought I had particularly good incentive to be a good teacher because I’ve had particularly good students,” Pfister said.

In addition to their love of teaching, the award-winners also cited their passion for their fields of study.

“The thing that I love the most is doing the archeology,” Casana said.

“I feel really lucky to have been able to make a career out of something that’s really just a hobby for a lot of people. Every time I get to do it, I just get giddy.”

Casana said that he involves his students in a lot of the work he does, whether this means research or handson components of his classes.

“In the liberal arts, I think the communication with people who really want to learn and have a passion for something is at the heart of that,” Pfister said. “So I’d like to think that one of the ideals I embody is that I try to approach things as a teaching opportunity.”

CONFETTI LEAVES

ALISON ZEN/THE DARTMOUTH

The leaves have started to fall, decorating the ground with red, orange and yellow.

CORRECTIONS Correction appended (Sept. 27, 2018): The article “Trustees approve site for new dorm building” and its headline have been updated to clarify that the College has not yet approved the construction of the new residence hall, but rather have finalized a location and approved funds for the schematic design phase.

Correction appended (Sept. 28, 2018): The article “Call to Lead hits funding milestone” has been updated to correctly reflect Edward Winchester’s title.

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

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Bookstore lease not renewed FROM BOOKSTORE PAGE 1

the manager fewer hours to distribute among her staff. When Alvarez left in March, no one replaced her.

Cressman noted that recently, many local stores have closed: Hanover has seen the closure of restaurants EBA’s in 2017 and the Canoe Club this year, as well as craft store Folk this year.

Griffin said the Barnes and Noble store’s location on a key corner meant the spot made it an “activity node” for the town and brought people to Hanover.

“As town manager, I hate to see those holes in downtown because it potentially reduces destination foot traffic,” said Griffin.

Campion said he believed the store was impacted by online alternatives such as Amazon.

“As you know the book business has changed rather radically… and I think they’ve been impacted by that,” he said.

Griffin also pointed to this national trend away from physical bookstores.

“Before Amazon exploded onto the bookstore stage, Dartmouth Bookstore was a busier place,” she said. She explained that the previously independently owned Dartmouth Bookstore used to also own the 2nd floor of 5 Allen St. and 7 Allen St.; the latter was used for a large DVD collection, but has downsized over the last few decades.

Cressman said online stores can’t replace brick and mortar bookstores, as they provide “a place for people to browse books, see choices.”

Griffin noted that the trend toward online shopping affects Hanover stores, citing “in general, students doing less and less shopping downtown.” Stores

PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

are struggling to “eek out a niche” for be for the College or the town to step their products that is “curated enough in to help support a new bookstore in to set themselves apart as a reason why the town, citing Princeton University’s you’d want to forgo the convenience of Labyrinth Books as an example. shopping online in your ‘jammies.’”

When the store that had been carrying The Barnes and Noble also stopped course books chose to exit that market, carrying textbooks a few years ago. Princeton University consulted with Alvarez, who is now the Wheelock local independent bookstores and Books store manager, said that due to the supported the creation of Labyrinth Dartmouth quarter system, stores that Books, a scholarly chain which then carry Dartmouth had stores in books need to both New Haven switch inventory “If Barnes and Noble and Manhattan, four times a year. were to close, this according to “It’s a lot of Labyrinth town would need work,” Alvarez owner Dorothea said, expressing an independent vo n M o l t k e. that the financial Labyrinth hosts bookstore far more side of carrying multiple events textbooks likely than it needs another a week for the d i d n’t m a k e Farmhouse Pottery.” community, many sense for a of which have a tie multi-purpose to Princeton, and bookstore. their relationship -HERSCHEL NACHLIS, G r i f f i n with Princeton GOVERNMENT attributes Barnes also allows the a n d N o bl e s ’ PROFESSOR store to discount decision to no books by 30 longer car r y percent, von textbooks to a Moltke said. “falling out” between Dartmouth Cressman mentioned the possibility faculty and the store over a decade ago, of an owner buying or renting the space and says this likely made it harder for and hiring a manager to run it as a new the store to find a place in a college town bookstore. She nodded to the owners of market, and contributed to the stores’ Phoenix Books in Burlington, Vermont, closing. who own a total of five bookstores across For Cressman, the newly open space the state. The Barnes and Noble store asks the question, “What is Main Street manager and employees declined to Hanover going to be?” speak with the press.

Campion noted that, “there’s always “This is an academic community, been a lot of turnover in Hanover,” and and I think it’s really important says his family is looking for “vibrant for academic communities to have retail” to fill the space. bookstores [for newly released books],” Nachlis said one great option would Nachlis said.

DUSK SETS OVER HANOVER HOMES

OLIVER BYLES/THE DARTMOUTH

A pale sky falls behind the houses that line Occom Pond, a popular running spot for some students.

Trustees authorize money for golf course

namely the lack of climate control, detracted from the lear ning very beginning steps, according to experience inside.

Seysha Mehta ’21, a Spanish associate vice president for planning, design and construction John minor who has taken classes in Scherding. Next steps include the Dartmouth Hall, said that updating hiring of architects and consultants the building’s air conditioning to investigate current “deficiencies” would greatly improve the student in the building in order to begin the experience inside the building.

“Comfort wise, for students design process, he said.

“Some of the systems are getting and teachers, it gets really stuffy in old and are in need of replacement, [Dartmouth Hall],” Mehta said. repair or upgrade, so we will begin “If they had better air conditioning a conceptual design process and or more ventilation, that would be cost estimation to determine what really good.”

French the options are and Italian for the renovation lecturer p r o j e c t , ” “Comfort wise, for Scherding said. students and teachers, A n n a b e l l e Cone further According to it gets really stuffy in emphasized Scherding, the the need three main goals [Dartmouth Hall].” for climate of the renovation control along are accessibility, with a desire energy efficiency, -SEYSHA MEHTA ’21 for bathroom and updating facilities to be systems and facilities to suit the needs of the updated and expanded to upper programs within Dartmouth Hall, floors of the building.

“The problem, especially on which houses some of the College’s foreign language departments along really, really hot days and really, really cold days, is that it’s either with other classrooms and offices.

The importance of Dartmouth really, really hot or really, really cold Hall as one of the most historic in some parts of Dartmouth Hall,” buildings on campus is also being Cone said.

In addition to discussing the considered in the planning process, Scherding said. Striking a “delicate Dartmouth Hall renovations, the balance” between preserving Board of Trustees gave approval historical elements of the building for College staff to investigate while supporting 21st century entering an external management programs will be one of the guiding partnership for the Hanover Country Club. The golf course is currently aspects of the project, he added.

“We absolutely want to respect owned and operated by the College and preserve the important historic but has been losing a “substantial elements of the building,” he said. amount of money” for about the Additionally, accessibility for last four years, according to Josh all students was labeled as a chief Keniston, chief of staff to executive goal of the renovations, possibly vice president Rick Mills. Earlier requiring the altering of certain this year, a committee was named parts of the building. However, to explore the future of the golf Scherding expressed confidence course. This potential partnership that the necessary updates and would lease the land to a separate changes could take place while still non-profit group that would manage preserving the historical character and operate the golf course, he said.

The formal process will begin of the building.

He added that a time frame for the later this year, Keniston added, by project has not been established, but working with potential partners said that students should not expect and ensuring that any prospective renovations to begin in earnest for management groups have the proper financial backing and business model at least a few years.

Members of the planning to make the golf course profitable.

Keniston also noted that there team have already discussed the renovations with the dean of are no plans currently in place for faculty and the dean of arts and the development of the land, but sciences, and they plan to continue said that any potential future for getting feedback on the project the Hanover Country Club would from faculty and students who ensure that the land remains in frequent Dartmouth Hall to better Dartmouth’s hands and open for use understand the day-to-day needs as it is a logical place for potential and desires of those who use the expansion of the College in the future. More details on the project building most, he said.

Both students and faculty who will be released in October; for the frequent Dartmouth Hall expressed time being, the golf course will that the building’s outdated systems, operate as usual.

FROM DARTMOUTH HALL PAGE 1

PAGE 4

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

STAFF COLUMNIST MATTHEW MAGANN ‘21

VERBUM ULTIMUM THE DARTMOUTH EDITORIAL BOARD

The New Middle East

Deliberate This

As Iran and Saudi Arabia vie for influence, does America know where it stands?

Iran is “sowing death, chaos and destruction” around the world. That much President Trump made abundantly clear in his recent speech to the United Nations. At the General Assembly, the president doubled down on the Iranian threat, urging the international community to support sanctions against the regime.

On a purely factual basis, Trump is correct: Iran’s government brutally represses dissent and imposes strict theocracy on its people. This is, after all, a country that executed a man for suggesting that the story of Jonah and the whale might be a metaphor. Iran’s influence extends across the region, with Iranian-backed groups like Houthi rebels and the Assad regime committing some of the worst atrocities in the Middle East. That said, violent governments aren’t so uncommon in the region. America’s long-standing ally, Saudi Arabia, is arguably just as bad.

Saudi women just earned the right to drive.

They still need a male guardian to approve many basic life decisions, so the gesture is of limited use; still, Trump can tout it at the UN as “bold new reform.” Unlike Iranian elections, which feature some true competition (albeit subject to clerical approval), Saudi elections are essentially theater. Iran might profess political Islam, but Saudi Arabia is full-on Salafist — its religious ideals aren’t far from those of jihadists like the Islamic State and al Qaeda. While Iran funds terror abroad, Saudi-funded religious schools encourage militant fundamentalism, and private Saudi wealth props up extremist groups. That’s not to say that Shi’a militarism is a non-issue — look at Hezbollah — but when it comes to America’s greatest enemies, like IS, Saudi Arabia’s ideology poses a more substantial threat.

To be clear, I don’t advocate a break with Saudi Arabia. Repressive as the Saudi regime might be, it forms an important bulwark in AmericanMiddle East policy. The grim truth is that, if the U.S. insists on having ethical allies, it won’t have a single friend left in the Middle East. Even Israel, the closest thing the Middle East has to a liberal democracy, maintains a decades-long military occupation of a civilian population. I visited the West Bank a few weeks ago, and the Palestinian people there, chained down by checkpoints, settlement and violence, can hardly claim to live in a free country. In this context, America’s Middle Eastern alliances cannot rest on shared

moral principles, but on strategic calculation of self-interest.

In this arena of realpolitik, the Trump administration’s singular, supposedlyhumanitarian focus on Iran seems suspect.

Consider Trump’s General Assembly speech: “Iran’s neighbors have paid a heavy toll for the agenda of aggression and expansion,” the president said. “That is why so many countries in the Middle East strongly supported my decision to withdraw the United States from the horrible 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimpose nuclear sanctions.”

Those countries that strongly supported Trump are Iran’s regional adversaries: Saudi Arabia, its Sunni allies and Israel. That bloc has increasingly squared off with Iran, and when conflicts arise the U.S. tends to side with its traditional allies. There’s danger here, though, and America should tread carefully before investing itself in this emerging regional conflict.

The rising tensions between Iran and the Saudi-led bloc don’t bode well for the Middle East.

Historical ties bind the United States to the Sunni Arab states, but the Saudi-led side isn’t necessarily any better than Iran. Look at the catastrophic war in Yemen, where Saudi-backed forces target Iranian-backed Houthis as each vie for control of the country. Both sides commit war crimes, and Yemenis suffer horribly for it. With infrastructure destroyed and humanitarian aid frequently denied entry, cholera and famine have broken out across the country. Tens of thousands of children have already starved to death, with millions more people at immediate risk of famine. America’s allies, the Saudi coalition, shoulder much of the blame for the humanitarian catastrophe, though plenty falls on the Houthis as well. Both sides destroyed Yemen, wasting countless lives in order to shift the balance of power.

The United States provides military assistance to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. U.S. army troops even manned the Saudi border, targeting Saudi Arabia’s enemies, the Iran-backed Houthi coalition. The Saudi-led coalition drops bombs on schools and hospitals. It denies entry to humanitarian aid, committing war crimes under America’s watch with American support. None of this is to absolve Iran. Both sides commit atrocities in Yemen, and elsewhere. Both Saudi and Iranian regimes are totalitarian theocracies, SEE MAGANN PAGE 6

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ISSUE

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

NEWS LAYOUT: Abby Mihaly

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.

ISC rush must evolve to allow women more agency in the process.

As potential members of Greek houses go been shared with the women who actually go through recruitment, or “rush,” the majority through the process. It should be a priority of Dartmouth’s campus has been even more to ensure that both PNMs and sororities are preoccupied with Greek life than usual. It informed of the inner workings of the rush is very clear, though, that men and women process so that both sides are aware of how are going through very different processes to the system will affect them. reach very different finish lines.

Using a computer to make decisions Interfraternity Council Rush, for many, that affect the experiences of hundreds is a relatively lax affair. Rush events held of Dartmouth women each year is just by different houses often feature some one example of how the rush process combination of food and fraternizing. dehumanizes a very human experience.

Potential new members typically have an The structure of rush inherently does not idea of what their chances are at different foster the development of interactions that houses, informed by candid and informal go beyond the superficial, nor is it conducive conversations with brothers. It does not hurt to forming relationships that last. A 10-tothat they also have most likely spent time 20-minute conversation with someone is not getting to know brothers and hanging out enough to inform an accurate perception of in the fraternity house prior to rush. a person’s character, which is usually assessed Inter-Sorority Council Rush, on the through some form of a rating system. Rating other hand, is a much more fraught affair. PNMs based on brief and generally surface Taking place over the course of two weeks level interactions naturally reduces women with multiple rounds and the investment of into something less than what they are, and many hours, ISC Rush looks more like speed while intentions may be good on both sides, dating. After attending parties at all eight ISC such a system creates an intimidating and sororities for the first round, potential new inauthentic space to engage in. members are called back to up to five houses When social spaces don’t have open for round two and to up to two houses for membership, entry into those spaces will preference night. If women are invited to always involve competition and limited two houses on preference night but they only spots to fill. The problematic nature of ISC preference a single house, they are unable to Rush isn’t just that it pits women against rush until next year if they do not receive a each other, but that it pits them against bid from the house they preferenced. All of each other for the wrong reasons. Surface this then culminates into either a night of level judgments are difficult to avoid, and celebration or of disappointment. can easily turn rush into a competition over One can’t help but wonder during this looks and extroversion rather than a process time, as women line up outside sorority of connecting women to one another and doors and fall behind on their other, forming a sense of meaningful belonging arguably more pressing, into the communities they commitments, why it is that are about to enter. This ISC Rush must operate “Creating a better is especially relevant for the way it does. There’s ISC Rush experience women of color, for whom no denying that sororities requires that members rush can be an even more offer many women positive of this community intimidating experience. communities that support The vastly different and uplift them. In the not only continue experiences of ISC and midst of rush, however, it to challenge the IFC Rush is a reflection can be easy to lose sight of process itself, but of Dartmouth’s evolving why women choose to join that they challenge social structure, and the in the first place — for a changes made to ISC the social structure of space of empowerment.

Rush over the last few To be empowered is to Dartmouth.” years demonstrates that have agency, yet ISC Rush students haven’t become is designed in a way that complacent. This year’s removes agency from all sides. Somehow, recruitment model is a step forward by the process of attaining membership in these opening up more options for PNMs that female-dominated social spaces is reflective allow them to maintain more agency over of a patriarchal system that gives women their time. little control over their fate. If the ultimate Creating a better ISC Rush experience goal is to empower women, then the process requires that members of this community not of getting there should also reflect that. only continue to challenge the process itself, Women’s lack of control in the process but that they challenge the social structure is the result of a flawed system that lacks of Dartmouth. Through improved outreach transparency and isn’t conducive to creating from sororities to underclassman women meaningful connections. The current system and an eventual overhaul of the dominance leaves too many questions unanswered, of fraternities, sororities can become more creating an ambiguity that disempowers welcoming spaces and provide women from both the PNMs and the sororities that will both sides of rush with more agency. be welcoming them. It’s common knowledge that ISC Rush uses a computer algorithm The editorial board consists of opinion staff to match women with their new homes, but columnists, the opinion editors, the associate opinion very little information about this system has editor, both executive editors and the editor-in-chief.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

NH Biomade awarded NSF grant FROM NSF PAGE 1

advance the field of biomaterials in New Hampshire, with a focus on manufacturing techniques. The project contains four different research areas: polymers for orthopedics, porous, conductive biosensor s, sheet metals for implants and scaffolding for tissues, according to engineering professor Ian Baker.

The grant was awarded to N.H. Biomade on Sept. 14 from the NSF’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.

EPSCoR is an NSF effort to stimulate research in 23 states with relatively low levels of research funding. New Hampshire was one of seven states this year to receive this grant.

Baker, chemistry professor Chenfeng Ke, chemistry professor Katherine Mirica and Thayer School of Engineering professor Douglas Van Citters are leading the research efforts across their respective fields. University of New Hampshire engineering professor Brad Kinsey will be leading the investigation as a whole.

Baker noted that collaboration

is key to making the N.H. Biomade project a reality.

“T he most positive thing that will come out of this is that there will be new collaborations between Dartmouth and UNH and the community college system, since we all have a common goal for biomaterials research and development, and perhaps even commercialization,” Van Citters said.

Collaborating with people from outside the Dartmouth community increases the diversity of Dartmouth’s student body, he said. Van Citters added that undergraduate students will also have the opportunity to work on the project.

T h e res ea rch l ea d er s a re currently in the process of charting next steps for the project now that it has been approved, Baker said. As a result of the grant, the chemistry department is planning to add a faculty member in the field of computational materials this year and the Thayer School of Engineering is hoping to add a computational materials scientist next year, he added. Baker noted that numerous graduate students, postdoctoral students and Ph.D.

positions will be incorporated into the program as well.

Ke said that his current research on biosensors, one of the four research areas, can be useful for examining the health of a patient by sensing for biologically relevant molecules such as dopamine.

According to Van Citters, he is leading the research on orthopedic bearings.

“We are hoping for a new way of designing biomaterials starting at the nano and micro scale, such that we can implement them at the millimeter and centimeter scale — manufacturing, but going all the way back to first principles,” Van Citters said.

All the N.H. Biomade research efforts will put biomaterials in New Hampshire more on the map, Van Citters said, adding that the grant is a federal recognition that the entire state of New Hampshire is going to pursue biomaterials. Another major outcome of the project is that it will provide a lens for students and faculty to see what happens with research after academia, as N.H. Biomade encompasses a push for commercial applications of biomaterials in New Hampshire.

A BACK VIEW OF THE LIBRARY

LUCY FU/THE DARTMOUTH

Students often hurry by this oft-trodden path on their way to class or to grab a bite to eat in the library.

PAGE 5

PAGE 6

DARTMOUTHEVENTS TODAY

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

LIFE INSIDE THE 24-HOUR NEWS CYCLE

ETHAN WEINSTEIN ’21

9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

The 2018 International Black Theatre Summit: “#BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, #TimesUp: Activism at the Intersection of Art and Business,” hosted by theater department professor Monica White Ndounou, Moore Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts

4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Lecture: “America’s Tobacco Struggle: Wins and Losses,” with former FDA official Mitchell Zeller, Rockefeller Center 002

10:00 p.m. - 2:00 a.m.

Roller Rink Rewind, sponsored by Collis After Dark, Common Ground, Collis Center

TOMORROW

3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.

The 2018 International Black Theatre Summit: Keynote Conversation, hosted by theater department professor Monica White Ndounou, Moore Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts

7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Film: “Blindspotting,” directed by Carlos López Estrada, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts

10:00 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.

Collis After Dark: Comedian Amberia Allen, One Wheelock, Collis Center

FROM MAGANN PAGE 4

governments with little concern for human rights. America can maintain its strategic alliance with Saudi Arabia, but that doesn’t mean it should involve itself in the kingdom’s proxy wars. Above all, the nation shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking that this ally is in any way more moral than Iran.

The developing Saudi-Iran conflict pits theocracy against theocracy. The United States can uphold its alliance with

Saudi Arabia, but it should never pretend that that alliance rests on shared values. The choice of Saudi Arabia over Iran is a purely strategic one. America can remain committed to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states without involving itself in a power struggle between two totalitarian systems. So long as it can maintain its alliances, the United States should stay out of this conflict; if it joins, it stands only to lose.

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

The Dartmouth, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation chartered in the state of New Hampshire. USPS 148-540 ISSN 01999931

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

PAGE 7

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Montgomery Fellow Ulrike Ottinger is in residence this fall B y MADISON WILSON The Dartmouth

Ulrike Ottinger, the avant-garde German filmmaker, will be this fall’s Montgomery Fellow. As a Montgomery Fellow, Ottinger will come to classes, host events, interact with students and screen excerpts from her latest film “Chamisso’s Shadow” on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

The Montgomery Fellows program will be celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, said Klaus Milich, director of the program. After years as a nominee, Ottinger was able to take time away from her career to spend the entirety of the fall term in Hanover, he said. Ottinger writes, films, cuts and produces virtually all of her work, so her talks will cover all stages of the filmmaking process, Milich said.

Ottinger will be joining a group of more than 230 previous Montgomery Fellows, including visionaries and artists like Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, Sheryl Crow, Phillip Roth and Michel Foucault, since Montgomery Fellows are fellows for life, Milich said.

“I wanted to invite someone who addresses not only the classical humanities,” Milich said. “I also wanted to bring someone who speaks to people, for example, in Arctic studies, who speaks to people in Anthropology, in cultural anthropology in particular, who speaks to people in East Asian studies, in Native American studies, in Chinese studies ...”

Ottinger was born in West Germany and started out as a painter, living and

studying in Paris in the 1960s. She moved back to Berlin in the early 1970s, where she pursued a film career in earnest and produced works like the controversial “Madame X,” a fantastical contemplation of femininity and sexuality where a band of female pirates roam the sea, pillaging and plundering as they go.

In Berlin, Ottinger developed the style her fiction pieces are known for: characters that defy convention, outrageous costumes and absurd settings. While her characters can be outlandish, she creates films that meditate deeply on the inner workings of each person while making a larger commentary on social conventions.

As one of the first queer German filmmakers, Ottinger’s success brought more attention to queer German film and German film in general.

German and film professor Gerd Gemunden described her as an outsider in German film, an artist who flows across genre and convention because these borders do not exist for her.

After establishing her career with fictional films, Ottinger moved to a new challenge: documentary. With “China. The Arts – The People” in 1985, Ottinger began producing longform documentaries that explore the people, the art, the language and the customs of different cultures.

Her most recent work, “Chamisso’s Shadow,” is a twelve-hour voyage into the culture, geography and traditions of the people living along the Bering Sea. Ottinger said she was interested

in the region because of its mercurial nature — one side is American, one side is Russian — and yet there are families living on either side of the strait. She wanted to see how the region has changed over various political rules and how it has stayed the same, she explained.

“You have the encounter with the other, but it’s not exoticized,” Gemunden said, “[The film] doesn’t look like National Geographic or Discovery Channel, it’s not just [Anthony] Bourdain taking you to places nobody’s been and sampling the food — even though I have a lot of respect for Bourdain. But her style is slower, more immersive, less obtrusive, and [about] spending significant time with the people she films and who she puts in front of her camera.”

For the film, Ottinger traveled to Alaska, then to the Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands, following the route of Russian fur merchants.

Through enslavement and cruelty, these fur merchants reduced the Aleutian population by two-thirds, which Ottinger said was an effective genocide. However, they brought some fascinating traditions as well.

Many indigenous Aleuts are now Russian Orthodox, a religious leftover from the missionaries that followed the fur merchants. On the Russian side of the Bering Strait, socialism completely transformed the region and the collapse of the Soviet Union did the same. Russian Aleuts condensed, then expanded again along the coast, reviving their traditional hunting and

fishing methods as they lost support from the now-extinct USSR. Ottinger said she did not intend the film to last 12 hours, but her subjects simply could not stop talking to her. She wanted to capture the complexity of the region while giving agency to her characters, and since she had complete artistic control, she could make the film as long as necessary, she said.

“Because this was so rich, and the people were so open and I was so interested in them, I think they felt this,” Ottinger said. “They wanted to tell me and tell me and tell me what was going on. And therefore, the film became 12 hours … I felt that the filming material decided the montage.”

“Chamisso’s Shadow” premiered at the Berlinale International Film Festival in 2016 to rave reviews, not only in Berlin, but across Europe. Ottinger will take the film to the U.S. this year, premiering in New York City.

“It’s a deep insight into another culture,” Ottinger said. “It’s an epic culture, it’s not our destruction culture.

And there, the epic time is necessary.”

The film also conveys Ottinger’s fascination with natural geography.

Another documentary, “Taiga,” explores the lifestyle of nomads in northern Mongolia who ride reindeer in a landscape Ottinger found fascinating.

In making “Chamisso’s Shadow,” she was astounded by the natural beauty on both sides of the Bering Strait, she said. More specifically, the sounds of nature — the wind sounds different in other parts of the world — were incorporated into the film, she said.

She also incorporates traditional music, dancing and celebrations, which almost become a part of the natural landscape these people have inhabited for so many years.

“I was there at rivers where you could have walked over the salmon,” Ottinger said. “It was unbelievable.”

What’s next for Ottinger? The artist said she hopes to have a film about Paris in the 1960s out next year. Paris was a locus of art during this time, Ottinger said, describing lectures she attended at Sorbonne University and her interactions with artists and painters from the area, experiences that shaped the rest of her life and career. This new film will explore the cultural, political and structural context of the era and Ottinger will be spending much of her time at the Montgomery House editing the film, she said.

Ottinger is excited to meet students and discover what is important to their generation, she said. For students interested in getting to know Ottinger, Gemunden says she’s very accessible.

“She’s really outgoing, and she’s totally curious about people, and she loves to exchange and she’s very accessible,” Gemunden said. “Even though she’s really very famous, she’s very humble.””

Perhaps this is why her films, regardless of their genre, provide such intriguing and in-depth examinations into people: Ottinger is curious.

Clips from “Chamisso’s Shadow” will play in an hour-long excerpt on Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. at Loew Auditorium at the Black Family Visual Arts Center.

Review: ‘Girl’ is a coming-of-age story based on metamorphosis B y ISABELLE BLANK The Dartmouth

“Late at night my mind would come alive with voices and stories and friends as dear to me as any in the real world. I gave myself up to it, longing for transformation,” quips Winona Ryder as the enviable Jo March in the 1994 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s coming-ofage classic “Little Women.” Just as Alcott’s Jo sought to find her place in the world, so too does Lara of “Girl” strive to establish herself as a woman and artist. With “Girl,” Flemish director Lukas Dhont offers a more contemporary coming-of-age story whose plot turns on the very idea of self-driven metamorphosis.

“Girl,” a deceivingly simple title which contains multitudes, is the story of 15 year-old Lara, a transgender girl from Belgium who, like Jo March, longs for transformation. Lara does not only yearn to change her body, but wants more than anything to become a ballerina. The movie frames a period of major transition for Lara: she’s just moved to a new

city, is living in a new apartment, is preparing for transition surgery and has begun training at the prestigious Royal Ballet School of Antwerp.

Mirroring a traditional ballet story, the movie’s script is essentially a two-character plot. At the center of the tale is the story of a father’s love and concern for his child, supported by a corps of party guests, doctors and fellow ballet students and teachers. If Lara and her pain are palpable, so too is her father, Mathias (Arieh Worthalter) and his tenderness. Though Lara’s mind and body drive the plot of this film, her father’s heart is just as central. Supported by her family and by her doctors, Lara finds herself at war with her own body. She is not only an athlete grasping at perfectionism but also an individual born with the wrong body.

Breakout talent Victor Polster plays the role of Lara with delicacy and quiet intensity. Lara’s inner turmoil is evident in Polster’s subtle expressions of both mental and physical pain. A classically trained dancer, Polster performs

the ballet scenes’ choreography with believable grace and precision.

He stumbles where appropriate and whirls at dizzying speed throughout the dance sequences. How fitting that Lara should want to be a ballerina, would want to devote herself to a discipline not only of technique but of aesthetics: ballet is considered by many as the epitome of bodily feminine performance.

The audience bears witness to visceral scenes of Lara’s battle against her own body. We see Lara taping in between her legs before donning a leotard, refusing to eat at the dinner table, swallowing multiple hormone pills and peeling pointe shoes off of bleeding toes. In an early moment of foreshadowing, Lara pierces her own ears. There are scenes where Lara doesn’t speak, allowing her body the space to tell its own story. She stretches out on the studio floor, shoulder blades reaching up and away like the wings of a bird. Lara stands in front of her mirror for long stretches of time, pulling at her chest, twisting to see any sign of burgeoning breasts. Though the casting for the film was reportedly

gender-blind, it helps to have a male actor playing the role of Lara as Polster yanks at his chest and wraps tape between his legs.

Lara fondles f laxen locks, tucking her hair behind her ears, pulling it against the nape of her neck for ballet class. In one humiliating moment, Lara is made to stand before her classmates and pull up her dress. The camera stays close to Lara’s body during her dancing scenes, so that the camera lens becomes the frenetic mirror of Lara’s own turbulent thoughts.

Throughout the film, Lara’s body holds its own unflinching cinematic power.

Even in the most painful scenes, Dhont is careful never to overdramatize or sensationalize, and the script never veers in the direction of the melodramatic.

If anything, there was too much restraint in the second half of the film, where Lara’s thoughts became almost impossible to read and the minimal dialogue and stinted conversations with her father did nothing to clear up the situation.

However, after seeing the end of the film, the restraint exercised in

the second half of the movie serves to temper the shock value of one gruesome moment. Despite some painful scenes, the overall message of the movie remains hopeful. At the end of the film, a Mona-Lisa smile spreads across Lara’s face as she walks up from the dirty subway underground into the outside sunlit cityscape. Gold discs swing from her self-pierced ears: she has conquered the liminal and emerged triumphant as wholly herself.

“Girl” proves an empathetic portrayal of a teen’s transgender experience. Anchored by the acting and dancing talent of Polster and the on-screen chemistry between Lara and her father, the script is a thoughtful meditation on transformation and the perils of self-destruction. If the second half of the movie at times feels repetitive or slow-moving, the pacing only serves to keep a shocking moment at the end of the film from being sensationalized or melodramatic. A film the audience may feel in their marrow, “Girl” leaves its viewers thinking about issues of identity, adolescence and sexuality long after the credits roll.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

PAGE 8

TODAY’S TODAY’S LINEUP LINEUP

SPORTS ONE ONE ON

with Isiah Swann ’20

By JUSTIN KRAMER The Dartmouth Senior Staff

Isiah Swann ’20 catalyzed a lockdown defensive effort last Saturday versus the College of the Holy Cross, hauling in three interceptions within the first half. Swann’s historic performance was the first of its kind since Sal Sciretto ’92 intercepted three passes in 1990.

Dartmouth landed a 34-14 win over Holy Cross to give for a 2-0 record before Ivy League play begins this Saturday versus the University of Pennsylvania.

The three interceptions give Swann four on the year, and netted him Football Championship Subdivision national defensive player of the week honors as well as his second consecutive Ivy League defensive player of the week award. I had the opportunity to sit down with the Arizona native to talk about the Holy Cross game and get deeper

insight on him in general.

Take me through the first half against Holy Cross. What was it like to pick off three passes?

IS: My first pick came on the second play of the game. I dropped back to my zone, saw a receiver coming into my zone, saw the quarterback looking, and just timed it up. Thankfully, I caught the ball, and as I rolled to the ground, stayed with it. My second one, if you look at it on film, I stole one from Bun Straton ’19. It looked like he was jumping in to make the play, but I undercut him and caught the ball. The third one, right before half, [the quarterback] threw up a Hail Mary 15 yards short of the endzone, and I said, ‘Why not. Let me catch it.’

So when you see the long throw go up at the end of the first half,

are you thinking “Could this be a third interception?”

IS: I see it in the air, and I realize where I am on the field. I’m like, “I’m not in the endzone, I don’t feel anybody near me, I might as well catch it, might as make it my third.”

Where would you rank Saturday’s gameamongthemostmemorable games you have played?

IS: This would probably be my third most memorable game. The most memorable for me would be the Yale University last year when we came back down 21-0. That game I’ll never forget; that was crazy. My pick six helped start that so I feel like I contributed to it. The second most memorable would be when we beat Princeton University last year. I really had a good connection with the seniors last year, and it was memorable how we sent them out. That game was crazy, and I’m glad we came out on top. Then probably this one because I have never had three interceptions in a game before.

How did you end up playing

4

38

3

Isiah Swann ’20s total number of interceptions for the season

seconds into overtime when Justin Donawa ’19 scored the game-winning goal against Albany

saves by women’s soccer goalkeeper Mariel Gordon ’21 in their shutout of Brown

55

25

1

points scored by women’s rugby in their demolishment of ranked No. 2 Harvard

assists by Corinne Cox ’20 in volleyball’s five-set win against Harvard

women’s cross country ranking in the USTFCCCA Northeast Regional Poll for first time ever

cornerback? Did you play any other positions growing up?

IS: In pee-wee ball, everyone wants to be running back. Everyone wants the ball, so I played running back. Then I got to high school. I had pretty good hands, so I tried out for receiver. I was receiver my freshman and sophomore year, and then I got up to varsity. My high school had a lot of really good athletes at receiver, and I figured I wouldn’t play as much as I would like to there, so I decided, “let me go ahead and try to cover these guys.” I flipped to corner and took off from there.

Do you enjoy playing at cornerback more now that you have played here for a while?

IS: I fell in love with corner. With my two years on varsity at corner, there’s no way I’d go back to receiver.

Can you tell me about your football experience growing up?

When did you start playing? Did you always know you wanted to play at the college level?

IS: I’ve always loved football for as long as I can remember. I started playing flag when I was five years old. Two or three years of flag, then tackle from third grade on – I’ve had a football life. Then going up into high school, I didn’t really think about the opportunity to play in college until I got to varsity, and Dartmouth was actually the first school to start recruiting me. That’s when I thought, “Wow, I can really play at the D1 level.” The recruitment process started to take off; I got offers from most of the Ivy League and the academies. I took my visits, and I felt like this place was where I wanted to be for the next four years.

What drew you to Dartmouth originally?

IS: They were the first ones to email me about recruiting. I had no idea where Dartmouth was, I didn’t even know it was an Ivy League school. It was super weird. I did some research. I didn’t even think that would be a possibility for me in high school. They recruited me, I came up for my visit and I just loved everything about it: I loved the family atmosphere that they have. Every team can claim that they have a family atmosphere but Dartmouth truly is and feels like a family. The cold, it’s a little hard to adjust to that, but you try something new for four years. This is where I felt most comfortable going to school.

If you had to pick, what would you say you love most about playing football?

VOLLEYBALL VS. COLUMBIA 7:00 P.M.

IS: I think I just love winning. I love winning, and when I contribute to the win it makes it so much more sweet. I just hate losing; I’m a very competitive person, and football is the sport where I can put that to use.

What does it mean to you to receive the FCS National Defensive Player of the Week award?

IS: It’s a huge honor. I think of all of the FCS teams out there, and I looked at some of the stats from the other FCS guys, and they put up some monster games. A player from Columbia had two and a half sacks, a forced fumble and they chose me, and I just think that’s a huge honor.

What drives you to keep going in football and training, week in and week out?

IS: Since I’ve been here for a while and I’m a couple of years in, I think I do it for my teammates. They’re my brothers, and I feel like [by] playing well, I do it for them. I want all of us to succeed as a team. That’s why I do it.

What is your typical training regimen on your own time?

IS: When I’m at home, strength and conditioning director Spencer Brown sends us a weightlifting program, so I follow that, and on top of that, I have a personal trainer, Kelvin Fisher. We just go through defensive back drills, cone drills, ball drills and stuff like that to keep my corner skills sharp for the season.

How do you spend your free time outside of football, academically and otherwise?

IS: I spend a good amount of time doing homework, doing readings for class. It takes me longer than I would like. If I really have nothing to do, I like to play video games. The new Spider-Man came out, Fortnite, anything that’s out.

I’m a Playstation 4 guy.

What are your personal goals and team goals as you head into Ivy League play?

IS: Team goals, definitely to win out in Ivy [League] play. If we win out, then we have a championship, and that’s the main goal. Personal goals, do whatever I can do to help the team win. If an opportunity comes where I can intercept a ball, or bat down a pass or make a tackle, I want to minimize mistakes and do everything I can to help this team win.

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