The Dartmouth 10/24/2019

VOL. CLXXVI NO. 88

SUNNY HIGH 62 LOW 41

OPINION

D’SOUZA: WHY I’M NOT VOTING FOR ANDREW YANG PAGE 6

ALLARD: GET OUT THE VOTE, ONLY FOR DEMOCRATS PAGE 7

OPINION ASKS: NEW STORES IN HANOVER PAGE 7

ARTS

Q&A WITH AAAS, THEATER PROFESSOR AND ACTIVIST SHAMELL BELL PAGE 8

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Rain storms cause CHaD Hero event raises over damage to microscope, three-quarters of a million dollars leaks in student dorms

B y ALEKA KROITZSH The Dartmouth

During a late September rain storm, water leakage in Remsen Medical Sciences Building, currently under construction, resulted in per manent damage of a microscope valued at $2 million. The damage to the College’s Scios 2 DualBeam electron microscope was so severe that the microscope c o u l d n o t b e re p a i re d , according to electron microscopes director Maxime

Guinel. A storm a few weeks later also resulted in water leaks in student residences in the River Cluster.

At least 10 research projects have been put on hold since the damage to the microscope, Guinel said. Additionally, students requiring the microscope had to relocate to the University of New Hampshire or as far away as Harvard University. He added that the microscope, which the SEE RAIN PAGE 5

Phi Beta Kappa inducts 21 new members B y STEPHANIE RACKER The Dartmouth

T he Phi Beta K appa honor society inducted 21 new member s from the Class of 2020 on Tuesday.

The society held its 232nd annual meeting in College President Phil Hanlon’s house, where the ceremony traditionally takes place. Last year’s ceremony took place in Occom Commons due to logistical difficulties.

Originally founded in

1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest academic honor society in the United States.

Dartmouth’s Chapter of the society — Alpha of New Hampshire — is the fourtholdest chapter in the United States.

“The object of the Phi Beta K appa Society is the encouragement of friendship, morality and literature among students and graduates of American SEE PHI BETA KAPPA PAGE 3

PETER CHARALAMBOUS/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The CHaD Hero event raised $790,000 to support the Children’s Hospital at DHMC.

B y EMILY ZHANG The Dartmouth

Last Sunday, over 3,000 people participated in the 15th annual Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hero fundraiser. The event has raised $790,000 thus far, which roughly equals the amount of money raised at last year’s event. The money raised supports the Children’s Hospital at DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center.

Apart from a half marathon and a competitive 5K run, events also included a onemile Fun Run, a five-kilometer walk, a five-mile wooded hike, a 25- or 50-mile bike ride and a family street party.

“It originally started as

a half marathon in the afternoon called Outrun the Sun in 2006,” said CHaD community relations manager Evan Seely. “Over the years, we have added more elements so that more people from different ages can participate.”

Over 500 volunteer s, including around 300 Dartmouth students, supported the event. Seely said that event participants needed to both register before the event and meet a certain fundraising minimum in order to run, hike or bike.

Dartmouth students, many of whom participated in teams comprised of Greek houses, participated in the fundraising and events.

Saheer Mathrani ’20, this year’s top fundraiser, said he raised $52,671 from his friends and family for the event, describing his past experiences with pediatric illnesses that motivate him to participate in the fundraising.

“When I was in middle school, one of my good friends passed away because of pediatric cancer,” Mathrani said. “When I was older, one of my cousins had leukemia, then one of the kids I used to ski coach ended up being in a pretty bad accident and was treated by CHaD itself.”

Mathrani said that he was involved in CHaD Hero during his sophomore year SEE CHAD PAGE 3

PAGE 2

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Q&A with history professor Paul Musselwhite B y EMILY LU

The Dartmouth

Paul Musselwhite is an associate professor of history who studies the plantation societies of early America.

He recently co-edited “Virginia 1619: Slavery and Freedom in the Making of English America,” a volume of essays published last June. In 2017, Musselwhite, along with co-editor James Horn, organized a conference hosted at Dartmouth focused on events in Virginia in 1619, which contributed significantly to the collection. Musselwhite currently teaches multiple classes on colonial America, and will be teaching HIST 13, “Planters, Puritans, and Pirates” in the winter.

What was the research process like for your most recent book, “Virginia 1619”?

PM: A lot of the intellectual work was framing and theorizing. My own contribution to this project was this sort of research project where I worked through the records of the Virginia Company and many of the administrative documents and sorted out the stories. It’s about the way that structures of land ownership and organization are being framed and, around this same moment in 1619, the first Africans arrived and why that’s significant. All the things that happened in 1619 — seeing them as part of a conscious debate rather than a series of accidents, which is the way that it’s tended to be portrayed: a supremely painful and tragic irony that legislative development happens at the same time as the arrival of Africans. But actually, people at the time recognized these as different paths that English colonial development in America could take.

With the New York Times’ recent project on 1619, the anniversar y has recently received a lot of media attention.

What is the significance of the publicity surrounding the 1619 anniversary?

PM: I think that publicity is great, because it really brings people’s attention to the issue of how slavery began, how is it entangled with American history going all this way back. There are some different strands of it; there’s the strand of understanding 1619 as the beginning of a distinct African American history, which is an important story to tell. But it also raises these questions about the place of slavery in American society and the way that it’s deeply embedded into the institutional structures. There are people who describe themselves as “1619 skeptics,” because actually the story is much more complicated.

The arrivals in 1619 were not the first Africans in what became the United States, because there were already Africans in Spanish Florida, nor were they the first Africans in British America because, two years before, Africans had already been brought to Bermuda, which was already a British colony. In many respects it’s a very parochial story — it closes off many of these other angles. There are all sorts of reasons to muddy the waters of 1619, but what the publicity and hopefully the book does is get people to think there are problems with this as a straightforward narrative of when slavery began or when African American history began. But what it is, is a moment when the place of African laborers and enslaved labor within a system of English land ownership and colonialism starts to come to a head — and established things that have much longer ramifications.

What does your current research involve?

PM: A piece in this volume is the beginning of this new project I’m engaged in which is tracing the evolution of the idea of plantation in English America. It meant effectively establishing a new kind of society in

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

a colonial place based on agriculture, but primarily about constructing a community and a political unit. It’s used in that sense by people in early Virginia and early Maryland, but by the end of the 17th century, we’ve morphed into this place in which plantation meant a private piece of land run by an individual called a “planter” who uses forced labor.

Plantations became these capitalistic units of environmental and human exploitation, and hence why we are today having all of these debates about the use of the word “plantation.” The project is about figuring out what happens that changes this definition and who’s responsible, which I see as being critical to justifying slavery and the construction of a capitalist market. There’s this tweaking of the definition of plantation so that it still looks civil and public, while actually it increasingly serves the private interest of certain people.

What sparked your interest in colonial and plantation societies?

PM: I traveled to the U.S. a lot — I’m originally from the UK — as a kid and a teenager and visited a lot of historic sites. I just became interested in the ways these historic sites will make claims about how the colonists brought with them “English-ness” or these British elements. As a British person, you go there and think, “Well this doesn’t seem very British,” and that got me fascinated from the outside. Then I went on to take classes as an undergraduate in American history precisely because of that. I was trying to understand how “Britishness” or “English-ness,” institutions, cultures, people get translated in these odd ways to America; how does it come to intersect with the stories of enslaved Africans and indigenous people to generate these colonial cultures that we have overwritten with narratives that they are inherently pulled out from England — when they are actually a lot more complicated than that. I see myself as pushing back against narratives that are still fairly common in early American history: that you can find a direct seed for American cultures in particular parts

COURTESY OF PAUL MUSSELWHITE

Musselwhite specializes in the field of colonial American history.

of England.

Have you been able to make connections from your studies of early America to trends in the current political landscape? If so, in what ways?

PM: You can actually read some of the preexisting interpretations around 1619 as being from either extreme of the political spectrum. You can see what begins here as something that’s unabashedly terrible because it is capitalist exploitation. On the other hand, the traditional story is that Virginia is a failure, while everyone is forced to run as one company and share all their resources. So the rightwing narrative is, “We’ve privatized things and it’s great success.” There are strains within the story that could appeal to various different political persuasions. It reminds us that the events of the early 17th century still have purchase for us today. The people involved in Virginia colonization were thinking about what it means to run a society based on slave labor versus on free labor. What does it mean to give people representation? How do you preserve the common good yet motivate private interest? Those are questions that we still think about today, like the boundaries of corporate rights and corporate responsibility.

It’s easy to write it off as being very

antiquary, but actually it still has these direct connections which people pull all different directions.

Your other areas of expertise focus on political culture and sensory history. Could you talk about your work in those fields?

PM: I’ve published a volume about the history of sensory perception in the Americas over the 17th and 18th century, focused on the idea that sensory perceptions are not timeless, which is something that we tend to think. If you go to a historic site, they’ll say, “Come experience the past, because you can go into a historic house and smell the fire.” And so it smells like it did in colonial times. But it doesn’t really, because all of the associations your mind makes when it smells smoke are predicated on your own experience. What smoke smells like to you, is not what smoke smelled like to somebody in the 17th century.

These are all culturally constructed.

This is where it’s intersected with my interest in political culture is that people consciously tried to manipulate what things smelled like, tasted like, felt like, in order to create certain sorts of narratives about political authority and colonialism.

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

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019

PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Money raised goes to hospital services not covered by insurance FROM CHAD PAGE 1

as a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity. Since then, Mathrani has participated in the half-marathon and has been the top fundraiser every year.

“Last year I was studying abroad at Scotland, so I ran the half marathon using my phone as a GPS,” Mathrani added.

Mathrani credited the Byrne Match program through The Jack & Dorothy Byrne Foundation — which facilitates a one-on-one match for dollars raised above their fundraising minimums for adult ChaD Hero participants — for his ability to fundraise so much money.

“Some wealthy benefactors from the Hanover area ended up doubling the money in my account, which is very nice,” Mathrani said.

Taylor Lane ’20, who ran the half marathon this year with her mother, said she enjoyed the conditions for the half marathon.

“There was perfect running conditions and really great support throughout the course,” Lane said.

Lane recounted how she first learned about the CHaD Hero during her freshman year when she was on a morning run and noticed the course staging on the street.

“So, I ran the 5K in my sophomore year, and it was awesome to see the whole Upper Valley community

coming together to support these kids.”

Seely said that the money raised through the event will go to CHaD hospital services that are not covered by insurance or Medicaid.

Some major programs include the child life program, which aims to minimize the psychological trauma of hospitalization among children at CHaD, and the Child Advocacy and Protection Program, which serves children who have been physically, emotionally or sexually abused.

“Seeing how the organization is connecting health and wellness to raising money to the hospital is awesome,” Lane said. “It was really rewarding to talk to people

about what this hospital means to the community and see people give back to the community in this way.”

According to Hanover town manager Julia Griffin, the Hanover Police and Fire Departments were directly involved in the organization of the event to support traffic control, on-road safety and first-aid response. The Hanover Department of Public Works also assisted the event committee with logistics. Due to the on-street staging, Wheelock Street was closed from Crosby Street to South Main Street during the event.

“We put out the electronic message board sign on Route 10 to alert people of the traffic impact on

the day of the race,” Griffin said.

“The weekend before the race, there was an insert to Valley News that showed people exactly what routes will be impacted.”

Griffin said that by bringing more people into town, the event benefited local merchants and restaurants with an increase in foot traffic. She added that the familyfriendly programming brought the College and local communities closer together.

“It’s a great opportunity for the student community and the residents in the region to connect and support an organization that we appreciate because it is taking care of a lot of our kids over time,” Griffin added.

Membership in Phi Beta Kappa requires GPA at top of class FROM PHI BETA KAPPA PAGE 1

colleges,” said director of arts and sciences finance and research administration and Alpha Chapter secretary Kate Soule.

In order to become a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, a student must have completed a minimum of eight ter ms at Dartmouth and have a cumulative grade point average that places them in the top 20 students of their class by Oct. 15 of their senior fall term.

T he new Phi Beta K appa i n d u c t e e s a r e M a r y Ve r s a Clemens-Sewall ’20, Phoebe Cunningham ’20, Hoang Long Do ’20, Christopher Esch ’20, Emma Esterman ’20, Delia Friel ’20, William Kaufman ’20, Victoria Nedder ’20, Brandon Nye ’20, Scott Okuno ’20, Sarah Pearl ’20, Joshua Perlmutter ’20, Anjali Prabhat ’20, Josiah Putman ’20, Matthew Radosevich ’20, Courtney Stump ’20, Armin Tavakkoli ’20, Zijie Wang ’20, Samuel Wilson ’20, Sebastian Wurzrainer ’20 and Xinchen Zhao ’20.

Being a part of an honor society like Phi Beta Kappa offers a larger point of community and connection, according to Clemens-

Sewall. “ I was talk ing before the ceremony with someone who’s in a society from a different institution, so it was neat to share her story of being inducted five years ago at another college,” Clemens-Sewall said. “It offered a point of connection even beyond Dartmouth.”

Along with the induction of new class members to Phi Beta Kappa, the honor society also hosted the nominee for honorary membership in Alpha Chapter, microbiology and immunology professor George O’Toole, the nominee for alumni membership in Alpha Chapter, Arizona State University journalism professor Stephen Doig ’70 and the 17 recipients of Phi Beta Kappa’s Sophomore Prize — a significant increase from the six recipients of the award recognized last year.

Alpha Chapter president and associate dean of the faculty for interdisciplinary programs Dennis Washburn said that recipients of the Sophomore Prize must have the highest academic rank among members of their class by the conclusion of their fifth term at Dartmouth, which is to have been completed no later than the second June following matriculation.

The recipients of Phi Beta Kappa’s Sophomore Prize winners are Will Baxley ’21, Tyler Brody ’21, Kate Budney ’21, Amanda Chen ’21, Cara Ditmar ’21, Isabella

Frohlich ’21, Utsav Jalan ’21, Paul Jeon ’21, Rachel Kent ’21, Max Mickenberg ’21, Savannah Miller ’21, Amanda Pinson ’21, Alexander Soong ’21, Michael St. George ’21,

Emily Stehr ’21, Sanjena Venkatesh ’21 and Elwyn Zhang ’21.

Wurzrainer is a member of The Dartmouth staff.

TIME TO GO TO TOWN

SYDNEY GILLMAN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

A clock donated by the Class of 1938 is a prominent feature on Main Street.

PAGE 4

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

THE ECOLOGICAL REBELLION

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019

CASEY SMERCZYNSKI ’20

TODAY 12:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.

Lecture: “Is the Gender Revolution Stalled?” with New York University professor of sociology Paula England, sponsored by the Sociology Department, Rockefeller Center, Class of 1930 Room.

4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Reading: “Maggie Brown and Others,” with professor of English and creative writing Peter Orner, sponsored by the English Department, Sanborn House, Sanborn Library.

7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Exhibit: “NAD Fashion and Art Showcase” with the Hood Museum of Art, Queer & Still Here and Beading Circle, sponsored by the Native American Program, Hood Museum of Art, Atrium.

TOMORROW 5:00 p.m. – 6:45 p.m.

Symposium: “The New Now: Art, Museums and the Future,” sponsored by the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art.

8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

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

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

Rain storm last week caused minor leaking in River Cluster FROM RAIN PAGE 1

College imported from the Czech Republic, would not be replaced for at least six months. Guinel noted that he is working with the College to coordinate the insurance coverage for the microscope.

This incident is not the first time Remsen has experienced water damage since the construction started two years ago. Guinel said that last Thanksgiving, the first floor of the facility flooded, damaging several computers. Luckily, those were easier to replace, Guinel said.

“I understand [the leakage] is a mistake,” he said. “But it is avoidable.”

Senior project manager for planning, design and construction Chad Morig, who oversees the Remsen construction, did not respond to a request for comment.

In addition to the damage to the microscope, rain storms on Oct. 16 caused leakage in the River Cluster dorms. Many students living in Judge and French Halls woke up to water spilling from their windows, according to Alyssa Fayerman ’23.

Fayerman said she woke up to commotion in her hallway and noticed a “pretty constant stream of water” flowing from the top of her window.

“I come back to my bed and realize the entire half of it is soaking wet,” she said. “Also, the water was yellow.”

An email from residential operations Thursday morning informed inhabitants of Judge and French Halls that they were aware of the issue and encouraged students to reach out to the Work Control Center or the College’s troubleshooters to “correct these issues.”

Fayerman said the troubleshooters sug gested she move her bed diagonally so as to be farther away from the window. She added that it is unclear whether Residential Operations will be able to prevent future leakages.

She explained that the facility workers did the best they could, especially since the paneling above the windows on the third floor of French were “just gone.”

Fayerman added that the one of the troubleshooters offered to MADDIE DOERR/THE DARTMOUTH replace her mattress. However, since the College’s only construction An expensive microscope located in Remsen Hall suffered permanent damage from water leaks last month. lift was in use, the troubleshooters were unable to repair the leak at the Operations at all. flooding, the water continued to leak nobody came to fix it.” time of the incident, according to Natarajan, who lives on the onto her bed. She said she reached Director of residential operations Fayerman. third floor of Judge, got back to her out to residential operations the next Catherine Henault wrote in an According to Marisa Natarajan room Wednesday night to find her day for help, but no one came. email statement that “other than a ’23, some River residents did window sill flooded with water. As “I wasn’t mad about the leakage,” couple windows leaking, there was not hear back from Residential she searched for the source of the Natarajan said. “I was mad that no damage.”

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST DIANA D’SOUZA ’23

Why I’m Not Voting for Andrew Yang Asians are more than a racial slur or stereotype.

DEBORA HYEMIN HAN, Editor-in-Chief

AIDAN SHEINBERG, Publisher

ALEX FREDMAN, Executive Editor PETER CHARALAMBOUS, Managing Editor

ANTHONY ROBLES, Managing Editor

PRODUCTION EDITORS CAROLINE COOK & EOWYN PAK, Opinion Editors

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ISSUE LAYOUT CAITLYN MCCARTHY 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.

When my mother first heard about presidential has boasted that he has run one of the “nerdiest candidate Andrew Yang and his $1,000-a-month campaigns in presidential history.” Hearing these plan, she immediately joined the “Yang Gang.” I televised statements come from a member of the asked how she was so certain about her vote, and Asian American community sends a poor message she replied: “How often do you see a Chinese man to the rest of society: If we make fun of ourselves, running for president?” what is to stop others from doing so as well?

Over the past two years, Yang has risen in status Nothing. In fact, Andrew Yang was the from a businessman with no political experience inspiration for one of comedian Shane Gillis’ to a potential contender for the Democratic podcasts, where he called Yang a “Jew chink” presidential nomination. He has a die-hard and mocked the accents of Chinese restaurant following — including the likes of Sam Altman, workers. Gillis issued an apology on Twitter, Nicholas Cage and Noah Centineo — that stating that he “was happy to apologize to anyone helped him raise an impressive $10 million in the who was offended by what he said.” He justified third quarter to qualify for the fifth Democratic his actions with the excuse that he was “trying debate. He has also written three books, attended to be the best comedian he could be” and that Columbia Law School and founded the non-profit “required risks.” Gillis’ apology was weak and Venture for America. shyed him away from taking responsibility for Although Yang seems perfect on paper, he is his words; however, it was Yang’s response that not meant to be our 46th president. My issue with was the biggest letdown for the Asian American Yang does not lie with his policy or credibility, community. Instead of pointing out Gillis’ but rather, his legacy. As America’s first major mistakes and uniting with other Asians, Yang Asian American presidential candidate, Yang has turned extended his forgiveness and called for consistently failed to fulfill his role as a trailblazer Gillis to be reinstated as a Saturday Night Live for young Asians seeking to make headway in a member. homogeneous political sphere.

The sad truth is that if Gillis had used Yang often uses his Asian heritage to tout the n-word to refer to an African American his immigrant story, but then caters to his non- presidential candidate, the negative responses Asian audience by using one-liners that enforce against Gillis would be swift and immediate.

Asian stereotypes. During If Asian Americans are the 2019 Asian American going to reclaim the “Although Yang seems ever Pacific Islanders Democratic words “gook” and “chink” perfect on paper, he for themselves, it is up to Presidential Forum, Yang attempted to connect with is not meant to be our political figures like Yang to Asian voters as the son of speak out and correct those 46th president.”

Taiwanese immigrants. He who insult the community. It mentioned that he “felt that seems to me that Yang is too his spot in this country was somewhat in question,” concerned about tending to his political career, especially when classmates called him “chink” leaving Asian Americans feeling alienated and and “gook”. Instead of using the reliability of unrepresented. struggling for acceptance to unite fellow Asians, I must admit that Yang has a heavy burden to Yang proceeded to declare that, “the opposite of carry. In the 116th Congress, there are currently Donald Trump is an Asian man that likes math.” 20 members — 3.7 percent — who identify as Unfortunately, Yang fails to realize that he either Asian American, Indian American or cannot both play the victim — by detailing slurs Pacific Islander American. Regardless of Yang’s used against him — and the victimizer — by using self-deprecating comments, his campaign will racist jokes to perpetuate Asian stereotypes. Not inspire other young Asian Americans to run for only is Yang enforcing the stereotype that Asians office. He has to combat the “model minority” excel at math, but he is also reducing his entire perception that Asians are silent, agreeable and identity to “an Asian man.” thus easier to take advantage of. But we must Some would argue that it is socially acceptable remember that the only way we will be able to to use stereotypes within your own race; I can increase our representation in Congress and shed support that. However, Yang has used this same our image as a model minority is by speaking out line in numerous debates and has even extended against Asian stereotypes — something Yang the scope of the line to Medicare; in the third has yet to do. Is Yang the best person we can Democratic debate he told Americans, “I am put forward to represent our history and values?

Asian, so I know a lot of doctors.” Additionally, he Sorry #YangGang, but I do not believe so.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019

PAGE 7

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

STAFF COLUMNIST SYDNEY ALLARD ’21

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION STAFF

Get Out the Vote, Only for Democrats

Opinion Asks: New Stores in Hanover

Get out the vote efforts under the guise of partisanship are manipulative.

Dartmouth sits right on New Hampshire’s border with Vermont; the College is, just barely, in one of the few “purple” states in the country.

Election results that switch between parties year to year indicate that New Hampshire residents vote for people and policies, not just for parties.

Nowadays, that is as rare as it is admirable. As a Dartmouth student and a passionate independent voter, I take great pride in this fact. However, with all of the talk about the Democratic primaries, I am reminded of an event that occurred last year during the midterm elections, which, I believe, threatened the fierce independence that defines New Hampshire.

Last October, the Dartmouth College Democrats initiated a campaign to get students to vote in the midterm elections to Dartmouth. “Get out the vote” efforts are admirable; the strength of our democracy depends on the participation of its citizens. But the apparent motivation of this particular effort was less noble.

When I first encountered the College Democrats on campus, I was pleased to see the student volunteers handing out slips of paper on which we were asked to write our names and email addresses so that they could contact us before the elections and remind us to vote. By all means, college students should be encouraged to vote. But upon receiving the slips we were told that the pledge was not just to vote, but to vote Democratic.

While I knew that signing a slip of paper on the Green could not constitute a binding contract — no one was legally required to vote Democratic just because they had signed a sheet — the fact that the pledges were handed out alongside prompting to vote Democratic made that unclear. Of the hundreds of other students approached by the volunteers, perhaps a handful believed that they had officially committed to vote for Democrats — they had signed a paper and given their contact information, after all. They were told they had made a commitment.

Most offensive was what felt like the implicit messaging of the campaign: “We want you to vote, but only if you’ll vote for us.” This campaign aimed to get out only those votes that would support the College Democrats’ preferred candidates, thereby contributing to a campus environment that encourages liberal participation and conservative silence.

Efforts to “get out the vote” should be nonpartisan (and the College Democrats have sponsored such nonpartisan voter registration drives in the past), and they should aim to get everyone to vote, no matter their beliefs.

Voting booths are private for a reason. Telling people in front of their friends, in the middle of a predominantly Democratic campus, that they should sign this sheet contributes to the feeling that they pledged to vote only for Democrats. It creates an inappropriately stressful social situation.

Students are asked to make that commitment publicly and agree to it in writing.

When the College Democrats asked me to sign the pledge, I felt uncomfortable, as I do not believe in political parties and didn’t want to sign something associated with any one party in particular. My response was met with groans from my friends — they had heard my shtick before. I am ashamed to admit it, but I signed the pledge and agreed to vote exclusively for Democrats just to avoid the social costs of being labeled a right-wing extremist. For the record, I ultimately did not vote exclusively for Democrats.

I caved under social pressure, signed the paper and ignored my convictions; I gave the impression to all those who were watching that yet another Dartmouth student was voting all Democrat just because everyone else was doing it. I contributed to an environment in which social pressure is used to encourage conformity of belief.

Electioneering outside of polling places is illegal in every state. The College Democrats were not electioneering outside of a polling place.

Still, publicly asking students to promise to vote Democratic seems awfully similar — it pollutes the sacred business of voting with requests for pledges and with social pressure, bordering on coercion.

When I expressed these feelings to friends and explained that I felt this manner of campaigning should be prohibited, my friends disagreed. Their view, not an uncommon one, is that today, with the Trump administration in power, politics are different, and there is more at stake in elections than ever before — that because of Trump, the rules of political civility no longer apply. But a world where we can be pressured or confused into voting one way or another is a far more frightening prospect than anyone’s favored party losing or gaining a political seat.

As the Democratic primaries continue to consume the news, I hope that my peers on campus will inform themselves about the candidates and make their own decisions. Just as importantly, I hope that political groups on campus will take the opportunity to win votes through informative persuasion, rather than trying to amplify some voices by silencing others. If we really believe in democracy, we should want everyone to vote, not just the people who agree with us.

Do businesses in town effectively cater to student needs?

Bookstore and bar “Still North Books,” of a student’s busy lifestyle.

-Sydney Towle ’22 owned by Allie Levy ’11, is opening in downtown Hanover soon, replacing We need to have stores in town that allow what once was the Dartmouth Bookstore, which closed last year due to financial Dartmouth students to engage with products difficulties. After the closure of Wheelock at a reasonable price point. This is mutually Books, which provided textbooks at a beneficial to both the stores and Dartmouth discounted rate, businesses that are students. If we can buy a store’s products, we will see higher engagement explicitly targeted at from Dartmouth students Dartmouth students are notably absent in “If we can buy a store’s and a greater connection town. products, we will see between the town of Hanover and members Do businesses in higher engagement of the College. With that town effectively cater from Dartmouth being said, Still North to student needs? Is there any aspect of a students and a greater Books looks promising.

The founder said that “college town” that connection between “it’s really important to do wnto wn Hanover currently lacks? The the town of Hanover [her] that the inventory the taste of the Dartmouth Opinion and members of the reflects community.” Perhaps Still Staff responded.

College.”

North Books will pave the way to a Main Street that Hanover is more of better reflects the interests a town with a college in -CHANTAL ELIAS ’22 and economic means of its it rather than a “college student visitors. town.” This is one of the -Chantal Elias ’22 reasons I was drawn to Dartmouth, as it is refreshing to step in to town and see adults, Hanover is too expensive.Businesses kids and elderly people who are not in their consistently cater to the type of wealthy teens or early 20s.

That said, the stores in Hanover definitely Dartmouth student they think should exist, cater more to the residents than the students, and in the process, shut out low-income contributing to the lack of student activity on Dartmouth students. Low-income students Main Street besides Dirt Cowboy Cafe, CVS are unable to participate in pricey off-campus and the gas station. At other schools in “college outings or dinners, which reinforces the schism that already exists between towns,” the main draw students across several away from campus was “Perhaps most socioeconomic classes at cheap food and supplies, regrettably lacking Dartmouth. and I think Hanover lacks in Hanover, where It also creates an these options due to its size environment in which only and focus on local residents. the population is upper- and upper-middle-Sarah Colin ’23 so comfortably class people can afford to With the soon-to-be homogeneous, is any live in Hanover, thus greatly limiting the socioeconomic opening of Still North type of significant diversity of the community Books, it seems as though diversity.” that students interact with, the town is being overrun which may resemble their by unneeded stores for environment at home students. Additionally, -RANIYAN ZAMAN ’22 instead of presenting new considering most opportunities for growth. undergraduate students are under the age of 21, consumption of any Perhaps most regrettably lacking in Hanover, alcohol at Still North Books’ bar would be where the population is so comfortably homogeneous, is any type of significant illegal anyway.

Instead, Hanover should look to incorporate diversity.

-Raniyan Zaman ’22 more fastfood-style restaurants to fit the needs

PAGE 8

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Q&A with AAAS, theater professor and activist Shamell Bell

B y Mia russo The Dartmouth

Shamell Bell, an original member of the Black Lives Matter movement, brings forth her experience as a community organizer and advocate for black activism as a lecturer in the African and African American studies and theater departments.

She is currently teaching THEA 1, “Introduction to Theater” and THEA 21, “Race, Gender and Performance.”

In her career as an activist, Bell’s participation as a leader in the Black Lives Matter movement was a pivotal moment that cemented her desire to guide students and her peers to participate in the activism that they are passionate about. Bell’s work as a self-described arts and culture liaison for social justice organizations and a community engagement consultant has shaped her belief that art could hold the power to resist and liberate. With her history in activism, Bell brings a variety of experiences and expertise to her classrooms.

In an interview with The Dartmouth, Bell discussed her experience as a leader of the BLM movement and how her activism has shaped her role as a teacher.

What brought you to Dartmouth?

SB: I came here around one year ago for the International Black Theater Summit, and I presented the movie “The Hate U Give.” I did a talk-back with a little panel afterwards for the film and fell in love with some of the students.

And then I said, “Oh, I’m going to figure out a way to come back.” Theater professor Laura Edmondson called me and said, “Can you teach a couple of courses in theater?” And then how fate would have it, the African and African American studies department asked me if I could teach three courses here. I’m only one month in, and Dartmouth has

just been a robust way for me to highlight my artistic and academic profile.

How did you become involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, and how did that influence the trajectory of your career as an activist and as a teacher?

SB: Although I was sick with an autoimmune disease and was unable to get on the bus to Ferguson, Ferguson activists are what created an international movement and influenced my life, because I was able to be a part of something bigger than myself. And for me, this is something that is really key in my life. I had purpose before BLM and I’ll have purpose after BLM, but BLM was a moment in my trajectory where I wanted to support my community in all the ways that I could.

I think it’s cool right now to be an activist, but I kind of distance myself from that term — I’m more of a community organizer. And I’ve been organizing in the community since I was 10 years old, so for me, being a part of BLM made sense because it’s something in that trajectory. Whether we’re on the front lines or whether we’re teaching in a classroom, if we live everyday for the liberation of our people — that’s the movement. That’s what I want to use as a guiding light to others: that you don’t have to be a leader of a movement to be an activist.

What brought you to select street dance activism as the subject of your dissertation?

SB: I was already doing work on dance in the community as a form of mobilization or activism, but it wasn’t until being on the ground of the BLM movement, where street dance activism became a thing. I just said those words when I was trying to get people to come and get a free dance class — it was like “street dance!” and “activism!” and

it kind of stuck, and more and more people started to want to use street dance as interventions. At the time I just said, “I want to give back with what I know.” I wanted to make sure that whatever I spoke to in my dissertation spoke directly to my community and the things that I’ve lived and I’ve experienced, and so I had to write about street dance activism.

What has been a moment that cemented the importance of social justice and performing arts for you personally?

SB: I think it was the first time I did the street dance activism in the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters. It was this one moment where the energy was so low, and it just felt like a cloud of heaviness around us. There was this moment when we started to dance that the cops came out, and they were so confused that there was joy in that moment. They crossed their arms and scowled at us in a different way, because they couldn’t really wrap their heads around how we were being joyful. Like it was almost as if our joy was more annoying than our sorrow. That was the moment I knew the power that art could do, and it showed me that our living was the resistance.

Why did you use a combination of written text and film as the medium to convey your dissertation?

SB: I chose to use film because it was my way of giving back to my community and making it available to my community. I needed to have it live — and not just in written form. As someone that is a dancer and choreographer, everything is a choreography for me, and it’s often difficult to even articulate in words what I’m feeling and what I’m seeing in my imagination. So to me it was a no-

brainer. It’s difficult to be in academia, where you’re just expected to publish or perish. As I’m coming into academia now, I’m finding ways to ground myself in the written as well as feed my need for being multi-disciplinary and being someone who uses the digital humanities as a way of connecting to my social engagement.

How has your dissertation research affected what you bring to your lectures at Dartmouth?

SB: I use my work as a roadmap in my classroom, and I use it as a way to help guide my students. I always bring in a little bit of my written as well as my visual and bodied experience, and my students really asked me a lot of questions about this. It’s like, “How do you do all the things all the time?” And I told them it’s a privilege for me to be an academic, because not every night at 5 p.m. would you be able to say you’re a dancer, choreographer, filmmaker and mom. Now, many people think that they could do it as well, but that’s kind of what I push out of my students. Given what my lived experience is, hopefully I can be a light to others.

How does teaching differ from actively working on social justice issues?

SB: It doesn’t differ for me at all. I don’t really call myself a teacher. I’m more of a facilitator, and I hate to use the word “healer” because that’s kind of cliché these days, but I go on a journey of healing with my students, and that’s what’s most important to me — I kind of unearth what’s already inside of them and the answers that they already know and value.

Can you describe what your role in the process of consulting social justice impact in television and film looks like?

SB: I have a lot of education on the history of different social and arts movements, so I became a wealth of knowledge for the TV, film and music industries. I’ve gotten very comfortable with the entertainment industry as I have performed since I was two years old. I am not really the type of person to want to be a performer anymore, but I choreograph, facilitate and consult.

For me, I use my privilege as a way and as a bridge to use the platform for good. I think that’s what I do in the entertainment industry, knowing that it can reach the masses — if I could get someone with influence to know even just a little bit of something that can shift the minds of others, I want to be in the position to do that.

How has teaching at Dartmouth differed from your past teaching experiences in California?

SB: I think it is the sense of perfection.

I think Dartmouth students are so bright and so intelligent and so “the one percent” in their environments that they feel a lot of pressure — they feel a pressure to be all and everything for everyone and be everywhere at all times and be omni-present. And it’s not in a bad way. I just want to crack them open so that they can get to the core of who they really are, and what they really want, and how they can use their intelligence and their talents to not only better their own life, but better the lives of others. And for me, I’m in love with them, because I see the value of knowing their privilege. That’s the thing. They know they are privileged as Ivy League students. And what is incredible about the students that I’ve encountered is that they’re ready and willing to be able to use that privilege for good.

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