VOL. CLXXVI NO. 91
CLOUDY HIGH 57 LOW 48
OPINION
COUVILLION: DARTMOUTH NEEDS HUMILITY PAGE 4
LEUTZ: “NOTHING” IS IMPORTANT PAGE 4
ARTS
SALLY PINKAS AND EVAN HIRSCH JOIN FORCES FOR A LIVELY PIANO CONCERT PAGE 7
SYMPOSIUM AT THE HOOD SHOWCASES THE DYNAMIC MUSEUM FIELD PAGE 8
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Despite new law, Dave Bucci remembered for his students likely able to kindness, mentorship of students vote in NH elections B y MAYA KEMPF-HARRIS The Dartmouth
Despite the implementation of a 2018 state law that changed residency requirements for voting, college students originally from outside of New Hampshire will likely be able to vote in elections in the state in 2020, though many details remain unclear. House Bill 1264, which was passed by a Republicancontrolled legislature and signed into law by Gov. Chris
Sununu (R), created stricter requirements for voting in the state, which critics of the bill have argued would effectively limit the ability of college students from outside states to vote in New Hampshire by requiring voters to prove residency in the state. H o w e v e r, t h e N e w Hampshire secretary of state’s office indicates on its website under the Frequently Asked Questions page of the “How SEE VOTING PAGE 2
Fellowships offer students professional experiences — for a fee B y MARCO ALLEN The Dartmouth
Thedesiretohaveamarketable set of professional skills has driven students to pursue different types of off-term opportunities, including both paid and unpaid internships. However, increased demand for job opportunities has led to the creation of fellowships that charge students thousands of dollars for professional opportunities.
These fellowships, which John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding senior program officer Amy Newcomb refers to as “payto-play entities,” include the Atlantis Fellowship for students interested in medicine, Beacon Fellowship for students interested in consulting and the Lex Fellowship for students interested in law. SEE FELLOWSHIPS PAGE 5
COURTESY OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
Bucci, a former chair of the psychological and brain sciences department, died earlier this month.
B y HANNAH JINKS AND KYLE MULLINS The Dartmouth Staff
An accomplished researcher and professor, Dave Bucci not only prioritized his undergraduate teaching, but also bought encouragement, enthusiasm and kindness to every interaction he had with students and colleagues. “He was the most beloved member of our department,” said psychological and brain sciences professor and director of graduate studies Thalia Wheatley. “He was so affable, this big bear of a guy. He had nicknames for everybody — he would ask people about their kids. He was loved.” The former chair of the
PBS department, Bucci died by suicide at age 50 on Oct. 15. A visitation was held on Oct. 24 at the Knight Funeral Home in White River Junction, VT, followed by a funeral mass on Oct. 25 at Saint Denis Church in Hanover. He is survived by his wife, Katie Bucci; his children, Ava, Joshua and Lila Bucci; his parents, John and Barbara Bucci; and his brother and sister, Christopher and Cheryl Bucci. Bucci was born on Nov. 28, 1968 in Tarrytown, NY and grew up in New Fairfield, CT. Throughout his youth, Bucci demonstrated a strong work ethic and a passion for the sciences. He ultimately received his bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology from Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. in neurobiology from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After receiving his Ph.D., Bucci worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Burwell Laboratory — a lab dedicated to behavioral research on rats that can be applied to human cognition — at Brown University from 1998 to 2001. He worked closely with undergraduate students while there. “There were no other graduate students, so Dave was really the one that showed me all the different approaches that you take in the lab,” said Michael Saddoris, a neuroscience professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who was an undergraduate student in the SEE BUCCI PAGE 3
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Dartmouth community celebrates Hindu festival of Diwali B y ALEKA KROITZCH The Dartmouth
Last Saturday, students, faculty and residents of the Upper Valley gathered to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the Hindu faith. The word Diwali comes from the Sanskrit word Deepawali, which can be translated to “row of lamps.” It marks the beginning of the new year and symbolizes the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance, according to computer science department chair and faculty advisor to Shanti, the student Hindu organization, Prasad Jayanti, who has been organizing Diwali events since 2001. The central concept in Hindu tradition is the idea that the inner self, known as Bhrahmananda, is
composed of unsurpassable joy. However, this self can be shielded by a layer of darkness and corruption, Jayanti said. The lighting of the diya, an oil lamp, symbolizes the igniting of one’s own light of knowledge, Jayanti explained, dispelling one’s ignorance and making accessible one’s own divinity in order to reach Bhrahmananda. The Diwali festivities were organized by the Shanti organization, which represents the Hindu faith at the Tucker Center for Spiritual and Ethical Life. The events included a Hindu puja, or prayer, at 4 p.m., the lighting of diyas on the Green at 5:30 p.m., a cultural show at 6:45 p.m. and a dinner at the Hopkins Center. The puja occurred in Rollins Chapel, where over 200 individuals gathered to pray and worship the goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity.
“Within Hinduism, the murthy [a while enjoying each other’s company. statue representing a god or goddess] “It was exciting seeing people from is a visual representation of divinity all over together in one place,” said that allows you to think about and Shanti board member Suraj Srivats kindle the spirit of divinity within ’22. “You feel like you’re a part you,” Jayanti said. of something The Shanti “It was exciting seeing bigger.”A n j a l i organization d e c o r a t e d t h e people from all over Dugar ’20 Green with rows of together in one place. said that since an estimated 6,000 she hadn’t regular candles, 600 You feel like you’re been home electric candles and part of something for Diwali 100 oil lamps lining for almost a bigger.” the pathways and decade, it felt making an Om sign “special” to in the center. The -SURAJ SRIVATS ’22 have a taste of Om symbol itself home. took approximately “It’s also 3,500 candles to make, according to nice to have such a high-visibility Jayanti. event so people who aren’t Indian or At least 500 students and don’t typically celebrate Diwali could community members came to the celebrate with us too,” Dugar said. Green to light candles and sparklers After the gathering on the Green,
attendees filed into Alumni Hall for the cultural performance, filling all 300 seats with another hundred attendees standing in the back. Attendees chatted while various groups of students and community members performed. “There were so many people that came together,” said Mrinal Singh ’21, board member of Shanti. “Everyone was just laughing and talking.” The perfor mances included Dartmouth’s South Asian dance troupe Raaz as well as traditional C a r n at i c vo c a l , m r i d a n g a m percussion and dance practices such as Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. Finally, hundreds of students and community members enjoyed homecooked dinners at the Hopkins Center that had been provided by over 30 local families. An additional 1,000 candles were used to decorate the dining area.
Town clerk has not received clear answer on need for driver’s license FROM VOTING PAGE 1
to Register to Vote” section that college students are allowed to register to vote in the state. This page states that voting is restricted to “New Hampshire inhabitants who will be 18 years of age or older on the day of the next election, and a United States citizen.” It adds that “there is no minimum period of time you are required to have lived in the state before being allowed to register. You may register as soon as you move into your new community.” According to Hanover town clerk Betsy McClain, she is certain that students are currently able to register to vote and, upon being added to the voter registry, will be able to receive and fill out a ballot. “The voting process is not impeded by [HB 1264],” McClain said. Students can register at the town offices until seven days prior to an
election, and if they miss this deadline, they can complete the same-day registration process at the polling station. The New Hampshire presidential primary elections take place on Feb. 11. McClain said that she has not, however, gotten a satisfactory answer as to whether or not students will have to get a New Hampshire driver’s license as a result of registering to vote in the state. “The question is, what further action must a registered voter take if they decide to register to vote in New Hampshire?” McClain said. “And that question has not been adequately answered, so that we — at least not so that I and my colleagues — can provide guidance on that.” McClain said that she has attempted to better understand the requirements created by HB 1264 by reaching out to the New Hampshire secretary of state’s office. She said that her inquiries
CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.
were directed to the attorney general’s office, which responded that McClain, as an election official, is not allowed to advise about “motor vehicle law” and should refer any questions to the New Hampshire Department of Motor Vehicles. New Hampshire League of Women Voters voter service representative and Newbury town moderator Nancy Marashio said that, when the League went to the DMV, they were told that the DMV has not received any guidance from the Secretary of State’s office on how to handle such inquiries. Marashio said she believes the law is unconstitutional. “My understanding is that it’s violating the New Hampshire constitution, and I have testified to that effect,” Marashio said. “I am speaking as a town moderator who takes an oath to uphold the New Hampshire Constitution and what it says about elections.” Marashio referred specifically to Article 11 of the state constitution, which reads in part, “[all] elections are to be free, and every inhabitant of the state of 18 years of age and upwards shall have
an equal right to vote in any election. Every person shall be considered an inhabitant for the purposes of voting in the town, ward, or unincorporated place where he has his domicile.” Marashio pointed out that the law does not only affect college students, but also members of the military who are assigned in the state and interns for businesses, who she argued often don’t maintain a permanent residency with their parents in another state, as many college students do. Sheacknowledgedanotherargument against the law: that requiring college students and others affected by the law to purchase a New Hampshire driver’s license would, in her view, effectively be an unconstitutional poll tax. “We used to have what was called a poll tax, and it was dropped to match what the state constitution says: ‘The right to vote shall not be denied to any person because of the non-payment of any tax.’” College Democrats president Riley Gordon ’22 referred to HB 1264 as a “voter suppression bill,” arguing that, while it only changes four words in state statutes, the law is complex and designed
to be unclear. “[HB 1264 is] designed to suppress the student vote,” Gordon said. “I think there’s a very real possibility that if it’s not struck down in court, then it will succeed in stifling a lot of the student vote here, even for people whom it doesn’t necessarily effect, but just who have heard something that makes them believe that it affects them, and therefore don’t make the effort to go out and vote.” Gordon added that the College Democrats will continue to attempt to educate the student body about voting, and that Student Assembly runs voter registration events. In support of HB 1264, acting vice-chair of the College Republicans Alexander Rauda ’21 wrote in an email that it “will ensure that students, some of which are not affected by, nor contribute to, local matters, don’t get to ‘decide’ elections that do not concern them.” For those who may be confused about whether or not they can vote in New Hampshire, Marashio recommended visiting the websites of the ACLU of New Hampshire, the League of Women Voters and the New Hampshire branch of America Votes.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Friends recall Bucci’s scholarship, dedication to the PBS department FROM BUCCI PAGE 1
Burwell Lab. “Going from scratch to actually getting started [on research], there’s a lot to learn, and there’s a pretty steep curve.” He noted that Bucci’s work in the lab was far from easy and required a substantial time investment in order to help undergraduate students. “You don’t really appreciate what a postdoc does until you do it yourself, and most people don’t do that,” Saddoris said. “Most people don’t engage with the undergraduates with that level in terms of mentorship and collegiality.” Bucci, he said, was outgoing, supportive and always willing to assist. The two remained in touch after Bucci left the lab, and Saddoris said that Bucci was always happy to offer him advice and support. “It was really encouraging to have that sense of mentorship that lasted for 20 years after working with him,” Saddoris said. Alyssa Letourneau, another undergraduate student who worked in the Burwell Laboratory with Bucci, described Bucci as a “bright-eyed, bushy-tailed postdoc,” adding that he was always encouraging even though she eventually decided she did not want to pursue research. After her graduation, Bucci offered Letourneau a job helping to set up a new lab at the University of Vermont in 2001. She recalled a story in which the newly-installed water purification unit in the fourth-floor lab sprang a leak, dumping thousands of gallons of water into the building. She added that Bucci approached the situation — and lab repairs — with humor, enthusiasm and dedication. “Some of my fondest memories are of us having gotten through [that] big project and having gotten all that done,” Letourneau said. The two of them also stayed in touch after parting ways. She attended his wedding, she remembered, and they often exchanged emails about Dave Matthews concerts — they were both fans — that he attended. “He would always send me a little email or a message and say ‘I went to Dave Matthews, couldn’t help but think of you,’” Letourneau recalled. “He loved
to play the guitar, and he would definitely try to play some of that music.” In 2004, Bucci accepted a position as an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at the College. In 2015, he was promoted to chair of the PBS department and was named the Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences and Human Relations in 2016. His work for the College extended beyond teaching undergraduates — he also served in the graduate program in Experimental & Molecular Medicine, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at the Geisel School of Medicine. Additionally, his lab, the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Laboratory, allowed undergraduate students the opportunity to investigate the behavioral and neurobiological factors that regulate learning and memory. Outside of Dartmouth, Bucci was an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association and received numerous awards for his research, teaching and mentoring. Over the course of his academic career, Bucci was awarded nearly $7 million in grant funding for his research as a principle or co- investigator. Bucci served as an influential figure for many Dartmouth students during his tenure. In many cases, he altered the trajectory of his students’ careers — whether by inspiring students in the classroom or fostering community within his lab — according to lab alumna Sarah Miller ’19. Miller said she met Bucci during freshman orientation, although she was already familiar with his work prior to attending Dartmouth. When she expressed interest in his research, she said Bucci reacted with elation and enthusiastically invited her to coffee. “It was my first taste of how great professors can be here at Dartmouth and how exciting it is to have a conversation with someone who is passionate about the same things that you are,” Miller said. “It was the same for all four years. He was really inspiring. He would always give me a high five in the hallway and ask me how I was doing and he just cared — not just for me but everyone. He was just a sunshine.”
Miller added that she hails from a “close-knit town” and, when she came to Dartmouth, she worried about not finding the sense of community she associated with home. Instead, she said that Bucci fostered a community “and then some.” For instance, during Miller’s freshman summer, Bucci invited his lab mentees to his wife’s concert in Norwich, VT, said Miller. “The sense of community was something you felt throughout your entire body,” she said. “It was palpable — you could feel it in the air. And it was [lab group outings] like that, that created a strong community.” Despite never having worked in Bucci’s lab, Jesse Gomez ’12 said he felt inspired by Bucci. Gomez said he intended to major in physics before taking Bucci’s introductory neuroscience course. Bucci’s enthusiastic style of teaching was contagious, according to Gomez. “A lot of other science classes are very different — they are very tough and they are meant to weed people out,” Gomez said. “But [Bucci] wanted you to learn the material and he was always happy to answer questions.” Gomez said he ultimately changed his major to neuroscience — a decision he said he largely attributed to Bucci. Even fleeting interactions with Bucci left a lasting mark, according to Hannah Raila ’10. Raila said she wandered into Bucci’s office during her sophomore year, hoping to discuss career paths in psychology. Ten years later, Raila has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and plans to apply to faculty positions. “It was a life-changing interaction, and was the first time that I seriously considered going [to graduate school for psychology],” Raila said. “That brief memory of him dedicating his time to a lost and confused [undergraduate] student has stuck with me when I envision the type of academic mentor that I think we could all aspire to be.” Bucci’s colleagues in the PBS department admired him as a dedicated scholar, brilliant researcher and good friend. “In terms of his work, undergraduate teaching was just the biggest source of joy in his life,” Wheatley said. “He loved teaching students in the classroom,
COURTESY OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
Bucci began teaching at Dartmouth in 2004.
getting them to think, he loved when undergraduates in his lab discovered something and got excited about science. This is just the thing that made him the happiest, in terms of his work.” Wheatley also worked with him in an administrative capacity and noted the impact he left on the department. She pointed out that he served an extra year beyond the normal three-year term as chair of the department because “he was so good at being chair.” “Everybody loved him because he was fair,” Wheatley said. “Even if it [came] at great personal cost, or cost him lab space, or whatever, he was always focused on what is in the best interest of the department, what is the fairest thing to do, how do we work together on this.” PBS professor Katherine Nautiyal said that she teaches at Dartmouth because of Bucci. “[Bucci] climbed the ladder to an endowed chair with grace and integrity, and always turned around to help up the next generations,” Nautiyal said. “[Bucci] was kind, undeniably respectful, undoubtedly loyal and one of the most open and honest people I have known. It’s hard to imagine how we’ll recover from this loss.” Outside of academia, Bucci relished the opportunity to work with children
— especially through coaching Little League baseball — according to his fellow assistant coach Steve Smith. “One of the things I appreciated about him was that he was a big deal at Dartmouth, but in our interactions, he never acted that way,” Smith said. “He was always warm, funny and approachable. He was never pretentious, even though he could have easily come across [that way] because of his achievements.” Smith and Bucci shared a coaching philosophy — they both rooted for the team’s competitive success, but, above all, they wanted the players to support each other. “As a parent, I was always so happy to see my son interacting with [Bucci] because I have such respect for him,” he said. “He had such approachability and was so down-to-earth.” A number of notes, cards and flowers have been left at the door of Bucci’s office. Additionally, Wheatley has created a website, davebuccimemorial. com. where those who knew him can leave memories and stories. “Above all, he loved his family, working with his hands and inspiring his students,” Wheatley wrote on the website. “And he was beloved, by all of us.”
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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST ZACHARY COUVILLION ’22
STAFF COLUMNIST PETER LEUTZ ’22
Dartmouth Needs Humility
“Nothing” is Important
Stop telling students “you’re all here for a reason.” Each year during First-Year Trips and Orientation, Dartmouth students and faculty try to brace incoming students for “impostor syndrome,” or the tendency for students to feel undeserving of their place at Dartmouth. “You are all here for a reason” is common advice to freshmen. This is counterproductive, and students would be better off in the long term if we held humility in higher regard. Students recognize that Dartmouth’s environment is stress-inducing and sometimes damaging to the self-esteem; the 2018 Dartmouth Health survey confirms that a majority of students consider the campus environment to have a negative impact on their mental health. This has been viewed under the lens of “impostor syndrome” before, one example being an article about impostor syndrome published by The Dartmouth earlier this year. The students who apply to Dartmouth are typically those who have gotten some sort of positive reinforcement for their habits in high school. Whether that reinforcement is rooted in their own success or some outside mentorship, the point is that these students have confidence in their abilities to succeed in the college environment — otherwise, they would not be applying to this college. Furthermore, Dartmouth has a reputation for excellence. These elements play a critical role in impostor syndrome. When you gather students who are all used to being top of their class, some will inevitably outperform others who are used to being best. Impostor syndrome is bound to happen. The piece missing from the orientation experience is an emphasis on humility. Humility transforms the defensive, “You’re here for a reason” advice that upperclassmen constantly toss out to
DEBORA HYEMIN HAN, Editor-in-Chief
nervous freshmen during First-Year Trips and Orientation to a growth mindset, appreciative of all the challenges and talents that the Dartmouth community offers. This new mindset is much more sustainable and academically rewarding. Refraining from fighting insecurity with reassurance may sound counterproductive. However, it is important that we recognize the value of this insecurity. Insecurity can be the jumpstart that students need to fully adopt the humble mindset; once the initial nerves subside, all that is left is the understanding of what there is to gain from immersing oneself in this accomplished community. Conversely, a student who is too secure with oneself is not able to change as easily. As a calculus TA, I have seen all too often freshmen much too content with their understanding and learning habits that brought them so much success in high school. I wouldn’t even restrict this to freshmen; many students, including myself, find it challenging to let go completely of habits that have brought them success in a wide variety of academic fields. But getting the most out of classes requires more than memorizing information or even understanding core concepts. The key is letting go previous mindsets — allowing the mind to play the part of, say, a physics researcher or professional author — to absorb what it is like working in a specific field as well as possible. This is not possible without humility — the ability to recognize that something inside of you needs to change. Accepting humility invites the challenges Dartmouth has to offer, which can foster personal growth. Why deprive incoming students of this type of experience, which is the most rich and rewarding that Dartmouth has to offer?
AIDAN SHEINBERG, Publisher
ALEX FREDMAN, Executive Editor PETER CHARALAMBOUS, Managing Editor
ANTHONY ROBLES, Managing Editor
PRODUCTION EDITORS CAROLINE COOK & EOWYN PAK, Opinion Editors
BUSINESS DIRECTORS JONNY FRIED, JASMINE FU, RAIDEN MEYER,
KYLEE SIBILIA, Mirror Editor LILI STERN & BAILY DEETER, Sports Editors LEX KANG & LAUREN SEGAL, Arts Editors DIVYA KOPALLE, Photo Editor SAMANTHA BURACK & BELLA JACOBY, Design Editors HATTIE NEWTON, Templating Editor JESS CAMPANILE, Multimedia Editor
Advertising & Finance Directors HIMADRI NARASIMHAMURTHY & KAI SHERWIN, Business Development Directors ALBERT CHEN & ELEANOR NIEDERMAYER, Strategy Directors VINAY REDDY & ERIC ZHANG, Marketing, Analytics and Technology Directors
ELIZA JANE SCHAEFFER, Engagement Editor WILLIAM CHEN & AARON LEE, Data Visualization Editors
ISSUE LAYOUT DEBBY COBON 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.
Wasting time is not a waste of time.
Returning to campus this fall has reminded take a direction of its own. This clarity has me of just how much of student life on been stolen by a crescendo of social media, Dartmouth’s campus is spent waiting in line. blaring in our heads around the clock. We wait in line for the Hop after 10As, Collis Before bed, I watch YouTube, Netflix pasta at night and KAF whenever we need or the “influencers” of Instagram who do a boost. Waiting in line isn’t just a reality of exactly as their name implies. Nothing’s most dining halls, but also a staple of fraternity sacred hour has been hijacked by headphones basements — where we wedged between my must wait, once again, eardrum and the pillow, “The act of doing for our turn to play our relaying a voice into my nothing is a concept head that is not my own. favorite game. Sometimes, even just to enroll in a that is almost unheard Regardless of the time of class, Dartmouth asks us day, the voices in my head of in the digital age, to wait. This waiting will are rarely my own. not stop after graduation, We shouldn’t have to and it is unfairly seen and we are very frustrated wait until bedtime to as a waste of time.” by this, because waiting discover which of the essentially means doing voices flowing through nothing. The act of doing our heads belongs to us. nothing is a concept that is almost unheard Seizing opportunities throughout the day of in the digital age, and it is unfairly seen to consciously do nothing, such as waiting as a waste of time. in line, will allow us to access the creativity To avoid doing nothing, we skip the lines and deep thinking that used to be the opening with apps like Snackpass or GET. In the case act for my dreams. of KAF, a group of students have developed When we are doing “nothing,” we are a website to tell us exactly how long we have thinking and crafting our voices. As a result, to do nothing for, and if the number is too neglection of nothing not only threatens our large, we don’t even bother. With constant creativity, but it also strips us of our ability to access to our phones, we last maybe a few self-reflect. We lean on the voices of others minutes of doing nothing while waiting in and are often riddled with indecision because line before surrendering we have so little experience to the rectangle of in considering what we “Even on a college temptation that rests in think. our front pockets. Smart campus, doing nothing The lack of nothing phones have allowed us in our lives has created a is not a waste of time, to essentially never have distance between our very because when we to consciously do nothing existence and the inner ever again. As a result, we voice that is supposed to are doing nothing, have lost our aptitude to it. When you we’re not really doing accompany do nothing. are forced to do nothing, nothing.” This is concer ning, you become increasingly because doing “nothing” is familiar with and more actually quite important. confident in your own Even on a college campus, doing nothing is voice. The opportunity to consciously do not a waste of time, because when we are nothing leaves a blank canvas for the tortured doing nothing, we’re not really doing nothing. artist of our minds to fill. We should cherish Perhaps the most sacred time for doing the time we have waiting in line, because nothing is right before bed. While we wait in wasting time is anything but a waste of time. line for sleep, our mind tends to wander. As a In some ways, this is why I write columns: kid, I used to have my best ideas right before not so much to share my opinions, but to I went to bed. In fact, I kept a notepad and discover them. A couple times per term, I a pen on my bedside table to write down any sign up to share what I think, and in the ideas I had before I fell asleep. These ideas brainstorming stage, I am often met with a would later turn into jokes, inventions or mosaic of what everybody else thinks. stories. There was an elevated level of clarity The antidote that prevents my voice from that could be achieved when my mind could blending in with everyone else’s? Nothing.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Students can pay as much as $5,000 for internship opportunities FROM FELLOWSHIPS PAGE 1
Students pay upwards of $5,000 for a three-to-four week program and around $2,500 for a 10-day experience. These three internships are subsidiaries of the Saffron Ventures, a for-profit investment firm that classifies itself as a “builder, grower, and investor in businesses & organizations that are impactful & counter-cultural.” “The Fellowship gives students an in depth understanding of the job of the consultant, while also teaching them real business skills that will apply to any career they pursue,” Beacon Fellowship associate Nick Leaver wrote in a statement to The Dartmouth. Leaver wrote that the Beacon Fellowship’s projects are led by “McKinsey, Bain, or [Boston Consulting Group] alum.” Many of the online advertisements for the Beacon Fellowship boast about the program’s connection to such consulting firms and often present themselves as an alternative or supplement to traditional internships. According to Atlantis Fellowship
alumni ambassador Saman Wadpey, many students learn about these fellowships via online advertising on social media platforms. Wadpey, who participated in an Atlantis program in Spain and Croatia, said that “at first I was a little skeptical, because when you see something on Instagram it doesn’t always seem as if its credible.” However, she noted that after speaking with representatives of the program, she was impressed with the opportunities they offered. She said that Atlantis was an easy way to “get experience shadowing in multiple specialties” in a shorter amount of time than she could have on her own. However, the Dickey Center neither offers funding for nor encourages students to pursue opportunities such as the Atlantis, Beacon and Lex Fellowships. According to Newcomb, students interested in working abroad should instead look for “an independent, eight-week immersive experience.” She stressed the importance of learning independently when working abroad
and truly embedding oneself in a community rather than just “passing by for a short amount of time.” She said that “pay-to-play” programs are a form of “voluntourism with a fixed itinerary.” Dickey Center student intern and peer advisor Victor Cabrera ’19 further said that the cost of one of these programs — $4,500 — was enough to cover living expenses in a country for the length of a term. “A program like this that’s asking for so much money [for] so little time often looks a little more like an itinerary,” Cabrera said. Sarah Wen ’22, who did market research for an app developer through Beacon’s London program for a month last summer, said she chose to do a Beacon Fellowship because she “wanted something a little more relaxed … and the big firms don’t offer anything for freshmen anyways.” Wen also added that she gained a lot of “interview talking points and also a lot of practical skills, such as pitching to a real CEO.” Rockefeller Center for Public
FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
An impressive display of candles lights up the Green in celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali.
Policy program officer Eric Janisch acknowledged that one reason students may be willing to pay for programs such as Beacon is that “there’s a lot of pressure on students at Dartmouth to build that resume and to have something to tell their peers.” However, Janisch also said that students should also be willing to do local work and care less about whether their next employer might be able to recognize the names of the previous companies that employed them. Newcomb agreed that there was a large amount of pressure for students to partake in the “internship culture on leave terms,” but that “students should expect more from their experiences … rather than trying to talk them up.” Newcomb said she believes that this “industry of educational opportunities for sale” was created in response to movements in colleges and high schools calling for community and service-based learning. She added that she believes that this demand and the realization that there are people who are willing to pay
for these experiences led to these kinds of opportunities. “There is a trend shifting from longer term study abroad programs towards shorter term immersive experiences because they are more easily accessible for students,” said Dickey Center global studies program manager Casey Aldrich. However, Aldrich noted that these businesses can serve a need for students at institutions that lack the resources to provide study abroad opportunities, such as Wadpey, who attended a community college before partaking in the Atlantis Fellowship. Janisch said that students interested in work opportunities should reflect on what they want to learn before pursuing them. “Students who are attracted to this don’t know what they want, but the services offer an outcome that they think they want, which is experience they can put on their resumes,” Janisch said. Representatives from Atlantis and Lex Fellowships declined to comment.
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DARTMOUTHEVENTS
THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS
THE LONELIEST NUMBER
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
JULIA VOLD ’23
TODAY
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Lecture: “Symplectic Gyrokinetic Vlasov-Maxwell Theory” with St. Michael’s College professor Alain Brizard, sponsored by the Physics and Astronomy Department and the Thayer School of Engineering, Wilder Hall, Room 202.
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Lecture: “Building Up and Investigating in Africa,” with Gayle Smith, president and CEO of the ONE campaign, sponsored by the Dickey Center, Moorein Hall, Filene Auditorium.
TOMORROW 3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Lecture: “Better Music Representation Learning Using Inductive Bias: Mind vs. Machine,” sponsored by the Computer Science Department, Wilder Hall, Room 111.
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Debate: “Universal Basic Income — For or Against?” with Georgetown University-Qatar professor Karl Wilderquist and Manhattan Institute professor Oren Cass, sponsored by the Political Economy Project, Moore Hall, Filene Auditorium.
8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Dance Party: “Energy Humanities Live! DJ Dance Party,” sponsored by the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society, Top of the Hop.
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
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Sally Pinkas and Evan Hirsch join forces for a lively piano concert B y Veronica winham
dances, including Hirsch’s own “Sally’s Waltz,” whose lightness and energy create a much different This evening, dynamic piano duo tone and environment than that of Sally Pinkas and Evan Hirsch will Pinkas’ and Hirsch’s usual shows. perform a set of fun and lively dance “Normal concerts are reasonably music in the Spaulding Auditorium. serious and sometimes involve Pinkas is a music professor and serious and grave music, and there pianist-in-residence at Dartmouth, isn’t one bit of that on this program,” and Hirsch, her husband, teaches Hirsch said. “We have a lot of pieces piano and chamber music at that we really love that involve dance. Brandeis University. There is not a piece on the program According to Pinkas and Hirsch, that’s insubstantial; they’re all lively, the couple met in music class at cheerful and inventive.” graduate school but were following The pair has played many of their own individual music careers these pieces before, but what sets this with no intention of ever performing show apart is the movement of the together. Years perfor mance: into their The duo will go “When we are sitting marriage, this back and forth changed when across from each between playing t h e y p l a y e d other, the only thing two pianos and their first show playing four as a duo at the we see is each other’s hands on one Hopkins Center faces from the nose piano. fo r t h e 1 9 9 4 “When up, so we really Valentine’s Day we are sitting c o n c e r t . T h e have to know each across from each pair said they other in order to play other, the only e n j oye d t h e i r thing we see experience, and together.” is each other’s their audience faces from the equally loved it, nose up, so we -SALLY PINKAS, MUSIC so much so that really have to the two have PROFESSOR AND PIANISTknow each other p l aye d s h ow s IN-RESIDENCE in order to play t o g e t h e r eve r together,” Pinkas since while still said. “The pursuing their own individual coordination is the hardest thing careers and teaching at separate on the two pianos.” universities. Four hands on one piano “We do our more interesting also involves a higher level of travel together as a duo,” Pinkas communication and timing with said. “The last big thing was in one’s partner. Pinkas said she is Indonesia last year, and we’re excited to explore a variety of going to Brazil together to play in movement on stage because the December. This is fabulous because piano allows for a wider range of I feel very privileged, both to play techniques than other instruments and to [share this] with my husband might. and my best friend.” “When you play piano, in a way In Pinkas and Hirsch’s upcoming you are playing everything,” Pinkas show, viewers can look forward said. “Because unlike a violin or a to energetic dance music such as viola or an oboe, who play one line, Darius Milhaud’s “Scaramouche,” the pianist plays everything, because Samuel Barber’s “Souvenirs,” we can play all the harmonies.” William Bolcom’s “Recuerdos” Pinkas, a native of Israel, has a and Joseph Horovitz’s “Concerto Ph.D. in composition from Brandeis for Dancers.” Additionally, the University and holds degrees from duo will play a suite of three little both Indiana University and the The Dartmouth Staff
New England Conservatory. “I have a curious mind and I always like to change repertoire and learn repertoire, and [Dartmouth] was the perfect place for me,” Pinkas said. “As pianist-in-residence at the Hop, which is a wonderful thing to be, I can continually present different programs, different music … That has sustained me as a pianist.” Amy Zhang ’20 has been a student of Pinkas for all four of her years at Dartmouth. Zhang said that she and Pinkas will travel to London together in the spring for the music department’s foreign study abroad program. “I personally haven’t worked with anyone that’s as in touch with theory as [Pinkas] is,” Zhang said. “She is constantly thinking about the structure of the piece and the way that the composer has written things and why they’ve written things a certain way.” Zhang has also worked with Hirsch, who occasionally teaches at Dartmouth when Pinkas is on sabbatical. He has a bachelor of fine arts from State University of New York Purchase and a master
of music from the New England Conservatory. “Both [Dartmouth and Brandeis] are remarkable places to work for,” Hirsch said. “Sally and I both deal with departments and institutions that are happy that we go on tour and that we leave the responsibility of the students to ourselves. It’s wise and it’s respectful.” The duo said they have made the most of this independence to travel around the world to perform, usually going to venues in Southeast Asia which are already familiar with western music through music school and performance center connections. However, Hirsch said that they have also performed in places in Africa with no previous exposure to Western music. Despite the variety of countries that the pair has frequented, they always love returning to the Hop to perform, as students are usually better able to appreciate and follow the more technically difficult pieces, according to Hirsch. “You can challenge the audience because they usually have broad musical knowledge,” Hirsch said. “In community concerts we’ll be
cautious to not saturate our shows with pieces that are difficult to follow, but in a college, you can do that.” Pinkas said that it is important for students to see their teachers perform and get nervous. Those are among the many reasons why she said she is excited for both her upcoming concert at the Hop and the department of music’s study abroad program. Zhang said she is also looking forward to the culminating, handson experience of the foreign study program, especially with Pinkas as the professor leading the trip. Zhang is excited to continue her tutelage under Pinkas in London because despite the amount of time that Pinkas spends practicing and the amount of talent she has, her playing still sounds “effortless,” Zhang said. “I think it’s a unique opportunity to Dartmouth and one that I’m grateful for, to be able to study under someone as good as she is,” Zhang added. Pinkas and Hirsch will be performing their piano duet tonight in Spaulding Auditorium. Tickets are available on the Hop website.
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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
Symposium at the Hood showcases the dynamic museum field B y Macy Toppan The Dartmouth
Last weekend, the Hood Museum hosted its third and final reopening event, a symposium featuring panels and guest speakers composed of Dartmouth alumni. With curators from large, internationally renowned institutions and small, academicfocused museums, as well as directors of memorial museums and nonprofit foundations, the museum hosted alumni from near and far in a celebration of and conversation about the world of museum work. “The New Now: Art, Museums, and the Future” served as the conclusion to a tripartite series. The symposium was preceded by a celebration in January of the reopening of the building and donors who made it possible as well as an artist symposium in May. Hood director John Stomberg said that the Hood’s two most recent events, including the artist symposium in May, celebrated the featured art and artists in the Hood, while last weekend’s symposium focused on Dartmouth-trained museum professionals in celebration of the College’s 250th anniversary. According to both Stomberg and senior curator of collections and curator of academic programming Katherine Hart, the primary purpose of hosting such events is to introduce students to the range of possibilities available in creative and artistic fields. “It’s a story that we don’t tell a lot at Dartmouth — how many people have migrated toward creative art fields who have graduated,” Stomberg said. “For students, I’m hoping that it just becomes clearer that there’s vitality in the liberal arts and there’s also viability in the liberal arts.” Each session of the symposium
began with individual, 15-minutelong lectures from each panelist about their respective fields of study, followed by panel discussions of an overarching topic. Some speakers, including Yuriko Jackall ’99, curator of French painting at the Wallace Collection in London, and Seán Hemingway ’89, curator in charge of Greek and Roman art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, used case studies relating to research and acquisition, respectively, of specific works of art to discuss their fields. Through all of the lectures and panels, moderators and panelists discussed the seemingly infinite routes to locating creative passions and how Dartmouth supported them through this process. During a discussion of academic museums — the first of Saturday’s talks — Catherine Roberts Shteynberg ’05, assistant director and curator of arts and culture collections at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee, discussed how her career path led her in an unexpected direction and routed her to her passion. “I had no idea that I wanted to work in museums, and it was the faculty here that really made me realize that that was something I was interested in,” Shteynberg said. “I went from the Smithsonian to working at a lesser-known academic museum. You go where the jobs are and where you can make an impact.” The first session elaborated on campus-based museums: how such establishments articulate and confront their responsibility toward students, the opportunities that they offer that differ from larger private museums and the role that they should play in administrative decisions. In Friday’s standalone panel,
“Museum Practice: Futures/ Directions,” panelists again spoke about their journeys to the field. In addition to emphasizing the role Dartmouth played in their academic and professional development, they focused on the wide range of paths and skill sets, artistic and otherwise, that prepared them for careers in curation at the Guggenheim, Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Whitney and even the New York Public Library. Liz Tunick Cedar ’05, manager of global cultural sustainability programs in the office of international relations at the Smithsonian, detailed her own path into the museum field. “My route here was somewhat circuitous: I worked at a law firm, I worked at a publishing company,” Cedar said. “Some of the things there that I was thinking about — what makes people tick, what changes people’s behavior, what gets their attention, what do they care about — were some of the same things that I’m now thinking about in this field. You don’t have to go straight into the museum field or the cultural heritage field to end up there.” The panel provided opportunities for the speakers to discuss their respective directions, while questions as to the future from both the moderator and the audience largely examined the growing role of the digital world in both displays and outreach. Megan Fontanella ’04, curator of modern art and provenance at the Guggenheim, moderated Friday’s session and returned as a panelist the following day for the aptly named session, “Curators and Conservators Collaborate.” This discussion focused more heavily on case studies presented by conservators and curators, illustrating the way their
respective roles in the museum field complement each other to facilitate both the discovery and the passage of knowledge through the museum to its visitors. The final panel of the day focused further on inclusion, discussing the importance of including and celebrating people of color and the LGBTQ+ community in museums and the art world. The stereotypical image of the artistsic professional is one of socioeconomic and racial privilege, according to Hood intern Allison Carey ’20.. “There’s a lot of discussion about art history as a study and museums as a sort of space that’s usually kind of WASPy and more high-art in who gets to be in these spaces and who gets to decide what’s in these spaces,” Carey said. The youngest panelist, Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol ’13, a fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, explained his interpretation of their topic of discussion. “With a lot of the conversations that we’ve had in my museum, inclusion and diversity are about expanding the room at the table and who has a seat at the table and who has a voice,” Praepipatmongkol said. “What a lot of community engagement work shows is that it’s not just about who is at the table, but it’s about how and why the dialogue takes form.” The penultimate discussion diverged from the symposium’s discussion of art museums, widening the discourse to establish a greater focus on history. Jan Seidler Ramirez ’73, chief curator and director of collections at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, delivered a particularly
powerful lecture. She emphasized the essential value of both having and understanding memorial museums. “With the phenomenon of the memorial museum, our mission is to reckon with the far more significant and incalculable loss of human life, usually under violent circumstances,” Ramirez said. “Straddling the double obligations of tribute and truth telling, of remembrance and analysis, these hybrid institutions also confront often these situational ethics of practicing the museum tradecraft at or near an authentic site of mass atrocity.” The panel also included further discussions of the importance of comprehending, acknowledging and respecting history through museums. Director of the Osage Nation Museum Marla Red Corn ‘89 discussed the history of that museum and the incorporation of the nation’s art and culture into the exhibits, while Hemingway described a case study of the recent acquisition of a Roman wellhead to illustrate his specific roles at the Met. Ultimately, the symposium used the museum profession as a means for discussion of a number of issues: diversity, historical preservation, re c o n c i l i at i o n w i t h t r a g e dy, scholarship and modern media, to name a few. “This is a very great opportunity for the top-of-the-top in different departments to come together and talk about how [the exclusive reputation of museums] is going to change moving forward and how museums are responding to the needs of outsiders and the 21st century,” Carey said. “Also, I think that it’s really great exposure for Dartmouth to consider the museum and the careers in the museum field and to understand more what exists out there.”