The Dartmouth 11/13/18

VOL. CLXXV NO.103

RAINY HIGH 40 LOW 31

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Professors discuss election College to build

indoor gym facility

By ELIZABETH JANOWSKI The Dartmouth Staff

Professors spoke to the Dartmouth community about the results of the Nov. 6 midterms.

OPINION

SAKLAD: NO THANKS PAGE 4

ZAMAN: DYSFUNCTIONAL DEMOCRACY PAGE 4

By KYLE MULLINS The Dartmouth

Two days after the Nov. 6 midterm elections, a panel of four Dartmouth professors spoke to an audience of over 100 people about the results. They reflected on Democrats’ retaking of the House of Representatives, seven governorships, and seven state legislative houses and the expansion of the Republican majority

in the Senate. Several high-profile races nationwide remain too close to call, including the Senate races in Arizona and Florida and the gubernatorial races in Florida and Georgia.

A range of departments were re presented on the panel, introduced a n d m o d e r a t e d by government professor Linda Fowler. History professor Leslie Butler

spoke about the parallels between anti-immigrant sentiment today and nativism in American h i s t o r y, g ove r n m e n t professor Dean Lacy covered the phenomenon of midter m loss in American politics, and sociolog y professor John Campbell traced how the 2018 midterms continued long-running historical trends.

SEE MIDTERM PAGE 5

Hanover’s cold winters will soon no longer freeze the training schedules of Dartmouth’s sports teams. The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled in a decision on Nov. 6 that the H a n ove r p l a n n i n g b o a r d improperly denied the College’s application to begin construction on an indoor athletic practice facility. Following the court’s decision, the College will resume its plans to build the 70,000 square-foot facility in the open space adjacent to the Boss Tennis Center off of South Park Street.

“I think it’s going to be a tremendous addition,” Dartmouth head football coach Buddy Teevens ’79 said. “As a northern-based school, we have a finite amount of time to practice in the spring, so having a place to practice that’s covered and warm will be beneficial to a lot of teams.”

The court ruled unanimously in favor of reversing a 2017 Superior Court decision that upheld the Hanover Planning

Board’s initial rejection of the site proposal, finding that the previous holdings were based on individual sentiments rather than broader considerations. “[T]he board based its denial of Dartmouth’s application upon subjective and personal feelings, and the trial court unreasonably adopted a rationale not supported by the record to affirm the board’s decision,” associate justice Patrick Donovan wrote in the court’s decision last week.

Talks of an indoor practice facility began within the College administration as early as 2013, according to College executive vice president Rick Mills.

Dartmouth submitted its application for the facility to the Hanover planning board in March 2016. In the following months, residents of the houses on Tyler and Chase roads, which are situated near the proposed site, voiced concerns over the size and appearance of SEE ATHLETICS PAGE 2

ARTS

REVIEW: ‘FREE SOLO’ PORTRAYS THE HEARTBREAKING COST OF TRIUMPH PAGE 7

‘CORIOLANUS’ EVENTS BRING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES PAGE 8 FOLLOW US ON

TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2018 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

Dartmouth celebrates veterans

By ALEC ROSSI

The Dartmouth Staff

Dartmouth had a packed schedule this year to celebrate Veterans Day, including ceremonies, discussions and events.

The celebration, which took place over the period between Nov. 5 and Nov. 12, was scheduled similarly to years past.

The Tuck School of

Business hosted the first event, “Microbrews and the Military,” on Nov. 5.

During the event, a panel of veterans spoke to the Dartmouth community about their service and experience in the military.

On Nov. 9, Dartmouth undergraduate, graduate student and staff veterans spoke to students at Hanover High School. These discussions SEE MIDTERM PAGE 5

Ben Barres inspires scientific, transgender communities

By SAVANNAH ELLER The Dartmouth

The legacy of celebrated neurobiologist and transgender role model Ben Barres Med’79 is living on in a posthumouslypublished autobiography, introducing many to the pioneering scientist who died of cancer late last year.

Barres was known for his groundbreaking research into the central nervous system and his tireless advocacy for women

and minorities entering science.

In his autobiography, published in October by the MIT Press, the scientist recounted his struggles first as a woman pursuing a career in STEM and then during his gender transition in the 1990s.

Born in West Orange, New Jersey, Barres discovered a passion for science and mathematics early on. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1970s, experiencing

discrimination firsthand as a woman with an unusual aptitude for science.

“People were really worried about letting women in [to MIT],” said Nancy Hopkins, biology professor emerita at MIT, who wrote the forward for Barres’ autobiography.

“They were afraid of lowering standards, that women weren’t capable of the really high-level mathematics and engineering accomplishments.”

SEE BARRES PAGE 3

PAGE 2

Eye-tracking tech could help AR B y ANTHONY ROBLES

detect user fatigue after being Li added that instead of a battery worn for an extended period pack, solar panels attached to of time without charging, for the sides of the glasses could Augmented reality is poised to example. Further more, Zhou automatically power the system have a bright future. Researchers noted that because there are after a sufficient charge. at the College have developed certain correlations between Li said that after the paper battery-free, eye-tracking glasses s o m e m e n t a l detailing the that could be particularly useful d i s o rd e r s a n d “The future of AR research was f o r e n h a n c i n g e x i s t i n g A R eye movement p u bl i s h e d , h e but the technology technologies. The technology was characteristics, and Zhou were showcased at the ACM MobiCon doctors could use is not there yet. contacted by 2018 conference in New Delhi, the technology to There are still some startIndia on Oct. 30 by its lead author, diagnose those u p c o m p a n i es computer science Ph.D. student disorders at an improvements that interested in Tianxing Li, after being developed early stage. developing a we need to do in in conjunction with computer retail product Zhou said that order to make it science professor Xia Zhou. based on the the project has “The future of AR is bright been developed more realistic and prototype. but the technology is not there over the course also more energy Although there yet,” Zhou said. “There are still of the last two is currently no improvements that we need to do years, with her efficient.” plan to produce in order to make it more realistic and Li working a c o m m e rc i a l and also more energy efficient. toward enabling product based on -XIA ZHOU, COMPUTER The rendering quality of the eye-tracking for the technology, virtual object, as well as the system virtual reality SCIENCE PROFESSOR Li said he viewed optimization of power, are the s y s t e m s . S h e this potential main two challenges of AR today.” added that one development The eye tracker that Li and o f t h e m a i n positively.

Zhou developed can fit into problems with “If we can make everyday glasses and has the ability current virtual a pretty low-cost to identify the location and size reality systems is their battery- eye tracker for everyone, without of the pupil. It can be used to c o n s u m i n g d i s p l a y s, w h i c h batteries, most of us can get a optimize rendering for AR glasses, primarily rely on cameras to render benefit from them,” Li said. according to Zhou. She added images for the user. Furthermore, At the ACM MobiCon that the technology has medical the most expensive eye trackers can 2018 conference, Li led a brief applications and could be used for cost tens of thousands of dollars, presentation and question and “health monitoring” and to “assess according to Zhou. a n s we r p e r i o d i n wh i ch h e the effectiveness of certain clinical Because of the high cost of showcased the glasses. Following treatments.” existing eye-trackers, Li and Zhou the presentation, Li said that According to Zhou, AR users looked for simpler approaches at least two companies and a and gamers could t o d e v e l o p i n g professor from the University of benefit from the “ O n e o f t h e e y e - t r a c k i n g California, Berkeley, asked him to technology in a the project. g o a l s f o r t h e t e c h n o l o g y. L i open-source myriad of ways, According to Li, he is able to said that they as the technology p ro j e c t i s t h at found a solution open-source the project because makes it possible we want to push that utilizes low- the technology has already received for them to use their cost photodiodes a patent from the College. Openeye m ove m e n t s h u m a n s e n s i n g — light sensors sourcing allows Li and Zhou to as an “interface functionality to — and infrared release both the code currently to interact with LEDs to track the used by the various components its limit.” the virtual scene.” e ye. C o m p a r e d of the technology and the project’s Wi t h t h e eye t o e x i s t i n g eye circuit diagram, which will allow tracker, the users’ -TIANXIANG LI, trackers, Li said other researchers to reproduce and eye m ove m e n t s that the research build on their work.

— from blinking COMPUTER SCIENCE prototype only cost “I think the next step will be to t o m ov i n g t h e PH.D. STUDENT just open-source everything and around $50. pupil to particular “ O n e o f t h e see what the impact will be,” Li locations — would goals for the project said. correspond to While Dartmouth Mixed Reality is that we want certain commands t o p u s h h u m a n Club founder Nathan Yu ’19 said depending on the application. sensing functionality to its limit,” that he was not entirely familiar As an example of the technology’s Li said. with the project developed by Li health applications, Zhou said that The pair has continued to work and Zhao, he said he is interested the absence of a battery pack on the project to benefit not just in the product, particularly its makes it possible to “continuously virtual reality systems, but also eye-tracking capabilities. Yu noted track eye movements” without to solve problems with ambient that the new technology can bring needing to recharge the system. light interference, which led to the various benefits.

This could allow the glasses to latest prototype of the technology.

“If you’re able to look at the pupils, you can essentially increase the resolution [of what the] person wearing a headset is looking at, CORRECTIONS so that’s a way to basically make graphics rendering cheaper and We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, present a more realistic experience please email editor@thedartmouth.com. with the hardware that’s available today,” Yu said.

The Dartmouth Staff

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Veterans share their experiences and reflect FROM VETERANS PAGE 1

allowed veterans to share their personal experiences and answer questions from students. That same day, chief human resource officer Scott Bemis hosted a “Remembrance Breakfast” at the Hanover Inn. Veteran Brad Carney ’20 was the event’s keynote speaker.

Carney said in an interview with The Dartmouth that his military background was a factor in his selection as speaker.

“I have about eight total years of service in the United States army and [transitioned] to [being a] student here,” Carney said.

He added that his speech during the breakfast focused on how people “maintain security.”

“You can provide security by being well informed in voting — that’s one of your duties as a citizen, and it helps secure democracy,” Carney said.

Veterans Recognition Committee chair and assistant director of conferences and events Sara Campbell said that the committee’s goal is typically to hold the “Remembrance Breakfast” on Veterans Day. As a result of Veterans Day falling on Sunday this year, the committee decided to hold the event on Friday instead, Campbell said.

According to Carney, the purpose of the breakfast was two-fold.

“There are people in the Dartmouth community [who] aren’t typically thanked for their service because you wouldn’t know that they were veterans,” Carney said.

Additionally, he noted that the breakfast serves as a reminder to the Dartmouth community about the meaning and significance of Veterans day.

On Nov. 9 afternoon, the Dartmouth Reserve Officer Training Corps led the “Formal Retreat & Drill Ceremony.”

“The ROTC program [has] the privilege of being able to help out at the flag folding ceremony, so we practice that several times … to properly show our respect for all of those who have served,” said Jacob Rozak ’21, a member of Dartmouth’s ROTC program.

Rozak said that during the ceremony, the ROTC participants stood at parade rest while the hymns for each branch of the military were played on the Baker Tower bells.

After the hymns, ROTC participants approached the American flagpole on the Green. Rozak said that two songs were played on bugles while the flag was lowered, properly folded and then presented to Gail Gentes, wife of College President Phil Hanlon.

Campbell said that this year’s ceremony had lower attendance

compared to last year.

“We had a lower turnout Friday night than we’ve had in the past, mostly because it was [sleeting],” Campbell said.

Despite the inclement weather, however, she that there were still over 50 attendees.

That same day, the Student Veterans Association hosted a screening of the film “Platoon” in One Wheelock.

Campbell said that this screening, which was a new event added to the calendar this year, gave students the opportunity to interact with student veterans on campus.

On Nov. 11, the Baker Tower bells played the hymns for each branch of the armed services. The Armistice Bells ceremony took place at 11 a.m. to commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the armistice signed during World War I. Later that day, the 243rd Marine Corps Birthday Ball — held in honor of the founding of the United States Marine Corps — took place at the Hanover Inn. Campbell said that while the College is not responsible for planning the ball, it is still listed on the College’s schedule of Veterans Day events.

On Nov. 12, the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy hosted an event called “Imprints and Consequences of War: Personal Reflections of Alumni.” In addition to a discussion between audience members and two veteran alumni, students were also given the chance to have dinner with the two alumni speakers, Jason Hartwig ’06 and Brad Wolcott ’06. Rockefeller program officer Joanne Needham said that the Rockefeller Center has Veterans Day programming every year.

“We feel that it’s very important to celebrate Veterans Day by having programming, and because we are the public policy center and social science center on campus, this fits very well into our mission of informing and inspiring the next generation of leaders,” Needham said.

During the discussion, Hartwick and Wolcott discussed leadership roles and how to make a difference through public service.

On Monday, classical studies professor Roberta Stewart and women’s, gender and sexuality studies lecturer Brianne Gallagher moderated a public discussion called “Breasts on the Battlefield” at the Top of the Hop. The discussion focused on gender roles in modern and ancient war.

In addition to the College’s scheduled events, the athletics department also offered veterans free admission to sporting events over the weekend, Campbell said.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

70,000 square-foot Autobiography posthumously indoor facility approved celebrates Barres’ legacy FROM ATHLETICS PAGE 1

the facility, as well as its potential to obstruct sunlight from their properties. Dartmouth addressed these concerns by revising the facility’s design and agreeing to comply with the planning board’s 21 conditions for its construction.

“We spent a lot of time as we went through the process working with the planning board and the neighbors to find a way to build a facility that met our needs while doing as much as possible to accommodate the preferences of our neighbors,” Mills said.

In December 2016, the planning board voted 4-1 to deny the College’s application, citing the facility’s negative impact on nearby residents and its failure to conform with the “harmonious and aesthetically pleasing development of the town” as principal reasons for the decision.

Planning board chairwoman Judith Esmay cast the sole vote in favor of the facility’s construction.

“I could find nothing in our state or local law that would permit us to disapprove of what the College wanted to do,” Esmay said.

Esmay noted that she supports the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the ruling against the facility. She said she does not believe the planning board will pursue any further action against the College.

According to Mills, the College has already begun to reach out to contractors and construction

FROM BARRES PAGE 1

managers for the project.

Construction on the project may commence as early as spring 2019, he said.

“We’re pleased to have won the case … but I think as we continue, we want to be as good of neighbors as we can possibly be,” Mills said.

“We’ll continue to look for ways we can work with the neighborhood to help make the facility more acceptable.”

The facility’s construction will cost a projected $23.5 million, a c c o rd i n g t o a s s o c i at e v i c e president for planning, design and construction John Scherding.

Teevens expressed excitement over the opportunities for more efficient and consistent athletic practices that the new practice facility would offer. He noted that in the case of cold or inclement weather, the football team still typically practices outdoors, which raises concerns over the safety of the players. While Leverone Fieldhouse currently operates as another indoor practice facility, he said its limited size and hard floors — which can cause harm to an athlete’s joints — are reasons he tends to avoid holding practices there.

“To have something now that is appreciably bigger than Leverone [Fieldhouse] — while still having Leverone [Fieldhouse] — is a huge development,” Teevens said. “It takes the stress off training for a lot of different teams.”

After receiving a medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School, since renamed the Geisel School of Medicine, in 1979, Barres went on to conduct groundbreaking graduate and postdoctoral research on glia, the support cells that surround nerves in the central nervous system. Barres published a prolific body of work on the previously discounted cells.

“He really laid the foundation for our understanding of the field,” said fellow glia researcher and Oregon Health and Science University professor Marc Freeman, who wrote an obituary for Barres in Nature International Journal of Science.

According to Freeman, Barres became interested in glia cells as a student at Dartmouth Medical School.

He continued his research into the cells for the rest of his career, despite a general lack of interest from the scientific community in the field at the beginning. Early on, Barres set out to vindicate glia cells as worthy of research and consideration.

“He was told more than once along the way that he was wasting his time, and these cells weren’t interesting, but he didn’t believe that,” Freeman said.

While running a lab at Stanford

University, Barres discovered that a type of glia cells called astrocytes played a part in regulating the creation of synapses between neurons. This discovery changed how the neurobiology community thought of glia, accepting them as integral to the processes of the mammalian central nervous system, according to Freeman.

“That suddenly made them much more interesting to everybody,” he said.

Barres was just as influential as an advocate as he was as a cutting-edge researcher. Having navigated the scientific community as a woman and then as a transgender man, he was sensitive to unconscious bias against female scientists, Hopkins said.

His first high-profile defense of female scientists was an article in Nature titled “Does Gender Matter?” in which he made a compelling neurobiological case against several contemporary claims of women’s inherent inferiority.

“The way he wrote was punchy, powerful, funny and amazing,” said Hopkins, praising the article as a seminal work on female representation in science.

Barres continued to write timely pieces on discrimination and representation throughout the later years of his career. Many of his

articles focused on mentorship and the challenges that postdoctoral students face as they try to advance in STEM fields.

“He was able to be an advocate without alienating or antagonizing people, and that was a real gift,” said Leslie Henderson, physiology and neurobiology professor and dean of faculty affairs at Geisel.

Barres advocated in quieter ways as well, becoming an enthusiastic mentor for the young scientists working in his lab at Stanford and for those he met across the country.

Freeman said he remembers first meeting Barres at a conference. Bonded by a shared interest in glial cells, the pair immediately became friends.

Barres offered to write Freeman a recommendation letter and invited him to speak at conferences.

“I’m probably one of a hundred or a couple hundred young scientists he did this for,” he said.

Hopkins said she predicts Barres will be known in the future for both his scientific contributions and his uniquely effective advocacy fueled by his own experiences of discrimination.

“He was the most extraordinary person in science I think I’ve ever met,” she said.

PAGE 4

STAFF COLUMNIST AVERY SAKLAD ’21

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST RANIYAN ZAMAN ’22

No Thanks

Dysfunctional Democracy

What does Thanksgiving mean today?

By now the world knows, or at least many of us do, that Thanksgiving is a holiday tainted by its unethical historical context. In tasteless celebration of the white man’s massacre of indigenous peoples, Americans gorge themselves annually on factory-farmed turkey, GMO-riddled green bean casserole and squash, artificially-sweetened cranberry sauce and all other sorts of American delicacies. Younger family members are told gilded tales about Squanto and falsified stories depicting the colonists and the indigenous peoples living in harmony. Swept under the carpet are the European diseases, the unjust exploitation of natives and the sick reality that the foundations of the world we live in today were ripped from the hands of the people who called this land home before us.

Dartmouth students hear this narrative of suffering around campus every year in the advent of winterim, and then we pack our bags, travel home and forget about it in the face of family and food. Given the history we’re exposed to, participation is halfheartedly justified by the celebration of Thanksgiving’s abstract principles: gratitude for the good fortune in our lives, love for relatives we don’t see all too often and appreciation for delicious food and a community dinner setting lost in many modern American families. These values offer Thanksgiving celebrations ongoing legitimacy in the face of its horrific roots; they’ve preserved the holiday from its origins to today, through wars and political dissention that have threatened to tear our country apart, and they’re worthy of celebration and annual recognition.

Yet celebration of only the positive aspects of Thanksgiving does not atone for its roots. The ignorant actions of the colonists continue to impact society today, and we cannot simply choose to forget about them in favor of a jolly holiday spirit fueled by quasi recognition of Thanksgiving’s basic ideologies. Directly speaking, Native peoples still struggle to maintain their property rights, their lands often subjected to immoral ecological desecration like the planned construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline through the Cheyenne River tribe’s land or the Dakota Access pipeline installed in 2016 upstream of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Because of Europe’s invasion of North America, native cultures and languages face or have succumbed to extinction as their populations dwindle and disperse. There are

Voting shouldn’t be a privilege.

so many more examples of oppression toward indigenous peoples, but it boils down, essentially, to this: indigenous lands are often still within the greedy clutch of the federal government, and its attitude toward the rights of Native peoples to their land is despairingly similar to that of the colonial white men who took it from them in the first place.

How can we reconcile our celebration of Thanksgiving with the ongoing reality of direct exploitation of Native Americans? This is an issue that scribbles outside the confines of Native cultures and societies. Pervasive colonial attitudes manifest themselves throughout the current political environment. Americans still believe in their rights to economic expansion, infrastructure development and resource extraction even at the cost of the environment and other people’s well-being. Cisgendered white men perch high on society’s totem pole atop the burdened shoulders of minorities and women for no reason other than that they’re straight and they’re white and they’re men — those are and have always been the essential ingredients for unearned privilege in America. We’ve been running along the same narrative track for so long that we have no idea how to diverge, and even if we did, the cultural values that empower the cisgendered white man are so ingrained in our society that reformation would mean massive political upheaval and societal reconstruction.

Although we may lose ourselves in fun and festivities honoring the noble principles of gratitude and togetherness, we cannot forget about these social justice issues on Thanksgiving.

Around the dinner table, in evening clusters of friends and family, forget the taboo of talking about politics and bring up the reality of oppression in America. Ruminate over the lasting legacies of the colonists, the power dynamics and patterns of exploitation and corrupt societal values that persist in today’s world despite our educations.

Perhaps most importantly, and in keeping with the holiday spirit, think about all of the blessings you have as an individual, and then consider the costs of those fortunes may have on others, be they economic or environmental, direct or indirect, and brainstorm opportunities you have to make this country a better place for the oppressed. Maybe that means picking up a tag SEE SAKLAD PAGE 6

6175 ROBINSON HALL, HANOVER N.H. 03755 • (603) 646-2600

ZACHARY BENJAMIN, Editor-in-Chief and Acting Publisher IOANA SOLOMON, Executive Editor ALEXA GREEN, Managing Editor PRODUCTION EDITORS MATTHEW BROWN & LUCY LI, Opinion Editors MARIE-CAPUCINE PINEAU-VALENCIENNE & CAROLYN ZHOU, Mirror Editors NATHAN ALBRINCK, MARK CUI & SAMANTHA HUSSEY, Sports Editors JOYCE LEE, Arts Editor LILY JOHNSON & CAROLYN SILVERSTEIN, Dartbeat Editors DIVYA KOPALLE & MICHAEL LIN, Photo Editors

AMANDA ZHOU, Executive Editor SONIA QIN, Managing Editor BUSINESS DIRECTORS BRIAN SCHOENFELD & HEEJU KIM, Advertising Directors SARAH KOVAN & CHRISTINA WULFF, Marketing & Communications Directors VINAY REDDY, Assistant Marketing & Communications Director CAYLA PLOTCH, Product Development Director BHARATH KATRAGADDA & JAY ZHOU, Strategy Directors ERIC ZHANG, Technology Director

JEE SEOB JUNG & MIA ZHANG NACKE, Design Editors HATTIE NEWTON, Templating Editor

ISSUE

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

Savannah Elter, Aryah Lande, Lucy Turnipseed

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.

Lines of increasingly restless people, who had been waiting for hours, wound around blocks and spilled into streets on a late night. A scene like this might suggest crowds queueing to attend, perhaps, an exclusive performance or speaker event. Instead, this exact scenario occurred all over the United States on Election Night as busy citizens carved time out of their workdays to attempt to exercise their right to vote (ideally, one of the least exclusive things ever) and faced endless bureaucratic and logistical nightmares.

Missing voting machines, understaffing and delayed openings (or unexpected closings) plagued polling places all over America.

“Dysfunctional democracy” has been given a new, more expansive definition, one that not only encompasses the outrageous actions of American politicians but their constituents’ inability to vote them out, and the broken voting machine is emblematic of it.

America has an extensive, troubling history of voter suppression. This dates back to its founding, when voting was reserved for wealthy white men.

It features the three-fifths clause, which quantified the dehumanization of slaves and used them as puppets so that their owners could have more political representation. It includes poll taxes literacy tests and systematic disenfranchisement that continued to plague the nation even after the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. It extends to the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder, which ruled part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional and did away with federal oversight of state voting laws and regulations, particularly in states with a history of voting discrimination. And it culminated into not just late Tuesday night, but in the days leading up to it. Some states allow same-day voter registration, early voting, mail-in ballots or no-excuse absentee ballots, and some don’t. Hours and locations of polling places vary, as do transportation options and ease of access. Many workplaces don’t relax employees’ schedules on election days. Figuring out how to vote is so confusing that it discouraged many Americans from trying.

Working-class people are far from the only or main demographic that is hurt by exhaustive voting regulations. Tactics aimed at restricting people’s ability to vote are often explicitly aimed at people of color. Prior to the midterms, Georgia secretary of state and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp implemented a nitpicky process that put over 53,000 voter registrations on hold. About 70 percent of those would-be voters were black, over twice the percentage of the entire state’s black population. It is no accident that these occurrences are so widespread in Georgia and other Southern states. New voter identification laws also disproportionately harm minorities; for example, Native Americans who live on reservations without PO boxes may not be able to meet requirements for identification with residential addresses. Laws that preclude felons from voting also disenfranchise the formerly or currently incarcerated population, which primarily consists of low-income people of color.

These changes usually occur without anyone knowing about them, which only amplifies the issues — misinformation is abound on Election Day, and voters can be easily discouraged by

intimidation tactics designed to drive them away from the polls.

Voter suppression directly undermines democracy; that much is obvious. But it also makes it increasingly difficult to gauge the political climate. Unusually high voter turnout in Georgia combined with poorly-managed polling places has led to a necessary recount of the gubernatorial race, and in Florida all three high profile races of the midterm elections are being recounted for similar reasons. Conservative pundits are racing to criticize the way that Democrats’ have operated this campaign season, no doubt seeking to perpetuate the myth that economic populism, instead of racism, elected President DonaldTrump. Some are even doing so under the guise of wanting to see the Democrats defeat Trump.

But exaggerating the appeal of Trump and Republican candidates isn’t helpful, especially when a wave of more diverse politicians (particularly to the House) has just been elected.

Shortly after Trump was elected, people were quick to blame identity politics, but judging from the midterm results and new firsts achieved in American politics, it looks like that wasn’t the issue at all. Moreover, conservatives routinely blame Democrats for overlooking the white working class and pretend that they are the only voter demographic that matters in America.

That would only be true because they typically don’t face the barriers to voting that minorities do. If people of color found it as easy to vote as Republicans’ constituents do, then the midterm results could have been confirmation that identity politics, in fact, win elections, and that progressive policies are popular with huge chunks of America.

But since those chunks of America had a harder time voting, any conclusion drawn about the will of the American people would be invalid because it would be based on insufficient data.

This past election season saw a huge focus on amping up voter turnout, and while that’s certainly significant, making sure that everyone who wants to vote can is equally important.

Repairing the American voting system must be a top priority for 2020. Fortunately, there are simple but effective strategies that can resolve its issues. Legislation that requires federal oversight of states’ voting laws or uniformizes and simplifies voting requirements throughout the nation would be the best way to combat voter suppression.

But as the Republican Senate majority means any such legislation is unlikely to pass anytime soon, maintaining upkeep of polling places and pouring money into doing so is an important step to take at the local level. This solution will also help voters in areas like New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and Phoenix, which were also bogged down by issues at the voting booths but would be overlooked by legislation that focuses on states with histories of voter discrimination.

And of course, making sure that citizens are informed about their voting rights is absolutely essential and would reduce the chances that they will be scared away by voter intimidation tactics.

Trump loves to complain about illegal voter fraud and spread lies that undocumented immigrants are voting at polls. If the real issues of voter fraud were resolved in this country, it’s likely he wouldn’t even be in office.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

PAGE 5

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Panel on 2018 midterm election results looks to historic ties FROM MIDTERM PAGE 1

Fowler began the event by addressing the polarized national environment before the midterms.

“When you have parties that are so far apart, the stakes for winning and losing and winning elections matter a lot more,” she said to the audience. “That kind of politics has meant that elections are being fought more and more fiercely.”

Fowler added that there were structural factors in this election that favored both sides. The strong economy, gerrymandering, and fewer seats to defend in the Senate helped Republicans, while the president’s unpopularity two years after his election favored Democrats.

This led to a “mixed” verdict overall, she suggested. Fowler cited Florida as an example of an unclear message, noting that while the Republican senatorial and gubernatorial candidates have narrow leads in both races, a measure to restore voting rights to ex-felons that was opposed by both Republicans passed with over 60 percent of the vote.

“Is that a conservative outcome? … Is that a liberal outcome?” she asked. “Anyone looking for a policy message from this election should think again.”

She also commented on the decrease in political moderates in Congress.

“The middle is where the roadkill is,” Fowler said.

Lacy focused his remarks on the idea of “midterm loss,” which is the phenomenon where the sitting president’s party consistently tends to lose seats in the House of Representatives in midterm elections.

“After 2016, I have no idea what to predict about American politics, but I could predict that the president’s party would lose seats in the House of Representatives in this midterm election because it always does,” he said, pointing out that there had only been three examples to the contrary since 1862.

Lacy presented a regression analysis, which used past presidential approval ratings and seat losses to show that the Republican seat loss this year was exactly on the regression line.

“This is the only thing Donald Trump’s done that’s predictable,” he joked.

He also discussed the history of scholarship around citizens who vote in favor of divided government, calling this group “cognitive Madisonians.” Lacy said his research shows that about eight to 10 percent of voters reliably split their tickets in presidential elections

and vote against the party of the president in midterms.

“They like the idea of checking the power of one branch of government with the other,” he added.

Butler laid out two overarching themes that she saw in this year’s elections. She described the first, nativism and anti-immig rant sentiment, as “a real through line throughout American history.”

“We see periodic waves of this going back to … the 1840s and 50s, with the organization of the first political party that mobilizes around the question of immigration, which is the KnowNothing Party,” Butler said.

The Know-Nothings, Butler said, are characterized by three persistent traits: strong nationalism, religious discrimination and antielitism. She connected each to modern-day events, citing the “America First” foreign policy, Islamophobia and backlash against “cultural elites.”

Even back then, she said, the Democrats were seen as “the party of immigrants.”

“The Irish and the Germans really flocked to the Democratic party,” Butler said.

She noted the historical oddity, however, that the Democrats today are seen as both pro-immigrant and friendly to African-Americans, pointing out that those were “separate issues” in the nineteenth century.

“The Democratic party was the immigrant party, and the Republican party was relatively good on African-American issues; obviously, it was anti-slavery and then after that it was certainly much better than the very whitesupremacist Democratic party,” she said. “Only with realignment in the post-civil rights moment do we have both of those issues being in the same party.”

The second overarching issue, Butler argued, was the question: “How democratic is American democracy?”

“That’s another through line throughout American history, a re a l d e e p a n d p e r va s i ve ambivalence about anything actually approaching what we might call universal suffrage,” she said.

Butler brought up the passage of the ex-felon voting rights amendment in F lorida and amendments that make voter registration easier in Michigan, Maryland, and Nevada as counter to this historical trend.

Still, she asked the audience, “Why, in a country committed to democracy, that founds itself on that, do we make voting so hard? Why do we have a political

culture in which voting is so difficult when we know that voter fraud, the instance of voter fraud, especially in the twentieth century, is minuscule?”

Campbell said that there were four social trends that had been developing in the United States since the 1970s that have led to the U.S.’ current political moment: economic stagnation in terms of wage growth, racial scapegoating, the rise of a neoliberal economic ideology, and heightened political polarization.

“This all reaches a tipping point.

Obama gets elected, financial crisis hits, Dodd-Frank, Obamacare, Wall Street bailouts, bailouts of the automobile industry, all this runs very counter to everything I’ve talked about so far, and it [sort of] sets the table for Donald Trump,” he said.

He argued that the Democrats failed to counter the Republican economic success narrative in the midterms, but that racial scapegoating in particular was a “huge issue” in this election. The Republicans, he said, portrayed the central American caravan as an “invasion,” which “folks from the Middle East had snuck into somehow, miraculously, paid for by the Soros fund.”

“Although, it struck me as unusual that George Soros, extremely wealthy guy, couldn’t buy buses for this caravan,” he joked.

Overall, he argued that not much has changed in any of the social trends he mentioned, predicting that these trends would persist for “a while.”

The panelists took nearly an hour of questions ranging from the impact on the election results of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination hearings to predictions for the 2020 presidential election.

At times, the panelists attempted to lighten serious topics with jokes.

Butler, in response to a question about the safety of democracy, said, “I advocate lots of thumb-sucking and fetal position, is sort of how I deal with this question! Democratic norm aversion is very frightening,” before discussing it as a historical and global phenomenon.

Fowler told the audience that if they are frustrated about institutions like the Senate and Electoral College that advantage rural voters and statistically less-educated white populations, “people at places like Dartmouth have to start moving to Topeka!”

Jasmine Lee ’19, who asked a

question about youth voting, said the panel was very informative.

“I think it really caught me up with a lot of the news, just because it’s finals week, the ninth or 10th week,” she said. “I thought this was a good way to get out of the Dartmouth bubble, hear what people are thinking about in terms of politics and what’s going on with elections.”

George and Judy Stanger, Hanover community members, also said the panel was informative.

George Stanger said he was “fascinated by some of the insights that I hadn’t heard before, and we’re pretty much news junkies.”

Ju d y S t a n g e r c o n c u r r e d , adding that she “thought that [the panelists] were fair.”

Ciara Comerford ’21, who noted that she is an international student, said the panel helped her understand the results of the midterms.

“I know Dartmouth is not representative of the country’s beliefs and stuff, and the trends that happen on a college campus are very different than the trends that happen nationwide, and the US is such a big country and there are so many different trends, so seeing them break it down was interesting,” she said.

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

TODAY

6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Interactive Exhibit: “Technigala,” sponsored by DALI Lab and computer science department, Jones Media Center, Baker-Berry Library

7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Choir Show: “Handel Society of Dartmouth College,” sponsored by Hopkins Center for the Arts, Spaulding Auditorium

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

Men’s Basketball: Big Green v. Elms College Bolts, Leede Arena

8:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Fall Dance Showcase with composer Tyondai Braxton, sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Moore Theater

TOMORROW

12:45 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

Lecture: “Family Matters: Social Network Ties and Public Safety,” withpoostdoctoral fellow Dotan Haim, sponsored by the program in quantitative social science, Silsby 119

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m

Lecture: “Personal Health System Design & Marker Estimation for Health-behaviour Guidance,” with University of ErlangenNürnberg professor Oliver Amft, sponsored by the computer science department, Carpenter 013

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m

Visit: “Winston the Therapy Dog,” sponsored by the Student Wellness Center, House Center B, “The Cube”

FROM SAKLAD PAGE 4

from a local giving tree or volunteering to cook holiday meals for people in need in your community. Maybe it means signing petitions, joining protests or demanding change and betterment from our country in reparation of the great harms that oppressed people and the environment since our

country’s foundation, inequitable sacrifices that perpetuate the privilege of few. Confrontation is the only way to educate ourselves, and this knowledge is the only way to generate the mass motivation necessary to turn this country into a land all people can be grateful to live in.

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

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

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

PAGE 7

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Review: ‘Free Solo’ portrays the heartbreaking costs of triumph B y WILLEM gerrish The Dartmouth

In Yosemite Valley, a massive rock formation looms over the sweeping vistas of picturesque splendor. Known as El Capitan, it towers 3000 feet high and commands the attention of all who pass by. For years, one member of that rapt audience has looked at El Capitan with a particularly audacious intent: to climb the sheer granite wall with no ropes, gear or safety equipment.

Alex Honnold’s absurdly daring attempt to free solo climb El Capitan is the subject of the extraordinary documentary “Free Solo,” directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. The film is a revelation, beautifully capturing not only what might be the greatest athletic feat of all time but also investigating the personality of the peerless and truly singular man capable of achieving it.

“Free Solo” paints an unflinching portrait of Alex Honnold as a man possessed. He lives, and someday will likely die, for free solo climbing. It supersedes every other interest in his life, consuming his being to the point of destruction. As Honnold callously explains early on in the film, “I will

always choose climbing over a lady.”

But it’s not just girlfriends — Honnold will choose climbing over every earthly pleasure, including life itself; he’d rather fall to his death from halfway up El Capitan than never attempt it at all.

Much of the intrigue of “Free Solo” comes out of the pure fascination of Alex Honnold as the audience wonders who in their right mind would ever choose to hang their life upon a miniscule foothold.

By the end of the movie, there still isn’t a complete answer, but we have some clues. A brain MRI shows that Honnold’s amygdala — the part of the brain that processes emotions, including fear — doesn’t activate at the same levels of stimulus as normal people. And later on, Honnold explains that he had to teach himself how to hug in his twenties because nobody in his family had ever hugged him or said, “I love you.” Then there’s the monumental evidence of Honnold’s own words and actions, which speak volumes about his unique personality.

Often, he comes across as cold, unloving and selfish, especially with those who want to love him most. The center of this quagmire is Honnold’s girlfriend, Sanni McCandless, who is hopelessly

torn between her love for Alex and the fact that it seems he’ll never love her back as much as he loves climbing.

Their relationship is one of the most fascinating aspects of the film, revealing how Honnold keeps tenderness at bay in order to preserve his steely resolve.

Vasarhelyi and Chin deserve the highest praise for their artful direction of “Free Solo.” They film moments of grand natural beauty and tight personal struggle with equal gravity and intrigue.

It helps that Chin is a highly experienced climber himself, so he’s often up on the rock walls with Alex, hanging from a rope and capturing the alarming juxtaposition of one man against the enormity of nature. In fact, some of the shots in “Free Solo” are so mesmerizing that they become emotional. Near the end of the film, as Honnold is about to complete his ascent of El Capitan, a distant camera pans across the huge rock formation, and Honnold looks like a speck of nothingness; a tiny blotch of red facing his greatest personal challenge against an immovable work of nature so much bigger and more enduring than himself. Moments like these are profoundly moving, showing us the remarkable results of pure human willpower in the face of intense trial.

One of the biggest takeaways from “Free Solo” is the fact that passion requires sacrifice. Honnold is in love with climbing rocks, and he’s willing to sacrifice anything in order to keep doing it. He lives in a van, traveling the country like a vagabond with chalky hands. His acquaintances are many, but his friends are few. And his commitment to maintaining an armor against emotions costs him the fulfillment of loving relationships. Honnold is in so deep with this last notion that he almost breaks up with Sanni over her fault in a climbing mishap that causes Honnold a back injury. Despite the fact that the couple ultimately stays together, it was still disturbing for me to realize that Honnold is willing to ditch the person who loves him most because of how her presence inhibits his complete commitment to climbing. But that’s a choice that he’s made, and he holds to it in order to keep the greatest passion in his life alive.

I left “Free Solo” with a confusing blend of amazement and sadness.

Honnold’s story is, from one angle, a soaring triumph of human spirit and physical endurance. From another perspective, though, it’s a tragedy about a man whose monomania consumes his

life. Honnold’s life is terrifyingly devoid of the warmth and care of love, and it seems to have left him adrift. Starting during his loveless childhood, he has built himself a wall whose only loose brick lies in free solo climbing. It’s alone on a rock face where Honnold actually exists, and everywhere else he’s just a shadow. I think there’s something truly tragic about that, and I think Honnold knows this too. During the scene where he goes to get his brain MRI, Honnold also fills out a questionnaire that, among other things, asks if he’s depressed.

When Honnold gets to this question, his face sinks as he seems to contemplate something he’s tried not to touch for so many years. It’s like he’s being forced to realize that his obsession with climbing is more of a destructive curse than he’d like to think. In the end, it appears that Honnold is destined for a life of constant struggle. He might put it best himself when he says that “Nobody achieves anything great when they’re happy and cozy.” “Free Solo” shows that in Alex Honnold’s pursuit of greatness, he’s become eternally alienated from the happy and the cozy.

“Free Solo” is showing for a limited time at the Nugget Theater until this upcoming Thursday.

The Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra goes on tour in Italy B y mia nelson The Dartmouth

The Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra is tired. The ensemble has rehearsed intensely in preparation for their concert, which was held this past Saturday, and the next item on their agenda, a tour of Italy, is this upcoming interim period. At the concert, the DSO, under the direction of the Florentine-born conductor Filippo Ciabatti, played Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide Overture,” Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and William Grant Still’s “Romance for Trombone and Orchestra” in Spaulding Auditorium.

According to Ciabatti, he was most excited to conduct Still’s piece.

Still, who composed during the Harlem Renaissance and performed the oboe in the Harlem Orchestra, was the first African-American composer to gain widespread recognition, Ciabatti said.

“I am happy to be playing a composer [who is] unjustly not played enough,” Ciabatti said.

Ciabatti added that the Mahler piece, Symphony No. 5, is a “gigantic, monumental piece” that he would have the DSO perform on their 10-day tour of Italy as well. On the tour, the DSO will be playing with the Orchestra of Tucson Conservatories, which is comprised of selected best students from Tuscany’s four music conservatories, Ciabatti said. The

two groups will travel to the Italian cities of Florence, Montepulciano, Lucca and Siena.

DSO viola player Katherine Hoover ’22 said that Ciabatti has been clear that the tour is not a vacation, but nonetheless she is excited to be around “good people [in a] great place.”

However, Ciabatti is perhaps even more eager than his musicians.

According to Ciabatti, he sees the trip to Italy as an opportunity to bring two disparate cultures together and make music. Ciabatti added that this cultural exchange is very important to him, particularly because the stop in his hometown of Florence will evoke “big emotion [due] to [bringing] the orchestra back home.” In addition to must-see cultural sites, Ciabatti said that the place he is most excited to show his musicians is his mother’s bed and breakfast. The group will be eating at his mother’s restaurant, which boasts, according to Ciabatti, the best food in Italy. Furthermore, Ciabatti said that he wants the students to learn about Italian culture in a more personal way than many tourists are able to by rehearsing or performing for the majority of their time in Italy, but as they are performing with Italian students of similar ages, Ciabatti said.

In the past, the DSO has gone on international tours in 2009 and 2014, and it remains committed to taking students abroad every four years, in

order to expose musicians to the true worldliness of symphonic orchestra.

Past locations include Germany, the Czech Republic and a larger tour going through Austria, Bosnia, Hungary and Serbia.

According to Hoover, for this upcoming tour of Italy, the DSO will not be traveling with the community members who are usually part of their ensemble, but this vacancy allows for a new collaboration with the Orchestra of Tuscan Conservatories. Not only are the community members valuable players in the ensemble, the DSO’s community involvement also gives the ensemble experience with collaboration. For instance, Hoover said that working with her stand partner, earth sciences professor Leslie Sonder, in addition to being enjoyable, allowed her learning experience to expand beyond just the music. The DSO is lauded as a familial experience for the musicians, creating a valuable community at Dartmouth.

The students and Ciabatti have a lot to look forward to. The DSO’s tour of Italy is an excellent example of experiential learning.

“I hope they will gain, first of all, a world-class [musical] experience, exchange with another culture through music and I hope they will explore new places and opportunities to make music together,” Ciabatti said.

PAGE 8

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

‘Coriolanus’ events bring learning opportunities for students Lazar said that the set is one of the most attractive features of the play that will be brought here. The This coming interim period, the production uses high technology play “Coriolanus” will be performed and extraordinary framing in order in the Hopkins Center for the Arts for the play to have a cinematic by the acclaimed Stratford Theatre feeling, Lazar said. The assistant Company, based in Stratford, director for “Coriolanus,” Mikaela Ontario. Students from the film, Davies, added that much of the theatrer and English departments technology used for the production will collaborate with the Hopkins was new.

Center in order to bring this event “[Working on “Corioloanus”] to campus and integrate the arts was a [true] learning experience,” m o re d e e p l y D av i e s s a i d . with student life According “[‘Coriolanus’ and at the College. to Davies, T h r o u g h o u t related events] is “[the use] of the month of the marriage of t h e d i f f e re n t N ovem b er, a projections and scholarship and public myriad of events infrared, all r e l a t e d w i t h discourse. We have an of the things “ C o ri o l a nu s ” that [make] the opportunity to take will take place, piece look so all of this scholarship which will often cinematic,” was be directed and and not just have a fascinating conducted by challenge. the renowned it for research and Lazar actors from the learning sake, but have added that since company. With the production’s it applied to practical this opportunity, technology is students and conversations about an important members of the the issues of the day and impressive greater Hanover part of that are relevant.” community will “Coriolanus,” be able to enjoy one of the events activities and surrounding it -MARY LOU ALESKIE, perfor mances will be centered that will stand HOPKINS CENTER around the out from the DIRECTOR high-tech of the other events that production. the Hopkins “Many Center has p e o p l e d o n’t sponsored in the past due to high actually realize this is an actual cast engagement. theatre performance, because when According to Hopkins Center they see pictures it looks just like a director Mar y Lou Aleskie, movie, so people have been thinking “Coriolanus” and the events it is one,” Lazar said. “Therefore, planned around it were made we have a talk about what goes possible through alum connections. into that.” “ [ T h e e ve n t s r e l a t e d t o According to Aleskie, “Coriolanus”] started with a “Coriolanus” and its series of casual conversation with an alum,” complementary events, such as the Aleskie said.“He mentioned [that] program discussing its set, is truly this incredible production was unique due to how experimental it happening at Stratford and how will be. The events will seek out ways [the Stratford Theatre Company] to unite different interdisciplinary was thinking more and more about areas into the conversation of how to organize talks and think analyzing “Coriolanus,” Aleskie about education around the festival said. and the ideas behind Shakespeare’s “[“Coriolnus” and related events] plays.” is the marriage of scholarship and Aleskie added that the alumnus public discourse,” Aleskie said. “We connection, Daniel Bernstein ’87, have an opportunity to take all of eventually became the lead sponsor. this scholarship and not just have Engagement coordinator for it for research and learning sake, the Hopkins Center Samantha but have it applied to practical

B y Maria hidalgo The Dartmouth

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID HOU

William Shakespeare’s military drama “Coriolanus” will be playing at the Hopkins Center later this month.

conversations about the issues of the day that are relevant.”

The students from the English, film and theater departments have the opportunity to participate in the intensive Experiential Week, commonly known as E-Week, where the students will be able to immerse themselves with the crew of the Stratford Theatre Company and learn their craft in a much more intimate and unique way.

“Several film students are making a documentary about this whole collaboration,” Lazar said.

“The English students are learning about production dramaturgy; they are also creating lobby displays, leading Q&A session with the actors and doing a deep dive into the academic side that come out of the show and spreading that to the audience ... Our theatre students [are] interacting very closely with the actors as well as other members of the production staff. They will be taking acting workshops [and] stage combat workshops.”

The successful collaboration of the three departments was a very interesting and complex project to bring to fruition, Aleskie said. She added that nonetheless, it is one that effectively seeks to make the event a much more inclusive one, where the student body would be able to

take as much advantage as possible from the resources of the event.

“When we first met with the [associate] dean of arts and humanities, Barbara Will and the [chairs] of the departments, it took a bit of conversation for everyone to understand and come together on the same page, but I think that once the idea was established with the teachings during the fall term and the experiential learning week, everybody got really excited,”Aleskie said.

According to theater department professor and director of theater Jamie Horton, professors in the English, film and theater departments were very keen in making student engagement opportunities possible, since they knew that their students could benefit greatly from having insight into the acting craft and the workings of a play.

“We are trying as a department to expand the accessibility of professional theatre for our students and this association with the Stratford Festival speaks very persuasively and I have real hope for the future of this relationship,” Horton said.

English professor Thomas Luxon added that students can also benefit from“Coriolanus” because its subject matter is very fitting with the current global political climate, delving into

the power plays of a fragile society, making it relatable for the audience. “ Yo u h av e t o t h i n k o f [Shakespeare’s] own political climate,” Luxon said. “He is using what he knows of Roman history and thinking of England in 1609.

Then we have this production to think about the political situations in which we find ourselves today.

[In] Rome, England in 1609 [and now], there are very sharp divisions between the people who rule and the people who are ruled.”

Luxon added that the characters in “Coriolanus” are fickle and ignorant, reflecting today’s “public that is so clueless,” making the production even more relevant to today’s society.

Lazar also said that she is looking forward to a continued relationship with Stratford Theathre Company after the success of “Coriolanus”related events and the play itself so that other productions can come back to Dartmouth and continue contributing to the Dartmouth community.

“We are trying to view this as a pilot program,” Lazar said. “The kickoff of what we hope is a long-term collaboration. So far it has going well with both Stratford and we seem to think this has a lot of potential to go farther.”