The Dartmouth 11/15/2019

VOL. CLXXVI NO. 104

PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 40 LOW 11

NEWS

Q&A WITH JOANNE NEEDHAM PAGE 4

OPINION

BLUM: ORDER UP! PAGE 6

VERBUM ULTIMUM: WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HARVARD? PAGE 6

ARTS

REVIEW: FKA TWIGS’ ‘MAGDALENE’ DEVELOPS HER UNIQUE SOUND

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2019

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Three Greek organizations under Budget project to explore spending and suspension during fall term revenue, Hanlon says B y JACOB STRIER The Dartmouth

College President Phil Hanlon announced plans for a “Dartmouth Budget Project” on Nov. 4 at a meeting of the general faculty.

The project, designed to take a deeper look into the College’s current spending and possible revenue opportunities, is intended to help prepare the College as it faces new costs.

These include infrastructure upgrades to account for deferred maintenance in upcoming years

and possible external threats, such as an economic recession.

In an interview with The Dartmouth, Hanlon said the introduction of the Dartmouth Budget Project is not out of concern for the College’s current financial situation — which he described as “stable” — but instead out of a desire to look responsibly toward the financial future of the institution.

“We are in a very stable position right now,” Hanlon SEE BUDGET PAGE 5

Divest asks College to disclose limited fossil fuel investments B y Ioana Andrada Pantelimon The Dartmouth Staff

The three percent rule states that a small, vocal minority of a population is enough to effect lasting social change through the use of nonviolent actions.

Divest Dartmouth member Lucas Rathgeb ’22 said this rule encapsulates

the organization’s mission and activity at the College.

“Regular attendance is about 15 people,” Rathgeb said. The group, he added, is determined to pursue the mission they were founded on in 2012: pushing the administration to “publicly take their investments out of fossil fuels.”

SEE DIVEST PAGE 3

NAINA BHALLA/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Chi Heorot had its permit of assembly revoked on Oct. 19.

B y REILLY OLINGER The Dartmouth Staff

Three Dartmouth Greek organizations — Alpha Phi sorority, Chi Heorot fraternity and Zeta Psi fraternity — are currently under suspension.

According to Katharine Strong, director of the Office of Community Standards and Accountability — formerly known as the Office of Judicial Affairs — Zeta Psi’s two-term suspension came as a result of possession and service of hard alcohol during the summer term of 2019. Alpha Phi’s one-term suspension came as a result of activity occurring in fall terms of 2016, 2017 and 2018 that violated Dartmouth’s hazing and alcohol policies.

The case of Chi Heorot i s cu r re n t l y o p e n , bu t according to Office of Greek Life director Brian Joyce, his office temporarily suspended the house for health and safety violations related to overcapacity and the town of Hanover pulling its place of assembly permit.

According to Joyce, on Oct. 19, Chi Heorot’s permit of assembly was revoked, and another incident that occurred on Oct. 30 violated the standards of permit revocation.

According to emails sent out to campus over the College’s listserv, Chi Heorot hosted a “Hi-Lighter 19F” party, which was open to campus, including members of the Class of 2023, on Oct. 19. On Oct.

30, the fraternity hosted two performance groups for a show open to campus.

The incidents on these two days caused the house to be placed under temporary suspension, which will remain in effect until the Office of Community Standards and Accountability is able to complete its disciplinary process.

Hanover fire marshal Michael Hinsley said that Chi Heorot’s violations will legally limit its ability to bring nonresidents into the house.

“Offering people a place of assembly without a place of assembly permit is a violation of New Hampshire law,” Hinsley SEE SUSPENSIONS PAGE 2

PAGE 2

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Office of Greek Life sees Senior society Casque and Gauntlet room for improvement opens culinary learning space in kitchen FROM SUSPENSIONS PAGE 1

said. “The residents of the house are allowed to live in it, but their ability to have parties and have anybody that is a non-house resident is prohibited.”

According to Strong, Zeta Psi received two terms of suspension, for the summer and fall terms of 2019, followed by one term of alcohol probation during the winter term of 2020 and one term of organizational college probation in the spring term of 2020. The organization is also required to participate in the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students program and implement alcohol management programs for their organization. Strong said that Zeta Psi’s restrictions will be slowly lifted in a “stepped approach” to allow the fraternity to come back into good standing with the College.

This stepped approach is a commonly used practice for bringing an organization back into good standing, according to Strong. She noted that one of the most important components is the educational and engagement work that a house does.

“T he real work when an organization is on probation is that educational piece,” Strong said.

“Engaging with Greek life, engaging with their national organization, engaging with alumni, to make sure that as they reenter into good standing with the College that good standing is maintained.”

Alpha Phi received a suspension for the fall term of 2019. The organization is also required to participate in BASICS and engage with the Office of Greek Life as well as its national leadership to implement educational initiatives. Strong noted that her office considers the separation between those who violated policies and those who will be impacted by the College’s

sanction.

“Organizations shift as students come and go,” Strong said. “So it’s hard to compare where an organization was four years ago to where it is now. We are constantly working with the current organization. When you hear me talk about Alpha Phi, the report is about behavior from 2016, [and] the people who participated in that behavior may not be here anymore.”

Joyce says that the Office of Greek Life sees these organizational violations as an opportunity to improve the culture of Greek life as a whole.

“We use these opportunities as educational moments to educate our community, the chapters [and] fraternity and sorority members about how to improve the culture within our chapters and within our community,” Joyce said. “For us, these are educational moments.”

The suspension of these three organizations follows the recent suspension of Phi Delta Alpha fraternity in the summer, the threeterm suspension of Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity starting in winter 2018, and the revocation of the charter of Dartmouth’s Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity in fall 2018. In 2015, Tabard co-ed fraternity was suspended for three terms, Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity’s charter was revoked and Alpha Delta fraternity was derecognized.

According to Strong, the future of Greek organizations at Dartmouth lies within the decisions of their members.

“The duty of the organization is to determine how they’re going to move forward, and we’re dealing with people being people,” Strong said.

Representatives from the three Greek organizations could not be reached for comment.

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

B y Emily Lu

The Dartmouth Staff

Located in the basement of senior society Casque and Gauntlet, a studentrun project called Third Kitchen has launched as a culinary learning space open to all of campus. The Third Kitchen team currently hosts cooking classes twice a week, and the space can be reserved during open cooking hours for personal use.

The first two classes were led by Third Kitchen team member and Casque and Gauntlet president Han Vale ’20, who shared traditional recipes of Filipino siopao as well as profiteroles.

“The class was excellent,” said Isaac Feldman ’23. “Even though our cream puffs didn’t turn out the way we thought they would, we had a good time. I miss being in a kitchen; I miss cooking from home, and it’s a cool thing to have a very professional kitchen here.”

Open cooking hours currently run on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., as well as on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Classes are hosted on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5 p.m., and anyone can sign up to lead them.

“It’s interesting to be able to cook different things with people’s own techniques,” said Tanzil Mohamed ’23. “Like, [Vale] had gone to culinary school, so we got to cook a French pastry.”

The initial vision for Third Kitchen came after Vale attended events at Casque and Gauntlet as an underclassman and took notice of the underutilized kitchen, Vale said.

Students used the kitchen to cook feeds and cook with their friends, but the space was less accessible to other members of the community. When she became president of the organization, Vale said, she worked with the Class of 2020 delegation to design a project that would open the kitchen and facilitate access to culturally specific ingredients.

“In a lot of ways, this delegation felt as if the College was not making steps towards student access to food in a way that gave them autonomy or was taking

into account cultural specificity or the community building aspect of food,” Vale said. “It was really just a perfect storm of things that came together; it was having access to this amazing space, having a supportive delegation and alumni and having capital to do the project because of the alums.”

The term Third Kitchen plays off the “Third Space Theory,” a social and architectural theory focusing on the hybrid nature of identity. The Third Kitchen team is dedicated to increasing access to cultural foods for everyone, which can be difficult in Hanover’s few grocery stores, according to Vale.

A team member can aid in sourcing ingredients when someone reserves the kitchen, with the only charge being the cost of the groceries. Third Kitchen is also looking into buying and lending out kitchen equipment necessary for making traditional dishes, Vale said.

“Especially students who come from food backgrounds that are culturally specific who want to cook food from home, they just don’t know where to get the ingredients,” Vale said. “A member of the team [will tell you], ‘You can get this here, or one of us can go get it for you.’”

Physical work on the kitchen began

during the start of fall term, Vale said, when the Third Kitchen team cleaned, painted and inventoried in preparation of opening the space. With an open kitchen concept, the space offers items ranging from stainless steel cooking appliances to tortilla presses and cake turners.

Describing the project as a “blank slate,” Vale said that Third Kitchen has plans to integrate the space with other communities on campus, such as collaborating with professors to add cooking into class by examining cultural foodways and historical recipes.

Additionally, local chefs and professors will be invited to host workshops and conversations. According to Vale, the project also plans on partnering with Dick’s House and the Organic Farm to cook meals for students over winterim.

“Ideally we’d love to be open over winterim so people can come and access the space, access groceries here and cook in here without feeling like that’s a barrier to them,” she said. “People have been approaching other [Casque and Gauntlet members] very excited about participating and helping out, and I think it’s just really cool to see Dartmouth coming together in this way.”

LORRAINE LIU/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Casque and Gauntlet’s kitchen will have open cooking hours four days a week.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2019

PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Student group portfolios hold almost all of direct investments FROM DIVEST PAGE 1

However, this mission has been challenged by new information, with Divest recently learning that the College’s Office of Investment does not actually directly invest in fossil fuel companies. Instead, the only significant manner in which the College directly invests in fossil fuel companies is through two student organizations — the Dartmouth Investment and Philanthropy Program and the Tuck Investment Club — which receive money from the College’s endowment for the purposes of practicing investment.

“Both DIPP and the Tuck Investment Club have money in the endowment to use as their educational tool to practice investment,” said Divest member Connie Lu ’22. “That money is directly invested in the fossil fuel industry. The Dartmouth Investment Office — their policy has recently been to not make direct investments.”

Divest only lear ned this September that the student clubs

— and not the Investment Office itself — are directly investing in fossil fuel companies, according to Lu. The information was disclosed in an email following a meeting that Divest members attended with College President Phil Hanlon, the Board of Trustees and the Office of Investment in order to present their requests. In an email to Divest members, Hanlon wrote that almost all of the College’s direct fossil fuel investments are in the two studentrun portfolios.

Despite this new information, members of Divest said they are standing by their mission. Lu said that the new information does not change Divest’s overall goals.

“The point was never that we had a huge amount of money invested,” Lu said. “Where the impact comes from in divestment is making a public statement that the fossil fuel industry is not in alignment with Dartmouth’s values as an educational institution. We believe that they can make that regardless of whether they have direct investments.”

Lu noted that the College may still invest indirectly in fossil fuel companies, but because those are difficult to track, Divest is focusing its efforts on eliminating direct investment.

Lu also said that the climate research the College undertakes should be backed by concrete action.

“We see that doing research on all the harms and effects of climate change and not taking action to actually combat what you are writing about in your research [are] antithetical, because the point of conducting all of this research is actually being able to respond to these problems,” Lu said.

According to Lu, Divest is asking Dartmouth to publicly disclose its direct investments and withdraw those in fossil fuel companies designated as harmful by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

In an email statement, College spokesperson Diana Lawrence wrote that Hanlon has met with Divest members and believes that addressing climate change is

COURTESY OF DIVEST DARTMOUTH

Divest Dartmouth is a student organization that calls on the College to stop investing money in fossil fuel companies.

“perhaps the greatest challenge of our time.”

“As he has often said, the most s i gn i f i can t o p p o rtu n i ty Dartmouth has to impact our global energy future comes directly from our mission,” Lawrence wrote. “Through the production of research and leadership preparation for our students, Dartmouth can make significant contributions to this critical issue.”

According to Rathgeb, one of the pieces of evidence on which Divest bases its request is a 2016 report commissioned by Hanlon that looks at the effects of divestment.

The report, titled “Report to the President on the Considerations Involved in Divesting the Dartmouth College Endowment from Directly Held Fossil‐Fuel Related Assets,” does not come to a definitive conclusion on whether or not to divest from fossil fuels but instead analyzes the effects of a range of decisions.

The report stated that various approaches to divestment will carry “different ethical, financial, academic, and symbolic implications.”

“Because no single option was found to fulfill all objectives to the greatest degree,” the report later stated, “a determination of which option is most preferable overall will depend on a subjective prioritization of objectives.”

Divest members said that the organization continues to run into challenges convincing major actors at the College to act on their cause.

“One thing that the Board of Trustees will say is that the endowment is not used for political reasons, even though there is precedent for that in the past: divesting from Hydro-Québec, tobacco and companies in South Africa [under apartheid],” Rathgeb said.

Another argument ag ainst divesting came from Hanlon, according to Rathgeb. “[Hanlon gave] the slipperyslope argument that if we divest from fossil fuels, people will want

to divest from so many different things,” Rathgeb said. “But we know there aren’t other active divestment programs on campus.”

While both Lu and Rathgeb said that they hope Divest will become more prominent on the administration’s radar, Lu stated that improving student engagement is one of Divest’s priorities at the moment.

“Looking at apartheid divestment in the past, huge student mobilization was really the main reason why the administration was pressured to act,” Lu said.

To gain visibility among the student body, Divest organized a “Visibility Week” last week, according to Lu. “We put flyers around campus, tabled in [Class of 1953 Commons] and Carson every day and gathered signatures for a new petition to be able to show the Board of Trustees and President Hanlon what student support for divestment looks like,” Lu said.

As of Nov. 11, the petition has earned around 150 signatures, according to Lu. As part of the organization’s strategy moving forward, Lu said that Divest intends to gather more support from faculty members and graduate students.

Divest has previously tried to call attention to its mission through protests, banner drops and interrupting an Alumni Council meeting. However, the organization has not utilized similar actions this term.

While Rathgeb describes the relationship Divest had with the administration in the past as “collaborative,” he added that might change in the future.

“We are not being talked about; we are not on the Board’s radar, it seems,” Rathgeb said. “We need to be more public about things, conduct larger actions, possibly [rallies and protests].”

Representatives from DIPP and the Tuck Investment Club did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

PAGE 4

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Q&A with Joanne Needham B y Caitlin McCarthy The Dartmouth

Joanne Needham, prog ram officer for public programs and special events for the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, is retiring next month after a long career in a variety of fields. After earning her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Fairfield University, she worked in computer programming and project management at Houghton Mifflin, copy edited at the Journal of Neurosurgery and planned conferences at the Global Health Council. After being hired by the Rockefeller Center in 2011, she helped plan a 2011 Republican presidential debate that occurred at Dartmouth the next year. Over the course of her time at Dartmouth, she worked with invited speakers at the Rockefeller Center. Needham sat down with The Dartmouth to reflect on her career.

Why did you decide to come work at the Rockefeller Center?

JN: I knew deputy director Sadhana Hall from my last position, which was the manager of the annual conference at the Global Health Council. But they had decided to shut down their Vermont office and move it to DC. So, I was looking for a new position, and Sadhana said that there was a position open at the Rockefeller Center and encouraged me to come in. That’s why I came in and said, “This is fantastic.” And because I did the annual conference at the Global Health Council — which were panels and plenary speakers and people who had a message or information to convey to others that would help them and impact their lives — it was a very nice segue from the Global Health Council to domestic public policy.

Do you have a favorite part of the job here?

JN: I have two. I think my favorite part of the job is providing the opportunity for not only the Dartmouth community, but the external local community to become

more informed about crucial social justice issues or public policy issues.

That is my favorite part: knowing that I’m providing or helping to provide those opportunities. Meeting these speakers is a tremendous opportunity for me and I love it. Most of the speakers have been very — not only knowledgeable because I expect them to be knowledgeable — but very accessible to the students, to faculty, to staff — they want to be here. Sometimes when they see their schedule and they’re doing a class visit, a student lunch, a public event and a faculty dinner, they think, “Oh my goodness, this is packed.” But, by the end of the day, they say, “This was a great day.” And you know what their favorite part is almost all the time? The student engagement.

I always say I have the best job on campus because I work with a lot of different speakers from across the board.

Have you had a favorite event or speaker that you’ve had come in across the years?

JN: Well, besides Alice Rivlin, just recently, Arthur Brooks came to speak. The first time he spoke here, he was the president of the American Enterprise Institute. It was a big snow storm the day that he came. I said, “I don’t know how many people are actually going to come out for this.” It was in Filene Auditorium, which is a room that holds 220 people. And he said to me, “If 10 people show up, we’re going to have the best seminar ever.” I realized throughout his talk — which 80 people made it through the storm to come to — that what he was saying was something that I think everybody needed to hear: that you approach things with warmheartedness, with kindness, and that you acknowledge somebody else’s opinion. Doesn’t mean you have to agree with it, but you need to acknowledge it and say, “I disagree or I agree,” but don’t not listen to somebody. His whole talk was about uniting America, and I know that there were people in the audience who are on both sides of the coin. There were liberals, and there

were conservatives. Every person in there was engaged in his talk, and I think that’s one of my favorites, at least in recent years.

Do you have any other favorite memories from your time here?

JN: Over the course of eight years, I’ve learned a lot about how higher education is changing. I have noticed firsthand at the Rockefeller Center that experiential learning is really important and that there’s courses that are being developed that have that component to it. One of the things that I appreciate most about the Rockefeller Center is the fact that you have some interdisciplinary courses that are taught, these really hands-on experiences, in some of our programming — the First-Year Fellows are in DC, for an eight-week placement as rising sophomores.

That’s their first contact or jump into public policy. Those the kind of things that are my greatest memories: Seeing students grow with all of our co-curricular programs — our leadership development and management development programs — and you just see students go through four years and really develop some skills that will give them a leg up when they get out of Dartmouth, or even on campus as leaders. I love that.

What have you learned about the nature of public policy making through your time here, and have you seen a change in how it’s being approached?

JN: Well, it’s been interesting because, as I’ve been here, the divisiveness in Cong ress has increased, and that makes the effectiveness of trying to change public policy even more difficult.

I mean it’s always hard to effect change, but to try to do something when everybody’s so divided — I have noticed a distinct difference in that. What I have also noticed is that there’s never a lack of interest in trying to do that. I have been really grateful to see students who come in here as first-year students really

COURTESY OF JOANNE NEEDHAM

Needham first came to the Rockefeller Center in 2011.

wanting to make an impact and learn more about how they might be able to do that or even figure out what public policy is. It’s interesting because we’re a domestic policy center per se, but you can’t always separate that from global policy. I’ve noticed that since we started this global policy practicum, students go to different countries during winterim and spend fall term in a course about different issues and the country they are set to visit. I see that each year — there’s a new group of students that goes over to a different country for research, so applying some of the policy that we have in the United States or throughout the world in this global practicum gives these students a heads up or the experience of, “How do you apply that in a new situation?”

Do you have any post-retirement plans that you’re thinking of currently?

JN: I do have some. I am a rabid

Dartmouth women’s basketball fan.

So, my last day here is Dec. 2, and Dec. 3, I fly to Chicago to go to two games that they’re playing there.

They have a program called “Taking Their Players Home.” One of their seniors is from Chicago, so they go to their hometown and play in a tournament. Last year they went to Vegas, so I made the trip. I’m hoping to work part-time at the Dartmouth Skiway, where my husband works in retirement. I’m coming back to attend as many public programs as I can all over campus. I never want to stop learning about what’s going on in the world or how I can be a more informed citizen. Plus, I want more time with my mom. My dad just passed in September. He was 91, almost 92. My mom is living in Massachusetts, so I want to spend some more time with her. She’s the nicest person I know.

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

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2019

PAGE 5

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Current budget path is sustainable, but additional resources needed FROM BUDGET PAGE 1

said. “We have been running modest surpluses the last several years. This [project] is about looking responsibly to the future and looking at the investments we need to make to remain excellent.”

According to Hanlon, such investments would support the student experience by supporting projects like the infrastructure of residence halls and mental health services. Hanlon also focused on the importance of investment in renewable energy and overall campus infrastructure in the years to come.

“Our commitment is to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 project by 2025 — we are modifying the heat delivery system from heat to hot water,” Hanlon said, referring to two of the Dartmouth Green Energy Project’s goals. “This project is really about looking ahead, estimating those investments and making sure in advance that we have the financial capacity to carry them out.”

One major upcoming cost that the Dartmouth Budget Project will seek to mitigate includes critical, campus-

wide infrastructure repairs, specifically relating to the College’s heating system.

“There is an urgency, because our steam tunnels are failing,” Hanlon said.

“They were put in 100 years ago and updated 50 years ago, so they are not going to last. Hot water is much better than steam — you don’t lose as much energy in transit as you do with steam.”

Hanlon pointed out that the College has historically under-invested in “deferred maintenance,” which affects the quality of the College’s dormitories.

“Over many, many decades, we have not set aside funding in our budget [for building maintenance],” Hanlon said.

“You see that in some of the buildings which have been aging, including some of the dorms. That’s why that kind of investment is important.”

Hanlon said the Dartmouth Budget Project will have three main components, each handled by a different team: one team will focus on revenue opportunities, one team on cost structure and the last team on consultation and communications.

Dean of the College Kathryn Lively is a member of the team investigating

the cost structure of the College. In an email statement, Lively echoed Hanlon’s vision for the plan.

“The two largest ticket items are any changes that we decide to make to the power plant and the much needed residential renovation sequence — that is, renovating and updating our undergraduate residential facilities,” Lively wrote. “Both of these are incredibly expensive and absolutely essential in terms of our ability to maintain our institutional goals.”

Hanlon said that according to a reasonable estimate of costs and revenues adjusted for inflation, the College’s current budget path is sustainable. However, given goals to improve the student experience, among other expenditures, the College will require additional resources beyond what the baseline budget provides.

Hanlon pointed out that, unlike some peer institutions that make substantial revenue from college athletics earnings, Dartmouth will look elsewhere for funding.

One possibility, already employed by several peer schools, including

Harvard University, is the expansion of non-degree educational programming, according to Hanlon.

“Some of our peers create a lot of revenue in educational programs, including non-degree educational programs: Harvard Extension [School] is a good example,” Hanlon said. “It has the Harvard brand and the Harvard moniker. It is non-degree programming but it helps the campus out financially through its surpluses.”

Hanlon said it could be beneficial to also look at what sort of degree-granting programs the College could offer that are both of value to the participants and might bring the institution net revenue.

He said such an investigation will be a task of the team dedicated to possible revenue streams.

Hanlon also said that “The Call to Lead” capital campaign will cover some future investments, as well as budget reallocations like the $17 million which has been shifted in recent years from “central administrative operations” to the “academic enterprise.”

According to Hanlon, some other institutions gain substantial revenue from academic medical partners.

Dartmouth does with the DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center, but to a lesser extent relative to peers.

“Our main clinical partner is Dartmouth-Hitchcock,andDartmouthHitchcock is generous in partnering with

us to support our medical school,” Hanlon said. “But given the payer-base here in northern New England, they probably aren’t going to achieve the kind of financial surpluses that some other places have in their hospitals.”

Lively wrote about the importance of the Dartmouth Budget Plan as it relates to the wider economic and social landscape.

“Nationally, we’ve enjoyed a relatively long period of economic stability, but there is always the possibility of an external threat — say a recession — that is outside of our control,” she wrote.

“We also, like institutions around the country, are faced with the challenge of ever-increasing costs. Given that we are a small institution with a limited number of students, we need to be constantly looking inward in order to make sure we’re operating in ways that will allow us to remain both competitive and sustainable over time.”

Vice president for communications Justin Anderson stressed the importance of community involvement with the Dartmouth Budget Project.

“We want this process to be driven by the community,” Anderson said.

“We want the community’s best ideas for revenue-generating opportunities and cost savings, and we want people to feel like they have some ownership over what the ultimate decisions end up being.”

PAGE 6

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST MAXWELL BLUM ’23

THE DARTMOUTH EDITORIAL BOARD

Order Up!

Verbum Ultimum: What’s The Matter with Harvard?

An embrace of fast food is just the solution America’s obesity crisis needs.

Coming from one who routinely wakes on Sunday mornings feeling little remorse for last night’s consumption of two Double-Doubles, Animal Fries and a 29-ounce Dr. Pepper, I’m constantly reminded of my “trust in the Lord” for my metabolism’s sake by the fact that Proverbs 3:5 is clearly printed on the underside of every soda cup at In-N-Out, including my own. And, all things considered, I’m not the only one unapologetically spending my Saturday nights ordering up highly-caloric, obesogenic, fast foods at my local Las Vegas burger temple.

Let’s get evangelical. Quite eloquently, Proverbs 3:5 states “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” According to this verse’s author, Solomon, God’s knowledge is beyond our comprehension, and His omnipresence associates the divine with even the simplest of everyday objects. Evidently, God can be found in just about anything — even a 29-ounce Dr. Pepper from In-N-Out Burger.

Are we, sinful processed food consumers, sentenced to eternal obesity damnation as a result of our caloric transgressions, while those who glorify God through the wholesome-food movement grow exalted?

Quite the contrary — fast food could be the answer. In-depth studies of wholesome foods, processed foods, food deserts (a commonly attributed origin of obesity) and Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign show that the solution to America’s obesity crisis does not lie in demonizing fast, processed food (while simultaneously glorifying wholesome, trendy food). And, as a self-proclaimed French Fry Evangelist, I couldn’t agree more.

Recent failures in overly flamboyant anti-obesity campaigns like New York’s 16+ ounce soda ban and

DEBORA HYEMIN HAN, Editor-in-Chief

McDonald’s’ proud push of veggie burgers makes clear that the average American consumer wants what they want — no matter how many quinoa salads appear on billboards. Perhaps a gradual trend toward healthy iterations of popular, cheap food would be a more effective solution than costly campaigns of the potentially-ineffective wholesome food movement.

An esteemed journalist for The Atlantic, David Freedman, has repeatedly ridiculed those who view “food processing as a source of society’s health problems” as “Pollanites,” strict food followers of University of California at Berkeley and Harvard University professor Michael Pollan. Having been raised in the ever-urbanizing city of Las Vegas, I’ve been introduced to an ever-evolving religious melting pot, where so-called Pollanites and French Fry Evangelists alike coexist in a dissonant harmony.

As Pollanites are within my family, at school and at work, I, alongside my fellow French Fry Evangelists, am inescapably subject to the constant demonization of processed foods. This begs the question — is the belittlement that my people and I receive for routinely eating processed foods justified through real, reliable, thoughtful science?

And all God’s people said, “No!” When asked to describe the origins of food deserts, which some correlate to a rise in obesity, the internationally recognized journal Health & Place remained quite vague on the matter, anecdotally reporting of “several theories,” a “lack of consensus,” and an overall “debate about [food deserts’] actual existence.” As shown, despite the efforts of many, the obesity epidemic remains an unsolved enigma SEE BLUM PAGE 7

AIDAN SHEINBERG, Publisher

ALEX FREDMAN, Executive Editor PETER CHARALAMBOUS, Managing Editor

PRODUCTION EDITORS CAROLINE COOK & EOWYN PAK, Opinion Editors KYLEE SIBILIA & NOVI ZHUKOVSKY, Mirror Editors LILI STERN & ADDISON DICK, 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

ANTHONY ROBLES, Managing Editor

BUSINESS DIRECTORS JONNY FRIED & JASMINE FU 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

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

ABBY MIHALY

ISSUE COPY EDITOR

JULIAN NATHAN

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.

Attacks on student journalism are unfounded and potentially dangerous.

The freedom of the press was defeated on a 1513-4 vote earlier this week in a meeting of Harvard University’s Undergraduate Council, its student government body.

Perhaps not that literally — but the resolution that did pass on Sunday, which indirectly criticized the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, for reporting on a campus protest and writing the news following standard journalistic protocols — represents a growing misconception of the role of the press in a free society. The recent developments at Harvard, as at other places, should be a matter of serious concern for those who value a rigorous free press — especially on college campuses.

In mid-September, around 100 Harvard students, organized by a student-led immigration advocacy group called Act on a Dream, held a protest calling for the abolition of the federal agency Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The next day, The Crimson published a story covering the protest, which in its tone generally offered an objective, if sometimes even positive, view of the protests.

Under the standard journalistic procedure of seeking comment from people or organizations being criticized in a news article, The Crimson’s reporters reached out to ICE after the event for comment on the story. However, the agency did not immediately reply to the request, which The Crimson noted with one line in the article.

Weeks after the article’s publication, Act on a Dream began circulating an online petition accusing The Crimson of “cultural insensitivity” for reaching out to ICE for comment and criticizing the paper for “their decision to uphold a policy that blatantly endangers undocumented students on our campus.” The petition has since garnered just over 1,000 signatures and is co-signed by several campus groups, including the Harvard College Democrats.

The Crimson’s president, Kristine Guillaume, rightly wrote in a statement that the paper was upholding “fundamental journalistic values” which require reporters to reach out to people and organizations to comment “in order to ensure a fair and unbiased story.”

This message was apparently lost on Harvard’s Undergraduate Council, whose resolution that passed earlier this week (almost two months after the protest itself) essentially endorsed the petition and called on The Crimson to change its policies.

The resolution was not necessarily a direct attack on The Crimson — its authors were careful to note that “we understand that upholding journalistic standards within the Crimson is vital.”

But concerningly, the resolution implies that The Crimson used practices that “put students at risk,”

and “encourage[s] the Harvard Crimson to revisit their policies and make adequate changes.”

This editorial board sympathizes with the concerns about the safety of undocumented students expressed in both the petition and the resolution.

We understand that there is a very justified fear of ICE in marginalized communities — particularly among undocumented students at college campuses who live in constant fear of deportation.

However, it is less clear whether people were put in active danger by The Crimson’s decision to simply reach out to ICE for comment after the protest.

Journalists must always consider the safety of their subjects and audience when writing stories. But it is unclear how reaching out to a government agency after a protest (and not even receiving a comment) put anyone in danger.

This resolution demonstrates a growing misconception about the nature of a free press, especially on college campuses. Calling on The Crimson to change its practices sounds very much like an attempt at censorship by a governmental institution against a newspaper — a concern expressed by some members of the Undergraduate Council, including its vice president, in The Crimson’s article covering the resolution’s passage.

Just as troubling is the fact that several campus groups, including the Harvard Democrats, have instructed members not to speak to Crimson reporters unless the paper changes its policies.

Imagine that — the Harvard Democrats, the official organization of the Democratic Party at Harvard, telling members not to talk to journalists when the leaders of the Democratic Party have consistently (and rightly) criticized President Trump for his attacks on journalists and the free press.

We raise these concerns because in an era of newsroom closures, layoffs across the journalism industry and the fire breathing of a petty president, student journalists have, too, been under fire.

Just this week, in the face of enormous peer pressure, student journalists at Northwestern University, home of one of the best journalism schools in the country, felt the need to apologize for a standard news article covering a visit by former U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions. Specifically, the editors of The Daily Northwestern wrote to readers expressing regret for using the university’s directory to look up contact information to solicit interviews from students, and for taking pictures of protestors in public — both of which are staples of news-gathering.

Freedom of the press is essential to a vibrant and open society. The same constitutional doctrine SEE VERBUM ULTIMUM PAGE 7

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2019

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

PAGE 7

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

OH WHALE!

JULIA VOLD ’23

TODAY 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Fair: “Dartmouth College Library Staff Association’s 29th Annual Craft Fair,” sponsored by the College Library, Alumni Hall, Hopkins Center for the Arts.

12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Seminar: “Copper in Biology and Cytochrome cbb3 Oxidase Biogenesis,” with Fevzi Daidal, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, sponsored by the MCB Graduate Program, Chilcott Auditorium.

3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Colloquium: “Spin Squeezing in Optical-Clock Atoms” by Vladan Vuletić, Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sponsored by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Room 104, Wilder Hall.

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Colloquium: “Retrospective: Brain-Behavior Coupling in HippocampoCortical Circuits,” with Kari Hoffman, professor at Vanderbilt University, sponsored by the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Room B03, Moore Hall.

8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

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

FROM BLUM PAGE 6

with the development of its solution still in its infancy. In the scientific community, there is little to be said concerning what causes obesity within a population; the Pollanites are in no place to criticize those who cheerfully embrace processed — and delicious!

— food.

Fighting obesity requires a comprehensive yet subtle improvement to the nutritional value of food served at fast food restaurants: Loud advertisements of healthier processed foods won’t work. Admittedly, processed food establishments have provided accessible, fast and unhealthy foods, which are indeed major players FROM VERBUM ULTIMUM PAGE 6

that gives student protestors the right to protest a government agency also gives student journalists the right to report on the protest and reach out to the government agency for comment.

But beyond this basic right, journalists also must seek to uphold the highest standards of news reporting, which includes telling all sides of a story that exist. The Dartmouth’s Ethics Code, which all staff members of this newspaper must sign and pledge to abide by, specifically obligates news reporters to seek comment from someone who is criticized in a story.

If there is any good that has come out of these incidents, however, it is that they have given student and professional journalists the chance to reflect on long-

in America’s health epidemic.

Nevertheless, a public forgiveness of the sins “Big Food” companies (InN-Out Burger, Chipotle, Wendy’s, etc.) have made could be done by them making their processed, popular foods more nutritious. Potentially, this could significantly expedite closing the chapter on the obesity epidemic and begin a New Testament of a healthier, more sustainable America.

Simply put, science aligns with Freedman’s belief, as he wrote in 2013, that “the fast-food industry may be uniquely positioned to improve our diets.” By stealthily reducing fats, sugars and problem carbs in their meals while preserving taste and satiation through the use of processing technology, Big

Food companies responsible for feeding 85,000,000 Americans each day could “do far more for the public’s health in five years than the wholesome-food movement is likely to accomplish in the next 50,” Freedman wrote.

Since diving head-first into a world of obesity academia, I’ve entered my “promised land” with a dignified strut. Undoubtedly, I’ve developed an optimistic worldview concerning fast food joints I’ve been told to avoid my whole life. While some may simply see two Double-Doubles, Animal Fries and a 29-ounce Dr. Pepper, I see potential.

Perhaps I’m a crusader — a French Fry Evangelist armed and ready with the weapons necessary to finally end the war on fast food.

standing news-gathering practices.

Now more than ever, people are raising questions about the balance between the duty to report and respecting the lived experiences of those who will be affected most directly by our reporting — and these kinds of questions are legitimate ones to be asking. The suggestion that a newspaper puts people in danger by reaching out for comment reflects these ongoing questions.

Yet to be clear, it is ultimately the obligation of journalists to tell the news as it is and to avoid making value judgments in the course of reporting. In calling for The Crimson to change this standard upheld by every news organization, Harvard’s Undergraduate Council has not merely posed the threat of censorship, but has asked the professionals at The

Crimson to violate the fundamentals of journalism for which they stand.

The editorial board consists of the opinion editors, the executive editor and the editor-inchief.

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Review: FKA twigs’ ‘Magdalene’ develops her unique sound B y jack hargrove The Dartmouth

There is no one in the world who sounds like FKA twigs. Her music contains a multitude of recognizable influences, sure, but the way in which she seamlessly weaves together musical ideas from a broad range of genres and styles into her own music is unique to her and her alone in the modern landscape of popular music.

Born Tahliah Barnett, she got her start in the music industry in the early 2010s as a backup dancer, producing music demos on her own. After a couple of short EPs, she released her debut album, “LP1,” in 2014. The consensus was that it was alternative R&B; however, this doesn’t even begin to describe the sound of her music. The songs on that album had elements of operatic singing, classical instrumental flourishes, hip-hop beats, industrial synthesizers and even traditional choral music. Her influences are clear and varied, from Billie Holiday to Siouxsie and the Banshees to Kate Bush.

As a result, the only description of her music that can be consistently used is avant-garde — every song is experimental and pushes music forward.

The album “Magdalene” is her first project since 2015’s “M3LL155X” (pronounced “Melissa”), and it had a lot to live up to. In “Magdalene,” twigs not only manages to exceed expectations, but also continues to rise above her influences to further her unique sound.

The album opens with “thousand eyes,” an eerie hymn sung over a slowly building beat. Sounding like a choir all on her own, twigs repeats, “If I walk out the door, it starts our last goodbye/ If you don’t pull me back, it wakes a thousand eyes.” Twigs wastes no time in showcasing her vocal ability, and her soprano wouldn’t sound out of place in a Medieval church choir. The beat starts

quietly, but it grows louder and harsher into a climax, as twigs sings “It’s gonna be cold with all those eyes.” Finally, the tension releases and the beat drops away, leaving only chattering voices over a piano until the song fades away.

Musically, this track is a stunning introduction into the world of “Magdalene,” and lyrically, it introduces the central narrative in the album. After she was in a public relationship with actor Robert Pattinson and went through a break up in 2017, most of the songs on the album reflect her feelings in the wake of this split. As the title implies, twigs detests the “thousand eyes” of the media watching and commenting on their break-up.

The next track, “home with you,” simultaneously marks a departure from her usual sound while still sounding distinctly like herself. In the verses, twigs is almost rapping, with a gritty voice that sounds increasingly frustrated and angry as the verse goes on. The hip-hop verses are juxtaposed with the chorus, in which twigs brightly sings, “I didn’t know that you were lonely/If you’d have just told me, I’d be home with you” over soft piano. The lyrics here seem to be a portrait of neediness in a failing relationship.

The song “sad day” continues this theme of desperation and lovelessness in a relationship, as twigs implores her lover to “make a wish on [her] love” in order to rejuvenate their feelings. Sonically, this song is one of the most interesting out of the tracks on the album. The chaotic drum beat and harsh synthesizers are reminiscent of the stylings of PC Music artists like A. G. Cook.

Another highlight in the track listing is “daybed,” the penultimate song on the album. Eerie synthesizers open the song, and the instrumental remains slow and relaxed throughout. The best part of this track, however, are its lyrics. Twigs creates a devastating scene of crushing

depression, in which she is unable to make herself get out of bed, singing, “Careful are my footsteps/Possessive is my daybed.” She describes the dishes stacking up in her sink, the fruit flies they attract and many other symptoms of her depression-induced lack of motivation.

While all of the songs above are incredible in their own right, the heart of this album comes in three tracks: “mary magdalene,” “fallen alien” and “mirrored heart” — tracks five, six and seven, respectively. This three-track run is captivating and beautiful from start to finish and may well be the best string of three songs on any album this year.

The first of these tracks, “mary magdalene,” gives the album its name, and its lyrics explore the biblical story of Mary Magdalene as a theme.

Despite Mary Magdalene being quite possibly the most devoted follower of Jesus, a misreading of the Bible over a thousand years ago has created the popular misconception that she was a reformed prostitute. As a result, her story has been twisted, and instead of being remembered and revered for her devotion, most people think of her first as a previously sinful woman.

In this song, twigs relates herself to the true reading of Mary Magdalene, a woman that Jesus needed and depended on, stating “Yes, I heard you needed me/ Yes, I’m here to open you.” Channeling her inner Kate Bush, twigs sings, “I can lift you higher/I do it like Mary Magdalene/I’m what you desire/Come just a little bit closer till we collide,” asserting herself as an empowered equal to her partner, just as she believes Mary Magdalene is an equal counterpart to Jesus. The last minute of the track features an explosive synthesizer outro, one of the most exciting parts of the album musically.

The next track, “fallen alien,” is far and away the best song on the album and probably the best song twigs has

ever released. It begins with a foreboding piano melody over metallic synthesizers.

When twigs’ vocals come in, the anger in her voice is immediately apparent, and it only grows as the song continues.

Finally, she erupts into the chorus, singing “I’m a fallen alien/I never thought that you would be the one to tie me down/ But you did.” The song chronicles her exasperation with her lover, growling, “When the lights are on I know you/ See you’re grey from all the lies you tell/Now you hold me close, so tender/ When you fall asleep I’ll kick you down.”

What makes this song so great is that it is undeniably the most human that twigs has ever sounded. Every word she sings is dripping with anger, and it’s one of the few songs where her British accent is readily apparent. The track is exhilarating from start to finish and serves as the emotional centerpiece of this album.

The following track, “mirrored heart” begins lethargicly, with hazy guitar work and quiet synthesizers. The music builds through the first verse, until it reaches the chorus, when it suddenly fades. In the chorus, twigs comes to the most important realization on the album. She sings, “But I’m never gonna give up/Though I’m probably gonna think about you all the time/And for the lovers who found a mirrored heart/ They just remind me I’m without you.”

Twigs desires a lover who is a reflection of herself and her heart, and she comes to the conclusion that her lover does not fulfill that role.

The album ends with “cellophane,” the lead single to the album and the first single that twigs had released in three years. The song is brilliant on its own and it only gets better in the context of the album. Sonically, the background instrumentation is very sparse, with a repeated piano line. Every line that twigs sings contains a crescendo in the chorus, as twigs laments the public

nature of her relationship. Twigs sings, “And I just want to feel you’re there/ And I don’t want to have to share our love/I try, but I get overwhelmed/All wrapped in cellophane, the feelings that we had,” comparing their relationship to transparent plastic wrapping that everyone can see through. This provides a wonderful bookend with the first track, “thousand eyes,” as both focus on twigs’ dissatisfaction with her private matters being viewed by the world.

The album ends on the line “They’re waiting/And hoping/I’m not enough,” a rather depressing ending, but one that encapsulates the themes of this entire project.

As described previously, eight out of the nine songs on this album are fantastic.

However, there is one black mark that hangs over the entire album: track four, “holy terrain,” featuring Future. This song is among the worst that twigs has ever released. The song features a very generic sounding trap beat in the background, and it is far less interesting than any other on the album. In addition, the Future verse sounds incredibly out of place. It is the first song on any of her major projects that features anyone other than twigs, and it really detracts from the personal nature of the rest of the album. His verse is uninspired and adds nothing to the song lyrically.

This track is the only real misstep in an otherwise near-perfect album.

Despite one mediocre track, “Magdalene” is still one of the best and most interesting albums released all year. It continues a streak of incredible music released by twigs, and is a very worthy successor to “LP1.” Somehow, twigs has managed to push herself further and further into a league of her own, and, at this point, is a genre unto herself. There is no one in the music industry who sounds remotely like her, and I doubt that anyone else will any time soon.