The Dartmouth 1/8/19

VOL. CLXXV NO.108

SNOW HIGH 35 LOW 19

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2019

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Advertisements contribute to Students receive consumption of sugary cereal congratulatory

emails in error B y LORRAINE LIU The Dartmouth

OPINION

SHAH: 10,000 OR ELSE? PAGE 4

KHANNA: DUTIFUL KIDS, SPINELESS ADULTS PAGE 4

ARTS

‘MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS’ WASTES POTENTIAL DUE TO CHOPPY WRITING PAGE 7

REVIEW: ‘THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL’ CANNOT HAVE IT ALL PAGE 7 FOLLOW US ON

TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2019 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

The purpose of the research was to confirm assumptions and fill existing gaps in science literature about the impact of advertisements directed at children, according to Emond.

The team decided to conduct a longitudinal, observational study of 624 preschoolers and conducted their research by having parents closely monitor what television channels their children watched and then

Shortly before Christmas, the “Dartmouth Memes For Cold AF Teens” Facebook group started to buzz with memes about receiving three citations for the fall term. Such animation came from a series of emails sent by the undergraduate deans office on Dec. 20, originally congratulating students for receiving citations, but later asking students to disregard the congratulatory emails.

Christine Dong ’19 received six emails from the undergraduate deans office — three of them congratulating her on obtaining three citations for the three classes she took last term and three telling her to disregard the previous emails.

According to the ORC/Catalog, citations are issued to students who “have made particularly favorable impressions on members of the faculty.” According to a 2017 article by The Dartmouth, citations comprise only 2.4 percent of total grades.

Dong said she was originally confused about the emails.

“I don’t think I remember having a term when I got three citations for all of my classes, so I was confused,” she said.

“I thought it was probably a glitch.”

Behind the batches of puzzling emails was a clerical error made by the undergraduate deans office, according to Brian Reed, associate dean for student academic support services and dean of undergraduate students. Reed explained that when the office sent the congratulatory emails this year, the undergraduate deans office did not filter appropriately in the data warehouse that it uses to communicate with Banner — the College’s student information system — on the back

SEE CEREAL PAGE 2

SEE CITATIONS PAGE 3

ARYA KADAKIA/THE DARTMOUTH

Marketing aimed at young children contribute to their consumption of sugary cereals, according to a study.

B y Anne George The Dartmouth

According to a recent study, children aren’t pestering their parents for sugary cereal just because of the taste — a team of researchers from the Geisel School of Medicine found that flashy television advertisements aimed at young viewers are contributing to preschoolers’ consumption of high-sugar cereals.

“After years of research, I’m not sure parents truly appreciate how powerful m a rk e t i n g i s t o k i d s, ” biomedical data science and pediatrics professor and lead author of the cereal study Jennifer Emond said.

“As parents, we have a choice: we can shield our children from this marketing through controlling what we show our kids, or we can demand better guidelines,” Emond said.

College debuts Campus Climate and Culture Initiative B y Elizabeth Janowski The Dartmouth Staff

The Campus Climate and Culture Initiative, or C3I, will take effect immediately, with mandatory Title IX training for faculty and staff beginning this week along with plans to present a unified policy on sexual misconduct to the faculty by the end of the term, according to provost Joseph Helble.

T he initiative, which was announced by College President Phil Hanlon through an email

on Jan. 3, comes in the midst of an ongoing sexual harassment class action against the College. Three professors in the psychology and brain sciences department — who have since retired or resigned from their positions — are accused of sexually harassing or in some cases, assaulting female students repeatedly over the span of 16 years while College administration took no action, according to the lawsuit.

Among the reforms outlined in Hanlon’s statement, the College will now undergo an evaluation by an independent external advisory

committee, conduct climate reviews of each academic department, revise its sexual misconduct policies, mandate access to multiple advisers for all g raduate students and increase investment in mental health resources.

A working group overseen by Helble will investigate other areas for policy reform and compile a report by the beginning of the summer. The climate reviews, on the other hand, are anticipated to take several years to complete.

A c c o r d i n g t o H e l b l e, t h e initiative was largely inspired by

recommendations outlined in a 2018 report published by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine that analyzed the damaging effects of sexual harassment on women in STEM-related fields.

“I’m proud that Dartmouth is taking these steps to address and confront this challenge and to make Dartmouth’s environment even better for students going forward,” Helble said.

T h e C o l l e g e d eve l o p e d t h e initiative in consultation with the Title IX office, according to Title IX SEE C3I PAGE 5

PAGE 2

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

DAily debriefing A man suspected of kidnapping a woman and her child and subsequently sexually assaulting the woman at a hotel in White River Junction has been apprehended by police, the Valley News reported. Everett Simpson, 41, was taken into custody following a car chase outside Philadelphia on Sunday evening. According to police, Simpson faces extradition to Vermont and will likely be charged with car theft, kidnapping and sexual assault. At around 1 p.m. on Saturday in Manchester, New Hampshire, a man identified as Simpson forced a woman and child into their car and drove to Vermont. Police said Simpson had selected the woman — a stranger — at random. In White River Junction, Simpson allegedly forced the woman to rent a hotel room, and sexually assaulted her. After he left the hotel a few hours later, the victim was able to call police. Simpson’s arrest comes after a manhunt and investigation that included the FBI, Vermont State Police, the Hartford Police Department and the Manchester Police Department in conjunction with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for Vermont.

In the midst of the government shutdown, President Trump has announced via Twitter that he will address the nation this evening to discuss the “crisis on [the U.S.] southern border.”

He will also travel to the border later this week in his effort to persuade people of the need for a wall, according to the White House. ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC all confirmed that they have received the White House’s request for Trump to speak during the 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time slot. Producers for the broadcast networks have not yet decided whether to grant him the air time. CNN has already agreed to air the address, according to a spokeswoman. White House requests to interrupt prime-time programming on major broadcast networks are usually rare and reserved for moments of national import, such as the death of Osama bin Laden. Producers have the agency to grant or reject these requests based on whether they think the interruption is sufficiently newsworthy.

An unidentified male robbed the Mascoma Bank in White River Junction at approximately 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon, the Valley News reported. Hartford police are currently searching for a dark haired man wearing a black hoodie and an orange ski mask whose photo was captured by bank surveillance cameras.

The suspect was last seen running through a nearby oil dealership parking lot and into a local residential neighborhood. Police officials suspect that the robber escaped into a vehicle on a nearby side street. At 2:30 p.m., White River School, Hartford Middle School and Hartford High School were all placed under a “temporary lockout” — a protocol in which doors are locked to stop the flow of people in and out of the school. The protocol was lifted at 2:47 p.m. for bus riders and students being picked up parents, but walkers were instructed to remain at the schools until further notice. The Norwich, Lebanon and Vermont state police are all assisting in the search.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2019

Flashy ads affect children’s diets

power.” the nutritional quality of their “Especially around the holidays products and that children are record what cereals they gravitated and birthdays, children will the most vulnerable to it. Cereal toward. pester for products and toys they companies say they are promoting Keith Drake, an instructor want,” Emond said. “Similarly, healthy products for kids, but at The when kids see these Emond said that these cereals are Dartmouth “[Children] are advertisements for still fairly high in sugar content, Institute foods, it does shape with 9-12 grams per serving. w h o w a s watching and are what they want and “Children don’t have the mental involved in persuading their what they request.” and cognitive capacity to critically analyzing T h o u g h analyze content. They don’t parents to buy high the data child-directed food know what an advertisement or r e t r i e v e d sugar breakfast m a rk e t i n g i s n o t persuasion is,” she said. while he was cereals.” re g u l at e d by t h e In order to begin shifting policy a graduate gover nment, it is toward healthier food options, student at self-regulated by the there has to be scientific evidence Dartmouth, -EPIDEMIOLOGIST LINDA Children’s Food and every step of the way, Emond explained Beverage Advertising explained. t h a t t h e TITUS Initiative, which is “The science speaks for itself,” team looked m a n a g e d by t h e she said. “What happens is at whether Council advocacy there was a o f B e t t e r “Children don’t groups correlation Businesses pick up on have the mental between Bureau, this data exposure to E m o n d and cognitive and then advertising said. She said that all 10 capacity to that helps and consumption of cereal within cereal companies that t h e m a seven-day period and if earlier the study examined had crtically analyze p ro m o t e exposure affected future intake. previously pledged not to content. They t h e i r “It begs the question of how target their advertising to policy don’t know what early kids are developing their children under the age of changes.” an advertisment or preferences for cereal,” he said.

6.

T h e Their research confirms that L i n d a T i t u s, a n persuasion is.” s t u d y there is a direct correlation epidemiologist on the team, began in between targeted advertising added thatthis promiseseems March of and children’s diets, meaning to be an empty one because -BIOMEDICAL 2014 and that children who watch more TV advertisements may be e n d e d television advertisements for high- designed to catch children’s DATA SCIENCE in 2018 sugar cereal consume more of the attention, regardless of AND PEDIATRICS because product, according to Emond. whether companies say they PROFESSOR JENNIFER the team’s She stressed that the team stayed are intentionally targeting a National “unbiased” while conducting these specific younger age group. EMOND Institutes studies, and that they would have “[Children] are of Health reported the results regardless w a t c h i n g a n d a r e g r a n t of whether or not they found a persuading their parents ended. correlation. to buy high sugar Emond Emond explained that children breakfast cereals,” she hopes to were able to obtain the advertised said. renew the grant and look at how the high-sugar cereals through a Emond believes that these children in the study will continue phenomenon known as “pester companies are falsely advertising to be affected as they age.

FROM CEREAL PAGE 1

BAKER AT NIGHT

World Bank President and former College President Jim Yong Kim announced yesterday that he will be stepping down from his post. Kim had been re-elected for a second term and was not due to leave until 2022. The World Bank offered no explanation for Kim’s unexpected departure, other than to say that he will “join a firm and focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries.” Kim previously served as president of the College from 2009 to 2012. He was Dartmouth’s 17th president, the first physician to occupy this role and the first Asian-American to serve as president of an Ivy League institution.

-COMPILED BY RACHEL PAKIANATHAN AND SONIA QIN

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

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Perhaps Dartmouth’s most iconic building, Baker Tower, shines bright on a typical chilly winter evening.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Students receive emails for citations

the term.

Mohieldin said.

“What my office does is part of, Reed pointed out that the end. Therefore, both students who did but actually unrelated to, the grade,” undergraduate deans office’s system and did not obtain citations last term he said. “What we do is, we send these crashed because it tried to send out received the emails. letters of congratulations, and we’ve too many emails, which potentially R e e d always seen it as a explained why different students explained that “I think it’s kind of great opportunity received different numbers of emails. after professors to outreach “What may have happened — we disappointing when uploaded final students.” haven’t done the diagnosis on this — g r a d e s a n d you think you did do Reed said the was [the system] might have crashed in the Registrar’s well on a class and underg raduate the middle of sending [the first round office finished d e a n s o f f i c e of emails] out, but didn’t crash when g r a d e you think you did get realized its mistake we were sending out the disregard registration, the a citation, but you end when it and the [emails],” he said. undergraduate Registrar’s office Mohieldin noted that this mistake up not having it.” deans office were contacted that was “altogether confusing” and “a pulled the by students. He bit funny” could have been frustrating grades data - SUE MOHIELDIN ’19 added that after his for some students. from Banner office conducted “I think it’s kind of disappointing into the data a diagnosis and when you think you did do well on warehouse and confirmed its error, a class and you think you did get a downloaded the data into an Excel file. it first sent out disregard emails to all citation, but end up not having it,” she The office then conducted a mail merge enrolled students before re-sending said. from the Excel file into Outlook, where emails to students who actually received Reed said he understands the congratulatory emails for citations were citations last term. impact of the clerical mistake. generated from the undergraduate “I think we had “We apologize deans office’s account. most — if not all profusely for any “We apologize “Nor mally, under the best — of it cleaned up frustration or hurt conditions, we scrub — or eliminate by the Thursday or profusely for any that we might have — all the students who didn’t get Friday before the frustration or hurt caused,” he said. “I citations for the course,” Reed said. College closed,” hope people would that we might have “We accidentally left them on this time, Reed said. still see us as a so it was everybody.”

H o w e v e r , caused.” reliable resource.”

According to Reed, approximately not all students Reed said that the 12,000 emails about citations were sent received six emails clerical mistake to the College’s enrolled students. like Dong did. -ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR would not affect “I think what I remember was that Sue Mohieldin STUDENT ACADEMIC students’ grades. everybody got three citation emails ’19 said she only “There would be from us saying congratulations,” he r e c e i v e d t h e SERVICES BRIAN REED no implication for said. disregard emails the transcript for Reed noted that the undergraduate but not the initial anybody,” he said. deans office is in charge of sending congratulatory emails.

“This is, for all intents and purposes emails congratulating students about “For me, I just got the apology — from an administrative or clerical citations after grades are finalized for emails, so that was even weirder,” perspective — fixed.”

FROM CITATIONS PAGE 1

COLLIS CELEBRATES DARTMOUTH’S BIRTHDAY

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The Collis Center is decorated with banners for the College’s 250th anniversary.

PAGE 3

PAGE 4

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

STAFF COLUMNIST RACHNA SHAH ’21

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST MAYA KHANNA ’22

10,000 or Else?

Dutiful Kids, Spineless Adults

Life insurance premiums should not depend upon fitness tracking.

Wearable technology is expected to be one of 2019’s biggest fitness trends. Many major companies and institutions are interested in promoting innovation in these areas, such as universities across the country. For instance, Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma requires students to purchase a Fitbit and walk at least 10,000 steps a day for a letter grade. As of September 2018 the insurance company John Hancock now provides discounted premiums to individuals enrolled in their Vitality life insurance program who use activity trackers and opt to report this data to the company. Individuals in the program automatically receive 20 to 40 percent discounts on these wearable fitness devices. While linking fitness to one’s health is a positive goal, however, insurance companies should not have access to fitness data because of data errors, privacy concerns and the negative impact of fitness trackers.

A Fitbit measures fitness activity such as one’s steps, heart rate and sleep patterns. While the Fitbit tends to count one’s steps accurately, the accuracy of other measurements, such as energy expenditure and calories burned, can vary significantly. This is mainly because the measurements are dependent on many arbitrary factors, such as where one places the Fitbit on their wrist and the type of exercise they are engaging in.

According to Fitbit’s website, if users are engaging in exercise where they bend their wrist, the heartrate signal can be inaccurate. Additionally, calories burned while at rest or exercising vary from individual to individual, meaning that Fitbit’s generalized calorie counts may not accurately reflect one’s expenditure. Thus, if individuals receive valuable rewards like insurance discounts based on factors related to physical activity, any inaccuracy in the measurements could bias the awards or judgments made by companies or universities thereafter.

Insurance companies having access to personal health information such as physical activity data also raises significant privacy concerns. When registering an activity tracker, one makes an account including information such as one’s name, age and sex. Certain Fitbits also have the ability to track users’ location. Insurance companies could potentially sell or share this data with third parties, such as companies that run location-based ads. For instance, in 2017, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service sold hospital data to the

Institute of Faculty of Actuaries to better calculate insurance costs. However, it was then found that patients’ data could still be easily identified as information about gender, age, medical history and more was included. The more data provided, such as financial account information, the easier it is to identify the individual and a higher likelihood there is for concerns such as identity theft. Health information, if leaked, can impact employment prospects. In 2016, 450 healthcare data breaches involved the data of 27 million individuals. With a rise in breaches, individuals may be less willing to share their data with their health care providers, potentially decreasing trust in the patient-provider relationship.

Fitness trackers can also have an inconclusive impact on their users’ physical and mental health.

A University of Birmingham study of youth in the United Kingdom found that users reported fitness trackers as a motivator to exercise and activity initially, but deemed them demotivating after the first four to five weeks. With goals such as 10,000 steps, fitness trackers can make physical activity seem regimented and demotivate individuals if they aren’t able to reach those goals daily.

Individuals may also develop concerns about dependence on the technology. Additionally, preset goals such as 10,000 steps per day may not be evidence of a healthy lifestyle; for instance, an individual can achieve 10,000 steps through different intensities of exercise, where a higher intensity is associated with greater health benefits, which trackers such as Fitbits do not measure.

It has been four months since John Hancock started rewarding insurance policyholders for being physically active. Though the policy is still in its infancy, the company found that policyholders who used either an Apple Watch or Fitbit had 34 percent higher activity levels than policyholders who used neither. However, the privacy concerns associated with insurance companies having access to wearable technology data are significant and important to consider. Additional significant concerns include the inaccuracy of measurements by these devices and their inconclusive impact on individuals’ physical and mental health.

Ultimately, the efficacy of the policy depends on how the insurance company uses fitness data: for instance, whether it will charge consumers more on less on their ability to afford a tracker and their fitness data from the tracker.

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

ZACHARY BENJAMIN, Editor-in-Chief IOANA SOLOMON, Executive Editor ALEXA GREEN, Managing Editor PRODUCTION EDITORS MATTHEW BROWN & LUCY LI, Opinion Editors NIKHITA HINGORANI & CAROLYN ZHOU Mirror Editors MARK CUI, ALEX FREDMAN & EVAN MORGAN, Sports Editors JOYCE LEE & LEX KANG, Arts Editors CAROLYN SILVERSTEIN, Dartbeat Editor DIVYA KOPALLE & MICHAEL LIN, Photo Editors

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

BELLA JACOBY, Design Editors HATTIE NEWTON, Templating Editor

ISSUE

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2019

LAYOUT: Jennie Rhodes, Abby Mihaly

SUBMISSIONS: We welcome letters and guest columns. All submissions must include the author’s name and affiliation with Dartmouth

College, and should not exceed 250 words for letters or 700 words for columns. The Dartmouth reserves the right to edit all material before publication. All material submitted becomes property of The Dartmouth. Please email submissions to editor@thedartmouth.com.

Fear of repercussion prevents students from claiming agency.

A sullen silence filled our kitchen in the early tasks necessary to get up the next day only to morning before I left the house to board our repeat the same cycle all over again. team bus for a cross-country meet in Duluth, I am not suggesting that these duties be Minnesota. A receipt for the Nov. 2017 SAT entirely disregarded; on the contrary, they are subject tests lay on the kitchen table next to my important parts of life that are essential not only packed cross-country bag. My ears rang with for our own wellbeing, but for the wellbeing shouts from the night before, of those we care about. Yet disbelieving exclamations by only completing tasks of “You want to skip your “Most children essential to the continuation SATs to run in a cross are taught from a of our everyday lives, or country meet?”—angry and in preparation for the young age not to cutting, even in the quiet of immediate next objective, the early morning. As time ‘back-talk,’ ‘sasswe focus solely on becoming ticked away, I was reminded mouth,’ or any of the person we are supposed of my impending choice: to be; we then roundly the decision to continue as the other popular disregard the development I always had, on the path ways to reference of the person we are. that others had set for me.

At Dartmouth, the Or the opportunity to forge the undesirable embodiment of “duty into the unknown territory qualities of cheek, gone wrong” is evident of disobedience, alone. boldness and spirit in various ways around Closing my eyes, I picked campus. Many students up my cross-country bag that characterize avoid exploring a variety of and left the house without the antithesis of the subjects, focusing only on looking back. taking classes that pertain Upon hearing this story, obedient child.” to their intended field of many readers might consider study. Others focus their my thoughts of defiance exemplifications of efforts only on the traditional “money-making” a naughty child trying to rationalize bad disciplines, without any actual interest. But behavior. Obedience and regard for duty are by becoming perfectly obedient lemmings often seen as virtues of the highest order: to major requirements and post-graduation placed among the most innocent and selfless financial prospects, too many students lose the of attributes that an individual may possess. In opportunity to explore undiscovered interests childhood stories, we all learn what happens in alternative subjects. Still other students lose to bad children when they disobey authority sight of their own goals and passions in the — they end up as food for wolves (“Little Red face of perceived expectations from various Riding Hood”), burdened with shoes that will authority figures in their lives. These students never come off (“The Red Shoes”) or chased by lose the opportunity to grow into adulthood an angry farmer (“Peter Rabbit”). At school, here at Dartmouth, remaining meek children students are rewarded for their adherence in fear of the repercussions they might face to a certain set of guidelines when taking were they to declare their right to independent standardized tests with high scores; Scantrons thought from authority figures in their lives. care little for the manner In each instance, obedience in which “correctness” was is not a praiseworthy, selfless achieved. Most children are “Choosing duty act; instead, it is a way to taught from a young age over passion, or avoid having to take the not to “back-talk,” “sass- passion over duty, responsibility to create a life mouth,” or any of the other on one’s own terms. popular ways to reference is not inherently Choosing duty over the undesirable qualities brave nor inherently passion, or passion over of cheek, boldness and duty, is not inherently brave spirit that characterize the cowardly. Yet the nor inherently cowardly. Yet antithesis of the obedient refusal to take the refusal to take an active child. role in building one’s own an active role in However, the immediate life as a competent adult and common direction to building one’s own represents spinelessness of this pattern of thought must life as a competent the highest degree. One of lead us to consider the merits the goals of a Dartmouth of balancing a measure adult represents education as purported of obedience necessary spinelessness of the by the College’s mission to cohesively exist within statement is “to instill a highest degree.” mainstream society with sense of responsibility for the consideration of one’s each other, and the broader true passions — even when world.” As college students, they don’t necessarily command the logic of we are uniquely placed to explore ourselves and the more “practical” option. For generations, the world in a way that we never will again. many people have focused so much on the We must therefore consider the importance traditional definitions of “success” that it is of fulfilling our responsibility to ourselves by easy to blind ourselves to the importance of becoming active participants in our own lives, finding personal fulfillment. Instead, too many rather than allowing others to decide what our people walk around mundanely completing the lives should be.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Initiative seeks to implement reforms FROM C3I PAGE 1

coordinator Kristi Clemens.

Clemens noted that under the initiative, the Title IX office will create a unified sexual misconduct disciplinary procedure for all members of the Dartmouth community, with a focus on clarifying processes for faculty and staff. She also expressed excitement over the anticipated expansion to the Title IX office, which currently consists of herself, a deputy Title IX coordinator and an administrative assistant.

“If we added another person, that person could be the main contact for people who want to come in and report,” Clemens said. “That would allow me to focus on some of the more proactive measures like annual reporting and working closely with our investigators.”

Dean of the Grove School of Engineering at the City College of New York Gilda Barabino will spearhead the external advisory committee. Barabino was selected for the position based on her past leadership at her institution, as well as her involvement in the task force that wrote the 2018 National Academies report, according to Helble.

The committee will publish progress reports available to the public, which will include updates on the College’s progress towards a unified sexual harassment policy and aggregate outcomes of Title IX investigations on campus, Helble said.

University of Michigan

psychology professor Abigail Stewart and Thayer School of Engineering professor Vicki May will manage the climate reviews of each of Dartmouth’s departments.

Helble noted that these reviews will entail discussions within individual de partments and programs to foster an environment that “enables everyone to speak freely … and is supportive and nurturing of all.”

A d d i t i o n a l l y, H e l b l e emphasized the importance of having women in positions of power as part of the new initiative.

“Do I think it is important that women play roles of leadership in this process where we’re trying to confront issues of sexual harassment and abuse?” he said.

“Absolutely.”

While the new federal guidance for Title IX proposed in November 2018 may prompt another revision of Dartmouth’s Title IX policies in the near future, Clemens said that the College will continue with the reforms outlined by the initiative.

“Right now Dartmouth is in an action moment,” Clemens said.

“We’re not going to wait to see how other things shake out. When we identify problems or gaps that we need to address, we’re going to move on that now so that we can continue to strengthen our community and keep it safe.”

WISE campus advocate Bailey Ray said she hopes the initiative will lead to change in the future.

“What we’re looking to do is address the systemic structures that allow abuse and harassment

and violence to take place,” Ray said. “My hope in terms of what we need to address is that we need to be looking at how everyone is complicit in gender-based violence. That means we need to understand how we view gender and gender roles and how we look at power dynamics.”

She added that the initiative gives the community a chance to “do the real work” and make an important impact.

“When bad things happen, we have to face them head on, but we also have this opportunity to say this is who we want to be, this is how we’re going to change things that haven’t worked and this is how we ensure that we build a healthy community and a healthy campus,” Ray said.

Clemens and Helble both noted that the College administration will continue to encourage and listen to feedback from the Dartmouth c o m mu n i t y t h ro u g h o u t t h e initiative’s implementation.

“As the details of the initiative move forward over the next several months, the goal is in fact to have a series of meetings with groups around campus — students, faculty and staff alike — to gather community input on the specifics and then move forward,” Helble said.

The Student Assembly and Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault will be hosting an open forum for students to ask questions and voice their opinions on the initiative this Friday at 5 p.m. in Collis 101.

PAGE 5

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

STAGES OF WINTERIM

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2019

CECILIA MORIN ’21

TODAY

12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Open House: “Opportunities with the John Sloane Dickey Center,” sponsored by Dickey Center, Haldeman Center

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

Training: “Emergency Situation Training,” with Safety and Security and Hanover Police Department, sponsored by Collis Governing Board, Collis Commonground

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

Open Lesson: “Hands on in the Ceramics Studio” sponsored by Hopkins Center Workshops, Ceramics Studio

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

Charles C. Jones Seminar: “An Integrated Computational & Experimental Material Design Framework,” with California State University - Long Beach Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering aassisstant professor Yan Li, sponsored by the Thayer School of Engineering, Zaleski Room, MacLean Building

MAYBE NOT?

LAMEES KAREEM ’22

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

Info Session: “Dartmouth Outing Club Winter Activities,” sponsored by the Dartmouth Outing Club, Fairchild 101

BUT A SIMPLE TOAD

RACHEL LINCOLN ’20

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 0199-9931

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2019

PAGE 7

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

‘Mary Queen of Scots’ wastes potential due to choppy writing B y sebastian wurzrainer The Dartmouth Staff

In his video “Ludonarrative Dissonance,” film essayist Dan Olson advocates the use of the term “Cinemanarrative Dissonance.” The term describes when an aspect of a film flounders because two or more creative departments did competent work that was nevertheless contradictory due to the lack of a strong, unified vision for the overall product. “Mary Queen of Scots” is full of competent, occasionally even inspired, moments that nonetheless collapse because the film is the new poster child for cinemanarrative dissonance. The film is never truly terrible because everyone in front of and behind the camera is trying; they just never seem to be on the same page.

While it’s impossible to know what exactly went on behind the scenes, I suspect that much of the fault lies with the origin point: the screenplay. Written

by Beau Willimon, it chronicles Mary Stuart’s return to her native Scotland in 1561 to reclaim her throne and her subsequent friendship and enmity with Queen Elizabeth I. The problem, put simply, is that Willimon appears to be writing for the stage; the film is a jumble of discrete scenes, each with the sole function of re-enacting an important moment from Mary’s life. Yet Willimon

never really finds a through-line, nor does he take the time to flesh out his characters beyond the basics that one could glean by skimming a Wikipedia page.

For example, early in the film, Mary’s half-brother James confronts her in court and abandons her cause after a heated disagreement. The scene ends with him and his men streaming out of the room. In a better film, James’s motivations, his drive and his conflict with Mary might have been better developed. What he and his faction stood for might have actually meant something to the audience. Instead, it feels like James exits stage left for a little bit because Willimon read about it while skimming a history book. Indeed, the entire screenplay functions more like a Scottish history cliff notes than a fully developed cinematic treatment.

This is made all the worse because there’s plenty of dense thematic material that the film could tackle.

Issues of gender, religion, power and the loyalties owed to family vs. royalty are all essential to the DNA of the story of Mary Queen of Scots. And what is the point of a historical drama like this if not to animate history in a way that feels alive and present? Instead, the screenplay acknowledges the existence of these topics without ever really commenting on them. It is aware enough to realize that both Mary and

Elizabeth struggled uniquely as female monarchs in a patriarchal society, but not aware enough to see how relevant that topic could feel if treated with some vitality.

In short, the screenplay is a mess, and it feels as though the cinemanarrative dissonance so prevalent throughout the film arose because all the other creative departments were trying desperately to compensate. Consider, for instance, the way the editing tries and fails to invigorate the narrative structure. For whatever reason, someone behind the scenes decided that “Mary Queen of Scots” ought to be modeled after a Christopher Nolan film, complete with non-linear sleights of hand and an austere atmosphere. In particular, the film tries hard to imitate Nolan’s characteristic parallel editing. While Nolan has the capacity to blend multiple scenes seamlessly, fluidly highlighting the parallels between the different strands, “Mary Queen of Scots” jolts around unevenly like a drunk because Willimon’s screenplay isn’t well suited to parallel editing. Like I said, it comes across like a stage play, such to the extent that you can practically feel when the lights are meant to go down so the stage hands can reset for the next scene. Trying to turn that into a Nolan film is nigh impossible because the scenes don’t lend themselves well to being chopped into little pieces and

woven together with other scenes. As a result, the viewers aren’t so much blown away by the ingenuity of the ham-handed parallels that the film is trying to establish between Mary and Elizabeth. Rather, they’re distracted by a smattering of truly odd editing choices.

I’ve only begun to scratch the surface here. Sadly, I think a full autopsy of the film could productively reveal how much could have gone right and why it didn’t. Nevertheless, there’s one last example of cinemanarrative dissonance I’d like to discuss, and it pertains to the casting. To be clear, the main cast is perfectly adequate.

Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie portraying Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth, respectively, might be hoping for Oscar nominations, but thankfully their performances aren’t desperately showy in the way Oscar bait performance can often be. Their casting isn’t really the issue, at least not directly.

Throughout the film, historical figures who would have been unquestionably white are played by actors of color. This isn’t a problem.

In fact, it’s conceptually excellent.

It feels as though someone watched “Hamilton” and rightly realized that “historical accuracy” is frequently ludicrous code for “the actors all have to be white, which conveniently allows

us to dodge criticism when people complain about the lack of diversity in our production.” The problem with “Mary Queen of Scots,” however, is that every other aspect of the film screams “historical accuracy.” The costumes, props and sets all suggest the goal of historical accuracy. And each of those departments does good work in their own right. But their work is deeply at odds with the casting department’s laudable decisions to find non-white actors precisely because the film is so timid about that decision.

While watching the film, one should be thinking, “Wow, I’m really glad they cast non-white actors in these roles and I hope future historical dramas follow suit.” But because the film never stylistically commits, one is really left thinking, “Huh, is there something about Scottish history that I don’t know? Was this intentional?

And if so, why did they only cast the minor characters with the occasional actor of color, and not the leads?”

At least casting non-white actors as Mary or Elizabeth or, here’s a crazy idea, both! would have planted a firm, irrefutable flag in the ground. I dwell on this problem because it is so emblematic of the entire film; good ideas get buried beneath a disjointed execution that was doomed from the start by a bad screenplay and a lack of unifying vision.

Review: ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ cannot have it all

B y JOYCE LEE

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

Last June, Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby released her Netflix stand-up special “Nanette.” The show received critical acclaim and an entire literature of think-pieces, not because it was especially funny or because the jokes were radical (although they were), but because Gadsby used her special to question what it means to use self-deprecating comedy as a woman, a queer individual and as an “other” who exists in the margins.

“I have built a career out of selfdeprecating humor, and I don’t want to do that anymore,” she said. “Because do you understand what self-deprecation means when it comes from somebody who already exists in the margins? It’s not humility. It’s humiliation.”

Gadsby’s special asked a multitude of questions, not only about gender, sexuality and marginalization, but about comedy as a genre, as a tool to examine the comic’s personal life and see how it reflects the larger world around them.

And Amazon’s second season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which aired in December and whose title actress, Rachel Brosnahan, won a Golden Globe for her performance on Sunday, asks its own questions about women and comedy — but with mixed results.

I watched and thoroughly enjoyed

the first season of “Mrs. Maisel” when it first came out, full of bubbly exuberance and reams of brightly colored 1950s fashion. The premise felt fresh and intriguing — a 1950s housewife discovers her talent for standup comedy when her life implodes after her husband leaves her. The housewife in question, Miriam “Midge” Maisel, is largely based on Joan Rivers, who was also a rich, college-educated woman whose divorce became the kick-off point for her comedy career in the 1960s. Yet unlike Rivers, who had originally dreamed of being a serious actress and became homeless for a short term after a falling-out with her parents, Midge’s life maintains a shiny veneer that surrounds her like a halo.

The viewer, alongside the audience inside the television, recognizes Midge’s brilliance as a comic. Her career suffers setbacks, sure, but we all know she won’t be down for long. She’s also rich and beautiful and a social butterfly; multiple men, including her ex-husband, seem to fall in love with her at every turn.

She seems to have it all.

The show felt like sheer escapism when it first came out in 2017, and in all honesty, it still felt the same way in 2018. The ugly misogyny of the 1950s seemed to be a monster that could be defeated with a series of quick-witted quips and foul-mouthed banter; a woman could be both conventionally

feminine and a trailblazer. She could be a mother, an ex-wife, a daughter, a friend and an accepted member of her society while also pursuing what she loved. Yet I don’t know if I still want this iridescent bubble of a reality; I don’t know if I really want to see Midge have it all.

The final episode of the second season concludes with Midge at a crossroads; she’s about to embark on an international tour opening for a famous musician. It’s her first truly big break. On the other hand, her boyfriend Benjamin, portrayed by Zachary Levi, has just proposed to her, after going through numerous hoops to receive permission from her father for her hand in marriage. Midge seems to be facing a decision between a life of artistic fulfillment and ambition and a life of domestic bliss — yet the weight of this decision by the end of the season rings completely false.

Narratively, viewers spend the entire second season following an arc based on this idea that Midge can have it all — her relationship with Benjamin begins because she is “weird,” a comic, an unusual woman who wants more than domestic bliss. He is attracted to her precisely because of her inclinations toward comedy. It’s hard to imagine that he would withdraw his proposal because she wants to postpone her marriage by six months; one would imagine that her

children — whose neglect becomes a running joke during this season — provide a bigger incentive to decline the tour.

But like her love for her children, Midge’s love for comedy is also never made obvious throughout the show.

She seems to have greater passion for her job as the assistant at the makeup counter at B. Altman, a job that she was demoted from at the beginning of the season, than she does for any progress in her comedy career. Why else would she gleefully fly off to a twomonth vacation in the Catskills without even telling her manager Susie (Alex Borstein), despite having been explicitly told that the summer is a crucial time for her comedy?

The finale attempts to inject a dose of realism to the fluffy pink world of “Mrs. Maisel,” but it’s an abrupt transition from what the viewer has been told all season. Midge simply does not have the sheer desperation that is needed for an artistic career; she instead seems to be floating on her own privilege and talent.

Midge’s manager, Susie, highlights this lack of desperation even more with her own drive for her client’s career — and the viewer sees, through her character, that this desperation is inherently linked to privilege, or the lack of it. Susie’s butch appearance, her poverty and her flagrant disregard for social norms is everything Midge is not.

In one pivotal scene, Susie shouts at a clueless Midge that she has no money, that she needs Midge to do well so she can survive. It’s no longer simply a matter of prestige or creative ambition, but a matter of survival. Susie does not have it all; she will never have it all.

The contrast between Susie and Midge becomes the focal point of this season, but it is not enough. The creator of the show, Amy Sherman-Palladino, tries to address Midge’s obvious privilege with Susie, but the show is not “The Marvelous Susie” — it’s about Midge. If Midge is to understand Susie’s desperation, to deliver the feminist message that the creators intended, and to really address what comedy is for women and marginalized groups, she needs to live that life. She needs to live Joan Rivers’ life, as a formerly chubby girl who lived a life of mortification due to society’s view of her body, as someone who had her dreams crushed and rejected by those around her.

Because unlike what Gadsby said in her special, Midge does not live her life in the margins. She does not feel humiliation with self-deprecating humor, because she has nothing to be humiliated about. And because of this, she cannot be the underdog character that the show intends for her to be, who represents women when they struggle to live both inside and outside of society’s expectations.

PAGE 8

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

‘Neapolitan Quartet’ is an immersive look at a female friendship B y Isabelle blank The Dartmouth Staff

Italian writer Elena Ferrante’s operatic Neapolitan Quartet, a series that spans four volumes and six decades of friendship, traces the intertwined lives of characters Lila and Lenù. The series begins with Lenù and Lila’s childhood as they grow up in a poor Neapolitan neighborhood and traces their subsequent lives as wives, mothers and ultimately lonely old women.

The quartet is a series of cyclical events encapsulated in a larger cyclical narrative structure. The first book of the series, entitled “My Brilliant Friend,” opens at the fourth book’s close. Rino, Lila’s son, telephones Lenù to tell her that his mother has gone missing. At the end of the final book, entitled “The Story of a Lost Child,” there is no answer as to where Lila has disappeared.

However, Ferrante writes such a thorough description of Lila’s character and psyche throughout the series that, in the final book, it makes sense as to why she erased herself. It seems not to matter where she’s gone. Lila is mean, whip-smart and down-trodden — how could she not want to disappear, how could she not want to melt into what she calls the “dissolving boundaries” of her complicated world?

Ferrante weaves an intricate cloth depicting detailed scenes a n d ch a r a c t e r s t h at re p e at themselves over and over to construct a patterned, sprawling tapestry. These intimate, very often domestic, scenes that Ferrante writes involve only the characters introduced in a list at the beginning of each volume. Though the scenes are private and the characters insular, the story conveys broadreaching meditations on class, femininity and politics.

Lenù and Lila are foils for one another. Lenù is blonde, studious, eager to please, self-doubting and ambitious, whereas Lila is dark, naturally brilliant, mercurial, mean and irresistible to those around her. The story is told from Lenù’s point of view, but the two friends understand one another on such a deep and complex level that the reader is often privy to Lila’s perceived inner thoughts. The two are paradoxically bound to, yet at odds with, one another. Lenù

cannot resist Lila’s magnetism, Peripheral characters of the her cutting intellect and her neighborhood and of childhood unbounded passion even when flit in and out, transformed by Lila is at her most cruel. Ferrante’s time and age, but Lila and Lenù prose is cerebral. The reader is are constants. The only permanent immersed not only in Ferrante’s relationship is Lila and Lenù’s and cinematic scenes, but also in Lenù’s their shared relationship with the body and her psyche. Ferrante lays neighborhood. bare Lila and Lenù’s most unlikable Lenù and Lila’s childhood traits: their respective failures as Neapolitan neighborhood itself is mothers, their self-absorption, a character. Throughout the four their gnawing anxiety, their books, the neighborhood possesses seeming inability to experience its own mutable but distinct history, joy and their mutual jealousy. future and nature. Ferrante writes However, I with Flaubertcan forgive their The reader is l eve l re a l i s m f a u l t s. I c a n and attention forgive Lenù’s immersed not only in to smallapathy towards Ferrante’s cinematic town politics her daughters scenes, but also in as it ref lects in the face of larger national her career and Lenù’s body and her and global her foolish love psyche. Ferrante lays issues. She a f f a i r. I c a n describes the forgive Lila’s bare Lila and Lenù’s neighborhood meanness, the most unlikable traits: w i t h calculated way Dickensian grit their respective in which she and attention uses people and failures as mothers, to class. What then discards their self-absorption, begins as a place them. I can from which forgive Lila and their gnawing anxiety, Lila and Lenù L e n ù ’s f l a w s their seeming inability want more than because the anything to to experience joy and reader becomes escape and from fully immersed their mutual jealousy. which Lenù in all facets of triumphantly their respective does, becomes characters. I bear witness to their a place to which Lenù ultimately long lives just as they bear witness feels she must return. Though to one another’s. Neither Lenù nor Lenù lives in and travels to many Lila are wholly good nor wholly places — namely Florence, Rome, bad. They possess a complex Turin and Pisa — nowhere is friendship and read each other in described with such detail as ways that reflect their own flawed the Neapolitan neighborhood. selfhoods. Often, Ferrante writes Characters from the community of their dialogue without tags and Lenù’s Neapolitan neighborhood without quotes, as if she knows appear in Florence, in Rome and she’s painted the scene so well in Turin. The only person who and fleshed out her characters so doesn’t follow Lenù out of Naples is successfully that to include a tag Lila. Rather, Lenù returns to Lila, would be gratuitous. she returns to the neighborhood Most of all, the reader forgives from which she strove so hard to Lenù and Lila for their faults because remove herself. they, and the neighborhood, are Within this series, narrative the only immovable characters in events are not only cyclical, but the series. Men introduced into generational patter ns repeat the narrative as great loves, as themselves. Lenù, who worried as husbands, as saviors, as fathers a child that she would adopt her to Lila and Lenù’s children, mother’s limp, ultimately walks are ultimately abandoned by or with one in the fourth book. The abandon the two protagonists. ogre-like Don Achille Carracci, Lenù and Lila’s children move murdered in the first book, is away after failing to achieve what resurrected in the image of his their mothers had hoped. Lenù son, Stefano, whom Lila marries and Lila’s respective siblings and from whom she later separates. betray them in one way or another. Nino, a lover of both an adolescent

Lila and an adult Lenù, reveals himself to be no different from his womanizing, self-important father Donato Sarratore. The revolutionary Pasquale of the neighborhood is imprisoned as an adult just as his father was, and the spirited girls of Lenù and Lila’s childhood become, both in body and circumstance, their beaten, overworked mothers.

Only Lila defies this pattern of daughter-transformed-to-mother, and instead follows her daughter’s suit and disappears.

At the end of the fourth novel, the dolls that Lenù and Lila threw down a gutter in childhood reappear. Readers are warned not to read too much into this symbol, not to draw parallels between Lila’s lost daughter, Tina, and the reappearance of Lenù’s doll, who is also named Tina. Perhaps the titular “Lost Child” is not in fact Tina, but is Lila herself: a girl who wasted her intellect, who was lost in the masses of the neighborhood, who, in the end, erased herself so successfully that not even her best friend, her shadow, can find her.

One of the strengths of this series is that it is so self-aware both as a novel positioned in literary tradition and as an autonomous art form and piece of literature.

Ferrante invokes again and again the importance the written word, of Lenù’s studies and Lila’s insatiable hunger for books. The author’s name, Elena Ferrante, is in fact a pseudonym. Ferrante’s anonymity draws upon the ageold literary tradition, established perhaps by 17th century female writer Aphra Behn, of the selffictionalization of female artists.

If critics imbue male artists and writers immediately with a kind of mythology, female artists and writers in turn must mythologize themselves. Ferrante has done so, lending intrigue to her already masterful novels. She renders her work autonomous to engender its own mythology separate from herself. This is Barthes’ deathof-the-author dream made real by a female author writing on an epic scale about a domesticallydescribed, distinctly female friendship.

THE BOOTH IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The Booth displays student artwork in old phone booths.