The Dartmouth 04/08/2022

VOL. CLXXVIV NO. 2

FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Now recognized, student dining 2022 commencement to worker union targets pay negotiations take place on the Green

BY Adriana James-Rodil The Dartmouth Staff KATELYN HADLEY/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

BY FRANK BLACKBURN The Dartmouth

Student dining workers voted unanimously to recognize the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth to represent their interests on March 30, according to the College.

According to the announcement, the election was conducted through mail-in ballots between March 1 and March 29 and was overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.

Approximately 30% of workers voted, amounting to 55 returned ballots, with 52 voting yes on unionization and 3 votes that were disputed by the College.

Simon Lamontagne ’24 — who works at the McLaughlin Cluster Snack Bar and helped with the early organizing efforts — noted the historic nature of the election. According to SWCD’s Twitter account, SWCD is now the fifth recognized undergraduate union in the country.

“Although my part in [the efforts]

may have been smaller than many others, I am very grateful to everyone who worked on this,” Lamontagne said. “I’m really proud and happy to have been involved in it all and I can’t wait to see where it goes.”

Lamontagne also said that he believes the unionization drive is what pushed the College to raise the minimum wage for student workers.

“Right after the union went public, [we were] saying ‘we have a majority of workers that have signed cards’ and we started asking for recognition,” he said. “Coincidentally, two days later, we received notice from Dartmouth Dining Services that [said,] ‘while COVID cases are high on campus we are giving you all a 50% raise.’”

Mariana Peñaloza Morales ’22, who works at Novack Cafe, said the union hopes to keep the pay gains that they have already won, even “with lesser COVID restrictions” this spring.

Morales added that she believes the pay raise instituted amid high levels of COVID-19 on campus may be

eliminated in late spring, but noted that it is a “priority” to make the pay raise permanent.

According to a March 22 College p o l i c y s t a t e m e n t o b t a i n e d by The Dartmouth, the higher pay implemented last term will end after the active case dashboard shows a seven-day rolling average at or below 25 student COVID cases or June 18, 2022, whichever is sooner.

Nicolás Macri ’24, another student organizer, said the next phase for the union would be initiating contract negotiations with the College. Macri said he hopes this process will start before the end of spring term, noting that the first meeting is on April 8. .

“That’s where stuff starts to get a little more serious,” he said. “That’s where you start to use the union for its purpose, which is helping out conditions for workers.”

Lamontagne said that he thinks the school currently withholds wages SEE UNION PAGE 2

1,767 applicants admitted into Class of 2026

RAINY HIGH 57 LOW 35

BY Kristin Chapman The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on April 7, 2022.

NEWS

NEW LINE@DARTMOUTH APP DISPLAYS WAIT TIMES ON CAMPUS PAGE 2

OPINION

DE WOLFF: ERASE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE 3

ARTS

CHRISTIAN BECK ’24 ON AMERICAN IDOL PAGE 4

The College welcomed 1,207 regular decision applicants to the Class of 2026, joining the 560 students who were admitted via early decision in December, according to an announcement from the admissions office. In total, 1,767 applicants were selected from a pool of 28,336 applications in total, for an acceptance rate of 6.24% –– just above last year’s record low of 6.17%.

This year saw 21 fewer applications than last year’s number, which marked a record high of 28,357 applicants and a 33% increase from 2020. According to College spokesperson Diana Lawrence, 27 students from the Class of 2025 chose to take gap years and will join the Class of 2026.

Financial aid for the Class of 2026 also observed two record highs: 63% of admitted students applied for need-based financial aid with an average projected scholarship of $61,000. In addition, 19% of admitted students living within the U.S. qualify for Pell Grants.

In January, the College expanded its need-blind admissions policy to include international students. Fifteen percent of students in the Class of 2026 are international students, which matches the percentage of accepted international students in the Class of 2025.

Several students admitted to the Class

of 2026 shared their reactions to their Dartmouth acceptance letters, with some having mixed feelings throughout the college application process due the pandemic and other logistical factors — such as the decision to extend the test-optional admissions policy to the Class of 2026 in February 2021.

Admitted student Mason King said that when he opened his Dartmouth acceptance letter while surrounded by his family, none of them could contain their excitement.

“When I read the first word, we all just jumped up and we started yelling and screaming, and it was a very exciting moment just to know that you’ve put so much time and effort into these applications, and to see payoff has been really good,” King said.

Admitted student Simone Feinblum said that she felt “surprised” when she opened her acceptance letter but also “very happy and excited.” She added that Dartmouth’s decision to make applications test-optional last year made the application process seem particularly “competitive” considering that applicants would put more effort into other aspects of their application.

“There are going to be people who have excellent essays and extracurriculars and stuff like that, so you really need to put as much effort into your scores and your GPA as other stuff [on the application] that you [might not] find as important,” Feinblum said.

Feinblum also said that the pandemic SEE ’’26s 26s PAGE 2

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ATHLETICS RELEASES GENDER EQUITY PLAN AFTER TITLE IX CASE PAGE 5

MIRROR

A JOG DOWN MEMORY LANE PAGE 6 FOLLOW US ON

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O n M a rc h 1 7 , t h e C o l l e g e announced that commencement will take place on the Green for the first time since 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 commencement proceedings took place online, and in 2021 the celebrations took place at Memorial Stadium with masks.

T h i s ye a r ’s c o m m e n c e m e n t weekend, set for June 10-12, will mirror those held prior to the pandemic, vice president for alumni relations Cheryl Bascomb ’82 wrote in an emailed statement.

The 2022 commencement brochure states that June 10 is the Order of March, when the College posts the assigned number s of graduating students at Baker-Berry Library. The following day involves a commencement rehearsal, Class Day at The Bema, exercises such as speeches by seniors and faculty, an award ceremony and the class photo.

Commencement assembly of seniors happens on Sunday, when family and friends are invited to campus to take part in graduation festivities.

On the day of commencement, the academic procession will begin at 9 a.m., and the ceremony begins at 9:30 a.m., according to the College’s commencement website.

Provost David Kotz, who plays a role in planning the commencement activities as the master of ceremonies, said he was excited by the return of commencement to the Green.

“It’s such an important and beautiful ceremony every time,” Kotz said. “I know that we haven’t been able to do it in a traditional way for two years, and so I’m really looking forward to seeing it happen again.”

According to executive director of conferences and events EJ Kiefer, most of the questions he has been receiving about commencement weekend relate to housing accommodations for graduates’ friends and family. Guests attending commencement have the option of filling out an application to stay in a College residence hall, which will be available for guests from 2 p.m. on Friday, June 10 through 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 12.

Commencement is expected to proceed as normal, but if the past two years have been any indication, “we never quite know what to expect,” according to Kotz. As a result, there

KATELYN HADLEY/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

are no plans to alter the event, but there is always the possibility that commencement could be adjusted in the event of changing College policies relating to health and safety, Kotz added.

Kiefer said that should there b e a C OV I D - 1 9 o u t b r e a k a s commencement weekend approaches, the College’s first response would most likely be masking, followed by eliminating indoor activities and the possibility of going fully virtual if the situation worsened.

“What we’ve learned over the past two years is that things can change quickly over a two-week period, that we were shifting plans as we were creating them,” Kiefer said. “There are multiple different plans ready to go depending on what the current status is.”

Noah Daniel ’22 will be walking at graduation this June and expressed excitement over the ceremony.

“It will be nice having all my family here and seeing everyone else’s family,” Daniel said.

For Daniel and some other ’22s, however, commencement does not mark the end of their education at Dartmouth. A number of seniors will instead be taking classes on campus for several subsequent terms to complete their major requirements, especially because of the disruptive effects of the pandemic. Daniel said he expects to be at Dartmouth next fall and winter as he finishes his studies.

“I’m not sure if there’s the same unity of it being the final senior year,” Daniel said. “I think the problem is everyone’s schedules are out of whack and not aligned, so it doesn’t feel like we’re all leaving together . . . It will be an exciting ceremony to go through, but it doesn’t quite have the same meaning right now.”

The Class of 2020 will gather for a traditional commencement ceremony from Aug. 5-7. The Class of 2020 previously was unable to host its own ceremony due to the pandemic, according to Kotz.

In 2021, commencement was held in Memorial Stadium. Although Kotz noted that there were “some advantages” to the new location, such as easier setup and security, he said “for tradition and for capacity, and for the optics of holding it on the Green, it was something we really wanted to make happen.”

FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022

PAGE 2

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

New Line@Dartmouth app displays wait times at campus hotspots

Community reacts to removal of Upper Valley mask mandates

BY Adriana James-Rodil The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on April 5, 2022.

CAROLINE KRAMER/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

BY BEN KORKOWSKI The Dartmouth Staff

Line@Dartmouth, an app which tracks wait times at dining locations around campus and usage levels of study spots around campus, such as in BakerBerry Library, was released to the public on the App Store in March. The app currently monitors four dining locations — the Class of 1953 Commons, Collis Cafe, Novack Cafe and Ramekin — as well as second and third floor Berry and Hinman Mail Center.

A group of six students — Jai Smith ’22, Jared Cole ’22, Sanjana Goli ’22, Ian Hou ’22, Arjun Srinivasan ’22 and Sasha Rich ’22 — created the app to complete their final capstone project for their computer science majors. Under the supervision of DALI lab director Tim Tregubov, , the students worked on designing and creating their app over the fall and winter terms in COSC 98, Senior Design and Implementation Project, and presented at the fall 2021 and winter 2022 Technigalas — a termly showcase in which students from a variety of computer science classes and the DALI lab showcase their current projects.

According to Smith, the original inspiration for the app came from the group members’ “fond” memories of Line@KAF, a similar app that provided wait time estimates for the now closed King Arthur Flour location within BakerBerry.

“I remember hearing about Line@ KAF when I toured the school, and I thought it was super cool that students were working on these kinds of projects in their free time,” Smith said.

While similar in user-facing functionality, Tregubov said that Line@ KAF and Line@Dartmouth diverge in how they are functionally deployed.

“Line@KAF used installed cameras and simple facial recognition to determine how busy KAF was whereas this new group has taken advantage of the Wi-Fi network and the connected devices we all carry,” Tregubov said.

S m i t h s a i d t h at D a r t m o u t h I n fo r m at i o n , Te ch n o l o g y, a n d Consulting’s new Wi-Fi network and its increased functionality aided in

the development process of Line@ Dartmouth.

“The new Wi-Fi network provides added functionality to detect when a device enters an area based on which access point it is connected to,” Smith said.”

Using students’ Wi-Fi access on campus, Line@Dartmouth determines dining rates — how fast students are coming and going from their meals — at various locations, Smith said.

Smith said that the framework protects users’ personal data.

“Dartmouth ITC was obviously not going to provide us access to internet users’ identifiable information, so the first part of our project was building an anonymization framework that would anonymize all of this data,” Smith said.

“Once we built the framework, we had to apply for an ethics board review before it was ultimately accepted.”

Smith said that while the team members still consider the app in a “beta” phase, the app’s official public release coincided with Technigala. Tregubov added that he sees Technigala as a “great” place for his students to work out bugs and survey reactions from their consumer base due to the “expo-like atmosphere.”

“It’s a wide demographic from kids to old folks just trying things out and seeing what works and doesn’t,” Tregubov said.

The team behind Line@Dartmouth has continued to work on improving the app since its initial release.

Hou — another member of the Line@Dartmouth team — said that part of the app’s marketing efforts included putting up posters around Novack Cafe that advertised the app and asking students to fill out a Google form on the app’s accuracy.

“We had people tell us what time they got to the line at Novack and what time they ordered,” Hou said. “We then compared their submitted wait times with our algorithm’s predictions and used the calculated delta to make more accurate predictions going forward.”

Samiha Datta ’23, who began using the app at the beginning of this term, said she appreciated the app’s practicality and noted that the estimated wait time at Collis Cafe seemed “pretty accurate.”

“I think it’s so cool that a group of students is giving back in such a tangible way to a community that they soon won’t be a part of,” Datta said.

While Datta said that she enjoys the “intuitive, sleek” app design and the current array of locations, she added that she hopes the Courtyard Cafe and The Fern could be added at some point in the future.

Beyond Technigala and the completion of COSC 98, Smith and Hou said that they hope Line@Dartmouth will continue to be used in the years to come.

Smith added that he plans to continue to maintain and update the app and eventually will look to hand it off to a younger group of students.

“It was sad to see Line@KAF die out, so one of our goals is for this app to stay active long after we’ve graduated,” Smith said.

Recognized student dining worker union targets pay negotiations SEE UNION PAGE 1

from student workers to create a “base wage” which allows the College to negotiate low salaries for non-student workers.

He echoed others, noting that a solution would be to maintain the COVID-related raise in pay. “[Non-student worker s] face

precarious working conditions,” he said. “You end up seeing ‘[the College pays] the student workers this little and [non-student workers] are getting paid more, so [they] should be grateful,’” he said.

Macri said another goal of SWCD would be starting the process of getting representation for non-dining student workers. He added that he believes the

recent election will be the start of a broader student organizing movement at Dartmouth.

“We’re really pleased with the results of the election,” he said. “And I would say that this is probably not stopping with dining workers.”

Vice president of campus services Josh Keniston did not respond to multiple requests to comment.

Class of 2026 sees second-lowest acceptance rate ever FROM ’26s 26s PAGE 1

influenced her college application process because it was difficult to travel and tour schools in person. She added that visiting her sister at Dartmouth prior to the pandemic drew her to apply and that she felt less interested in applying to other schools she did not visit. “[The pandemic] definitely affected my application process in that I was more inclined to consider the schools more heavily that I was familiar with, so then towards the end of the pandemic, I went to schools within driving distance,” Feinblum said.

“But the schools far from where I was, I never really thought about going to, [since] I’ve never been there.”

Admitted student Ramina Askarova said that she believes that the pandemic may have

had a silver lining for international students applying to Dartmouth, as it granted greater access to virtual forms of communication.

For example, she was able to participate in a Dartmouth alumni interview from her home in Kazakhstan.

Askarova said she appreciated her interviewer’s stories about his family ties to Dartmouth and his emphasis on Dartmouth’s community values.

“I think that Dartmouth is a college that values this kind of family spirit and really caring about each other,” she said. “...[My interviewer] actually told me about many stories related to Dartmouth and to his family –– because I guess his wife and kids also went to Dartmouth –– and I learned stories about Dartmouth that made me [want to go there].”

King said that he felt inspired to apply

to Dartmouth because it “checks a lot of boxes in terms of who I am as a person.”

Specifically, he said he was drawn to the College’s academic programs and easy access to nature and outdoor recreation.

“Having things like the [First-Year] Trips program and sophomore summer, where students are kind of surrounded by [nature] consistently and can go canoe, or go hiking, or go skiing or go mountain biking, connects with me pretty personally,” he said. “And then having such a high academic standard of excellence –– it felt perfect to me.”

Admitted students have until May 2 to accept or decline their admission.

Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin declined to comment on this admissions cycle.

Lawrence wrote in an email that Coffin will not have “any additional news to report until matriculation.

With Lebanon’s repeal of the indoor mask mandate on March 24, municipality requirements to wear face coverings while indoors have been removed from the Upper Valley. On March 14, School Administrative Unit 70 — which manages four schools in Hanover and Lebanon — lifted its indoor mask mandate as a result of pressure from the state, while the town of Hanover paused its mask mandate on March 16 to mostly positive reactions from business owners.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 data tracker, there has been a decline in the number of positive tests and hospitalizations in Grafton County in recent months.

In an emailed statement to The Dartmouth, Hanover town manager Julia Griffin wrote, “The Town, working in close consultation with the Hanover/Dresden School District and Dartmouth, chose to follow [CDC] guidance and maintain the indoor mask requirement in place until Grafton County was no longer classified as a red or ‘significant transmission’ county.”

On March 4, Grafton County was reclassified as a yellow or “moderate transmission” county, so in collaboration with the College and Hanover’s school district, the town decided to lift the indoor mask mandate at the start of the College’s spring break on March 16. However, because the lifting of the policy is technically a “pause,” it is unclear whether the mask mandate would be reinstated should cases re-enter the red zone. Griffin stated that she does not know whether the town of Hanover will implement a permanent lift of the mask mandate in the near future.

Lebanon, which is also in Grafton County, was the last town in New Hampshire to drop its mask mandate on March 24. According to Lebanon assistant mayor Clifton Below, in order to repeal, amend or enact an ordinance, a separate public hearing must take place, which delayed the hearing to repealtheordinanceanextraweek.Moreover, according to CDC guidelines, Lebanon was still in the “red zone.” However, Below said that high transmission and hospitalization rates had decreased “fairly quickly” in recent weeks, which caused Lebanon to enter the “green zone.”

Unlike the mask mandate pause in Hanover, Below said that Lebanon would have to enact a new ordinance to reinstate masks.

In terms of resident reactions to the repeal, Below said he hasn’t “heard too much,” but there were people at the hearing opposed to the measure, such as a nurse who said healthcare facilities are still overextended.

According to Griffin, local concerns surrounding the mandate’s pause in Hanover have come to light since nearby Windsor County in Vermont, located just across the state border, has re-entered the red zone.

Additionally, she wrote that there has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases within the Dartmouth community as students returned from spring break.

Given the transmission of COVID on campus and elsewhere, Griffin wrote that she “would not be surprised” to see Hanover

returntoahighrateof transmission,especially as the omicron BA.2 subvariant spreads.

Griffin wrote that the town will be working with the College should there be a significant increase in cases on campus.

Griffinwrotethatlocalreactionshavebeen evenly split between people for and against the decision. She noted that she has received “angry emails and phone calls” from those opposed or concerned — including some Dartmouth students — but there has also been positive feedback from the community.

Umpleby’s Bakery & Cafe owner Charles Umpleby said that he is “totally okay” with the pause.

“My staff in general has been very responsive of doing what’s required of them, so I’m completely confident going forward without the mask mandate,” he said.

At the start of the pause, Umpleby said that some cafe staff members continued wearing masks, but now none of the staff wear face coverings. Yet, he said that the store emphasizes to staff members that it is their own individual decision whether or not they want to wear a mask.

Similarly, Murphy’s On the Green and Impasto Italian Eatery owner Nigel Leeming said the repeal of the mask mandate was “a long-time coming.” He said that while some staff members continue to wear masks for personal reasons “with no questions asked,” the majority do not.

On the other hand, Still North Books & Bar owner Allie Levy ’11 expressed “mixed feelings” about the lifting of the indoor mask requirement. She said that Hanover is in a “much better situation” than earlier in the pandemic.

“Even though there is a part of me that is sometimes scared to be somewhere without a mask, I also have started to not wear my mask in certain situations, so I think it’s just about personal comfort levels and being ready to jump back to wearing masks if we start to see a higher community spread again,” she said.

Other Upper Valley businesses have chosen to keep their mask mandates for now — such as the Child Care Center in Norwich, which is in Windsor County. Director Lisa Sjostrom wrote in an emailed statement to The Dartmouth that their mask mandate will lift one week after the upcoming public school spring break in April.

Hanover town residents William Roach, a scientist, and Katie Roach, the interim principal at Mount Lebanon Elementary School, think the pause is a “good idea” because of the data regarding decreasing COVID cases and hospitalizations.

Katie Roach said that not everyone at her school is comfortable with the change, despite it being “helpful” for children to see and play with one another. She said that “a lot” of students continue to wear masks.

Should there be another surge in COVID cases, both William Roach and Katie Roach said that reinstating the mandate would be in the “best interest” of everyone’s health.

William Roach noted that this is especially true if a variant unresponsive to vaccines causes a future surge.

Despite concerns about seeing another surge in cases, Umpleby, like other Hanover residents, said that he is looking forward to a gradual return of post-pandemic life.

“I’m excited to be moving forward now that I think the worst is behind us,” Umpleby said.

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Contact the Property Manager: property@saintthomashanover.org Submit an application to our Chaplain, The Rev. Dr. Guy Collins: guy.collins@dartmouth.edu

FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022

PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

STAFF COLUMNIST THOMAS DE WOLFF ’24

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST ELIZABETH CHUN ’25

Erase Your Social Media

Putting Passion Into Practice

The harmful effects of social media far outweigh its benefits.

Get off social media. Delete your accounts, even. Social media is actively harming your mental and physical well-being. The constant stream of tailored content is like catnip, and social media platforms are algorithmically designed to hold your attention. These apps chew up your free time, actively harm your self-image and worsen your overall mental health.

What do these apps do to our minds? Besides contributing to rising rates of anxiety and depression, research on adolescents has found that social media use harms perceptions of body image in both girls and boys. It’s common for influencers to filter or photoshop their posts on Instagram in order to remove blemishes. It’s not reasonable for people, especially young social media users, to compare themselves to these edited images — there’s no way reality could measure up.

Even social media companies are aware of the harm they cause. In 2021, the Washington Post obtained leaked documents revealing that researchers at Instagram found that using the app was harmful to teenage girls’ and boys’ body image. About 32% of teenage girls and 14% of teenage boys felt worse about their bodies due to using the app. When these apps have hundreds of millions of users, these numbers represent a not-insignificant part of the population that is negatively impacted.

It’s not just Instagram that has a negative impact on users. During the initial phases of the pandemic, Twitter saw a 900% increase in hate speech directed towards China and the Chinese.

But the most cyberbullying regularly takes place on YouTube, Snapchat and Facebook. 21% of kids report having been cyberbullied on at least one social media platform. Despite this, these platforms remain enormously popular — - but why?

When everyone you know uses social media, it can be hard to break free. The fear of missing out, commonly known as “FOMO,” can be a powerful feeling. Sometimes it can be fun to show off what you’ve been up to through pictures and other social media updates. If all you did on these platforms was posting your own term recaps or travel photos, that would be one thing. But the majority of users’ activity consists of looking at what other people are posting.

In fact, we spend a staggering amount of time doing this. In 2020, the average American spent over 1,300 hours per year on social media.

Members of Generation Z spend an average of

nine hours a day in front of a screen. This much screen time means increased sedentary behavior and blue light exposure, both of which negatively impact sleep patterns and overall physical wellbeing. With the development of algorithms that tailor your feeds, social media platforms have evolved to capture as much of your attention as possible.

Over 40% of girls and over 20% of boys aged 13-17 report using social media for three 3 or more hours per day. The most popular platforms with this age group are Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter, all of which use algorithms to determine the content users see.

If you never have time to do the things you want to do, the culprit could be your phone. It’s time to break free of social media’s hold on our lives — but how?

Social media is often so ingrained in our daily routines that it is difficult to quit cold turkey.

Therefore, there is a compromise of sorts to make the process of quitting easier. iPhones and most other smartphones have a feature where you can institute time limits on certain apps, allotting yourself a specific amount of time each day to use the app.

If you choose this option, you can use this time limit method with the goal of weaning yourself off of social media completely like a smoker who uses nicotine patches to wean themselves off of smoking actual cigarettes. As social media becomes less and less a part of your daily routine, the urge to check these apps will diminish.

It can be hard to step away from the constant stream of dopamine you get from likes, comments and follows. These apps have turned us into Pavlov’s dogs, rewiring our brains to link happiness with likes. But you shouldn’t need external validation from others to enjoy cool experiences or feel proud of your accomplishments.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the concept of social media. However, it has shifted from being a way to stay up-to-date on your friends’ lives and morphed into something far more nefarious. The harmful effects suffered by far too many users prove this.

Unless the companies behind these apps make changes to limit these effects, such as mandatory time limits for young users, we must act to protect ourselves. The way forward is clear: Get off of the hamster wheel and stop chasing fleeting dopamine hits. Reclaim your free time. Delete your social media.

The popularity of private sector work is growing, but to fully address the societal problems we care about, we must not ignore the importance of public institutions.

This article was originally published on April 5, 2022.

When I first came to Dartmouth last September, I was ready to change the world.

Armed with drive, optimism and now an Ivy League education, no problem felt too daunting.

I felt too big to fail.

I am certain that this outlook is not unique to me. Over the course of the past two terms, it has been inspiring to meet so many Dartmouth students who are brimming with passion and concern for societal problems. We discuss current events with friends over a meal at Foco; we probe salient, systemic issues in our classes; we hold protests and vigils on the Green.

Yet, at the same time, we are also part of a generation that craves immediate gratification.

We want to pat ourselves on the back and tell ourselves that we’ve accomplished our mission; we want to believe that we are making progress, regardless of whether we actually are. Thus, when it comes to picking our career paths, we often veer away from the slow and iterative work of public institutions — institutions that are established or controlled by the government and backed by public funds. Instead, the private sector suits our palate: Flaunting their productivity, fast-paced work environment and six-figure starting salaries, the giants of the private sector lure us in with the promise of fulfilling our need for speed. It’s no surprise that so many Dartmouth students end up on Wall Street, nor that Dartmouth consistently ranks among the undergraduate institutions whose graduates go on to earn the most money.

The consequences of this pattern are less obvious: It’s easy to become blinded by the appeal of immediacy and lose sight of the real work — often slow, grueling and gradual — that needs to be done to mend our society. When our professional pursuits feed into a system of moneymaking and corporate work — a system of which the American upper class is so fond — we also endorse a system that clouds our concern for societal improvement. If we are all rushing into roles that will earn us six figures, who is going to pass sweeping policies to fix our healthcare system? Who is going to address the

racial inequalities of the criminal justice system?

That is not to say that there is something inherently wrong with working for the private sector, and I do not agree with the inherent moral stigma that is often attached to working in the private sector. Wanting a comfortable life, material wealth and even the clout that comes with a coveted position in the private world are all understandable human motives. We cannot blame people for these motivations, nor can we realistically expect them to completely shed such desires. Additionally, the rising popularity of social entrepreneurship, by which startups and entrepreneurs develop business solutions to social problems, provides a promising new avenue of private sector work.

Still, the trend of educated, societally invested citizens regularly accepting high-salary private sector jobs is concerning when it coexists with our diminishing faith in public institutions. Why? Because the pressing issues that we face today are systemic problems that demand the large-scale action of these public institutions.

Therein lies the paradox. On the one hand, young people today are arguably more in tune and concerned with societal issues than any generation before. On the other, our chosen paths often strip power away from the institutions that keep our healthy community running and put it right in the hands of those who undemocratically hoard power through money.

So, how do we begin leveraging our concern for society to actually solve the problems in which we are supposedly so invested? How do we put our passion into practice?

We need to choose positions that truly empower our communities. Even more fundamentally, we can start by re-evaluating the value of our education and what we can use our education to accomplish. For me, the passion and determination with which I entered Dartmouth stemmed from my view that education should be a good with positive externalities; that is, our education should provide some benefit to society as a whole. Four years at Dartmouth equips us with unparalleled knowledge, experiences and social networks; we should think critically about how we can best use these resources to serve our communities.

NINA SLOAN ’24: APRIL SHOWERS...

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST THOMAS LANE ’24

Okay, That’s It. Enough is Enough.

Justice Thomas’ time on the bench is up.

This article was originally published on April 7, 2022.

Justice Clarence Thomas has always been a contentious member of the Supreme Court.

Completely ignoring the debates over his judicial philosophy and opinions, he donned the robe after a narrow confirmation beset by accusations of sexual harassment in 1991. In 2016, he was accused of yet another instance of sexual harassment at a dinner party in 1999.

What is stirring the pot today, however, is his wife — Ginni Thomas — and her partisan political activities. The Washington Post and CBS News have recently obtained copies of text messages between her and former president Donald Trump’s top aide, Mark Meadows, in which she urges him on multiple occasions to find a way to overturn the 2020 election and sends him links to QAnon-associated conspiracy theories about ballot fraud. Enough is enough. Members of the Supreme Court are duty-bound to keep the political sphere at a significant distance, and it’s now beyond apparent that Justice Thomas can’t do that.

Ginni and Clarence Thomas have had plenty of run-ins with controversy already. In 2011, Justice Thomas faced heavy heat for failing to report his wife’s earnings of almost $700,000 at the arch-conservative Heritage Foundation think tank on several years of his financial disclosure forms. She is a frequent participant in conservative activism and lobbying circles, ranging from anti-abortion groups to organizations seeking to take rights away from LGBTQ individuals. That alone is a big red flag for a Supreme Court justice — these are all issues pending before the court right now.

How possible is it to keep the work of a married couple separate from one another? Ginni has claimed before that she and her husband don’t discuss their work with one another, but does it not seem preposterous for a couple to keep what is arguably the most prominent part of their lives essentially secret? It’s not like they live in separate hermetically sealed glass orbs. They’re human, and both hold very staunch opinions. The idea that they never talk about politics together seems ludicrous. At the very least, Justice Thomas is getting Ginni’s charged emails — Ginni has previously been rebuked for sending tirades about former president Trump’s 2020 loss to Justice Thomas’ listserv, which includes him and his current and former law clerks. With these new revelations of Ginni’s activities, the final bridge has been crossed.

I’m no believer in the fairy tale we all get told in middle school civics class that the Supreme Court is this mystical and apolitical arbiter of our nation’s most pressing issues — its nine members are just as human, biased, and imperfect as you and I — but for the sake of the Court’s basic integrity, it’s time for Justice Thomas to resign.

If he won’t do that, which, let’s face it, is almost certain, Congress should put impeachment on the table.

Why exactly should Justice Thomas hand in his robe? Obviously, likely no one besides Ginni and Clarence Thomas themselves know what they talk about together. No one can directly prove that Justice Thomas is under the political influence of his wife and her troubling and antidemocratic behavior. He sure is acting like he is though. When one of Trump’s lawsuits seeking to prevent Congress from accessing his records regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection was appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas was the lone dissenter. All eight of his colleagues — including three appointed by Trump himself — voted that the appeals court decision directing the records be handed over to Congress wasn’t worthy of review.

This is worryingly in line with Ginni’s behavior. She attended the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the insurrection itself, and in her recently released texts, she urges Meadows to “Release the Kraken” — a euphemism popular at the time among far-right circles for drumming up allegations of election fraud — and repeatedly asks he ensure Trump remain in office. Interestingly, Meadows himself filed an amicus brief supporting Trump’s side in the above case Justice Thomas said he would have heard. At this point, the list of red flags is a mile long!

When it comes to our judicial system, we must not only ensure that justice is served, but also that there is an appearance that justice is served.

Even if we assume Justice Thomas is doing a perfect job keeping his work separate from his wife’s, it sure doesn’t look like it. This appearance of impropriety threatens the Supreme Court’s integrity, and such a threat should be enough to warrant significant disciplinary action.

Why should such behavior be enough to justify drastic action? Shouldn’t the standard be higher? After all, we are talking about taking a Supreme Court justice’s seat away here. The answer is a resounding no. Justice Thomas isn’t being accused of a crime. He’s not a defendant in court being judged by a jury if he’s guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. What is in question is if he should continue to occupy one of the highest offices of our country, which is both a privilege and an honor. No one should get to have or keep that position if they can’t fulfill the ethics side of the bargain.

We cannot have Supreme Court justices whose judgment appears to have been put in peril.

After all, one of the primary roles of a justice is to make solid assessments of the facts and the law. His now severely compromised situation warrants his replacement. The Supreme Court offers a very generous retirement pension, so it’s not like he’ll be suffering if he calls it quits. It’s time for Justice Thomas to go.

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PAGE 4

FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Singer-Songwriter Christian Beck ’24 appears on ‘American Idol’

BY MAEVE FAIRBANKS The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on April 5, 2022.

What began as a way to pass the time and process his emotions quickly became a passion for Christian Beck ’24, who began singing and songwriting his senior year of high school during the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. In the fall of 2021, he was scouted via TikTok to audition for “American Idol.”

Beck began building a TikTok following in the spring of 2021, after a video of his song “Suit and Tie” — which he co-wrote with his best friend, Kieran Norton ’24 — reached over 10,000 views on the app.

“I was immediately hooked,” Beck said.

“There was all this positive feedback on my song. My friends had been telling me that they liked my songs, but strangers, who had no idea who I was — who had all the right to be mean to me — were liking the music. So that’s when I was like, ‘okay, I need to do this more.’”

Encouraged by his online success, he began posting covers almost every single day and became more serious about songwriting.

“Christian had quite the evolution of songwriting,” Norton said. “When I met him he didn’t have as much confidence in his own writing and singing. It was so amazing to see through all of last year how much progress he made. I’d come into my dorm every single evening and he [was] playing.”

An “American Idol” producer came across a TikTok cover Beck posted of the song “Hurricane” by The Band Of Heathens, which is what prompted her to reach out to Beck.

“It was a full circle moment,” Beck said.

“Those guys [in The Band Of Heathens] went to Dartmouth… and one of the winners [of ‘American Idol’] had sung [‘Hurricane’] before.”

According to Beck, the “American Idol” producer reached out to him on Instagram, stating that she “love[d] his voice” and asking if he had “time to talk.”

The producer asked Beck to attend a Zoom audition two days later with the executive producer of the show. He chose to audition with his original unreleased song, “Runnin’.”

“I was like, ‘shoot, I only get one chance, why would I sing somebody else’s song?’”

Beck said. “At the end of the day, I’m not really just a singer. I’m a songwriter.”

Beck’s past is rich with a history of music, but it wasn’t until the pandemic forced his family into extreme isolation — moving from Louisville, Ky. to a farm away from the city — that he began writing songs.

“My sister has brain cancer. She’s been in remission for two years… but we didn’t know how [COVID-19] was going to affect her,” Beck said. “So we had to be super isolated, we had to lock down tight when [the pandemic] first [began]. I didn’t see anybody, not a single soul, just my family.”

Beck spent his days alone in the woods surrounding his family’s farm, stringing up a hammock between two cedar trees and sitting with his guitar for hours on end.

During those first three months of the pandemic, Christian wrote ten original songs. Now, he’s written more than 80 songs and is working on his first album.

“I fell in love with songwriting,” Beck said. “It was such a revelation because [songwriting] is such a good way to express yourself, share how you’re feeling and what you’ve been through and what your story is.”

Beck originally kept his songwriting private, but after he and Norton were randomly paired as freshman roommates, they began playing music together for their friends and for strangers at parties.

During their sophomore year, their small performances grew into concerts at larger venues, such as fraternities.

“I was nervous about putting myself

Courtesy of Christian Beck via ABC

out there,” Beck said. “I didn’t know how people were gonna think, but I was just like, ‘I’m just gonna do this. I love it. It’s this new thing that I’ve found.’”

When Beck finished singing his song for the producers at his Zoom audition, they asked him about his favorite judges on “American Idol.”

“I was like, ‘oh, I love Katy [Perry],’’ Beck said. “They’re like, ‘Well, that’s good, because you’re gonna be able to see [her] in three weeks, we’re sending you through to the judge audition!’”

When Beck logged off of Zoom, he said that he and Norton screamed and danced around their dorm room in celebration.

It wasn’t until he had finished with that audition and had a plane ticket to Los

Angeles in his hands that his doubts dissolved — and nerves set in.

“I was like, this is real,” Beck said.

“This is TV, you know, it’s high intensity, high pressure. [The judges are] very, very supportive, but if you mess up, you’re gonna be on a bloopers reel.”

Christian brought his sister, AnnaMaria Beck, along with him to the judge audition in Los Angeles for moral support.

“I was standing outside [the audition] with Ryan Seacrest,” Anna-Maria said.

“Christian went in to do his audition and Ryan was like, ‘come here, Anna, let’s see if we can peek inside.’ Technically [I was not] supposed to meet the judges, but Christian is a very good brother, so a few minutes later, Christian came out and

grabbed me and we went back in together.

And that’s when [the judges] gave him his golden ticket.”

A golden ticket is a physical golden ticket, but it also means that the celebrity judges liked Beck’s music enough to send him to another round of auditions in Hollywood. Beck said he is grateful for the whole experience and is especially grateful to have had that moment with his sister.

“To have them bring my sister in after all that we’ve been through together, stand there arm-in-arm when she’s in remission and have them say, ‘you’re going to Hollywood!’ was such an incredible moment,” Beck said. “I’ll never forget it, ever, for the rest of my life – golden ticket or not. But the golden ticket helped.”

Review: “It Ends With Us” is heart-wrenching in the best way

BY Valeria Pereira Quintero The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on April 7, 2022.

I felt nervous buying BookTok’s most popular book, “It Ends With Us,” by Colleen Hoover. I worried that how I felt about this book would sway my future judgments on other books I find through TikTok. I was even more nervous writing a review for it, as, for me, “It Ends With Us” raised the bar for not only all other new adult fiction books, but fiction books across the board. I now understand why there is a cult following for this book and the characters in it.

The slow-burn story follows Lily Bloom, a 23-year-old college graduate, who is in the midst of starting a new, simple life in Boston when she meets neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid. After a few unconventional encounters, they eventually fall in love. Bloom’s relationship with Kincaid gets complicated, however, when Bloom runs into her first love, Atlas Corrigan, with whom she had lost contact with years before. I found the storyline slow-paced when describing

the previous relationship between Bloom and Corrigan, solely because I was hyper-focused on the present relationship between Bloom and Kincaid.

Hoover makes her readers fall deeply in love with each of her book’s characters.

The reader feels the pain of the protagonist when her boyfriend manipulates her love and uses it deceitfully. Hoover is known for using big plot twists in her books and manages to keep the readers hooked the entire time. I knew nothing about the book going in and could have never predicted what the final few pages would hold. I originally thought “It Ends With Us” was a romance novel and was simply waiting for the romance to occur until I realized that the narrative was so much more than a simple boy-meets-girl story.

“It Ends With Us” is a heartbreaking tale about domestic abuse and violence with a heartbreakingly necessary ending.

In interviews and the author’s note to the book, Hoover explained that many events in the book were inspired by real happenings of her and her mother’s life.

She wanted to show how morally gray domestic abuse can seem when true, romantic love is at stake. I believe that Hoover wrote this book specifically to

insert this perspective into the new adult genre. According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control in Georgia, 38.6% of women first experience intimate partner violence between the ages of 18 and 24. As a woman in this age group, and whose friends exclusively consist of others in this same age group, I feel it is almost necessary for me to recommend this book to others.

As a note of caution, I would recommend looking up the trigger warnings for this book before buying it, as there was one moment in the book where I questioned whether I would have to put it down. However, even with the sensitive subject matter, Hoover wrote heartbreaking scenes with such ease that the story flowed well enough that I didn’t feel the need to take a break. Oftentimes, with books that have a lot of emotional turmoil, I need excessive details to fully understand every crevice in the mind of

the protagonist. Hoover, however, was able to build up my love — and my deep trust — for the characters throughout the book and alongside the protagonist without extreme specifics. The book had high highs and low lows, so I’m grateful that Hoover never went too in-depth when talking about these harsh topics. My heart was torn in the most beautiful way — a way in which I could handle.

While I do not believe “It Ends With Us” to be a romance story, it is a love story.

It’s a love story about choosing oneself over someone they love deeply; it’s about choosing to end a cycle of violence that hurts more people than it helps. This book taught me how women in situations of domestic violence may feel torn between someone they took a vow for and their own personal well-being and safety. Domestic violence is more nuanced and complicated than people talk about. I hate to say that, while reading this book, I fell in love with

the abuser the same way Bloom did. I made excuses for him and always thought to myself, “just give him one more chance.”

In an Instagram interaction with Hoover, I attempted to get more information on the upcoming sequel, “It Starts With Us” which is slated to be released in October 2022. I asked Hoover to not “be mean to [Corrigan] in the new book.” She replied, “neverrer.” The typo and extra letters in her response led to some speculation from fans about the new book.

I’m guessing that “It Starts With Us” will follow the aftermath of domestic violence and rebuilding the relationship between the three main characters.

After finishing the book, I set it down with the need to run to the Bema and scream. The ending is beautiful and necessary — I could not recommend this book more.

Rating:

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FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

PAGE 5

SPORTS

Athletics releases Gender Equity Plan after 2020 Title IX case

BY MACENNA HANSEN The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on April 4, 2022.

On March 15, the athletic department released its Gender Equity Plan, an outline to ensure that all aspects of varsity athletics at Dartmouth comply with Title IX by the 2023-2024 academic year. The plan was based on external reviews of athletics at the College, which began as a result of a threatened class action lawsuit by Dartmouth student-athletes in 2021.

Following the summer 2020 elimination of five Dartmouth athletic teams — men’s lightweight rowing, men’s and women’s swimming and diving and men’s and women’s golf — members from the cut women’s teams pursued legal action in December. A total of 21 plaintiffs from the women’s swimming and diving team and the women’s golf team signed on to a letter to College President Phil Hanlon with a lawyer, Arthur Bryant, alleging that Dartmouth was noncompliant with Title IX as a result of the cuts. The case was settled and all five teams were reinstated by the College on January 29, 2021.

The resulting settlement required Dartmouth to conduct a full Title IX gender equity review, which was completed in early January. In addition, the athletic department was required to publicly release an action plan for Title IX improvements by March 15, which the department sent directly to all student-athletes and coaches. The plan

outlines the categories that will change over the next few years in order to be fully compliant with Title IX. “[The plan targets] everything from compliance and human resources, to strength and conditioning and sports medicine,” interim athletics director Peter Roby ’79 said. “All those areas will get additional attention to make it better for our students. And hopefully make it easier for them to accomplish their goals as athletes, and also make their experience better off overall.”

The case was brought forward specifically regarding Title IX’s requirement that participation opportunities for male and female athletes be roughly proportionate to the rate of undergraduate enrollment. The plan addresses other areas as well, such as equal provision of funding, supplies, facilities and attention from the athletic department.

“The good news is it’s not just about checking a box, but there are things here that are really going to make things better,” Roby said. “We’ve committed ourselves to make sure we do those things.”

Bella Lichen ’22, a member of the women’s swimming and diving team and a plaintiff in the case of alleged Title IX violations, said that she has appreciated the athletic department’s efforts under Roby. However, Lichen said she and her fellow plaintiffs felt frustrated throughout the process and with the lack of transparency from Dartmouth’s Title IX office.

“Even though we at Dartmouth have

a Title IX office and Dartmouth Athletics has a Title IX office, it’s really not well mandated unless people come after [the College],” Lichen said. “That’s a little bit discouraging. But at the same time, this is activism in action and really cool to be part of.”

The Gender Equity Plan aims to achieve equity across all sports, not just those which were eliminated in 2020. Amy Shohet ’23, a member of the women’s lacrosse team, cited disparities in facilities’ locations and qualities as examples of where the department needs to focus these coming improvements.

“When they said they were coming out with this [the Gender Equity Plan], I knew it was totally reasonable and necessary,” Shohet said. “There’s definitely a discrepancy between men’s and women’s sports, even if it’s not obvious to every women’s team and every men’s team.

Roby also highlighted that many of the changes discussed in the plan will be gradual, as it will take time to ensure facilities and staff are equal with minimal disruptions to student-athletes and coaches. He added that the athletic department will be reporting on the status of the plan every year in March for the next three years.

“At the end of the day, I hope students, particularly women, would feel that their experience was a positive one and they got the support they deserved and they feel a sense of pride in being an athlete at Dartmouth,” Roby said. “[I think this will] end up putting the athletic department in a position for success in the future.”

Courtesy of Kristen Chen

The Gender Equity Plan outlines how the College will ensure gender equity in varsity athletics by the 2023-2024 academic year.

PAGE 6

MIRROR

FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022

THE DARTMOUTH MIRROR

Saying Hello and Goodbye to Dartmouth in My Final Term STORY

By Novi Zhukovsky

This article was originally published on April 6, 2022.

Senior Spring: My final, prodigal term at Dartmouth College. In a lot of ways, the start to this quarter has felt extremely ordinary: The usual pre-class jitters, luxuriously long Foco dinners with friends recounting every detail of break, neglecting to unpack my suitcase until week two — the list goes on. But as the spring weather brings the shrubbery back to life, my time at the College dwindles away with each new sprouting flower. Speaking technically, as it is currently week two, I am somehow already a fifth of the way through the term.

Before leaving home at the end of spring break, my mother kept asking me: “How do you feel about graduating so soon? About leaving college?” Her probe immediately reminded me of the annual birthday question: “How does it feel to be a year older?” It’s a coin toss whether I’ll answer the question honestly by shrugging my shoulders in ambivalence or offer some sarcastic anecdote about finding new wrinkles on my forehead. I feel similarly about answering her question about my senior spring. Honestly, I’m just as curious about my feelings as she is.

Moments like these — ones that demarcate life transitions — often come with the expectation of instilling some tangible gut feeling. But honestly? I have no idea how to quantify my feelings about my final weeks here. There are things, specific things, that I am excited about or am anxious for. Maybe it will help me digest my feelings about my final term by going step by step, looking at the little things.

I am excited to get my diploma. I can tell what you’re thinking; we all know a diploma is just a useless sheet of paper our parents will hang up in our old childhood bedroom, left to collect dust and occasionally be admired when used as bragging material around guests. But

even though it is the electronic record that really matters for proving I passed 35 classes over four years, the sheet of paper with my name on it is, for me, a tangible representation of my perseverance. And, well, I guess it’s for my parents, too. But maybe I’ll take my diploma and hang it up in my first apartment. That sounds like a nice idea to me.

I am nervous to say goodbye. Not to my best friends or the people I know I will keep in touch with after I graduate, but to the College itself. The walls, the classrooms — God, the library. These buildings carry so much meaning to me, to my relationships, my work; they’ve seen me in so many phases of life, so many states of being, both physically and mentally, that my family and friends will likely never know of. I’ve aged alongside the increasingly decrepit wooden chairs in the 1902 room. We’ve worn out together, and seen so many come and go through the portrait-laden walls. I know that it will all be there when I graduate and return as a visitor. But then, these places won’t really be mine anymore.

Come June, I’ll be saying goodbye to my chairs, my desks, my steps, my streets — the ones that were always there for my use. I won’t be there to see them age and change and get renovated and zhuzhed up. They won’t be as familiar, as easily remembered.

They’ll belong to a new group of students, and then a new group after that. That is a beautiful thing, but also a sad thing.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not trying to anthropomorphize wooden structures. But during my most lonely times in this place, it was the walls around me that provided me with comfort, the ghosts of students past that made me feel seen. I hope my ghost continues to linger above Alcove III in Sanborn, providing company to all who are struggling to find their place at this college.

I am scared to relinquish my identity as a student. I have been a student for as

GAIA YUN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

long as my memory reaches — learning, developing and molding, with so much help along the way. I have also benefited from holding the title of a student; learning implies making mistakes — of which I have made many in the past 21 years, but are certainly concentrated in my most recent four. Being a student carries with it the expectation that we have to fail in order to grow, which transforms our mistakes into growing pains: unpleasant, but necessary. I wonder how my entrance into the professional world will change this dynamic. The mistakes I make in the workforce will have different implications than when I mess up a tricky exam question.

Will I suddenly be labeled an “adult,” expected to perform up to par as soon as

I don business casual attire and step into a corporate setting? Maybe. But perhaps I am ready for the responsibility. I can take the skills I have learned from failing and restarting and channel them into my new endeavors. The stakes are higher, but I am also undeniably wiser than I was when I started college.

Lastly — and perhaps the scariest worry of them all — is how I will look back on this spring term when it’s all over. Will it live up to the lore of senior springs past, filled with excessive debauchery, sunny outdoor adventures and cemented friendships? Or will it make me feel slightly sick of this place and provide me with the closure I need to leave and never turn back? I know that the possibility that this quarter will somehow

unfold in a way that can be packaged up into a neat narrative is slim to none, but as a writer, it’s hard to stop myself from trying to parse it out before it’s even over.

I guess I can take solace in what I do know: This term will be messy, emotional, glorious and probably even a little boring at times — as is life. At the end of this piece, I still don’t know how I feel about this term as a whole, and of the things I can anticipate, I am both excited and scared. So no, mom, I don’t have an answer to your question, and I may never have one. All I can say is how lucky I am to be able to be part of this experience that has inspired so many wonderful, complicated and challenging feelings and that makes saying goodbye so hard.

Hometown Humility: A Jog Down Memory Lane STORY

By Adrienne Murr

This article was originally published on April 6, 2022.

When I traveled home for spring break, Mill Valley, California no longer felt like mine. Maybe it was the disconcertingly hot weather or the way that my house had a distinct smoky citrus smell like that of a tasteful stranger’s, but something felt distant, removed. Most unnerving was the evident ease with which the town had run in my absence. Tam High had a new set of burnt-out seniors, toiling through the college application process; Greg had hastily hired my replacement — a perky hostess in Chuck Taylors — and my parents had adopted an only vaguely recognizable nighttime routine. Life at home had moved on without me.

I coped with my detachment by indulging in childlike behaviors: ice cream sandwiches on the porch, solitary laps around the little league baseball diamond, foraging for four leaf clovers and snacking on finger food from Joe’s Taco Lounge. These remedies proved to be fruitless attempts at regenerating an outdated sense of belonging. With a fistful of three leaf clovers, I was out of luck; I was no longer a child, and Mill Valley was no longer my home.

If the carry-on suitcase I received as a gift for my 18th birthday was

any indication, college is a period of impermanence. I belong to a band of displaced pre-professionals, always in transit, never fully settled. Uprooted.

I’ve learned to purchase face wash in travel-sized units and navigate through Boston Logan airport with just ten minutes until boarding. I’ve stopped scouring the flea market for wall art because every time I tape up a poster, I can only imagine tearing it back down. My parents’ house is merely a pitstop, a purgatory, between Dartmouth College and wherever else adulthood takes me. Home is a place of permanent residence. I, along with most other college students, don’t have one of those anymore.

Initially, I relished in the anonymity that came with being a tourist in my hometown. I used the insignificance of my existence in Mill Valley as an excuse to engage in otherwise absurd activities. Nobody recognized me! My behavior became increasingly erratic.

“Is she ok?” I envisioned strangers thinking as they observed me take a midday nap in Hawke Park or belt a shitty rendition of The Kooks “Taking Pictures of You” as I jogged down Blithedale Ridge. I acted on every impulse. But this liberation was shortlived — swiftly replaced by a state of dissociation. Nobody recognized me.

I am no longer twelve years old; that’s a tough pill to swallow. My dad

JANE HUANG/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

once told me that when he looks in the mirror he is greeted by a college-aged reflection. Initially, I thought this was one of his many flopped punchlines.

It wasn’t.

I shouldn’t have been so surprised — I too am out of touch with my age.

Irrationally, everytime I pass a tween in my hometown, I expect to know them. When I can’t place a face, I feel like a passive observer to the reality I once lived. The only thing scarier than the gaggle of pre-teens loitering outside of the Starbucks on Camino Alto is my inability to recognize any of them. Am I getting… old? I wonder what they see as I walk past them.

Perhaps they don’t really see me at all.

Despite the swarm of unfamiliar faces, life at home was hauntingly the same. Sure, the little things had shifted, but Mill Valley Market sold the same assortment of hotbar delicacies and Mount Tam sat as poised and handsome as always.

These consistencies allowed me to slip into the monotonous rhythm of old routines. The only thing new about Mill Valley was my foreign relation to it. Here I was, an eighteen-yearold woman, being woken up by my mother, called down for dinner and nagged to take one more bite of my dinner. This set the tone for the rest of the week. My time in Mill Valley was reminiscent of trips to grandma’s house: Nostalgic, constrained and fleeting.

In the end, it was the little things that got me — bike helmets, the girlish shrieks and splashes of a marco polo game, the Mill Valley Middle School lunch bell and smooth, unsalted Laura Scudder’s peanut butter. Bittersweet fragments of adolescence teased me at every corner. I’ll never trick-or-treat again or beg mom for a sleepover.

I’ll never walk home from school or design an obnoxiously feminine ice cream cake. Pretend as I might, I’m no longer a kid. The suburb that raised me has moved on to a new generation.

As I write this, I am tempted to end on the “college is my new home” trope. But not everything needs to be wrapped up in a pretty little bow. Kids grow up. Parents grow old. Everything is temporary, and sometimes, life moves on without you.

KALYN DAWES/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

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