VOL. CLXXVIV NO. 7
FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2022
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Students react to Supreme Court’s Town Meeting votes to decision to overturn Roe v. Wade approve new zoning district on West Wheelock Street
ANDREW CHEN/THE DARTMOUTH
The article, which was proposed by student body president-elect David Millman ’23 and Nicolas Macri ’24, will help to alleviate the College’s housing crisis.
Campus responses included two reproductive rights rallies on the Green.
BY AUDREY O’BRIEN The Dartmouth
This article was originally published on May 12, 2022. Following a leaked draft indicating the Supreme Court’s decision to potentially strike down Roe v. Wade, which made national headlines on May 2, students organized reproductive rights rallies on May 6 and May 11 to demonstrate support for abortion access. Under the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, the Supreme Court established that access to abortion is a fundamental liberty protected under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, according to government professor Sonu Bedi. However, the leaked draft opinion of the Supreme Court would overturn this precedent, denying that there is fundamental liberty to abortion access
in the U.S. Constitution and leaving the decision of abortion access up to the federal and state governments. “If it turns out that Roe is overturned, then it will leave those that are pro-life and pro-choice to advocate for whatever their particular view is through states,” Bedi said. Bedi said the leak of this opinion is “unprecedented” because it is the first time the public has ever seen a draft opinion of this magnitude. The leaked document does not include dissenting opinions and, though the final opinion is not likely to change drastically, Bedi said that the dissenting opinion is important in exercising the practice of disagreement in the Supreme Court. “I think that in the midst of a decision like this, you feel so powerless, and you feel like there’s nothing you can really do,” College Democrats president Gabi Rodriguez ’23 said. “Especially when it’s
KATELYN HADLEY/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
[a decision made] by the Supreme Court, who are unelected judges sitting on a bench that we have no say in, you can feel really powerless.” Rodriguez said her personal reaction upon hearing the leaked decision included anger, devastation and fright. However, she said that she and other members of the College Democrats gathered to organize a response and provide emotional support for one another. Rodriguez added that many College Democrats attended the reproductive rights rally on May 6. The reproductive rights rally took place on the Green and was attended by approximately 100 people, according to Hannah Kadin ’23. Spare Rib magazine community development lead Caty Brown ’23 said that the rally was organized by Spare Rib, the Dartmouth Student Union, Planned Parenthood Generation Action SEE ROE V. WADE PAGE 2
Miles Brown ’23 to run for NH House seat
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PHOTO COURTESY OF MILES BROWN
BY SAM BROOK NEWS
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REVIEW: RINA SAWAYAMA’S CONCERT PAGE 4
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Former College Democrats president Miles Brown ’23 announced his campaign for New Hampshire state representative on Instagram and Twitter on Thursday. Brown, a government major from West Hartford, Conn., will campaign over the summer leading up to the state Democratic primaries on Sept. 13 and plans to focus on student voting rights and mental health. Brown is running for a seat in Grafton County’s 12th district, a district with four seats in the state legislature that includes the towns of Hanover and Lyme. Brown said that he plans to stay in New Hampshire over the summer to campaign, and if elected, he will remain in the Granite State for the entirety of his two-year term. “Being representative in the New Hampshire house would be my top priority, I wouldn’t plan on missing any votes or hearings,” Brown said, adding that he would rearrange his class schedule to allow for drives to Concord. Candidates for state off ice are required to file their campaigns by early June. Currently, anyone living in New Hampshire and eligible to vote in the United States can file to run in New Hampshire. The primary will take place on Sept. 13 and election day will be on Nov. 8. Brown served from Jan. 2021 to April 2022 on the executive board for the
Hanover and Lyme Town Democrats and the Upper Valley Democrats. “I think I have the connections necessary to work with both students and town residents, which I hope to represent equally,” Brown said. Brown said that he first realized he wanted to run for political office after seeing presidential candidates speak on campus in 2019 and working for former state representative Garret Muscatel ’20. “I remember within the span of three weeks going to see Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigeg, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar — all within a five-minute walk from my dorm,” Brown said. “It was a really special moment where I was like ‘wow.’ As residents of New Hampshire we have real opportunity to shape the country.” If elected, Brown plans to focus on upholding voting rights, especially for college students. “There have been numerous attempts in the past few years in the New Hampshire state legislature to restrict student voting,” Brown said. “I want to be a voice for young people and college students in the state … the idea that I might not be able to cast a ballot here is pretty frightening.” Brown said that the second main policy issue he would like to focus on, if elected, is student mental health. “I am hopeful that as a young person, as a college student who is more in tune with the recent developments [in] mental health and treatment, that I can help
BY THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF This article was originally published on May 10, 2022. On Tuesday, Article 11 — a residential housing ordinance — was passed at the annual Hanover Town Meeting by a vote of 775 to 565, according to numbers from the Valley News. The warrant for the meeting states that the passage of Article 11 will establish a new zoning district along West Wheelock Street. Student body president-elect David Millman ’23, one of the students who petitioned to get the article on the town meeting ballot, said the passage of Article 11 is “the biggest change to housing availability in recent history in the town of Hanover.” Millman said that he has been pushing for the construction of on-campus housing — the lack of which has been an endemic issue on campus — since the College announced the return of a lottery system for fall housing. Article 11 originated as a studentsubmitted petition, which reintroduced a similar amendment that failed in 2015. It will establish a new “Main Wheelock District” zoning district, allowing for high-density residential and commercial use along West Wheelock Street. Millman said Article 11 could “very realistically” add hundreds of beds to Dartmouth housing within a few years. “I think it’ll really be impactful to not only the housing crisis, but also to [prove] what students can do when we all put our energy behind a common
reform New Hampshire’s education surrounding mental health,” Brown said. “I think New Hampshire [K-12] schools can be doing a much better job.” Specifically, Brown said that New Hampshire should ensure mental health days for students, in which students take days off from school to address mental health issues. He noted that in most United States public schools, mental health concerns are not considered an excused absence from miss class. “By allowing students to take those days off from school we could give them a break and help them recover,” he said. Brown said he has around 20 volunteers who plan to work on his campaign. According to Brown, Prescott Herzog ’25 and Sophia Bokaie ’24 will serve in larger roles in the campaign, though their specific roles have not yet been determined. Bokaie said that she first met Brown after getting involved with the College Democrats during her freshman year and has worked with him through the club ever since. “[Brown] is very well respected by not only Dartmouth peers, but also by other elected officials in New Hampshire politics,” Bokaie said. “To represent Hanover … having a student voice, is very important,” she added. Herzog, who is from Claremont, N.H., said that he has been involved with Upper Valley politics for “some time” and has witnessed Brown’s leadership in the College Democrats. “I really believe [Brown] not only wants to represent the students but also be very impactful in his policy weight,” Herzog said. The College Democrats will endorse Brown for state office, according to the organization’s president, Gabi Rodriguez ’23. “[ Brown] is really dedicated, organized and has a real knack for
cause,” Millman said. In 2015, the same proposition failed in a vote of 719 to 453, according to the town meeting minutes. Since then, the amendment was revised to increase housing capacity by 20% by raising the proposed building height from 50 to 60 feet. Millman said that this year’s successful vote was made possible by “hundreds of students” who went to the polls at the Hanover High School gymnasium. “I think it’s really amazing — the changes that we can make and the impact we can have,” Millman said. Also on Tuesday, Articles Two through Seven — all of which were recommended by the Hanover Planning Board — were passed by margins over 900 votes, according to the town meeting minutes. These amendments addressed issues like limits on solar energy systems, accessory dwelling units and retaining walls. At the meeting, Articles Eight through 10, which were also proposed by Dartmouth students, were rejected by margins of over 700 votes. These amendments would have addressed issues that relate to housing, such as amending the definition of “family” for defining residential occupancy limits and removing “student residences” from the list of land uses permitted only by special exception. Articles 13 through 26, which concerned various budget items ranging from changes to tax exemptions to appropriations of town funds for public infrastructure improvement, were all passed at the town business meeting.
leadership,” Rodriguez said. “He fights for what he believes in [and] is a strong supporter of progressive issues.” Currently, in the 12th district, there are four state representatives but none of them are students, according to Brown. With over 4,000 undergraduate students in the district, Brown said there should be a student representative in Concord. “We need to send a student to the state House to reflect the interest of young people,” Brown said. “There are plenty of legislators that have been in the state House for upwards of 10 terms now and it’s time to have some fresh ideas, new perspectives.”
FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2022
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THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Asian American & Pacific Islander Greek spaces kick off preHeritage Month celebrates community rush events this spring
BY SHENA HAn
The Dartmouth Staff
Throughout the month of May, a student planning committee in collaboration with the Office of Pluralism and Leadership hosted a series of events to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month on campus. Activities included a free boba tea event, a symposium about Asian American Studies and a South Asian dance workshop. According to committee member Gabrielle Park ’25, the theme for AAPIHM this year is “Constellations.” “We wanted to explore the ways that the Asian American Pacific Islander community forms connections within itself, and also with other marginalized communities,” Park said. In line with the theme, committee co-chair Deborah Jung ’24 said that AAPIHM events began with a boba tea kickoff at the Collis Center on April 28, and that attendees were encouraged to sign star stickers with their names and use them to decorate a banner. She added that there was “good turnout” for the event. “[The line] went all the way around the corner past Collis because people were pretty excited,” Jung said. AAPIHM planning committee cochair Karen Zheng ’22 added that after the kickoff, AAPIHM co-sponsored a Lei Day event in celebration of Native Hawaiian identities, a Bollywood and Chinese folk dance workshop and a symposium on May 9 where three Asian American postdoctoral fellows gave presentations on the expansion of Asian American studies at Dartmouth. She added that the committee wanted to hold many of its events in conjunction with other AAPI student groups. “Our first event was in cooperation
with the Dartmouth Asian Organization,” she said. “Our dance event was in collaboration with Raaz, the South Asian dance group on campus. And then [the symposium] was in collaboration with Dartmouth Asian American Studies Collective, DAASC.” According to OPAL, Lei Day was also hosted in collaboration with Hōkūpaʻa, the Native American Program and PRIDE 2022. Jung said that it was very important to the AAPIHM planning committee that they “make a conscious effort” to represent AAPI groups beyond those that are “unambiguously seen as Asian American.” “We wanted to bring in Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian and South Asian groups and let people know that Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month is not just for Chinese, Japanese, Korean people,” Jung said. “It’s for everybody who identifies as Asian American or Pacific Islander.” Guarini graduate fellow in Asian American Studies MT Vallarta said that they enjoyed participating in the symposium as a way to share their research and hear student perspectives on the pursuit of an Asian American Studies program at Dartmouth. Vallarta added that they shared their experiences as an undergraduate student organizer at University of California, Berkeley and provided history about the history of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley. “[The students] just wanted to hear about what I thought an institutionalized Asian American Studies program at Dartmouth could look like and ways we could better support this critical movement that’s currently happening,” Vallarta said. Vallarta also said that for them,
AAPIHM represents an opportunity for individuals who are not Asian American or Pacific Islander to learn more about the history of AAPI political struggle. “Asian American Studies isn’t just concerned with interrogating the lives, identities and experiences of Asian Americans, but it’s also about challenging power, hierarchy, dominance and really examining the history of colonialism and revolutionary struggle in east, south, southeast and west Asia,” they said. Zheng said that the committee has been meeting since winter term to organize a series of cultural and educational events with the goal of raising awareness about AAPI history and heritage. Park said that as a freshman , she found it easy to get involved with the committee and plans to work with it again next year. “I really enjoyed working with the other members of the community, committee and also local staff,” Park said. “They’re all really passionate people and work hard for the AAPI community.” Jung said that there will be a gala on May 22 at the Hood Museum of Art, including a Pan Asian Community awards ceremony and stole presentation. Jung added that the largest event of AAPIHM will be a moderated virtual discussion with poet and essayist Cathy Hong Park to be held on May 13 at 5:30 p.m. Park is the author of New York Times bestseller “Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning,” a collection of essays about Asian American identity. “I highly recommend [‘Minor Feelings’] if you’re interested at all in Asian American studies or in race. It’s also just a really funny, entertaining book,” Jung said. “[Zheng] and I will be talking to her, and there will be space for audience questions, and I think it will generally be a good time.”
Classes of 2020, 2021 allowed to return for Green Key PB Concert
BY LAUREN AZRIN
The Dartmouth Staff
This article was originally published on May 10, 2022. After two years of pandemic-related cancellations, Green Key is returning to campus from May 19-21, accompanied by a new no-guest policy for the Programming Board concert except for members of the Classes of 2020 and 2021. Similar to current students, ’20s and ’21s can request a wristband to enter the concert through the Programming Board’s Eventbrite website. Eligible alumni can then pick up their wristbands on campus on either the Thursday or Friday before Green Key, according to director of student involvement David Pack. Pack said the Programming Board’s event guest policy is an attempt to provide recent alumni with an experience they lost as a result of the pandemic. “[The Programming Board] felt it was really important to be able to at least offer that opportunity to the ’20s and ’21s who had missed their Green Key,” he said. Emma Elsbecker ’24, the concerts director of the Programming Board, said that coming back for Green Key will be a way for these students to make up a “big tradition at Dartmouth that they
didn’t get to experience.” “I think it’s kind of helping fill in some of those things that they missed during COVID,” she said. Elsbecker said that she anticipates alumni will return to Hanover for Green Key, and she believes that they will be eager for a “big reunion.” Elsbecker added that Green Key is a way for recent alumni to reunite with peers, many of whom they may not have seen since the onset of the pandemic. The decision to only allow the two most recent graduating classes back as guests is an effort by the Programming Board to protect the “future” of Green Key, Elsbecker said. “The town hasn’t dealt with Green Key in a while, and we’re working with a new police force and fire force, so we want a Green Key that is safe and under control to ensure that it can continue to happen in future years,” Elsbecker said. Pack explained that the Programming Board’s goal this year is to be proactive to ensure that the town is “happy with the outcome” of the concert. “In the years pre-COVID, the town has expressed concerns about the volume of attendance at the concert,” Pack said. “It stretches the community and safety resources of the town.” The Programming Board’s ticketing method, which Elsbecker said requires intensive hours from student volunteers,
is another factor contributing to the event’s restricted guest policy. With only a third of the volunteer workforce compared to previous years, Elsbecker said that the Programming Board feels that they “don’t have the student support to be able to do it in other ways.” Tim Holman ’20, president of the 2020 Class Executive Committee, said that he is returning to campus for the event, adding that those coming back to Dartmouth are looking forward to reconnecting with friends that they haven’t seen in years. Holman said he plans on “soaking up as much Dartmouth as possible” during a weekend that he views as a celebration of reunion and perseverance. Katie Goldstein ’20, secretary of the 2020 Class Executive Committee, said that this opportunity gives alumni a chance to relive a memory that they weren’t able to experience in their senior year. “I really hope ’20s can take advantage of this opportunity,” Goldstein said. Goldstein did express disappointment that the logistical challenges of coming back to campus — which include securing housing and balancing work commitments — may prohibit many ’20s and ’21s from attending Green Key. “I do think it’s a great opportunity,” Goldstein said. “It’s just one that I do think comes with inevitable challenges.”
‘You feel so powerless’: Supreme Court draft prompts campus action FROM ROE V. WADE PAGE 1
and other individuals. Brown said the rally was intended to spark a campus-wide conversation by bringing together various student organizations. She said that five students spoke at the protest to amplify their own perspectives and experiences and to articulate the implications and “disproportionate effects” of the Supreme Court decision. “A goal of this protest was not to just display dissent and then be done; we didn’t want it to end there,” Brown said. She said that Spare Rib set up various tables with informational resources about current reproductive access, how to obtain birth control in New Hampshire, how access to resources may change as well as a separate table open for people to convey the changes they want to see from the College – specifically, Dartmouth stepping up to provide reproductive care which the state may not provide. In addition to the May 6 protest, another rally took place on May 11 on the Green. This gathering was co-sponsored
by the Graduate Women in Science and Engineering, the Upper Valley chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Dartmouth’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America and the women, gender and sexuality studies program, according to a post on GWISE’s Instagram. According to Kadin, who also attended the May 11 rally, around 50 students and community members gathered on the Green before heading to College president Phil Hanlon’s residence. Aileen Eagleton GR’23, one of the rally’s organizers affiliated with GWISE, said that the group went to Hanlon’s house due to his silence on the leaked draft, noting that “nothing has been released from the administration” regarding abortion rights. Eagleton said that an open letter to “[put] pressure on the administration to do something” is in the works. Other gatherings included a group from SOCY 49.27, “Transnational Feminist Sociology,” who made signs in support of reproductive rights and cheered to cars passing by the intersection of Main Street
and West Wheelock Street during their class period on May 5, according to Maanasi Shyno ’23. Grayling Peterson ’24, a member of the College Libertarians and a pro-life advocate, said he was surprised that the College has not been “more vocally pro-choice.” Peterson said he was shocked upon hearing about the leak, adding that he believes life starts at conception and should be protected. Peterson said the leaked decision gives him “a little bit of hope” for ending abortion access, but he doesn’t think that overturning Roe v. Wade is going to change what people believe— which he said is the bigger issue. With midterm elections coming up later this year, Rodriguez said that the focus of activism should turn toward electoral change. “Hopefully, it’s going to be a wake-up call for people that might not have been involved previously with politics, ‘’ Rodriguez said. “[Hopefully they will] be able to see the importance of trying — keyword is trying — to get your voice out there and specifically to elect pro-choice representatives.” Daniel Modesto ’24 contributed reporting.
BEAM LERTBUNNAPHONGS/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Sororities, fraternities and gender-inclusive houses have hosted pre-rush events at which prospective members can get to know the various Greek houses on campus.
BY ANGUS Yip & carly retterer The Dartmouth Staff
Spring term marks the informal start of rush, in which sororities, fraternities and gender-inclusive houses host events for potential new members. The events aim to give prospective members the opportunity to get to know the houses. Sorority events According to an email sent by the InterSorority Council to campus on April 24, all eight ISC sororities on campus — Alpha Phi sorority, Alpha Xi Delta sorority, Chi Delta sorority, Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority, Kappa Delta sorority, Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and Sigma Delta sorority — are hosting various pre-rush events from May 1 to May 21. Sigma Delt rush chair Emily Hester ’23 said that her sorority has hosted three prerush events this term, including an equity and inclusion discussion panel, a backyard event where potential new members could talk to sisters and small-group “sister dates,” where three potential new members could meet with a sister in person. Though Hester said she does not know the exact number of attendees at each event, she said the level of interest has been “comparable” to events hosted in previous years. “For our backyard event, it seems like there were definitely over 80 PNMs, so that was a good, high turnout,” Hester said. Beatriz Falcao ’25 said that she has attended pre-rush events at four sororities, adding that her experience has improved her view of Greek life. “Coming into Dartmouth, I was a little scared [of Greek life] — as an international student, we have very limited contact with Greek life in general,” Falcao said. “But after having a few conversations about diversity and inclusion, I really heard stories that made me much more confident about Greek life as an inclusive space.” She noted that she has participated in “sister dates” at two houses, which she said have been “really good” experiences. “Before we dive into rush, it’s really important that we are aware of the values of each house, and that’s what I’ve been learning at these events,” Falcao said. Fraternity events So far, Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity, Beta Alpha Omega fraternity, Bones Gate fraternity, Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity, Phi Delta Alpha fraternity, Psi Upsilon fraternity, Scarlett Hall fraternity, Sigma Nu fraternity, Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity and Zeta Psi fraternity have hosted events for pre-rush, according to emails sent to prospective brothers. Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity has also reached out to potential new members, inviting them to meet with executives. Alpha Chi rush chair Ethan Litmans ’24 said around 180 potential new members showed up to the fraternity’s first pre-rush event, while approximately 140 attended the second. Litmans said that Alpha Chi’s pool of prospective members comes from two sources. First, the Interfraternity Council sent a poll to members of the Class of 2025 in March to gauge their interest in rushing. Those who indicated that they were interested were compiled into a list, which was then sent to each fraternity. According to Litmans, Alpha Chi also keeps a separate list of prospective members, composed of people who are “friends with brothers in the house or that
brothers know are interested in the house,” who also receive invitations to pre-rush events. At pre-rush events, the fraternities aim to give prospective brothers a fun experience while helping them get to know the house, Litmans said. “It was also pretty fun for us,” Litmans said. “We did a lot of activities at the house [including] various games in each of the rooms.” Ben Kesselman ’25, who attended pre-rush events at Alpha Chi and Bones Gate, said the events gave him a “sense of which ones [he] definitely wouldn’t rush.” He added that he has not checked out all of the houses yet, so he is not sure which he prefers. “If there’s a frat that works well for me, I’ll rush it,” Kesselman said. “If not, then I won’t. I feel like right now at all the events the guys are supposed to be nice and talkative, so it’s really hard to get an actual vibe of what they’re like.” Each IFC fraternity, with the exception of non-IFC fraternity Scarlett Hall, also participated in the IFC barbecue on May 8. During this time, students who plan to rush could move between houses to get to know the different brothers. Gender-inclusive Greek house events The three gender-inclusive houses on campus — Alpha Theta gender-inclusive Greek house, Phi Tau coed fraternity and The Tabard coed fraternity — have also hosted events for potential new members this spring. Former Alpha Theta president Mara Kotz ’22 said that Alpha Theta has hosted “casual” events such as s’mores nights, movie nights and meet-and-greets this term. “These are just cute, small events where you can hang out and are definitely not mandatory for rush,” Kotz said. She added that students can be considered for a bid even if they do not attend pre-rush events by contacting Alpha Theta’s recruitment chair. Phi Tau rush chair Calvin George ’24 said the house holds two rush-oriented events per term, but he clarified that the events are not “set aside for 25s or for rush specifically” — anyone on campus can attend. This term, the house planned a “candy pong” game and an upcoming s’mores night. Kotz also noted that gender-inclusive houses conduct rush on “slightly different” timelines than fraternities and sororities. Whereas fraternities and sororities conduct rush in the fall and winter, Alpha Theta conducts rush once every term, while The Tabard and Phi Tau conduct a “rolling” rush process where students can rush at any time, Kotz said. Anell Paulino ’25 said that she has attended several events at Alpha Theta, which she described as “super chill.” “I’m just getting to know the members there, which is very fun, and everyone’s super sweet,” she said. Paulino said she is interested in rushing a gender-inclusive house because it provides a space on campus where she feels “accepted and welcomed.” “I feel like there’s a good space for everybody now, which is a complete contrast to what I initially thought,” she said. “Because I’ve found the space that I feel like I’m going to rush, I’m excited to see where the journey is headed, but I’m also curious to see if there are other spaces that I feel like I belong to.”
FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2022
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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
THE DARTMOUTH EDITORIAL BOARD
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST KAVYA NIVARTHY ’25
Verbum Ultimum: A Space to Grieve
Don’t Cancel Student Debt
A year later, the College must give students space for collective healing.
The turbulence that was the 2020-21 academic year will not escape the collective memory of the Dartmouth student body. Last year, mental health for many students was at rock bottom; COVID-19 policies were strict and students were feeling the disruption of an ongoing pandemic. This was especially difficult for the Class of 2024, as they transitioned into a new space without much support. Three first-year students — Beau DuBray ’24, Connor Tiffany ’24 and Elizabeth Reimer ’24 — died by suicide, and a fourth student — Lamees Kareem ’22 — died of a medical condition. Despite some small efforts otherwise, Dartmouth has yet to come together as a whole community to grieve the loss of these students. As we approach the anniversary of Elizabeth’s death and the widespread outrage directed at the College which accompanied it, the Editorial Board calls on the administration to remember these losses. A year later, we are still in need of community healing — and the College must dedicate a student-centered space for each of these lives to be remembered. The loss of one classmate alone is cause for mourning. In May of 2020, as the COVID-19 death count reached 100,000 lives, Meghan O’Rourke wrote a piece for The Atlantic reflecting on individual grief in the midst of a pandemic. Grief, she wrote, is just as physical as it is mental — leading to “changes in cortisol levels, memory, sleep, and appetite, leaving the mourner exhausted, scattered, struggling to resume ‘normalcy.’” In an especially poignant moment, O’Rourke wrote, “I thought about how different it is to mourn a single death and to mourn a death in the middle of a mass trauma — to mourn amid so much death.” Our community experienced the loss of four classmates while living through a global pandemic, creating layers of collective trauma that are still deeply felt within our community. Sociologist Kai Erikson describes collective trauma as a force that breaks bonds and tears apart the sense of community holding people together. Resulting from a traumatic event which touches even those people who were not directly involved, collective trauma leaves the overwhelming sense that a part of every individual has been lost — and the community itself “no longer exists as an effective source of support.” This communal wound may be collective, but it is felt on an individual level. And the experience of grief leaves us with more than just an emotional burden: The trauma that comes with loss, whether individual or collective, can have intense mental health consequences for individuals — ranging from short-term anxiety or depression to long-term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And though it may seem like an individual burden, healing from collective trauma is just that: collective. There must be emotional support, strong social networks, integration and a community commitment to healing. Due to the ongoing pandemic, there were no formal memorials for the individual students — frequently leaving us, their classmates, to grieve alone. Many of us could not find closure. We could not honor the lives lost or the lasting impact the losses would have on our community. And though the College held a vigil after the death of Elizabeth, this was both too little and too late. To many members of this Editorial Board, it felt performative and like an easy fix for a long-term
problem. Moreover, students who were not in the Upper Valley could not attend the vigil — and were left without any community within which they could heal. In the absence of meaningful mourning, students took it upon themselves to start this healing process. In May 2021, Elizabeth’s friends created a memorial in her honor. Last weekend, there was an honoring for Beau at the Powwow — with a meaningful commitment to continue honoring Beau in the future, hopefully with his family present. This ceremony was both beautiful and powerful. It allowed Beau to be honored within his own culture. It allowed students a space to grieve together. It allowed for catharsis. It was the first step in a long future of community healing from this collective trauma we endured — as we attempt to make some meaning out of our worlds which have been shaken. Time may heal all wounds, but it has not been enough time for these wounds to heal. Powwow demonstrated how these wounds are still very much open. And while individual students may still be grieving the loss of their friend or classmate, the community as a whole is attempting to heal, and searching for a collective meaning within the traumatic memories of last year. The silence by the College in this regard is painful. Each anniversary pulls the wound open. We need to be together as a community — because in the collective, you know you are not alone. You know you are not the only one, even subconsciously, struggling to return to normalcy after last year. O’Rourke writes, “As we build new practices for this moment, we must name the void: To mourn in a moment of collective grief is to experience not one but multiple layers of loss.” Yes, we are students at an Ivy League institution. But we are human — not machines. The College needs to recognize this and build time into the term for grieving, for healing. And they must offer a space to do so. The administration should work with students to create a permanent physical space in remembrance of the classmates and friends we lost last year. It should not be overpowering; it is not for optics. The space should be created in a meaningful and accessible place that students can use for reflection, in genuine honor of Beau, Connor, Elizabeth and Lamees. It cannot be up to students to sacrifice time they might otherwise use for working or studying to take for grieving. Moreover, they will not. No matter how badly we might like to, it can feel like a waste of time. And most likely, the people you would grieve with are people you have before — not addressing the collective nature of this trauma. O’Rourke finished her article with a critical reflection which we urge everyone to pay attention to: “[P]erhaps the key thing I learned is that grief needs a vessel: It needs language, it needs lamentation, it needs expression, it needs demarcation in time; it demands a pause in everyday activity.” If nothing else, we encourage professors and administrators alike to give students the grace to pause. We have not paused — and if we do not take time to heal as a community, the effects of this collective trauma will only get stronger. The loss of our classmates is not something that can or will be forgotten. The editorial board consists of opinion staff columnists, the opinion editors, the executive editors and the editor-in-chief.
GABRIEL MODISETT ’25: CHIPMUNK SPRING
The regressive policy overwhelmingly benefits the highest earners and serves as no stimulus for those most in need. This column was originally published on May 12, 2022. As the cost of higher education remains an economic burden on young Americans and their families, progressive Democrats are ramping up calls for various levels of loan forgiveness. One of the most comprehensive proposals is that of Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who, along with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has called for up to $50,000 in loan forgiveness, in addition to making public college free of cost. Though President Joe Biden has so far only endorsed up to $10,000 in loan cancellation, concerns about waning support among young voters have increased his attentiveness towards more expansive relief. At first glance, these policies sound great — relieving low-income graduates of tens of thousands of dollars in debt so they can make basic living expenditures and become more economically productive is a good thing, right? Well, this is only how student loan cancellation pans out in theory. Several often ignored facts highlight that student loan cancellation and partial forgiveness are regressive policies because they provide the greatest benefits to the highest earners. The policy also ignores two key groups: those who choose not to go to college and those who have “saved and sacrificed” in order to pay their loans. Senators Warren, Schumer and other proponents of expansive loan forgiveness programs have no answer for either of these groups. Many forget that the for mer group is actually a majority of Americans. Just under 40% of Americans above the age of 25 hold a bachelor’s degree. The remaining 60% cite lack of affordability, the need to work immediately to support their family and not needing it for their career as some of their top reasons for choosing not to pursue a degree. (Free college, as I will explain, is regressive, like loan cancellation, and also crowds out economical alternatives like trade school.) Loan forgiveness, then, seems like a punishment for those who were discouraged from attending for reasons of affordability and economic hardship — it subsidizes individuals for making a costly decision and ignores those who were discouraged by the high cost to begin with. Moreover, by looking through a breakdown of the socioeconomic conditions of those who would receive relief under current proposals, loan forgiveness is revealed to be even more of a subsidy for some of the wealthiest Americans. Brookings economist Adam Looney ’99 found that the top 20% of earners nationally would gain over a quarter of the relief distributed in Senator Warren’s plan, and just 4% of the relief would go to the bottom 20% of earners. This stems from the fact that those who choose to attend college are already relatively well-off. In fact, the largest share — 48% — of all student debt is owed by those with graduate degrees. Understanding the economic status of degreeless Americans explains why free public college is also a regressive policy. Looney also points out that 35% of students at public universities are from households in the top quintile of income. Many progressives would respond to this analysis by pushing for a wealth-based, rather than income-based reasoning. When you consider individual wealth, they would argue, the correlation flips, and those in the lowest quintile of wealth have the greatest debt burden. Indeed,
EMILY LU, Editor-in-Chief MIA RUSSO, Production Executive Editor LAUREN ADLER & ANDREW SASSER, News Executive Editors
one analysis from Matt Bruenig reflects this trend, where a wealth-based consideration shows that the poorest may receive the most benefits of loan forgiveness. But as Looney points out, these measurements of wealth ignore a consideration of human capital. Consider this example. The median debt owed among graduates of medical school is $171,000, of a masters in business administration is $46,000, of a bachelor of arts in business is $25,000 and of an associates degree is $18,000. On a measure of wealth, the highly indebted doctor seems the worst off. But what about their return on investment? Degrees should be considered as assets themselves because graduates gain highly valuable human capital. Looney compares this situation to individuals with mortgages, who “aren’t poor because the mortgage is used to purchase a valuable asset (a home).” Similarly, not all of those with student debt — especially doctors and lawyers — are “poor,” because their degree holds economic value. With this consideration, the trend of relief being assigned to those in the highest socioeconomic bracket persists, regardless of whether you approach it through income or wealth. It is important to add that loan forgiveness does not act as an economic stimulus; it quite literally transfers taxpayer dollars directly to creditors, without giving Americans more economic agency or stimulating the economy. Bruenig, of the leftleaning People’s Policy Project, acknowledges this. Unlike normal stimulus, which puts “money in people’s pockets so that they can spend it,” Bruenig notes that student debt forgiveness leaves behind “households with no extra liquid cash to spend.” The policy, in effect, transfers wealth from the lowest-earning taxpayers, who choose not to attend college, to college-educated Americans in higher income brackets. A final, key aspect of our current politics that the push for student loan forgiveness ignores is its cultural implications. Already, the suburbanization of the Democratic Party, and the increasing shift of its base to the college-educated upper-middle class, is fueling a growing working class resentment. Should the Democratic Party back policies veiled in progressive relief that really leave the working class behind, it will only continue to alienate an already ignored group of Americans, and deepen class tensions. Policies more nuanced than blanket forgiveness can better address the student debt crisis. Primarily, the cost of college must be addressed. Federal attempts to wipe out student loans artificially inflate Americans’ abilities to pay for college, and if anything, contribute to the rising cost of college. Non-ideological institutions like the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have empirically demonstrated this trend, finding that expansive federal loan programs do contribute to an increase in tuition. Instead of these policies, a borrowing limit for students would actually prevent colleges from continuing to increase tuition in an unchecked manner. Generally, more financial responsibility should be put on colleges and universities themselves. As I argued in a previous column, this might begin with demanding that colleges use their substantial endowments to help students repay loans. The overvaluation of college degrees, often called the “golden ticket fallacy,” can be combatted through federal subsidy of more economical alternative options like trade school and increased state funding for higher education.
AMY PARK, Publisher
THOMAS BROWN, CASSIE MONTEMAYOR THOMAS, JACOB STRIER Managing Editors
PRODUCTION EDITORS KAMI ARABIAN & NATALIE DOKKEN, Opinion Editors ARIELLE FEUERSTEIN & CARIS WHITE, Mirror Editors WILL ENNIS & JASON NORRIS, NORRIS Sports Editors DANIELLE MULLER & ELEANOR SCHIFINO, SCHIFINO, Arts Editors CAROLINE KRAMER & ANGELINA SCARLOTTA, Photo Editors PHILIP SURENDRAN, Data Visualization Editor LUCY HANDY & ZOORIEL TAN, TAN Design Editors GRANT PINKSTON, PINKSTON Templating Editor ELEANOR RYAN, Multimedia Editors FARAH LINDSEY-ALMADANI & EMMA NGUYEN, Engagement Editors
BUSINESS DIRECTORS DIVYA CHUNDURU & SAMUEL WINCHESTER Strategy Directors MEHAK BATRA & ISABELLE KITCHEL Development Directors RACHEL ORLOWSKI Digital Media & Analytics Director EMILY GAO & BRIAN WANG Finance & Sales Directors EMMA JOHNSON Director of Software
NINA SLOAN Crossword Editor
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. For any content that an author or artist submits and that The Dartmouth agrees to publish, the author or artist grants The Dartmouth a royaltyfree, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide and exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish and create derivative works from such content. CORRECTION: In last week’s print edition, the story “Family Weekend Returns for the Class of 2025” was incorrectly attributed to Carly Retterer. The article was written by Adriana James-Rodil. The Dartmouth regrets this error.
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FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2022
THE DARTMOUTH ARTS
Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra prepares for spring concert
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HOPKINS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
The concert will feature Kimberly Tan ’22 as the violin soloist with orchestra director Filippo Ciabatti conducting.
BY ARMITA MIRKARIMI The Dartmouth Staff
This article was originally published on May 12, 2022. On May 14, the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra will perform its annual spring concert on Saturday, May 14 at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. Directed by Filippo Ciabatti, this show will feature Jean Sibelius’ “Violin Concerto” and Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique.” This is DSO director Filippo Ciabatti’s sixth year with the orchestra, where he has conducted DSO concerts and chosen the repertoire student
musicians play. “The DSO is the type of orchestra made up of some of the best musicians on campus,” Ciabatti said. “There is a good mix of community and professional players that are implemented in the group The group of musicians who play in the DSO is tasked with playing challenging pieces within the symphonic repertoire and canon, Ciabatti said. However, this concert, in particular, features the work of Kimberly Tan ’22, who will be soloing “Sibelius Violin Concerto.” “She has been the concertmaster of the orchestra for a good period of our time and will now be playing this very
hard piece written by the north European composer, Jean Sibelius,” Ciabatti said. “It’s a huge accomplishment: soloing a piece and having the opportunity to play with the orchestra.” Tan said she has been involved with the DSO since her freshman fall. Her roles in the orchestra have ranged from being principal first violin to concertmaster and now, a soloist. “I’ve basically been involved all four years, even during COVID when we didn’t really have a ton of rehearsals, to when we rehearsed outdoors in a tent earlier this year,” Tan said. “I’ve been the concertmaster for multiple terms [and this time,] I’m still playing with the orchestra, but since I’m playing a solo
piece, it’s been a little different focusing on that and being the soloist.” For Tan, the experience of being a soloist has allowed her to explore her personal relationship to the music that she is playing. “I think I’m just getting really deep into the music myself,” Tan said. “It’s a different experience playing in a big group and there is something special when you are part of the entire orchestra that you don’t necessarily get or experience when you’re by yourself.” Concertmaster Hanlin Wang ’21, who is now pursuing a master’s at Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, has continued to stick with the DSO after initially joining as an undergraduate freshman. Like Ciabatti, Wang said he looks forward to Tan’s solo as it is tradition for the DSO to feature senior soloists with the orchestra in the background. Wang characterized Tan’s pieces as an “exhilarating ride” from beginning to end. In addition to Tan’s solo performance, the orchestra will also play Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique,” which both Tan and Wang said they are especially excited about. “We haven’t played any pieces by Tchaikovsky for years and it has been really rewarding to finally play some of his work,” Tan said. “It’s been a long time coming.” Wang echoed Tan’s enthusiasm for the concert, recalling the challenges and disruption that COVID-19 brought to the rehearsal process. “A lot of rehearsals had limited personnel because parts of the orchestra had COVID, but we still persisted and kept up with our rehearsal schedule,” Wang said. “I think we’re very proud of how far we’ve come, putting together these really challenging and demanding pieces, [and we’re] really excited to show it to the audience.”
Ciabatti added that “Pathétique,” Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony, will bring an emotional range to the concert. “The piece is called ‘Pathétique’ for its very huge emotional and sentimental varieties,” Ciabatti said. “There is this peculiar aspect of finishing the symphony with a slow, painful moment instead of what … traditionally [happens], which usually a symphony ends with a movement that is very upbeat and bombastic.” Conducting Tchaikovsky has been on Ciabatti’s dream repertoire list, he said, as it is considered to be one of the seminal works of symphonic music. Ciabatti emphasized that the pieces connect very well to the “chaos of the world now.” “The piece is charged with the same discomfort of the chaos of the world now,” Ciabatti said. “I think the symphony is really able to portray this continuous conflict that happens within us human beings … Tchaikovsky struggled so much with his sexuality as well with his background … This symphony really portrays extremes of great pain and agitation and also profound joy.” In addition to Tan’s solo and the extensive Tchaikovsky piece, Ciabatti will host a pre-show talk at the top of the Hop to give an informal introduction to the program. Aside from the music the DSO plays and their dedication to their perfor mances, Tan said that the orchestra has evolved into a strong community with different interests. “The DSO is really special because most of the members of the DSO are not [music] majors and people are doing all sorts of things in their Dartmouth lives,” Tan said. “The fact that we get to come together and play at a really high level of music and have the resources and the people for that is really rewarding for all of us.”
Review: Rina Sawayama’s Boston performance inspires audience BY JESSICA SUN LI The Dartmouth Staff
This article was originally published on May 10, 2022. When the lights dimmed in the Boston Royale, the crowd immediately went silent. A figure walked out from stage right, dressed in a red suit and a red coat with exaggerated shoulder pads. As Rina Sawayama struck her starting pose and the opening chords of “Dynasty” began to play, the crowd erupted in cheers. The Boston show of pop star Rina Sawayama’s Dynasty Tour –– delayed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic –– finally took place on Thursday, May 5. After a great opening set from local Boston drag queen and DJ Coleslaw, Sawayama began her performance, blowing the audience away. The Dynasty Tour was not just a mere showcase of Sawayama’s latest critically acclaimed album, “SAWAYAMA”; it was a full theatrical performance. The show was held at the Boston Royale, the perfect venue for a show like this. While it was relatively small with just two floors, around 1,300 people were still able to fit in the venue, meaning that I was just one member of a high-energy crowd. The smaller size of the venue meant that Sawayama was able to be vulnerable with the crowd, and as an audience member, I felt like I could also partake in this tender vulnerability. Whether she was singing about queer joy in “Chosen Family,” her struggles with depression in “Akasaka Sad” or coming out and being pansexual in “Cherry,” Sawayama welcomed the crowd into her struggles with meaningful lyrics that incited reflection in this listener. She continued this vulnerability when presenting a new song to the audience about her personal struggles. She talked about immigrating to the United Kingdom with her mother in the 1990s, growing up with a single mother and feeling like she could never live up to her mother’s expectations. “My mum recently… told me she was proud of me,” Sawayama joked with the audience. “I’m 31 years old, god damnit!” She performed this new song more intimately, staying in one spot without her backup dancers. The song built from a gentle start into a powerful chorus that felt like it had soft rock influences. If songs like “Who’s Gonna Save U
Now?”, “STFU!” and “XS” have proven anything, it’s that Sawayama’s voice works incredibly well with poprock music — in “XS,” for example, Sawayama belts along to the electric guitar riff perfectly. Her new song, which she did not title at the show, hints at a new album — which she teased is coming soon — that may further develop her voice in this genre. Beyond her voice, what has always drawn me to Sawayama, especially her 2020 album “SAWAYAMA,” is her lyrics and themes. Her identity as a Japanese British pansexual women make her music feel like it’s for queer people and the Asian diaspora. She sings about racism and microaggressions in “STFU!,” about generational trauma from her immigrant parents in “Dynasty” and about her frustrations with Western perceptions of Japan in “Tokyo Love Hotel.” “There are places in Japan called love hotels, where people just go to
have sex,” Sawayama told Apple Music. “I felt like these tourists were treating Japan as a country or Tokyo as a city in that way… They’ll say, ‘That was so amazing, I love Tokyo,’ but they don’t give a shit about the people or don’t know anything about the people and how difficult it is to grow up there.” During Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in particular, it’s so refreshing to hear someone sing about something so deeply personal and also so deeply relatable. It’s also refreshing to feel like, for once, that as an Asian American, I am her target audience. Pop music is stereotypically a commercial genre –– one that people assume to lack depth and creativity. Sawayama, with her genrebending but still distinctly pop album “SAWAYAMA,” challenges these beliefs. Sawayama tackles issues of race and class, producing an ode to the loss of a close friendship and encouraging
self-love and confidence in the listener. She’s able to dive into these intense issues all while still making the audience want to get on their feet. Not only did Sawayama make the audience want to dance, she danced too. Her two backup dancers were not background noise or distractors; they were integral parts of the show. Sawayama would often pause singing, allowing an instrumental part of a song to continue on a little longer so that she could dance with the dancers in perfectly choreographed synchrony. The dancing teased at sapphic queerness in “Snakeskin” when the two dancers curled themselves around Sawayama. It paid homage to Sawayama’s drag queen influences in “XS” with the incorporation of some voguing techniques. It was purely fun in “STFU!” when the dancers just whipped their hair around to the beat of the electric guitar solo. Sawayama was a gracious performer,
giving time throughout her whole set for her guitarist, her drummer and both of her dancers to shine individually. At one point, Sawayama thanked the audience for streaming her album and for making her voice feel heard. It seemed like it was cathartic for her to be in this room, watching music that comes from her heart resonate with so many people. Simultaneously, it was cathartic for people like me in the audience to feel seen at such a big scale, to feel so connected. Sawayama’s show was memorable not just because of the choreography, the lyrics, the stage setup or even her voice. It was memorable because of her stage presence and who she is as a performer. She was able to balance interacting with the audience and performing each song to the fullest, making each moment feel simultaneously very personal and broadly connected to everyone in the room. Rating:
GABE QUEALY/THE DARTMOUTH
FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2022
PAGE 5
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS
SPORTS
Track & field sees strong performances at Ivy League Championships
BY MAIA STEWART The Dartmouth
The men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in the Ivy League Outdoor Heptagonal Championships on May 7 and May 8, which were held at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. While the women’s team finished sixth and the men took seventh, individual athletes in both programs posted strong results. Bridget McNally ’24 put on a stellar performance in the long jump, tying for second place with a jump of 5.95 meters — the second-best mark in program history for the Big Green. Despite having a challenging indoor season, McNally said she made the right technical adjustments to ensure a more successful outdoor season. “I struggled a lot indoor and in the beginning of outdoor, especially with long jump,” McNally said. “I completely switched my air mechanics, and I then ended up [setting a personal record] at the meet before Heps. I took that momentum in Heps and ran with it.” McNally also competed in the women’s 4x100 meter relay along with Joy Enaohwo ’25, Cori Hoffer ’24 and Danielle Pringle ’25. That squad placed fifth at the meet with a time of 45.94 seconds, setting the second-best time in this event in Big Green program history. “We ended up PR’ing with that team by 0.5 or 0.6 seconds, which is a lot for the [4x100],”McNally said. “It was a lot about trusting in our marks. We had to trust in each other and trust that the stick would get around.” The men’s team also saw some impressive results. In the decathlon, KarlOskar Pajus ’25 clinched a victory with a score of 7,196 points, making this the fourth straight Heps in which a Dartmouth athlete has won the decathlon. Pajus’s score was the ninth best in Heps history and the sixth best in Dartmouth history. According to Pajus, the atmosphere
around the team was incredibly positive after he got the top spot, with the whole team thrilled for the first-year decathlete. “I’d never had so much energy come from the whole team before because usually track has been a bit more individual,” Pajus said. “Everyone is hyping everyone else up and the support you get is just amazing.” On the field, Jake Dalton ’23 picked up eight of the Big Green’s 38 points after taking second in the hammer throw with a mark of 59.06 meters. His distance narrowly beat out fellow Big Green thrower, Myles Schreck ’22, whose throw was just 0.27 meters shorter, earning Schreck third place. Dalton credited the older members of the team — the seniors and fifth-years — for creating an environment of support around the squad and setting the tone for everybody else to succeed in competition. “[Schreck] and [fifth-year] Lily [Lockhart] are great role models, and they keep the team [on top of it],” Dalton said. “They are very supportive, and it’s great to have them around.” Pajus said he also admired the dedication that upperclassmen put into training and into their competitions, crediting this for some of his own success this season. “Everyone is pushing themselves so hard and the emotional and physical commitment that [the seniors] put into the track, it’s really inspirational,”’ Pajus said. “It always pushes me forward to do more and try harder because I always see those guys just enjoy themselves so much doing what they like, so I’m always having fun with them.” Both track teams will now look ahead to the New England Championships this weekend, held at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I. The two teams will also send a contingent to Princeton University for the Princeton Elite Meet. These will be the teams’ final competitions before the NCAA Outdoor Championships at the end of May.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KARL-OSKAR PAJUS
Replay D-Play: Q&A with women’s rowing’s Anne Kakela ’92 BY EMMA DANTAS The Dartmouth
When Anne Kakela ’92 came to Dartmouth, she originally wanted to be a part of the ski team. Kakela grew up riding horses and skiing in Steamboat Springs, Colo., but made the decision to walk onto the women’s rowing team upon arriving at Dartmouth because she wanted to try something new. At Dartmouth, Kakela was a two-year captain and was named to the first-team U.S. Rowing Collegiate Academic All-America. After Dartmouth, Kakela competed for the U.S. National Team from 1992 to 1996, during which the team earned silver medals at the 1993 and 1994 World Championships and won gold in 1995. Kakela capped off her career with the national team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where the team finished fourth overall. Following her professional career, Kakela took a six-year intermission from the sport working in network security before she returned to the sport she loved. In 2003, Kakela began her coaching career at Oregon State University, where she was named the 2005 Northwest Region College Rowing Coaches Association Assistant
Coach of the Year. Following her success at Oregon State, Kakela began coaching in the Ivy League for the University of Pennsylvania in 2006. Kakela began coaching for then U.S. National Team at the 2012 London Olympics and continues to coach the national team today. What is a lesson you learned as part of Dartmouth athletics that has helped you in your career? AK: Rowing became three careers for me: national team/Olympic athlete, college coach and national team coach. There were a number of skills that transferred to other careers in the business world as well: goalsetting, teamwork and confidence. Setting benchmarks in terms of getting faster and stronger and dealing with obstacles in a more successful way is something I developed throughout my rowing career. When I got into consulting later and when I was teaching, these skills were very transferable. Teams, whether athletic or in the workforce, need to have respect, value and appreciation for each other, otherwise it can be hard to keep a team working towards a common goal together. What was it like coaching a national team boat at one of the highest levels?
AK: I have coached athletes to the U23 World Championships, World Championships and Olympics. I have also coached college freshman/novice teams. In many ways, when working with motivated athletes and managing the team dynamic, the coaching approach is similar regardless of the level of the boat. As a coach, one must identify next steps for producing more boat speed and keeping messages short, sweet and as clear as possible. It is important to not let drama affect the boat.That comes with getting to know your athletes as people and helping them work through whatever is going on as a team. Sometimes that means encouraging communication. Sometimes it means stepping in and directing. We work on coming together and keeping focus in the boat. This is where respect for teammates, versus needing to like each other, can be a valuable lesson. The biggest difference between college athletes and elite athletes is the life balance. At Dartmouth there can be a lot of distractions balancing academic, extra-curricular and social commitment with athletics. However, at the national and high levels there’s a pretty exclusive commitmentcommittment to training with minimal distractions.
What was it like transitioning from an athletic career to working in corporate jobs? AK: The process of switching was extremely challenging and rewarding. I had always wanted to experience some sort of corporate career. I went back to school to get a masters degree which was a good transition. Working at Accenture was what I was looking for at the time — wearing business clothes instead of sweaty Trou shorts, giving presentations, traveling to customer sites regularly and attending training sessions to improve my work. Working at Nokia was similar but more challenging. The first difference was I went from actively moving my body for work to sitting and staring at a computer screen all day. Additionally, I went from being a rower on an all-female team to being the only female in the room. It didn’t bother me because I had always had close male friends growing up, but being in that environment day in and day out — where you are constantly being questioned and have to prove yourself over and over — was definitely challenging. I think that my background as an athlete and the confidence I had in myself is what got me through those experiences.
What are you trying to accomplish in the next four years? AK: Getting my kids out of the house and on successful life paths is my main project. My kids are approaching the age of going to college and we moved to help my mom back home, so I am answering this question as I’m trying to figure out for myself what my next career move is going to be. I have been working with a property management company but it’s not really how I see myself impacting the world. I view life as a journey, and my philosophy has been to take advantage of doors that open for me. Sometimes you have to be courageous and you always have to work hard to take advantage of those opportunities. They can lead you to new and rewarding experiences that you cannot necessarily see ahead of time. What is something still on your bucket list to do in Hanover? AK: I need to visit the Dartmouth Skiway! I’ve never been. Though when I came into college I thought that I was going to race with the Dartmouth ski team, but once I signed up for rowing I never actually made it onto the ski team or to the Skiway for that matter. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
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MIRROR THE DARTMOUTH MIRROR
FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2022
“But You’re Going to be Unemployed!” STORY
By Molly Stevens
This article was originally published on May 11, 2022. Last week, my friend’s history professor had COVID-19 — and without class for a few days, she had much less work than usual. When she explained this to one of our other friends, they rolled their eyes at her. “Well, that’s just the humanities,” they said with a sigh. In my experience, interactions like this one are not uncommon at Dartmouth. Usually, when I introduce myself and reveal my intended field of study — English, if you can believe it — people practically gasp. To be fair, I always say it with a sort of sarcastic note in my voice, like I’m anticipating a negative reaction. Sometimes, I’m the first to make an English-major joke: it’s a defense mechanism, which I guess shows just how insecure I am about the whole thing.
From what I’ve seen, Dartmouth’s academic culture tends to preferentially praise STEM fields, but this type of mentality surely isn’t unique to us. Studies over the years have shown that humanities majors like history, philosophy and English are on a steady decline at most universities. Students are less likely to pursue a degree that can’t offer a clear career path, which is, obviously, completely understandable. I would be lying if I said I don’t question whether I’m wasting my degree by studying English, one of the most notoriously jobinsecure majors — and honestly, one of the reasons why humanities jokes hurt is because I am scared deep down that they might be true. Despite what feels like a general cultural preference for degrees in the sciences, we’re all told that the humanities are valuable. But I often wonder if we really believe it. In my WRIT 5 course last term, we had
a discussion on the last day of class about the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to learning and thinking. My classmates all acknowledged that literature, art and history were useful, but they couldn’t really agree on why. Some made the general argument that each person should have a broad understanding of world history and culture in order to be a well-rounded, conscientious member of society. Others argued that the humanities encourage scientists and engineers to consider the real-world implications of their inventions and discoveries. How will X, Y or Z impact humanity as a whole? How can we combine the humanities and the sciences to make more compassionate decisions for the future of technology and innovation? These are good points. Just last week, my first-year seminar professor, a renowned physicist and astronomer, explained the
GABE QUEALY/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
dangers of separating the humanities and the sciences. He gave an example that involved self-driving cars: In a situation where the car must either kill a group of pedestrians or the driver himself, which should it choose? My professor explained that without a sufficient understanding of ethical philosophy, the person responsible for coding the car would be tasked with a very difficult decision — one that could actually have devastating consequences. Coding a machine to interpret different scenarios and to essentially assess the value of human life relies on the most central goal of the humanities: the quest to understand and express the individual human experience. I agreed with my professor’s point. Clearly, we need elements of the humanities in our scientific pursuits. However, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of value the humanities have on their own, outside of their relationship to science In order to answer this question, I thought back to the beginning of my first term at Dartmouth. On the second or third day of Orientation Week, my whole freshman floor sat in a classroom in the library, where a professor explained how to complete course selection. As the professor went over the general course requirements, she suddenly asked us why Dartmouth makes us choose a major at all. We were dumbfounded. A person here or there raised their hand and gave an answer, but she refuted them one by one. She finally revealed the answer she was looking for: Majoring in a subject requires a deeper, more complex type of thinking than taking a bunch of different intro-level courses. In this way, students are able to learn not just the particular knowledge of their major but also the general — and perhaps more important — skill of highlevel thinking. Her logic seemed obvious, and yet none of us had come up with it on our own. When I consider the English classes I’ve taken at Dartmouth, I see more clearly what she means. Honestly, I’m not very good at a lot of the skills required by humanities classes — the most notable being the ability
to participate in group discussions. I hate talking in front of a class, and I envy the older students in my literary history class who easily interact with the texts and each other. Even if some of my STEM-focused peers don’t see the value in taking English classes, I do. They give me the chance to think deeply, develop arguments and search for meaning in unexpected places. I’m forced to communicate my thoughts and ideas with clarity and compassion — and in this regard, I am slowly unlocking the skills necessary to study literature and language in all their complexity. Even beyond that, I am preparing to engage with the world using the kind of awareness and appreciation that the humanities have a unique ability to foster. I will probably continue to have doubts and reservations about my English major, but I’m trying to let myself enjoy the chance to study something I care about. Also, according to a recent article in The Atlantic, the humanities aren’t necessarily doomed in terms of job opportunities, even though we may think they are.. I wasn’t sure how to close this reflection adequately, so I consulted my dad for his advice. He stepped up to share his infinite wisdom as a computer science major — and after applauding me for my choice of article, he assured me that he too saw the value in my prospective English major. Later in the call, he directed me towards the key principles of a liberal arts education, called me a Renaissance woman and told me to look up the definition of “selfactualization.” No matter what others may say about the humanities workload, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. While it’s true that I’m not discovering new planets or typing thousands of lines of code in my English courses, pondering, writing and being creative are valuable — and challenging — academic skills. And besides, the kind of masochistic validation that comes from staring at a problem set for 40 hours shouldn’t be the threshold of credibility for a major. Sometimes, simply loving what you study — humanities or not — is enough.
The Trails Less Traveled: A Review of the Local Hiking Trails STORY
By Gretchen Bauman
This article was originally published on May 11, 2022. At a school as outdoorsy as Dartmouth, it sometimes feels like you need to be summiting mountains and backcountry camping in the wilderness of the White Mountains every weekend in order to call yourself a hiker. While some Dartmouth students do live up to this generalization, climbing a 4,000-footer is not everyone’s idea of fun. For those looking for less strenuous, closer-to-home hikes, there are plenty of trails for all skill levels. After conducting extensive research and braving these hikes myself, I’ve compiled my personal ranking of the Upper Valley’s best hike locations — from least to most enjoyable. 6) Holt’s Ledge Located 13 miles from campus in nearby Lyme, N.H., Holt’s Ledge is part of the Appalachian Trail. Though the trail is moderately steep, other hikes on this list feel far steeper. At the top of the trail, a clearing opens up to a view of the valley below, with the Skiway silhouetted against the nearby hills. I completed this hike during the first week of spring term when many of the trees were still bare from the winter, so even though the elevation made for an impressive view, it was not jaw-droppingly beautiful. As a non-skier, my favorite part of this hike was getting the chance to see the Skiway without actually needing to ski, although what I remember most about this hike is that I did it from 4:50 to 7:55 p.m. on a Saturday evening — during the time that I would normally be eating dinner. By the time that the hike was over, I was famished. Not sure if I actually didn’t like the hike, or if my hunger influenced my perception of it. Final rating: 5/10 5) Balch Hill I attempted to trail run the entirety of this hike, which was a dire mistake. Not only was the hill longer than I expected, but also much steeper. Personally, I would argue that the name “hill” is misleading to describe any trail with
over 500 feet of elevation. Furthermore, getting to Balch Hill from Dartmouth’s campus inevitably involves a trek down East Wheelock Street, infamous for its rolling hills; by the time I reached the actual trailhead, my calves were already screaming for mercy. However, if you’re willing to brave the elevation gain, once you reach the top there’s a large, open meadow whose peacefulness makes up for the pain of the trail. One of my goals for future warm weather terms is to hike Balch Hill more often; the meadow would be perfect for meditation or as a spot to make dense class readings more bearable. Perhaps the scenery is worth the elevation; as I was running up this trail, I saw an owl sitting in one of the trees, which temporarily distracted me from the pain in my calves. Final rating: 6.5/10 4) Pine Park An easy walk from campus, Pine Park is located near Occom Pond and the former golf course. There are multiple different entrances, ensuring that no matter how much time I spend there, I’m rarely following the same route. Pine Park checks many of the boxes of what I’m looking for in a hike: it’s easily navigable, yet provides a peaceful escape from the stresses of campus. Most importantly, it’s accessible in all seasons; in the winter, the snow glistening on the pine trees turns it into a winter wonderland. The views of the river, lack of elevation gain and proximity to my dorm make Pine Park a nearly perfect location for a local hike. Final rating: 8/10 3) Velvet Rocks Part of the Appalachian Trail, Velvet Rocks is a short walk from main campus, with the trailhead located next to Dartmouth’s softball fields. The hike is around 3.6 miles round-trip, and while the elevation gain is spread out over the course of the trail, the first two miles were just steep enough that I regretted my decision to hike in Converse. I tend to head to Velvet Rocks when I’m looking to spice up my life; every
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single time I’ve ventured onto it, I’ve ended up lost. Though the trees adjacent to the trail are marked with white blazes, the markers are spaced out just far enough that for those unobservant travelers like myself, it is far too easy to lose the trail. When hiking Velvet Rocks with my parents recently, we wound up lost after a mere 10 minutes and spent the next half-hour tramping through the woods attempting to find the trail again. These navigational errors may seem like a negative, but they always make the hike exciting; Velvet Rocks is perfect for those looking for adventure. Final rating: 8.5/10 2) Gile Mountain Located in Norwich, Vermont — about a 20-minute drive from campus — Gile is a relatively short, easy hike best completed during peak foliage season. The actual hike is nothing special, but
climbing the fire tower at the end of the trail provides a 360-degree view of the Upper Valley. During late fall, as the trees turn fiery orange, red and yellow, there is nothing more stunning than standing at the top of the fire tower with an explosion of color surrounding you. Hiking Gile is a classic fall activity at Dartmouth, and provides the perfect opportunity to take an obligatory Instagram picture. While social media posts featuring Gile are almost overdone at this point, there’s no denying that the view from the top is incredible. However, I’m convinced the fire tower will topple over at some point — climbing the tower on a windy day is a terrifying experience. Final rating: 9/10 1) Mink Brook Nature Preserve Mink Brook is my personal favorite Hanover trail. While it’s slightly farther
from campus than Pine Park, walking through Hanover to reach the trailhead provides an ideal change of scenery. It’s also located near Nathan’s Garden, a tranquil enclave with a pond and a swing that instantly puts me at peace and reminds me of my backyard at home. Mink Brook has peaceful trails perfect for running or hiking, with barely any hills. Best of all, there’s multiple spots to swim that include tiny, slightly sandy beaches which make me feel like I’m somewhere tropical instead of chilly Hanover. Final rating: 10/10 Despite my various qualms about these trails, each one provides a different vista for experiencing the nature that makes Dartmouth so special. When I need fresh air after spending too many consecutive hours in the library, these routes are the ones I look to first.