The Dartmouth 01/13/2023

DHMC cardiologist Lauren

BY Luke McMahon and Nandhini Parthasarathy The Dartmouth

Lauren Gilstrap was larger than life, her research mentor and director of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice Amber Barnato said.

“You always knew when she was coming into a room,” she said Gilstrap, who was a cardiologist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, died on Oct. 21, 2022. She is survived by her wife Janet Milley, and her children Katelyn and David.

Barnato said Gilstrap’s presence in a room was characterized by

her “booming voice” and “tailored pantsuits,” but she will be remembered for her kindness and work ethic.

Barnato recalled a day when Gilstrap was wearing running clothes instead of her usual work attire.

Confused, Barnato asked Gilstrap if she was planning to go for a run, and Gilstrap responded that “she had just ran a 10k on the treadmill with a right heart catheter in her.”

Barnato said that heart catheters measure the physiology of the heart and their insertion is a dangerous procedure, but Gilstrap knew that a research study “needed a volunteer” to wear one, so she enrolled herself. She added that she knew Gilstrap as a passionate and endlessly inquisitive member of the medical community.

“She worked really hard,” Barnato

said.

According to TCTMD, Gilstrap was born on Nov. 25, 1983 and received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and a Masters of Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health. In 2018, Gilstrap moved to Hanover and joined the Heart and Vascular Center and its cardiovascular medicine section at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, according to Mark Creager, the director of the Heart and Vascular Center.

As an assistant professor at the Geisel School of Medicine and a member of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Gilstrap quickly became ingrained in the medical community at Dartmouth — even becoming the program director for Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology in 2021, according to TCTMD.

Barnato said when Gilstrap arrived at DHMC she “was really easy to mentor” because she was always “four steps ahead of where you would expect someone in her stage to be.”

Barnato added that Gilstrap’s medical knowledge made her a valuable mentor to those around her since her early days at DHMC.

However, Barnato best remembers Gilstrap for her positivity.

“She was fun. When you were with Lauren, the room felt bright,” Barnato said.

While Gilstrap was a “brilliant researcher,” she was also “just really funny,” according to professor Jonathan Skinner.

According to Creager, Gilstrap was a “proverbial triple threat.”

“She was a superb clinician, beloved by her patients and clinical colleagues; an outstanding teacher and

Abdul Rahman Latif hired as Tucker Center’s rst Muslim chaplain

BY Charlotte Hampton The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on Jan. 10, 2023.

It feels unusual for students to return for winter term and see bare grass on campus, but this phenomenon may become much more common in coming years. Hanover’s changing temperatures — which have increased by four to five degrees Fahrenheit in the last century — are caused by climate change and will continue to affect Dartmouth traditions like cross country ski racing and the Winter Carnival, according to earth science professor Erich Osterberg.

Although Osterberg said there is not enough conclusive data yet to link climate change to the low snow levels that Hanover has experienced in the first part of January, he noted that the current absence of snow is consistent with larger patterns of less snowfall in the Upper Valley in recent years as compared to historical data.

“We are seeing that snow cover on the ground shows up later and is gone earlier,” Osterberg said. “These are long-term trends that we see in the data over the last few decades, which we have total confidence is caused by human emissions, climate change [and] global warming.”

Hanover typically sees the most snowfall in January, averaging 16.4 inches that month from 1991 to 2020, but is currently in a “snow drought,” Gavin Fry ’25, who works at the Shattuck Observatory and records weather observations in Hanover for the National Weather Service, wrote in an email statement. Fry added that Hanover has only seen .8 inches of snow in 2023 so far, meaning the Upper Valley is far behind the pace of typical January snowfall.

“We had a slightly above average December snowfall month, but above-average temperatures and a dry spell since the new year have made snow in Hanover seem scarce,” Fry wrote.

here consistently because we don’t have the snow anymore. Even the snow sculpture every year is a struggle.”

According to past reporting by The Dartmouth, warmer weather made it difficult to create snow sculptures during Winter Carnival in 2022. Snow for the creations became ice from melting and refreezing, halting the 95-year-old tradition in its tracks.

Hanover’s winter festival on Occom pond — which Osterberg called “a fabulous part of our local culture” — has been canceled about every other winter since 1997 because the pond didn’t freeze over adequately, according to Osterberg.

Club Nordic captain John DeForest ’25 said he and his teammates are “praying and chanting for snow.”

DeForest added that the Nordic ski team has had to replace skiing on snow with roller skiing training, workout sessions and dirt and rock skiing, which involves using a special kind of ski wax to move across exposed ground. They could also use artificial snow mats, which “feel pretty funky, and look pretty funky, but kind of work,” DeForest said.

Dartmouth physical education director for skiing John Brady said he was more optimistic.

“We see heavy snow years, we see light snow years, but for alpine ski areas, they really don’t depend on natural snowfall as much as they used to,” he said. “All we need is just cold weather to make [artificial] snow.”

Dartmouth’s skiing and snowboarding PE credits, guided by trained instructors, draws about 200 students to the Dartmouth Skiway every weekend, according to Brady. He said he is confident the program will be able to progress as normal this year.

For both Osterberg and DeForest, the lack of snow deprives campus of a crucial element for winter traditions. Osterberg said that winter traditions at Dartmouth provide part of Dartmouth’s “sense of place.”

This article was originally published on Jan. 12, 2023.

Last fall, Abdul Rahman Latif joined the William Jewett Tucker Center for Spiritual and Ethical Living as Dartmouth’s first Muslim chaplain, according to a press release published by the College on Nov. 18. Latif, who is also serving as the associate director of the Tucker Center, will work with Tucker Center director Reverend Nancy Vogele ’85 to provide spiritual care for the Dartmouth community.

According to the press release, Latif has a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and is currently working towards his PhD in Religion at Columbia University. Latif said that he has served as the Affiliate Campus Minister for Muslim Students Association at Boston College and also as the academic advisor for the Boston Islamic Seminary Academy Program — now the Iqra Academy.

Reverend Vogele said that the former Muslim spiritual adviser, Khalil Abdullah, left the College in the summer of 2021, which left the

Al-Nur Muslim Student Association board member Aimen Abdulaziz ’25,

the last year was a “very rough time” because “the community was almost falling apart.” He added that much of this was due to COVID-19, as well as the challenges that students faced without their own advocate to the College’s administration.

According to Abdulaziz, the addition of a Muslim chaplain gives the opportunity for Muslim students to have their voice heard by Dartmouth’s administration.

“The administration was not aware of what Muslim students wanted, but this year [now] that Abdul Rahman is here that has changed,” he said.

Abdulaziz said that since Latif’s arrival at the College, his advocacy resulted in the addition of prayer rugs in the new Academic Skills Center and Student Wellness Center’s wellness

The increased temperatures also shake the ecosystem, causing an increase in Lyme disease cases and a decrease in the Upper Valley moose population, Osterberg said. Between 75 and 90% of moose calves in northern New England are dying from the “winter tick,” which are able to survive in the warmer-than-normal winter weather, he added.

Sunrise Movement Dartmouth coordinator Grace Hillery said that the lack of snow underscores the gravity of the climate crisis.

“It’s not even a question of whether climate change is real or debateable,” Hillery said. “We’re seeing the impacts of it right now… This isn’t something that we [can] tackle 10 years in the future. It’s happening right now and it needs to be addressed with urgency.”

Rising temperatures and less snow also pose a challenge for the cultural staples of a Dartmouth winter such as snow sports, according to Osterberg.

“When I first moved here you could reliably go to the Dartmouth Skiway or over to Oak Hill to watch the cross country downhill races on Winter Carnival,” Osterberg said. “They are not able to hold the cross country races

“One of the things that defines us here in New England is our snowy winters,” Osterberg said. “That’s how we get outside in the wintertime — we enjoy cross country skiing, downhill skiing and ice skating and all of those things have been seriously curtailed this winter.”

Brady added that winter sports play an important role in Dartmouth’s culture and history.

“You really can’t talk about the history of skiing in New Hampshire without Dartmouth coming into the conversation,” Brady said. “Our winter programs are… one of the things that really distinguish Dartmouth from the rest of the Ivies.”

In an email statement, Winter Carnival chairs Lucas Gatterman ’23, Piper Gilbert ’25 and Erica Dunne ’25 said that the committee has not yet decided on any schedule changes to Winter Carnival, currently scheduled from Feb. 9 to 12, because of lack of snow.

“There have been many years where we experience a period of thaw and low snow in January and go on to have a successful and snowy Winter Carnival,” the chairs wrote. “It only takes a bit of snow for a successful carnival, so we aren’t worried too much yet as there is plenty of time for that to fall.”

Light January snowfall disrupts winter traditions, local environment

PHOTO COURTESY OF JANET MILLEY

EMIL LIDEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

BY Emilia Williams The Dartmouth

Muslim community at Dartmouth without a spiritual advisor for over a year. Latif added that although “students spoke very highly of Khalil,” his departure, combined with the lasting impact of COVID-19, left Muslim students with a “chunk of time without community.”

said

HANNAH LI/THE DARTMOUTH

College to install Wi-Fi on the Green, cut back campus TV

BY Isabelle Han The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on Jan. 12, 2023.

Dartmouth Student Government announced that Wi-Fi would soon be available on the Green in a campuswide email on Dec. 20, 2022, a result of a collaboration between the DSG Subcommittee on Technology and College Information, Technology and Consulting.

According to College chief technology ofcer Felix Windt, the service would likely be available to students within the calendar year and that it has been a request from students for “over a decade.” Wi-Fi on the Green is just the frst step toward making Wi-Fi available in other outdoor spaces across campus, such as Baker Lawn and Tuck Drive, Windt added.

The largest current barrier to the project is the cost, which is estimated to be on average about “$10,000 per wireless access point,” Windt said. He also noted that the initial installation process will cost about “a quarter of a million dollars.”

As announced in the email to the campus, Wi-Fi on the Green comes with the “tradeof” of students’ access to the Xfnity On Campus television.

According to Xfnity’s website, Xfnity On Campus is a service that provides free streaming services to all students and access to channels such as ESPN and HBO Max, provided that they live on campus. Windt estimated that the costly service was used for about “nine and a half minutes per student per day,” which he approximates to about “six students watching an hour a day.”

Anthony Fosu ’24, a member of the DSG Subcommittee on Technology, indicated that there was a “pressing need” for “reliable access” to Wi-Fi on the Green, an initiative which started

under the previous DSG administration.

“There was a lot of excitement around the prospect of allowing students to be working out in green space in the spring and summer, or even parts of the fall — and especially in the aftermath, and actually in the duration of the ongoing pandemic, when outdoor spaces really caught on and were utilized by students,” Fosu said.

Student response to the announcement has been varied.

Catherine Gorman ’23 said she is excited about being able to work on the Green with a reliable internet connection.

“I actually try to work on the Green a lot and I either have to use my hotspot on my phone or just hope for the best,” Gorman said. “I actually took some Zoom classes out there two years ago.”

However, Kevin Guo ’26 believes that Wi-Fi on the Green is unnecessary, especially given that other buildings which already have Wi-Fi access, such as the Collis Center, are just a few steps away. Guo said he used Xfnity On Campus at least once a week.

“I’d rather have [Wi-Fi on the Green] than not have it, but not at the expense of Xfnity,” he said.

Fosu said that Wi-Fi in outdoor spaces would be used by all students compared to Xfnity, the latter of which was only used by a small portion of the student body.

Fosu acknowledged that since the announcement, DSG has received feedback on how much students said they used Xfnity, which he said DSG also wanted to consider. Specifcally, Fosu said that DSG is currently working with ITC to help ensure students maintain access to streaming services if necessary, and will release more information in the near future.

Fosu also noted that students can access streaming services through the Dartmouth library, and can continue

to use Xfnity On Campus on the televisions in common areas such as in Collis.

“We believe that [Xfnity] would be used on campus the most to watch major sporting events like the Super Bowl and the World Cup, but also…to commune and come together,” he said.

Fosu says that another reason behind the current lack of Wi-Fi coverage on the Green is due to a lack of appropriate infrastructure. In the coming months, Fosu noted that there will be construction on the Green in order to install “access points.”

According to Windt, each wireless access point would be attached to lamp posts around the Green. Each access point would need to connect back to a nearby building that would provide a data connection. These connections would be achieved through an underground conduit that would connect the lamp post access points to the building where the power and data would be sourced from.

Although Windt noted that each access point would be able to support around 40 users, he added that there would be limitations, such as an inability to stream high volume events like Commencement in 4K.

In response to a current lack of consistently reliable Wi-Fi coverage across campus, Windt noted that the College’s Wi-Fi infrastructure has been “dramatically upgraded” over the last three years. The development of Wi-Fi on the Green would also lead to reliable coverage in other outdoor spaces across campus he added.

Additionally, Fosu said that DSG wants students to submit feedback on the strength of WiFi coverage through forms accessible through green posters displayed around campus.

“We’re hoping that students will continue to voice their opinions and their concerns, but especially report these issues.”

Gilstrap brought positive energy to each space in which she found herself

FROM GILSTRAP PAGE 1

an accomplished scientist,” Creager wrote.

Gilstrap had a magnetic personality and was a beloved friend. She was also a sought-after mentor for undergraduate, graduate and medical students, as well as residents, fellows and faculty. Creager added. Her mentorship wasn’t desired solely because of her knowledge — but also because of her charisma and generosity.

Emily Zeitler, another friend and colleague of Gilstrap’s, said that Gilstrap was an “expert at everything” and a “sponge when it came to new skills and knowledge.” She added that what made her brilliance all the more impressive was how she was eager to share what she knew with those around her — ensuring they succeeded together.

Zeitler said that she felt a kinship with Gilstrap from the moment Gilstrap arrived at DHMC. At the time, there were not many women involved in the cardiology department, and the two quickly found their friendship blossoming beyond just their work.

“Lauren always had plans for some crazy adventure,” Zeitler explained, sharing a story about a time the pair had brought a bright yellow kayak to go

paddling with a group of friends. On their short ride home from kayaking, they had pulled their car over after hearing a thump to discover that their kayak was gone.

“To this day, we don’t know where the kayak is. We drove back and forth that one mile stretch of road,” Zeitler said. “It was a bright yellow kayak. We thought it was hilarious that two people who each have a doctorate and a master’s degree for some reason couldn’t accurately secure a kayak to the top of a car.”

Zeitler said she and Gilstrap always loved to laugh about that lost kayak.

Gilstrap also brought her passion for sports and outdoor adventures to the Hanover community. As a lifelong athlete who enjoyed paddleboarding, skiing, snowboarding, softball and mountain climbing, Gilstrap was an avid supporter of athletics in the region and used her talents as an “exceptional softball player,” according to Barnato, to become a youth softball coach.

Gilstrap was also a devout Christian, her pastor Mandy Lape-Freeberg said.

“Even though she was an incredibly busy doctor and young mother and wife and was very active in the community, she was always reading theology,” Lape-Freeberg said.

Knowing this, Lape-Freeburg asked Gilstrap to work with her to write a sermon in honor of Pride Month, only

for Gilstrap to respond two weeks later saying that she had finished the sermon by herself and was ready to deliver it.

“She preached the sermon, and my whole church was blown away. She was just so articulate and thoughtful and faithful and hopeful,” Lape-Freeberg said. While Gilstrap had been rejected from her previous church because of her identity as a lesbian woman, Lape-Freeberg said that she discovered a spiritual home at the Christ Church at Dartmouth.

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Gilstrap was a powerful voice in the fight for equality. She frequently pushed for LGBTQ+ patients to receive better healthcare, and she explained her position in a profile for Humans of the Upper Valley, saying “Why shouldn’t a heart transplant doctor start an LGBT clinic?”

From her mentorship at DHMC to advocating for marginalized patients, Gilstrap exuded passion and yearned to lend her positivity and support to every community.

“She was a shining light for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Heart and Vascular Center and for the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth,” Creager wrote, “and her memory will live on through all of those she touched.”

Latif hopes to provide support for Dartmouth’s Muslim community and all

room in the Berry Library. Abdulaziz emphasized the importance of a space to pray in the library especially in the winter, when it is difficult for students to go anywhere else.

“A chaplain is someone who serves essentially a pastoral role, usually in a college setting or a hospital setting,” Latif said. “A lot of my role is trying to bring people together, trying to foster a sense of community and belonging for them, and then also provide education and support.”

According to Latif, some of the ways that he has been building community have been through hosting “religious learning circles,” as well as discussion circles about “intellectual” topics that are not necessarily religious. In addition, Latif said he has organized weekly socials to provide an

alternative safe space for students on campus, and he serves homemade chai and various other teas at his weekly office hours, which are “overflowing” with students.

Latif said that he organized the attendance of 26 Dartmouth students at the annual Ivy Muslim student Association Conference at Yale, which took place between Nov. 4 and 5, 2022.

Reverend Vogele said that Dartmouth, despite being the smallest Ivy, had the second most students in attendance behind Yale.

According to Vogele, something that Latif focuses on is fostering a sense of community and making Muslims and non-Muslims from all different walks of life feel included.

She added that “he’s very proactive” in asking “‘who is not here?’” and “‘how can we make people feel comfortable?’”

“You know, students might identify in certain ways that they think, ‘oh, Islam doesn’t want me,’” Vogele said.”He wants to make sure that they know they’re welcome.”

Abdulaziz said that Al-Nur has been more involved in the Muslim community with the support of Latif. He added that Latif tries to hold “as many events as possible every week” to make it easier for students to get involved with Al-Nur.

Abdulaziz added that something he personally likes about Latif is that he “really cares about everyone” and explained that Latif will personally reach out to students and individually greet attendees at the door.

“Although Dartmouth’s slogan is a ‘voice in the wilderness,’ I’m here to help that be a prophetic or comforting voice, and not just students screaming in the woods,” Latif said.

German department implements wellness into curriculum

BY BEN FAGELL The Dartmouth Staff

In December, the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning awarded the German studies department a $5,000 grant to implement the German Foreign Language Ofering Well-being initiative in all introductory classes after a successful pilot of the program during the fall term.

The wellness curriculum integrates mental health-related activities and instruction into GERM 1, 2 and 3 — all titled “Introductory German” — as a direct response to an “unprecedented” increase in mental health crises across college campuses, according to German language program director Nicolay Ostrau.

The German FLOW initiative serves “to recognize where barriers to mental wellbeing are coming from — social factors and personal life choices — then to mediate them or remediate those that would negatively afect [one’s] life,” Ostrau said.

According to Ostrau, the grant will fund the creation of a website for German course students containing articles on wellness, a virtual platform with recorded interviews from German experts on mental health and a teaching assistant position that will, for example, translate mindfulness exercises from English to German.

German studies professor Heidi Denzel said she incorporated several of these exercises into her GERM 3 class during the pilot period in the fall. In one activity that relies on positive self-talk and the value of repetition, students recite the mantra “I am strong; I am smart; I will fnd solutions” in German.

“For me, all the exercises that I’m doing [in class] have a linguistic component,” Denzel said. “It’s not esoteric breathing and being silent for 20 minutes. If they do that [after class], that’s great, but that’s not what I will do in my classroom. Everything is related to language.”

Denzel also partnered with the Student Wellness Center to integrate meditation into her class. SWC director Caitlin Barthelmes wrote in an email statement that students in Denzel’s class practiced Gatha meditation, a short poem that is recited concurrently with mindful breathing to deepen awareness. She added that the exercises, completed in German, helped students practice German pronunciation and grammar.

Denzel said she is experimenting with exercises involving a gratitude journal and a mood journal but has made these activities optional because she does not want to “force a wellness initiative on the students.”

“I don’t want to just open up Pandora’s Box and overwhelm [students],” Denzel said. “We have to fnd a way not to tiptoe around and walk on eggshells all the time, but we have to [also] make sure that we create safe spaces in the classroom.”

Ostrau noted that the German FLOW initiative also extends to drill sessions —

an additional series of classes in which students practice language pronunciation and grammar in small groups. In the fall, drill instructors experimented with a fveminute mindfulness exercise to reduce anxiety. Now, they lead the exercise at the end of the session rather than the beginning to avoid making students calm to the point of sleepiness.

Despite its small sample size, the majority of students surveyed after the pilot program participants stated their belief in the benefts of these wellbeing practices, according to Barthelmes.

“We know from the literature that incorporating these practices in the classroom can create a supportive classroom environment and can enhance learning,” Barthelmes said. “But it was really exciting to see that that was in fact the experience of the students in this class.”

Ostrau added that the introductory language classes are “perfectly positioned” for addressing subjects that relate to personal wellbeing since the topics addressed in the classes can easily be geared toward wellness. For example, Ostrau said he led a discussion with his students on nutrition, interspersing expert interviews and his own experiences.

“All of us on campus want to feel better,” Ostrau said. “The question is how and what [we can] do on a daily basis. And it’s really more about ‘the practical’ at the end of the day when we talk about beginning language classes.”

According to Barthelmes, the initiative capitalizes on students’ dedication to their academic success and addresses the lack of time they would normally have to devote to out-of-class wellbeing practices.

“We know that these practices have so many benefts for our emotional health, and we also know that not every student has the time or interest to walk into one of our mindfulness drop-ins or explore the Headspace app or go to a program in which they could learn these skills,” Barthelmes said. “So, we can bring these wellbeing practices to them where they are learning.”

Barthelmes noted the bidirectional relationship between academic success and emotional health, and said that the initiative works to improve both simultaneously.

“[For] students who aren’t feeling well, it is very difficult to perform their best in the classroom,” Barthelmes said. “And we also know [that] when students are struggling academically [it] can really have a negative impact on their mental and emotional health. To find ways to introduce these skills can have this elevating effect … [an] opportunity for benefit across the board.”

As the initiative continues to expand, Barthelmes said she hopes it will find its way to other language departments insofar as it can meet the students’ and the professors’ needs.

“We just always believe in starting small and growing up so that we can learn and refine,” Barthelmes said.

Alsheikh: A Goal for Orientalism

Western media coverage of the Qatar World Cup was infuenced by ancient Orientalist and Islamophobic tropes.

This column was originally published on Jan. 12, 2023

The 2022 Qatar World Cup was supposed to be a time for intercultural communication and appreciation — yet, even as the Asian and African worlds bonded together over football, the West reverted to promoting age-old tropes of Oriental despotism and primitivism.

Throughout the month-long competition, French magazines took to depicting Arab footballers as terrorists. Germany’s manager Jurgen Klinsmann proclaimed that it’s “in the culture” of Iranians to cheat and heckle and British news anchors claimed that Qatari culture is an “abomination.” A case study of British media publications revealed that only 5% of articles covered Qatar positively, with the majority taking a strong negative tone. Even traditionally neutral organizations opted to attack Qatar: In an unprecedented move, the BBC didn’t broadcast Qatar’s opening ceremony, instead choosing to lecture football fans on Qatar’s human-rights violations. According to the Guardian, Qatar is known for two things: “huge oil reserves” and “flagrant human rights abuses”. Such a sweeping generalization sums up what Western attitudes have been to the small gulf nation in recent months: dehumanizing and Orientalist. Centuries-old bigotries against Arabs and Muslims have resurfaced because a small Arab country found itself in a position of attention.

That’s not to say that Qatar’s problems don’t exist— they do, but they’ve been completely misrepresented. Take for example, the widelycirculated Guardian article about Qatar alleging that “6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since World Cup awarded”. Contrary to its headline, what the article actually reported was the total number of immigrants who had died from any cause, including deaths “due to natural causes, chronic illness or even traffic accidents”. This is only one example of a larger trend; newspapers around the world have sacrificed their journalistic integrity to attack a small Arab country for hyperbolized crimes.

These exaggerated narratives draw on real workers’, women’s and LGBTQ+ problems that exist in Qatar, but willfully ignore their context and relative magnitude. For example, while conditions for workers in Qatar were lamentable at the start of the decade, great strides have been taken to improve their situation — measures taken by the Qatari government to improve the treatment of workers include ending the infamous kafala system, establishing a workers’ compensation fund of over 164 million dollars, allocating nearly a billion dollars for the payment of quarantined workers, among many other efforts which our news publications have altogether ignored. In the words of Builders and Woodworkers International, “there have been enormous changes and progress in the country… migrant workers have great expectations.” As a result, less workers die per capita in Qatar than in the UK, the source of most of Qatar’s criticism, as well as India, where most migrant workers emigrate from. These developments have barely been touched upon in mainstream Western media coverage.

Even in the world of women’s rights, the country has made tremendous progress: Qatar has a higher proportion of female students in college than both the United States and the UK (85.4% vs. 54.9% and 56.6%), as well as a higher

percent of women participating in the workforce than in the United States and most of Western Europe (57.22% vs. the US’s55.23%, Germany’s 56.84%, and France’s 51.9%). In regards to sexual freedoms, in 2020 no LGBTQ Qataris suffered “arrests or prosecutions under the law”, whereas in the U.S. hundreds of LGBTQ+ Americans became victims of violent hate crimes in the same year. While these observations are imperfect comparisons that don’t tell the whole story, they do show that the West cannot be morally superior to Qatar as we’ve been told.

Another sign of our own hypocrisy can be found in how other recent sporting events have been covered. Compare the 2022 World Cup coverage to the 2018 World Cup, which Russia hosted. That World Cup took place as Russia was actively arming Assad’s Syrian government whilst they committed crimes against humanity, and just four years after Russia illegally annexed Crimea. Despite this, Western news outlets only brought up Russia’s World Cup for criticism in less than 3% of their news articles, usually separating their coverage of the tournament from criticism of the state. In one study’s sample, researchers found only three articles in Western media that mentioned Russia’s hosting alongside the burgeoning conflict in Ukraine. Furthermore, after the Russian opening ceremony (which BBC aired), Western criticism of the World Cup largely stalled, whereas in Qatar it only intensified as the opening ceremony unfolded. The same phenomenon was observed earlier this year in China — while criticism of China’s hosting of the Olympic games was voiced (due to, among other things, their ongoing genocide against the Uyghers), ultimately it petered out as after the opening ceremony got underway (which, again, BBC aired). Bringing up these examples isn’t whataboutism; that Qatar is being covered more negatively than other countries for lesser crimes shows the double standard of our media.

What a coincidence that the first major international sporting event held in a Muslim country was met with unprecedented backlash in the West. I would argue that Nazi Germany hosted their Olympics with less Western outrage than Qatar hosting the World Cup — will we be blind to our own double standards? Clearly, we as a culture are still gripped by centuries-old prejudices regarding Arabs and Muslims; rather than viewing them as human beings with a unique set of sociopolitical challenges, we here in the West only allow ourselves to view them as oppressors, tyrants and despots. That a small but prosperous nation with a rich cultural heritage can be reduced into nothing more than a “human rights hellhole” by our media is a dangerous sign for the future of East-West relations. Orientalism is built on the idea that there is an “ absolute and systematic difference between the West, which is rational, developed, humane, superior, and the Orient, which is aberrant. undeveloped, inferior” — this theme is easily read throughout the West’s recent coverage of Qatar’s World Cup, as Danyel Reiche of the American University of Beirut argues. We in the West, sitting on top of our legacies of colonialism and oppression, would do well to remember that Qatar is more than “huge oil reserves” and “flagrant human rights abuses”; it is a community of human beings with unique circumstances and problems. Leave point-scoring and antagonism for the field: treat Muslims like they’re human beings, not the opposing team.

KAYE ’25: BALLAD OF THE CHICKEN CUBE

Verbum Ultimum: Taking Candy from a Baby

Dartmouth Dining prices have skyrocketed inexcusably. It must stop.

Nothing gets college students angry like messing with their food. Aside from being essential, meals are a cherished moment to relax and socialize. Infringe on that, and there will be problems. Yet, that is exactly what Dartmouth Dining has done lately by increasing food prices and pushing students to purchase meal plans that give them less and less bang for their buck.

We want to acknowledge that this is not the fault of the workers who run campus dining facilities, and we would like to thank each and every one of them — from the chefs to the custodial staff to the baristas and dishwashers — for everything that they do for us. We also appreciate Dartmouth Dining’s decision to reopen late night at ’53 Commons, as well as Dartmouth Student Government and the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault for helping make it happen. This is undoubtedly a positive addition for students.

Less positive, though, is the amount students are forced to pay for on-campus dining options. Food prices at campus dining locations have spiked. The Hop burger special is suddenly 30% more expensive than it was last term, and prices of most other items have gone up similarly. The value of the meal swipes, which students get as part of their meal plans, however, has not budged. Dartmouth Dining management has attributed the price increases to national inflation and labor shortages — in other words, Dartmouth Dining is supposedly just another innocent victim of broader global uncertainty. We are not convinced. We will start with inflation. We understand the broader economic situation at hand and would be foolish to suggest prices should not budge. Since inflation began to spike in mid-2021, the Consumer Price Index as monitored by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has risen by about 9.6% from July 2021 to November 2022 (the most recent date for which data is available). The problem is not inflation itself, but the extent to which Dartmouth Dining prices have changed, which exceeds inflation. Even when considering the “retail food away from home” sub-index — which includes restaurants and applies most directly to Dartmouth Dining — there is an inflation increase of about 11% over the same time period. Neither of these numbers comes near justifying the increases we have seen at Dartmouth Dining locations. In short, something else is to blame for the price increases.

According to Dartmouth Dining, the price of meal plans has risen at a rate lower than inflation. But this merely covers up the fact, which Dartmouth Dining admits, that the value of meal swipes and allowance of dining dollars have not changed since 2018. This leaves students with less food available no matter what plan they have. We would be less concerned with these price increases if the value of a meal swipe had risen along with them. Doing the math, the price per meal swipe on the 80 and 115 swipes-per-term plans is now about $16 and $14 respectively. This means they are worth between about 300% and 40% less outside ’53 Commons — using meal equivalencies — than what students are paying for them depending on the specific circumstances. The point of a meal swipe is that you are supposed to be able to purchase your entire meal — not just part of it — with one swipe of your ID card. That’s why it’s called a meal swipe. Instead, purchasing an ordinary meal — say a sandwich and a drink — almost always requires you to dip into DBA. Take the burger special, which we referred to earlier. Last term, a student could get a burger and fries with a fountain drink for the exact cost of one dinner meal swipe: $10. Now, this same meal is a meal swipe plus $3. For many low-income students, this is a significant challenge. Many financial aid packages provide in-kind support, meaning it

covers the meal plan. But the declining value of the meal plans means they now are able to purchase less and less food without going out into town and spending their own money. While wealthy students can afford to go elsewhere, low-income students cannot, and this puts them at risk of food insecurity. Even students on the “unlimited” meal plan — which isn’t really unlimited — who theoretically have maximum access to ’53 Commons, are still at risk of food insecurity if they have dietary restrictions that aren’t or only poorly met by the cafeteria’s options. Many others simply do not like the food it serves. If the price of meal plans were to be increased and the value of swipes adjusted to reflect what a whole meal costs, this might help offset price increases by allowing low-income students to receive more food for the financial aid they receive.

Not only has the value of swipes and dining dollars declined significantly — swipes are also no longer accepted at numerous locations. Starting this term, snack bars no longer take them. They were never accepted at most cafes, including several which recently opened, such as Cafe@Baker, Ramekin, The Fern and Back of the Napkin. Paradoxically, Dartmouth Dining has been opening more dining locations while simultaneously struggling to find enough workers and making it harder for many students to afford eating at the new locations. Dartmouth Dining’s “preferred” unlimited plan, which supposedly “provides the ultimate in food access,” seems designed to funnel students away from the cafes and into ’53 Commons, which now struggles to seat all the students who wish to eat there at peak times. We see little to no evidence of any strategic plan to make sense of these contradictions.

To make matters worse, the way Dartmouth Dining communicates with campus has become quite insensitive. Recent — and now deleted — promotions on Instagram for the “unlimited” meal plan included a reminder that “running out of meals is not fun or cheap and you better believe we’re going to say we told you so.” After the remarks were criticized as classist and insensitive, Dartmouth Dining responded that the post was “not intended to offend,” and just “supposed to be a lighthearted kick in the pants to those who found themselves running out of meal swipes in prior terms.” We are disappointed that we feel obligated to say that food insecurity is not a joking matter. Aggressively pushing students on something they may have little control over is highly disrespectful at the least. They don’t need a reminder that not having enough to eat is not fun.

What do we want to see change? First, we would like to see alterations to problematic policies, especially those further limiting the use of meal swipes. Second, the value of meal swipes must be permanently pegged to an index of the items Dartmouth Dining sells, so that low income students are never again unfairly squeezed by factors out of their control. Third, an independent audit of Dartmouth Dining’s finances must be performed. This should be followed by a strategic plan to address its findings as soon as possible, with the full results made public. Finally, there must be an increase in self-awareness in Dartmouth Dining communications. There needs to be better communication between Dartmouth Dining, Student Government and other representatives of campus in order to prevent situations like this from happening again. We are hopeful for the future if these action items can be accomplished.

The editorial board consists of opinion staff columnists, the opinion editors, the executive editors and the editor-in-chief.

Opinion Editor Kami Arabian was not involved in the production of this piece.

Review: SZA’s ‘SOS’ is the perfect revenge album

BY SOFIA RATKEVICH The Dartmouth Staff

This article was orginally published on Jan. 9, 2022.

If you’re planning a redemption arc that includes petty revenge, you won’t regret letting “SOS” be its soundtrack. SZA’s new album is an impressive 23 song long turmoil of love, lust, vengeance, retribution — and, ultimately, satisfaction — that begs to be played at top volume.

Five years ago, SZA dropped her freshman album, “CTRL.” The alternative R&B album received worldwide acclaim, and SZA herself was Grammy nominated for Best New Artist. And this past summer, Rolling Stone ranked “CTRL” at number 28 on its “100 Best Debut Albums of All Time” — only one place below Led Zepplen’s self-titled debut. Fast forward to “SOS.” SZA’s sophomore album is somehow even more riveting than her acclaimed debut. Her confdence is mesmerizing to the listener as she cuts through each song with a raw, unbridled emotion.

Within the album, she alternates through pointed periods of anger and frustration and those of heartbreaking anguish, never shying away from speaking her truth. The opening song of the album, the titular “SOS,”confdently proclaims that SZA’s ex will never fnd someone as good as her. But, in the songs that follow, SZA enhances her storytelling and explains that this failed romance has left her more broken than she initially lets on — something much of her audience can connect to.

SZA allows us to truly feel her angst in “Nobody Gets Me,” as she alludes to her ex-lover with its chorus “How am I supposed to tell you? I don’t wanna see you with anyone but me… How am I supposed to let you go? Only like myself when I’m with you. Nobody gets me, you do.” In so concisely lingering over her own heartbreak, SZA lets her listeners take her

place in the broken relationship — we are able to question ourselves and who we are to those around us. The song entrances like an acoustic ballad, though SZA sings of a romance once-had, instead of one that currently exists.

“Special” is similarly grief-stricken in topic, but varies with a melodic harmony that is reminiscent of a lullaby — albeit one that will keep you up rather than lull you to sleep. Her lyrics “I used to be special. But you made me hate me. Regret that I changed me. I hate that you made me just like you” are the ones that repeatedly run through your head late at night after a difcult breakup.

For SZA, this is no diferent.

Within “SOS,” there are more than seven stages of grief — there are 23. Each song takes us through a diferent moment, with the rhythm of each song as unique as the words unraveling within it. The most unnerving yet equally captivating of the 23?: “Kill Bill.”

SZA brings up a familiar sentiment in this song: “If I can’t have you, no one should.” She is pursuing a vendetta that even Quentin Tarantino, director of the movie for which SZA’s song is a namesake, would be proud of. She answers the lingering question of “What if?” as she shifts her lyrics from “No one should” to “No one will.”

She grapples with being alone with her thoughts and escapes the horror of doing so through her actions: “Rather be in jail than alone,” “Rather be in Hell than alone.”

SZA’s intimate inner monologue fows out in an enticing melody for the world to see and feel as its own. “Kill Bill” amplifes both her voice and her inclination toward cold blooded revenge in a way that we can’t help but cheer for.

SZA’s transcendence across genres in “SOS” is as equally captivating as each individual work. While “CTRL” did not stray from alternative R&B, “SOS” is unbridled. Any album that has the genre ranging features of Travis Scott, Don Toliver and Phoebe Bridgers must be, right? In “SOS,” SZA is free of her man and is

breaking all of the rules, including the ones of her known genre.

In theory, “SOS” as an idea is absurd. It’s a 23 song long sophomore album without a set genre whose song titles read like the drunk texts you send your ex, including “I Hate U,” “Too Late,” “Notice Me,” “Conceited” and, a personal favorite, “Smoking on my Ex Pack.” But in its intimidatingly long and unkept nature, it’s also an album full of raw resentment, madness and the casualties to which these feelings lead. “SOS” is unhinged because that’s exactly what modern love and loss is — and SZA shows us that no one knows this better than herself.

The album concludes with the hip-hop track “Forgiveness” featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard,

PB Comedy with Michael Longfellow

BY RACHEL RONCHKA The Dartmouth

As a new cast member of Saturday Night Live, Michael Longfellow has recently gained recognition for performing in skits alongside veteran comedians like Cecily Strong and Kenan Thompson on the late-night comedy show. On Friday, Jan. 13 at 9 p.m., Longfellow will take the stage as a solo act to perform stand-up comedy at Dartmouth. Organized by the Programming Board, the show will take place at Common Ground in the Collis Center and is free of charge for all members of the College.

Programming Board often plans events involving inviting special guests to campus, drawing from both local and distant talent to entertain and engage students. The idea to host a live comedy performance originated at one of Programming Board’s regular meetings during fall term.

Programming Board executive board member Kennedy Wiehle ’25 said that eforts to bring a comedy act to campus have been in motion since last year, but a number of recurring obstacles, including travel, prevented Programming Board from making this goal a reality.

“For an event like this where we’re just booking talent,” Wiehle said, “it’s really just trying to get the talent to come. It’s hard to get people unless they’re in the area, because fying people in is hard, and we basically can’t ever get anybody internationally because plane tickets are expensive.”

According to Wiehle, Dartmouth’s remote location often poses a challenge to guests who might otherwise be interested in performing for students. Travel expenses and limited afordable accommodations in the Upper Valley are especially challenging for budding young talent who are less established in their entertainment careers, Wiehle added.

Programming Board executive Sierra Lee ’24 said the organization frst came to a consensus on the type of event they wanted to host and then selected the comedian. .

“This entailed internet research, asking fellow students, and watching YouTube clips,” Lee said. “One of our members suggested Michael Longfellow and after watching clips of his bits and learning more about him, we came to the consensus that he was hilarious and that we would love to bring him to Dartmouth.”

The 28-year-old comedian is most

widely recognized for his work as a featured player on this season of SNL. Prior to joining the cast, Longfellow made appearances at various comedy clubs and festivals, including Netfix’s “Netfix is a Joke Fest.” His Oct. 2022 SNL debut during the show’s “Weekend Update” segment drew positive reactions online and provided a taste of what Longfellow will bring to his upcoming performance on campus. Longfellow’s performances have explored topics such as family dysfunction and bizarre roommate situations, seeking to fnd humor in the seemingly mundane.

The event hopes to draw interest from audiences from a variety of student groups dedicated to comedy. Jack-o-Lantern social media chair Molly Fried ’25 said she found out about the event through Programming Board’s online promotion eforts. Fried was already familiar with Longfellow from both before and after he became a cast member on SNL, and said she is eager to see him perform in person.

“Normally, it takes new SNL cast members a few seasons to get their footing,” Fried said. “But he came out immediately with some really funny content on Weekend Update in his very frst episode, which makes me excited to see him live.”

When it comes to live comedy, Dartmouth students have a range of experiences. While some have never seen a live show before, others regularly write and perform their own for their peers as part of student improv tropes. Other students take their talents to the page, producing comedy magazines such as the Jack-O-Lantern.

Fried said that she appreciates opportunities for comedy on campus, as it provides students with a creative outlet and source of joy within a rigorous academic environment.

“I think comedy is one of the most important mediums of expression for so many reasons,” Fried said. “Mostly, it’s just plain enjoyable, but I also think it can provide extremely nuanced insight on certain topics, especially when dealing with satire. That said, I do think the main reason why people are so drawn to comedy is the relief it presents by making them smile.”

Lee said she hopes that this event will serve as a similar source of joy for the Dartmouth community.

“The events in the beginning of the term can really set the mood and energy for the rest of the term, so we hoped that by kickstarting this term of with a comedy event, winter term would be fun and laughterflled despite the brutally cold weather,” Lee said. “Overall, we hope that from all of our events, students feel a greater sense of community at Dartmouth.”

one of the founding members of the WuTang Clan. No longer do we hear SZA’s melodic and delicate emotional anguish. Instead, SZA confdently proclaims that she’s “Not in the dark anymore” and “I might forgive it, I won’t forget it.” Her selfassured nature is infectious and the perfect conclusion to the album.

SZA has succeeded in creating an album that is introspective without being ostentatious. Her devastating, vicious vulnerability carries us through each track as we listen to the continuous conversation she is having with herself in the aftermath of failed romance — one that many of us have also had to grapple with. Modern love is a messy, infuriating and vengeful afair, and SZA explores all areas of the industry

to accurately portray it. If “SOS” leaves you wanting more, queue up “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Hill has won eight Grammy awards and is regarded as one of the most infuential singers and rappers of her time. She conquered R&B in a way that left her fans completely infatuated with her music. Hill is a forebear to SZA, and “SOS” evokes consistent similarities to Hill’s frst, and only, solo album. The pair were also neighbors in SZA’s small hometown of Maplewood, New Jersey. Growing up in the same town, I was surrounded by inspirational art and culture that I see both of these artists emulate.

Behind the Curtain: Week 3

BY RILEY HAWKINS The Dartmouth

Friday, Jan. 13

The Hood Museum of Art is ofering a study break Maker Drop-In — a selfguided crafting activity — from 4-7 p.m. All materials will be provided, and the event is open to all age and experience levels.

The Hopkins Center for the Arts will present “The Banshees of Inisherin” in the Loew Auditorium at 7 p.m. The flm, directed by Martin McDonagh, features Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in a black comedy set on an island of the coast of Ireland, as their characters Pádraic Súilleabháin and Colm Doherty traverse friendship and personal histories. Tickets are $5 for Dartmouth students and $8 for other attendees.

Saturday Night Live cast member Michael Longfellow is performing at Collis Common Ground at 9 p.m. before continuing his tour across the country. Longfellow joined Saturday Night Live as a featured player this season. He previously performed at the “Netfix is a Joke” festival.

Jan. 14

Saturday,

On Saturday, The Hopkins Center will present the Met Opera in HD: “Fedora.”

The lead role, performed by soprano Sonya Yoncheva, is that of a Russian princess who falls in love with her fancé’s murderer. The show, set in St. Petersburg, Paris and a villa in the Swiss Alps, will begin at 1 p.m. Tickets are $10 for Dartmouth students and $22 for other attendees.

At 7 p.m, The Hopkins Center will screen Scottish director Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun” in the Loew Auditorium. The story, inspired by Wells’ memories and relationship with her father, follows divorced father Calum, played by Paul Mescal, and his daughter Sophie, played by Francesca Corio. Tickets are $5 for Dartmouth students and $8 for other attendees.

Spare Rib Magazine is hosting a “Sip and Flip” in One Wheelock from 6-8 p.m. The event celebrates the release of their winter edition, “Devotion,” which compiles the work of 30 diferent student contributors.

Sunday, Jan. 15

At 4 p.m., the Hopkins Center will screen “Call Jane” in Loew Auditorium. The flm,set in 1960s Chicago stars Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver and Wunmi Mosaku, who play three women working to seek change and provide access to abortion in pre Roe v. Wade America. Tickets are $5 for Dartmouth students and $8 for other attendees.

Tuesday, Jan. 17

In lieu of a traditional audition, a required ensemble workshop will be held by MainStage Production for those hoping to take part in this winter’s Theater Main Stage production, “And Thus They Began: A Decameron,” inspired by Boccaccio’s “Decameron.” No previous theater experience is necessary to work on the show. The workshop will be held in Sudikof 241 from 7-10 p.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 18

The English and Creative Writing Department is hosting a reading from Zambian writer and Harvard English professor Namwali Serpel. Serpel wrote the acclaimed “The Old Drift” and won the Anisfeld-Wolf Book prize for fction, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fction and the L.A. Times’ Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Serpel will be reading from her second novel, “The Furrows: An Elegy,” followed by a Q&A session and book signing. The event will be held in Sanborn library at 5:30 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 20

From 12:30-1:30pm, the Hood Museum is sponsoring the unveiling of John Wilson’s sculpture “Martin Luther King, Jr.” The event will be held in Dartmouth Hall 105 and is free and open to the public. The unveiling will also feature a discussion about the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. at Dartmouth.

At 7 p.m., the Hopkins Center will present “Till” in the Loew Auditorium. The flm, directed by Chinonye Chukwu, follows the true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s search for justice for her son, Emmett Till. Starring Danielle Deadwyler, the flm delves into Mobley’s grief following the tragedy, as well as her frm resilience in the wake of her son’s murder. The flm will be followed by a discussion with Deborah Watts, Emmitt Till’s cousin and the co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation. Tickets are $5 for Dartmouth students and $8 for other attendees.

Saturday, Jan. 21

At 7 p.m., the Hopkins Center will present the flm “She Said” in the Loew Auditorium. The flm stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as two New York Times reporters who expose Harvey Weinstein’s decades of abuse. In the flm, the story launches the #MeToo movement and works to change the tradition of silence in Hollywood surrounding sexual abuse and assault. Tickets to the flm are $5 for Dartmouth students and $8 for other attendees.

Rating:

SAMANTHA BRANT/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

SPORTS

e Look Ahead: Week 3

BY CAROLINE YORK The Dartmouth Staff

Friday, Jan. 13

Men’s and women’s nordic and alpine ski teams continue at the Bates College Carnival, the first competitive event of their 2023 season — along with other Eastern Intercollegiate Skiing Association (EISA) teams — at Sunday River in Newry, Maine.

Women’s and men’s squash will both compete at Trinity College starting at 1 p.m. Men’s squash (4-2) is fresh off a 7-2 win against Colby College on the road. Women’s squash (4-2) also comes off of a win, 6-3 against Stanford University. Both Trinity squash teams are undefeated — the men 8-0 and the women 5-0 — so they will provide strong tests for their Big Green counterparts.

Women’s hockey (5-13-0) will take on Harvard University (4-10-3) at 3 p.m at home in Thompson Arena. The Big Green stands at 1-10-0 in Ivy League play and will attempt to break a two-game losing streak.

Both the women’s (1-4) and men’s (1-4) swimming and diving teams will travel to New Haven, Connecticut to compete against the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University at 5 p.m. The diving events will take place on the first day of the competition. Both sides seek their first Ivy League meet wins of the season, both currently sitting at 0-4 in conference play.

Men’s hockey (2-13-1) will compete against St. Lawrence University (10-

10-0) at Thompson Arena starting at 8 p.m. The Big Green is 1-7-1 in ECAC Hockey play, against the Saints’ 5-3-0 record.

Saturday, Jan. 14

The ski teams will race the third and final day of the Bates Carnival. The 10 km freestyle will end the weekend at Black Mountain in Jackson, New Hampshire.

The men’s and women’s track teams will travel to the Track at New Balance in Boston for the Suffolk Ice Breaker Invitational starting at 10 a.m.

The swimming events of the women’s and men’s meet against Yale and Penn will begin at 12 p.m. in New Haven.

Men’s hockey will return to Thompson Arena at 7 p.m. to take on Clarkson University (9-8-3). The last time the Big Green played against the Golden Knights — last season — Dartmouth was shut out 3-0.

The men’s tennis team will kick off its spring season competing at home against the United States Naval Academy starting at 1 p.m. The Big Green finished the 2021-22 season 9-12 overall and 1-6 in conference play.

Women’s basketball (2-15) will travel to Philadelphia to compete against Penn (11-5) at 2 p.m. The Big Green will look to get back on track from an eight-game losing streak, which includes the team’s first three Ivy League contests.

Men’s basketball (5-12) will also take on the Penn Quakers (9-8) 2 p.m. at

home in Leede Arena. The Big Green is 1-2 in conference play — following an upset win over Yale and a loss to Cornell — and will look to even its conference record.

Sunday, Jan. 15

The men’s and women’s track teams will remain at the Track at New Balance in Boston to compete in the

University of Massachusetts Flagship Indoor Invitational beginning at 9 a.m.

Women’s and men’s squash will compete against Yale at home at 12 p.m.

Women’s tennis will take on Harvard in a scrimmage at Boss Tennis Center starting at 1 p.m. This is the last friendly game before the season begins next week against St. John’s

University.

Monday, Jan. 16

Men’s tennis will scrimmage against Harvard at home at 12 p.m.

Men’s basketball will travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts to take on Harvard (10-7) at 2 p.m.

At 5 p.m., women’s basketball will play Harvard (9-6) at home.

Reigning NIRA champions aim for similar success in 7s season

BY CAROLINE YORK The Dartmouth Staff

This story was orginally published on Jan. 9, 2022.

In November, women’s rugby captured the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association 15s championship for the second year in a row. The win — rugby’s third in four appearances in the title game — also clinched a second consecutive undefeated 15s season for the team.

During the 15s fall season, Dartmouth won all nine of its games — including a collection of dominant showings, like a 79-0 shutout of Mount St. Mary’s University, a 95-10 blowout over Princeton University at home and another shutout, 85-0, against Brown University. Dartmouth entered the NIRA semifnal game 7-0 and glided to victory 47-14 over Quinnipiac University.

After closely defeating Ivy League rival Harvard University 31-29 on the road earlier in the season, the Big Green once again met the Crimson in the NIRA Division I Championship match at home on Burnham Field.

For Emily Henrich ’22, a ffth-year senior who was a member of the 2018 squad that captured the Big Green’s frst title, the game meant more than just the one win.

“Having the game at home felt like a full circle moment because in 2018 we won the championship at home,” Henrich said. “It was a really sentimental moment to relive freshman year and especially because Harvard’s really our big rival.”

Kristin Bitter ’23 recalled how she felt the moment the clock hit zero and the Big Green ofcially secured the championship.

“Once the fnal whistle blew, I think we were all relieved because it was defnitely a really tough game,” Bitter said. “Everybody ran onto the feld and celebrated, but a lot of the players were pretty, pretty tired. Once we lifted up the trophy, everybody was extremely excited, and we forgot that we were

tired.”

For some players, the excitement of the win is still setting in, even now. Cassie Depner ’25 said it was exciting when the team realized a repeat championship was possible during the season.

“When you go into college sports your goal is to win a national championship at one point,” Depner said. “Nobody’s initial goal is, in fact, we’re gonna win two national championships back to back — so when we had that opportunity, we knew how unique it was and how special that was.”

After the season ended, Dartmouth players dominated the All-NIRA Rugby DI roster. Out of 15 total players selected, Big Green players made up the majority of the roster with eight. Among those selected was Ariana Ramsey ’22, who was also named the championship game’s MVP and competed for Team USA at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics — the program’s frst-ever Olympian. The team with the second most members on the All-NIRA frst team was Harvard with three.

Around 3,000 people attended the 15s championship game to cheer on the Big Green, and the team expressed appreciation for all the support from the college and community members.

“It was awesome to see the amount of support that we had,” Depner said. “Even though it was cold and in the middle of fnals, we still sold out the stadium virtual tickets.”

With this win under its belts, the team is already looking towards the spring 7s season. After placing second in the USA Rugby College 7s National Championship in 2022, the team is ready for redemption. Henrich noted that the winter is a crucial building period for the team.

“This winter is a big opportunity for us; we have a lot of girls on campus, and winter consists of building that ftness baseline and team building,” Henrich said. “Because rugby’s a rising sport, we always take walk-ons in the fall, so, for the walk-ons, the winter is a good opportunity for them to really start to understand the game.”

According to Allie Amerson ’25,

there are crucial diferences between the 7s and 15s seasons. 7s has 14 total players on the feld while 15s has 30; 15s is longer with 80 minutes of play while 7s has a faster pace at 14 minutes total. Amerson said that where 15s is a more “physical” game, “speed” is crucial to 7s. She noted that Dartmouth has traditionally excelled at the physical aspects of the game, leading to its recent

domination in 15s.

As the team prepares forthe 7s season, Amerson said she and her teammates plan to alter their training to increase their agility for future games.

“I think that this year we are a faster team than we were last year for both 15s and 7s and that is defnitely an advantage in 7s, as it’s a much quicker game,” Depner said.

The team still plans to look back at its championship season for lessons as to how to take on challenges.

“I think we just showed in the championship game how much we really cared for each other,” Henrich said. “If we just keep that up, making sure we’re prioritizing friendship and family, I think we’ll keep having the success we’ve had.”

ZOORIEL TAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLIE AMERSON

Now almost two months removed from clinching its second consecutve NIRA 15s championship, the women’s rugby team sets its sights on the spring.

New Year, New

By Gretchen Bauman STORY

This article was originially published on Jan. 11, 2022.

My family has never been one to celebrate New Year’s Eve. By the time the ball drops, we’re usually asleep. As a result, the beginning of the new year has never felt much like an occasion to set drastic goals, and I’ve often preferred to set seasonal goals instead of year-long resolutions. This has grown even more true at Dartmouth, where each term is so drastically different that it would be almost impossible to come up with a laundry list of unifying goals.

Yet, as I’ve spent the past week reflecting on other resolutions, I’ve come up with two of my own — albeit a few weeks late. After drinking a can of Diet Coke almost every day that I was home over winterim, my biggest resolution is to cut back on my diet soda consumption. And when visiting a high school friend taking a sign language class at her university, I resolved to improve my sign language skills beyond the baby sign language I learned as a child.

With these in mind, I wanted to hear from other students about their resolutions. Goals varied widely and ranged from exercise to partaking in outdoor activities to interpersonal development. For example, Lily Maechling ’23 made resolutions around spending time outside this winter.

“I want to take advantage of my last winter term at Dartmouth and get outside a lot, especially through snowboarding,” she said. “I want to break my snowboarding speed record and break my Killington record of going to Killington more than 18 days during the term.”

Justin Pavan ’25 also made several resolutions, though each centered on a different area of his life.

“My first resolution is limiting my phone screen time to less than an hour per day,” Pavan said. “My second is not eating dessert at Foco and my third is exercising at least once per day.”

Based on the hordes of people packed into Alumni Gym last week, it seems as though Pavan wasn’t alone in making this last resolution Meanwhile, Kevin Mahoney ’25 made resolutions that focused on interpersonal relationships.

“I want to spend more time with my family … I realized that I’m seeing people get older, and I made this resolution more out of the fear of not taking full advantage of time with them,” Mahoney said.

Many students found that coming

Me? Dartmouth

Students’ LoveHate Relationships with New Year’s Resolutions

to Dartmouth has changed their resolutions. Mahoney pointed out that the pace of the quarter system inspired him to make his resolutions relationship-centered.

“Dartmouth has changed my view on a lot of things because the quarter system is so fast here,” he said. “It made me realize the importance of spending time with friends.”

Maechling also said that her resolutions have shifted depending on her surroundings, such as the access to the outdoors at Dartmouth.

“I think my resolutions have become more outdoors-focused by nature of Dartmouth having more outdoor opportunities,” she said. “The activities that I’m engaged in are also different from what I was engaged in during high school, and my goals are generally related to what I’m currently doing.”

Lexi Chelle ’25 said that her resolutions have narrowed in scope since starting college.

“Before coming to Dartmouth, there were more things that I couldn’t necessarily control that I wanted to control, so my resolutions focused on that,” she said. “If I were to make resolutions now, they would be more attainable and something I could actually measure, instead of making one blanket statement to define my year.”

Amelia Hartshorn ’25 echoed this, pointing out that she has also shifted her focus away from bigger resolutions in favor of smaller ones.

“My resolutions in high school were more lofty and aspirational, but now it’s about the day to day and just getting through it.”

Despite these efforts to set attainable resolutions, few of the students that I spoke to had resolution success stories. Pavan noted that, on average, he sticks to his resolutions for only “a few months.”

“The reason why I often break them is because I forget that I made them,”

Pavan said. “Maybe that means they weren’t as meaningful as they should have been.”

Mahoney said that breaking his resolutions serves as his sign to find different goals.

“If I break them, it means that I didn’t want them bad enough,” he said. “I need to find better goals that I can actually achieve.”

Hartshorn found that the prospect of sticking to a goal for an entire year often leads to failure. She said she prefers to set weekly goals, citing the book “Atomic Habits” as informing her approach, which emphasizes setting smaller, achievable goals.

“If you just change one little thing every day and make a hundred things one percent better, that’s going to be more worth it than focusing on one thing and trying to make this giant change,” she said.

Chelle said that rather than making resolutions only at the start of each year, she sets goals when they occur

Reflection: Finding Your Balance

By Connor Allen STORY

This article was originally published on Jan. 11, 2022.

According to an average Instagram scroll, there are a couple different types of winterim available to Dartmouth students, all of which have their pros and cons:

1. Travel Europe via train. Have plenty of fun, but burn out your wallet and residual energy from the fall term.

2. Type 1, but with family.

3. Stay home, visit college and hometown friends here and there, and relax your way to healthy but eventually uncomfortable boredom.

Like most, I opted for but really didn’t “choose” the third. Having a “Type 3” winterim experience is like returning home from weeks of musket battle in the hills to the homestead; we feel initially relieved but then unsatisfied by the mundanities of everyday life. This is certainly a hyperbole; maybe the sudden retirement of a traveling circus clown who specializes in juggling while unicycling for hours at a time is the more appropriate analogy.

Either way, it feels odd to push the pause button after living 10 weeks of life at 1.5x speed. The

sudden liberation from coursework, social time and extracurricular activities can feel disorienting and even unsettling, evidence of a Dartmouth term inducing a sort of Stockholm Syndrome. But all of this can be avoided with an important step, one that eluded me the previous winterim: self-scheduling.

I’ve never really had to create my own schedule, with the permanent stack of coursework and extracurricular commitments serving to structure my time. Canvas even goes so far as to send me due date reminders and create a tidy calendar, making sure I never need to practice the incredibly valuable life skill of blocking out my own time.

The unique sadism of the quarter system not only creates the fastpaced lifestyle during the term, but also renders our breaks long and largely antisocial, due to the total misalignment of winterim with most winter breaks at other colleges. So, in the case of the type 3 winterim (i.e. not traveling to Europe), a free day can be made all the emptier by the hilarious lack of college-aged people at home.

In my small-ish town, in early December, I walked into the grocery store and heads turned — I am the

first 20-year-old seen in weeks and surely must have dropped out of school. I visited our classic hometown deli, certain to run into high school classmates, only to recognize two Dartmouth ’24s who happened to be passing through my town. To go from nearly exclusive interaction with 19- to 22-year-olds to none at all was jarring and surreal.

So, rather than aimlessly float around in the winterim void, I did something that felt bizarre: I scheduled every day. I did all of the same things that I would have done regardless, like devouring TV shows and cooking and learning a new piece on piano, but this time it was done with structure and intention. It made all the difference. I finally felt what not being exasperated was like — uncomfortable but soon incredible. Since high school, I’ve thrived in a high pressure environment, with a never-ending stack of due dates hanging over my head. This is cortisol (the stress hormone) with a purpose, tuning my focus all the way up and increasing my productivity. I’ve gotten so used to feeling constantly frazzled, rushed and overwhelmed that, oddly enough, it is the headspace I’ve become able to channel into productivity and

resolve.

But this, I’ve since realized, is incredibly unsustainable, explaining why burnout hits me so intensely at the end of every term. Stress cannot be a stable long-term motivator. This winter was a perfect time block to experiment: Could I be as productive and fulfilled with a healthier schedule and a greater sense of balance?

The answer, overwhelmingly, was yes. By externalizing all the due dates, plans and responsibilities that had been hanging over my head onto a simple Google calendar, I was able to be as productive and not even slightly bored at home, all without a constant, pounding feeling of stress. Oddly and incorrectly, I always subconsciously prided myself on my lack of organization; somehow, amid a whirlwind of assignments and activities, I’ve been able to get everything done — like some mad savant with crazed eyes and an aura of mystery. This thinking is silly and useless.

My default response to “How was your break?” is the honest and polite reply: “Pretty fun, relaxing but a little boring.” It really is true, though. I had a downright pleasant break, regardless

to her.

“It doesn’t make sense to make resolutions just because it’s a new year,” she said. “You’re allowed to make goals at any time, and if I’m feeling like I want to change something in my life, I’ll just make it a goal at that time instead of waiting until a new year.”

Mahoney agreed that Jan. 1 doesn’t always need to serve as a starting point for new goals.

“One of my goals was to get my dog in shape, but I was able to accomplish that over winterim,” he said. “New Year’s resolutions are kind of silly — why not start before the new year?”

After all, so much change occurs throughout a year that it can be difficult to even imagine what your goals might be next December.

“Forget about the person you could be in a year,” Mahoney said. “Think about the person you could be in a month.”

of how unsexy it appears on paper: I learned the merit of organization and structure. I practiced a balanced, calm lifestyle. I tried out new routines and found good ways to make my days less stressful. I now understand the point of buying materials at Staples. I now have more than a laptop and a pen in my backpack.

Lingering in the back of my head was the suspicion that this might be great practice for my adult lifestyle: organized, routine-intensive, balanced, responsible and fulfilling. But I sure hope my future self still holds on to my young twenties sense of opportunity and adventure, and is able to work spontaneity into the aforementioned balanced schedule. To imagine a wholesale abandonment of all things immature, disorganized and cheaply fun is nightmarish, potentially rendering the rest of my day-to-day professional life as exciting as an efficient Staples trip. Though I’m happy to have used this break to finally discover the numerous benefits of organization, discipline and routine, even as I mature and my responsibilities grow in magnitude, I hope to — in some ways — forever remain a college sophomore.

LAUREN LIM/THE DARTMOUTH