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ese deaths like a death in the family’: Vigil honors shooting victims
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PAGE face today, some of which has been unveiled by the pandemic.”
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Three faculty members from the women’s, gender & sexuality studies department — Eng-Beng Lim, Mingwei Huang and MT Vallarta — echoed similar sentiments in their speeches at the vigil.
In his speech, Lim called for “the radicalization of Asian America” through “solidarities and coalitions,” in addition to the development of Asian American studies.
“We’re talking about racial, genderqueer, classed solidarities that have fragmented the U.S.,” Lim said in an interview after the event. “The work isn’t assimilationist — where we try to ft into the mainstream — but to think about…the struggle for more equitable futures for all.”
Dean of the College Scott Brown, who attended the vigil, wrote in an email statement that the event was important as a way “to come together in community.” In response to several speakers’ demands for institutional reform, Brown wrote that the Dean of Faculty Ofce “have put a great deal of thought into how to best support the Asian and Asian American community.”
The Dean of Faculty Ofce is in the process of developing “curriculum and programming related to Asian American studies,” according to an email statement from associate dean of International and Interdisciplinary
Studies Matthew Delmont. While the Dean of Faculty Ofce has the goal of forming a steering committee to establish, among other features, an Asian American studies major and minor, such a committee has not yet been formed, Delmont wrote.
In the meantime, DAASC continues to organize. Lin said that while it “shouldn’t be the students’ job” — but rather the College administration’s responsibility — to make vigils possible, such events give the group a platform.
“In the morning when I have to go to the living room, it’s freezing,” Goswami said. “I have to wear … my winter clothes even if I just have to cook.”
While Lujan wrote that the compressors are being replaced on a “rolling basis,” she also stated that the Michaels Group management team has set up portable safety space heaters for residents who are experiencing “insufficient heating.”
“The safety space heaters can warm the apartments to an average temperature of 72 degrees, or higher, depending on the individual preferences of the residents,” she wrote.
However, according to vice president of the Graduate Student Council Josephine Benson, an earth sciences master’s degree candidate, the space heaters are not enough, and multiple students said that running several space heaters at a time is unsafe. Benson added that several residents had to request a space heater “multiple times,” while others were told that there were no more heaters. She noted that management has denied the lack of space heaters.
In her email statement, Lujan said that there are enough space heaters for everyone who needs one.
In response to the lack of space heaters, the Graduate Organized Laborers of Dartmouth started a space heater drive once they learned that Summit on Juniper management “could not locate” space heaters to provide to residents, GOLD member Logan Mann said. Goswami said that once GOLD was “in the picture,” every unit that needed a space heater had access to one, but this was not the case before then.
“[Before] if anyone had a space heater, they could offer it, and then
Benson said that the Graduate Student Council is hoping that the land and buildings will be leased back to the College, especially because of repeated “negative and dismissive interactions” with the Michaels Organization. She added that the Michaels Organization has policies that are “really detrimental” to graduate students, like not allowing subletting and charging an additional fee if rent is paid with a credit card.
“The [Michaels Organization] manager has made it very clear to us that her primary responsibility is to the investors and not to its residents,” Benson said.
According to Mann, the other demands that GOLD is making of the College include the termination of any contracts with the Michaels Organization.
“We want Dartmouth or Michaels to compensate all tenants for heating, and all other maintenance failures, of which there have been a ton,” Mann said. “And then … we are calling on Dartmouth to terminate the contract with Michaels and [remove them] from all other current and future contracts.”
Benson added that in the past, the North Park housing community used to be graduate student housing. The loss of access to those accommodations has been “devastating” for graduate students, she said, highlighting a need for change.
“We’ve had a lot of discontent among graduate students for various policies,” Benson said. “And this is the latest example of Summit not stepping up appropriately to take care of its residents and really putting profit over people.”
Shena Han ’25 contributed reporting..
GUEST COLUMNIST DAMIEN SOLINGER JEFFERS ‘ 23