MIR ROR MARCH 29, 2013
ROOM AT DARTMOUTH, LESS SPACE ABROAD // 2
TTLG: FROM THE EDGE OF THE AVALANCE // 6
THE SPRING BREAK SAGA SHARING LIKE WILDFIRE // 3
A MEETING WITH MICHAEL BRONSKI // 8
5 MULIN XIONG // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
2// MIRROR
EDITOR’S NOTE This week, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of gay marriage. The fundamental question of what constitutes a union between two persons has ignited a flame blazing across the political spectrum. Although the argument in front of the Court must inevitably operate within a constitutional and legislative context, we the laymen have the ability to consider the topic from a less technical perspective. Why are some connections validated and others not? What cultural institutions or imaginations ser ve as the basis for these assumptions? America is in unprecedented territor y. In our content redesign debut, we look at cultural institutions as cemented as spring break and inquire the ways we share content with each other on social media platforms. We expose two remarkable individuals with life stories that amaze and inspire. We take a look at the current Hanover housing crisis (hi ’14s in the Lodge). We hope these trigger dialogue about the way we interact at Dartmouth, discuss issues of importance and bond together as a community. After all, a society is nothing more than the individuals who compose it and its cultural imaginings. We’re so excited to unveil our brand new layout, and we hope you find it both intellectually stimulating and aesthetically pleasing. Happy Friday!
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MIR ROR MIRROR EDITORS AMELIA ACOSTA TYLER BRADFORD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JENNY CHE PUBLISHER GARDINER KREGLOW EXECUTIVE EDITOR DIANA MING FELICIA SCHWARTZ GRAPHICS EDITOR ALLISON WANG
ROOM AT DARTMOUTH, LESS SPACE ABROAD
REBECCA SCHANTZ //THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
B Y LINDSAY KEARE Another spring term has officially arrived, which means that not only are FoCo and the gym more crowded, but large portions of the sophomore and junior classes have returned from off-terms. Another option for D-Plan diversity, the transfer term, has become increasingly attractive in recent years to students who are unable to go on a Dartmouth-sponsored program or wish to study at an institution that does not have a formal partnership with the College. However, new limitations on transfer terms, including enrollment caps and increased application requirements, have made advanced D-Planning far more difficult. The rules, which allow no more than five students to participate in the average transfer term, went into effect this year, and the sudden mandate required students to change their D-plans at the last minute. This prompted rumors that acquiring desirable housing would be more difficult, with more students on campus. Excluding summer, winter is the term when the fewest students use college housing, followed by spring and fall. Consequently, the difference between winter and fall enrollment is approximately 400 students, according to Registrar Meredith Braz. With a larger number of students on campus because of transfer term restrictions, some have greeted this spring with an overwrought panic over all things housing-related, generating a doomsday scenario of drastic room shortages and overcrowding. Fortunately, the rumors don’t seem to hold up. Dartmouth’s enrollment committee anticipates issues that will affect enrollment patterns and develop contingency plans to address them. Because the committee was aware of the change in transfer term policies, Braz said it should not be noticeably more difficult for students to find housing with the new regulations. It is unclear, however, what long term impacts the shift may have, as it is still in the first year of its implementation. “While this one change in policy is being monitored, it may have an impact over time which could influence another policy change,” Braz said. Another committee is investigating whether
and when to offer more study abroad opportunities, if the transfer term restrictions do prove to be severe limitations. The College has cited the maintenance of academic rigor in all programs as the primary reason for limiting student access to transfer terms. “Those who provide a solid academic rationale for participating on a transfer term and are clearly going for academic reasons are likely to receive approval by the Committee on Instruction,” Braz said. Unfortunately, students who depend on a transfer term as their sole opportunity to go abroad could graduate having never studied in a foreign country, and not for a lack of desire. “I think that Dartmouth needs to provide people who can’t go on transfer terms with the opportunity to go abroad, since that process is so competitive, and I think going abroad is great,” Isaac Guttman ’14 said. However, the nature of deadlines given by the Registrar’s Office and the transfer terms themselves can present a challenge to students whose transfer experiences are not accepted. Catherine Castillo ’15, who plays on the women’s soccer team, said she was not informed of the change in rules until the end of the summer. She and many of her friends had their applications to study at a university in Sydney, Australia denied. “The issue was that by that point it was too late to have applied for an LSA or FSP and it would’ve been pretty late to look for internships, so it didn’t leave me or anyone else with very many options,” Castillo said. “As an athlete you’re kind of limited by terms you can take off, and if something doesn’t go as planned you have a little less flexibility.” Fortunately, the Office of Residential Life works to ensure that students who have to wait until the last minute to know if they will be on campus have somewhere to live, according to undergraduate housing director Rachael Class-Giguere. “In the fall I worked with a number of students who were waiting to see if their transfer term for the winter would be approved, and we held housing for them until they knew if their transfer term
ANTI-FEMINISM
OVER HEARDS
’16 Guy: I wish we just did the “fall back” daylight savings twice a year..
Blitz overheards to mirror@ thedartmouth. com
’13 Guy: We might be getting a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy. ’13 Girl: Wait, isn’t that a dragon?
’14 Boy: Who added all this baby stuff to my Amazon queue?
New changes to transfer term restrictions have affected some students’ D-Plans, but the housing situation may not constitute the crisis some are claiming it to be.
was approved,” Class-Giguere said. “A student can apply for housing here at Dartmouth pending a decision on their transfer term request.” Those who decide late to stay on campus in the winter generally don’t have problems, as winter has the lowest enrollment rates. “In the fall I lived in a one-room double,” Castillo said. “My roommate was off this winter and I just ended up with the room to myself.” Class-Giguere said she has not noticed a change in the number of students living on campus since the transfer term rules went into effect, but it has not been long enough to substantiate any significant trends. Like Braz, Class-Giguere said she does not think that the changes in transfer term rules will affect enrollment patterns enough to cause a housing shortage. She does acknowledge, however, that students may have difficulty getting the type of housing they hope for. “Everyone wants a single when they come back to campus for the winter or spring and we don’t have enough for all who want them,” ClassGiguere said. Lexi Kellison ’13 is currently on a leave term while living on campus and said that any sort of housing shortage would likely prompt ORL to use much stricter guidelines for students like her. “In my case, doing leave term housing on campus, you have to have to work a minimum of 30 hours per week to live on campus,” Kellison said. “They have a deadline for students on leave term to find a job but they haven’t been hounding me.” Whether this new rule is here to stay and will cause future housing problems remains to be seen. The reality is that students who wish to study abroad will have to either plan far in advance or accept that they may be forced to stay on campus at the last minute. “My D-Plan pretty much stayed the same in terms of when I was going to be taking classes, just minus the abroad term,” Castillo said. Luke Katler contributed reporting to this article.
’13 Boy: There’s a class called emotion? I should take that.
’14 Girl: I wish I was fat at some point so I could see why anyone would want to be fat.
’16 Girl Setting Up Pong: Wait, are you suposed to pour beer in the stem?
MIRROR //3
SHARING LIKE WILDFIRE
Sharing information via social media has transformed the face of news consumption. BY MADDIE BROWN AND MAGGIE SHIELDS Our generation learned to share in kindergarten, but along the way, the word’s meaning was swallowed whole by the digital age and the expectations for our interpersonal interactions came to mean more about generating “likes” than waiting our turn on the playground. In the latest of Facebook’s highly publicized design changes, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social media giant would aim to function as a “personalized newspaper,” allowing for theoretically endless information sharing and streamlining content according to personal preferences. As many fear that print journalism is dwindling into its twilight years, digital sharing resources like Twitter and Tumblr are coming into their own, no longer simply receptacles for inside jokes and pictures of cats in Christmas sweaters. During spring break, the selection of a new Pope was simplified down for worldwide consumption to a succinct #whitesmoke. Sharing information instantaneously via social media is a hallmark of the 21st century, and in few places is it more common than amongst the aspiring intellectuals of a college campus. We’re not always sharing Pulitzer Prize-winning essays, but we’re almost always sharing something. The Mirror wanted to know more — we surveyed Dartmouth students on their means and motivations for spreading information via social media to get a more numerical handle on the role of digital information sharing in our community. The Internet has not always been like this. When we joined Facebook in middle and high school, we used it to connect with friends and family, posting embarrassing jumping pictures in front of statues in Washington, D.C., and snapshots taken in shopping mall mirrors. The Facebook status bar came with pre-set options so we could let our dearest know we were “at a party” or “doing homework.” The greatest level of decision making came from people trying to circumvent the mandatory inclusion of “is” in their updates. Recently, however, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have transformed into vehicles for sharing news stories. Anyone with access to the Internet can tell you that people often post articles, YouTube videos and other websites as their statuses, sometimes including a pithy comment or observation. If you want to get information to someone else? Share it on their wall. Tweet at their handle. . Links to share articles are on every major news websites, and the ability to tell people what you’re currently reading is everywhere. In fact, only 20 percent of Dartmouth students surveyed said they never shared articles via social media.
TRENDING @ Dartmouth #TBT COLLIS ICE CREAM
Go ahead, spoil your appetite.
BEAN BOOTS
MULIN XIONG //THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Have Twitter and Facebook become our first stop for news? The deaths of Osama bin Laden and Whitney Houston and the emergence of the Arab Spring are all recent examples of the power of the Internet’s immediacy. Of course, it’s not always breaking news that we’re probing. In medical ethics, scientists often ask themselves if they are working toward a new innovation because it’s necessary or simply because they can. What would we see if we asked this same question of the proliferation of websites and links? What is the world getting from the fact that “Kanye West Wing” not only exists but can be sent, in the form of a single line, from one computer to another in less than a second? While 2012 data is not yet finalized, Facebook released the top 40 shared articles in 2011 to the public. Satellite images from before and after the Japan tsunami from The New York Times topped the list. In second place, CNN published an opinion piece from American Teacher of the Year Ron Clark on what teachers really want to say to parents, and in third, CNN once again claimed glory with a piece calming fears over changing zodiac signs. Clearly, the list reflects a diversity of concerns and interests amongst Facebook’s user base. Maybe we should all simply revel in excitement over how far we’ve come, from the days of news being the privilege of the elite to mass consumption of information at breakneck speeds. But new forms of media aren’t without problems. Titles have become essential to generating attention for articles. 64 percent of students surveyed said the title of an article significantly impacted their decision on whether to click a link and peruse the content. With increasing availability of information has come a dwindling attention span and an increased need for sensationalism to generate page views. With the demanding pressures
of news cycles, breaking stories published within seconds may face accuracy issues. Celebrity deaths, the news of Facebook shutting down or changing its policies and fake kidnappings are all stories that have spread and turned out to be false. In a December op-ed in The Times, former executive editor Bill Keller opined that the closure of many foreign bureaus could mean a sacrifice of accurate and immediate coverage. He drew a connection between President Barack Obama’s incorrect classification of Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens’s death as a protest that exploded into violence and similarly flawed coverage in many major news outlets. While the issues faced here at Dartmouth are usually more within arm’s reach, Keller has a point in the impact of journalism on public perception, and the way in which the content articles we so eagerly share influence what our friends and family think of the major stories of the day. It is also essential to review the validity of the article’s source before posting or commenting, especially when we have so many to choose from. Only 7 percent of students said the credibility of a source was most important factor in choosing when to share an article. 63 percent said they always read the entire article before sharing to social media, but a thorough reading doesn’t guarantee accuracy. The blog “Literally Unbelievable” documents people who post articles from The Onion believing them to be true. In a notable example, a man posted the satirical article entitled “Punxsutawney Phil Beheaded For Inaccurate Prediction On Annual Groundhog Slaughtering Day” with the caption “Cruel and unnecessary. I don’t care if it is tradition.” Although the poster wished to advocate animal rights, his failure to realize the humor behind the headline made him something of a laughingstock. And it’s not just The Onion — The New Yorker’s
“The Borowitz Report” publishes satirical ar ticles that are often mistaken for reality. This week, a headline poked fun at Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the court’s consideration of samesex marriage, reading, “Scalia Furious He Has To Hear About Gay Couples All Week.” Maybe nothing has tr uly changed. Accuracy and objectivity have always been dynamic issues in journalism. Overall, we at the Mirror are excited to know that people are reading and sharing the things that interest them. From Perez Hilton to New York Magazine to The Daily Beast, the increased popularity of sharing and online news could just mean there’s media to suit all types and tastes. Dartmouth students seemed to think so — 78 percent of those sur veyed said that personal interest was the biggest factor when choosing an article to share with their online friends. Those most eager to share might be disappointed to know that only 15 percent said they always read the articles their friends send to them, but imagine how few would read it if it weren’t available with the click of a finger. It would be far from groundbreaking to say that today’s college students have grown up on the Internet. Our class information, our entertainment and all of our closest friends exist simultaneously in the real world and within the boundaries of a computer screen. Parents who once cut clippings for their children can now send them via email. We now share ever ything we think, or at least ever ything we think is interesting — remember, retweets do not equal endorsement. Our Internet presence says a lot about us, in a way that is both visibly obvious and increasingly immediate. Maybe we’d do best to embrace it and click “share” if we dare.
We hate them too, but anyone who’s lived a Hanover spring knows you can break out the shorts and flip flops in May, but for now Hanover is a swampland.
SYLLABUS SYNDROME J. Crew isn’t the only place for shopping in town. Students love to shop and classes are no exception. It’s a little hard to build intellectual communities with people dropping like flies though.
’13s IN THE 1902 Thesis season is in full swing. Beware. If you see students in the 1902 Room surrounded with 60 books and 10 coffee cups, stay away.
JUNIORS Whether it’s been one term or two, spring is the time for ’14s to return and come into their own.
RD ’17s
SPRING BROKE
4// MIRROR
The Cultural Impact of COLLEGE REVELRY By Elizabeth Trager
L
ike architectural experimentation, Western democracy, epic poetry, philosophy and most other foundational pillars of high culture, the institution of spring break arose in ancient Greece. It existed in the form of “Anthestreria”, a three-day festival dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine, welcoming the return of the season of fertility. The revelry was characterized by dancing, singing, women ing to see who could most quickly drain a cup of red wine. While two thousand years cally, our college population — continues by excessive alcohol consumption and hormone-driven activities. The earliest iterations of the spring break tradition in the United States came in 1936, when the Colgate University swim coach brought his team down to Fort Lauderdale to practice at the Casino Pool. The experiment proved a worthwhile economic opportunity for Fort Lauderdale, which Forum at the Casino Pool in 1938. The Elbo Room, a dive bar in the Seabreeze Hotel, opened that same year, pushing large numbers of college students, the beach and alcohol into coexistence. The stage was set for the spring break we know today. Fort Lauderdale snagged the clever moniker “Fort Liquordale,” and in 1958, 20,000 students traveled to the city, a number that grew to 370,000 in 1985. In 1986, MTV Daytona Beach, whose images reinforced the vacation’s reputation for alcoholic and
entrenched in college culture, and international destinations became more attractive for a younger crowd looking to places with lower drinking ages. For most of my life, I have interpreted spring break as a fabled experience of near-utopian bacchanalia with fellow youth and warm, sunny weather. In high school, I eagerly anticipated my magical trip to lessness and incessant raging. It was to be a rite of passage that would prepare me for the partying, alcohol and social adventures that were guaranteed components of the college package deal. The college spring break experience, however, can take these factors to dramatic and potentially dangerous new levels. Today, 500,000 student visitors travel to Panama City, Florida annually, 150,000 to South Padre Island, Texas and 100,000 to Cancun, Mexico. Between Florida and Texas, students spend $1 billion during break. According to recent surveys given to college females, 83 percent said they experienced more drinking during spring break than on campus, 74 percent noted increased sexual activity, 57 percent felt that percent had friends who drank every night of the week and 60 percent had friends who had unprotected sex. On average, both men and women consumed over 10 alcoholic drinks a day, with about half of all students drinking every night until they passed out. Half of the sexual encounters that occurred during spring break were random, unplanned and unprotected. While these actions of all college students, they offer substantial evidence that spring break trips generally encourage, promote and revolve around the consumption of alcohol and sexual escapades. Jane Goldstein, a sophomore at
MIRROR //5
Emory University, described one such frightening alcohol-driven experience.
adventures and incessant partying. The
out,” Goldstein said. “My eyes were rolling tional. I’m almost positive I was drugged. Some guy tried to feel me up on the dance
our generation’s heavy reliance on alcohol and partying as a means to have a good time. changing and individuals now, more than -
What attracts many about spring people to temporarily ignore the stress and rigidity of academics and escape routine, parents, cold weather, stress and reality. The importance of “getting away” as a motivational factor has long been recognized in travel and tourism literature, as travelers abandon their everyday situations and immerse themselves in a different world.
young adults are generally irresponsible, too much and be a little slutty, but college students should be allowed and encouraged The vacation certainly doesn’t have to be this way, and it isn’t for all participants. The nature of the quarter system
characterized by frenzied sexuality and lege, said that college students adhere to a socially constructed script, deeply embedded in our culture that encourages recreern University, found no problem with this ery. pretty hard and should have the freedom and opportunity to let loose and have some fun with no inhibitions,” she said. “Last
It was weird, but I’ll never be able to do something so irresponsible again.” Though the actual concept of a
morphed into an orgy of carelessness and a suspension of most cultural and social
with friends from school, described her trip as a relaxing adventure.
tan, read and slept.”
in West Virginia. “The group that went down was an awesome bunch of people and we learned
“
I had five drinks at Aura Nightclub in the Atlantis Hotel this past spring break and all of the sudden I was entirely blacked out. My eyes were rolling to the back of my head, and I was dysfunctional. I’m almost positive I was drugged. JANE GOLDSTEIN
adolescent sexuality and the collective desire to party in a worry-free, experimental
tion of events.” While there may be some of wet T-shirt contests, booze parties and percent of women believe that what people such as “Girls Gone Wild” videos, perpetuates a negative stereotype of women. lief that college culture is focused on guys getting with a lot of girls, girls showing off
this.”
libido, liberating our stressed, caged winter been solidly embedded into our culture. Every student wants to claim a crazy story for themselves about that unbelievable pades that will go down in history. people tend to abandon some morals in order to embrace the partying culture because it’s what’s expected, it’s the status the most of college and partying before we graduate and have to become adults in the real world”. So much effort, planning and anticipation is dedicated to a trip that usually lasts unhealthy and potentially dangerous these vacations are, they are a cultural ritual of escape from the stress of a college lifestyle.
ALLISON WANG // THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
6// MIRROR
Through the Looking Glass
FROM THE EDGE OF THE AVALANCHE BY RANDALL STACY
It was my third week in Bariloche, Argentina at a summer ski and snowboard camp. Alex, my coach Kirk and I had just finished an hourand-a-half hike to the top of Punta Princessa at the resort Cerro Catedral. Kirk and I were both exhausted from the hike. Alex, a guide at Silverton Mountain, barely broke a sweat. This was just another day at the office for him. We slapped high fives and got stoked for the run while getting our stuff together to drop in. Before Alex dropped in, he told us not to go too far right of his track and that he would give us a pole wave at the bottom to signal for the next person to drop. He jumped on the slope where we dropped in and then made a ski cut out onto the face before enjoying his turns down to the bottom. Being the naive 16-year-old that I was, I did not pay much heed to what Alex said before he dropped in; my eyes were on the prize. I made a heel-side turn to cut out farther right onto the face of the mountain and swooped around to make another turn. Halfway through the turn I looked to where I would place my next one, and all I saw was a wall of snow forming in front of me. That’s when I realized I had triggered an avalanche. Everything slowed down to half-speed. I recalled the avalanche classes Alex and Skylar had given us. “Cut out at a 45-degree angle” Skylar’s voice echoed in my head. I pointed my board skier’s left to a flat spot out of the way of the slide but when I hit the wall of snow it sucked me in like a river. Next thing I knew
ZONIA MOORE // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Randall Stacy ’14 was caught in an avalanche while snowboarding in Bariloche, Argentina and lived to tell the tale.
JULIAN MACMILLAN // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
I was swimming in snow going for the ride of my life. I fought like hell to stay on the surface but it was no use. The slide picked up speed, and I was swallowed into the gut of it. I knew then there was nothing I could do. The avalanche ran through a snowfield before things started to get hairy. I hit a rock and was airborne for a second where I caught my first glimpse of light since I went under the surface. The darkness arrived again as I landed on a rock, only to be bounced again off another cliff. I landed on another rock that sent shooting pains through my leg. The avalanche ran another couple hundred feet before it slowed to a stop and buried me a meter below the surface. I wiggled my toes to make sure I hadn’t been paralyzed. I felt my socks rub against my boot and was immediately relieved. I tried to muscle my way out, but the avalanche deposit was a cement tomb. My efforts to escape were worthless. I began to hyperventilate. I yelled a few times, hoping that someone would hear me but, once again, it was worthless. I realized I needed to slow my breathing and stay calm. If you don’t die from physical trauma, your breath melts the snow around your face, freezes over quickly and creates a sealed pocket in front of your mouth. The golden number is about 15 minutes; after that, the survival rate drops from about 90 percent to around 30 percent. When riding in the backcountry, wearing a beacon is absolutely imperative. When in transit mode, beacons send out a signal that can be picked up by other beacons in search mode. This signal can be used to pin-point the position of someone who is buried. Luckily, I had just changed the batteries in my beacon the day before. I had a feeling I was going to survive. Then I started to hear footsteps above me and everything faded to black. Meanwhile, there was utter chaos on the
surface of the slide. Alex immediately pulled out his beacon to search for me while the Argentinian ski patrol organized their probe line composed of civilians with bamboo sticks. They yelled at Alex to get out of the way as the probe line passed over me, unaware I was right beneath their feet. Alex circled around and kept searching, keeping his cool. Finally he got a signal. He did the pin-point search, took out his probe and struck my backpack on the first try. “Randall! Randall! Can you hear me?” a voice rang in my ears. Everything was bright again. It was like waking from a dream. It took me a second to remember what had happened, and then it hit me all at once. I realized it was Travis, the director of the camp, who was speaking to me. I said his name and he sighed with relief. I heard Skylar and Alex in the background counting to three as they lifted me all at once into a toboggan and brought me to the ski patrol clinic at the base of the mountain. They put me on the table. I could not stop shaking. I was absurdly lucky. I should have died, but I walked out of the hospital the next day with a cane and a knee brace. I chipped my pelvis, fractured my femur and broke my kneecap in half. After three months and a little rehab, I was snowboarding again. I realized that I couldn’t let that experience scare me away from the backcountry, so I fully immersed myself in it. That day was a learning experience for me and I take that lesson with me everywhere I go. If I have any words of wisdom for anyone reading this, it’s to notlet anything scare you away from something you love. Force yourself into it, whatever it is, and push yourself even further. Through the Lookling Glass is a weekly feature and welcomes submissions from the Dartmouth community. If interested, email mirror@thedartmouth.com.
MIRROR //7
COLUMN
COLUMN
MODERATELY GOOD ADVICE
THE BUCKET LIST
Doing Dartmouth in an Hour or Less
WITH
BY
GARDNER DAVIS
LAUREN VESPOLI
AND
KATE TAYLOR Dear Gardner and Kate, My boyfriend of two months just asked me if I wanted to be “exclusive.” What’s the right way to respond to that? — Perplexed Patricia ’14 Dear Gardner, I’m dating this awesome ’14. Almost every night that I go out, I go to his house, play pong and then sleep over. We get Dirt Cowboy some mornings too. This means we’re dating, right? — Fiona Freshman ’16 Dear Kate,
Even though we technically first hooked up over a year ago, my friend and I have never really discussed our feelings for each other. Can I somehow avoid the “define the relationship” talk? — Conversationally-Challenged Charles ’15 Gardner and Kate: We’re going to be honest: these questions are all kind of embarrassing. Especially Patricia’s, which is the more troubling converse of the recent question, “Someone I wasn’t dating just broke up with me.” Instead of making fun of each of you individually, we’ll address your questions as symptoms of a more widespread problem on campus: gray areas in
relationships. We see that a lack of communication in relationships plagues “couples” across campus, creating the aforementioned gray areas. Healthy relationships should not have this problem and should not suffer from this crippling ambiguity. To answer all of your questions and eliminate the chance that these silly conversations about feelings and intentions ruin perfectly good relationships, we have created an “Are you Dating?” quiz. This completely replaces communication, which it seems many of you have done away with already. Simply check the boxes that hold true for your relationship and then determine whether or not you are dating using the rubric at the bottom!
ELIZABETH MCNALLY // THE DARTMOUTH
The youngest among us might not remember the list that used to go under every freshman’s door — “101 Things to Do Before You Graduate Dartmouth.” It was printed with a picture of Baker Tower and the Cat in the Hat on the background and listed the top, supposedly “unmissable” experiences the College had to offer. People took this list seriously. They’d hang them over their beds and cross out items they had completed. I’m glad they got rid of these lists, mainly because they privileged one type of Dartmouth experience, but also because many of the items were just dumb. On a recent search for some last minute inspiration, I typed “100 Things to Do Before You Graduate Dartmouth” into Google. The top result was a copy of this old list on a digital version of the “S’hmen Guide.” As I perused the list, I thought how few of them would even be interesting to try, much less write about. “These are child’s play,” I thought haughtily. But I’ve always been taught not to criticize without legitimate support for my criticism. And then inspiration struck. How many of them could I actually do in an hour? I was sitting in KAF with moderately-good-advice-giver Kate, and so we started the clock at 9:15 p.m. We sprinted up to Jones Media Center to complete item 30: “Rent a movie from Jones Media Center.” Admittedly, I had never done this before. With the help of the eager student working the front desk (honestly, I had no idea exactly what people did in that job) I scrolled through Jones’ recent acquisitions until a title caught my eye: “Harlem Nights”, the 1989 film starring Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, tale of corrupt police, mob bosses and seedy nightclubs. 9:21 p.m. Onward to attempt #82: “Play pool in Collis or Thayer.” I rush to the basement of Collis to knock some balls around, but damn you Collis construction. Fuel and whatever is in the back area of basement Collis, where I had vaguely assumed the pool tables were, is closed. Time to move to Boloco before it closes at 10 so I can take a crack at #12: “Eat a Boloco-inspired burrito.” Really? When I arrive at the basement restaurant (Kate has since departed for a Molly’s margarita date) it’s practically empty. The liberally tattooed and pierced man at the register welcomes me back for spring term, and I order a mini “Classic Mexican” with white meat chicken. I’ve already eaten a generous serving of Collis pasta for dinner and am not at all hungry for the burrito, but if Lena Dunham has taught me anything, it’s that sometimes art requires bodily sacrifice. Burrito in hand, at 9:31 p.m. I forge onward to the Hop, where I will touch Warner Bentley’s nose for good luck (#8). I remember being told during my campus tour that this is something Dartmouth students do, but I have never seen anyone actually do it nor touched it myself. It’s to my surprise that as I approach Bentley’s bronze bust I see a student rub it on his way out of the Hop. My own rub is rather anticlimactic and slimy, although I’m not sure whether to attribute this to the bust or the burrito juice on my fingers. I have a job interview this week, and time will tell if Bentley actually brings me any luck. It’s now 9:38 p.m., and I begin the most arduous leg of the challenge as I head all the way to #23 “stargaze on the golf course.” Because I only have until 10:15 p.m., I combine this with #71 “go running on the golf course,” going at a light jog with my backpack bouncing and not stopping until I have run a little ways onto the course. It’s a beautifully clear night, and Orion seems to be standing guard over me from his post in the sky. The stargazing is a little hurried for my liking, but it’s 9:54 and I’ve got to get back to campus and #26 “study or (fall asleep) in Baker Tower.” I begin the trek toward the library and by the time I reach the Tower Room I’m sweating and I smell like a burrito. The room is practically deserted and nearly dark, except for the few lone desk lamps where a handful of students are already delving into their 13S coursework. I select an armchair facing a window overlooking the green, perfect for the fall asleep option in #26. It’s 10:05. I put my feet up, close my eyes and doze for ten minutes. Sometimes being so tired you could fall asleep any time anywhere comes in handy. When I open my eyes at the buzzing of my phone alarm, it’s 10:15 p.m., and I’ve completed six of the 101 Things to do before you graduate Dartmouth in one hour. If I count #55 “Major in something you LOVE” and #47 “study/work/volunteer abroad” then I’m technically at eight, thanks to a history major and Foreign Study Program. At my rate, you could complete this list in 12.625 hours. Boom.
8 // MIRROR
PROFILE
A Meeting With Michael Bronski WGST professor discusses the past and future of activism in America BY REESE RAMPONI
MELISSA VASQUEZ // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Bronski brings his experiences with LGBT activism and protest against the war in Vietnam into the classroom. When women’s and gender studies professor Michael Bronski is looking for fun, his plan is clear — he writes another book. Cheer y and talkative despite the fact that I inter viewed him in the sliver of spare time between his first class and his bus back to Boston, Bronski assured me that rumors of his impending retirement or permanent transition to Har vard are unfounded. While Bronski does hold a position at Har vard, his diehard fans can put aside their wor ries. He’s here to stay, at least for the time being. In fact, Bronski called Dartmouth a perfect fit because of the opportunity here for student interaction. Beyond lecturing, Bronski said that real teaching comes from engaging one-on-one with his students. “It’s a well-kept secret — teachers learn as much from students as students learn from us,” Bronski said. He has used students’ papers in later courses, and believes that the fresh perspectives undergraduates of fer keep professors from recycling old ideas on a given topic. Listening to students is paramount. “It’s foolish and dangerous not to,” he said. Bronski has become friends with many of his students, and is collaborating on a forthcoming book with Michael Amico ’07, a former student, and New York University professor Anne Pellegrini. The book, “You Can Tell Just By Looking and 20 Other Myths About LGBT People,” is slated for release this October. As an activist and leader in the queer community at Dartmouth and beyond, Bronski is often called upon to discuss queer issues, but he believes that being an activist does not mean spreading his own opinion. Bronski said he works hard to
keep his own views out of the classroom setting. Bronski considers teaching an extension of activism, but not in transforming beliefs or for warding a certain point of view. Instead, he tries to present material in a way that provokes critical thinking, raising issues and encouraging students to form their own opinions. The most important information that comes from a college education is how to think creatively, critically and intelligently, and how to bring these skills with us after graduation, he said. “Most of what you will earn in college you will forget,” Bronski said. “Learning happens out in the world.” His own accounts reflect this view, as much of what he teaches is not from books, but from life experience. Bronski’s firsthand experiences allow him to bring a candid recollection of histor y to the classroom. “I am histor y in my age and background,” Bronski said. Bronski’s legacy of activism began at his Roman Catholic high school in the 1960s. “It was the height of the civil rights movement, and we got extra credit for going on civil rights marches,” he said. Bronski joked that the nuns never would have guessed that he would end up teaching queer and Jewish studies. “Well, maybe the queer part, but definitely not the Jewish part,” he added with a laugh. What began as extra credit points soon developed into a passion for participating in the movements at work around him. Bronski attended college at the inner-city campus of Rutgers University, and his first week fell just after a series of violent race riots in Newark, N.J. “The city was in flames for
most of the summer,“ he said. Soon after arriving, Bronski became involved in marches protesting the war in Vietnam. By the late ’60s, he had allied himself with his female friends, talking and reading about second wave feminism. The same year, the Stonewall riots marked the uprising of the fight for LGBT rights, and Bronski began what would become a life dedicated to this fight. “In the mid-’60s to late ’70s, there was enormous support for people being activists,” Bronski said. “There was also interest on the part of the younger people to be activists. Social upheaval, hippie culture and the war in Vietnam presented youth with people like Janis Joplin, people who were in constant revolt against social norms that were being rewarded for it.” The urgency of activism amongst Bronski and his peers came to a head in 1981, when the emergence of HIV/AIDS created a radical crisis in the LBGT community. The immediacy of the problem overshadowed pre-existing disagreements and dif ferences, and it became a watershed moment for gay and lesbian individuals nationwide. “Activism had to happen fast, because people were dying,” Bronski said. “You had to challenge what the newspapers were saying.” As the HIV/AIDS crisis proliferated, there was no time to wait, plan or contemplate. Activism became action, not only in challenging the media, but in visiting sick friends and loved ones, volunteering for committees, bringing people food and planning funeral ser vices. For 14 years, the urgency continued and activism became a way of Bronski’s life. Bronski said that the dramatic
DANNY GOBAUD // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Bronski said the immediacy of the HIV/AIDS crisis and the Vietnam War left the youth of the ’60s with no time to hestitate. events of his early activist days have impacted his perspective on student issues today. At Dartmouth, where many enter the corporate world after graduation, those interested in activism or social issues often face a more unsure future. Bronski noted that students often come to him worried for this ver y reason. “Students say ‘I’m graduating, I don’t know what to do, what did you do?’” he said. “And I say, ‘Well, we had to stop the Vietnam War.’” Today, Bronski said that social issues today may not inspire the same sense of desperation and immediacy. “When you look at the organizing around same sex marriage, there just isn’t the urgency to it that there was with AIDS or Vietnam,” he said. “It doesn’t have the same sense of urgency about life or death in this countr y.”
Bronski said his generation featured a greater sense of agency for youths and individuals in activist projects. “Since the ’60s and ’70s, there has been a professionalization of activism with fewer options for grassroots work,” he said. Bronski said he deepened his involvement by writing articles for a newly formed gay and lesbian issues newspaper. Those options are few and far between today, he said. For the few who do manage to get an internship with a publication or activism group, they are often unpaid, and those who would have been activists 45 years ago end up stapling papers and making copies. The downturn in activism shouldn’t be an excuse to give up, Bronski said. Find those who care about what you care about, and work with them.