The Dartmouth 10/15/2021

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VOL. CLXXVIII NO. 20

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2021

‘It’s crazy’: Leaf peeping back in full swing as peak foliage arrives in the Upper Valley

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Regional pharmacies and hospitals begin administering PfizerBioNTech booster shot

BY KAIA CULOTTA The Dartmouth

MADDIE COOK/THE DARTMOUTH

Hanover businesses report an uptick in sales due to tourists coming to hike and see the landscapes.

BY SAM BROOK The Dartmouth

Leaf-peeping is in full swing in the Upper Valley as tourists flock from across the country to see the vibrant array of reds, yellows and oranges the region’s leaves have to offer. This year’s leaf-peeping season comes after last year’s attracted fewer tourists than usual due to COVID-19. According to the New Hampshire Travel and Tourism Department website, peak foliage in the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee region is slated to occur between Oct. 17 and Oct. 23, with roughly 75% to 80% of leaves having already changed colors as of Oct. 12. The department estimates that 3.2 million tourists will visit New Hampshire this fall, bringing $1.4 billion in spending to the state. Fatface clothing store manager Doran Brandt said that leaf-peepers

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tend to come to Hanover in regional bands at different times of the season. “In the middle of September, [leaf-peepers] were mainly from the D.C area,” Brandt said. “Pretty recently, [they are] coming from your southern states — your Carolinas, Georgias, Floridas.” Brandt noted that foliage tours have been particularly beneficial for Fatface, especially since local transit tends to drop passengers off right in front of the store. Molly’s Restaurant & Bar manager Andrea Field also noted that the fall foliage is driving up business. “Anywhere from October to November, [Molly’s] gets really busy because of leaf-peepers,” Field said. “People from far away [come] up here to visit. It’s crazy.” According to biological sciences professor Caitlin Hicks Pries, leaves get their green color from

The Dartmouth

EAST WHEELOCK MOLD FORCES RELOCATION FOR SOME PAGE 2

OPINION

VERBUM ULTIMUM: BREAK THE MOLD PAGE 3

ARTS

REVIEW: PHOEBE BRIDGERS LIVE FROM BOSTON PAGE 4 FOLLOW US ON

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SEE LEAVES PAGE 2

2020 Census data shows increased population and diversity in Upper Valley

BY LAUREN AZRIN

NEWS

the chlorophyll pigment. However, leading up to the winter, plants enter a dormant state in which chlorophyll is reabsorbed and leaves become yellow and orange. These vibrant colors are always present, but are typically overshadowed by chlorophyll, she added. Additionally, some plants like sugar maples produce another pigment called anthocyanin that yields a vivid red color, Hicks Pries said. She noted the effects of climate change on fall foliage, explaining that leaf-peeping season may be both prolonged and delayed in the near future. “There’s also an indication that the period of time at which the leaves are colored before they drop might be increasing,” Hicks Pries said. “With climate change, we might actually see increased periods of fall

Data from the 2020 Census, released in August 2021, showed a marked increase in New Hampshire’s population — including the towns of Hanover and Lebanon. Since the last census conducted in 2010, Hanover’s population has increased by 5.4% andLebanon’s has increased by 8.6%. The state of New Hampshire experienced a 4.6% population increase overall, larger than the 6.5% increase between 2000 and 2010. Vermont’s population grew by 2.8% from 2010 to 2020. In terms of racial diversity, New Hampshire emerged as one of the four states with the highest percentage of white residents, along with Maine, West Virginia and Vermont — all of which are over 88% white. Additionally, three of those four states — Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont — are host to the greatest percentage of population over the age of 18; each has an adult population above 81% According to Census.gov, the Census is intended to count every resident of the U.S. every 10 years, with the primary goal of determining the number of seats each state should be alloted in the U.S. House of Representatives. Based on the 2020 Census data, New Hampshire will not experience any changes to its representation in Congress. L e b a n o n m ayo r T i m o t hy McNamara said that the city’s population increase is a growth rate that he has “never seen before.” He attributed this growth to the new availability of housing in the area, with 1,300 new units of housing added in Lebanon in the past two to three years — a 15% to 20% increase in the number

of housing units. McNamara also noted that the new housing availability shifts the local population toward a “rental demographic,” whose population will skew on the younger side. “I think a community that is diverse, including age diversity, is the healthiest community you can have,” McNamara said. The percentage of Lebanon that identified as non-Hispanic white has declined slightly since 2010. That year, the Census found that 86.5% of the population was non-Hispanic white, whereas in 2019 — granular race and ethnicity data is not yet available for 2020 — the percentage was 85.1%. McNamara said that he has been happy to see an increase in the racial diversity of the local population. “I grew up here 50 years ago — it was a very homogeneous community,” he said. “We did not have much diversity — religious, racial or otherwise. I am very encouraged that that has increased over time, because I think it just strengthens our community and makes us all better people, and I do hope that that continues.” According to University of New Hampshire sociology professor and demographer Ken Johnson, the white population is older than the Upper Valley’s minority population, which means that minority populations may continue to increase. could possibly explain the increased representation of minority populations in the region. “A larger proportion of the minority populations of women are in their childbearing years, so there are more of them to have children,” Johnson said. According to geography professor Richard Wright, one reason for

On Sept. 24 — the same day that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a set of recommendations outlining who would be eligible for an additional dose of a COVID-19 vaccine — major national pharmacy chains, such as CVS Pharmacy, began rolling out Pfizer-BioNTech booster shots for those on the CDC’s list. Other healthcare facilities, including Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, have been slower to administer shots. A c c o r d i n g t o t h e C D C ’s recommendations, people 65 years and older, residents in long-term care settings, people between the ages of 18 and 64 with underlying medical conditions and anyone over 18 who works or lives in “high-risk settings” are now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot. CDC guidelines recommend eligible populations receive Pfizer booster shots no sooner than six months after the second of their two vaccine doses. The expansion of the population that is eligible to receive an extra dose of the Pfizer vaccine comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorizations for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine in August — allowing certain i m mu n o c o m p ro m i s ed individuals to receive an additional vaccine dose. Kate ’25, who requested that her last name be withheld for medical privacy reasons, said she is a part of the immunocompromised group and received her booster shot a few days after she became eligible. She said it was to protect both herself and others. “I had had friends who had gone to school and started earlier than Dartmouth and said that the maskwearing on their campuses was not very good at all,” she said. “I was worried that it would be the same way at Dartmouth — and it did end up being that way, so I’m glad that I ended up getting the shot.” According to a CVS press release, CVS pharmacy is offering booster shots at nearly 6,000 CVS pharmacy and walk-in locations as of Sept. 24. To expedite wait times, CVS urges people to make appointments online rather than walking in. Hanover residents eligible for booster shots can make an online appointment to receive the extra dose of Pfizer vaccine at the downtown CVS pharmacy. As for how booster shot providers are enforcing eligibility rules, CVS is following CDC guidelines and asking people to “self-attest” their

eligibility, according to the CVS press release. Additionally, the company asks patients scheduling online appointments to provide the vaccine manufacturer and date of their last COVID-19 vaccine dose to ensure they are adhering to the CDC recommended six month timeline. CVS health media contact Tara Burke wrote in an email statement that CVS doesn’t “break out the number of boosters administered,” adding that CVS Health has administered more than 34 million total COVID-19 vaccines across the country. DHMC has also begun rolling out booster shots, but only to “a limited number of employees,” according to an emailed statement from Dartmouth-Hitchcock media relations manager Audra Burns. Burns wrote that only employees “at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure serving in direct patient care roles” are currently able to receive the booster shot. She added that booster dose access will soon be expanded to other employees. According to Bur ns, the booster shot is not mandated at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health “at this time,” but DartmouthHitchcock recommends eligible employees receive a booster shot when it becomes available. While the hospital is not currently offering the booster shot to patients, Burns said they are working on plans to give booster shots to patients “as soon as [they] can, which will be in the next several weeks.” Dartmouth College Health Service pharmacy manager Tawnya Grant said Dick’s House is currently not offering booster shots and has not established when it will start providing them. K at e s a i d s h e t h i n k s h e r booster shot has helped her both psychologically and physically. “Mainly, it just helped me feel safer coming to school,” she said. “Even though I’m not sure that it did anything to increase the number of antibodies that I have, it just makes me feel a little bit better.” Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — the other manufacturers whose vaccines have been approved in the U.S. — are currently seeking authorization for their booster shots. On Thursday, an FDA panel recommended a booster shot of the Moderna vaccine for the same groups of people who became eligible for a Pfizer-BioNTech booster last month. The panel will consider boosters for Johnson & Johnson recipients on Friday. If approved by the FDA and the CDC, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster shots could be available as early as the end of October.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DARTMOUTH-HITCHCOCK MEDICAL CENTER

DHMC has only begun administering booster shots to staff.

increased diversity may be due to the recent addition of a “multiracial” option in the Census, giving more people the option to identify their mixed backgrounds. He added that another reason for the increased diversity in the Upper Valley may be a refugee resettlement policy in Vermont and certain parts of New Hampshire that disperses refugees to rural areas due to their low living costs. “Smaller municipalities are looking to grow the population, so they see refugees as a sort of demographic

stimulus to their populations,” Wright said. Wright also noted that he thinks people are drawn to the economic opportunities in the smaller municipalities in the Upper Valley. According to the Valley News, these economic conditions can be attributed to “communities in the education, technology and health care services field growing” — especially in areas surrounding Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth itself.


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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2021

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

East Wheelock mold exposure Pandemic saw 13 prompts students to relocate as College percentage point increase begins short-term remediation efforts in A-median classes BY JAMES QUIRK & FRANK BLACKBURN The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on October 14, 2021.

HANNAH LI/THE DARTMOUTH

19 students in total were relocated, College spokesperson Diana Lawrence told The Dartmouth Thursday evening.

BY ADRIANA JAMES-RODIL The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on October 14, 2021. The presence of mold — first identified in Andres Hall on Sept. 29 and later confirmed in other rooms in both Andres and Zimmerman Halls on Oct. 7 — has caused health concerns for students living in the East Wheelock residential cluster and prompted some of them to relocate to off-campus spaces. The College is taking remediation efforts to address the mold growth, it announced in an email to campus Friday. The species of mold identified are primarily Penicillium and Cladosporium, but Acrodontium, Aspergillus and Ulocladium were also found, according to the email sent to campus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note that “exposure to molds can lead to symptoms such as stuffy nose, wheezing, and red or itchy eyes, or skin” and that people with allergies or asthma “may have more intense reactions.” Ethan Dixon ’24, who lived in Andres Hall 205 — where active mold growth was first discovered — at the beginning of the fall term, said he spotted black mold on the wall of his room when he first moved into Andres, which he later reported to the College. Even after the College sent staff to clean the room, Dixon said he still woke up several mornings with a sore throat, which prompted him to research side effects of mold exposure — many of which he was experiencing. Dixon contacted the College again and was subsequently sent to the Sixth South Street Hotel in late September for a weekend so that his room could be tested. The College initially concluded that there was no mold in the suite, so Dixon moved back in, but he said he was sent back to Sixth South Street a week later after an independent investigator “audited” the investigation and found traces of mold in his room after all. According to an email statement from College spokesperson Diana Lawrence, following an initial inspection that did not identify any mold, the College brought in an industrial hygienist from Woodard & Curran, an environmental consulting company, to conduct a more detailed inspection to be certain mold was not present. On Sept. 29, the presence of mold was confirmed through laboratory analysis. The College first notified Andres and Zimmerman residents of active mold growth in Andres Hall on Oct. 1. After conducting subsequent inspections of selected suites in both Andres and Zimmerman on Oct. 5 and Oct. 6, the College confirmed the presence

of mold in other rooms in Andres and Zimmerman on Oct. 7, Lawrence wrote. Associate vice president of facilities operations and management Frank Roberts informed Andres and Zimmerman residents on Oct. 8 that mold growth was identified in all 17 of the samples tested. The College discovered mold in the HVAC system, on a ceiling and on the caulking around a sink, in addition to finding mildew growing in private bathrooms. Students with mold sensitivities were able to relocate temporarily to the Boss Tennis Center over the weekend, beginning Friday afternoon. Hotel rooms were also made available on Sunday evening to stay in until the end of the week. Isabella Hochschild ’25, who lived in Zimmerman Hall before relocating to the Hanover Inn last weekend, said she sent a picture of her room’s moldy ceiling to the College during its investigation. She said that she saw mold in the air conditioning units, bathrooms and shower curtains, adding that her health has been impacted by the mold. “I’ve been coughing, and I’ve been super congested,” Hochschild said. “My eyes have been watering, and I didn’t know why. I thought I was allergic to something, and now it makes sense that it was the mold.” In his Oct. 8 email, Roberts outlined “immediate mold remediation steps,” which include vacuuming the interior surfaces of each HVAC unit in Andres and Zimmerman with a high-efficiency particulate air vacuum, installing additional filtration and vacuuming each suite with a HEPA vacuum. Roberts wrote that the College will work with its consultants to develop further remediation plans for mold growth before the start of winter term in January. According to Lawrence, the College is still investigating what caused the mold issue in Andres and Zimmerman Halls’ HVAC units. Roberts noted that students who feel comfortable living in Andres and Zimmerman can remain living there while the College cleans the HVAC and finishes its remediation efforts — which started on Tuesday and are expected to take eight to ten business days. On Sunday evening, the College organized a community gathering in Brace Commons to answer students’ questions. Hochschild said she learned at the gathering that the College will be remediating rooms beginning at the top floor of Andres and Zimmerman and working their way down to the first floor, where her room is. She added that she is only allowed to live in the Hanover Inn for five days and that mold in all rooms would be removed by the end of the week, but she has yet to be contacted by

the facilities operations and management team regarding the remediation of her room. Dixon, who is now living in Hitchcock Hall, said he is unsure whether he will be able to move back into Andres this term. “No one in the housing offices [is] responding to me currently about when I’ll be able to be back in Andres,” Dixon said. “I’ve called them twice. I’ve emailed them, and every time I call them, they ask for my number and [say] we’ll give you a call back today, so I’m getting very annoyed.” Hochschild said that she knows a few people in her dorm with health conditions who have moved out. Marc Novicoff ’22, who lived in Zimmerman Hall, also moved to the Hanover Inn this week, although he added that he is not sure if his symptoms are connected to mold growth. “Like most people on campus, I got a cold at some point,” Novicoff said. “I really have no clue whether the mold played a role in that or whether the mold is making people sick, so I don’t really know whether I was affected or not. I guess there’s been this added benefit of getting [to be] in the Inn for a few days.” Novicoff said the discovery of mold in Andres and Zimmerman raises the question of whether mold could be impacting other residential spaces on campus. “Being an East Wheelock resident, I think of myself as having some of the nicest dorms on campus, because they’re newer,” Novicoff said. “What is the state of housing [in] the rest of campus if East Wheelock has mold in it?” According to the College’s mold remediation FAQ page, the HVAC units in Andres and Zimmerman Halls differ in both “age and design” compared to other HVAC systems on campus. In addition, most dorm buildings use windows for air circulation. The webpage continues that College staff are “planning an additional level of inspection in our other residential buildings over the next few weeks” and are “expanding our current mold protocols to include regularly scheduled checks of air handling units throughout all Dartmouth buildings.” Anyone who suspects that mold may be present in their dorm should contact residential operations so that the College can arrange an inspection, the page says. Despite the College’s remediation plans, Novicoff said he is disappointed to discover mold in his dorm room in the first place. “I’m insulted by the existence of mold in my living spaces and also in air vents,” he said. “It’s a problem that they should [have been] aware of, because it’s supposedly in every single room, so I guess that’s upsetting to me.”

(OPINION) MARLEIGH PETERS ’24: MIDTERM WEEK BLUES

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a significant increase in the number of students receiving top grades in their classes. According to Office of the Registrar data analyzed by The Dartmouth, the proportion of classes with an enrollment of at least 10 students that had a median final grade of “A” rose from slightly above 36% in the three terms preceding COVID-19 to almost 49% in the three terms after the outbreak that saw normal grading. The pandemic also correlated with a drop in the number of classes with “B” and “B-” medians, from 5.4% of classes before the onset of COVID-19 to 2.6% in the three terms after. The number of recipients of academic honors has also increased as median grades went up. The College awarded the Phi Beta Kappa sophomore prize to 36 members of the Class of 2023 in 2021, up from 14 in the Class of 2022. Classes with under 10 students do not have publicly available medians and were not included in The Dartmouth’s analysis. The terms before the pandemic included in the analysis were spring 2019, fall 2019 and winter 2020; the terms after the pandemic included were fall 2020, winter 2021 and spring 2021. Spring 2020, the first term of the pandemic, saw universal credit/ no credit grading. The Dartmouth College Organization, Regulation, and Courses Archives indicate that over the last year, the grade point average cutoff for summa cum laude honors rose from 3.93 to 3.94; the cutoff rose from 3.83 to 3.86 for magna cum laude and 3.69 to 3.72 for cum laude. These thresholds have trended upwards since 2012 — archives from the 2011-2012 academic year placed the year’s cutoffs at 3.90, 3.78 and 3.62, respectively. These increases come after decades of slow but steady pre-pandemic grade inflation at the College. Previous reporting by The Dartmouth, based on an internal report obtained in 2019, showed wide disparities between departments in average grades and an increase in “A” and “A-” grades compared to all other grades between 2007 and 2018. Some students attribute the upward trend in grades during the pandemic to a decrease in rigor while classes were held virtually. Emily Sun ’22 said her classes “definitely got easier … on a couple of fronts” with the move to online classes this past year. She attributed her easier schedule to the increased free time she had due to the elimination of in-person factors such as walking to class and social

obligations, leaving her with more time to study. Sun added that her professors were more accommodating, offering open book exams intended to head off cheating. Community standards and accountability director Katharine Strong wrote in an email statement that “the number of reports [were] similar to years past,” but that there have been “increases in the numbers of students included in those reports in the last two academic years.” Other students said they did not notice significant changes in the difficulty of their classes’ curriculum. Isabella Yu ’23 said that her professors in spring 2020, the first term impacted by COVID-19, were “more flexible” than usual, but added that “the difficulty of the class material” in later terms was similar to a normal term. Yu said she also had added challenges, as she was living in China while taking virtual classes and had to navigate time differences to attend her classes and office hours. History professor Jorell MelendezBadillo said his teaching style “changed greatly” as a result of the pandemic. Instead of assigning traditional papers at the end of the term, Melendez-Badillo said he tried to foster a sense of community in his online class by having his students work on a collaborative project or an “interactive timeline.” He added that since shifting to an in-person setting, he considers his classes “more demanding in terms of participation from students, not from assignments,” adding that he has not increased the difficulty of his content, but has increased his expectations in the classroom. Conversely, writing professor Ellen Rockmore said she believes her classes were not noticeably different during the pandemic; she noted that she already used Canvas before the shift to remote learning. Rockmore added that she may have had an easier time adjusting with her 16-person courses, noting that larger courses could have faced more difficulty in conducting class discussions and feeling “like they’re a part of a community.” The changes witnessed during the 2020-2021 remote school year have caused some students to wonder whether the same leniency will exist with the return to in-person classes. Sun claims she has “less time on [her] hands” to complete a similar workload since returning to in-person classes. Sasha Kokoshinskiy ’23, who took a gap year during the virtual year, said that while his classes feel “harder” coming off of a gap year, he has felt that the actual difficulty of his classes is the same as they were pre-COVID-19. He added that his professors, in an effort to aid their students with the transition back to in-person learning, still conduct their office hours over Zoom even though classes are in person.

Leaf-driven tourism boosts Hanover business FROM LEAVES PAGE 1

color.” D e s c r i b i n g H a n ove r a s a “quaint, pretty town surrounded by mountains,” Indigo clothing store owner Mia Vogt acknowledged the draw to the Upper Valley that the foliage creates and noted the different energy the peepers bring to town. “It’s good for business to have people come into town,” Vogt said. “They are relaxed generally because they are on vacation… a little older, retired.” The foliage has attracted more than just visitors — it has also garnered the attention of many students, including Anne Guidera ’25, who took advantage of the scenery and hiked Gile Mountain with a few friends. “[The foliage] brings [students] together in the outdoors,” Guidera said. “[Students] do all the DOC trips or just go with their friends and go outdoors and enjoy nature together.” Alex Wells ’22, a trip leader in the Cabin and Trail subclub, noted that one sunrise hike — or “sunrike” — on Gile Mountain at 6 a.m. had over 100 sign-ups, which he described as

“wild.” The fall foliage, coupled with fewer DOC outings taking place during the pandemic, has prompted a surge in student demand for trips this year, Wells said. He noted that in addition to the increased sign-ups, fewer students are relinquishing their spots on trips this year. A c c o r d i n g t o We l l s, t h i s skyrocketing demand, coupled with the influx of tourists, has prompted him to carefully select trips based on their wait times. “I am constantly thinking about what hikes it makes sense to lead… because I don’t want to run into a massive crowd at the trail heads… particularly with the foliage,” Wells said. But Wells added that Cabin and Trail is still looking to lead as many hiking trips as possible, especially for first-year students who are experiencing the outdoors in the Upper Valley for the first time. “Since the start of this term, most leaders have been taking as many trips out as they have the capacity to do in their schedule,” Wells said. “I think especially this year in particular, we are especially excited to be getting outside again, in what feels like a pretty normal way.”


THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2021

THE DARTMOUTH EDITORIAL BOARD

Verbum Ultimum: Break the Mold

The recent discovery of mold in dormitories calls into question what other health hazards Dartmouth might be overlooking. Last Friday, in a campus-wide email, Interim Dean of the College Scott Brown announced the discovery of significant mold growth in the Andres and Zimmerman residence halls, further infor ming the community that students with a “health sensitivity” to mold had been given the option to relocate to temporary housing, first in the Boss Tennis Center and, starting Sunday, in a “limited number of hotel rooms in the area.” The email also noted that mold “remediation” efforts, which include the vacuuming of interior surfaces of each HVAC unit with a high-efficiency particulate vacuum and the installation of additional filtration, have already begun in Andres and Zimmerman and that additional inspections will occur in other residential buildings throughout the next few weeks. In addition, the College announced that, moving forward, it will expand its mold protocols to include regular checks of air handling units in all Dartmouth buildings. These announced remediation steps are necessary — and even somewhat encouraging. The College’s decision to set up a website with a litany of FAQs and to make all of its communications on the matter public is admirable, and a notable departure from their opaque handling of, say, COVID-19 guidelines last year. We believe in credit where credit is due, so, accordingly, kudos to the College for its transparency. Keep it up. With that said, the sheer amount of mold uncovered — growth was identified in all 17 air handlers tested in Andres and Zimmerman — calls into question just how long current and past residents of Andres and Zimmerman have been exposed to these toxins. Needless to say, the presence of mold in living spaces poses serious health risks to students, particularly to those who live with asthma, serious allergies or compromised immune systems. In interviews with The Dartmouth, residents of Andres and Zimmerman have already complained of allergy and other symptoms, including congestion, watery eyes and lingering coughs. While the College’s announcements of its plans to expand mold protocols and inspect all residential buildings are positive developments, they beg an important question: Why were these checks not not already a part of the College’s dorm maintenance regimen? The fact that the College appears to have lacked a robust mold testing plan is more than a little alarming and leaves one wondering what other health

hazards Dartmouth may be overlooking. As it stands, mold is not the only dormitory health hazard that Dartmouth seems to have neglected. Just last month, The Dartmouth reported on the substandard living conditions at two living learning communities on campus, La Casa and the Sustainable Living Center. Students living in these spaces, which are currently undergoing renovations, have recently reported being exposed to an array of environmental hazards, including “broken or screenless windows, mice, and exposed wires” as well as excessive dust, paint fumes, and loud construction noise. Due to the ongoing construction, the residents of La Casa and the SLC have also been left without a functional kitchen, working laundry machines, bathrooms with locks, showerheads and power outlets. As has become apparent over the last couple of weeks, Dartmouth has fallen far short of meeting the basic responsibility it has to provide all students with a safe living and learning environment. If Dartmouth’s administration is as serious about prioritizing well-being of its students as it has claimed, it may want to consider providing them with at least marginally habitable housing. In the short term, this will mean supporting and accommodating the students that it has housed in hazardous environments — and no, simply shipping them to a tennis court in the middle of the term doesn’t cut it. The living conditions in Dartmouth’s residential facilities also underscore — as so many things seem to — the urgent need for the College to address its current housing crisis something this Editorial Board has argued for numerous times. Once Dartmouth builds more dorms, bribing students to live off campus will no longer be necessary, and, critically, overflow housing will become available, making it easier for Dartmouth to conduct routine repairs, construction and upkeep of facilities without upending students’ lives. While we applaud the College for being transparent with its recent discovery of mold, the fact remains that this health hazard — along with the other examples of abysmal living conditions — should have been caught and addressed long ago. Let’s put that now$8.5 billion endowment to use and take more action to improve the place we students call home. The editorial board consists of opinion staff columnists, the opinion editors, the executive editors and the editor-in-chief.

STAFF COLUMNIST SPENCER ALLEN ’23

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CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST JEREMY GART ‘25

The Gym? Really?

Even as the College promises to do better in the way of COVID-19 policies and mental health, the recent gym closure demonstrates how one step forward always involves two steps back. Thus article was originally published on October 12, 2021. The first time I went to a gym, I dropped a weight on my foot. I was a stick-thin, anxiety-riddled 18-year-old who had just arrived in Tel Aviv on a gap year program. The only reason I was at this strange, odorous facility in the first place was because my friends had somehow cajoled me into accompanying them, even though I was staunchly against actually joining the gym. When we strolled down the aisles of panting millennials on ellipticals and bulging Israeli Defense Forces soldiers pumping ungodly heavy curls, however, my perspective quickly began to change. Contrary to my expectations, I wasn’t being judged for my super-skinny arms at all. Nobody cared if I was barely able to wobble up a 20-pound weight— they were simply concerned with their own workout. When I attempted to lug a 30-pounder over to my bench, the weight rolled right off the rack, thunking onto my right foot. And yet, while my pain was very real, the expected accompanying embarrassment simply never came. Over the next few months, I visited the gym three or four times a week, every week. My time in Israel was a shuddering roller coaster filled with joy, terror, thrills and everything in between — and through it all, the gym became an essential anchor of my routine. After the wildest nights out or the most draining days of work, I’d look forward to the gym as a surefire way to recenter my mental health and get me back on track. The gym was, and still is, a key part of my daily life. On Oct. 5, Dartmouth decided to shut down the gym for the day. A sign outside of Alumni Gym read, “Our hope is this action will result in better mask compliance in the future, so everyone remains safe. Otherwise, there will be further limitations put in place.” This, of course, implies that the gym shutdown was due to the safety issue that spotty mask-wearing may pose. The Class of 1953 Commons dining room, however, has remained open, indoors, with a significantly higher density of students, all with their masks entirely off. If it’s a safety issue the gym is closed for, there are very clearly other places on campus to scrutinize before the gym. Of course, this implies that there really is a safety issue in the first place. According to the Dartmouth COVID-19 Dashboard, as of Oct. 5, there are zero active cases across the entire undergraduate population. 96% of the College is vaccinated against the virus, and testing is conducted weekly. Any rare breakthrough case is being caught incredibly quickly, and the virus has simply not been spreading on campus. Surely, if the “dismal” mask-wearing at the gym is such a safety issue, it would have contributed to an increasing number of COVID-19 cases on campus. And yet, the virus’s presence remains nearly nonexistent. Understandably, many remain concerned about the immunocompromised members of

our community, or the children not yet eligible to receive the vaccine. Make no mistake — efforts to stop the spread of the virus are crucial, and the very reason that our numbers are so fantastic right now. Wearing a mask in class to protect professors, and in most indoor spaces, is a small inconvenience that I’m more than happy to oblige. But there’s no reason that the gym can’t become a zone where masks aren’t required — just like Foco’s dining room already has been for the past month. The great irony is, of course, that before the gym shutdown, masks were worn by the vast majority of students using the facility. Yes, some students failed to comply with the policies or let their masks fall below their noses, but the average user of the gym remained masked. In short, a few students who pushed back against the current policies created a recoil that has affected the entire student body. Additionally, the communication of the gym’s closure was extremely minimal. As a freshman, I only received word of the closure through frustrated friends who had seen the sign outside the facility firsthand. In fact, the only students who were directly informed of the closure were members of indoor club sports. Just like each sudden change in testing policy, the Dartmouth administration has failed to adequately communicate the changes to their own COVID-19 rules. If they expect compliance of the regulations laid down by the College, it’d be a great start to actually inform the student body about what those regulations are. Yes, the gym was only closed for a day. But the gym’s closure in the first place sends a loud, clear message from the administration: Illogical rules relating to COVID-19 are still being enforced. And the enforcement of those rules comes diametrically opposed to the mental health of the College’s students. Dartmouth has made an outward commitment to doing better in the wake of last year’s events. But this has simply furthered a sobering truth: For every ounce of progress made in the right direction, the administration seems to counter it with a new, harmful policy. Broadly, the fall of 2021 has been a success. Students are back in the classrooms, and the campus is alive once again with vibrant, buzzing energy. Clubs are in full swing, friendships are being formed and revitalized, and college life finally appears to resemble a pre-COVID-19 state. But the very reason this quarter has gone so well, and the reason last year was so disastrous, is precisely why the gym’s sudden closure is so concerning. The student body is a brilliant, concerned, welleducated group of people. If we are treated with respect, communicated with effectively and shown a willingness to listen to the student body, then there’s no reason the rest of the year shouldn’t continue smoothly. But the closure of the gym represents the exact kind of discord that is so harmful to our collective success as a school. So please, let’s allow our students to keep working out at the gym. This time around, I’ll try not to drop any dumbbells.

Share the Wealth

The College must spare no expense in using its recent endowment gains to support students. This article was originally published on October 14, 2021. On Monday, Dartmouth announced that its endowment — the pool of money generated from donors and investments and used in part to finance the College’s operations — grew to $8.5 billion at the end of fiscal year 2021, a striking 46.5% increase from the previous fi scal year. When Dartmouth announced this growth, it also announced several ways it would use the endowment to support the student body, such as increasing financial aid to undergraduates, offering a $1,000 bonus to certain graduate students and raising the student minimum wage from $7.75 an hour to $11.50 an hour — a change College spokesperson Diana Lawrence estimated would impact around 1,000 student workers. Dartmouth’s efforts to return some of its endowment growth to students are generous — I, for one, am excited to make more money in the campus jobs I work — but Monday’s announcement barely scratches the surface of what the College should use this money for. It’s too early to know exactly what Dartmouth has in store for this new $2.5 billion, but the College must go further than this week’s announcement in enacting change to better support students. The announced minimum wage increase falls short of how much students should be paid for their work. This past May, I argued that Dartmouth must raise its student minimum wage to at least $13.18 an hour — the living wage for a single, childless adult living in Grafton County. This week’s wage hike helps to bridge the gap between where student wages are and where they should be, but it is still $1.68 per hour short of helping students make ends meet. What’s worse, $13.18 an hour is no longer a competitive wage for student workers: As the Upper Valley — and the nation at-large — battles a massive labor shortage, several businesses have already increased their starting wages to attract workers. Boloco, for instance, is hiring inexperienced new workers for $16 an hour and offering generous benefits like health insurance and paid time off. The College has a long way to go if it truly wants to remain a competitive employer in order to fill its vacant positions. I am also struck by what Monday’s announcement did not mention. Housing, one of the most pressing issues affecting Dartmouth today, was only mentioned once in the College’s

press release — put another way, the College deemed one mention sufficient to reference the lack of available housing, desperately needed renovations to existing dorms and hazardous conditions that exist in at least several residence halls. It is hard to argue that Dartmouth was ever strapped enough for cash so as to justify putting housing on the back burner, but now, there is certainly no excuse for housing to not be a top priority on administrators’ minds. Moreover, dining received no mention at all in Dartmouth’s announcement. Though students have faced obnoxiously long lines that have prevented them from eating at normal times — or at all — the College has yet again neglected to announce any major improvements to the dining situation. To be sure, the situation has improved as the term has proceeded — Dartmouth Dining celebrated that “the worst” was over in an email to parents and families sent two weeks ago, screenshots of which were obtained by The Dartmouth — but I hesitate to say that was due to any serious effort on the College’s part. Instead, it seems that some students have sought to avoid lines by eating at less convenient times and getting more food off campus — the latter, an option not everyone can afford. Again, Dartmouth has the finances to ameliorate the dining crisis on-campus. While a fix cannot be enacted overnight, the College must listen to students and commit to constructing a new dining facility. I recognize that the College is likely still planning exactly how to spend its endowment funding; indeed, it is possible that additional dispersals of this funding may be announced in the coming weeks or months. Endowment support for housing and dining related projects is also couched in the Infrastructure Renewal Fund, announced in March as a way for Dartmouth to improve its facilities over time. Nevertheless, the College clearly has more to do to support its students. I fully support the efforts it has already made to use the endowment for the greater good, but Dartmouth cannot stop there: Investments in new dorms, better dining facilities and competitive wages must be made priorities. As Dartmouth clearly has the money to invest in the student experience — after all, our endowment did just increase by more than two years’ operating budgets — absolutely no stone can be left unturned in improving the quality of life of students and guaranteeing the continued appeal of Dartmouth for future generations of students.

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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

PAGE 4

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2021

Indigenous artist Anita Fields speaks to students virtually BY ELLE MULLER

The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on October 14, 2021. On Oct. 13, clay and textile artist Anita Fields participated in a live conversation hosted by the Hood Museum of Art curator of Indigenous art Jami Powell. The conversation focused on Fields’ practice as well as her work, “So Many Ways to Be Human,” which is part of the exhibit “Form and Relation: Contemporary Native Ceramics” that runs from January 2021 to July 2022. Six Indigenous artists are included in this exhibit, which focuses on themes such as community, land, gender and responsibility. Dartmouth ceramics studio director and instructor Jennifer Swanson facilitated the talk. Fields, who studied painting at Oklahoma State University’s Institute of American Indian Arts, created thirty small figures for the Hood that were installed on a wall in diamond formation. Powell noted that this shape allows viewers to see the multiplicity of the installation. “These figures are not necessarily gendered, they’re pretty abstract — some have arms some do not, some have hair some do not, some have textiles wrapped around the center of the figure some do not,” Powell said. “The conversation you’re able to have when you put them all together is the most interesting to me.” These small figures are mounted and displayed on a mauve wall, with black and white bodies contrasting the gold leaf accents that surround their various body parts. With clothing-like accents made of various materials added to only certain figurines, each has intentionality in design, appearance and positioning. Powell noted the importance of having as many as thirty figures exhibited at once at the Hood. “I have been following Anita’s work

for decades, and she creates these figures and has really only ever had five or six displayed together at any one time,” Powell said. Lily Gray ’24, who has visited the exhibit, noted how the seriality of the figures added to her understanding of the work. “The artist’s ceramic figures are beautifully intricate and unique,” Gray said. “Each doll is compelling and interesting individually as well as with the collective.” Fields used a variety of materials for the figures, including bits of cloth, gold leaf and paper, some depicting a map of Osage county. Fields noted she and her daughter would keep any information they found about Osage people, which helped her in the construction of these figures. “I want to dispel the many myths that were written about us,” Fields said. As a member of the Osage Nation, Fields spoke about how the figures explore dualities within the Osage culture. “There are so many ways to be human, so many ways to be who we are . . . I have found clay to be so representative of a human being,” Fields said. “The kind of words you use to describe clay are words you can use to describe human beings.” Swanson asked Fields about the intentionality behind the figures’ doll-like qualities; Fields responded that she does not think of them as dolls, but rather as figures. Many of the figures are not realistic— some do not have arms — but Fields emphasized their representational value. “I do not see them as missing something, I see them as representing the human spirit,” Fields said. Fields’ other works in “Form and Relation” are the landscape “When Referencing the Earth and Sky,” which is now part of the Hood’s permanent collection, and the ceramic sculpture “Reconstruct, Conversion, Here.” Fields said the landscape piece was

COURTESY OF SHARON REED

inspired by her travels with a group of Osage people. “It had a really profound impact on how I started to think about landscape,” Fields said. “Landscape holds memory of the cultures who were first there: who lived there, who left there.” Fields’ noted in the talk that her love of material is central to her practice, dating back to her grandmother teaching her how to sew. Her work is also inspired by traditional Osage clothing and Osage ribbonwork. “I can use those kinds of items as metaphors . . . when trying to translate how beautiful our culture is,” she said. Fields touched on the other recent work she had done, explaining her creation of a bullhorn to represent the need for change illustrated over

the last year. The inside of the bullhorn is dusted with gold lead to represent the importance of the information being represented as Fields hoped to encourage viewers to examine what is going on in the world. Within the last ten minutes of the conversation, the talk was opened to questions from the public. Many were specific to individual figures from “So Many Ways to Be Human,” such as questioning the intentionality of positioning behind the one holding up their fist and another with one gold foot. Fields also discussed another of her art series, a collection of purses. Inspired by a purse that was gifted to her by her grandmother, she thinks of purses as representative of what we carry. This collection reflected on the many ways to be human,

a common theme seen also in “So Many Ways to Be Human.” When interviewed, Powell talked about how this event originally intended to bring Fields to Dartmouth campus for a live interview and workshop, explaining how COVID restrictions halted these plans and caused the change. “Originally the plan was to have Anita come to campus and be here in person, and she was going to do the conversation in the galleries but also to have an in person workshop in the ceramics studio in the Hopkins center for the arts,” said Powell. “With the delta variant and being unsure about traveling, we decided to just move to a virtual program for the conversations and connections, but I think still hope to bring Anita to campus to do an in person workshop.”

Review: Phoebe Bridgers Delivers Riveting Boston Performance BY JACK HARGROVE The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on October 12, 2021. Since the release of her critically acclaimed second studio album, “Punisher,” in June 2020, Phoebe Bridgers has had a busy year. From her four Grammy nominations to her controversial Saturday Night Live performance, Bridgers has generated more commercial success than your average quiet, melancholic indie folk singer-songwriter. To top it all off, Bridgers is ending 2021 by going on her first tour since the beginning of the pandemic. On Sept. 27, I had the privilege of attending the second night of her performance at Boston’s Leader Bank Pavilion. While her low-key musical style may not seem particularly well-suited for a venue that seats a few thousand, she gave a generally fantastic performance that captivated the audience. Right off the bat, the audience’s adoration of Bridgers was readily apparent — especially given the size of the crowd. Many were dressed in Bridgers’ signature skeleton onesie, imitating the ones she dons in all the music videos for “Punisher.” The drink of choice at the venue, Liquid Death –– really just canned water –– accentuated the gothic atmosphere of her fans dressed in black. The girls sitting behind me at the concert were sobbing for most of the evening, continuously requesting the song “Georgia” from Bridgers’ 2017 album, “Stranger in the Alps” –– a request that would later be granted. The crowd engagement contributed to an energetic atmosphere that, while overwhelming at times, enhanced the experience. Commencing punctually at 8 p.m., opening band MUNA played a 45-minute set to kick off the concert. After signing to Bridgers’ record label Saddest Factory in May, MUNA has toured alongside her. Their lively poprock juxtaposed Bridgers’ subtle folk later on in the night. After playing a diverse array of their music, MUNA’s penultimate song was “Silk Chiffon,” released last month in collaboration

with Bridgers. To the audience’s raucous applause, Bridgers made her first appearance of the night during this song — unsurprisingly wearing a skeleton top. Overall, MUNA proved an enjoyable opening act. Finally, around 9:15 p.m, Bridgers began her performance. Much to everyone’s surprise, she walked out to the Black Eyed Peas’ 2009 dance hit, “I Gotta Feeling.” As she later explained, this was a reference to an embarrassing memory in which she had included the song on a mixtape she made for her high school crush. When introducing the song “Kyoto,” Bridgers said, “this song is dedicated to people still in therapy over their parents.” Before performing “Chinese Satellite,” she joked, “Here’s our Coldplay song, except it’s about how God doesn’t exist.” This type of banter and storytelling was prevalent throughout the concert and, for me, was one of the highlights. Bridgers began her musical set in earnest with the single “Motion Sickness” from “Stranger in the Alps.” One of her catchier songs, this was presumably a tactic to engage the audience, as well as to get the oftrequested song out of the way. After this, it soon became apparent that she planned to play the entirety of “Punisher” in order. Humorously, this included the minute-long ambient opener of the album, “DVD Menu.” Bridgers is still a relatively new artist and has only around twenty solo songs in her repertoire, so I expected her to play nearly all of them. However, I was slightly disappointed that she chose to play the songs from “Punisher” strictly in album order rather than mixing it up for the live performance. Thankfully, she inserted songs from her previous album periodically throughout her set — but the predictability of most of the setlist felt a little uninventive. The best performances of the night were the songs that were played in a different manner than their studio versions. For example, on the album version of “Punisher,” my least favorite track is “Moon Song”; however, her live performance of the song was louder and more upbeat, making it one of my favorite performances of the

MICHELLE MULE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

night. Similarly, her live performance of “Chinese Satellite” brought the orchestral track to a new high. In general, Bridgers’ backing instrumentation at the concert was stellar — particularly the trumpeter who played for most of the songs. The best stretch of the performance was in the second half, when Bridgers played “Savior Complex,” “Funeral,” “ICU,” “Scott Street” and “Georgia” all in a row. “Savior Complex” and “ICU,” already two of the best songs on “Punisher,” were played to their fullest extent; the energy in the Pavilion during “ICU” — when Bridgers shouted “I hate your mom/I hate it when she opens her mouth/It’s amazing to me how much you can say/When you don’t know what you’re talking about” — was palpable. The other three songs in this stretch all came from Bridgers’ debut album. “Funeral” made for the saddest performance of the night, with Bridgers powerfully conveying the crushing sadness of its lyrics. The most interesting of these songs was “Georgia” — the only one which she played on the second

night, but not the first. A fan-favorite, the crowd erupted into a mixture of applause and tears when she began to play. Sadly, not all of the songs were better in performance than in the studio. For the more upbeat songs like “Kyoto,” Bridgers struggled to recreate the same energy she has in her recordings. On the other hand, her quieter songs that she chose not to alter in live performance also suffered. For example, the songs “Punisher” and “Graceland, Too” faltered slightly when played at such a large venue. Quiet songs that were rearranged for performance — like “Halloween” and “Moon Song” — were some of the highlights of the performance. Unsurprisingly, Bridgers ended her main set with the closing track of “Punisher”: “I Know the End.” While the studio version of the song already contains the creativity of an entire album packed into five minutes, her live performances of it are notoriously raucous and chaotic. This time was no different, and the violent, apocalyptic ending of the song would have made

the perfect closer. However, after leaving the stage, Bridgers reappeared for an encore, performing a cover of Bo Burnham’s “That Funny Feeling.” While I think she performs a fine version of this song — and I would have been content with hearing it somewhere in the middle of the set — “I Know the End” would have been a better final note for the concert. Ultimately, Bridgers put together a great set for a concert of this scope. There were certainly parts that I took issue with — much of the concert ran like a well-oiled machine, with little space for creativity or improvisational elements the audience craves. Additionally, the song order was a little uninventive and could have been more exciting. However, Bridgers found a way to make her quiet indie folk electrify a large crowd just as any stadium rock group can — and her banter and overall stage presence was second to none. I would highly recommend that anyone with the opportunity to see Phoebe Bridgers in concert does not pass it up. Rating: 


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2021

PAGE 5

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

SPORTS

Dartmouth hauls in a Homecoming win in overtime BY WILL ENNIS

The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on October 11, 2021. It was fourth down and one, thirteen seconds remaining, and Dartmouth trailed by three points. The Big Green’s homecoming matchup against Yale University and Dartmouth’s early-season undefeated record hung in the balance. It all came down to the leg of Connor Davis ’22. Snap, hold, right down the middle. Davis buried the gametying field goal, sending the game to overtime — Dartmouth’s first overtime game since 2017 against Holy Cross — and eventually to a Dartmouth victory. “I think it was good that we got a game like this,” said quarterback Derek Kyler ’21. “This is where you really see what your team’s made out of…We needed this, I think, as a collective group to see that it’s not going to be a cakewalk for us the whole year.” Dartmouth football hosted the

Yale Bulldogs Saturday for the Big Green’s Ivy League home opener and earned a 24-17 victory in an overtime thriller in front of the homecoming crowd. The first half of the game saw the majority of the offensive production. On the first possession of the game, Yale worked a 12-play, 54-yard drive that ended in a field goal, putting Dartmouth in a 3-0 hole early. Both defenses held serve following that, forcing consecutive punts until Dartmouth’s second offensive drive. The Big Green leaned on its multifaceted running attack, running three plays featuring three different ball carriers before turning to the passing game to break Yale’s defense open over the top. On 1st and 10 from Yale’s 32-yard line, Kyler found Isaac Boston ’24 streaking down the left sideline for a touchdown, the first end zone trip of Boston’s career. Boston would lead the Big Green in receiving against Yale, catching four passes for 54 yards and the score. Davis knocked in the extra point and Dartmouth took a 7-3 lead in the first quarter.

The Big Green wasted no time adding to the lead, scoring a second touchdown on a direct snap to Nick Howard ’23 on its next offensive possession to cap off an 8-play, 83yard drive. The Bulldogs were able to respond to that score with a touchdown of their own, sending the game to halftime with a score of 14-10, Dartmouth. A major throughline of the game was Yale’s ability to contain a Big Green rushing attack that had run roughshod over opponents until Saturday. Head coach Buddy Teevens ’78 credited Yale’s defense. “I thought Yale’s defense was extremely effective,” Teevens said. “Early portion of the game we moved the ball a little bit and they kind of shut it down. They had a good game plan and we didn’t have a key to break it until late in the game.” The score would hold at 14-10 for almost the entire game. The second half was defined by strong defense on both sides, as the Dartmouth and Yale defenses combined to force eight punts on the first nine drives

of the half. The one non-punt was a Yale fumble recovered by the Big Green’s Tanner Cross ’21. Late in the game, however, Yale took the lead on a backbreaking offensive drive that saw the Bulldogs convert three separate fourth downs, including on a 4th and goal for a touchdown. After the extra point, the Big Green trailed by 17-14 with only 2:34 remaining in the game. On the ensuing drive, aided by some key penalties against the Yale defense, Dartmouth was able to push 68 yards down the field to set up Davis’s game-tying field goal. Yale called a timeout, attempting to “ice” Davis — Coach Teevens called one in turn, and Davis knocked the kick through. “I don’t really believe in the ice,” Davis said. “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be…I have full faith in Coach [Teevens] and his decision, so when he gave me the go-ahead to go for it I was excited to get out there.” Yale won the coin toss and deferred the initial possession to Dartmouth. The Big Green took advantage of having the ball first and scored a touchdown on another

Howard direct snap, his second score of the day, giving Dartmouth a 24-17 lead. Dartmouth’s defense then took the field knowing that a stop would secure the victory. It came down to 4th and 1 for Yale, a situation that had plagued the Big Green on Yale’s fourthquarter touchdown drive. This time, though, the defense held strong. Jalen Mackie ’22 got to the Bulldogs’ quarterback, forcing a quick throw and an incompletion. The ball hit the turf, the crowd and sideline erupted, and Dartmouth walked off the field with a victory on homecoming weekend. “It’s ecstatic down in the locker room,” Mackie said. “This is going to be one of the games that I feel like we’re going to tell our kids about... the time we went to overtime and was able to pull it out.” After the win, Dartmouth stands tied with Harvard and Princeton — all three teams 4-0 — atop the Ivy League standings. The Big Green will next take the field on the road at the University of New Hampshire next Saturday for the team’s final non-conference game of the season.

‘A battle’: Field hockey falls 6-0 to No. 18 Princeton BY Stephanie Sowa & Caroline York The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on October 11, 2021. The Big Green field hockey team struggled offensively at home on Saturday in its 6-0 loss to No. 18 Princeton University. With the loss, the Big Green are now 4-7 on the season and winless through three conference games. Princeton’s offense was strong from the start of the game, with the Tigers pressuring the Big Green defense and leaving Dartmouth with few offensive opportunities. Princeton took advantage of several penalty attempts — three of the Tiger’s six goals came from penalty shots. Defender Sara Faulkson ’22 said that Dartmouth entered the game knowing that upsetting the Tigers would be a tall task. “Princeton is traditionally an extremely skilled team, and so we knew going into it that it was going to be a battle,” Faulkson said. Midfielder Bronwyn Bird ’24 said that the final score did not tell the whole story of how the Big Green played. “Our defense was really strong and I think we’ll take this game, look at the

score, and know that we played our hearts out,” Bird said. “We played with more heart than we did last week when we played at [Brown University].” Bird led the Big Green with two shots. Forward Holly Cromwell ’23 added a shot on goal, and goalkeeper Goalkeeper Hatley Post ’23 helped Dartmouth with five saves, all within the fourth quarter. Despite the Big Green’s struggles, Midfielder Meg Barnes ’23 said that the team remained composed and supportive of one another. “I would rather lose 20-0 and be a part of a team who supports each other through battles like this rather than having a team who is winning yet still does not support and champion each other on,” Barnes said. Two seasons ago, the Big Green did not win a conference game and went 4-13 overall. After last season’s cancellation, the team was eager to get back on the field and improve. “A year away from field hockey showed me how much I love the sport and what a big part of my Dartmouth experience it was,” goalkeeper Isabella Santucci ’22 said. “Coming into this season, I knew it was a gift, since it was taken away from us last year, and I’ve just been more grateful everyday, especially since it’s my senior year.” The Big Green started this season strong with a narrow 2-1 win on

the road against the University of California at Davis. The Big Green then dropped its next two games on the road at University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University. Santucci said the early-season road trip was “really awesome” and credited the travel experience to the field hockey team’s new coaching staff. “It solidified a lot of team bonding, and it was awesome to get to play West coast teams because we don’t get a lot of exposure to those since they are so far away,” Santucci said. After returning from California, Dartmouth won three out of four games at home. The Big Green has not since found the win column, with losses to Northeastern University as well as conference opponents Cornell University, Brown University and Princeton. Despite dropping the first three conference games, Santucci believes that the team can compete with the Ivy League’s best. “As a senior, I want to get some Ivy wins on the board,” Santucci said. “With our dedication and our mindset, that it is entirely within our grasp.” Faulkson said that the Big Green has improved as a team over the last few weeks. “If you were to sit in on our team circle, it was nothing but pride and positive things coming from our

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performance because we trusted each other in [Saturday’s] game in ways we’ve been trying to do and work on since our previous games,” Faulkson said. Next Saturday, Dartmouth will

travel to play against No. 13 Harvard University. In 2019, Harvard beat the Big Green, and Dartmouth will look to earn its first conference win since 2018 and upset the highest-ranked team in the Ivy League.

When we understand the dynamics of dating violence, we can prevent it. Does your partner... degrade you in public or in private? get angry if you spend time with others? demand you share social media passwords, texts, and phone messages? prevent you from working, sleeping, studying, or taking care of yourself? take your money and not pay you back? insist this is what relationships are like? claim your friends or family are trying to ruin your relationship? blame you for problems in your relationship? pressure you to do sexual things that make you uncomfortable? force you to drink, use drugs, or do things that get you into trouble? destroy your belongings or property around you? undermine your parenting or threaten to take away your kids? provoke you and blame you for your reaction? threaten to share personal information, spread rumors or hurt oneself or both of you? exploit you because of your sexuality, gender, race, or other identity? This is abuse.

The ideal candidate is a self-starter with good communication skills. Experience with Quickbooks Online is preferred. Ability to work with students and maintain excellent organization skills. Being able to offer clear communications, mostly through email, to a number of stakeholders.

Pay and Schedule: The Dartmouth office is located on campus at Dartmouth College. Remote work is possible as this is a fairly flexible position. This is a 5-day/week, ~20-hour position during the Fall, Winter, and Spring terms. In the Summer term, the schedule is reduced for a total of ~10 hours. It is a salaried position starting at $23 per hour, depending on experience. The office manager is paid during all break periods. If interested please email your resume and letter of interest to Olivia Gomez at publisher@thedartmouth.com

every hour, every day 866-348-WISE chat online at wiseuv.org


PAGE 6

MIRROR THE DARTMOUTH MIRROR

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021

Much Ado About Greek Life: A Look at Other Campuses STORY

By Connor Allen

This article was originally published on October 13, 2021. On my official Dartmouth tour, there seemed to be an odd trend: Some beautiful, classical buildings (or houses, I’d almost immediately learn) were taboos my tour guide danced around — “Here is Foco, short for Food Court! We sure love slang here at Dartmouth! Kindly ignore that building with fancy ancient letters!” Yes, the Dartmouth administration — and, by extension, Dartmouth tour guides — seemed to operate with a collective hushed embarrassment regarding not just the existence, but the dominance of Greek life on campus. For an institution that comprises such a massive part of student life, should Greek life not be a selling point for admissions’ advertising strategies? The obvious answer is no, considering both who is often paying for college — parents, who, for the most part, are not the biggest advocates of underage drinking — and the fact that Greek life has been plagued nationally with systemic problems like sexual violence, racism and hazing. Thus, any nonself-sabotaging dean of admissions understands that Dartmouth’s response to Greek life must not be advertisement but damage control, and, consequently, awkwardly steering student tour guides away from Greek houses. But does it need to be this way? Is Greek life at Dartmouth a necessary evil — is it even an evil at all? — or do better social options exist? While members of Greek Houses may spend more time in their spaces during rush, Jack Roney ’22 explained that being unaffiliated does not prevent him from seeing his affiliated friends for most of the school year. “Most of my friends are affiliated, which was a little tough, especially when they were all rushing,” Roney said. “But that has become much less of a problem now, just because it’s kind of fun to have lots of affiliated friends and not be affiliated, ’cause I can go if I want to hang out with somebody or play pong, but it’s not an obligation in

the same way.” There is some level of intermingling between Greek and unaffiliated students, then, and the level of exclusivity appears to be less apocalyptic than opponents of Greek life have made it out to be. Still, Roney emphasized that a true alternative to Greek life might not be so easily accessible. “If you don’t have that community of people that you’re friends with outside of Greek life, then Collis After Dark isn’t really a replacement for it,” Roney said. While students can find community in organizations outside of Greek life — such as the Dartmouth Outing Club, in Roney’s case — college-sponsored social scenes don’t appear to serve as a true alternative to Greek life. Sara Kim ’22, a member of Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority, also had mixed feelings regarding Greek life. While she went into rush understanding Greek life’s reputation of being exclusive and hierarchical, she found that the rush process allowed her to encounter many different people that she had “never seen around campus” before. However, rush permanently altered her former social circle, and she has “drifted apart” from friends in other houses. Echoing Roney’s sentiments, Kim said she believes that the Collegesponsored social spaces — such as Collis After Dark and housing community activities — are not a viable substitute for Greek events. “I don’t think I’ve gone to a single [College-sponsored social space],” Kim said. “If it’s between tails and this, I’d go to tails.” It appears that the College itself cannot replicate more inclusive Greek communities, and those outside of the Greek system must chart the communityseeking waters without any help. Perhaps it’s more practical to imagine if any other social option could work, rather than to analyze the issues within Greek life. That is, is there a system that is obviously better for all parties involved? Ella Manning, a freshman at Haverford College, lent a fresh perspective having never stepped foot in a fraternity.

Haverford, a much smaller liberal arts college, does not have Greek life, but that does not mean that social events are inclusive. “A lot of people will make the joke that ‘there’s no Greek life, but there are athletes’ — they kind of serve as the replacement for that,” Manning laughed. “People will complain about there being a divide socially between athletes and non-athletes.” A college without any Greek scene might just be more cliquey than Dartmouth’s roughly 60% Greek population. The question then arises: if a non-Greek college is just as socially hierarchical as Dartmouth, would a non-Greek Dartmouth be any different? Maybe the Sings would be the next Gamma Delta Chi. Maybe club table tennis would be the new top house — naturally. In other words, a non-Greek Dartmouth might only be altered in the most superficial ways. Jeremy Lucas, a freshman at McGill University in Montreal, also gave a

unique, non-Dartmouth perspective and might just have a solution to the issues within Greek life: lower drinking ages. McGill students that are at least 18 can enter the numerous bars and nightclubs of the bustling Canadian city — clearly a direct contrast to Hanover — and the social scene is correspondingly very different from Dartmouth’s fraternity basement scene. “With all the activities available and places to meet, it’s very inclusive,” Lucas said. “Being able to drink legally when you get here at 18 takes away the need to have frats at McGill.” This makes a shocking amount of sense, especially applying the same logic to Dartmouth. Fraternities and sororities, aside from their stated, college-brochure goals of brotherhood, sisterhood and charity, function as facilitators of underage — and of-age — drinking, dancing and nightlife. In this way, being logistically convenient places for those very popular campus activities, they become the hub of social life.

Psi Upsilon is among the many fraternity buildings ignored on campus tours.

If anyone could legally throw a dorm party — or apartment party, in McGill’s case — with alcohol or head over to a bar, club or concert, Greek life could lose some of its campus necessity and dominance. Perhaps rather cynically, this is why Collis events and other Dartmouth-sponsored activities have never really been able to provide a true alternative to Greek life — they are dry for underclassmen and offer fundamentally different experiences than those found in a grimy yet endlessly appealing frat basement. And so it appears that Greek life might really be the only option for a college like Dartmouth; students like to party, and until there is a bar scene, nightlife or some social circuit dominated by athletes to function as an alternative, Greek life might just be the best option available, at least until Hanover develops into an urban metropolis. May future tour guides continue to awkwardly not talk about Psi Upsilon.

CAROLINE KRAMER/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

‘Feel Yourself Grow When You’re Away’: 21F Across the Pond STORY

By Molly Stevens

This article was originally published on October 13, 2021. As traditions are restored, friendships are rekindled and inperson classes are reinstated, the beginning of 21F marks Dartmouth’s return to a semi-normal campus. This historically significant term has afforded unique opportunities for connecting — and reconnecting — to Dartmouth’s community, not only for Dartmouth’s freshman but for all returning students. But what about those who have chosen to be away from campus this term? This fall, nine study abroad programs are currently underway. Originally, the College intended to run thirteen programs, but four were cancelled at the last minute. Joana Lame ’23, an Italian and chemistry double major, is currently on the Italian LSA+ program in Rome, where she and the six other students on the LSA and LSA+ programs are taking classes at the language school Italiaidea. A typical day for Lame starts with a jog by the river, followed by lunch and Italian lessons. Later in the day, Lame has free time, and she often spends the afternoons taking walks in the city’s center and going out with her friends at night. As an international student from Albania, Lame admitted that adjusting to life in Italy was not very difficult. “The thing is, because I’ve been living in Europe for most of my life, I didn’t really experience the culture shock that most of my friends experienced,” Lame said. “I found

everything very homey, very familiar.” While in previous terms students on the Italian study abroad program lived in homestays, this year, Lame and her peers are staying in apartments. Lame reflected that living on her own has given her “more perspective on adulthood.” “Having your own house, living in your own apartment and being off-campus in a brand new city for you just gives you that perspective. It makes you realize whether it is easy for you to adapt or not, and I understand that it is very easy for me to adapt,” Lame said. As for the COVID-19 regulations in Rome, Lame has had no problem getting around and exploring the city — a stark contrast from her past year on campus as she was unable to return home to Albania due to COVID-19 restrictions. “I’m able to use the means of public transportation,” Lame said. “I’m able to move from one place to another, and the only thing I need to do is carry my mask.” Like Lame, Tahlia Mullen ’22, a government major on the international relations track, has no problem staying busy while abroad. Mullen is currently studying abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her program is one of the three that are taking place in London: the English and Creative Writing FSP, the History FSP and Mullen’s program, the Government FSP. Mullen has been busy with not only the three classes she is taking at LSE but also various Dartmouth-organized activities and excursions. She has toured Parliament and the financial

district, visited museums, gone on trips to neighboring towns and spent lots of time experiencing London. According to Mullen, all the students who are studying abroad in London this term are living in the same apartment complex, where they have the opportunity to build and maintain a Dartmouth-specific community thousands of miles away from campus. Mullen remarked that after more than a year of online classes, she has met a lot of Dartmouth students on the study abroad programs who are eager to open up and make new friends. “Honestly, I keep comparing this experience to kind of like the beginning of freshman year, where everybody is so so friendly, like trying to make friends with everybody,” Mullen said. While Mullen admitted that she misses her friends, her clubs and her community at Foley House, an offcampus living learning community centered around cooking and communal living, in general, she doesn’t find herself missing the Dartmouth “bubble” very much. Rather, she feels that the pandemic has made her even more enthusiastic to take advantage of the study-abroad experience. “I think it’s always true that if you’re studying abroad, you do kind of want to do as much and see as much as possible,” Mullen said. “But I think that there’s even this additional kind of level of urgency and ‘Ah, we need to do all these things on our bucket list,’ because I think people are so conscious now that those kinds of privileges can be taken away in a second.” However, Tulio Huggins ’23, who is currently studying at Queen Mary

University of London on the English and Creative Writing FSP, has found that being away from Dartmouth’s campus has been a challenge — specifically during the fall term, when rush is happening and the ’25s are settling in. “I feel [FOMO] just because it’s the fall term. If it was winter term, I probably wouldn’t be feeling that much FOMO,” Huggins said. This year, safety was a particularly important aspect of all study abroad programs. English professor Ivy Schweitzer, the director of Huggins’ program, has had the difficult task of balancing the safety issues surrounding COVID-19 while also allowing students the freedom to explore Europe. She noted that one or two of her students have been contact traced for COVID-19, and one student tested positive before they left for the trip and had to join the rest of the group after quarantining for 10 days. Schweitzer also has encouraged her students not to travel outside the U.K. “You always have to be wary in a city,” Schweitzer explained. “London is big and teeming and busy, and you have to be really careful. And so this is like a little extra layer of caution, and for me, as the director, anxiety.” In general, Schweitzer noted that each program has different masking and testing guidelines based on the university and city. Masking requirements could vary even on a classroom to classroom basis. Although London may seem similar to the United States, given that there is not a language barrier, Schweitzer also described the necessary cultural adjustments students have had to face

— everything from the cars driving on the other side of the road to the different, more independent academic system. Julian Kiyabu ’23, who is currently studying at University College London on the History FSP, has found the newfound independence of his program to be somewhat challenging. Kiyabu explained that his classes tend to have only one or two assignments that count for a grade, leading to a less structured academic curriculum than that of a typical Dartmouth course. “Independence is so glorified and longed for, right? But all of a sudden, when you’re an adult now and all that structure is taken away from you, it’s difficult to find that springboard to give yourself momentum and to get rolling with all your responsibilities,” Kiyabu said. For his part, Kiyabu has found it refreshing to be able to step away from certain aspects of Dartmouth’s social scene, and is excited to see how he will continue to grow and mature throughout his study abroad. For one of his classes, Kiyabu is currently working on an archival research project, where he is investigating the female police volunteers of World War I through a feminist lense. Ultimately, Kiyabu feels that any sense of Dartmouth FOMO is outweighed by the greater opportunities that lay before him. “The things that I’m doing here are things that matter, and FOMO can get to you, but I have great pride in what I do, and I find a lot of satisfaction in my work, so I’ve had all the fulfillment here that I need,” Kiyabu said. “You really feel yourself grow when you’re away.”


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