VOL. CLXXIX NO. 13
FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2022
US Department of Justice files statement of interest in financial aid lawsuit against Dartmouth
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Dartmouth Bound to resume in-person after two years of virtual programming BY adriana james-rodil The Dartmouth Staff
HANNAH LI/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
BY KRISTIN CHAPMAN The Dartmouth Staff
On July 7, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest supporting the student plaintiffs in an ongoing financial aid lawsuit against Dartmouth and 16 other colleges and universities. The suit, which began in January, claims that these institutions violated federal antitrust laws by colluding to limit financial aid and increase the cost of attendance. According to the suit, the defendants formed a “cartel” through the 568 Presidents’ Group, a consortium created to standardize financial aid protocols in 1998. The statement noted that the defendants’ interpretation and arguments made in a joint motion to dismiss the case in
April rested on several “legal errors.” Furthermore, the statement supported the plaintiffs’ allegation that Dartmouth — as well as eight other universities in 568 Presidents’ Group — have colluded on price-fixing through using a “consensus methodology”: A formula to determine the amount of financial aid given to a student in need of a scholarship. This collusion “eliminates an important dimension of price competition among schools,” the report wrote. Robert Gilbert, managing partner of Gilbert Litigators & Counselors –– one of three lead law firms for the plaintiffs, along with Roche Freedman and Berner Montauge and FeganScott –– wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that the firm is “ very pleased that the Department
of Justice has filed this statement supporting Plaintiffs on the key issues in this case.” The plaintiffs make up more than 170,000 students of middle and lower class families who were harmed by the defendants’ “price-fixing,” according to a press release from 568Cartel.com –– the website of the law firms representing the plaintiffs. According to Gilbert, the College has the means within its unrestricted endowment to provide students with the additional financial aid that they need. “The plaintiffs’ filing with the court on June 13 showed that by devoting only 2% of its unrestricted endowment to additional scholarships, Dartmouth could provide on average an additional $17,715 in scholarship SEE LAWSUIT PAGE 2
Undergraduate Finance Committee allocates $1.3 million to student life in new budget
MOSTLY SUNNY HIGH 82 LOW 55
BY Taylor Haber
The Dartmouth Staff
NEWS
CONFUSION REGARDING COVID-19 PROTOCOL AMONG STUDENTS, PROFESSORS ARTS
Q&A WITH ‘FEMALE COMPLAINTS’ WRITER KATE MULLEY ’05 PAGE 2
OPINION
MENNING: AN INTUITIVE PATH TOWARD A BIGGER GREEN PAGE 3
SPORTS
Q&A WITH TREVOR MICHELSON, INTERIM HEAD COACH OF MEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT ROWING PAGE 4 FOLLOW US ON
@thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2022 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.
T h e U n d e rg r a d u at e F i n a n c e Committee released its funding allocations for undergraduate student life organizations for the 2022-23 fiscal year in a May 24 press release. The press release announced a $1,352,000 budget for the current fiscal year — marking a $102,000, or eight percent, increase in UFC funding compared to that of the last fiscal year — and increased the annual allocation for eight of 10 organizations funded by the UFC. “The allocations for FY 22-23 were slightly larger than the general trends seen from previous years and most organizations are receiving increases,” the UFC wrote in the press release. According to the release, Prog ramming Board received $385,000; the Council on Student Organizations received $311,000; the Special Programs and Events C o m m i t t e e re c e i ve d $ 2 1 5 , 0 0 0 ; Collis Governing Board received $104,000; Dartmouth Outing Club received $67,500; Greek Leadership Council received $64,000; Student Assembly received $61,000; Club Sports received $57,500; Bonfire received $57,000; and Class Council received $30,000. Unlike the first eight organizations, the latter two organizations did not ask for — and therefore did not receive — additional funding. P B ’s bu d g e t i n c re a s e d m o re than $40,000 from last year, while COSO and SPEC received allocation increases of around $15,000. The budgets of Club Sports, CGB, DOC, GLC and SA increased a few thousand from last year’s allocations. Prior to this, the budget was last re-allocated for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. T hough the UFC is charged
with allocating funding, the College first decides how much money the committee is able to disseminate, UFC chair Zippy Abraham Paiss ’23 said. Once a figure has been decided, the UFC chair, six at-large members and nine organizational representatives of the UFC deliberate on how to best distribute the year’s funds, Abraham Paiss added. For organizations which received a boost in funding, reasons included growing student involvement, new program initiatives and — most commonly — rising prices, according to the press release. The UFC specifically increased at least four organizations’ budgets in part because of rising inflationary costs. According to the press release, UFC had expanded Programming Board’s budget due to “the importance of PB events for campus traditions and … to meet inflation.” Emma Elsbecker ’24, Programming Board’s representative to the UFC, said that her organization’s rising budget was “all linked to inflation,” as costs in the concert sector have soared. “The budget increase in PB is simply to continue the quality of events we have put on — not to expand or do anything greater than we already have,” Elsbecker said. “This is simply maintenance, and we’re trying to keep things as cheap as possible, doing as much labor ourselves as possible.” Elsbecker said that PB’s budget, which helps to fund a number of notable student experiences such as Green Key, is indicative of the organization’s large role on campus. “The budget increase really reflects the desire for Programming Board to be able to support those experiences without having to curtail them,” Elsbecker said. SEE UFC PAGE 2
Dartmouth Bound, a fly-in program for rising high school seniors, will take place from July 18 to 20, according to the admissions office. The last two iterations of Bound, in 2020 and 2021, were both held virtually, senior associate director of admissions Gregory Chery said. According to Chery, the two-day program will include a campus tour for students, an opportunity to attend mock classes and essay workshops, a financial aid session and a session with admissions officers to review applicant case studies. He added that the College is expecting over 90 participants, all of whom completed an application for the program. Participants must be up to date with their COVID-19 vaccination status, per the CDC and take a COVID-19 test the day before arriving in Hanover, according to the Dartmouth Bound website. First-Generation Office director Jay Davis said prospective students will also learn about resources offered at the College, such as the First Year Student Enrichment Program. Although FYSEP is not an official partner or co-sponsor of the program, the program speaks with prospective students and educates them on the resources the first-generation office has to offer, Davis added. “I think Bound is a very important opportunity for Dartmouth to sponsor the travel of students who would otherwise not be able to afford coming to campus for a visit themselves,” Davis said. “It’s an opportunity to level the playing field a bit by making family income and wealth not a factor in the ability to visit our campus.” The Dartmouth Bound program was founded in 1991 by Gar y Love ’76, Love wrote in an email statement. Throughout his time as an undergraduate student, Love worked at the admissions office; after graduating, he said he remained in contact with the office by becoming an alumni interviewer for applicants. According to Love, after a discussion of what the College could do to recruit more students of color — which he wrote was prompted by “tough recruitment years for students of color in 1990 and 1991” — one of the admissions officers encouraged
Love to fly students to Hanover. Love then used his personal funds to fly 12 students of color from Kenwood Academy High School in Chicago to tour the College in 1991. “They were truly impressed by the other students and the professors that they were able to meet,” Love wrote. “They also felt comfortable and safe by the surroundings.” Those 12 students went on to apply to the College; all were admitted and four enrolled, according to Love. He was then asked by the College to repeat his effort, and for the first four years of Bound, Love self-funded the program. Love wrote that he continues to make financial contributions and assists in the program by revisiting the goals of Bound with the admissions office. “One of the key aspects I’ve always believed Dartmouth Bound to be about was letting students know that they are worthy, that they are important,” Love wrote. “We want the kids to know that they are worthy of this type of institution.” According to Davis, “many” Bound students eventually enroll at Dartmouth, and the program has allowed “real communal bonds” to form prior to matriculation as a result. “I have talked to many students who will share stories about feeling for the first time that a place like Dartmouth could be a home for them [at Bound],” Davis wrote. “Bound, like FYSEP, helps students to feel a sense of belonging and that the College is actually a better place when students from their backgrounds are there.” Anell Paulino ’25, who attended Dartmouth Bound virtually in 2021, said that she enjoyed some of the program’s Zoom components, such as the virtual tour and the ability to chat with other prospective students — with some of whom she has kept in touch. While Paulino said she had a good experience over Zoom, she is glad that Bound has returned to an in-person experience. “I think there’s something special about the Dartmouth campus that brings in and hones the [participants] experience in altogether,” she said. “So the fact that it’s in person will be beneficial, just because it’s more personable and — the best way I can explain — it’s just more human and more real.” Daniel Modesto ’24 contributed to reporting.
ASPEN ANDERSON/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
The fly-in program was founded in 1991 and allows students who otherwise may not be able to afford the travel to visit campus.
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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2022
THE DARTMOUTH NEWS
Lack of clarity and enforcement DOJ supports students in of COVID-19 protocol causes financial aid lawsuit confusion among students, professors FROM LAWSUIT PAGE 1
ASPEN ANDERSON/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
BY ben fagell The Dartmouth Staff
According to the COVID-19 dashboard updated on July 8, 23 undergraduates reported positive tests for COVID-19, along with nine graduate students and professors and 49 staff members. However, some students and professors have expressed confusion regarding protocol after contracting COVID-19, with many taking precautionary measures independent of the College’s guidelines. Accordingtodirectorof communications for student affairs Elizabeth Ellis, students who test positive are required by the College to isolate in their residences except for solo walks and meal pickups, notify close contacts of their exposure, report their test result to Dartmouth College Health Service and wear face masks. However, the College no longer mandates surveillance testing and instead encourages students to self-disclose their symptoms and test results, which has sparked concerns about the accuracy of the COVID-19 case count. “I do think it could be potentially scary for anyone who looks at the COVID-19 dashboard to monitor how safe it is to be on campus and sees a pretty low number of cases, where there might actually be a couple dozen more that are not reported,” Katherine Takoudes ’24 said. Some students also report a lack of direction from the College regarding isolation and masking protocol once they test positive for COVID-19. Takoudes said after she tested positive upon arriving on campus for summer term, she isolated in her room “as much as possible” and spent time with her friends outdoors. She added that she took tests
from the Collis Center every day until she tested negative on day seven, after which she left isolation and chose to mask in class until day 10. The College recommends taking a rapid test on day five and day seven of isolation and ending isolation on the tenth if symptoms are improving. Masks should be worn until day 10 regardless of when someone tests out, according to College guidelines. “I think students who have COVID are taking their own precautions and creating their own quarantine, isolation plans and don’t really need the College to be involved,” Takoudes said. “...They would rather just not have the College intervene or try and give them action plans when they have their own idea of what they need to do.” Jacob Gomez ’24, who tested positive for COVID-19 last Wednesday, said that he misses how the College used to send him frequent emails with instructions on what to do in the case he tested positive for COVID-19. “I do think the College should be doing more,” Gomez said. “I got used to … those constant emails, reminding us. The [College’s COVID-19] website is sort of confusing, so that’s the reason I didn’t know who to report to, and I just relied on my friends who had COVID-19 before.” Like Takoudes, Gomez said he handled COVID-19 without notifying the College, quarantining in his off-campus house and emailing his professors to let them know he would be unable to attend class. When physics and astronomy professor Marcelo Gleiser contracted COVID-19, he said he opted to teach remotely for the first few weeks of summer term but noted that it was a “personal choice,” as he never
received written instructions from the College to teach online. Although Gleiser is now teaching in person, he said that he still wears a mask in class and hopes that students do the same. While Gleiser said that professors currently must rely upon explicit permission from College administrators or the chair of their department to be able to teach virtually, he believes professors should have the authority to decide whether they want to teach in person. “The only place where I think the College could have been a little more flexible is in giving more autonomy to professors that may be a higher risk either to themselves and their families to actually opt for virtual classes…. That was never made very clear,” he said. “It was more like on a person-to-person basis, as opposed to giving autonomy to the professors to decide ‘I don’t feel comfortable stepping in front of 40 students.’” Jewish studies chair and German professor Veronika Fuechtner said she tested positive for COVID-19 in January and has decided to teach outside this summer, noting that five of her colleagues have recently gotten sick with COVID-19. “At least judging anecdotally, cases are up. I am teaching this summer and I do have students in my class who got sick,”Fuechtner wrote. “... I do wish though we could avail of the more reliable PCR tests again through the College.” Ellis wrote that “the COVID-19 Leadership Team meets on a regular basis and are monitoring local, regional, and national trends. They plan to issue additional communications to the Dartmouth community and will update the current public health guidance if necessary.”
funds to every financial aid student each year –– all while continuing to grow its endowment,” Gilbert wrote. These universities could be immune from violating antitrust laws with the 568 Exemption of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994, which states that two or more colleges or universities may institute standard financial aid practices on the condition that all parties admit students regardless of the students’ “financial circumstances.” However, the statement of interest also affirmed that for a college or university to qualify as need-blind, “all students” must be admitted on a need-blind basis regardless of how wealthy they are and when they are admitted, as stated in the 568 Exemption. The plaintiffs allege that Dartmouth and eight other universities are not need-blind — and therefore due not qualify for the 568 Exemption — due to their use of enrollment management, a software that helps with student admissions and can shape a class’s enrollment demographics, which may allow colleges to shape their class’s ability to pay. “‘All’ means ‘all’ and does not allow the defendants to carve out thousands of waitlist students, or transfer students or any other group to be treated otherwise,” Gilbert wrote.
In addition, the statement of interest acknowledges that colleges and universities in the 568 Presidents’ Group with a need-blind admissions policy will be held accountable for colluding with colleges and universities without a need-blind admissions policy, as this violates the 568 Exemption. According to the statement of interest, the defendants also misinterpreted the Sherman Act of 1980, which outlaws monopolies in favor of free market competition. “The Defendants suggest that plaintiffs cannot establish a Sherman Act violation unless Defendants have ‘actual knowledge’ that their conduct was unlawful,” according to the statement. “But that is not the law.” In addition to Dartmouth, the other defendants in the lawsuit are Brown University, the California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Rice University, the University of Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University and Yale University. College spokesperson Diana Lawrence declined to comment on the U.S. Department of Justice’s statement of interest due to the fact that the case is still an “ongoing legal matter.”
UFC budget increases funding for student life FROM UFC PAGE 1
Alyssa Lebarron ’24, the GLC representative to the UFC, said she was excited to see her organization’s budget increase for next year. “I’ve seen costs increase in my own [Greek] house events, so I’m looking forward to being able to fund the same amount of events as we go forward,” Lebarron said. In finalizing the GLC’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the UFC wrote that the organization “received allocation increases to meet inflationary costs of project funding, particularly the rising cost of catering in the Upper Valley.” Although the GLC will be receiving $3,000 more than it had in the previous fiscal year, Lebarron said she expects to fund a similar number of events rather than expand event
coverage, due to rising prices. “[Next year is] probably going to be the same amount of events … and, if it’s correctly proportioned, the same quality of events,” Lebarron said. “I think, at least for the catering side, I, as a member of my chapter, have seen an increase in costs to run events. So, I think it’s not going to lead to an overall increase of events.” According to for mer GLC representative to the UFC Brandon Zhou ’22, who helped to increase the GLC’s budget for the current fiscal year, the funding process made his organization refocus their efforts on substantive programming. Zhou said he hopes the GLC commits itself more toward sexual violence prevention and diversity and inclusion initiatives. “I think it’s about using our money in a more effective and efficient way,” Zhou said.
Q&A with ‘Female Complaints’ writer Kate Mulley ’05 BY JESSICA SUN LI The Dartmouth
Playwright Kate Mulley ’05 recently collaborated with musical artist Tina deVaron to write the musical “Female Complaints,” which they brought to Dartmouth to workshop as part of VoxLab — a theater residency held each summer for alums to develop their projects. From July 4 to July 10, a select group of students in the course THEA 65, “Summer Theater Lab,” brought Mulley and deVaron’s vision to life for the first time. According to the show’s promotionalmaterials,“FemaleComplaints” is a musical that tells the story of the highly skilled abortionist Inez Ingenthron in the 1800s, who becomes the target of the San Francisco district attorney due to her illegal abortion practices. The Dartmouth talked to Mulley about the process of writing and workshopping “Female Complaints,” as well as its relevance in the context of the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. How did you come to write “Female Complaints”? KM: I met Tina deVaron in the fall of 2018 to discuss working on a different project together. She ended up going with another writer, but we knew we wanted to work on something together. I discovered the story of Inez Ingenthron, the protagonist of the musical, from an NPR article and then read two of her biographies. I said,“Tina, I think this is our story. I think this is what our show should be.” You mentioned that your background as a historian influences your work. How has that background specifically impacted the process of creating this piece?
KM: I learned as a history student that I’m not a good paper writer, and any of my professors would agree with that. But what I do like about history is the way that we can take pieces of history to learn more about our present time: very cliched, but history is cyclical. One of the things that was really fun last year was finding the mothers of the men who were integral to taking Inez down and learning more about them, and then putting them in the first scene of “Female Complaints” at the farmers market. Women’s voices often are not included in history unless they are truly exceptional women. But if you do a little genealogical research, you can actually find out who these women were and what they did. Do you think this project has increased in relevancy or its impact has changed based on recent events with the overturning of Roe v. Wade? KM: When the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health leak happened, it absolutely affected the way that we approached the rest of the story. We didn’t really make anything up in terms of Inez’s life, but we found the parallels. I think that we’ve been aware of the possibility of Roe being overturned since we started writing it. We had this sense of urgency before, but once Roe v. Wade was overturned, it felt even more like, “Okay, we really need to get into action. We need to get this piece written and have it reflect what is happening in America right now.” How did you choose to workshop this at Dartmouth? KM: I’m one of the co-founders of VoxLab. I stepped down as president in 2019, but I was interested in coming back just as an artist. This felt like a really important piece to work on and get students involved and to see how students –– particularly smart, engaged
Dartmouth students –– would respond to it. The overturning of Roe v. Wade affects your generation so much, so we wanted to get younger voices in the room to make sure that it felt relevant. And selfishly, it’s always nice to come back to Dartmouth. So it really felt like the perfect place for us to have a safe place to experiment with “Female Complaints” and to have an audience see our first version of it.
Whatwastheprocessof workshopping “Female Complaints” with the students? KM: In an ideal world, it would be a cast of 13, and when workshopping the musical at Dartmouth, we had five performers. First, we figured out who was singing what parts in the songs. I assigned parts to different people and tried to make sure that the scenes would make sense for an audience. Then we did a couple more full read-throughs, a few more rehearsals of scenes throughout. Our music director arrived Thursday morning, but we didn’t make a ton of changes to the scripts during the week. It was really just presenting what we already had. How has the process of working on this been different or similar to past projects on which you’ve worked? KM: I certainly feel a greater sense of urgency with “Female Complaints,” to be able to meet this moment with the piece. And it’s the first show that Tina and I have written together, and it’s always fun to work on a new piece with a new collaborator. My wheelhouse is badly behaved historical women, I realized, but how do we define badly behaved? This show is asking that question more than my past projects. I have a musical about two female gang leaders in Sydney, Australia, and in that case, the gray area is more about what they had to do to survive. With “Female Complaints,” we’re
COURTESY OF ROB STRONG
flipping the way that people think about this or view Inez as a figure. Then, people might see why she was doing what she was doing. What do you hope that audiences will take away from “Female Complaints?” KM: I always hope that people are entertained. The goal is always that people laugh and then cry. Music just heightens emotions. But, I also hope that people will have learned and thought about something in a new way. 100 years ago, Inez was in and out of jail for performing abortions. Even if things are illegal, they don’t go away. There’s a complete parallel between where we are now, in certain states, and what Inez’s life
was like. There are ways in which we can absolutely sink back in time to when Inez was performing abortions. So getting people to think about that, and then feeling some call to action to do something, would be ideal. Just encouraging audiences to think, “Okay, I do feel strongly about this. What can I do?” I’m very grateful for the opportunity to have gotten to work on “Female Complaints” at Dartmouth, especially at this time. We really gave our students a lot to take on, and they absolutely rose to the challenge. It was just a real joy to work with them. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2022
PAGE 3
THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST ISAIAH MENNING ’24
STAFF COLUMNIST THOMAS LANE ’24
An Intuitive Path Toward a Bigger Green Busting America’s Corporate Drug Cartel To offset its carbon footprint in the energy transition, Dartmouth should consider expanding the Second College Grant through landscape-level woodland acquisition.
Dartmouth owns 27,000 acres of forestland in northern New Hampshire. A gift from the state legislature in 1807, the Second College Grant has since become a beloved piece of Dartmouth’s heritage. The area is beautiful; Bear Brook and the Diamond River wind in open wetlands beneath forested mountains, hosting habitat for moose, whitetail deer, grouse, black bears, otters and beaver. The College currently manages the area for sustainable timber production and recreation, and the Dartmouth Outing Club maintains three cabins on the property that students can use from matriculation through life after graduation. While the Grant clearly plays to the “crunchy” aura so quintessential to life at Dartmouth, it may also provide a highreward model to achieve one of the College’s most pressing priorities: a low-carbon future. As Kyle Spencer ’23 recently pointed out in his column “The Big Green is Not So Green,” Dartmouth has a pollution problem. With nearly 57,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent gases emitted in the 2020 fiscal year, Dartmouth needs to make major reductions before meeting its goals of reducing emissions to less than 39,000 metric tons by 2025 and less than 16,000 by 2050. Currently, the College is focused on reducing its climate impact by making energy systems more efficient and transitioning to renewable sources, but Spencer and the experts he interviewed are skeptical that the College’s current strategy is sufficient. To both offset their emissions and bolster their access to rich natural benefits, Dartmouth should invest in forestland. By photosynthesizing carbon dioxide into biomass, forests are a critical deterrent against human-caused climate change. In recent decades, a combination of carbon emission regulations and private commitments to sustainability have created a carbon credit market in which, at its best, credit buyers pay landowners to manage their properties to store more carbon dioxide than they otherwise would have, offsetting the emissions of the buyer. Changing land management to increase carbon storage is critical to this process –– otherwise, no offset occurs. However, by directly purchasing land and changing management to increase carbon storage, Dartmouth could avoid this scenario and credibly offset its emissions footprint while gaining an asset. To determine whether a land acquisition plan would be feasible, Dartmouth would need to investigate the fiscal and ecosystem prospects of potential holdings. Thankfully, the College’s research and alumni resources are extremely well-positioned to answer these exact questions. Jim Hourdequin ’98 is the CEO of Hanoverbased Lyme Timber Co., a forest investment firm that has earned $53 million in carbon offset transactions in the last two years. Hourdequin is also interested in reforming the carbon credit market toward more meaningfully combating climate change, an effort covered in a recent Bloomberg Green Finance article published in March. Hiring industry-savvy alumni like Hourdequin to consult on project prospects would be an invaluable first step towards evaluation. The College can also use its own research resources. Faculty and students associated with Dartmouth’s Ecology, Evolution, Environment and Society Program have found that even forests used for timber production can be managed to sequester large amounts of carbon. If conditions are correct, Dartmouth could reach its energy goals in time by purchasing land, changing management and storing carbon, all while benefiting from the sale of forest products. Of course, despite the seemingly endless
$8.5 billion endowment, College resources are limited. It is possible that rather than investing in nature-based solutions, money may be better spent simply on high-quality carbon credits or more rapidly engaging the energy transition. However, before dismissing an expansion of the Grant, it is critical to realize the potential investment benefits that outright ownership of lands may bring the College beyond moving towards sustainability. Firstly, the land could be a lucrative financial investment even after Dartmouth fully transitions to renewable energy. After using its woodlands for its own carbon storage, Dartmouth forest managers could enter the carbon market by selling carbon credits through increasing carbon storage. Beyond producing traditional forest products, Dartmouth’s land holdings could potentially yield significant returns by servicing major firms who have already made net-zero pledges. Second, the College could explore conservation leases that would support large-scale conservation goals like the Biden administration’s 30 by 30 initiative. Establishing conservation leases adjacent to the Grant would be ideal – island biogeography theory suggests that larger protected areas host greater niche and genetic diversity, increasing natural system resilience to threats like climate change. A large-scale forest acquisition project could also strengthen College research. Land in the Second College Grant has long been used for research on forest management and climate change. New land acquisitions could provide easier access for researchers to conduct experiments like these and provide greater opportunities to use landscape-level replicates, a notoriously difficult component to procure in ecological science. Bolstering Dartmouth’s research contributions through expansion of the Grant would not only earn it regard but also provide critical knowledge for other forest managers. Large land acquisitions would also yield dayto-day recreational benefits for the Dartmouth community. The cabin, road and trail network on the Grant have been well-tailored, and this system could serve as a ready model if more land was acquired. Forest acquisition would bolster opportunities for students, faculty, staff, alumni and the public to responsibly interact with the land, from hiking to fishing to wildlife-watching to hunting to canoeing. Growing the culture of hands-on environmental stewardship among Dartmouth students would more holistically prepare them for global leadership while strengthening the natural capital of the College. Dartmouth depends on wilderness. The forests of New Hampshire already protected by the Second College Grant provide financial returns, a buffer against climate change, habitat for various species and recreational access that defines the Dartmouth experience. Large-scale land acquisition for carbon storage could offset Dartmouth’s excess emissions while providing a financial asset, conservation gains, robust research benefits and rich natural experiences for the Dartmouth community. The College knows how to steward large tracts of forest. It has faculty and alumni intimately knowledgeable about forest carbon storage. And it has gaps to make up for in its sustainability goals. What could be more fitting than the Big Green leading peer institutions in carbon reductions through responsible land stewardship of vast woodlands? Dartmouth should consider how the intuitive path of purchasing forestland for carbon storage may strengthen its ambitions of a bigger Green.
In the face of obscene prices, California will start manufacturing its own insulin. The rest of the nation should too.
The fact that insulin prices in the United States are ridiculous should surprise no one given how often the hormone makes headlines. High insulin prices are also a uniquely American problem — prices here are dramatically higher than in any other developed nation. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, insulin costs around 10 times more in the U.S. than the average across 32 other OECD countries. During his presidential run before the 2020 election, Bernie Sanders even went so far as to lead a bus full of Type 1 diabetics up to Canada to purchase insulin for a tiny fraction of what it costs in the U.S. He has a point — the price discrepancy is nonsensical. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, recently signed the state’s latest budget into law, which includes $100 million for producing insulin. The plan is brilliant in that it addresses the heart of what causes our high prices — a highly consolidated market that just can’t be broken up without government intervention. There are only three companies — Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Eli Lilly — that sell insulin here, and they all know that if they each hold the line and charge high prices, they can reap big profits from a captive market. How? First, it’s usually illegal to import prescription drugs into the U.S., ensuring that patients have nowhere else to turn. Technically, Sanders was breaking the law with his bus trip, but something tells me no jury will ever convict him. Second, U.S. patent law is often dysfunctional and guarantees the three current insulin manufacturers can keep competitors out. While insulin itself is generally no longer patented — it first came out in 1921 — each company’s insulin delivery devices are fiercely patented and not interchangeable with other companies’ products. These factors all combine to produce a functional oligopoly on insulin in the U.S. that results in deranged prices that kill. By manufacturing its own insulin and selling it on the market at much lower prices, California can functionally end part of America’s corporate drug cartel. The issue of insulin prices is frequently in the news because diabetics quite literally will die if they do not get the insulin they need in the right quantity. Skimping on dosage to try and stretch a vial longer to save money kills. It kills thousands, in fact — just last year, 100,000 Americans died from diabetes-related causes. Diabetes may not be curable, but with insulin, it is often controllable. A study of Scottish diabetics found that while Type 1 diabetics on average live 11 to 13 years fewer than the general population, about a quarter of that life expectancy loss was associated with causes related to improper insulin management, such as rationing. Given that this study was performed in the U.K., where insulin costs around a mere eight percent of what it does here, it seems likely that
the loss in life expectancy associated with insulin misuse would be even greater in the U.S. due to accessibility issues. Making insulin affordable will be a public health boon. There have been several other proposals to lower insulin prices, such as price controls and allowing imports. These are workable ideas, and Congress is supposedly looking at the issue as I type. But this certainly isn’t the first time Congress has said they would solve the insulin issue and then proceeded to (you guessed it!) not do anything. There’s no way of knowing whether this will actually be the time a solution is passed. Congress may not be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, but the fifty states can. By pushing multiple solutions forward at the same time, we are most likely to solve the problem the fastest. Speed is essential to saving lives. I hope California’s solution will springboard into a national solution, whether that’s public insulin manufacturing or any of the other good alternatives. California’s idea is also transferable to other drugs. If we publicly manufacture the many medicines that have been on the market for generations, have repeatedly been proven to be safe and are usually cheap to produce, we prevent this issue from happening again with other drugs. Making insulin isn’t rocket science. Neither is making stuff like epinephrine, the drug in EpiPens which has been used to treat anaphylactic shock since 1903. In the U.S., EpiPens cost over $650 for brand name devices and over $300 for the generic version. In the U.K., they can be purchased for about $70. There’s numerous other examples of drugs that fall into the same categories — the point here should be clear. Public manufacturing of these sorts of drugs can save lives by largely eliminating cost barriers. Hopefully, insulin is just step one. This shouldn’t be a difficult choice. My own father is a Type 1 diabetic, and while we are fortunate to have insurance that covers his insulin, I remember during the aftermath of the 2008 recession my mother coming home and talking to my dad about upcoming waves of layoffs that might have put her out of a job. I didn’t realize this at the time — after all, I was just in elementary school — but if she had lost her work, we would have also lost the employersponsored family health insurance plan that paid for my dad’s insulin. We got lucky and my mom managed to dodge each successive layoff wave over the course of those years, but I can’t imagine the pain of the many other families out there who have lost a loved one after not being able to access the medications they need. This is an easily solvable issue, and California’s plan is the best bet to solve it. Let’s do what’s right and prevent the many funerals we don’t need to have.
ANSWERS FROM LAST WEEK’S CROSSWORD
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FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2022
PAGE 4
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS
SPORTS
Q&A with Trevor Michelson, interim head coach of men’s lightweight rowing after five-year stint as assistant coach BY CAROLINE YORK The Dartmouth Staff
After five years as assistant coach, Trevor Michelson recently took over the men’s lightweight rowing team as interim head coach following Dan Roock’s retirement. The Dartmouth sat down with Michelson to discuss his transition to head coach, the team’s return after its elimination and subsequent reinstatement in 2020 and his plans for the upcoming season. What is your past coaching experience and your collegiate experience? How has that helped you in your new coaching role? TM: I have spent the last five years at Dartmouth, most of it with lightweight men and a little under a year with the women’s program. Before that I coached at Wesleyan University — which is where I went to college — and before that at Fordham University in New York City, where I grew up. In terms of my collegiate experience, Wesleyan is a small NESCAC college, similar to Dartmouth, and balancing academic and athletic excellence is something you work through as a student-athlete at both NESCAC schools and in the Ivy League. My experience there helped me understand what the guys are going through and allows me to help them navigate college while trying to balance crew and school. How do you and the team plan to turn the page from last year’s season? TM: Coach Dan Roock, my boss for the past four years, was a real mentor and close friend, and we’re going to do a lot of things similarly and a lot differently. This past year was our first year back after the pandemic, and we made a lot of progress, but we fell a little short of our goals at the end of the season. So this year we want to turn the notch up on training and racing with a physical, technical and mental approach to the sport and see if an increase in output and input in those areas can allow us to move up in the Ivy League ranks. W hat has been the biggest
a d j u s t m e n t f ro m b e i n g a n assistant and now head coach? TM: The big thing right away has been the outpour of supportive notes from alumni that I did and didn’t know, which has been really touching. Alumni — along with the Dartmouth sports administration and the new athletic director Mike Harrity — gave me their support and asked me how they could help me adjust to the role. However, in terms of the team, a lot will stay the same because Roock had allowed me to have a lot of autonomy in the program, which gave me some experience in running the team. How much time have you been able to spend with the team? Are there any limits you have to work around? TM: In the summer — besides the kids on campus for sophomore summer — guys are all over the country from southern California to the northern tip of Maine doing internships and working and even rowing on an international level like Cooper Tuckerman ’22, who just made the U23 quadruple scull headed to the World Championship. Working around that, I’ve done a couple team Zooms — debriefing them on last season and letting them know my thoughts on the coming year — and I’m also trying to talk to everyone on the team by phone. Most of my time is spent on planning next year and getting ready for the fall so we can go full steam ahead when it gets here.
the program back. The guys carry a chip on their shoulders, which is a powerful thing when it comes to athletics. Outside of the team, we have incredible alumni with the Friends of Dartmouth Rowing being one of the better alumni groups in the country. The elimination definitely fired up alumni and brought them together and connected alumni with rowers. Being cut was terrible and stressful, but at the end of the day, I think we’re better off for it. What do you see as the Dartmouth community’s role in supporting the team? TM: I think Dartmouth and rowing really go hand in hand, mainly because our boathouse is right on campus. In the spring and summer, there is so much activity on the water that it gives us a level of exposure not a lot of other schools have. There are also over 100
The Dartmouth Staff
Last Thursday, Brittney Griner — a two-time olympic gold medalist, seventime WNBA All-Star and starting center for the Phoenix Mercury — pleaded guilty in front of a Russian court for possession and transportation of drugs. Russian airport officials detained Griner on Feb. 17 for possession of vape cartridges containing hashish oil, and since then she has spent 148 days under Russian surveillance, facing the possibility of never being able to return
What are you most excited for in this new position? TM: I’m obviously thrilled and the support from alumni is great, but what stuck out most to me about getting the job is that the guys on the team were so excited. To me, coaching is about relationships: athletes can’t do it without a coach, and the coach can’t do it without the athletes. I’m excited about continuing to foster my relationships with the guys on the team and pushing the boats to be as fast as they can. I’ve heard from one of your
What was it like when the program was eliminated and eventually reinstated in 2021? TM: It was tough. The Dartmouth lightweight team is a historic program, and it was hard for the guys and for me to lose the team. When we got cut, we thought we would lose everyone, but all of our guys kept rowing — some joined our heavyweight team, some were off campus and some trained on their own. The best six months to be gone were the six months we got cut because there were few competitions happening due to the pandemic. When we came back, and even now, there is a sense of gratefulness to have each other and have
home. Although Griner’s guilty plea may seem suspicious to some, the U.S. State Department quickly released a statement upon news of her conviction describing Griner and other American prisoners of Russia as “wrongfully detained”. These words from the State Department not only acknowledge their commitment to bringing Griner home, but also seem to convey their view that Griner’s conviction is political. Griner’s impact is felt by all who are advocates of social justice, women in sports and the LGBTQ+ community.
rowers that you will sometimes join workouts. What prompts you to do that? TM: To me, exercise is really important for my mental and physical health. Coaching is a job that has a lot of stress and anxiety around it, and you spend so much time taking care of athletes that sometimes you forget to take care of yourself. Carving out time to work out is important to be the person I am, and exercising with the guys is great because their effort motivates me to keep pushing myself. What’s your favorite workout song? TM: I’m a big fan of female pop artists from the 2000s, and my favorite song on the erg is “Your Love is my Drug” by Kesha. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
COURTESY OF TREVOR MICHELSON
The Cheap Seats: Far from Home BY LANIE EVERETT
kids rowing between the heavyweight, lightweight and women’s teams, which is a sizable number at a small school like Dartmouth. So, between those two factors, rowing has become entwined with Dartmouth, and those home races can be beautiful times on the river.
Her absence is strongly felt by all who have admired her. But what was Griner doing in Russia in the first place? To supplement their income, many WNBA stars travel to play on basketball teams abroad in their off-season. Griner has played for a team named UMMC Ekaterinburg for seven years, based in Russia, because she does not have the financial cushion as her NBA All-Star counterparts — an issue that female American athletes are still facing today after 50 years of Title IX. Tensions between Russia and the United States have been strained since
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, and Griner’s detainment gives Russian courts new leverage over the United States. Russia likely plans to keep Griner under their watchful eye as long as possible — unless the U.S. offers a trade in her place, possibly in the form of a Russian imprisoned in the U.S. One prospect: Viktor Bout — dubbed the “Merchant of Death” — who was sentenced to incarceration in the United States for 25 years for providing weaponry for a terrorist organization. Although Russia has asked for Bout back
ZOORIEL TAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
from the U.S. more than once, it seems like a swap for Griner and American Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence for espionage activities, could be the catalyst for Bout’s release back to Russia. The pressure falls on President Joe Biden to make the final call. On July 4, after not hearing from Griner since her detainment, Biden received a handwritten letter from her. “I’m terrified I might be here forever,” Griner wrote. “Please do all you can to bring us [me and the other detainees] home.” Delivered on a day designated as a celebration of the U.S’s independence and liberty, Griner’s words served as a stark contrast to that freedom. However, it seems likely that Russian officials would have meticulously inspected every word she originally penned and only these few passed their rigorous test. Still, her words call Biden into swift action. “I would like to again emphasize the commitment of the United States Government at the very highest level to bring home safely Ms. Griner, ” Biden said as news of Griner’s guilty plea reached the White House. Another individual who is even more committed to seeing the American athlete’s return is Cherelle Griner, Britney Griner’s wife. Last week, Cherelle Griner hosted a BG Rally at the Phoenix Mercury’s home stadium, where she communicated her frustration and sadness at her wife’s detainment. Among teammates, friends and family, Griner also has the support of the WNBA franchise, who named her an honorary member of the All-Star games last Saturday. Every day the Russian government holds Griner in her cell, the State Department and White House face questions about her return. For now, there is no end to Griner’s overseas stay until a possible trade occurs; until then, those following her story all wish for her well-being far from home.