The Dartmouth 10/07/2022

Dartmouth Student

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BY MATEO CURIEL The Dartmouth

article was originally published on Oct.

Beginning Nov. 1, all Dartmouth students will be eligible for free, unlimited access to Uwill, a student teletherapy provider that offers licensed mental health counseling online, according to an announcement from the College.

The new teletherapy services come alongside other mental health measures, including an extension of the non-recording option deadline to Oct. 10 and the Day of Caring on Oct. 21, according to Dartmouth Student Government president David Millman ’23. He added that the DSG

advocated for teletherapy services to address students’ mental health needs in light of recent student deaths.

According to Millman, students will be able to communicate with a counselor that they chose to work with via video, chat or messaging and have access to 24-hour crisis support. This includes graduate students as well as students on an off-term, personal leave of absence or medical leave. While Uwill is a worldwide service, the College will only offer access to Uwill’s teletherapy services within the United States, according to Millman and DSG vice president Jessica Chiriboga ’24.

“It’s a great way to keep our community mentally healthy,” Sri Korandla ’26 said. “Therapy is something that is definitely good for your general well-being. It’s not

something that you have to do only if you have a problem. It’s good to work through your week with a therapist.”

Michael London, founder and CEO of Uwill, said that there are two main components of Uwill’s teletherapy services that will be offered to Dartmouth students: “Umatch” counseling services and “Uhelp” emergency crisis connection.

London said that with Umatch, students can decide which counselor they would like to work with based on their needs and preferences. From there, students can schedule as many sessions as they would like with their counselor. Should a student decide that their counselor is not a good fit, they can change their counselor at any

Students organize programming to celebrate Queer History Month

BY NOELLE BLAKE The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on Oct. 6, 2022.

October marks the beginning of Queer History Month, an annual observance and celebration of LGBTQ+ history in the United States.

Since the fall term, students have worked to create a series of programs and events to celebrate and explore queer history. These programs are also meant to highlight Trans Week of Visibility, which is set to take place in mid-to-late November.

According to the Office of Pluralism and Leadership’s website, these events aim to build community, “recognize and uplift Queer history, [and] create intentional space centering Trans experiences.”

Rosario Rosales ’25, a chair of the Queer History Celebration Board, said that she was excited for this year’s lineup of events.

“This upcoming month, we have quite the schedule… I am glad I am able to take part in making [Queer History Month] happen now,” she said.

According to Sonia Meytin ’26, cochair of the Trans Week of Visibility

Board, both committees considered which events would have the most impact on campus, and how to increase participation.

According to the Queer History Celebration board and Trans Week of Visibility lineup, Queer History Month kicked off on Sept. 24 with a picnic at Triangle House. On Oct. 6, the celebration, along with the LatinX and Caribbean History Celebration Committee, is hosting a portrait session and gallery tour of “Femme is Fierce: Femme Queer Gender Performance in Photography,” an exhibition at the Hood Museum of Art.

The exhibit will celebrate “[the] feminine figure across all genders, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities and time,” Rosales said.

Other events include a queer and BIPOC mixer that will take place this weekend at Collis Common Ground and a National Coming Out Day concert on Oct. 15. The rest of the month will feature different celebrations recognizing the history of queer people in the Dartmouth community, as well as the greater Upper Valley, according to OPAL’s

Alumni organize third annual Omundi Obura Peak Bag fundraiser

BY EMILIA WILLIAMS The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on Oct. 4, 2022.

The third Omundi Obura Peak Bag will take place on Oct. 9 to raise money for the Omondi Obura Fund for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and bring greater attention to mental health at the College.

Organized by alumni from the Class of 1988 lightweight rowing team, the event honors fellow crew member Omondi Obura ’88, who died by suicide before he could complete his degree.

The event centers on “peak bagging” — a term whose meaning originates in the concept of getting something “in the bag,” such as when one summits a mountain, according to Steve Hochman ’88, one of the event’s organizers and a rowing teammate of Obura. For the event, participants are encouraged to partake in some kind of physical activity, be it climbing a mountain or walking on the beach to fundraise. Although the fundraiser is based on outdoor exercise, its main focus is to normalize the conversation around mental health while also raising money for the the Omondi Obura Fund for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Kate Domin ’19 said, who participated in the event last year.

“It’s not about hiking,” Domin said. “It’s about spending time in nature, connecting with your community, thinking about your own mental health and the mental health of your community and the people that you care about.”

The event emerged “organically” during the pandemic when members of the Class of 1988 sought out connection during group Zoom calls in the summer of 2020, Hochman said. He added that he and his teammates decided to “bag peaks” that fall, but also wanted to do “something symbolic” for Obura. He added that although the “peak baggers” who participated in the event initially did so to honor Obura’s memory and develop a sense of community, by the second year of the event, it grew to also support mental health transparency on Dartmouth’s campus.

“[Community is] one of the things that helps most in putting people back on keel to the extent that they’re struggling,” Hochman said. “It’s not a single solution, but it’s a key factor. So we think [the event is] the right type of activity because it connects people.”

Since its frst iteration in 2020, the number of peak baggers has grown from 55 in 2020 to about 150 in 2021, Hochman said. According to Domin, peak bagging for the fundraiser is accessible and inclusive to all: Participating does not need to be physically challenging. In 2021, participants’ engagement occurred on all seven continents and ranged from climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro to hiking Observation Hill

in Antarctica, raising $250,000 overall, Hochman said.

Despite the fact that the Omondi Obura Peak Bag started with a small group of alumni, the event invites anyone and everyone to participate. According to Hochman, there are no prerequisites, restrictions on age, class year or previous time spent outdoors, or a requirement of any afliation to Dartmouth to participate in the event.

“Something that’s important, to me, at least is [that the event is] really accessible and inclusive. The ‘peak bag’ term is borrowed from DOC language of ‘summiting a peak,’ but the way that we use it is like anything can be your peak,” Domin said. “Last year, I was in suburban Massachusetts, and my peak was taking a walk around my grandparents’ neighborhood.”

Domin said that the event is primarily about connecting with those around you and refecting on your own mental health and the mental health of your community on a larger scale. In addition, she noted the importance of the “tangible” act of raising funds for mental health and suicide prevention on campus, something that she said she noticed was necessary during her time at Dartmouth.

“I think a lot of young people struggle with issues of mental health. Some are aware of the resources that they have available to them, some [aren’t],” Domin said. “Dartmouth is a really rigorous place … [the College has] to be prepared to support students who are going through really difcult transitions from, you know, places that are really far from Dartmouth … as well as the academic transition and social transition.”

The Omondi Obura Fund for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, established by coordinators of the Omondi Obura Peak Bag and the College’s development ofce, works in connection with the Dartmouth Cares Initiative to “fll the gaps” in mental health support on campus, according to Domin. The fund attempts to reduce the stigma associated with mental health by promoting inclusivity, training community members to recognize and help students at risk and providing educational programs and materials about suicide prevention.

Gannon Forsberg ’25, who has helped the event organizers with outreach to current students this year, said that they are looking into creating events for students on campus to foster the community that is necessary for supporting mental health on campus. The Dartmouth Outing Club will be organizing a hike to Mount Washington on Oct. 9 — which will also honor Sam Gawel ’23, who died by suicide on Sept. 21.

“[The event organizers] want the students at Dartmouth to know that there’s this whole group of people, this whole generation of graduates that care about them,” he said.

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College tests four geothermal wells in e ort to cut fossil fuel emissions

Political Economy Project hosts talk about modern relevance of Adam Smith

BY CATHERINE CHU The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on Oct. 6, 2022.

In an effort to meet College President Phil Hanlon’s 2017 goal of reducing campus-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2025 last month, the College began testing four locations for potential geothermal wells. The drilling team has already tested two geothermal wells — one between Maynard parking lot and Kellogg Hall and another northeast of Scully-Fahey field — and is currently drilling in the Thompson parking lot before moving on to drilling in the northwest corner of the Dewey parking lot.

Geothermal energy is key to emission reduction, according to sustainability director Rosalie Kerr, who added that Dartmouth has traditionally burned No. 6 fuel oil — a classification of the type of oil burned — at a central power plant. The steam released from this fuel source is both environmentally unfriendly and inefficient, she said.

“For the last 100 years or so, we have heated our buildings by burning No.6 fuel oil, which has negative climate impacts for a variety of reasons,” Kerr said. “One is that steam is thermally unstable so it’s difficult to have it function at maximum possible efficiency as you move it around campus.”

The identification of a sufficient geothermal well could lead to the creation of a geothermal well field that can provide renewable energy to campus buildings. A geothermal well system relies upon the heat transfer between the different thermal energies of the relatively constant subsurface temperature of the Earth and campus buildings to heat or cool buildings based on the temperature difference with above ground temperatures. In the winter, for example, the thermal energy contained in the ground, which is relatively warmer than the thermal energy above ground, can be transferred to buildings to heat them. A similar process in the summer uses

the relatively cooler thermal energy from the ground to cool buildings.

According to associate vice president of facilities operations and management Frank Roberts, the drilling tests are collecting data from the drill sites to determine the energy potential each geothermal well has. As opposed to oil, which can be burned anywhere, the energy potential of a geothermal well is largely dependent on the nature of its subsurface composition.

According to Kerr, subsurface substrates — which the drilling team collects from thermal imaging or sensing equipment — have different energy capacities and therefore different abilities to provide heating or cooling. Consequently, some drilling locations can conduct heat more easily than others. Drilling on different sites will reveal which subsurfaces will allow for the greatest extraction of geothermal heat from the drill holes, Roberts said.

“We need to know the information about the potential capacity before we invest in geothermal [energy],” Roberts said.

According to Roberts, geothermal energy allows for heat transfer technologies to operate at a lower temperature, which allows for less energy that was created to be lost, creating greater “flexibility” in the College’s energy systems. By using the hot water in geothermal wells instead of steam from burned oil, the College can improve energy distribution by 20% across campus, Roberts said.

Although energy reform has been a focus for the College since the 1990s, according to Roberts, the first test for potential geothermal wells on campus occurred in 2019 on the Green, which showed that the land under the Green could be used for geothermal heating and cooling.

“We have achieved 27% carbon emission reduction since 2010, mostly done through increasing energy efficiency,” Roberts said. “Many old buildings on campus use steam and it’s an aging technology which makes us question whether we want to reinvest in older technology or try something

[new] like geothermal.”

Jhujhar Sarna Th ’23 said that he believes transitioning to geothermal energy now is a step in the right direction.

“I think geothermal is a good sustainable solution for producing energy,” he said. “If Dartmouth is able to find a way to utilize geothermal [energy], it would definitely work toward our renewable energy coals and decrease carbon emissions. I think [the transition] is something that would make all the young engineers and energy enthusiasts excited.”

Beyond purely decreasing emissions, the geothermal test wells on campus also aim to increase options in the energy system on campus, according to Roberts. Kerr also said that she believes that the current flexibility — although expensive — will be worthwhile.

“Transitioning is a significant cost and Dartmouth’s energy is likely to be one of our largest financial commitments as we go forward,” she said. “But I believe that what you get is a resilient and flexible energy system that will last long into the future.”

Besides geothermal energy, Dartmouth has implemented other methods of transitioning away from burning fossil fuels on campus in specific buildings, Roberts added.

“We have systems in our chemistry buildings where we capture heat that’s being exhausted through water mediums,” Roberts said. “The new [Center for Engineering and Computer Science] building is operating on hot water and not steam … In the future, we want to produce energy through geothermal, though it will be a phased project.”

Kerr added that a large proportion of student residences pose a challenge for producing green energy, but she said she remains optimistic nonetheless. She also said that Dartmouth’s transition is indicative to the rest of the world that a sustainable energy transition is possible.

“Dartmouth is a microcosm of everywhere around the world and I think we have an incredible opportunity to think about our energy system and how we want to operate

Teletherapy service Uwill to provide free mental health counseling

FROM TELETHERAPY PAGE 1 time, according to London. Alternatively, Uhelp offers students access to 24-hour crisis support that connects them directly to a therapist trained in trauma, according to London. Whereas other crisis connections have an automated telephone system or other automated technology, London said that Uwill has “eliminated all friction associated with [intakers and phone trees].” He added that if a student uses Uhelp, a Uwill employee will follow up with them to ask them to consider receiving therapy from Uwill.

The DSG has been discussing the implementation of teletherapy since the fall term of 2021, according to Millman and Chiriboga. They explained that former Student Assembly president Jennifer Qian ’22 and vice president Maggie Johnston ’22 initiated the process of searching for a teletherapy service. From there, the DSG collaborated with the Dartmouth Mental Health Union and director of Dartmouth Counseling Heather Earle

to facilitate discussions around the logistics of implementing teletherapy services. In these meetings, they navigated through requirements such as speaking to College President Phil Hanlon, Provost David Kotz, and interim Dean of the CollegeScott Brown, according to Millman.

“I think it is really important to see here that student advocacy can work,” Millman said. “This was completely a student project, directed by demonstrated student need.”

During the process of advocating for teletherapy services, Chiriboga explained that the DSG had to decide which service would best accommodate students’ needs at the College.

“We looked at TimelyMD. We looked at Uwill, and we looked at some other options and tried to determine what works best for us,” Chiriboga said. “We decided upon choosing Uwill because it was the best. It offered 24/7 teletherapy at no cost, and it was unlimited.”

While Dartmouth will adopt Uwill’s services beginning on Nov. 1, Millman said that there is still room for student

feedback.

“We will be consistently evaluating the program. We don’t want this to be something that students aren’t having a good experience with,” Millman said. “We’re going to be very active in trying to hear from students,if they’re comfortable sharing about their experiences while using Uwill.”

Millman said that students who would like to share their experiences and feedback with Uwill can do so directly with the Dartmouth Student Government or the Counseling Center.

Chiriboga said that the implementation of Uwill does not intend to be used as the sole resource available to address students’ mental health needs.

“I can never — as a friend, as a classmate, as a peer, ever provide, or recommend — one solution, because one resource is not going to work for everybody,” Chiriboga said. “I encourage students to show kindness and to speak with their friends and their loved ones about different options that might be right for them.”

BY VARUN SWAMINATHAN The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on Oct. 4, 2022.

On Friday, Sept. 30, the Political Economy Project hosted a talk titled “Why Read Adam Smith Today,” led by Trinity University economics professor Maria Paganelli. Paganelli addressed about 50 students and community members about the importance of reading Adam Smith’s 1776 treatise “The Wealth of Nations.” In the talk the frst in a series of events hosted by the PEP this fall — Paganelli discussed the historical context of “The Wealth of Nations,” modern ideological opinions on Smith and the “big questions” posed by the work that still remain relevant today. Her prepared presentation was followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

Prior to the talk, professor Henry Clark — who serves as program director of the PEP — said in an interview that he hoped students would engage with the speaker, calling her a “great believer” in the Socratic approach to teaching, which involves teaching through asking questions.

Paganelli opened the talk with reasons why “The Wealth of Nations” is somewhat outdated. Mainly, she noted that Smith’s policy examples focus on a now greatly diminished British Empire, further noting that many of his economic theories have been disproven. She then made a comparison between “The Wealth of Nations” and the Bible, asserting, “you may not agree with all the contents . . . and yet you read because you fnd something useful, even if some of the ideas are of for today’s standards.”

Despite calling some of its contents outdated, Paganelli argued that readers should turn to “The Wealth of Nations” “because of the questions, not the answers,” which the work poses. According to Paganelli, the original title of the work is actually “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” with the operating word being “inquiry.” And this core inquiry, Paganelli explained, is how to build an ideal economic system.

“How would a just system which is also promoting the wellbeing of humankind look given the imperfect and non-perfectible nature of humankind?” Paganelli said.

Toward the end of her talk, Paganelli

drew attention to the “silent revolution of commerce” — a phenomenon Smith described in which trade and manufacturing leads to order, good government, liberty and security.

A Q&A session followed Paganelli’s talk. In response to a question about the concept of the “silent revolution,” Paganelli responded that commerce peacefully replaced the feudal system and the Church, explaining that no army could have removed either institution without bloodshed.

In response to a student question about the connection between Smith’s writings and modern foreign aid and imperialism in Africa, Paganelli noted that the historical context in which Smith wrote this work was radically diferent from today’s. “Foreign aid aptitude was diferent in this time, because it was not something that was conceivable,” she said. “The closest thing that you can get is ‘how do I relate to other countries that are under my control’... in both situations, [Smith’s] answer would be trade.”

Clark said in an interview that many “converging streams” led to Paganelli’s selection as the frst speaker of this academic year. He said that she was initially invited to speak at Dartmouth in April of 2020, but this visit was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her talk was rescheduled to this September to serve as a kickof to the PEP’s year-long schedule of activities revolving around Smith due to his upcoming tercentenary — the 300th anniversary of his birth — in June of 2023.

Arne Grette ’25, a member of the PEP leadership council, said that his class and interest in international trade motivated him to attend Paganelli’s talk. Despite being centuries old, modern international trade theory “still comes down to what Adam Smith was writing back in the 18th century,” Grette said.

In June of 2023, a number of Dartmouth students, faculty and non-Dartmouth faculty will travel to the University of Glasgow for a series of events on Smith’s work, according to Clark. Paganelli, who also serves as current president of the International Adam Smith Society, will be among the non-Dartmouth faculty.

The next PEP talk, a lecture on labor history by Clark titled “Workers as Traders: What Every Student Should Know About Labor History,” will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 5 p.m. in the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy.

Oct. events to celebrate LGBTQ+ history

website.

FROM QHM PAGE 1

Meytin said that recognizing the significance of diversity within the community will be an important theme this month.

“When I was looking at all the admissions materials, there wasn’t very much trans representation in what I was seeing,” Meytin said. “So I just want to show students that we’re here.”

According to an email statement from Angelique Bouthot, program coordinator of community and leadership development in OPAL, Dartmouth has been celebrating Queer History Month since 2016 and has been hosting similar events for even longer. This year, the theme of Queer History Month is “Always Been Here and Queer.”

“While recognizing and celebrating Queer History is becoming more popular, we’re not new,” Bouthot wrote. “We’re actively making history now and we have been making an impact for a long time. We’re just gaining the critical momentum for more people to be paying attention.”

Bouthot also wrote that QHC aims to educate and uplift Dartmouth community members past and present,

and remind the Dartmouth community of the history of queer people both within and outside the College. For example, there will be a discussion on Queer History in the Upper Valley, to TED talks delivered by Dartmouth LGBTQ+ Alumni, according to OPAL’s website.

“My basic hopes include that folks have fun and that they learn something,” Bouthot wrote. “Something about themselves, our history, a new skill, or a new connection with someone on campus.”

QHC and Trans Week of Visibility are important because they celebrate not just local queer expression, but also the ability to celebrate identities nationally and globally, Bouthot added. She wrote that “Always Been Here and Queer” serves as a reminder that queer people have always been and will always be an integral part of the Dartmouth community.

Rosales said celebrating Queer History Month and TWOV means to “give queerness a home here.”

“It does not matter if you identify as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community or not, queerness is something that can contribute something beautiful for us all,” Rosales said.

HANNAH LI/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Approximately 50 students and community members gathered to hear Trinity University economics professor Maria Paganelli’s lecture on Smith’s work “The Wealth of Natons.”

Geothermal energy is viewed by the College as a crucial part of a campus-wide transiton to green energy.

Verbum Ultimum: Fall Back — to Winter Term

Dartmouth’s “Greek Life Social Responsibility and First Year Student Policy” — more commonly known as the “frat ban” — is regularly in efect for the majority of the fall term. The policy, which was implemented in 2013 at the request of student leaders in Greek life, is meant to promote safety and community and decrease risks among frstyear students as they transition into the College’s social scene. The frat ban forbids frst-year students from attending events at Greek houses where alcohol is served until “noon on the Monday after Homecoming weekend, or the seventh Monday of the term, whichever is later,” according to the Greek Life website. It also hands out lofty punishments to students and Greek organizations where infractions occur — including preventing individuals from joining a Greek organization until after their sophomore year. According to an email sent to students on Friday, Sep. 16, this year’s frat ban will end on Monday, Oct. 31.

This Editorial Board unanimously supports the frat ban and the spirit behind it. That said, we also agree on something else: The Frat Ban ends too early, and the College must extend it to truly achieve the goals behind the policy.

The frat ban aims to promote safety and reduce risks among frst-year students, and with good reason: Dartmouth research from 2017 shows that 34.1% of undergraduate females had experienced nonconsensual physical touching or penetration since entering college, and a 2015 national study fnding that 15% of college women reported being raped in their frst year. What’s more, a report by the National Institute of Justice found that one in fve women report experiencing an instance of sexual violence at some point throughout their college careers. Concerningly, the same report found that most sexual violence incidents occur where alcohol or other drugs are involved.

In limiting access to the locations on our campus where drugs and alcohol are used most frequently, the frat ban — in theory — helps mitigate these risks by moving the locus of frst-year social life out of Greek houses. Sure, many frst-years simply end up partying in dorms instead, but these parties usually happen with other members of their class, removing the power imbalance that seniors possess over frst-year students who are unfamiliar in these spaces. What’s more, dorms are equipped with undergraduate advisers who can provide support and access to resources if and when risky behaviors are present. Moving students’ early formative social experiences out of Greek spaces and into dorms means that they may be more likely to have positive experiences and form healthier habits. This is particularly relevant when Greek spaces pose heightened dangers, as a 2014 study found that “males who joined a fraternity increased their high-risk alcohol use and this in turn increasedtheir likelihood of engaging in sexual aggression.” Thus, it makes sense that the current frat ban ends after Homecoming — as frst-year students should not be exposed to the high-risk behaviors and hazardous environments of upperclassmen, alumni and visiting guests created by the frst big party weekend of the academic year.

This tends to mean that the frst big “party weekend” for frst-year students revolves around Halloween. By the time the frat ban ends, students are often itching for their time to shine in Greek houses, and the spooky parties surrounding Halloween make it seem like the perfect time to do so. But is it really?

Members of this Editorial Board shared that the social scene during Halloween — in which festivities in recent memory have been known to start on a Wednesday and continue through Saturday or even Sunday — is one of the most overwhelming weekends of the entire school year. Coupled with disguises and

costumes, Halloween can be a time when people can hide behind another identity, ofering an excuse for risky behavior.

Not only is Halloween always a time of concern on campus, but this year the holiday caps of Homecoming weekend, a time when many alumni converge onto campus and relive their social roots in Greek spaces. While normally the frat ban allows these two big weekends to be celebrated separately, this year they are molded into one — increasing the likelihood of hazardous activities and violating the spirit of the frat ban itself.

Ending the frat ban during fall term also presents unique safety and logistical challenges for Greek houses themselves. Fraternity rush and sorority recruitment end sometime in early- to mid-October, just a couple weeks before the frat ban ends. That leaves little time for new members to get acclimated to the culture of the houses they now have power over or ownership in or to learn the safety roles they are expected to hold as new members — including important jobs such as door duty and risk monitor.

Limiting entry into Greek houses to older students — who are more likely to know their limits with alcohol and have had plenty of time to get acquainted with safety practices — makes life easier for Greek chapters and promotes safer social spaces.

For these reasons, the frat ban should extend to the entire fall term, ending on the frst day of winter classes. This would allow the frat ban to have the same benefts it already has in terms of safety, while ensuring that progress is not lost by its premature end — and gives Greek houses more time to onboard new members in a less stressful environment.

That said, we do recognize that this year’s date for the end of the frat ban has already been announced. Therefore, we instead ask for something simpler for this year’s ban: extend it by just 24 hours.

Combining both Homecoming weekend and Halloween with the end of the frat ban — as is currently the plan — is a recipe for disaster. Given the intense parties that will happen on campus during Halloween, it is also possible that alumni will stick around to enjoy Halloween on-campus. What’s more, rush was delayed by one week in most houses, giving new members less time to become acclimated to the culture of Greek life and safety practices. By allowing the frat ban to lapse at noon on Halloween, frst-year students will be exposed to an incredibly dangerous environment as they enter alcohol-flled Greek spaces for the frst time. Delaying the end of the frat ban by 24 hours to noon on Nov. 1 will decrease risks and increase students’ capacity to promote safety.

We recognize that extending the frat ban will feel like pouring salt in a wound for many members of the Class of 2026. We apologize if this editorial feels paternalistic or condescending. But, safety is not an individual enterprise. It is a collective responsibility, and one person’s safety — or lack thereof — afects each and every member of the Dartmouth community. Many of us have benefted from the tight bonds that Greek life can help procure, even for new members, but we have also seen Greek life at its worst. For that, we recognize the need to extend the frat ban this year and beyond, and we hope ’26s get a sense of where we are coming from.

Dartmouth has the important responsibility of providing safeguards to protect its students. Allowing the frat ban to end in the midst of a particularly dangerous time on campus is nothing less than the College shirking this responsibility. For the safety of everyone — most especially the ’26s — Dartmouth must extend the frat ban, both this year and for years to come.

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

Farquharson: Maintaining a Diverse Dartmouth

This column was originally published on Oct. 6, 2022.

On Oct. 31, the Supreme Court is slated to hear two groundbreaking cases concerning the practice of race-conscious admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Students For Fair Admissions, the organization challenging both universities, claims that afrmative action policies are discriminatory against Asian American students and are inconsistent with federal law. In its 1978 University of California v. Bakke decision, SCOTUS ruled in favor of afrmative action as one factor in admissions decision making. This set the precedent that raceconscious admissions aimed at improving diversity does not infringe upon equal protection under the law insofar as no racial quotas are used. However, today’s SCOTUS, with a 6-3 conservative majority, is arguably the most conservative in over a century and could endeavor to overturn liberal policies and past decisions, doubtlessly afecting afrmative action.

If SCOTUS does indeed overturn Bakke and prohibit afrmative action, Dartmouth’s mission to give outstanding students a chance to join its intellectual community — regardless of race — would be in peril. These cases come at a time of great progress for diversity at the College: We have recently seen the shift to need-blind admissions for international applicants and new hiring initiatives to increase the racial diversity of the faculty. Thus, if race-conscious admissions were declared unconstitutional, diversity at Dartmouth would face a severe setback. The College must strive to uphold race-conscious admissions due to its history of discrimination and racism towards historically marginalized individuals.

It is no secret that Dartmouth was founded on land stolen from the Abenaki people with the goal of proselytizing to Indigenous people. And yet, until the 1970s, the College graduated few Indigenous students and made little to no efort to recruit them. In 1921, Dartmouth implemented an admissions process of “proportionate selection” which was largely aimed at limiting the number of Jewish applicants admitted; College President Ernest Hopkins stated that Jewish applicants faced discrimination in admissions so that Dartmouth would not be “overrun racially.” Similarly, in 1922, Dartmouth became the frst institution to practice legacy admissions, the goal of which was to keep out non-Protestant minorities such as Jews and immigrants from Eastern Europe.

The unfortunate history of race throughout Dartmouth’s frst two centuries should impel the College to commit itself to fostering an inclusive and diverse community on campus. On the whole, over the past few decades, Dartmouth has made outstanding progress.

President John Kemeny established the Native American Program and promoted recruitment of Indigenous students in the 1970s, when Dartmouth also committed itself to admitting more Black students, including Black youth from under-resourced urban communities.

But the looming threat of conservative rulings in favor of SFFA would reverse over 50 years of success in diversifying Dartmouth’s community through race-conscious admissions. The reverberations of afrmative action bans on the student body diversity at other universities have been detrimental. At UCLA, for example, the percentage of Black and Hispanic freshmen decreased by approximately half between 1995 and 1998 — from 7.13% to 3.43% for Black students and from 22% to 11% for Hispanic ones —

following California’s prohibition on afrmative action in 1996. At the University of Michigan, Black students made up 4% of undergraduates in 2021 as opposed to 7% in 2006, when afrmative action was banned in that state. Indigenous enrollment at Michigan fell from 1% to just 0.11%. Judging by the state of diversity at these schools, it is almost certain that Dartmouth and its peers would face a similar situation if afrmative action is outlawed.

While the SFFA may illustrate its mission as ensuring the complete fairness of college admissions through the elimination of all racial preferences — outwardly a benign cause — what it fails to realize is that systemic racism worsens opportunities for marginalized communities. Black, Hispanic and Indigenous students are much less likely than their white counterparts to have access to smaller schools with smaller class sizes, more expansive and advanced curricula or highlyqualifed teachers, all of which are vital to success in the classroom. White students are also unfairly advantaged in standardized testing. Minority students generally have lower incomes, face higher crime rates, attend more under-resourced schools and may not speak English as their frst language, resulting in lower average scores. Conversely, white students more often have collegeeducated parents and can better aford test-preparation resources, resulting in higher average scores. From this dichotomy it is clear that holding all students, regardless of race, to the same academic standards is highly unfair.

To say that afrmative action is itself discriminatory is to refuse to consider unavoidable obstacles in certain students’ educational paths.

We must also recognize the importance of diversity to the College’s robust intellectual community. A hallmark of a Dartmouth education should be the chance for students of diferent racial and socioeconomic backgrounds to exchange ideas and insights with each other. A racially and economically homogeneous community would eliminate such diverse perspectives.

The College must stand frm in its support for race-conscious admissions. As an increasingly probable SCOTUS ruling against affirmative action draws near, it must augment its outreach to underrepresented minorities and communities to maintain campus diversity and prevent the situation already seen at institutions like the UCs. If Dartmouth must relinquish afrmative action, potentially discouraging minority students from applying, expanding outreach to these communities will be critical to incentivizing a steady number of minority students to apply to Dartmouth and other highly selective schools. This might include fy-in programs specifcally for minority communities and more admissions visits to predominantly minority schools. Additionally, an expansion of Dartmouth’s fnancial aid program could draw more students from marginalized communities to apply. The wealth gap afecting marginalized groups makes an expansive fnancial aid program important for their confdence in attending and thriving at Dartmouth.

The College may consider what the University of Michigan has done — expanding its recruitment eforts in predominantly Black city of Detroit as well as its fnancial aid program. While these programs did not prevent a decline in overall campus diversity, they certainly mitigate the efects of the afrmative action ban. For the sake of racial diversity and equality of opportunity, and for the sake of fxing the wrongs of Dartmouth’s past, afrmative action and other diversity initiatives must be here to stay.

Another Day, Another Dahmer: Insights on e True Crime Craze

BY RYAN KIM

Dartmouth

This article was originally published on Oct. 3, 2022.

Helmed by “American Horror Story” creator Ryan Murphy, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” released Sept. 2022, is far from the first form of entertainment centered around serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. From movies like “Dahmer” (2002) and “My Friend Dahmer” (2017) to documentaries like “The Jeffrey Dahmer Files” (2012), there has certainly been no shortage of content surrounding the “Milwaukee Monster” for the public to consume.

In fact, Netflix is releasing yet another true crime series about Jeffery Dahmer, titled “Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes,” on Oct. 7.

“Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” stars Evan Peters as the titular killer and chronicles his murders from 1978 all the way up to his eventual arrest in 1991. The series not only delves into the societal impact of Dahmer’s grisly murders, but also addresses the institutional failures and racial prejudices of the police system which allowed Dahmer to kill 17 young men — the majority of whom were Black and Brown.

Unlike its predecessors, this show attempted to portray the stories of the victims as well as the emotional turmoil endured by Dahmer’s parents as a result of their son’s infamy.

In an interview leading up to the series’ release, Peters reiterated the importance of drawing attention to the victims and their families.

“It was so jaw-dropping that it all really happened that it felt important to be respectful to the victims — to the victims’ families — to try to tell the story as authentically as we could,” Peters said. And, you know, you need to have certain plot points because he did do these things, but you don’t need to embellish them.”

However, many have criticized “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” for forcing the victims’ families to relive their traumatic experiences in yet another piece of entertainment

media about the murders. One critic review on Rotten Tomatoes calls the series “salacious,” “exploitative” and “self-aware of the peril in glorifying Jeffrey Dahmer.” Another labels it as a “familiar fetishizing of the serialkiller figure.”

The victims’ families have also spoken out about the show. In an interview with Insider, Rita Isbell, the sister of 19-year-old victim Errol Lindsey, spoke out about her inclusion in the show’s climactic court scene.

“When I saw some of the show, it bothered me, especially when I saw myself — when I saw my name come across the screen and this lady saying verbatim exactly what I said,” Lindsey said.

Eric Perry, who is both Lindsey and Isbell’s cousin, also took to Twitter to express his discomforts regarding the series: “I’m not telling anyone what to watch. I know true crime media is huge [right now], but if you’re actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbell’s) are pissed about this show. It’s retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?” Perry wrote.

Perry’s last point is especially notable considering the oversaturation of serial killer content in today’s entertainment industry. IMDb lists 454 movies and series that feature or are centered around serial killers since 2000. In the past three years alone, IMDb lists 135 new films under this category.

Furthermore, the film industry has a noticeable tendency to capitalize on the same killers, such as Ted Bundy and the Zodiac killer, in addition to Dahmer. David Fincher’s “Zodiac” (2007) follows the investigation of the Zodiac killer, whose mysterious identity and idiosyncratic methods of murder served as inspiration for the antagonists of “The Batman” (2022) and Fincher’s own “Se7en” (1995). Bundy has been portrayed in films such as “The Deliberate Stranger” (1998), “The Riverman” (2004), “Extremely Wicked; Shockingly Evil and Vile” (2019) and most recently “No Man of God” (2021).

“Extremely Wicked; Shockingly Evil and Vile” became the center of

intense Internet controversy upon its release, earning $9.8 million globally and becoming by far the most successful film surrounding Ted Bundy’s murders. Described as a “glassy-eyed biopic of the satanic dreamboat” by The Guardian, “Extremely Wicked” puts Bundy’s “grotesque vanity” on display. This is in contrast to “No Man of God,” which is based on real transcripts and focuses more on FBI agent Bill Hagmaier than Bundy himself. Though critics audience members alike appreciated its careful maneuvering around unintentionally glorifying the “Lady Killer,” “No Man of God” earned a measly $215,876 at the global box office — suggesting that audiences do not truly desire serial killer films that pay less attention to the killers themselves.

Such a disparity in reception could be attributed to a multitude of other factors besides Bundy’s portrayal: “Extremely Wicked” starred a far more notable cast than “No Man of God” — with the likes of Zac Efron, Haley Joel Osmant, John Malkovich and Jim Parsons working under oscarnominated director, Joe Berlinger. “No

Man of God,” on the other hand, was directed by Amber Sealy, who has worked on much smaller films. Lastly, “Extremely Wicked” was eventually picked up by Netflix while “No Man of God” went to relatively obscure streaming services such as Sling TV.

Even so, there is clearly a draw to “Extremely Wicked” which mirrors that of “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” Since it aired less than two weeks ago, the show has earned a staggering 196.2 million hours of viewership and is currently the number one series on Netflix. To put this into perspective, the number two show on the platform sits at a remarkably lower 62 million hours.

Still, some viewers feel that the portrayal of Dahmer is dulled down.

One review for “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” says, “Honestly the series doesn’t show the full horror of what he did and it makes him look better than he was.” Another read, “I wished it to be more horrifying and graphic but I guess Netflix isn’t there yet.”

If there is such a persistently enormous market for such content, what stops filmmakers and production

NINA SLOAN ’24: WHAT’S THE RUSH?

companies from creating movies that unabashedly depict violence and trauma? Furthermore, do the explicit and subliminal messages of these films — regarding the justice system, mental health and sexual violence — justify the need to “retraumatize” victims and their families?

In the same interview with Insider, Isbell criticized Netflix’s approach to victim compensation and permission, emphasizing her lack of involvement in the Netflix original’s development.

“They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it… I could even understand it if they gave some of the money to the victims’ children,” she said. “… If the show benefited them in some way, it wouldn’t feel so harsh and careless.”

Somehow it is this carelessness which has earned “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” an 85% average audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, number four spot on IMDb’s trending movies list, and almost certainly a few nominations come awards season. Regardless of the questionable ethics which surround this trend, it seems that the serial killer craze will not be cooling down any time soon.

LUCY HANDY/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Criticisms surrounding “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” offer new insights into the ever-growing popularity of true crime serial killer dramas.

SPORTS The Look Ahead: Week 5

BY CAROLINE YORK The Dartmouth Staff

Friday, Oct. 7

Men’s tennis will compete at the United States Military Academy West Point in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals Friday through Monday. The Big Green recently competed at the Penn Invitational and notched wins against Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania and the College of William and Mary.

On Friday, women’s volleyball will look to improve on its already strong record against Brown University (6-6) at home in Leede Arena. The team is 10-3 overall and 2-1 in Ivy League play.

Saturday, Oct. 8

Men’s hockey will kick off its 20222023 season at home against McGill University on Saturday night. The team is looking to improve their record from last year, where they finished 7-22-3 overall and 5-15-2 in Eastern College Athletic Conference play.

Women’s volleyball faces off against a very strong Yale University team (11-1), one of its toughest tests of the season to date.

Following a 0-2 loss at Princeton University (7-4), women’s soccer (5-41) will compete against Yale University (4-5-1) at Burnham Field on Saturday.

Last year, the Big Green bested the Bulldogs 2-1 and will look to Danielle Burke ’25 — who scored the lone goal for Dartmouth in its previous game against Brown — to continue a strong season.

On Saturday, men’s soccer (23-3) will play at the University of

Pennsylvania (6-1-1), and on Tuesday the team will play Hartford College (0-10) on Burnham Field. Dartmouth is currently 0-1 in Ivy League play, with a 1-0 loss to Princeton. Last week, Dartmouth’s game against Holy Cross ended in a tie, with Dylan Buchanan ’25 achieving his first college shutout as goalkeeper.

After a win against Army West Point last Saturday, women’s rugby will seek to add to its undefeated 3-0 record on the road at Mount St. Mary’s University (0-3) in Maryland. Anjali Pant ’24 had a dominant performance last Saturday with two successful tries.

After a devastating loss to the University of Pennsylvania (3-0) last week in overtime, football (1-2) will be playing at Yale University (2-1) at noon on Saturday. After winning the Ivy League Championship in the 2021 season, Dartmouth has sputtered out of the gate but is looking to right the ship against Yale. Right now, the Big Green is 1-2 overall and 0-1 in conference play.

Sailing will travel to St. Mary’s College to compete in the Open Atlantic Coast Championship and is seeking the Stu Nelson Trophy, among other awards, to conclude the fall season. The team will be competing in four regattas against Connecticut College, Bowdoin College, Salve Regina University and St. Mary’s on Saturday and Sunday. The Big Green recently won the “A” division at the George Warren Smith Trophy event last weekend.

Field hockey will travel to New Jersey to compete against No. 8 Princeton University (8-4). The team is 3-7 and 0-2 in Ivy League play. Princeton bested Dartmouth in last year’s matchup with a 6-0 win and is

30-8-2 against Dartmouth all-time.

Women’s cross country is headed to Franklin Park in Boston to compete in the New England Championship. Last Friday, the Big Green competed at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University and finished 15th, with Corinne Robitaille ’23 finishing first for Dartmouth in 30th place overall.

Men’s cross country will compete in the New England Championship on Saturday afternoon. The Big Green will rely on last week’s top scorer at the Paul Short Invitational, Will Daley ’24, who finished 23rd overall with a time of 23:27.2.

Sunday, Oct. 9

On Sunday afternoon, women’s hockey will play in Thompson Arena against McGill in an opening exhibition before the start of the season. The last time the teams competed was 2009, when Dartmouth came out on top 1-0. The Big Green went 9-19-1 overall last year and 3-18-1 in ECAC play.

Monday, Oct. 10

Over Monday and Tuesday, men’s golf is traveling to Sonoma, California to compete in the Alister Mackenzie Invite, hosted by the University of

California, Berkeley. The team will look to Eli Kimche ’25, who finished third out of 60 golfers at the Columbia Autumn Invitational Oct. 1 and 2. The Big Green finished third out of 10 at the invitational on Sept. 24 and 25.

Women’s golf will be competing at the ACC vs Ivy Challenge in Springfield, New Jersey on Monday and Tuesday. The team recently played in the Princeton Invitational on Sept. 24 and 25 and earned a sixth place finish, ahead of Ivy League competitor Columbia University.

Women’s soccer plays its second game of the weekend with a match against Merrimack College (6-5-3).

Football loses heartbreaker to Penn in Ivy League opener

BY Will Dehmel The Dartmouth

For the frst time since 2017, Dartmouth football has lost two consecutive games, this time against the University of Pennsylvania in a double overtime thriller. This comes on the heels of last week’s overtime loss to Sacred Heart University. The game, televised on ESPNU on Friday, saw both teams stumble into overtime at 10 points apiece, but the Quakers eventually got the best of the Big Green and closed it out at 23-17.

Penn opened the contest with a commanding frst drive, running 14

plays over 7:45 and eventually fnding the endzone on a three-yard rushing touchdown.

Despite a strong frst play, Dartmouth was unable to respond on its frst ofensive drive. Running back Zack Bair ’22 immediately got Dartmouth into Penn territory with a speedy 29yard rush down the middle – the Big Green’s longest play of the day – but Dartmouth was forced to punt on its next set of downs.

“We didn’t convert when we needed to,” head coach Buddy Teevens ’79 said.“Flashes of productivity, but not really any consistency. We run the football – that’s about all we’re doing.”

Teevens added that the team needed to “broaden [it’s] ofense.”Teevens said

he was proud of his defense, though, commending their ability to put the frst drive behind them. The defense “woke up” after that frst touchdown, linebacker Joe Hefernan ’22 said, “and executed the game plan.”

It was after a few more defenseheavy drives that the Big Green ofense started to string some positive plays together. Starting at its own 25-yard line, Dartmouth moved deliberately, converting three first downs and advancing into Penn territory before taking its frst timeout to pause the game with 0:47 remaining in the half. Upon exiting the huddle, quarterback Nick Howard ‘23 found Jamal Cooney ’23 for a 13-yard reception and ran it himself for nine more yards to set up

a Ryan Bloch ’23 feld goal. The score cut Penn’s lead to four points, and Dartmouth went into the locker room down 7-3.

The frst six drives of the second halfwere unremarkable, barring a oneyard Bair rush that brought his career rushing yards to the 1000-yard mark. Bair said that the milestone didn’t mean much to him, as “winning the game is all that matters.”

Even when a shanked 14-yard punt by Penn failed out of bounds at Penn’s own 37-yard line, the Big Green could not execute. Howard was pulled out of the game after a hard hit, replaced temporarily by backup Dylan Cadwallader ’24. The Big Green would then lose 10 yards on backto-back penalties, and an incomplete Cadwallader pass brought the drive to an end with a disappointing punt.

“We had every opportunity. It’s a comedy of errors,” Teevens said of that drive.

Following a Penn three-and-out, the Big Green found itself on the positive side of some penalties, advancing 30 yards thanks to a defensive face mask and then a roughing the passer call. The energy shot up from there, and Howard pushed through what appeared to be the entire Quakers defense before fnally being stopped at the Penn 14. A Bair rush advanced the Big Green ofense three more yards before Howard ran it again, this time for an 11-yard score, giving Dartmouth a 10-7 lead.

A Quakers three-and-out gave Dartmouth the ball with 8:10 remaining, and the Big Green took its time, converting three frst downs before attempting a 48-yard feld goal with the leg of wide receiver Ivan Hoyt ’26. His attempt careened just right, though, and Penn got the 2:11 they needed.

The Quakers ofense played poised

in key situations, converting two fourth downs and a 19-yard reception to get well within feld goal range. After a few failed attempts to fnd the endzone, a 35-yard Penn feld goal sent the game into overtime.

There, Dartmouth won the coin toss and elected to defend, but Penn converted two first downs before punching in a fve-yard touchdown pass. Dartmouth was quick to respond, though, and in four plays Dartmouth had scored, sending both teams trotting to the other end zone.

Following NCAA Division I overtime rules, Dartmouth started with the ball this time, but the Big Green came up empty, converting one frst down before having their 28-yard feld goal attempt blocked.

From there, the Quakers only needed a feld goal, but they decided on a victory lap; Penn picked up 24 yards on the ground from second and 11, and then two plays later found the endzone. Penn ultimately won 23-17.

As Dartmouth travels to the Yale Bowl this weekend for its second Ivy League matchup, the team hopes to fx the mistakes that have cost them the last two weeks.

“It’s a game we could’ve won,” Teevens said, but “could’ves don’t count.”

Now standing at 1-2 on the season after winning back-to-back Ivy League titles, Teevens said that this is “uncharted waters for a lot of these guys.”

Hefernan seemed ready to embrace the murk, adding that the team plans to “pick each other up” to prepare for next week.

“Every game in the Ivy League’s a playof game,” Bair said. “We have to be perfect the rest of the year.”

Starting with Yale on Saturday, we’ll see if the Big Green can do it.

OLIVER

SENIOR STAFF

Afer

ZOORIEL TAN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

MIRROR

Limitlessly in Love: In Honor of Those No Longer With Us

By Selin HosSTORY

This article was originally published on Oct. 5, 2022.

I love you.

I mean it. It’s true.

If you are reading this right now, I love you.

I don’t know you, and it is quite possible that I will never get the chance

to meet you, and yet I still love you. I love you despite not knowing anything about you, for you are you and that is enough.

It really is that simple, but I often wonder why we deny ourselves this notion of universal love. A fower does not ask to be loved — it simply exists and yet we love it so. Truthfully, I’m not

SAMANTHA PAISLEY/THE DARTMOUTH

sure that anything else in the natural world has convoluted this notion of love in the way we have.

Why, then, are we so obsessed with proving ourselves worthy of love? It is as though we must strive to be something beyond ourselves in order to deserve it. Believe me when I say that you do not have to look a certain way, or act a

certain way, or belong to this thing or that in order to be deserving of respect and kindness. Though, perhaps, therein lies the problem. Perhaps our defnition of love is outdated, in that we attach it to notions of acceptance, fame, power and respect when in reality love is just a form of appreciation.

I appreciate you in the same way that I appreciate the world around us. I appreciate the way little ants climb up and down fallen logs in the forest, living their lives and drinking the morning dew. I appreciate the way the stars twinkle back at me as I walk across the Green on my way home, as if to say goodnight. I appreciate the way that my actions have consequences, and that yours do too, because part of being a human being means impacting the world around us.

If it is true that a butterfy can fap its wings halfway across the world and trigger a natural disaster of seismic proportions, then it is only fair to say that we can do the same. It is easy to joke and tease in this life, but the world that we live in is fragile. The smallest of actions — perhaps a string of careless words mindlessly uttered then forgotten — are usually the ones to have the most profound reverberations. People tend to remember the ways in which they’ve been hurt. So, live a life of empathy. Be kind.

Living is hard. In fact, it’s the hardest thing we’ll ever have to do. But since live we must, live a life of love, of appreciation of the world and those in it. Your every moment on this Earth is

unique, precious and worth treasuring. Allow yourself to fully feel whatever it is that you are feeling in a given moment — and let others know too, for often they will feel the same. Take time to laugh with people, to cry and mourn with them. Healing

takes time, and it is okay to feel the loss of someone that you may not have known. To love is to appreciate both what others bring to this world and what they leave behind. I can mourn for someone I do not know just as I can love someone I do not know. It is because their mere existence on this Earth has fundamentally altered my own.

If nothing else, just know that I will laugh with you and I will cry with you and I will love you, regardless of it all. And know that others will do the same. Because that is what humanity is. Because sometimes, when things fall apart and everything feels broken, this kind of unconditional love is what we need.

The Facts of (Greek) Life: The Limitations of Labels

By Solenne WolfeSTORY

This article was originally published on Oct. 5, 2022.

Given the size of our community and the College’s centuries of history, Dartmouth culture is rife with expectations for “traditional” rites of passage. There are different rules for every term: Sophomore summer is notoriously a two-course term for many, while winter term is for hunkering down because the opportunity cost of staying inside during daylight hours isn’t too high.

The fall term of one’s sophomore year is given particular importance because most people here — roughly 60% — choose to become members of a Greek institution.

I decided to rush because, as a ’24, I spent freshman year engaging with the College and all of its programs almost exclusively online. Rush was in-person and promised a chance to engage with what had been sold to me as the quintessential Dartmouth social scene.

The word “rush” is fitting because the whole term felt like a blur — countless meetings to discuss the rules of conduct for engaging with other students my age (“PNMs should never look at their phones during conversations with sisters”), Greek life monopolizing every conversation for weeks on end and hours of walking from house to house with my little lanyard — like a traveling salesman for my personality.

I thought rushing would provide me with a new space to feel at home in, a new oasis on campus and a refuge from the monotony of shuffling between the library and office hours. Most of my upperclassmen friends were in one house, and even before rush began, I spent hours sitting in my dorm room stalking their Instagram during the long quarantine periods. I loved the house during rush and ended up receiving news that it was one of my final two houses on pref night.

The other house I received was one I’d never considered and knew nothing about. I’d loved my rush experience there too, but it seemed completely alien to me as a house that primarily socialized with fraternities none of my friends were rushing. Even the house itself seemed foreign: a clean, vaguely Southern-feeling space with cushioned dining room seats, central air, patio furniture and a fire pit.

After exhausting all of my

friends, agonizing between what felt immediately comfortable and natural versus the excitement over a new space where I would “see different sides of campus,” I made a split-second decision to ignore all of their advice. I chose the unexpected.

Unsurprisingly I didn’t immediately feel at home in my new sorority, and I can’t honestly say I gave it my best effort. Friends told me to wait it out:

During sophomore summer I could really get to know my pledge class. Just showing up to more events would help me build a network within the sorority. Over and over, I was told to “buy in.”

There’s a lot of implicit trust within this rhetoric of “buying in.” People come to like you and get to know you within most spaces if you just hang around enough. You form relationships based on the spaces you invest time into.

But I hate when people say that

“You get what you put into it” when it comes to bonding with your Greek house. Putting time and energy into Greek life is a harder ask for people who, for whatever reason, don’t fit the mold.

Maybe you prioritize your academics such that you can’t afford to make Wednesday an on-night because your schoolwork makes whatever your family sacrificed to send you here worthwhile. Maybe you love to be social, but being in spaces with — often unmonitored — alcohol consumption isn’t an option if you have a history of addictive behaviors. Maybe you had a traumatic experience and you don’t feel comfortable going out anymore.

What I realize is that, like everything else, the Greek house you choose becomes a larger-than-life projection of your desires. Before I came to Dartmouth, I fantasized about how different a quaint, rural life

would be compared to my high school experience of taking the subway to school and spending summer nights running around public parks.

I let the sorority fantasy take me away. In this new affiliated life, I would be a completely different person, one who loved going out three nights a week and dancing on elevated surfaces. Like every other fantasy, it was far from the truth. I felt like my identity was at odds with the space I had chosen.

Becoming a part of a Greek house is almost like becoming a full member of the Dartmouth community: Getting to wear the letters across your chest seems to tip others off to the fact that you are a part of the world that they are also a part of. You speak the same language, enable the same behaviors and engage in some version of the same kind of socializing.

This week, anyone could end up anywhere. In the middle of round two

of sorority rush things feel random and unpredictable, but by next week, everyone will pretend that the house you end up in means something about your personality, character or style.

That there is no “mold” and that “all sororities are the same” seem like contradictory advice, given that even those outside of the process try eagerly to place girls in houses. Male friends are surprisingly interested in the process, though they have never been to most sororities and probably never will.

But your Greek house precedes you here. There is no shame in showing people who you are through group membership, but applying molds to rapidly-changing human beings on the basis of one decision sophomore year of college is ludicrous. That’s when it’s important to remember to burst that bubble every now and then in order to move beyond the labels that only exist here.

Take tme to laugh with people, to cry and mourn with them. Healing takes tme, and it is okay to feel the loss of someone that you may not have known.