The Dartmouth 10/14/2022

‘He was always smiling’: David

for his

personality

BY DANIEL MODESTO The Dartmouth Staff

originally

Oct.

A former member of the Dartmouth men’s lacrosse team, David Gallagher ’20 — known as “DG” by his teammates — left a profound impression on his team and beyond with his constant smile, optimism and selfessness. Those who knew Gallagher remember him for his kindness, his athletic ability and his happiness.

“I thought of him as just the nicest person,” Henry Stites ’22, a friend and teammate of Gallagher, said. “I thought he was just the standard of courtesy and kindness that we should see in the world.”

Gallagher died at age 24 in Hanover on Aug. 7 after attending his class’s commencement ceremony the day before, according to an announcement from the College. Gallagher died of “severe injuries” sustained under the Ledyard bridge.

A native of Downingtown, Penn., Gallagher graduated from Downingtown West High School. During his time at Dartmouth, he was on the men’s lacrosse team and a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity. Gallagher studied government and graduated in 2020. At the time of his death, he worked for Bellwether Asset Management as an analyst in Los Angeles. He is survived by his parents Michael and Marea Gallagher, his sister, two nieces and three grandparents.

Peter Rizzotti ’22, a member of the men’s lacrosse team, recalled meeting Gallagher for the frst time when Rizzotti stayed with Gallagher overnight during his frst visit to Dartmouth. Rizzotti said that Gallagher was “always in a great mood.”

“You could always count on him to have a smile on his face,” Rizzotti said. “Even if David was having a down day, he never let it show on the outside. He was always

positive, he was always smiling.”

According to Stites, who was also in the same fraternity as Gallagher, Gallagher was “one of the nicest and most friendly guys out there.”

“He had an infectious smile that was pretty unparalleled,” Stites said. “From the start, being a freshman and [Gallagher] being a junior, he made me feel very welcome and comfortable from the start of my college career. And that was just a result of his words and his friendliness.”

Stites said that Gallagher was also his big — an upperclassman who guides new members of a Greek house — in TDX. Although Stites said that this mentorship “isn’t that huge of a deal in our fraternity,” he was “really proud” that Gallagher was his big because of how kind he was to everyone

Albie Austin ’20, a friend of Gallagher’s, said that he and Gallagher met during the frst week of their freshman year. Austin said that Gallagher saw him at the gym and introduced himself, noting that Gallagher “had the biggest smile on his face.”

Austin, who is from Philadelphia, recalled that he and Gallagher would hang out during winter breaks to get food from Wawa together after working out. One of Austin’s favorite memories with Gallagher was during their senior year, when he and Gallagher would drive on Interstate 91 with other friends to listen to music and look at the fall foliage.

On the feld, Gallagher’s personality was evident through acts of selfessness. Stites recalled that during Gallagher’s senior year, there was a void on the defensive midfeld side, and the team “needed someone to step up.” According to Stites, Gallagher did so — changing from a position he had played his entire lacrosse career to learn a new position — leading to the team’s best season start since 2006.

“That was something that I think only David would have accomplished the way that he did and it ended up leading us to a lot of success,” Stites said. “We [saw]

some of the best results we’ve seen as a program, so I credit a lot of that to David being such a team player.”

Even in Gallagher’s last days, he was caring for others. According to Andrew Johnston ’23, who attended Gallagher’s funeral service on Aug. 15, Gallagher’s father shared a to-do list from Gallagher before traveling to Hanover. It consisted of working out, going to the grocery store and buying blankets for homeless communities in LA.

Johnston said that the anecdote stood “for everything that DG was about.”

“You don’t see many people in their early 20s that are in fnance in L.A. that get [their] groceries, work out and then give blankets to the homeless,” Johnston said. “I think that was a pretty minor thing, but I think it also stands for everything that DG was about.”

Rizzotti said that attendees included his teammates on the men’s lacrosse team, members of TDX and friends from a number of other universities, all of which showed “how loved and appreciated he was.”

Stites added that there were more than 60 former and current lacrosse team players at the service, including teammates from Gallagher’s class, which he noted was an “especially close” class.

“They exited early down the hall and went outside [and] lifted their lacrosse sticks up to form a tunnel for people to walk through as the bells rang, which defnitely felt surreal,” Stites said. “I think it was a beautiful moment, and I think it’s what David would have wanted… it was really beautiful to see everyone coming together for their teammate and their brother.”

According to Austin, the team decided to hold their lacrosse sticks up as a way of honoring their teammate.

“It was defnitely a very emotional moment as it was happening, but it was very nice to be able to honor him in that way — to have us all there and paying our respects,” Austin said.

emeritus James Wright dies at

BY THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Former

BY EMILY FAGELL The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on Oct. 11, 2022.

On Sept. 16, former member of Dartmouth’s Class of 2025 Jack Cocchiarella — now a student at Columbia University — filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire against Nate Kim ’25, claiming that Kim defamed Cocchiarella through online allegations of rape and sexual assault. The civil case, filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, had its first hearing last Thursday.

According to the complaint, Kim posted statements to platforms such as Twitter, Reddit and Librex accusing the liberal activist — who has nearly 300,000 Twitter followers and is known for confronting Rep.Madison Cawthorne, R-N.C., last October — of “multiple rape allegations” on campus. Cocchiarella and Politically Correct Strategies LLC, a Floridabased political consulting company founded by Cocchiarella, claimed Kim’s statements to be “untrue” and “fabricated.”

The plaintiffs called for a jury

This article was originally published on Oct. 11, 2022.

President emeritus James Wright, 16th president of the College from 1998 to 2009, died from cancer at his home in Hanover on Monday, College President Phil Hanlon ’77 announced on Tuesday. He was 83.

“President Wright’s impact on Dartmouth, both as a dedicated teacherscholar and as an administrator, was profound,” Hanlon wrote. “Most importantly, President Wright encouraged and empowered students and colleagues, alike, to make a positive diference in the world around them.”

Wright was a “highly respected” Marine Corps veteran, history scholar and professor, Hanlon wrote. Wright joined Dartmouth’s history department in 1969, specializing in the history of the American West. Throughout his time as a professor and administrator, he recommended the creation of the Native American Studies program and was a champion for veterans in higher education, Hanlon wrote.

“[Wright] was among the fercest advocates for veterans in higher education, routinely visiting wounded service men and women in our nation’s military hospitals and encouraging them to continue their education,” Hanlon wrote.

According to an announcement from the College, Wright was born in Galena, Illinois and assumed that he would “probably go to work in the mines” or factories. At 17, Wright joined the Marine Corps and served in Taiwan. Upon returning from service, he obtained his bachelor’s degree from Wisconsin State University, Platteville and a Ph.D from University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1969, according to Hanlon’s email. A College announcement also noted that Wright worked during college as a powderman in mines, janitor, bartender and factory worker.

In 1984, Wright married Susan DeBevoise, an assistant dean at the College, according to the announcement. During his time at Dartmouth, Wright also served as dean of the faculty and provost of the College.

As president, Wright launched the campaign for the Dartmouth Experience, which raised more than $1.3 billion — the largest funding campaign in Dartmouth’s history at the time. The funds were used to expand fnancial aid, hire more faculty and fnance the construction of Berry Library and the Rauner special collections library, as well as Kemeny Hall, the Floren Varsity House and the McLaughlin Cluster, among other buildings.

Wright was also known for establishing the controversial Student Life Initiative, which sought to make Dartmouth’s social environment more inclusive. Released by the Board of Trustees in February 1999, the SLI placed a temporary moratorium on the establishment of new single-sex Greek organizations.

After his tenure as president, Wright published three books on military service, which spotlights veterans. According to the College announcement, he received national awards for his history and war scholarship.

In 2020, the College announced the building of the Susan and James Wright Center for the Study of Computation and Just Communities, designed to promote democratic and equitable societies through computational sciences.

“Dartmouth is, indeed, a better place because of Jim,” Hanlon wrote. “We will miss him dearly and honor him always.”

Hanlon added that there will be a memorial service for Wright open to members of the Dartmouth community.

For students, counseling services are available at (603) 646-9442 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and at (603) 646-9440 outside of regular hours. The Student Wellness Center and Undergraduate Deans Ofce remain available resources for undergraduate students.

student Jack Cocchiarella

against Nate

trial and preliminary and permanent injunction — including the posting of a permanent retraction of Kim’s statements on social media and an agreement to refrain from further discussion of the allegations — against the defendant. If Cocchiarella wins the case, Kim may have to pay monetary damages to compensate Cocchiarella for “injuries,” according to University of New Hampshire professor of defamation law and litigation Joseph Steinfield.

“The insurmountable damage caused to [Cocchiarella] by the conduct of Kim must further be corrected by Kim’s full retraction of the False Statements and an affirmative statement by Kim that the False Statements are untrue, fabricated, and were falsely made by Kim to damage the reputation of [Cocchiarella],” the motion for the permanent injunction states. “Only with this remedy will [Cocchiarella] finally be able to begin putting the pieces of his life back together that has been shattered directly as a result of Kim.”

The lawsuit states that Kim’s statements, which began last November — shortly after Cocchiarella’s confrontation with Rep. Cawthorne — have provoked others to make death

threats and other threats of violence against Cocchiarella. Moreover, the complaint claims that Cocchiarella has “suffered extreme emotional distress and reputational damages” as a result of Kim’s conduct, pointing specifically to Cocchiarella’s inability to connect with peers or advance his professional career.

Susan Stone, the attorney representing Cocchiarella and Politically Correct Strategies, said in Thursday’s hearing that Cocchiarella is “unable” to attend social events, obtain jobs with his political consulting company or get invited to dinners at Columbia.

“[Cocchiarella] is always looking over his shoulder at Columbia,” Stone said. “This is a case of cancel culture.”

The lawsuit claims that Kim posted defamatory statements to various social media platforms, including Twitter, Reddit, Fizz and the “nowdefunct” Librex discussion forum. The document also states that Kim posted from two different Twitter accounts — @aplopl3x and @stoprapists101, which he recently renamed to @rxndomstudent.

“[B]ut around [Dartmouth’s] campus [Cocchiarella has] already been kicked out of the [College] [D]

emocrats and the frats and is known as a rapist after multiple girls accused him of sexual assault,” Kim tweeted on Nov. 19, 2021, according to the lawsuit.

Specifically, the lawsuit advanced four counts against Kim, including “defamation” — or spreading harmful false statements — “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” “invasion of privacy — false light” — or giving publicity to matters through misrepresentation — and “tortious interference with economic relationships,” meaning interference with Cocchiarella’s business and economic relationships.

The defendant filed an objection to the motion on Oct. 3, arguing that Cocchiarella is “unlikely to succeed” due to the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which “renders Mr. Kim immune from suit,” according to his attorney Benjamin King. The lawsuit, on the other hand, claims that Cocchiarella “has a strong likelihood of success on the merits.”

While the case has yet to be decided, the court referenced narrow case law in support of the mandatory injunction — which specifies that Kim must post a

ZACH INGBRETSEN/THE DARTMOUTH

COURTESY OF DARTMOUTH ATHLETICS

permanent retraction of his statements — and prohibitory injunction — which specifies that Kim must refrain from further discussion of the allegations — in Thursday’s hearing. District Court judge Samantha Elliott, who is presiding over the case, said in the hearing that the New Hampshire Supreme Court has never recognized a “false light invasion of privacy,” leading to that claim being dropped.

Steinfield said that the burden of proof falls on Cocchiarella to prove that the statements are false, are understood to be about him and were intended to damage his reputation “within a respectable segment of the community.” In contrast, he said that Kim does not need to prove that the statements are true in order to dispute the defamation claims.

Steinfield added that Cocchiarella’s

les defamation lawsuit

chances of success hinge on his status — or non-status — as a public figure, as public figures have a “heavier burden” to prove in a defamation lawsuit.

“If a person is a public figure, then the burden on that person is to show not just that the statements that are made about the person are false, but the speaker — in this case, [Kim] — knew they were false,” Steinfield said. “Not that [Kim] should have known, but that he actually subjectively knew that he was writing or saying something false.”

The lawsuit argues that Cocchiarella “will likely succeed on the merits, even if he is deemed a public figure,” but the judge has not yet declared the plaintiff’s status.

If Cocchiarella is successful, Kim may face various consequences. Principally, the lawsuit urges the Court to restrain Kim from “creating, publishing,

commenting on, or discussing any [of] the False Statements” on social media platforms or public or private forums; to mandate that Kim “immediately and permanently post a retraction of the [statements],” including a statement revealing the posts to be untrue; and to require Kim to “immediately delete and destroy all False Statements.”

Steinfield said that Kim also faces the consequences of legal fees and compensation for damages, whether tangible — such as medical expenses, therapy or job loss — or intangible, such as “pain and suffering that is emotional in nature.”

Ultimately, a jury has the power to award damages, Steinfield said.

As of now, the court has not yet decided whether the case will go to trial. King said he “cannot predict what the court is going to do,” but Susan Stone — the counsel for both plaintiffs

Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale visits Dartmouth

— said in Thursday’s hearing that Cocchiarella may pursue mediation rather than a trial. Moreover, Stone said Cocchiarella may take the stand at a future hearing.

Kim directed requests for comment to his attorney, Benjamin King.

Sawtooth Kitchen sinks teeth into the Hanover social scene

BY ZANDER KURITA The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on Oct. 13, 2022.

On Sept. 20, Sawtooth Kitchen opened its doors to the Hanover community. The new restaurant and bar serves lunch and dinner and also hosts late-night events with DJs, musical guests and comedians.

It’s awesome,” David Allen Tu’97 said. Having experienced the Hanover entertainment scene when he was a student at the Tuck School of Business, Allen added that Sawtooth can ofer more opportunities for different varieties of artists to have a space to perform.

BY ISABELLE HAN The Dartmouth

This article was originally published on Oct. 13, 2022.

On Monday, co-founder of the Black Panther Party Bobby Seale spoke to a full Filene auditorium in an event co-hosted by the Dartmouth Political Union and the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy.

The event, titled “On His Activism and Legacy: Bobby Seale,” was attended by approximately 220 people, with dozens more turned away when the auditorium reached capacity.

The Black Panther Party was a key player in “a vision of Black freedom in the United States that was radical at the time,” according to history professor Matthew Delmont, an expert on African American history and the history of civil rights.

“They were responding to the unequal treatment and life chances many Black citizens had with regards to education or to housing and health care,” Delmont said.

The event covered topics including Seale’s early engagement with politics, his use of education in the fght for Black liberation and some of the philosophies of the Black Panther Party.

Moderated by history professor Julia Rabig, the event started with a discussion of Seale’s lack of engagement with politics prior to the founding of the Black Panther Party.

He spoke about his experience in the U.S. Air Force, which he said served as his introduction to American politics.

“I respected my commander-in-chief,” Seale said. “I had no diferentiation between Democrat and Republican.”

Seale said that his respect for the history of Indigenous peoples — based on his personal experiences with the Sioux tribe of South Dakota — later served as the basis for his work with the Black Panther Party. The motivation behind his commitment to Black liberation, he said, was his prior knowledge of Indigenous history.

Seale said that his time studying at Merritt College in Oakland, California inspired him to utilize education as a tool to further Black liberation, one of the guiding principles of the Black Panther Party. According to Seale, integrating African American history into school curricula, advocating for the creation of an African American history department

at Merritt and researching the rights of individuals within the state of California — such as the right to observe police ofcers in order to improve accountability — were all important techniques in what Seale saw as the path towards equality.

“You join the political protest movement world to change things for the better,” Seale said, describing the next step after education. “That’s all it is. Give everyone a decent life. Don’t fall for racist crap. Respect all humanity, regardless of what ethnicity we may represent.”

Speaking about one of the first armed patrols of the Black Panther Party, Seale said that then-law student Huey P. Newton — another co-founder of the party — researched the right to observe police ofcers. After being accosted by police ofcers, Newton’s research into the law helped allow the armed delegation to continue. Seale said that observing police ofcers was one of the Black Panthers’ primary tactics used in an efort to mitigate police brutality towards Black people.

“Huey [P. Newton] researched the law,” Seale said. “When [the police] said we had no right to observe, Huey recited his research.”

Seale also underscored the broad scope of the Black Panther Party beyond the violence with which it is typically associated. He also discussed collaborative and inclusive justice in the collective struggle for equality, specifcally citing the Asian community and the LGBTQ+ community.

Additionally, Delmont said while the Black Panther Party was often characterized by their association with being armed, self-defense was an efort to push back against police violence they experienced.

“The thing about the Black Panthers is that they were college students,” Delmont said. “It’s easy to pigeonhole the Black Panthers just based on those images of them with guns. That self-defense, again, it was important, but that’s only a small part of their larger, larger legacy.”

The Black Panther Party had “a vision” of what it meant to support Black communities in various cities and focused on “a need to feed communities,” Delmont added.

“They organized an efort to provide free breakfast to Black kids across the city of Oakland, and then in other cities as well,” Delmont said. “And it precedes the kind of formalized progressive programs and ends up showing up in

most public schools later in the 1960s and 1970s. This is actually an early model of community care that gets picked up by the government.”

In an audience Q&A section following the main presentation, Seale continued to emphasize the importance of education as a means of activism.

“Pull the history together and write good academic articles about the history,” Seale said.

Olvin Abrego Ayala ’25, who attended the event, said that Seale’s commitment to continue making changes in the world was one of the most inspiring takeaways. Ayala emphasized the need to “actually take matters into my own hands.”

“I was also talking to people about possibly creating a coalition for ethnic studies. We were thinking about, ‘how can we do this,’” Abrego Ayala said. “I’m feeling more energized.”

Dewitt Mallary, another attendee, lived in New York during the height of the Black Panther Party and said he found the idea of political coalition building particularly interesting, especially having witnessed the “division between the Black movement and the White Leftist movement.”

“[The] struggle to create coalitions [is something] that we are still dealing with right now,” Rabig said. “It’s really useful to talk to someone who was in the mix at an important moment.”

In organizing the talk, the DPU wanted to challenge “preconceptions” of the Black Panther Party and “seek nuance,” according to DPU technical director Dylan Grifth ’25. Grifth said that Seale was chosen for an event because he is still able to “share those kinds of inception points that provoked him into being a loud fgure.”

“He founded the Black Panther Party, which is a huge movement in the civil rights era, has a massive presence in our history and in the contention between civil disobedience versus militant pushback,” Griffith said. “And so to be able to invite him to share his experiences, it was a singular opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of.”

Ultimately, Seale encouraged the audience to stay informed and commit to progress.

“Get your education. Stick to the progressive programs related to constitutional, democratic, civil human rights for all people. Don’t deviate from that,” he said.

Sawtooth owner Kieran Campion said that the restaurant aims to provide a different approach to building community compared to other options in Hanover. Having grown up in the area, Campion said that he and his father, Jay Campion, based the creation of Sawtooth around the aim of being a unique scene for Hanover’s young adults. He also said that he thinks Sawtooth will be an especially appealing social scene to those who either aren’t interested in going to parties hosted by fraternities or as a new venue to bands.

After a private opening, Sawtooth’s first weekend included lunch and dinner service as well as an evening performance on Friday Sept. 30.

Josh Ocampo ’22, who runs social media communications for Sawtooth, said he has been “surprised” at how many people have been coming to the restaurant. As a comedian himself, Ocampo voiced his excitement about the performing side of Sawtooth, citing his observation that bands very rarely perform in campus venues outside of Greek houses or One Wheelock in the Collis Center.

Like Ocampo, Campion said that he sees an opportunity for Sawtooth “to bring the talents of the community and the talents of the College together, which often do not cross-pollinate.”

He added that the venue will host performers such as current students, former students and residents of the Upper Valley.

On Oct. 6, Sawtooth hosted comedian Paul Ollinger Tu’97 for a show opened by members of Dartmouth Comedy Network. With many Tuck School of Business alumni in town for reunions, there was a large turnout with a lot of excitement about the new space, Campion said.

Keith Espinosa Tu’97 said that Sawtooth is “something different” compared to what is typically ofered by other small college towns, like Williamstown, Mass. — home of Williams College — and Amherst, Mass. — the location of Amherst College.

“I think it’s great to have a space like that with people trying stuf out.

Denzel Davis ’23 went to the Oct. 6 comedy show to see a classmate perform. He said that the venue and performances “added a sort of light” at a time of the term when midterm exams have students “a little down.” Davis added that the venue felt diferent than shows on campus at a fraternity.

“There’s a legitimacy to it; I felt more engaged and invested in the comic that went up,” he said.

Although it may at first be a challenge, Campion and others involved in the project said that they are “confdent” in Sawtooth’s ability to rise above the frats. Bob Coyle, one of Sawtooth’s managers, mentioned how one patron noted that their feet did not “stick to the foor” when they walked inside Sawtooth. He also highlighted the “large” numbers of Tuck, Geisel School of Medicine students and undergraduates that have been coming to Sawtooth, which would allow Sawtooth to thrive even when Greek houses are hosting events.

Coyle said that Sawtooth distinguishes itself from others bars and restaurants in town with a menu including “comfort food,” with the addition of “lighter fare” for lunch and late-night in the future.

Executive chef Stephen Roberts said that he sees Sawtooth taking bar food to a diferent level. He said that he prefers that “almost everything be made from scratch,” adding that Sawtooth’s bacon, American cheese, sauces and dressings are all made in their kitchen. Roberts said that he believes that his meticulous approach will set Sawtooth apart from other restaurants.

Coyle said that Sawtooth will fne-tune its lunch, dinner and latenight menus according to feedback from students and residents. Because Sawtooth is also a restaurant, students under the age of 21 will also be able to visit to eat and watch performances, he added.

Ocampo, who said he became involved with Sawtooth because he wanted more experience in the service industry, added that believes Dartmouth students can gain valuable experience at bars and restaurants. Roberts said he is open to hiring students and part-time workers.

“I love cooking. I love explaining the things we’re doing here,” Roberts said.

DARTMOUTH

ZANDER

NAINA BHALLA/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

College spokesperson Diana Lawrence and the Dartmouth College Democrats declined requests for comment. Susan Stone and Politically Correct Strategies LLC did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.

Verbum Ultimum: Indigenous Exclusion — Once Again

This past Monday marked Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the United States. Twenty states plus the District of Columbia and countless cities across the country ofcially recognized the holiday this year in an efort to acknowledge the historical mistreatment of Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian people throughout the history of the United States. In the places that celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the holiday replaces or coincides with Columbus Day, which was frst designated a national holiday in 1934 but ultimately ignores over 500 years of Indigenous hardship and sufering at the hands of European colonizers.

Yet, all Dartmouth did to honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day at the institutional level was publish an article on its website. Otherwise, no emails were sent, no College-run programs were held and no classes were canceled across the College. Given the College’s own unique and harmful history with the Indigenous community, Dartmouth continually makes this horrible and embarrassing mistake year after year.

Dartmouth was founded in 1769 with the intent to Christianize Indigenous children on the land of the Abenaki. Indeed, the £12,000 used to found the College was raised by Samson Occom — a member of the Mohegan tribe and student of Eleazar Wheelock — who traveled through Great Britain fundraising for members of his tribe, located in present-day Connecticut. The College failed to meet its early mission, with only 19 Indigenous students graduating from Dartmouth in its frst 200 years.

As an institution, the College has been making an efort to right these shortcomings. In 1972, then College President John Kemeny led the formation of one of “the frst Native American programs in the country.” Today, Dartmouth proudly advertises its “200 Indigenous students—representing more than 70 diferent tribal nations & communities” and “over 1,200 Native graduates among its alumni” on its admissions website. Additionally, Dartmouth hosted the Indigenous Fly-In this past weekend and launched the Tribal Services and Solutions Project to connect current students with the goal of “improv[ing] sovereignty, healthcare and economic development on tribal lands,” according to a recent article in The Dartmouth.

Yet, Dartmouth — an institution situated on Abenaki land — let the day to honor Indigenous communities come and go with little notice. This Editorial Board calls upon Dartmouth to make space for the community to honor all Indigenous peoples, including those whose histories are deeply intertwined with the College.

This call to action takes two strands. First, the College must recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day with time away from classes. This is not unprecedented:

Three of Dartmouth’s Ivy League peers — Brown University, Cornell University and Harvard University — all take time of in honor of the holiday. Other liberal arts colleges in New England like Bowdoin College, Wellesley College and Williams College all do not host classes on Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Second, in place of classes, Dartmouth must ofer programming to recognize the importance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Since the College already puts together a slate of lectures and flm screenings on racial justice in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day every January, this is not a tall order. All-day programming is an exhaustive logistical task, but it would not be a challenge to fll out a full playbill of events. After all, Dartmouth does have a Native American and Indigenous studies department, thousands of Indigenous alumni and access to a global connection of speakers and presenters. This programming would also complement that put together by Native Americans at Dartmouth, which held a demonstration on the Green and a flm screening on Monday.

Of course, Indigenous Peoples’ Day alone does not do enough to repair the damage of 500 years of colonial history, nor can the day fully honor the contributions of Indigenous people to Dartmouth. But ignoring the day doesn’t help either. The breakneck speed of the Dartmouth term makes a day of class difcult to schedule, but we do it with Independence Day in the summer, MLK Day in the winter and Memorial Day in the spring. Sure, many students will not engage in extracurricular programming surrounding Indigenous Peoples’ Day; some may well use the three-day weekend as an opportunity to study harder or party longer. Still, students will not be able to gloss over a day of that disrupts the normal fow of classes.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is important to recognize the history of the College and the country. Yet, by ignoring the day, we ignore this history. Given our troubling past on the land the College is situated upon and the communities that were here before us, Dartmouth must begin recognizing the value Indigenous Peoples’ Day provides. It is hypocritical not to make space for students, faculty and staf to fully commemorate the occasion and acknowledge our intertwined and complex history.

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

Bryant: Towards A Centripetal Economy

This column was originally published on Oct. 13, 2022.

At risk of stating the obvious, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the global economy. Trade volumes plunged in spring 2020, only to recover at a breakneck pace in the following months. Though the direct efects of the pandemic were short-lived, COVID-19 has played a supporting role in a tectonic shift of the global economy that began with the Great Recession. After the decades of “hyperglobalization” that followed the Second World War, the 2008 fnancial crisis sparked a reaction against the ever-globalizing world. In the West, economic nationalism gained a new popularity, especially in right-leaning political parties. In the U.S., we saw this trend in the 2012 Tea Party movement and more recently with Trump’s hightarif presidency. The developing world was similarly disafected by the Great Recession through the loss of foreign aid and private investment. This growing skepticism of globalization was only confrmed by the pandemic: The global economy can collapse with little warning, leaving its benefactors high and dry.

Where do we go from here? The past two decades have revealed the deep vulnerabilities in our international economic system, and yet we do not seek to improve upon it. As the global economy recovers from the pandemic, businesses and consumers have the opportunity to reframe their relationship with international markets, to reposition themselves with greater resiliency for the next crisis. In the face of this opportunity, our priorities must shift in favor of small-scale, local economic strength, while maintaining international markets only insofar as they support small-scale priorities.

On paper, this reprioritization makes plain common sense. According to textbook economics, people will trade goods and services only if it actually improves their individual, small-scale well being. The fact that global economic priorities have shifted away from individuals in the frst place is cause for concern. Unfortunately, this shift in priorities is all too evident in international markets: Low-skilled workers in developed countries lose out to an ever-globalizing labor market, and agricultural producers in developing countries tie their wellbeing to the fckle fuctuations of global commodity prices. When the economy cannot perform its intended purpose — to make its individual participants better of — those participants must rethink their priorities. We need to return to that noblest of economic sensibilities that the free exchange of goods and services returns its benefts to those at the smallest scale: the individual worker and the individual consumer.

In the U.S., at least, the pandemic has necessitated a return to these principles. After decades of industrial ofshoring, supply chain disruptions and COVID-19 lockdowns have incentivized the “onshoring” and “nearshoring” of U.S. industries. When supply chains are shorter, they are more resilient to world-upending crises like the pandemic.

They also keep the benefts of economic transactions local to their particular community and culture, binding communities together. Author and activist Wendell Berry wrote that, “A human community, if it is to last long, must exert a sort of centripetal force, holding … local memory in place.” The impulses of the modern global economy are entirely difusive: They fing production and consumption to the ends of the Earth. The components of an iPhone, for example, come from at least 17 diferent countries. Berry sees the cultural loss implied by this centrifugal force: “A good community is, in other words, a good local economy.” When production and consumption

are localized to a particular geography and culture, a centripetal force binds the region together. A community whose economic relationships are tight-knit also enjoys greater cultural health.

There are two things that this local emphasis does not imply. First, I do not advocate for protectionist trade policy, and I certainly do not advocate for the “America-frst” economic sensibilities that dominate a portion of Republican party ideology. It is simplistic to assume that a nation’s economy exists on a onedimensional spectrum: either globalist and without tarifs, or myopically local and completely protected from foreign competition. Rather, a country can relate to the global economy in a number of ways, leveraging the gains from international trade for a variety of purposes.

I am not arguing for a shift away from trade, only for a reprioritization of local industry — and the resulting culture — over and against global concerns. After all, each of us is, frst and foremost, a local creature. Why should we care about the state of something like the global economy if the neighborhoods we live in and the jobs we work are not healthy and resilient to crises?

Second, I recognize that global markets seem to provide resiliency against local crises like droughts, crop failures or industrial accidents. When a particular frm or local industry faces a crisis, goods from elsewhere in the world can provide stopgap support. Though the global market appears to be the hero of this scenario, it is also, in signifcant ways, the villain. Take, for example, the recent national baby formula shortage caused by a food at a Michigan factory. This local incident metastasized into a national disaster because of the specialization caused by global markets: The majority of America’s baby formula was produced by one plant in one town. A local orientation in baby formula production would have many plants that serve specifc regions of the country, thereby ofering redundancy and resiliency if any one of the plants fails.

In this sense, bigger is not always better. A perfectly integrated global market will transmit crises across the globe, whereas a series of smaller regional markets will provide a bufer against those crises.

The question remains: how do we achieve this local reorientation? It may well be the case that globalization damages local culture, but is there a better solution?

To these questions, I have no magic wand. Mandating a local reorientation via tarif policy would only cause undue pain for all involved. Any long-lasting solution can only really come through a change in consumer preferences. The pandemic represents an opportunity to reorient our consumption towards local options, which are — at least for the moment — increasingly cost-efective compared to global goods.

Berry takes the long view with this solution. He understands that this local reorientation does not serve immediate fnancial interests, but rather fosters a set of economic conditions that will withstand the test of time.

He compares the work of a local economy to that of a forest topsoil: It slowly collects leaves and pine needles, preserving local resources and, over time, returning those resources to the roots below. Soil, Berry wrote, “[does] in a passive way what a human community must do actively and thoughtfully.” A community must “build soil, and build that memory of itself — in lore and story and song — that will be its culture.” By maintaining a local economic orientation, a community preserves and regenerates those pieces of itself that are most valuable. A community must “build soil” in its day-to-day life, by buying and selling and recycling its resources over and again within itself. In doing so, it preserves a collective memory of culture that will last as surely as the trees stand.

THADRYAN SWEENEY, GR: OTHERS

Trends: ‘Blonde’ and biopic genre transform truth into fantasy

B Y ALEXANDRA SUPRENANT

This article was originally published on Oct. 10, 2022.

Andrew Dominik’s biopic on Marilyn Monroe, “Blonde,” quickly soared to the top of Netfix’s movie chart after premiering on Sept. 8. The flm makes one fact clear: 60 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe’s image is still desirable and proftable. Pop artist Andy Warhol’s portrait of the iconic American actress sold for $195 million just this year. At the 2022 Met Gala, Kim Kardashian donned a glimmering dress worn by Monroe when she serenaded President John F. Kennedy in 1962; the dress sold in 2016 for almost fve million dollars.

“Blonde” is based on a 2000 novel by Joyce Carol Oates with the same name, which tells the story of Monroe’s life and includes both historical fact and fction. The nearly three-hour flm depicts the tragedies of Monroe’s life: her difcult childhood with an abusive mother, her rise to fame amid misogynistic, exploitative studio systems and her toxic relationships with men. There are several violent rape scenes throughout the movie — leading the Motion Picture Association to give “Blonde” a rare NC-17 rating— reserved for flms deemed suitable only for those over 18. “Blonde” is the only flm on Netfix with this infamous rating.

In actuality, Monroe endured an often painful life, ultimately committing suicide in 1962. Despite this, many have criticized the flm for exploiting this pain, portraying it as part of her fantasy or sexual allure, rather than attempting to humanize her. In one review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis wrote that, “Given all the indignities and horrors that Marilyn Monroe endured during her 36 years … it is a relief that [Marilyn] didn’t have to sufer through the vulgarities of Blonde, the latest

necrophiliac entertainment to exploit her.”

“Blonde” is hardly the frst biopic to cause controversy. In the past few years, a slew of biopics have been released, taking the media — and box ofce — by storm, including “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Elvis,” “Rocketman” and “Spencer.”

In a review for the New Yorker, Richard Brody describes Baz Lurhmann’s 2022 “Elvis” as a “a cold, arm’s-length, depsychologized, intimacy-deprived view of Presley.”

A few years prior, critics disliked Bryan Singer’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” depiction of Freddie Mercury’s sexuality.

In a review for Vox, Aja Romano refected that, “the movie reduces queer identity to a series of promiscuous sexual encounters, which it consistently frames as sordid, shameful, illicit and corrupting.”

Despite — or perhaps because of — these controversies, recent biopics have performed incredibly well at the box ofce, with “Bohemian Rhapsody” grossing over $900 million and “Rocketman” following behind with almost $200 million. Time and time again, these biopics afrm that the public is invested in the lives of these icons, and it pays. In the search for proft, however, these flms often create upsetting portrayals of beloved icons. The genre, by defnition, is “a movie dramatizing the life of a particular person.” In doing so, the biopic creates a troubling discrepancy between fact and fction.

Dominik, the director of “Blonde,” unabashedly admits to exploring the more grandeur myth of Monroe. In an interview, Dominik described the symbolic legacy of Marilyn Monroe: “I think the flm is about the meaning of Marilyn Monroe ... she was the Aphrodite of the 20th century ... and she killed herself. So what does that mean?”

It’s important to ask: is “Blonde,” or

any biopic, interested in accurately portraying a truthful representation of a real human, or capitalizing on a legend?

Dominik seemed to feel most compelled not by an actual, relatable individual, but by a greater “meaning” of Monroe — her “symbolic” potency, likened by Dominik to a “goddess.” In her article, Dargis wrote, “Dominik ends up reducing Marilyn to the very image — ... the commodity — that he also seems to be trying to critique.”

Tragically, Monroe does not — and never did — have autonomy over her own image. Nor, for that matter, did Freddie Mercury, Princess Diana or Elvis. These types of celebrated icons — who were so deeply exploited by the press and idolized by the public — blur into a territory of cultural understanding

which approaches myth. By nature, biopics are intensely aware of this fact. If anything, they exploit it.

Dominik even admitted his indiference towards truth in favor of aesthetics, explaining in an interview with Christina Newland “I’m not interested in reality, I’m interested in the images.”

Even during her lifetime, Monroe considered the complicated relationship between truth and fction intrinsic to stardom. Before she died, Monroe refected in an interview: “How do you go about writing a life story? Because the true things rarely get into circulation. It’s usually the false things … It’s hard to know where to start, you know, if you don’t start with the truth.”

In some sense, many biopics do start

with the truth. But biopics transform this truth into fantasy. Particularly in “Blonde,” even sufering is made into fantasy. Her pain is both glamorized and sexualized; Monroe sobs, but the camera focuses on her body. In “Rocketman,” Elton John descends down a selfdestructive path of drug abuse — but is of course depicted in glitzy party scenes, drowned in an expensive fur.

Biopics attempt to tackle the challenge of writing a life story, as Monroe said. However, these flms too often fail to truly humanize their subject. In the creative process, the truth is lost. They instead lean into mythology and exacerbate harmful and unrealistic conceptions about real people. The sufering that consumed these lives is glossed over with the allure of fame and beauty.

Q&A with Caroline Cook ’21 on debut novel and its inspiration

B Y MICHAELA GREGoRIOU

The Dartmouth

Caroline Cook’s ’21 frst novel, “Tell Them To Be Quiet and Wait” will be released on Nov. 1 to coincide with Dartmouth’s 50th anniversary of coeducation. The book is inspired by the life of Hannah Croasdale, Dartmouth’s frst female professor to receive

tenure. The novel follows two fctional women from two diferent times, 1935 and 2015, and explores how each navigates academia and science all the while emulating the true events of Croasdale’s life. During her time at Dartmouth, Cook studied Croasdale extensively through a student research fellowship at the Rauner Special Collections Library.

The Dartmouth sat down with Cook to discuss her writing process, the importance of inheriting a history and what the Dartmouth community can learn from reading the novel.

How did you discover Croasdale’s story?

CC: It’s an interesting story actually because I was the first person to do

the Historical Accountability Research Fellowship, which is out of Rauner Special Collections Library. Initially, the fellowship was about fnding something interesting in the archives and learning the process of archival research. Then the folks at Rauner said, “actually we’re pivoting the fellowship.” And then everything had to be about Dartmouth and historical accountability.

Jay Satterfeld, who was the head of Special Collections suggested I study the frst frst female professor at Dartmouth, Hannah Croasdale.

What compelled you to write this story?

CC: I was an English major and I have always been a writer. And Jay, who was advising me, said “I think you might want to do something with this story.” I was so interested in the parts of her story that I couldn’t prove but that I had a lot of opinions about. The thing about the archival work is that some of the more interesting parts of the story are the things that you can’t fnd. We call them the silences in the archives. I did a lot of nonfction writing, but it really felt like to truly show what I had learned about her life and about this generation of women, it felt like it needed to be fction.

What creative liberties did you take in retelling Croasdale’s story, and were those challenging decisions to make?

CC: I took a lot of liberties and I think I’m very haunted by the fact that I will never know if I told this story in a way that she approves of. I’m very specifc about the way that I describe the story because I don’t pretend to know how she felt.

But that said, I wanted to explore all of the ways in which not having language for a lot of the things that we have language for now might have changed how somebody described their experience at the time. So do I believe that the only woman in a department might have faced some sexual harassment? Yeah, I believe that — but there was no way to describe those things until the 70s when sexual harassment and sexual assault got their own vocabulary. That was really difcult. I created some scenarios that I can’t prove happened, but I think it’s more about her reaction to those scenarios that I believe is accurate, having studied this historical moment.

This story features parallel storylines between Beverly Connor in 1935 and Lena Rivera in 2015. Why did you employ this device and what is the

impact of such a structure?

CC: One, I wanted to show the two women in the same place and highlight the fact that people occupy the same spaces without thinking about the people who occupied them before. It’s something we all do, and it’s such a powerful tool — especially when those storylines never intersect. When you’re reading the book, you keep waiting for there to be some obvious connection between them to meet or interact in some way. And that doesn’t happen, because that’s not how the world works — but that doesn’t mean that those stories are not related. That’s a part of the point that I’m trying to make in the book: your story is connected to all of the women who came before you at Dartmouth, whether you think about it or not.

Could you elaborate on the signifcance of the release date?

CC: The novel is launching on Nov. 1, partially to tie in with the 50th anniversary of coeducation. We’re at this particular moment where we could just be looking forward and celebrating all of the progress that we’ve made, but we cannot properly appreciate how big of a deal that progress is if we don’t also create space for looking backwards and knowing who’s responsible for getting us to this moment.

Whyisitimportantforourcommunity to highlight and pay tribute to fgures in Dartmouth history like Croasdale?

CC: Who gets to tell stories at Dartmouth or any institution is always going to be challenging. As an institution that focuses on education and therefore is focusing on the future, I think our understanding of the future is only ever going to be as strong as our understanding of the past. I think that capturing as many perspectives of the important fgures in our history will set us up better for the future. That’s why this fellowship in the library is so important: There are untold stories that we need to dig out and pay attention to and learn from.

What perspective can readers gain from reading this story?

CC: That it’s not just about this one story, this one person. It’s not just about Dartmouth. It’s not just about women. It’s not just about science. It’s about understanding what it means to inherit a history.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length. Caroline Cook ’21 is a former Opinion editor for The Dartmouth.

SAMANTHA BRANT/THE DARTMOUTH

SPORTS

BY BOO DEWITT The Dartmouth

Friday, Oct. 14

Big Green feld hockey looks to secure its frst Ivy League win this weekend as the team faces of against Harvard University at Chase Field at 3 p.m. The team looks to continue its 3-2 winning home record this weekend after losses against the University of New Hampshire and Princeton University on the road the past two weekends.

The volleyball team looks to bounce back from its two tough losses last weekend to top-ranked Ivy opponents, Brown University and Yale University.

The Big Green will travel to New York City this weekend to face of against the Columbia University Lions on Friday at 7 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 15

Men’s and women’s cross country head to Charlottesville, Virginia to race in the XC23 Invite at Panorama Farms. This past weekend, the men came in sixth place at the New England Championship, with Seth Weprin ’23 leading the way for the competition after his frst place fnish with a time of 24:41. Finishing in 10th place with a time of 18:37, Anya Hirschfeld ’23 led the way for the women to secure seventh place.

Following a frst place fnish last weekend at the Open Atlantic Coast Dinghy Championships and fnishing sixth out of 16 at the Esther Open, sailing comes full throttle into this weekend’s competition at the Women’’s Atlantic Coast Championship Finals at Kings Point and the Captain Hurst

Bowl at Dartmouth. In the Open Atlantic Coast Dinghy Championships, In the “A” division, Boyd Bragg ’23 and Yumi Yoshiyasu ’24 fnished frst while Maddie Hawkins ’24 and Aisling Sullivan ’22 placed second. The Big Green looks to continue its successful fall slate - during its sixth weekend in a row of competition.

Rounding out its fall season, women’s golf sets of to Rehoboth Beach, Del. to compete this Saturday and Sunday at the Lady Blue Hen Invitational. This fall, women’s golf fnished sixth in the Princeton Invitational and 12th in the Ivy Collegiate tournament. Although sufering a loss to the Atlantic Coast Conference, within Ivy Collegiate match play, players Penelope Tir ’24 and Sophie Thai ’26 tied their matches. After a week of from competition, equestrian looks to secure its frst win of the season. The team will host Sweet Briar College at Morton Farm, with competition beginning at 10 a.m. Despite athe 9-1 loss to the University of Tennessee at Martin last weekend, Chloe Terestchenko ‘25 won her fat matchup, 75-74. The rest of the team all had close matchups in their fnal scores after facing ferce competition.

At 12 p.m., women’s rugby will compete against Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachussetts. The women’s rugby team is currently undefeated and looks to continue its success this weekend against its frst Ivy League opponent of the season. Last weekend, the team stormed through Mount Saint Mary’s, securing a shutout win of 79-0.

Football will compete for the Granite State title as they face of against

University of New Hampshire this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Memorial Field. Following three tough losses — including two overtime losses to Sacred Heart University and the University of Pennsylvania — the team looks to regain some momentum to turn the rest of its season around in order to be in the running for another Ivy League title.

Women’s soccer hosts Penn at 3 p.m. at Burnham Field this Saturday. The Big Green was victorious against Merrimack College last Monday with a 3-2 win. Allie Winstanley ’23 led the Big Green with two goals, while Mary

Lundregan ’26 reeled in two assists and Charlotte Cyr ’23 made eight saves while in net.

Men’s soccer (3-4-3) hosts Yale University at Burnham Field at 7 p.m.

The Big Green look to turn its season around and earn its frst Ivy League win after an 0-2 loss to Penn and 0-1 loss against Princeton.

On Saturday, the volleyball team will continue their weekend in Ithaca, New York where they will play against Cornell University at 5 p.m. With the completion of this weekend, women’s volleyball will have played four Ivy League games in a row.

Inside the Hash Marks: Handling Loss

BY JOSH Greene The Dartmouth Staff

This article was originally published on Oct. 10, 2022.

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. If you recall any of my writing from last season, you may remember how I like to use sports clichés and apply them to our team. Last year I was able to spin most of the clichés in a positive light. This season has been a little tougher. Although our record sits at 1-3, anyone who has watched our games knows how close we are to being undefeated. That’s what makes defeat so agonizing — how oh-so-close it is to victory.

I’m writing this on our bus ride home from Yale following our loss on Saturday. It was tough to sit on the bumpy ride home from New Haven and come to grips with losing an extremely hard-fought game by

just three points after back-to-back overtime losses. To sulk would be misplaced, and it would be erroneous to look back and ask “what if?” simply because I firmly believe that we are a good team that is narrowly coming out on the wrong side of things. Every game has to have a winner and a loser. We are very close to playing winning football, and I know we will put it together soon.

That silent bus ride is a difficult one to get through: You sense the disappointment that comes with losing. But life is full of losses. The losses where you feel so close to victory that you can practically touch it feel even more real than, say, a blowout defeat — but when it actually comes down to it, the losses on the field feel a lot less tangible when you deal with life’s real losses.

This past week, the Dartmouth football family lost much more than just a game. Our longtime equipment manager, Steve Ward, passed away

after a valiant battle with a harsh illness. Steve was a constant in all of our lives. For over two decades, the program quite literally could not

have run without Steve making sure our cleats were fitted, our helmets donned four stripes and our gray game pants were as clean and beautiful as the granite of New Hampshire. The average spectator might not notice Steve at Memorial Field on gameday, but the players and coaches felt his presence daily.

On an Instagram post honoring Steve following his passing, my former teammate and former all-Ivy center, Evan Hecimovich ’21, wrote that Steve might not have always given us what we wanted, but he always gave us what we needed.

I cannot think of a more accurate description of Steve’s impact on all of us than that. We’ve all had our “Steve moment” — in which Steve may have ripped into us more than we thought was warranted at the time. Looking back on it, we needed that lesson.

I remember my moment as vividly as I remember snapping a ball in the Yale Bowl just hours ago: Steve had given me, along with the rest of the freshman specialists, capes to wear during our final home game versus Cornell in 2019. It was a bitter, cold day, and I know that we were very thankful to have the extra layer generously provided by Steve. The one caveat in the whole deal was that Steve strictly instructed us to return the capes to him and no one else. I’m sure that we all thought the instructions were simple enough, and we wrapped ourselves up.

Everything was going well until one of Steve’s assistants walked by us on the sidelines and offered to take the capes in for us following the game. We all must have assumed that Steve sent his assistant to collect the capes, so we naively handed them over. Bad move. The next day, Steve gave us

Sunday Oct. 16

Field hockey will host the University of Massachusetts-Lowell on Sunday at 2 p.m at for its second game of the week.

Monday Oct. 17

Taking a break from an Ivy League opponent, women’s soccer will host Colby-Sawyer College at 6 p.m. on Monday at Burnham Field.

Tuesday Oct. 18

With one day to rest up in between games, men’s soccer will travel to Burlington, Vermont to face of against the University of Vermont at 7 p.m.

the business about not following his instructions. In that moment, we all thought Steve was overreacting. The capes made it back to the equipment room safe and sound, so what was the issue?

Unfortunately, it has taken me all this time to realize that Steve, a former Marine, probably orchestrated this entire ordeal to teach us a lesson. To follow instructions? Probably. To pay attention to details? Definitely. Regardless, this berating was not what freshmen Josh Greene, Cameron Baller, Ryan Bloch and Zach Drescher wanted in their lives, but it was something we needed.

As Steve taught us, the little things are important. Right now, there are a few detailskeeping us from achieving our goals every Saturday — but these losses on the field seem tiny when weighed against the loss of a mentor. I now look back on all the times Steve yelled at me for misplacing an unimportant, miscellaneous item with fondness. I wish that I had the opportunity to tell him how important those moments were to me — how much the back-and-forth ribbing about the ups and downs of the Boston Red Sox (Steve’s favorite team) meant to me.

After a tough loss on the field, we can look back and seek to make adjustments to change the outcome the next time around. With a loss of a life, though, we have to savor even the mistakes of the past. I know that Steve wouldn’t want us to mope over a loss to Yale, so we can’t feel defeated after losing Steve, either. We need to remember the good times and use them to move forward and improve. I know we are close to turning things around as a team on the field, and, perhaps, using the lessons that Steve taught us will help us do so. I’m dedicating the

JULIA SIEGEL/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

ZOORIEL TAN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

MIRROR

All That Glitters Is Not Gold: A Reflection on Rush

By Adrienne MurrSTORY

This article was originally published on Oct. 12, 2022.

I wouldn’t rush if I went to a different school. I’m not ranking sororities off social clout. I’ll be happy wherever I end up. I’m not giving power to a system built on making girls feel bad about themselves. These are some of the many lies, or half-truths, I coaxed myself into believing during the rush process.

Ah, Greek life. I love to criticize it — yet I rushed just the same, one in a swarm of 462 hopeful PNMs flocking Webster Avenue in some combination of colorful blouse and tailored denim. I’ve spent the last three weeks discussing rush with just about every girl I’ve ever talked to on this

campus. During each conversation, we methodically avoided the unspoken truths of its ugliness with the same diligence we avoided going out during recruitment. As part of a personal effort to make the Mirror unhinged again (circa 2010), I’m ready to talk — really talk — about the side of sorority recruitment we love to pretend doesn’t exist.

While there are valid, admirable reasons to rush at Dartmouth, the majority of PNMs don’t submit to them. If I had a dollar for every time a PNM raved about how “nice” the girls at x sorority were only to rank it in their bottom two houses due to preconceived notions about its social standing, I could fund the maintenance of a Psi U’s family sailboat. And for what? Why

do we, a highly educated ensemble of critical thinkers, perpetuate archaic house hierarchies?

Why do we rush at all? Despite hearing dozens of scripted responses to this question, I’ve yet to find a satisfying answer. Yeah yeah yeah sisterhood, philanthropy, divine femininity, all that good stuff. But come on, let’s not pretend these are the founding pillars of Greek life. We rush for the same reason we line up outside frat houses in tank tops and mascara. Rebelling against the social norms of this campus feels like nothing deeper than a holier-than-thou self-inflicted punishment; it’s easier to give in than to ask questions. Critical thinking simply isn’t rewarded within the gendered confines of a frat basement.

Sororities are currency in Dartmouth’s social economy. We rush because it seems like we have to in order to maximize our participation in Dartmouth nightlife. So why do we religiously avoid talking about each sorority’s robust social calendar during recruitment? Why must we temporarily reduce the social aspect of sororities to charity fundraisers, sleepovers and movie nights throughout three weeks of rush, only to get blackout drunk on bid night? Why are sorority events just pre-games to frat parties?

At its core, Greek life relies on gender division and systematic exclusion to function. You cannot have a formal Greek space on this campus without exclusion — and belonging to a Greek space on this campus implies that someone else is excluded from it. This insider-outsider dynamic keeps the system afloat. Without cuts, nobody would rush. One girl’s sense of belonging comes at the cost of another’s exclusion.

I’ve given up on trying to convince myself that I’m not like the other girls — that I rushed for the right reasons, whatever those may be. The truth is, I sought cheap validation from an institution built upon systemic exclusion and hierarchy. Greek life is certainly not the sole enforcer of social hierarchy on this campus; it does, however, replace an unspoken social hierarchy with a tangible, artificial one. For me, rush activated a carnal impulse to be wanted. I pined after the approval of girls I wouldn’t have cared about in high school, wearing inoffensive outfits and an omnipresent smile. It was always “do they like me?” and never “do I like them?”

Recruitment was a performance. I quickly learned which quirky fun facts to seamlessly name-drop at which houses. Please don’t ask me how many times I proudly described

myself as “a manic knitter” last week despite having only knit two things. As far as role models go, Adam Sandler definitely isn’t mine — yet it felt like a more memorable answer than “my mom,” so I went with it. When forced to sell myself off anecdotal fun facts alone, every answer felt inherently performative. Even my most honest sentiments felt less and less authentic as I repeated them like a well-rehearsed script throughout the week. I reduced entire facets of my identity down to clever one-liners — and even those didn’t seem to do an enticing enough job of selling myself to the sisterhood.

Part of me submits to the “it’s not that deep ‘’ rush rationalization — which runs tangentially to the cult classic logic “but everybody does it here.” If your friend jumps off a bridge, would you? Depends if she’s wearing monogrammed house merch. We tell ourselves it’s okay to participate in the superficial sorority screening process because everybody else does it. This shallow complacency ensures that the system will continue to operate as it always has: enforcing a hierarchical categorization of the Dartmouth student body.

It could be different, but it isn’t. Dartmouth College is an elite group of students divided like meiosis into smaller, more elite groups of students. We rush with an innate desperation to weave ourselves into the Dartmouth status quo, and we will continue to rush so long as the system stands. Whether or not Greek life can be reformed without being abolished, I remain unsure. One thing I do know is that the system, as it currently operates, needs a lot more work — and a lot less glittering complacency — to embody the values of the Dartmouth student body.

XOXO, PNM #283

Reduce, Reuse, Does Dartmouth Recycle?

By Allison BurgSTORY

This article was originally published on Oct. 12, 2022.

From where to eat to where to party, Dartmouth students have lots of choices to make. When you throw something away, three choices emerge: trash, recycle or compost. Although this is usually a split-second decision, the reliability of recycling on campus is hotly debated. Where do Collis smoothies go when we’re done with them? Does Dartmouth even recycle?

Dara Casey ’25, who thrifts most of her clothes and pays attention to what she recycles, feels that Dartmouth tries “to make it appear” as though they recycle, but she’s not sure whether they actually do.

Jacob Garland ’25 — an intern at the Sustainability Ofce, member of the Environmental Students at Dartmouth, former member of the frstyear Sustainability Action Program and environmental studies major — is even more doubtful. “Probably not,” he said.

The reasoning behind this two-word answer is more complex and layered than it may seem. Currently, Dartmouth Facilities Operations & Management recycles through our current vendor, Casella, for Zero-SortTM items, which accepts zero contamination. The zero contamination policy primarily originates from the recent stringent recycling policies in China, where American companies ship most of their recycling.

According to the associate director of FO&M Tim McNamara, Casella’s sorting requirements pose a difculty for Dartmouth. “If we have 90% participation [recycling] perfectly and 10% screwing it up, it’s all screwed up,” he explained. Garland is unsure if Chinese recycling plants would even accept Casella’s recycling, as the rules make it extremely easy for recyclables to be rejected.

Thus, a main concern of FO&M and the Sustainability Ofce is recycling contamination. In a recent audit, FO&M found that about 45% of all recycling bags collected in a week were contaminated — bigger locations, like the library, had the most contamination.

In order to prevent recycling from

being declared contaminated, FO&M contracts process coordinator Susan Weider explained that there are two main checks in place. The frst check is with custodial services, who are directed to put recycling into the trash if they see obvious contamination and put noncontaminated recycling at the curb. The second check is another visual check for contamination by the crew that takes the recycling from the curb and brings it to the compactor. The materials are then sent to a transfer station in White River Junction where they are sorted and undergo another set of checks before the products make their way to the recycling plants overseas.

Effective recycling is therefore a responsibility not only of the College but also of the individual. Due to these strict contamination regulations, it only takes a few nonrecyclables to contaminate an entire bag of recyclable material. Yet, Casey noted that the College must also be clear and transparent on how to recycle by keeping students informed of proper practices.

“We are responsible for making the infrastructure be in place to have [recycling] happen,” Weider explained. “But we can’t be there directing students every single day with every single recycling container to do the right thing.”

To educate students, the Sustainability Ofce has outreach campaigns and student programs. For example, the posters displayed in Collis and dorm hallways are meant to inform students about which items can and cannot be recycled. Garland believes that there is nonetheless always more that can be done by the Sustainability Ofce and the administration.

“There is always, especially for sustainability, a wealth of ideas and a lack of actual person power to get it done,” Garland said. The issues are also always more complex than they seem on the surface. Garland hopes that more people will care about and be interested in sustainability, so that “we can take those ideas and make them happen.”

Do students actually care if Dartmouth recycles?

“Even if I’m not an ENVS major, I care about the future of the environment, so it’s important to me that Dartmouth

does recycle,” Casey said. Weider thinks that most students care about recycling and are educated enough to do it properly, but those who continue to make mistakes can contaminate a whole container.

For many students, it is not a lack of knowledge or environmentalism, but rather a lack of time that leads to poor recycling habits. Students are busy and frankly do not have energy to sort through and consider their recyclables.

Garland mentioned how there is sometimes “a lack of efort when it

comes to things that could potentially be recycled, but might require a little bit of work to do,” such as a plate with food residue. Although McNamara considers a multi-stream system, where waste is separated into two or more separate bins, less easily contaminated because people have to consider what can be recycled, Garland thinks if the college “were to go with a diferent route beside ZeroSort, that would require students to put in another layer of thought” and would thus be less efective.

All in all, Dartmouth makes an

efort to recycle, but the current state of the recycling industry has faws in its contamination regulations. Although this knowledge is somewhat discouraging, as a community we can still hope that our contributions will make a diference.

“Just looking outside the actual efcacy of recycling, I think developing that habit of being conscious about where we’re putting our waste and what we’re doing with it is hugely important,” says Garland. “Recycling is an easy foray into being more conscious about our consumption habits.”

October is Dating Violence Awareness Month

Does your partner...

get angry if you spend time with others or do things without them? demand you share your social media passwords, texts, location, or let them go through your phone?

prevent you from working, sleeping, studying, taking care of yourself? insist you are wrong, you are crazy, or you do not understand how relationships work? claim your friends or family are trying to break you up or ruin your relationship? blame you for problems in your relationship? pressure you to do sexual things, drink, use drugs, or do things that could get you into trouble? destroy your belongings or property around you? make fun of your looks, talents, hobbies, skills, friendships, intelligence, or parenting? provoke you and blame you for your reaction? threaten to hurt you, themselves, or spread personal information or pictures of you? expose you to danger because of your sexuality, gender, race, religion, immigration status, or other parts of your identity?

This is abuse.