A Failing Institution? (5.8.17)

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a failing institution?

parkhurst The ominous lanterns of the Hanlon administration building loom above the masses of students below

Improve Dartmouth Elliott A. Lancry Associate Editor

Dartmouth is overall a fantastic place. It’s ranked number 11 on the US News list of top colleges in the United States.

The professors are committed to undergraduate education. The community is tightknit and the students are committed to learning.

That being said, like anything, Dartmouth has its flaws. These flaws are not the fault of any person or organization in particular, but they hurt students every day.

Hopefully, if students engage in collective action and make persuasive arguments to the administration about the benefits of change, we can improve this campus.

The Improve Dartmouth organization is a fantastic initiative that dedicates itself to hearing the

concerns of students and working hard to make sure they are heard and somehow enacted. To start the conversation of change, here are a few issues I’ve noticed in Dartmouth’s dining facilities.

The Hop line is always too long. This term, Dartmouth Dining Services (DDS) installed a TV system where students could voice their concerns through text messages. One student a week gets $25 in DBA just for participating, and students’ concerns are responded to and posted on televisions in both the Courtyard Cafe (Hop) and the Class of 1953 Commons (Foco).

The system seemed revolutionary at first -- a break from the perpetual bureaucracy that is Dartmouth Dining Services. However, everytime I look at the screen, I see a genuine concern

matched with a sarcastic or joking response by the moderator of the system.. This is cringeworthy. The whole system probably cost upward of $1,000. Every response is about how something will be looked into or how lines will be fixed in the “future” by hiring new employees. The money could have been used to fix the issues of inefficiency faced by the Hop, yet instead all students received was a string of sarcastic and joking remarks coupled with unfulfilled promises by a DDS moderator.

Furthermore, though not the fault of any DDS workers, Collis is constantly crowded. During rush periods, stir fry lines can go beyond the cash register and even wrap around the room into the outdoor area where the stairs are. Smoothie lines are typically never short-

er than 10 or 15 minutes during rush periods.

Collis seems to be meant as a quicker alternative to Foco. Yet unfortunately eating at Collis at convenient times is typically a long and enduring process.

Foco is arguably the most consistent, dependable eating option on campus, though it faces a string of challenges of its own. Lines during peak dining times can be long at WorldView -one of the few stations that changes its options on a regular basis. Furthermore, WorldView faces challenges in terms of providing options for students with allergies.

Some weeks are fantastic and have a variety of options. However, some weeks have no options for a student with a certain type of food allergy.

> FEATURES page 7

Unqualified and Inept Samuel L. Prescott Contributor

President Phil Hanlon’s brilliant mind brought us a number of notable personnel decisions, the highlights of which include Provost Carolyn Dever, Vice Provost for Student Affairs Inge-Lise Ameer, and Dean of the Faculty Bruce Duthu.

In contrast, observers of the College have given relatively little attention to Dean of the College Rebecca Biron.

To be fair, for the duration of her tenure, the once prominent Dean of the College role was a shell of its former self, with the Vice Provost for Student Affairs assuming most of the Dean’s traditional responsibilities.

With Vice Provost Ameer’s unceremonious termination, the Dean of the

College has reassumed its former primacy in matters of student life. As a result, Dean Biron’s expanded role should warrant renewed attention. Still, she managed to stay under the radar until one of her recent personnel decisions brought her management style into sharp relief. It is finally time for some daylight.

Understanding Dean Biron’s role in the College’s bureaucracy requires an understanding of the unfortunate history of her office.

Recall that her most immediate predecessor (excluding Interim Dean Ameer) was the ignoble Charlotte Johnson, whose craven response to the Freedom Budget protests is the stuff of legend.

> Features page 7

A modern education

Faceoff: Stem vs.

Humanities

great Profs: John Voight

Editor-in-Chief Jack Mourouzis critiques the state of modern higher education.

The Review’s editorial staff faces off on the topic of which academic focus is more valuable.

We sit down with the young yet highly accomplished professsor of mathematics.

> EDITORIAL page 3

> features page 6

> features page 10

2 Monday – May 8, 2017

The Dartmouth Review

The Dartmouth Review

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For thirty-five years, The Dartmouth Review has been the College’s only independent newspaper and the only student opinion journal that matters. It is the oldest and most renowned campus commentary publication in the nation and spawned a national movement at the likes of Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and countless others. Our staff members and alumni have won many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, and have been published in the Boston Globe, New York Times, National Review, American Spectator, Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard, Village Voice, New Criterion, and many others.

The Review aims to provide a voice for any student who enjoys challenging brittle and orthodox thinking. We stand for free speech, student rights, and the liberating arts. Whatever your political leanings, we invite you to come steep yourself in campus culture and politics, Dartmouth lore, keen witticisms, and the fun that comes with writing for an audience of thousands. We’re looking for writers, photographers, cartoonists, aspiring business managers, graphic designers, web maestros, and anyone else who wants to learn from Dartmouth’s unofficial school of journalism.

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Safe space

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EST. 1980

EDITORIAL

Editor-in-Chief

A Modern Education

Jack F. Mourouzis

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Sandor Farkas

Executive Editors

Joshua L. Kauderer & Joseph R. Torsella

Managing Editors Jack S. Hutensky Devon M. Kurtz Rushil Shukla Zachary P. Port

Associate Editors Shawn E. Honaryar Elliott A. Lancry B. Webb Harrington Brandon E. Teixeira

Senior Correspondents

Brian Chen & Marcus J. Thompson

Business staff President

Robert Y. Sayegh

President Emeritus Matthew R. Zubrow

(next to Lou’s in the lower level office space)

Vice Presidents Jason B. Ceto & Noah J. Sofio

Inside the issue

The plethora of problems that plague the College are generally well known. We at The Review have attempted to compile the most glaring and oft-cited issues - many of which could indeed be easily solved........................................................................................ PAGE 1

The Roast of Rebecca Biron

The Review’s Devon Kurtz defends the other side of the debate, positing that the humanities are an invaluable field of study............................................................................... PAGE 7

The Problems of Affirmative Action

It is fairly clear to most that the College’s administration represents gross incompetence.

The Review takes a look at this in the form of the Dean of the College ................... PAGE 1

We take a look at the historical origins of this controversial practice, its manifestations in modern-day society and its negative impacts on higher education and the United States as a whole.......................................................................................................................... PAGE 9

Face-Off: The STEM Perspective

Great Professors: John Voight

The Review’s Shawn Honaryar offers his thoughts on the value of studying STEM subjects over the humanities................................................................................................ PAGE 6

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The Review speaks with Associate Professor of Mathematics John Voight about his new textbook, cryptography, and his time at Dartmouth................................................ PAGE 10

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win great triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to takerank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

—Theodore Roosevelt

Editorial BOARD

Meetings held Mondays at 6:30 PM at our offices at 32 S. Main Street

Face-Off: In Favor of the Humanities

3

MASTHEAD & EDitorial

– Inge-Lise Ameer, Vice Provost for Student Affairs

Improve Dartmouth

Monday – May 8, 2017

ADVISORY Founders

Greg Fossedal, Gordon Haff, Benjamin Hart, Keeney Jones

Legal Counsel

Mean-Spirited, Cruel, and Ugly

Board of Trustees

Martin Anderson, Patrick Buchanan, Theodore Cooperstein, Dinesh D’Souza, Michael Ellis, Robert Flanigan, John Fund, Kevin Robbins, Gordon Haff, Jeffrey Hart, Laura Ingraham, Mildred Fay Jefferson, William Lind, Steven Menashi, James Panero, Hugo Restall, Roland Reynolds, William Rusher, Weston Sager, Emily Esfahani-Smith, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Sidney Zion

nigel farage reads the review.

Notes Special thanks to William F. Buckley, Jr. “Europe is growing more and more lost every day. I alone can fix!”

The Editors of The Dartmouth Review welcome correspondence from readers concerning any subject, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material published previously in The Review. We reserve the right to edit all letters for clarity and length. Please submit letters to the editor by mail or email: editor@dartreview.com Or by mail at:

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French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rous- which is often associated with notions of anseau wrote in his 1762 Treatise on Education ti-Semitism, in addition to its more tangible that “We are born weak, we need strength; sanctions, also inhibits the free exchange of helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need rea- thought and ideas between Israel and other son. All that we lack at birth, all that we need nations, and also between the greater Jewish when we come to man’s estate, is the gift of community and its constituents. That Duthu education.” It goes without saying that the would support such a movement is particuAmerican university system is the strongest larly troubling, especially due to his potential and most accomplished on Earth; our com- impact in college affairs in his role as Dean of prehensive and accessible system of public the Faculty. institutions is complemented by highly sucThis brings us to the topic of the imporcessful private institutions, including Darttance of ideological diversity in higher mouth and the rest of the Ivy League. education. Ultimately, an adminUnfortunately, however, this clear istration that does not take into central mission – education, reaccount the opinions, beliefs, search, and the general pursuit and general ideological leanof knowledge – is becoming ings of all of its students is, lost in the modern age. In quite simply, an incompetent part, this hijacking of instiadministration. A recent Darttutions which should serve as Blog post highlighted the limbastions of critical thought has ited academic scope of the resulted in the propagation of College’s administration in authoritarian ideology, dancomparison to the admingerous rhetoric, and the viistrations of peer instituolent splintering of Ameritions. Whereas other unican society. versity administrations One of the most recent represent a wide breadth exhibitions of ideological of both STEM subjects Jack F. Mourouzis intolerance occurred at the and humanities disciplines, University of California, Berkeley, after the Dartmouth’s higher management is unified scheduled speech by well-known conserva- by a common focus: gender and sexualitive commentator Ann Coulter was abruptly ty studies. In addition to being particularly canceled by the university. This controversy niche subjects (their pertinence to the real gathered national news coverage, with many world is, indeed, doubtful), these subjects are commentators speaking out against the uni- notoriously biased, pushing fringe theories of versity administration’s one-sided, biased intersectionality, gender theory, and various decision. The riots that sprung up following complicated, dubious -isms. It is propaganda, the decision also have received heavy media not scholarship. There is little, if any, ideologattention; the “sucker punch” of one left-wing ical diversity within these fields of study, and protester, which became a viral video on so- their dominance in the administration of this cial media, was fodder for this media frenzy. college is indeed troubling for any who hold As riots wreaked havoc on the Berkeley com- Rousseau’s words to be true. munity, one group rose to the forefront of This lack of true exposure to different controversy: Antifa, an amorphous coalition ideas also extends to the general student of “anti-fascist” groups and organizations that body. Many took note of the recent poll in played a major role in spurring the Berkeley The Dartmouth entitled “A Survey of Dartprotests. Antifa groups have also made ap- mouth’s Political Landscape,” which featured pearances worldwide, including in France, one particularly striking image. Of students where participants protested the success of identifying as Republicans or independents, the right-wing presidential candidate Marine less than 20% would be uncomfortable with Le Pen. These Antifa groups are noteworthy a roommate possessing opposing political because of their proclivity for violence, their views; of students identifying as Democrats, flaunting of the law, and their efforts to re- a full 45% would be uncomfortable with main anonymous. While many left-wing ac- a roommate possessing opposing political tivists preach and practice peace and nonvi- views. This disparity, which made its rounds olence, Antifa groups have instigated violent in the national media, is truly telling as to the riots with both Alt-Right counter-protesters state of ideological intolerance in this counand police. It is indeed worrisome that po- try: it is, primarily, a problem of the left. This litical tensions worldwide have reached this administration is not serving as a model for boiling point. its students; instead of embodying the values Dartmouth, thankfully, has not seen such of free exchange of thought, it is standing for controversial incidents recently. That does closed-mindedness and intellectual intolernot mean, however, that ideological intoler- ance. ance does not play a role in campus politics.

With these aspects taken into account, the Perhaps one of the most striking examples is state of affairs of higher education can only be the recent appointment of N. Bruce Duthu, seen as grim. Rousseau’s notion of strength Professor of Native American Studies, to and reason has little to no bearing on a modthe post of Dean of the Faculty. While also ern education; true intellectualism and the raising eyebrows due to Duthu’s lack of qual- the goal of the betterment of the individual ification (he does not possess a doctoral de- have been lost to modern leftist thought. As gree), Duthu’s appointment is particularly the true victims of these dangerous trends, troubling because of his support of the BDS we as students can only hope that the sun (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Move- soon dawns on a brighter day for intellectualment against Israel. The BDS Movement, ism in higher education.

4 Monday – May 8, 2017

The Dartmouth Review

The Dartmouth Review

WEEK IN REVIEW vote yes on article nine!

This Tuesday on May 9, the town of Hanover will host its annual town meeting balloting at Hanover High School. While Dartmouth students typically do not take much of an interest in town affairs, one line item on this year’s ballot—Article Nine—will be of particular interest to many students at the College.

The article, the result of a petition brought about by attorneys representing the Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Alpha Delta fraternities, proposes to redefine the term “student residence” in order to prevent the College from forcing students out of housing belonging to derecognized student organizations.

While the outcome of the vote most directly affects members of Alpha Delta and Sigma Alpha Epsilon, both recently derecognized by the College, the amendment has implications for any Dartmouth student organization that owns property in Hanover.

The College currently has unchecked power over student organizations as they are able to derecognize any organization without cause. If the amendment is passed, student organizations will be allowed to exist independently from Dartmouth and be fully functional in the event of de-recognition, thus gaining significant leverage in any dispute with the College.

If Article Nine is to succeed, it will be the most significant action taken to preserve the Greek system since “The Greek Proposal” in 2015, which may have prevented the Moving Dartmouth Forward Steering Committee from recommending to abolish Greek organizations at the College.

Will the vote pass? There are both causes for optimism and concern. One can be sure that the College is mustering a strong campaign to Hanover residents to make sure the vote does not pass. The ballot itself will also note that the town zoning board recommends that residents vote “no” on the amendment, which may sway some voters who are unfamiliar with the issue.

However, there will be a few factors working in the students’ favor. One is that some town residents will likely vote “yes” on the amendment due to worries that as more student houses shut down, more noisy college students will take up residence in the quiet, rural sections of Hanover. Other campaigners have argued that the current definition of student residence, which is excessively vague and administered by the College, has contributed to decreased investment in Hanover real estate and an increase in

tax abatement requests. Supporters have also argued that the amendment would preserve the balance of power between the town and the administration.

Whatever the motivations of Hanover residents, the residential areas of the town are currently peppered with yard signs sporting the slogan “vote yes on article nine”, with few indications of any households being in opposition to the amendment. It may also help that there is a fairly large cohort of Dartmouth alumni in favor of the initiative that reside within the town.

For Article Nine to pass, however, Dartmouth students will likely need to show up to the polls in significant numbers. A two-thirds majority is needed to adopt the amendment. Given that the record turnout for a Hanover town vote, roughly 1,200 people, may well be surpassed on Tuesday, it could take well over 1,000 students for the vote to pass.

The Review is hopeful that Dartmouth students and Hanover town residents alike will take this rare opportunity to decrease the unchecked power of the College’s administration.

militant antifa groups clash in series of riots across the uS On May 1st, the “Anti-Fascist” group ANTIFA harassed and assaulted yet another group of conservatives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Trump and his Republican supporters attempted to celebrate the first 100 hundred days of Donald Trump’s Presidency on the steps of the Minnesota State Capital, but they were physically prevented from doing so by 50 ANTIFA members. The members also attacked veterans who were in the crowd. ANTIFA members then continued to curb, stop, and pepper spray other supporters who had come to celebrate. Eventually, the Trump supporters were turned away by the mob, who chanted “we won!” as the Trump supporters went home.

This egregious violence is just one instance in a litany of assaults committed by the group. ANTIFA, which is short for Anti-Fascist, is just one of the many groups formed in opposition to the Trump Presidency. However, many ANTIFA members advocate for the use of violence. This is done because they view Republicans as Nazis. While the desire to fight Nazis is an honorable trait, ANTIFA utterly fails in its mission statement. By labeling all views that do not align with its ideology as “fascism,” the group has taken on a role that more closely resem-

bles a fascist regime censoring free speech through the use of force. As a result, ANTIFA has become a dangerous group of rebellious, largely ignorant children who are able to get away with brutal assaults on conservatives, the American political system, and society itself. ANTIFA members are nothing more than domestic terrorists who terrorize conservatives under the false flag of “Anti-Fascism.”

dartmouth class of 2021 announcement

The College announced earlier this week that this year, it experienced the strongest response to its offers of admission in 25 years. 61 percent of students admitted to Dartmouth as part of the Class of 2021 accepted their offers of admission. The incoming class, currently numbering 1279 students, will be the largest, most globally diverse, and most academically distinguished in the College’s history. “The increase in yield this year was well beyond our expectations,” said Lee Coffin, vice provost for enrollment and dean of admissions and financial aid, in an interview with Dartmouth News. “We look forward to welcoming this remarkably talented and diverse group of students to campus in the fall. This kind of one-year shift is impossible to anticipate and, in fact, unprecedented at Dartmouth.” In a similar interview with Dartmouth News, Provost Carolyn Dever credits Coffin for selecting the kind of high-achieving students that “fit” well at Dartmouth. “Lee understands that Dartmouth is an exceptional blend of a liberal arts college and a small research university,” she was quoted as saying. “During April’s enrollment process the admissions team accentuated the access incoming students would have to work alongside our incomparable teacher-scholars. Not surprisingly, that was an incredible draw for the high-achieving students who were invited to join the incoming class.” Coffin was appointed vice provost for enrollment and dean of admissions and financial aid in February 2016. Before coming to Dartmouth, he was Dean of undergraduate admissions and enrollment management for Tufts University, where he increased the yield - the percentage of students who accept their offers of admission - by more than 12 points. During his tenure, he also improved the academic profile of enrolling classes by attracting more high-achieving students to Tufts. Coffin and the ad-

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Joshua D. Kotran Jason B. Ceto missions team achieved similar results at Dartmouth this year. The members of the Class of 2021 are part of one of the most academically distinguished classes in the College’s history. Average verbal SAT scores increased 17 points from last year and average math SAT scores increased 21 points. The mean ACT score also increased from 32.1 to 32.3. Coffin, in his same interview with Dartmouth news, claimed that the Dimensions program, which focused on Dartmouth’s unique focus on undergraduate teaching this year, was “a key factor in the enhanced response rate to our offers of admission.” “We led with one of Dartmouth’s signature strengths and introduced a compelling series of faculty presentations that underscored the concept of scholars who teach. That direct contact with Dartmouth’s faculty was wildly popular. The energy was clear,” he said. The statistics support Coffin’s assertion. This year, more than 70 percent of Dimensions attendees accepted offers of admissions whereas in past years, only about 55 to 60 percent have. It seems clear that the Class of 2021 is a historic one, so we at The Dartmouth Review are excited to see how the Class of 2021 leaves its own indelible mark on the College.

Noah J. Sofio Rushil Shukla

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north korea detains american citizen without proper explanation On May 7, the People’s Republic of North Korea detained yet another United States citizen. Kim Haksong was an employee of the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology before being detained.

The state-run media gave little explanation for North Korea’s actions, simply stating that an investigation was “on-going.”

Mr. Hak-Song is the fourth American to be detained by North Korea. Just last year UVA student and Cincinnati native Otto Warmbier was detained and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for taking a poster from his hotel room. North Korea’s series of infractions has been met with a thundering whimper on the part of the United States. This whimper has taken the form of President Obama’s “strategic patience.” Rather than risk a conflict with North Korea, the former president opted to kick the can down the road and meet North Korean aggression with American weakness. As many have pointed out, this policy of appeasement will only lead to conflict.

The surest way to preserve peace is by sending and maintaining the message that the “good guys” hold power and will not tolerate evil. Any other policy, including “strategic patience” only emboldens the forces of evil around the world. However, many, including the parents of Otto Warmbier, hope that the Trump administration will reassert American power and bring the four detained Americans home.

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“I told you we shouldn’t have worn clothes to Mud Derby.”

6 Monday – May 8, 2017

The Dartmouth Review

The Value of Humanities Devon M. Kurtz

Face-off: STEM vs. Humanities

News Editor

Editor’s Note: We at The Review hold a diverse pool of viewpoints, particularly with regards to different paths in education. As today’s society becomes more oriented towards STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines, the more traditional education, focused around the humanities, has begun to fall by the wayside. We have decided to have our own staff members face off in a written debate over the contested topic: Which educational focus is indeed more valuable? Examples of STEM subjects would be biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, and physics. Humanities disciplines include, but are not limited to, anthropology, art history, language studies, Classics, English, film and media studies, music, philosophy, religion, studio art, and theater.

Quantitative Supremacy Associate Editor October 2012. I sit down at my computer, open Google Docs, and type my name in the upper left corner. A one page paper on the illegitimacy of love at first sight, in the context of the play Romeo and Juliet, is due tomorrow.

The argumentation has already formulated in my head: Love at first sight is simply an intense attraction to the aesthetics of another person, and hence is not a true form of love. But I struggle to expand my thoughts and formulate them on paper—the process of knowing what I want to argue, but struggling to find the words to properly express my opinions, serves as a constant source of frustration as I write. It was in this moment that I first began to recognize that my academic passions do not lie with writing and the humanities.

However, this realization developed slowly, and the humanities still comprised the large majority of my high school career. I studied Classics industriously, not only during Latin class, but also on weekends and throughout the summers, and I competed at a grand total of eleven regional, state, and national Latin conventions. On a given day in July, while clear blue skies served as a backdrop to the radiant California sun, my friends would find me inside, situated in my computer chair with the curtains drawn, reading Private Life of the Romans or reviewing some notes on Greek derivatives. Yet here I am today, intending to focus my academic pursuits for the next three years almost exclusively on physics and computer science.

I have immersed myself in both the Humanities and in STEM, and I strongly affirm that the latter emerges as the superior collegiate area of study. We must first recognize that attending college is not as much about what one learns, Mr. Honaryar is a freshman at the College and an Associate Editor at The Dartmouth Review.

but rather about the benefits he receives from the learning process. Every Classics major knows that the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 A.D., and every physics major knows that taking the antiderivative of the wave function squared computes the probability of finding an electron within certain bounds. But this concrete knowledge, in

(GRE) from 2005, we see that engineering majors scored at a median of 594 while humanities majors lagged behind at a median of 560. The Educational Testing Service (ETS), responsible for writing a wide variety of tests including the GRE and the TOEFL, also releases data on the average IQ of college graduates based on their college major. Physics

“The more honed our problem-solving skills are, the more likely we are to develop revolutionary, innovative solutions to time-worn problems.” itself, has almost no utility outside of academia. Indeed, the critical thinking abilities and problem solving skills we develop as we learn new and difficult concepts possess the true utility. There is a steep learning curve at the beginning of any new job and, the sharper our learning skills are, the more efficiently we can beat the curve. The more honed our problem-solving skills are, the more likely we are to develop revolutionary, innovative solutions to timeworn problems. Collegiate learning derives its value not from the concrete knowledge and facts we gain, but rather from how it reinforces our problem solving skills and improves our ability to learn at a faster rate.

But do all subjects across the academic spectrum provide equal cerebral refinement?

Certainly not. Myriad studies have proven that STEM majors are “smarter” than majors in other fields. Indeed, a study conducted in 1952 by Dael Wolfle and Toby Oxtoby compared scores on the Army General Classification Test (AGCT; the modern equivalent is the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) from a sample of ten thousand college graduates from forty different universities. The median score of students in physical sciences or engineering ranged from 129-130 while students of the humanities scored a median of 127. The discrepancy is much more distinct in several other studies.

When we examine the average math and verbal scores on the Graduate Record Examination

and astronomy majors scored the highest with an average IQ of 133, and mathematics majors tailed closely behind with an average of 130. Humanities and Arts majors, on the other hand, averaged an IQ of 120.

I will speak from personal experience to analyze the reason for this discrepancy in test scores. STEM forces the student to think harder and more analytically. Much of the time, solving a physics problem or writing a program will oxymoronically require a systematic, yet creative thought process. The STEM student must be imaginative and able to analyze a given problem from multiple

from the top of a five meter high wedge with an angle of thirty degrees from horizontal. With the guidance of his teacher, the student will eventually realize that analyzing the ball and wedge system using the traditional y-vertical, x-horizontal axes will result in tedious calculation. Instead, if he changes his perspective and analyzes the system with rotated coordinate axes, such that the x-axis lies parallel to the surface of the wedge, the calculations simplify greatly.

He can then apply Newton’s Second Law to find the acceleration of the ball, and then use that acceleration in a kinematics equation to solve for the final velocity. This process embodies the spirit of STEM: learning basic concepts in class, and then harnessing critical thinking and problem solving skills to apply those concepts and elegantly simplify complex systems.

The humanities emphasize this process to a lesser degree. Analytical thinking is important when formulating an argument for, say, a comparative literature essay or for examining causes and effects throughout history. But the caliber of analytical thinking in the humanities falls short

“If an English major seeks to understand the principles of Special Relativity, such as how time passes at a rate determined by one’s velocity, he will likely struggle with the intense mathematical and physical theory necessary to quantify the phenomenon.” perspectives. Then, once he grounds himself in what he believes is the correct perspective, he must be methodical, utilizing the correct sequence of formulas or algorithms to solve the problem.

And the more of this type of thinking one does, the more he or she improves. For example, in an introductory physics class, a student may learn one day that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force exerted on it and inversely proportional to its mass (F=ma, Newton’s Second Law). He may then be prompted to calculate the velocity of a three kilogram ball as it reaches the ground

of that in STEM; STEM, in general, is more difficult and demands more brain power.

Any Dartmouth student could read a SparkNotes article on a renowned piece of literature and immediately gain a relatively deep understanding of its message, symbolism, and overarching themes. But very few Dartmouth students could read an article on, say, recursive algorithms and understand how to implement them. Indeed, STEM tends to be much less intuitive than the humanities, and thus the process of learning STEM is more difficult and better hones one’s problem solving and learning abilities.

Monday – May 8, 2017

7

Features

features

Shawn E. Honaryar

The Dartmouth Review

STEM also supersedes the humanities from a practical perspective. PayScale.com reports the highest paying bachelor’s degrees, both in early and mid-career. Petroleum Engineering leads the charts with an average starting salary of $96,700, and the next top fourteen majors each fall under the STEM umbrella.

Even the scholarly types who are less concerned with the returns they will receive from their degree should consider that educating oneself in the humanities later on in life, outside of college, is much easier than self-studying STEM. Virtually any petroleum engineer could sit down and read through Pride and Prejudice.

If he fails to understand the purpose of the satire, he can discuss with other readers in book groups or online forums, or he can read SparkNotes or Cliff Notes. If he wants to learn Russian history, he can, similarly, pick up a book and start reading. But if an English major seeks to understand the principles of Special Relativity, such as how time passes at a rate determined by one’s velocity, he will likely struggle with the intense mathematical and physical theory necessary to quantify the phenomenon.

Learning concepts as difficult as time dilation usually requires the aid of a teacher or professor who can explain the topic in simpler terms than what one reads in a textbook.

And, unfortunately, most college graduates don’t happen to be close friends with a physics professor.

STEM intellectually challenges the student more intensely than the humanities, and thus is more conducive to refining one’s problem solving and critical thinking skills.

STEM is also more practical from a financial standpoint.

In essence, STEM is the future. People who make careers out of STEM work to cure cancer, to slow global warming, to develop the next generation of the iPhone; they shape our tomorrow. So save Pride and Prejudice until after you graduate. Instead, pick up a copy of Purcell’s Electricity and Magnetism and head to your professor’s office hours.

As you stumble out of a pregame in the River headed towards Frat Row—your vision blurry not only from the alcohol, but also from the bright pastel shorts that seem to illuminate the dark—you can always look over towards Thayer and see most of the lights on, and most rooms with students still working in them. While many of the stereotypes about STEM students being overworked, boring, and socially inept are true, they may not be the fairest assessments of those areas of study, nor do they necessarily prove that the humanities are superior fields.

The humanities—the study of Art History, Language studies, Classics, English, Film & Media Studies, Music, Philosophy, Religion, Studio Art, and Theater— are essential facets of modern education. These fields go beyond the rational limitations of physics and chemistry, demanding students to not only think critically, but to consider a variety of viewpoints. Art history, film, and literatures draw from cultures across the world, expanding the intellectual boundaries of students and engaging students with often overlooked expressions of thought and culture. A strictly rational perspective often misses the more nuanced externalities, whereas a truly talented mind can examine situations from multiple perspectives, synthesizing the inforMr. Kurtz is a freshman at the College and News Editor at The Dartmouth Review.

mation gathered from each. The foundation of the humanities is contemplation; the basis of these fields is thinking about how to think. By learning about how the great thinkers of the past have thought, students are equipped with the knowledge and critical approach to analyze, expand upon, and challenge the ideas that ancient civilizations of the world were founded upon.

In his essay “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson naïvely declared, “Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare.” I strongly disagree with this unfounded and reckless statement. Emerson argues that great men are original thinkers, uncorrupted by the apathetic limitations of traditional study.

But in his own argument, he contradicts himself. Emerson’s assertions and critiques of society are only founded and arguable because of his own study of the great works that he criticizes. Saying that “Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare” in effect says nothing—there will never be another Shakespeare. Emerson ignores the reality that the greatest thinkers in history were either educated or self-educated in the great works that came before them. Their own critical interpretation of those works trained their minds to articulate their own great works. Oscar Wilde, one of the most talented poets of the mid to late Nineteenth Century, was educated as a classicist at Trinity College. Prior to his formal education, William Faulkner was exposed to great English works by his mother,

grandmother, and caretaker. For both of these men, their education in the humanities profoundly influenced their works.

While thought alone is and should be valuable, some do not view it as so. The most common criticism of the humanities is that the studies contained within the category are “unemployable majors.” While that assertion

A skilled financier with a knowledge of English, German, and French languages, literatures, and arts is far more valuable to Deutsche Bank or Goldman Sachs than one who merely knows how to calculate. It is easy for the banking industry to teach any of its recruits the vocation of finance, but it is far harder to teach a culturally illiterate

alone is indicative of a provincial mindset, it is also simply fallacious. The humanities are the very basis of culture. Major civilizations are defined by their literature, theater, and religion, not merely their technological advancements. Understanding a diverse range of cultures and languages opens the world to students, enabling them to take full advantage of international opportunities. A cosmopolitan perspective emphasizes intelligence and sophistication, and expresses mastery of either their own nation’s culture or those of other countries. Having a fluent grasp of a nation’s language alone denotes a level of respect for that country. With today’s globalized economy, employing people who not only know multiple languages, but also have a profound familiarity with foreign cultures, is invaluable. Speaking Russian to a Russian businessperson is valuable, but being able to engage in a conversation about the history and culture of Russia beyond a survey level is invaluable.

MIT graduate how to convince a French filmmaker to entrust their wealth with one bank and not a different one. Numbers are crucial evidence in a presentation, but ultimately the core of deal making is trust. Trust begins with genuine human connection. Two people from two different nations are much more likely to build a faithful bond if they can speak each other’s languages, have some level of respect for each other’s cultures, and make a conscious effort to understand each other beyond their business. While sports like golf and squash are often used to build these sort of bonds, going to ballet performances, operas, and symphonies can similarly strengthen a business relationship.

In a recent article in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, former Yale professor William Deresiewicz claimed, “An educational system that relegates most people to technical or vocational training is a system designed for an oligarchy.” While it is likely

“A cosmopolitan perspective emphasizes intelligence and sophistication, and expresses mastery of either their own nation’s culture or those of other countries.”

true that extensive education in the humanities is “not for everyone,” it is still important that every American has some degree of exposure to these fields.

Exposure and education in the humanities and vocational training in fields like engineering are not mutually exclusive. One can be a carpenter or an electrician and also have an affinity for East Asian theater and an understanding of classical philosophy. The humanities are more than merely promoting literacy in languages, as they train students in critical thought. While they may not always be directly applicable to a job, these studies and the skills acquired through them are always relevant to life. Critical analysis, interpretation, and literacy define human perception. If perception is, in effect, reality, then it is of utmost importance that every American has an adequate skill set to navigate an era corrupted by lies, “fake news,” and deceit at every level of government, media, and society. Those skills are not derived from chemistry, mathematics, or physics; those skills are best acquired through the humanities. This era is not the time that America’s education system should be replacing non-Western literature classes with computer science courses, or removing the humanities from required courses or distribution requirements. STEM and the humanities can co-exist, but STEM must never supplant the formal education of the humanities, for the day it does is the day that America is doomed to utter ignorance and apathy.

Biron’s Administrative Incompetence

> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

She will forever be remembered for her clarion explanation of President Hanlon’s moral leadership: “The President’s top, sort of, chief responsibility, is chief fundraiser, right?” Needless to say, her ability as explainer-in-chief was matched only by her managerial expertise.

Her own predecessor, Sylvia Spears, was cut from the same cloth. Together, they lasted a collective five years.

Given this persistent turnover and inability to find someone remotely suitable for the Dean of the College role, President Hanlon and Provost Dever tried a new tack.

They would layer over the Dean of the College with the newly created Vice Provost for Student Affairs; the Dean would be charged with implementing the new housing system while the Vice Provost would handle most everything else. And we all know how that worked out.

Mr. Prescott is a tremendous scholar at the College and a frequent contributor to The Dartmouth Review.

By now, it is clear that Dean Biron has failed her original mandate of administering the housing system, to say nothing of her expanded role. Her termination of Associate Professor of Engineering Jane Hill’s role as house professor is only the most public example of her bungling incompetence. We only know the details of this particular incident thanks to Professor Hill’s uncommon courage in speaking up about her mistreatment at Dean Biron’s hands, but there is undoubtedly a pattern of mismanagement. Associate Professor of Biology Ryan Calsbeek disappeared in the fall under suspect circumstances likely similar to Professor Hill’s.

What transpired against Professor Hill is the archetype of everything wrong with the College’s administration. The narrative of events paints a picture of an outof-control and excessively political bureaucracy. In other words, it is business as usual in Hanover. According to Professor Hill, she committed the grave sins of missing a few meetings, contacting the Center for Professional Development,

and failing to remove the word “fellows” from a flyer.

It is not hard to believe the veracity of Professor Hill’s claims, especially considering that she was not the first professor to go. Incompetence may be the norm at the College, but that does not make Dean Biron’s pattern of behavior any less troubling. First, there is manner in which Professor Hill was fired.

Dean Biron gave her no indication, beyond a few minor complaints, that her performance was not up to par. Then, Dean Biron unceremoniously dismissed her in the middle of an academic term without any prior notice or an opportunity to review her performance. The way the entire affair was handled reeks of gross unprofessionalism.

Any marginally able Dean would provide feedback, opportunities to improve, and then a warning upon failure to improve before resorting to termination.

Moreover, there is also the nature of the complaints themselves.

In short, they are laughable; Professor Hill is guilty of nothing more than a lack of complete and abso-

lute deference to her bureaucratic overlords. It is absurd that the most damning complaint Dean Biron could muster against Professor Hill was that she contacted the Center for Professional Development when instructed not to. Indeed, the stated reasons for the dismissal are more an indictment of Dean Biron than of Professor Hill. Dean Biron is leading a student life apparatus that hover overs respected, tenured faculty members and micromanages their every move. And when they expect to be accorded more dignity and respect, not to mention autonomy, they are fired.

Professor Hill was by all measures uncommonly effective and dedicated. Students liked her, and she clearly took the initiative in crafting the best programming she could for her community. She is exactly the type of person the ill-conceived housing system needs if it is to have any hope of succeeding.

What happened was unfair to the students in her house community, and it was certainly unfair to her.

Professor Hill uprooted her home and family on the expectation that

she would serve as a house professor for a four year term. That she could be so capriciously dismissed in the middle of an academic term with weeks to vacate her house is unconscionable.

By now, we have seen that Dean Biron is incapable of handling the most basic of administrative responsibilities relating to the housing system. Of course, given the brilliance of their prior personnel decisions, President Hanlon and Provost Dever’s response is for Dean Biron to assume more authority.

It appears that performance is relative, with Dean Biron being marginally more competent than the famously inept Vice Provost Ameer.

However, that does not change the fact that that Vice Provost Ameer’s departure foisted upon Biron a job that she neither signed up for nor is capable of doing.

Given the sad legacy of the Dean of the College office, we need a competent dean with the inclination and ability to wrangle the expansive and ever-expanding bureaucracy. Rebecca Biron is not that dean.

8 Monday – May 8, 2017

The Dartmouth Review

Features

How to Make Dartmouth Great Again

“The beauty of Improve Dartmouth is that it really gets things done. It represents the power of a collective of ordinary students tackling minor issues that would otherwise not get the attention they truly deserve.”

tops during discussion sessions or give more money for printing.

A third student, Kniya De’ De’, received 9 upvotes for suggesting Dartmouth add more study spaces. This would be an easy fix as we already have classrooms available, yet they are simply closed for the most part during night time study hours. Especially during finals, it can be extremely frustrating to not be able to find a place to sit down and silently get work done.

A fourth student, Xinhao Lei, got 9 upvotes for suggesting Dartmouth fix the saunas in the Zimmerman Alumni Gym which have been broken for a year and a half. Below is the post:

founders of the Improve Dartmouth project, Esteban Castano ’14 and Gillian O’Connell ’15 Image courtesy of Dartmouth News > CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 than just a website. We seek to high reward in student satisdrive positive change every day, faction. Holmes’ post on the Though the cooks are very in every corner of our school. Improve Dartmouth website considerate and often take We allow all community mem- states: “I would love to do time to make items not on the bers to share and vote on ideas work on the green, but there is menu to accommodate aller- on how to make campus a bet- basically no wifi!” gies, the senior staff should ter place. Then, we work closeAnother student, Pritika consider having options for ly with the administration to Vig, who received 12 votes, students with dietary restric- implement the best ideas. We suggested that either printer tions at WorldView every hope you’ll add your voice to allowance be increased or proThe sauna in the Zimmerweek. the conversation! fessors’ printing demands be man gym has been broken for Novack Cafe is a great place decreased to comply with low half a year now. Can we work to eat. It is open until two in The concerns can range by allowance. This concern has to get it fixed? the morning, and is a favorite category from dining to fa- an easy solution: the adminamong those who frequent the cilities to technology to ac- istration can either talk with The beauty of Improve Baker-Berry Library late at ademics. In true democratic professors in the unlikely case Dartmouth is that it really gets night. It has fresh bagels and fashion, there is a voting sys- that printing costs are of any things done. It represents the a variety of sandwich options. tem on the website that serves real concern or raise students’ power of a collective of ordiHowever, its hours often vary to prioritize issues. This way, printing allowance, which nary students tackling minor from those posted. I have gone if someone raises a concern “These small issues will not be fixed by there well before closing time shared by many others, they on some occasions to find that can upvote it and the issue finger-pointing and complaining, but it has closed early. will get more priority by the only through collective action and barImprove Dartmouth is a Improve Dartmouth team, but gaining with those in charge of making fantastic, tried-and-true or- fewer upvotes (or more downganization on Dartmouth’s votes) will keep the issue low decisions.” campus that is dedicated to on Improve Dartmouth’s priraising issues like those I’ve ority list. I will provide a few likely costs very little to do. issues that would otherwise highlighted and fixing them examples of student concerns Below is her post on Improve not get the attention they truly once and for all. They operate listed on the Improve Dart- Dartmouth’s website: deserve. According to a mass a website, www.improvedart- mouth website. email they sent on April 30th, mouth.com, that serves as a One student, Meredith The current printing allow- they have direct contacts with platform for students to voice Holmes, who received 18 up- ance ($20) only lets you print top administration staff. Also, their concerns. Their official votes, suggested WiFi should 235 pages (double sided). This according to Improve Dartmission statement, taken from be extended to the Green. The is just not enough. For exam- mouth’s email it has enacted their website, states: issue is likely not too hard to ple, assigned just for one les- over thirty student-imagined fix. The school would prob- son today my prof assigned ideas since its inception. AtImprove Dartmouth is more ably need to buy a few more 130 pages of reading on canvas tached to its website is a list routers and some protection and got mad when I read them of issues it has successfully Mr. Lancry is a freshman at the should the routers need to be online and didn’t print them addressed with the adminisCollege and an Associate Editor at placed outside. It would be for class. Either make profs be tration. These resolutions are The Dartmouth Review. a low cost for an immensely more flexible with using lap- major, and students should

not take them for granted. We as students depend on them every day and thrive off of them.

For example, most everyone depends on the Berry library’s charger rental system.

For those nights where your computer is running low on battery, the rental system is essential.

Another example is rollover DBA. Everyone has guests at Dartmouth at times, and everyone knows how DBA-heavy guests can be. One of DDS’s signature rules is that only one meal swipe can be used per meal period, and so for Dartmouth students to bring their guests to Foco dinner, they must bear the $14 cost of entrance. Rollover DDS is a perfect solution because it lets students choose to use a lot of DBA during some terms and not as much during other terms.

Again, we should not take Improve Dartmouth’s initiatives for granted. They are all the result of hard work behind the scenes and relentless dealings with the administration. Rather, instead of complaining about that long Hop line every day or how long it takes to get a measly smoothie at the Collis Cafe, we as students should voice our concerns. These small issues will not be fixed by finger-pointing and complaining, but only through collective action and bargaining with those in charge of making decisions.

The more people who step up and contribute to fixing minor issues on campus, the less inconveniences we will face on a day-to-day basis. How wonderful Dartmouth would be with reasonable Hop lines, a thousand-dollar television expenditure taken seriously, a larger Collis Cafe, and food for everyone at Foco’s WorldView!

The Dartmouth Review

Monday – May 8, 2017

9

Features

The Folly of Affirmative Action

Zachary P. Port

Web Editor

After much “shutting up and listening” and “educating themselves”, most conservatives should now be able to accept the fact that institutionalized racism does indeed exist—in the form of the practice called “affirmative action.” With the luxury of hindsight, we can reflect on affirmative action’s toll on society, and see the transformation of a practice which started as an admissions policy into an attack on the American way of equal opportunity.

The first distinction to make is separating two confounding goals of affirmative action. The policy was initially presented to the Supreme Court as a means of exposing students to diversity of thought. Somewhere along the way, affirmative action became a means of leveling the playing field and promoting equal opportunity. It is important to take note of this perversion of the original intention, as it is no less than a bait-andswitch technique. Nevertheless, affirmative action has failed to achieve either its original intent to diversify student bodies, or its new intent to create a form of racial Marxism for college admissions.

As a means of promoting diversity of thought, affirmative action has not only been unsuccessful, but has actually pushed college campuses further from that goal. The chaos on campuses in recent years stands as proof that a multicultural student body has not only failed to expand free thought, but has actually radically curtailed it.

Dartmouth, for example, has been so overtaken by the mantra of multiculturalism that all that remains is groupthink. The Black Lives Matter protests reMr. Port is a freshman at the College and a Web Editor at The Dartmouth Review.

mains the most visible instance of the with-us-or-against-us mentality that “pluralism” deploys to silence opposition and coerce conformity of thought.

Even students with moderate, nuanced views on black disenfranchisement found themselves accosted during finals week by BLM protesters. Students were forced to either join the “movement”, or leave the library; there was no middle ground. Along similar lines, UC Berkeley, the original practicer of affirmative action, has become hostile territory for any dissenting speech.

If you think Dartmouth has become more tolerant of ethnic cuisines in recent years, you’re probably right, but diversity of people has not facilitated diversity of thought. Dartmouth sounds one chord, and one chord only: regressive leftism.

As a means of promoting equality, affirmative action continues to compromise the American value of equal opportunity. Interestingly, the Supreme Court does not accept the notion that individuals are entitled to benefits based on their race. Nevertheless, the notion of white privilege, a fixation of the left’s imagination, stipulates that minorities deserve privileges in excess of unencumbered access to all opportunities they might wish to pursue. The reality cannot be stressed enough: all other things being equal, an impoverished white child faces no easier road to college than his black counterpart. Regrettably, leftist rhetoric ignores that fact of life, and in doing so postulates that racism against white people cannot exist because racism requires both prejudice and power. However, one must look no further than Dartmouth for a compelling counter-example.

Is power not when you can disrupt the business of the College and stage a protest that violates all time, place, and manner ordinances without consequence?

Is power not when you can de-

face a College Republicans display honoring law enforcement without consequence? Is power not when you can defame classmates, posting pictures of them captioned “racist,” without fear of consequence? Is power not when you can occupy the College President’s office, and spend the night there throwing a temper tantrum until day breaks, and yet again there are no consequences? By all of these metrics, Black Lives Matter is a privileged organization on campus, not a marginalized one.

Time after time they have gotten a free pass. Yet, their privileges do not end there.

minorities for purposes of public relations, when promotion time comes, many minorities, hired only because of their race, find themselves passed over for promotions, and unable to advance themselves.

Meanwhile, the government has found a mindboggling means of minority advancement: Disadvantaged Business Enterprise designations. Infrastructure projects now come with attached requirements that a certain portion of the project be preformed by minority owned businesses. One would expect that limiting contracts to minorities would decrease

“As a means of promoting diversity of thought, affirmative action has not only been unsuccessful, but has actually pushed college campuses further from that goal.”

Some of the most substantial affirmative action takes place on an employer level, during and after college. Do not be fooled, there is nothing equal about an equal opportunity employer. Investment banks, for example, offer sophomore internships only to minority studens. In doing so, they are implying either that a black Dartmouth graduate has inherently less opportunity than a white Dartmouth student or that a minority student is inherently more qualified than a white student, neither of which is true. To say a white Dartmouth graduate can achieve more than a minority graduate is to insult to the integrity and magnanimity of a Dartmouth degree. To say that choosing from a group of minority students will yield equally qualified applicants to that same group plus other white students is logically false. Adding more applicants into a pool can only make the pool better off. What’s worse is that while banks are happy to offer menial development programs and entry-level jobs to

competition for those contracts; he or she would be right. Again, just as adding competitors decreases pricing for public works projects, decreasing competition increases prices on these projects that already tend to be significantly over budget. If the American way of capitalism is maximum competition, where the best competitor wins the contract, the DBE program is incompatible with the American way, and the taxpayers are paying for it. Last year the Department of Transportation released a report on “The Real Cost of DBE Fraud.” The report details that despite accounting for 10% of infrastructure costs, DBEs represent over 35% of active fraud investigations. The most common means of DBE fraud is where the DBE “performs no commercially useful function,” the work is done by a non-DBE subcontractor, and the DBE claims credit along with a fee, exploiting its designation. For example, a DBE might buy pipes from a nonDBE, stamp their logo on them,

Verily I say unto you: thou shalt read the review!

and resell them at a markup, paid for by the American taxpayer. Notwithstanding fraud, if a business could supply pipes at the lowest possible price, it would not need to a minority designation to do so, and a business that gets business only with DBE certification, will never be pressured to become competitive with the rest of the market.

The DBE program is centered on fostering vicious dependence, not equality.

This extreme, real-world iteration of affirmative action assists only unqualified businesspeople at the expense of American capitalism and taxpayers.

Affirmative action might have made sense to leftists as an idyllic means of promoting diverse thought on campus, but its place in the real world is objectionable. Not only has affirmative action impeded diverse thought, but its bastardized reincarnation of ensuring equality has undermined the American meritocracy. As its leftist creators envisioned it, affirmative action was to be temporary, until inequalities were resolved. What has become clear is whatever inequalities might still remain today will not be fixed with affirmative action programs. The DBE program will never promote a more equal society, just a more unqualified one. Race-based recruiting will never produce a more equal workforce, just a more unqualified one. Race-based admission will never yield a more equal class, just an unqualified one.

The reality remains, that a B student will not produce A-worthy analysis of Kant’s categorical imperative just because he or she comes from a unique perspective. This is the myth of diversity. Affirmative action was a mistake to begin with, but as it were, it is undeniably temporary. Upon contemporary re-inspection, affirmative action’s death knell has come.

10 Monday – May 8, 2017

The Dartmouth Review

Features

Executive Editor Associate Editor

Editor’s Note: We spoke with Associate Professor of Mathematic John Voight about his role, his time at Dartmouth, and his interest in cryptography.

The Dartmouth Review (TDR): Just to start off on a lighter note, what has been your favorite teaching moment in your time at Dartmouth?

John Voight (JV): You mean I have to pick just one? Mathematics has a reputation for being a difficult subject—and to some extent it’s true, usually we struggle at first to grasp the underlying concepts. But at some point, after contemplation and coffee, there is an “aha!” moment! In class, when this happens I can hear a little ‘clicking sound’ in my students’ heads when finally the ideas become clear. Those are my favorite moments: seeing my students empowered in their understanding of mathematics!

TDR: How did you come to teach at Dartmouth? What appealed to you about Dartmouth at the time and has it lived up to those expectations?

John Voight, Mathematics

musician. But at some point—I recall being prompted by a certain frustration with a Bach three-part invention—I concluded that in the twenty-first century, we only need so many concert pianists. So my thinking shifted. I was also on the debate team in high school and college, and so like many of my friends I thought I would become a lawyer or work in government. But eventually, I heard my true calling. I realized that my curiosity never seemed to be satiated, and what I really wanted was to be uselessly over-educated! Hence a professor.

TDR: How does working at Dartmouth compare to working at UVM? JV: Well, the institutions have quite different histories, and students go to UVM or to Dartmouth for completely different reasons. There are rather stark differences between working at a state institution and a private one—these start at the top and are felt all the way down.

I went to Gonzaga University, a private, Jesuit, undergraduate school (go Zags!) and then went to Cal for my Ph.D., so now I’ve seen both sides, as student and professor. Somehow, I feel like Dartmouth captures the best of both worlds, if that makes sense. However, I miss living in Burlington, Vermont: it is a much more exciting town than Hanover, but then it’s hard to imagine a town that is less exciting than Hanover!

John Voight Associate Professor of Mathematics at Dartmouth JV: I received my Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 2005, and then to raise the profile of our grad- ematics, which helped to relax spent a postdoctoral year at the uate program with a renewed my schedule.

University of Sydney and one focus on applied mathematat the University of Minnesota. ics. What do we want for our TDR: Do you feel that there After that, I taught for six years students now? What kinds of is a greater value in studying at the University of Vermont jobs are they getting? What is a particular subject over anbefore moving down the road TDR: How do you believe the compelling to them, what cap- other? here to Dartmouth. I had vis- math department stands in tures their imaginations? As we ited Dartmouth before to give relation to the other depart- answer these questions, we’re JV: In my experience, the most seminar talks, and I immedi- ments at Dartmouth? How has designing and adapting our interesting, most well-inately recognized what a special it progressed over time? courses, hiring faculty, and so formed individuals—the ones place this is. On a The future is that are making the greatest “I was drawn to Dartmouth because on. superficial level, bright! impact—they have a T-shaped, you can’t beat the it presented me with an opportunity or pi-shaped, understanding. splendor of Kemeny to work with talented undergraduate TDR: Do you be- Let’s go with pi because, well, Hall, the handsomlieve that Dart- math. What I mean is that they est math building and graduate students while at the mouth provides have (horizontal) breadth over around! But more same time providing support for my its students, even many different subjects comdeeply, I was drawn those that do chose bined with a deeper (vertical) research.” to Dartmouth beto major in STEM understanding of two areas, cause it presented me with an JV: The College president, Phil fields, with a strong back- hence the pi. For me, this jusopportunity to work with tal- Hanlon, is a mathematician; ground in the liberal arts? tified my pursuit of the liberal ented undergraduate and grad- and of course John Kemeny, arts—I care about government uate students while at the same a former president who was JV: Well, at least the math ma- and economics and philosophy time providing support for my also a professor and chair of jor at Dartmouth is quite flex- and biology and English literresearch. The College is excep- mathematics, transformed the ible, leaving plenty of room to ature and music—and then I tional in the way it emphasizes College in profound ways. We take enriching courses in the went deep into math and comthese two activities as mutually count among our ranks a house liberal arts. I must assume the puter science. Now, if I’m chatreinforcing rather than as zero professor (Craig Sutton) and same is true for the other STEM ting with a colleague in an area sum: we call ourselves teach- the director of the East Whee- disciplines. I think the term like physics, I have some frame er-scholars. The students here lock cluster (Sergi Elizalde). calendar at Dartmouth proba- of reference, and perhaps I constantly blow me away, and So it seems that the math de- bly helps: you have concentrat- can connect our discussion to I’m very glad I came. partment is well-represented in ed courses which means you my finer mathematical senses. campus, academic, and student can take bites of many things. It’s probably a tall order to ask TDR: When you were younger, life.

But I know it can be tricky with someone to be an expert in two did you ever envision yourself I became the vice chair of the engineering: I started off as an things and at the same time to becoming a professor one day? department starting in Fall electrical engineer at Gonzaga, strive for breadth in many ar2016—but I think I was nom- and so my first two years I was eas at once, but Dartmouth is JV: I wasn’t sure what I want- inated mainly for the “vice” taking overloads filled with the the kind of place where you ed to do when I was young. My part, less the “chair” part. Our math, computer science, and can actually do that! And my first passion was classical pia- department is growing in im- humanities classes I wanted. colleagues certainly fit the bill. no, and for a while I thought portant ways as we reach out But then I saw the light! And And outside Dartmouth, even that would become a concert to majors and as we endeavor I changed my major to math- if you’re not an academic like

Monday – May 8, 2017 11

Features

Great Professors of Dartmouth:

Joshua L. Kauderer Shawn E. Honaryar

The Dartmouth Review

me but say you go to work for a consulting firm, it is still important that you understand the social and environmental implications of your engineering designs. Or if you’re a chemist in a lab working in medicine, it’s important you’re aware of the political ramifications as the health care landscape changes. Maybe you’re not personally involved in those decisions, but that awareness allows you to accomplish a whole lot more. So is it weird to answer that question with “both is better”?

TDR: You said both, but if you could go back would you focus on one of the humanities in addition to math?

JV: If I could, I would probably have been a graduate student forever. I’d love to go back and get a Ph.D. in the humanities if I could afford it! Being a student is awesome. In my junior year as an undergraduate, I dove deeply into the study of Japanese culture, economics, and government. In college debate, we would do the equivalent of a master’s thesis level amount of research every semester, and the topic that year was foreign policy in Southeast Asia. But I realized at some point I had to stop because of the other things in my schedule, so I would love to go back. Scholarship in the

area of international relations is just as important now—the latest headlines being about the movement of carriers in the Pacific.

That all being said, computational mathematics has plenty to keep me busy now and, well, it’s the best! Math has always presented the greatest challenges, and to me that is the hook. Mathematical thinking is both creative and rigorous; it is artistic and analytical. You have a well-defined problem that you need to solve with logical arguments, but you have to be creative to find a solution—that lights up all parts of my brain. And at least from my point of view, some of the most exciting work in pure mathematics is computational and algorithmic.

The other thing that will keep me in mathematics is the cognitive refuge it provides. We live in chaotic times, and I am often left reeling from national events and the way they are discussed. To have a place where the rules are clear, where we employ careful deductive reasoning to come to a shared agreement about the facts—I rely on that. Mathematics has a power to speak a universal truth. If we ever met space aliens, we could quickly agree on the notion of prime numbers. Of course, mathematical truth is limited; but because we’re standing on solid ground and take sure-footed steps, we can securely build things in mathematics that tower into the heights.

TDR: We were looking at some of your research and watched your TEDx talk at UVM about cryptography.

You said that “a real transition in cryptography is underway.” How should we be thinking about information security issues, especially in light of recent hacks against Sony and other companies?

cure communication on the internet. Algorithmically, that work continues. One of the major new issues has to do with quantum computing. Quantum computers are on the horizon—or so I am told—and if they become available, we will have to fundamentally change our cryptographic systems. So mathematicians, computer scientists, and cryptographers are thinking very hard about how to design systems that will resist quantum attacks.

But at the same time, you have users whose password is ABC123 and who click on the dancing moose that they get in their email. Granted, it’s hard not to click on the dancing moose… [Laughs] Usually, when you see a headline about a hack somewhere, it can be traced back to something like that. This problem will not be solved by better abstractly formulated algorithms! It lies somewhere between mathematics and engineering, really a problem in applied computer science and social psychology.

How do we zap the emails with dancing mooses? (Or should that be meese?)

You mentioned the Sony hack from my TEDx talk: that attack was because of a lack of randomness in the system.

Basically, a function that was supposed to return a random integer always returned seven. Can you imagine? If it’s not random, you can quickly break the system. How did that happen? For these reasons, I believe that the future of information security and privacy, something essential to modern communication and commerce, requires the efforts of mathematicians for proofs, cryptographers for application and design, computer scientists to code, software engineers to study user interface— and some thinkers who grasp all of these aspects.

TDR: Some journalists have

“To have a place where the rules are clear, where we employ careful deductive reasoning to come to a shared agreement about the facts—I rely on that.

Mathematics has a power to speak a universal truth.”

JV: It’s a very serious issue.

Cryptography is the study of secure communication over nonsecure channels. Mathematicians in the 1970s crafted cryptosystems based on the difficulty of solving certain number-theoretic problems that were in turn used for seMr. Kauderer is a sophomore at the College and an Executive Editor at The Dartmouth Review.

Mr. Honaryar is a freshman at the College and an Associate Editor of The Dartmouth Review.

reported that the United States has hacked into the North Korean nuclear program and other parts of their government. Do you think that this is possible? What, if anything, should the US do to strengthen its own information security in terms of algorithms?

JV: There were similar reports a few years ago about the US hacking into the Iranian nuclear program. And recently, possible Russian hacking into

DNC emails and weaponization of social media. I don’t have any particular insight or knowledge into North Korean particulars. But at some point, do we acknowledge that there is a cyber war going on? And that we as a society should decide our approach to war, just like we would if it were a conventional war? I’m a little anxious about the role of certain federal agencies and our ballooning governmental information security infrastructure—building a lot of big computers with big databases under the general premise that it will make us safer. I guess we don’t have a lived human history of cyber wars like we do of military wars; but then that history seems forgotten anyway. We need clear and careful conversation, but not everyone making these decisions understands technology.

And many Americans seem to have a Hollywood style-understanding of what hackers are about. It all makes me nervous.

TDR: You’ve been drafting a textbook on quaternion algebras. What motivated you to take on such an endeavor and what challenges have you faced?

JV: Here it is! I printed the sucker out, can you believe it?

TDR: Wow. It’s very long.

How long did all of this take?

JV: Weighing in at over eight-hundred pages, it has been about seven years in the making—not continuously, because I had to get tenure and sleep—occasionally. It’s a great question, why does anyone write a book? As a research activity, it is of a different nature than publishing journal articles, proving new theorems, and being on the frontier of your discipline. I had worked with quaternion algebras over a decade going back to my thesis, but I found there wasn’t one place that you go to and learn about the topic in a coherent and self-contained way.

My book is aimed at graduate students, and it was motivated by my fervent goal to welcome as many of them as possible into the subject. I’ve tried to cobble it all together: in a motivated way, with clear notation and proofs, so that everyone can learn, apply, and generalize. I found that there were arguments “well known” to the experts but that weren’t written down anywhere—that can be a real block to scientific progress. I guess one of my real passions is effective mathematical communication. Given the reputation of mathematics as a subject that is difficult to grasp, I take it as my personal charge to provide a rebuttal— to make math accessible, intui-

tive, attainable, inviting. As for the subject of the book itself, I can say without equivocation that quaternion alegbras are pure mathemagic. They appear naturally in so many areas, being basically as ubiquitous as 2x2 matrices. So the topic is at

do; this summer, I will do my best to eradicate all typos. But second, I also want the book to be useful. I want people to be able to pick it up, to pick and choose what’s useful and interesting to them, and go on and use that for their mathemati-

the core of mathematics.

Writing was not easy for me, and I have many people to thank for their help, both financial, mathematical, and personal. The book started with some notes from a course I taught at McGill University in 2010; gradually, 150 pages of notes became a monster! I have been writing during the summer, on weekends, late nights, on holidays, at the cost of some amount of sanity, health, and personal hygiene. But after submitting the latest version, I heard last month that my publisher, Springer-Verlag, is enthusiastic about the text, subject to some final edits to complete this summer. So some time in 2018, it’ll be out there in the world! I should be excited, but mostly I’m anxious. First of all, I hope it’s correct! When it’s 800 pages, that’s hard to

cal research. It’s fitting that I would be writing a book like this while a faculty member at Dartmouth. On the one hand, like I said we’re serious about the teacher-scholar model, and this book represents my best effort in that regard: it has allowed me to combine my aspirations for teaching and scholarship as represented in the dissemination of fundamental mathematics. But also, the story of the quaternions is interwoven with the history of mathematics at Dartmouth.

The only mathematical output by a Dartmouth professor in the 19th century was by Arthur Sherburne Hardy, the author of an 1881 text on quaternions entitled “Elements of quaternions”. It had a reputation for being uninspiring text in an abstruse field. I can only hope that my book will receive better reviews!

“I believe that the future of information security and privacy, something essential to modern communication and commerce, requires the efforts of mathematicians for proofs, cryptographers for application and design, computer scientists to code...”

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12 Monday– May 8, 2017

The Dartmouth Review

The Last word Gordon Haff’s

Compiled by Keg Norman

“REFERENDUM, n. A law for submission of proposed legislation to a popular vote to learn the nonsensus of public opinion.”

–Ambrose Bierce “Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote...that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”

-Samuel Adams “I am logically in favour of a referendum. It would be the only legitimate way..”

-Jacques Chirac “Being part of a fraternity has given me the foundation for everything I do in my career from the loyalty to the determination; it laid the foundation for everything I’ve been able to enjoy. I’m heavily involved with Omega Psi Phi.” -Terrence Jenkins “It is a necessary precondition for the success of a referendum that there should be broad community consensus and bipartisan support for it.”

-George Brandis “There is a lack of interest in voting in the United States, and that troubles me. It is very necessary that people get registered, study the issues and be aware of the politics of our country. We will really be set back if people don’t take the time to learn about the candidates who are concerned about the well-being of all the citizens and vote.”

-Rosa Parks

“The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men.”

-Lyndon B. Johnson

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”

-John Quincy Adams

“Reality is an illusion induced by alcohol deficiency.”

-graffitti in an MIT bahtoom

“Voting is a civic sacrament.”

“My main worry about referendums is that you are taking a very complicated political question that requires knowledge of a bunch of background facts in the social sciences and you’re handing that question to people who don’t know those facts and in fact, are systematically misinformed about them.”

-Jason Brennan

“It’s not a house, it’s a home.”

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote...that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”

-Calvin Coolidge

“Democracy is about voting and it’s about a majority vote. And it’s time that we started exercising the Democratic process.”

-Debbie Stabenow

“Vote early and vote often.”

-Al Capone

“It’s all fun and games until someone calls the cops.

Then its a new game: hide and seek.”

-Unknown “Initiative and referendum make government more responsive to its citizens, neutralize the power of the special interests and stimulate public involvement in state issues.”

-George W. Bush

BArrett’s mixology

Wheelock’s Fountain of Youth Ingredients

Gallons of New England Rum Gallons of Malaga Wine Pounds of sugar Hundreds of lemons Dozens of limes 1 pound of nutmeg ’Twas a Friday night in the springtime, and Hanover’s streets were bustling with throngs of homogeneous revelers. The average reveler had most likely attended a mediocre pregame, where clusters of kids pretend to be way drunker than they actually are prior to heading out into the night with a weak buzz. Dirty Daniel W. knew that it would be far too easy to blend into this crowd of poorly pre-gamed, shortsleeve Hawaiian shirt-ed youths. Dan also knew that big weekends call for bigger drinks, and that if his peers weren’t gonna get lit, the responsibility to ‘send it’ would fall to him. As Brown Hall’s resident hardo, Dan understood what was required of him: Wheelock’s Fountain of Youth had to be resurrected.

A year prior, while he was conducting research in the stacks, Dan had stumbled across an old cocktail recipe that was purportedly Eleazar Wheelock’s proprietary ‘elixir of life.’ The instructions on the back of the recipe read: “Only to be used in the most un-lit of situations.” The recipe also dictated that the cocktail must be made and consumed in a fountain. Staying true to the instructions, Dan assembled a great fountain in his room, which he filled with 50 gallons of New England rum, 20 gallons of Malaga wine, 20 pounds of sugar, 100 lemons, 50 limes, and 1 pound of nutmeg. The result was a rich, life-giving elixir, that was said to grant strange powers of invincibility to the drinker. What Dan failed to notice, however, was that the final instruction stated that the powers would only be granted if and only if the fountain was completely drained. Though it took Dan and his roommates an entire weekend to finish, Wheelock’s Fountain of Youth ultimately served to raise the pre-game median (in terms of savagery) on one of the most important weekends of the year. Dan is not the hero Dartmouth deserves; no, he’s the one Dartmouth needs.

— Graham ThreeBulls

-Theodore Hesburgh -Bob Dylan

“As a citizen, you need to know how to be a part of it, how to express yourself - and not just by voting.”

-Sandra Day O’Connor

“Of course voting is useful. But then again, I don’t put a big glow to it. Voting is about as essential as washing yourself. It’s something you’re supposed to do. Now, you can’t go around bragging, expecting to get props because you voted. That’s stupid..”

-Carlton Douglas Ridenhour “Of a sudden he felt that fraternity life was the only way to exist at college. How could he have doubted?”

-Ferrol Sams “Yes.”

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-William F. Buckley Jr.