The Dartmouth 09/28/17

VOL. CLXXIV NO.117

PARTLY CLOUDY

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Elizabeth Smith begins tenure as dean of the faculty

PARLEZ-VOUS FRANÇAIS

HIGH 65 LOW 40

By WALLY JOE COOK The Dartmouth

Elizabeth Smith began her tenure as dean of the faculty of arts and sciences on July 1, but she would have never imagined herself in the position just a few years ago.

Smith graduated from Agnes Scott College with a bachelor’s degree in biology and then earned a doctorate in cell and developmental biology from Emory College.

After a six-year tenure at the University of Minnesota, Smith joined the College as an assistant professor

OPINION

SHI: READING BETWEEN THE LINES PAGE 6

SAKLAD: ESSENTIAL FEMINISTS PAGE 7

ARTS

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: DIRECTOR AND ACTRESS VIRGINIA OGDEN ’18 PAGE 8

DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH

Students chat during “Le Café Français,” a French conversational coffee hour open to all.

Alumni relations admin Martha Beattie ’76 retires

By HARRISON ARONOFF The Dartmouth

Vice president for alumni relations Martha Beattie ’76 announced last week that she will retire to spend more time with her family, in what she called one of the “toughest decisions” of her life.

Beattie, who has held the role since 2011, will officially retire once her successor has been chosen, which she said will not be finalized for another few months.

By GRACE STILLWELL

READ US ON

HOW TO SURVIVE THE WEEKENDS WITHOUT KAF FOLLOW US ON

TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2017 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

The College has enlisted Sandler Search Associates to find Beattie’s replacement, with the company’s chief executive officer and founder Josie Sandler ’91 spearheading the search.

In an email statement, Sandler wrote that the active search phase has begun and that she has already received numerous referrals for the position.

According to Beattie, now is the “ideal time to leave” because the alumni relations team is the “best

it has ever been.”

Alumni relations has over 200 employees and active volunteers representing over 79,000 alumni, and hosts a number of family events, career web seminars, service days and reunions throughout the year.

Under Beattie’s leadership, alumni relations saw record reunion attendances — last year, 5,104 people came to campus for 2017 Reunions, surpassing the previous record of 4,964 people, Beattie said.

The Class of 1977 also set an all-

time 40th reunion attendance record last year with 276 alumni coming to Hanover, she said.

Beattie credits the increase in attendance to “re-clustered” reunion groups, a change that she implemented — three classes, not one, now come together during their 10th, 15th, 30th, 35th, 40th, 45th and 50th reunion. She also said reunion planning, communication, financing and even the events’ décor SEE BEATTIE PAGE 3

Sydney Kamen ’19 focuses on sustainable hygiene The Dartmouth

DARTBEAT

SEE SMITH PAGE 2

For Sydney Kamen ’19, the model of her nonprofit So Others Are Protected, which turns recycled soaps from hotels into new bars of soap and distributes them to under-resourced communities, has always been “winwin-win.”

SOAP’s goal to reduce waste and provide a sustainable source of sanitation has benefited the e nv i ro n m e n t , u n d e r- r e s o u rc e d communities and the economy, Kamen said.

During a service trip to Thailand during her freshman year in high school, Kamen said she was exposed to the lived realities of a majority of the world that did not match her standard of living in Washington, D.C. According to Kamen, this experience inspired her to establish SOAP. “Having grown up with the privilege of taking my constant access to sanitation for granted and living in an area where a child’s death before the age of 5 due to diarrhea or respiratory infection was nonexistent, my exposure SEE SOAP PAGE 5

COURTESY OF SYDNEY KAMEN

The nonprofit SOAP recycles used soap from hotels and distributes them to under-resourced communities.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAily debriefing President Donald Trump revealed his tax code adjustment proposal on Wednesday, as first reported by The New York Times.

The nine-page document, titled “Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code,” calls for a variety of changes, including several that could reduce tax rates. Proposed reforms include eliminations of taxes on large inheritances, reducing the current seven-bracket tax system to three, cutting the corporate tax rate and implementing a territorial tax system for multinational corporations to replace the current worldwide tax system.

The documents released provide little information on any potential cost measures and how the proposal would affect the working class. Next steps for the Trump administration include aligning the representatives of the Republican Party. While Democrats expectedly voiced concerns about the plan’s potential benefits to the wealthy, the Freedom Caucus, whose demands have stopped a few of the Republican Party’s initiatives this year already, issued a statement calling the plan “forward looking.”

Hurricane Maria made direct landfall on Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, causing major flooding and damage to the U.S. territory, as reported by The New York Times. While Maria is a smaller storm than either Harvey or Irma, the hurricane was the largest storm to hit Puerto Rico in 80 years and the fifth largest storm to hit the U.S. With citizens on the island still coping with the damage caused by Irma, Maria knocked down 80 percent of the island’s power lines.

At the moment, 1.57 million people on the island are still without power. 1,360 of the 1,600 cellphone towers on the island are no longer operating at the moment, and only 11 out of 69 hospitals are operating with power. Tuesday, two people died in a hospital in the capital of San Juan because of power outages.With scarce food, clean water, and other resources, Puerto Rico could possibly face hundreds of casualties, and parts of the island may lack energy for months.

Complicating the response effort is the fact that only 54 percent of Americans know that Puerto Rican residents are U.S. citizens.

On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents opened a checkpoint on Interstate 93 southbound for the second time in two months, according to Union Leader. All vehicles were required to stop, and officers asked drivers if they were American citizens. It was unknown whether anyone had been arrested at Tuesday’s checkpoint. During the most recent such checkpoint in August, 25 illegal immigrants were arrested, along with 46 other people, most of whom were detained on drug charges. Stephanie Malin, the New England Customs and Border Protection public affairs officer, said that at checkpoints, agents can request proof of immigration status and question a vehicle’s occupants about their citizenship, as well as “make quick observations of what is in plain view in the interior of the vehicle.”

A memorial service was held on Saturday for Pamela Ferriere, who was killed earlier this month in a shooting at DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center, as reported by the Valley News. About 150 people were present at the service, which was held at a church in Rumney, New Hampshire. Ferriere was allegedly shot by her son Travis Frink while she was in the intensive care unit of DHMC for an aneurysm.

-COMPILED BY PETER CHARALAMBOUS, ERIN LEE AND RAY LU

CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com for corrections.

Correction Appended (Sept. 26, 2017): The original version of the article “New Hampshire judge lets voting law SB3 stand” incorrectly stated that Birdsell ran for Congress, when she has in fact run for the New Hampshire House of Representatives and New Hampshire Senate. The article has been updated to reflect this change.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Elizabeth Smith discusses faculty retention and academic freedom

In light of the controversy ­— undergrads, grad students, s u r r o u n d i n g b o t h D u t h u ’s everybody. She gets to share in in the biology department in involvement with an academic [faculty members’] excitement and 1998. boycott and history lecturer Mark really help them get going.”

In 2012, Smith began her journey Bray’s commentary on “Antifa,” Smith plans on approaching the as an administrator by becoming a radical violent anti-fascist position similarly to previous deans the chair of the department of movement, Smith commented and not making any sweeping biological sciences. o n t h e s t a t e changes.

S h e t h e n t o o k “I hadn’t thought o f a c a d e m i c “The model doesn’t change,” the position of freedom, noting she said. “Traditionally, the dean of myself as an associate dean of t h a t c o l l e g e s doesn’t come in and say, ‘I want the faculty for the administrator at have “a moral this and we’re going to do it.’” sciences in 2015. obligation to be H oweve r, S m i t h s a i d s h e all.”

“I hadn’t a p l a c e wh e re does have some distinct guiding thought of myself we can have civil philosophies. as an administrator -ELIZABETH SMITH, discourse about “There are two principles that at all,” said Smith, DEAN OF THE FACULTY the world’s most guide my decision making,” Smith re f e re n c i n g h e r c h a l l e n g i n g said. “One is never compromise on time as a biology OF ARTS AND problems.” excellence ... The second is to be p ro f e s s o r. “ [ A t SCIENCES Smith also said distinctive.”

Dartmouth] it is she is concerned Elaborating on her second almost considered about t h e principle, Smith explained that a duty that you College’s faculty “Dartmouth has a very distinct w i l l t a k e yo u r retention. niche. We need to kind of protect turn serving your “If you have a that unique niche and do it as department.” fantastic faculty, distinctively Dartmouth.”

Smith would you should have “The job she has now is really eventually serve a r e t e n t i o n a huge job,” biology professor from 2015 to 2017, problem with all Thomas Jack said. “I remember when she accepted the position of of them,” Smith said. “They when she came for an interview dean of the faculty after Native should all be getting offers.” and the process of hiring her ...

American studies professor N. Smith said she has a plan to She’s very systematic, and she’s Bruce Duthu ’80 declined the combat this cycle and increase a very clear communicator, that position in May. retention rates through a stronger came through in the interview,” “There was a moment that was ex i t i n t e r v i e w he said. long before anything with Bruce process that will Jack also noted Duthu where I made a decision help the College “If you have a that as associate about whether I wanted to engage g a t h e r d a t a , fantastic faculty, dean of the in this process,” Smith said. “I a m o n g o t h e r sciences, Smith you should have a was certainly a candidate that was strategies. effectively hired being considered by the search In regards to retention problem new faculty committee.” budgetary issues, with all of them. members.

On May 22, Duthu declined Smith said she Considering his dean of faculty appointment will work with They should all be that the STEM after his co-authorship of a 2013 departments and getting offers.” fields are largely declaration supporting a boycott a dminis t r at o r s d o m i n at e d by of Israeli academic institutions across campus men, Smith said became “a source of concern and t o p r i o r i t i z e -ELIZABETH SMITH, she appreciated contention,” his announcement resources. that there were DEAN OF THE FACULTY stated. Following Duthu’s decision, U n i v e r s i t y many talented the College revisited a short list of o f Ve r m o n t OF ARTS AND SCIENCES female faculty candidates offered by a search m i c r o b i o l o g y members in committee to fill the role. p r o f e s s o r the biology S m i t h s a i d t h a t D u t h u ’s Matthew Wargo, department. declining of the position had no who worked in “I’ve enjoyed bearing on her decision to take the Smith’s lab, noticed Smith’s being in a department where there position. budgetary skills early in her career. were some great woman leaders,” Now that Smith has served “She would actually lay out Smith said. in the position for over two the entire budget of the lab and However, she acknowledged months, she has begun to consider where our grant money went,” that her positive experience is all options for handling issues on Wargo said. “For some people, too rare in academia today.

Dartmouth’s campus ranging administration is like a deadly “I can see them when I go away from academic freedom to faculty disease, but she realized she was from Dartmouth, there are still retention. able to help all sorts of people some issues out there,” Smith said.

FROM SMITH PAGE 1

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 3

Martha Beattie ’76 retires after six years with alumni relations athletes from the College, by holding the induction ceremony has improved. during Homecoming Weekend.

Beattie also established a number She also founded Women of of new committees and programs Dartmouth communities, which during her tenure. She said she is host social gatherings and offer most proud of teaming up with career support to alumnae in six the admissions office to found metropolitan cities. the Admissions Focus groups, A m b a s s a d o r “Among the ‘loyal ones data analysis P r o g r a m , who love her,’ few and market through which r e s e a r c h alumni connect could rival [Beattie] in were also to prospective terms of Dartmouth “critical” to the students. As d e p a r t m e n t ’s o f t h i s ye a r, spirit and dedication success these o v e r 6 , 5 0 0 to our community.” past years, a l u m n i h ave a c c o rd i n g t o volunteered for Beattie, as they the prog ram, -BOB LASHER ’88, SENIOR offer insights i n t e r v i e w i n g VICE PRESIDENT FOR ranging from and sharing how funds their College ADVANCEMENT should be experience with managed to prospective how alumni students, relation events Beattie said. can be more Since the engaging. She program’s said she hopes inception two her successor years ago, uses these interview rates resources as for prospective mu ch a s s h e students have did. increased by more than 20 percent College President Phil Hanlon nationally and more than 15 expressed admiration for Beattie’s percent internationally, according leadership and alumni engagement. to Beattie.

“One aspect of [Beattie’s] B e a t t i e a l s o w o r k e d o n leadership that always impresses revamping Wearers of Green, me is her focus on how the which celebrates Hall of Fame College can and must engage FROM BEATTIE PAGE 1

COURTESY OF MARTHA BEATTIE

Martha Beattie ’76 first assumed the position of vice president for alumni relations in 2011.

alumni comprehensively in our work — from the classroom to the boardroom and in every setting in between,” Hanlon wrote in a College press release.

Hanlon also noted that Beattie was particularly instrumental in introducing him and his wife Gail Collins to “the broader Dartmouth

community” when they returned to campus in 2013.

Most importantly, Beattie wants alumni relations to continue to “add value in alumni in all stages of their lives.”

Senior vice president for advancement Bob Lasher ’88 wrote in an email statement that

Beattie was particularly influential in paving the way for future women on Dartmouth, as she graduated in one of the first classes of women.

“Among the ‘loyal ones who love her,’ few could rival [Beattie] in terms of Dartmouth spirit and dedication to our community,” Lasher wrote.

PAGE 4

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

TWEET FREE AMERICA

DAVID VELONA ’21

TODAY

10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

Lecture: “Catalysis and Charge Transport in Microporous MetalOrganic Frameworks,” with Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Mircea Dincă, Steele 006

4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Lecture: “Torchbearers of Democracy: African Americans and World War I,” with Brandeis University professor Chad Williams, Filene Auditorium, Moore Building

7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Film: “Whose Streets?” directed by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center

TOMORROW

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Colloquium: “The Search for WIMP Dark Matter: New Approaches to Stubborn Problems,” with Harvard University professor Douglas Finkbeiner, Wilder 104

7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Film: “Dunkirk,” directed by Christopher Nolan, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts

8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Public Astronomical Observing, Shattuck Observatory

“It’s been eight months.

Should we Good Sam him?”

NEWS DOESN’T STOP IN THE MORNING

ADVERTISING For advertising information, please call (603) 646-2600 or email info@thedartmouth. com. The advertising deadline is noon, two days before publication. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement.

Opinions expressed in advertisements do not necessarily reflect those of The Dartmouth, Inc. or its officers, employees and agents.

The Dartmouth, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation chartered in the state of New Hampshire. USPS 148-540 ISSN 0199-9931

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

Nonprofit SOAP aims to improve hygiene in communities FROM SOAP PAGE 1

to this reality ... blew my mind, she said.”

Since its founding in 2012, SOAP has recycled soap from 13 different hotels and distributed it to 14 communities in India, Kenya, Myanmar, Rwanda, Myanmar, Thailand and Uganda.

Kamen said she works “as hands off as possible” to make the entire initiative sustainable. “[The program] is really run by the communities,” Kamen said.

“My priority is the sustainable nature of the program.”

Kamen said an essential aspect of SOAP is providing local solutions to local problems, rather than having outsiders try to solve the problems for them.

She added that she plans to expand SOAP in the near future through building new partnerships with communities and hotels. The nonprofit has recently launched a new effort to integrate sexual and COURTESY OF SYDNEY KAMEN reproductive health programming into its initiative.

Sydney Kamen ’19 (front row, third from left) started So Others Are Protected to help bring hygiene to under-resourced communities around the world. “[The soap-making platform] is a very non-controversial, all- global health Lisa Adams, who Kamen said she was raised you are expected to do or say that been that person. But I would challenge my peers, in one way inclusive program, and so we’ve taught Kamen as a geography with the notion, “if you see something.” had partner communities build professor, said it is important something that makes you think “I think it takes a lot of courage or another, to find that courage on that platform and use that to for students not just to learn ‘someone should do something’ or to really do that,” Kamen said. “I to see that someone, to say that bring women together to talk about infor mation to pass the quiz ‘someone should say something,’ can’t necessarily say I’ve always something or do that something.” other issues and health — not just or write a paper but also to sanitation and hygiene but sexual have a deeper understanding of and reproductive health,” Kamen the concepts and materials like Kamen. said. “My hope is “ I t ’ s a b o u t that communities “[The program] the practical will take it in application — whatever direction is really run by what do [the they need.” the communities. concepts] look Kamen said the like in real life geography courses My priority is the in the field she took at the sustainable nature and how does College helped of the program.” this play out,” her expand SOAP, Adams said. furthering her E nvironmental knowledge about -SYDNEY KAMEN ’19 studies professor development and Melody Burkins, humanitarianism. associate She added that director for it is fascinating to p ro g r a m s observe what she a n d r e s e a rc h has learned in the a t t h e Jo h n classroom through Sloan Dickey personal exchanges Center for with people from Inter national under-resourced Understanding, communities that said she advised SOAP has helped.

Kamen on Kamen said it SOAP and came is important to to appreciate remain humble K a m e n ’ s while also realizing dedication to that “you don’t and enthusiasm need a fancy about the degree to make a initiative. She taught Kamen in difference.”

“It’s something as simple as a the class, “The Practice of Science small glob of glycerin,” Kamen Policy and Diplomacy,” which focuses on how evidence in science said.

Geisel School of Medicine informs policy to reshape how they professor and associate dean for work in the real world.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 6

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST KATIE SHI ’21

Reading Between the Lines

“The Secret History” reminds us not to romanticize our time at Dartmouth.

When I first read Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History” as a high school student, I loved its romanticization of academia. The novel ostensibly focuses on the aesthetics of higher education. The main character, Richard Papen, arrives at the fictitious Hampden College and instantly falls in love with New England. He later manages to join five other students in the school’s exclusive classics department and spends most of his time bonding with his classmates over studying Greek literature.

The idea of an education based solely on the classics, as presented by Tartt, is an appealing one. Papen is fascinated by his new friends and their professor, the charming and enigmatic Julian Morrow, whose intimate classroom sessions Papen compares to a “benevolent dictatorship.”

Morrow teaches them literature, history and philosophy in the style of the ancient Greeks, and Papen’s love for the language is palpable.

Fans of “The Secret History” are caught by its lyrical prose and its focus on the sublime; there are hundreds of Internet collages that juxtapose Romanesque architecture and dusty bookshelves with thin, pale, cigarette-holding hands and choice quotes such as “Beauty is terror” and “morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”

But my original love for the novel’s aesthetic appeal ignored its problematic portrayals of its characters and of university life in general.

Morrow wants his students to be modern versions of Plato’s philosopher-kings. He monopolizes his students’ curricula, forbidding them from taking classes outside of his department and creating the complete opposite of what a college education should be. The entire narrative carries a judgmental and elitist undertone — Papen looks down upon most students for doing drugs and drinking, though he does the same things himself, and his classmates distinguish themselves by flaunting their wealth and their familiarity with “The Iliad.” This is in addition to a host of other issues uncovered in the latter half of the book, including problems with mental health, addiction and obsession that pervade Hampden’s campus life. Papen combines his first impressions of Hampden and the sense of grandeur that Morrow and the other classics students exude to construct a rose-colored view of the school. He chooses to ignore the flaws of

his peers — one classmate, for example, has a drinking problem, while another frequently uses homophobic and sexist slurs — in order to maintain this idealized and false version of his college experience.

I reread “The Secret History” the summer before starting college, and I was reminded of Papen’s initial experience at Hampden when my own first impression of Dartmouth turned out to be one of perfection. When I arrived on campus, I was enchanted by its picture-perfect façade: Baker’s gleaming white bell tower, the ivy-covered buildings and the gigantic trees surrounding Hanover. My optimism was only amplified during First-Year Trips and Orientation. During the class meetings we attended, we were constantly reassured by various administrators that our time at Dartmouth would be the best four years of our lives. However, I have to remember that my initial impressions and expectations for Dartmouth cannot blind me from reality — most members of the freshman class had projected the best versions of themselves during those first few weeks, just as I had, hiding personal shortcomings under polished façades.

Yes, Dartmouth’s community and dedication to undergraduate education are unique — those qualities were what compelled me to apply in the first place. I know that some of my favorite memories will inevitably take place here. But I don’t want my time at Dartmouth to be the best four years of my life — that would imply that Dartmouth is somehow perfect, which simply isn’t true. I don’t want to reach the peak of my potential when I’m 21. Instead, I want my college experience to be centered on growth, both for myself and for my peers. I hope that we’ll continue to recognize the flaws in our campus culture and try our best to fix them while broadening our understanding of the rest of the world. I hope that by the time I graduate, I’ll remember the fantastic people I’ve met and classes I’ve taken, not the superficial aesthetics that attracted me as a high school student. For now, I just want to enjoy my first term at Dartmouth without any unrealistic expectations; I hope that other freshmen do the same.

6175 ROBINSON HALL, HANOVER N.H. 03755 • (603) 646-2600

RAY LU, Editor-in-Chief KOURTNEY KAWANO, Executive Editor CAROLINE BERENS, Managing Editor PRODUCTION EDITORS PARKER RICHARDS & ZIQIN YUAN, Opinion Editors LAUREN BUDD, ANNETTE DENEKAS & MAY MANSOUR Mirror Editors EVAN MORGAN & CHRIS SHIM, Sports Editors HALEY GORDON & MADELINE KILLEN, Arts Editors MELANIE KOS & LUCY TANTUM, Dartbeat Editors JESSICA CAMPANILE, Multimedia Editor SAMANTHA BURACK & TANYA SHAH, Design Editors ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN, Survey Editor

PHILIP RASANSKY, Publisher ERIN LEE, Executive Editor NOAH GOLDSTEIN, Managing Editor BUSINESS DIRECTORS ALFREDO GURMENDI, Finance & Strategy Director ROSHNI CHANDWANI, Finance & Strategy Director SHINAR JAIN, Advertising Director KELLY CHEN, Product Development Director EMMA MARSANO, Marketing & Communications Director HENRY WILSON, Technology Director PHOTOGRAPHY EDITORS ELIZA MCDONOUGH HOLLYE SWINEHART TIFFANY ZHAI

ISSUE

NEWS EDITOR: Peter Charalambous, Mika Jehoon Lee, Julian Nathan

SUBMISSIONS: We welcome letters and guest columns. All submissions must include the author’s name and affiliation with Dartmouth College, and should not exceed 250 words for letters or 700 words for columns. The Dartmouth reserves the right to edit all material before publication. All material submitted becomes property of The Dartmouth. Please email submissions to editor@thedartmouth.com.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST CALLUM ZEHNER ’21

Not the Next Big Language Mandarin is not the next lingua franca.

If you were to ask a Dartmouth student expansion gives it an inherent disadvantage, studying Mandarin why they were devoting though Mandarin is also crippled by its own their time to learning the language, they internal complications. might cite its potential utility in the near Additionally, Mandarin is a difficult future. With a population of around 1.3 language to learn. It is a tonal language, billion people and an economy that, meaning words with the same sets of depending on who you ask, either is about syllables can mean vastly different things to or already has surpassed that of the when pitch is slightly altered. This is not United States, China is irrefutably a major a particularly unusual linguistic feature player on the international stage. So, the — at least 1.5 billion people speak tonal Mandarin-learning Dartmouth student languages. However, for those whose would be right to say that Mandarin will mother tongue is a non-tonal language, the become more useful. ability to both perceive However, its overall use and communicate the “The first problem will remain limited, and variations in pitch can it is unlikely to ascend to facing Mandarin is a be difficult. This is an become the next global very simple one: The issue when variations lingua franca — or in pitch can change the world already has a “bridge language.” meaning of a word from, I am a Mandarin lingua franca.” say, “mother” to “scold” student at Dartmouth to “horse,” as is the case and don’t mean to for the syllable “ma” in deride it out-of-hand.

Mandarin. It is much Mandarin benefits from easier to go the opposite a very intuitive and direction, to learn a nonstraightforward grammar system and is not tonal language from the position of a tonalriddled with the grammatical exceptions language speaker; this sets up a situation and inconsistencies that affect English. where anglophones will be discouraged from It is also evidently a growing language learning Mandarin, and Chinese speakers — all one needs to do is look at the signs will find themselves effectively obliged to in a large international airport or at learn English. the number of American students now The Chinese writing system utilizes a learning Mandarin, to see the pace of its system of characters, wherein each character growth. However, the language suffers has its own unique meaning, increasing the from certain setbacks both in its nature difficulty for one learning the language. and in its scope, and these will affect its The majority of the world’s languages use ability to become the global language of an alphabetic system, meaning that, for a the future. vast swathe of the population, Mandarin The first problem facing Mandarin will have a steep learning curve. While is a very simple one: Chinese characters are The world already has composed of radicals a lingua franca. For the “...in the forseeable that act as a form of first time in history, the future, there is road map to guide the entire human population reader to the character’s has a single overarching no clear track for meaning and rough g o - t o l a n g u a g e f o r Mandarin to be the pronunciation, the international and crosscharacter system, even cultural communication: doinant language of in simplified form, is English. English is firmly exchange. It is too inefficient compared to entrenched, due in large an alphabetic system. part to Britain’s colonial limited in locale and The added complexity endeavors and America’s difficult to learn.” l i m i t s M a n d a r i n’s cultural infiltration. potential to become English has a number of the world’s “secondimportant features that language,” since fewer keep it at its place as the world’s language people will be able or willing to learn it. of exchange. It is spread out, with many Mandarin has not been a strong sovereign states over six continents using player in international and cross-cultural it as their official or primary language, communication in recent history. It will, thereby hyperbolizing its clout on the I am sure, grow in influence as it follows international stage; Mandarin, on the China’s upward trajectory. However, in the other hand, is only an official language in foreseeable future, there is no clear track three states, two of which — the People’s for Mandarin to be the dominant language Republic of China and the Republic of of exchange. It is too limited in locale and China — dispute each other’s existence. difficult to learn. Still, English-speakers (The third, Singapore, also uses English must not hang up their hats and call it a day and other tongues as its official languages.) — learning a foreign language is vital and English also shares many features with a crucial first step in confronting the ease other widely-spoken languages, such as of being an English speaker, whether that Spanish, French and Portuguese. Thus, language should be Mandarin is a separate Mandarin’s lack of transcontinental matter.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 7

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST AVERY SAKLAD ’21

STAFF COLUMNIST MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN ’18

Essential Feminists

Single-Payer? It’s Already Here

Feminists are proud, independent women, become accustomed to commonplace sexist but in order to further our cause, we do, in fact, language. It’s this kind of dialogue — the need men. A major shift in the social paradigm objectification of women’s bodies, the callous is impossible when only part of the population normalization of sexual assault, the offhand is fighting for change. We need the other sex hate speech — that men can help eliminate, to fill the gaps, to help us form a united front even if they aren’t the propagators. It takes and to project our voices in the places where an ally to women to call out other men on we are not heard yet. This does not mean we their offensive speech, to make it known that are asking for charity. even amongst males, hate toward women In 2017, it is still socially taboo for men to is unacceptable. To the decent men — be emote, to express self-consciousness or to be the brave. Defend women in the spaces where we secondary breadwinners cannot defend ourselves. in domestic partnerships.

Cease to pass off offensive Men face up to 63 percent “Feminists are language with worn-out longer sentences than demanding freedom excuses like “boys will women in federal justice be boys,” discourage the cases for comparable and impartiality for harmful discourse labeled crimes, according to both sexes, pure and as “locker room talk,” a study published by dispel arrogant concepts University of Michigan simple.” like “friend zoning” and law professor Sonja Starr. remember that silence Although one in 10 rape can imply support. victims is male, men often choose not to report I’m calling on you directly, the men who sexual assault because situational control is a struggle with the abstruseness of taking societal male norm, perhaps affecting a male action against injustice or ignore it altogether, victim’s sense of masculinity. Sexism has never to speak up. I know that what I am asking for been only a women’s issue. is not easy. It’s hard to be the voice of social Feminists are demanding freedom and change among peers, but when the cause is impartiality for both sexes, pure and simple. right, it’s also admirable. Sometimes you will The freedom to pilot our own bodies, to feel safe mess up; you will find yourself contributing from unwarranted advances, to live without absentmindedly to sexist conversation or fear of violation. We want impartiality in our letting a sexist comment slip by without jobs, relationship roles that defy ingrained objecting to it. That’s okay. Learn how to stereotypes and sensitive expression that challenge others, and gradually make it a unmasks the spectrum of emotions we share habit. regardless of gender and sex.

If you aren’t sure exactly what you’re The lack of these key components of gender challenging or why, there are many resources equality is an issue that’s on all of us to resolve, available on campus that allow you to take but according to a Washington Post Kaiser your feminist education into your own hands.

Family Foundation Poll published in 2016, only Dartmouth offers a variety of women’s, 10 percent of American men identify as strong gender and sexuality studies courses that feminists, 23 percent cover feminist topics and consider themselves help fulfill distribution “I’m calling on you feminists and 50 percent requirements. A great do not identify as feminists directly, the men deal of feminist literature at all. Although some men is available in the libraries who struggle with are united on the front of or through Dartmouth’s feminism, many more are the abstruseness of archives, or you can struggling to grab hold just type the word taking action against always of an abstract movement “feminism” into Google — and some have yet to injustice or ignore it and fall down an internet consider the prospect of altogether, to speak rabbit hole. But most aligning themselves with importantly, actively the feminist cause. To all up.” listen to and acknowledge of the guys out there living the experiences of the in either ignorance or inaction, listen up: It’s women around you to learn how sexism time for you to take a stand, too. affects those you know firsthand.

I am a feminist, and I am not a man-hater. If you feel anxious to act on your There is no intrinsic malevolence toward feminist vibes right here, right now, there women tucked away in the Y chromosome; are campaigns you can immediately pledge the advantages handed to men by the to online. The White Ribbon Campaign patriarchy are for most largely unintentional aims to end gender-based violence and and unasked for, and many would never encourages men to brandish their support think to further gender-based oppression of for women by joining projects, walks and their own will. Regardless, the “not all men” other demonstrations of allyship. The argument needs to stop. All men, independent UN Women’s campaign “He for She” is of personal feminist disposition, are affected three years strong. Hop on the activist by the patriarchy, even if they do not seek to bandwagon, pledge your support and make promote it. a lasting difference. It’s a daunting task, By growing up in the confines of gender but committing wholeheartedly can help roles, both men and women have largely catalyze major social change.

If the Biblical sacrifice of Isaac were definition of a state’s duties to its people. They written today, Kentucky Sen. Mitch are common sense; you call 9-1-1, a police car McConnell might stand in for Abraham, shows up. You leave your oven on a bit too and instead of the voice of the angel of long, the fire department puts an axe through God above, the faithful might read of the your ceiling. But you develop prostate cancer, cries of disabled activists dragged in flex- and nobody comes knocking. You are born cuffs from Congressional hearings. And our with a muscular-degenerative syndrome, and progenitor of nations, spared from certain your only guaranteed meeting is with a bill. death, is not Isaac but the Affordable Care We demonstrably think that we have a Act. After the congressional GOP’s third right to the establishment and maintenance abject healthcare failure, this is not the least of an adequate police force to protect us apropos comparison, though it may verge from harm. Why, then, do we question singleslightly into the poetic. payer advocates’ arguments that we have a Don’t be surprised when another duo of right to adequate healthcare to do the same? senators or particularly ambitious House Opponents of so-called socialized medicine members stick their names on some new argue that they, “the Hardworking American,” embarrassment of a bill and christen it with should not have to pay for government services the tired “repeal and replace” moniker, or afforded to their neighbor, “the Freeloader.” some variation thereof.

Yet the squad car does not In fact, expect it. But differentiate between the the propensity to pop “Don’t be surprised freeloader and the hard up sur prisingly isn’t when another worker. The fire hydrant the only thing these gurgles just the same policy abominations duo of senators for the prince as for the share with Sloth from or particularly pauper. If one is to laud “The Goonies.” They the fact that the cop serves a r e f u n d a m e n t a l l y ambitious House the common good, one defor med, and their members stick their cannot then lambaste failure reflects a wider the proposition that the acknowledgment that names on some new doctor do the same. the future of American embarassment of Nor can the opponent healthcare will look of single-payer a bill and christen less like an oligarchic healthcare hold that the nightmare and more it with the tired police perform a more like — dare I utter the immediately necessary ‘repeal and replace’ words? — single-payer. or important function.

T he conver sation moniker...”

Almost 34,000 deaths in around socialized the United States each medicine is saddled with year are attributable to emotional and cultural gun violence, an ill it is baggage packed during the Cold War and reasonable to think the police are there to zipped up by explanations of patriotism that prevent. But nearly two-thirds of those deaths serve to perpetuate the survival of interested are suicides — not always under the purview institutions through the exclusion of some of law enforcement. Minus accidents and groups. Socialism can’t be American, suicides, the number of gun deaths falls to because Americans aren’t socialists. Et about 12,000. Now compare that with the cetera. But most participants on the right- list of the most successful annual American hand side of the healthcare conversation serial killers: heart disease, with around miss two facts. First, single-payer healthcare 634,000 fatalities; cancer, with 596,000; just isn’t socialism. Industry, rather than the and chronic lower respiratory diseases, with state, can retain control of industry even if 155,000. Together, these outnumber nonthe bills are paid out of a state-maintained suicide gun deaths nearly 14 to one. And pool of tax revenue. A doctor who receives hospitals, doctors and urgent care providers her check from the federal government is are singularly situated to help. Nothing even not thereby that government’s employee — the most well-equipped police force could at the very least no more than she is your handle enters the top 10 causes of death in employee for having deposited the copay the United States each year. you handed the receptionist on the way out It is likely that without the police, the kind of her office. of anarchic violence they now prevent would Second, and more importantly, we in match or outpace the current leading causes the United States already use and support of death. But this fact does not bode poorly programs analogous to single-payer for the advocate of single-payer healthcare. healthcare. Our taxes pay for firetrucks. If anything, it’s an acknowledgment that the A deduction from your paycheck funds state can provide relatively efficient services to the services that keep your air and water remedy social ills, balancing the expectation clean. Police departments across the country that every citizen pay their share with the pay their officers out of a city-, county- or assurance that each who has will reap the state-level pool of taxpayer money. Call it rewards when it comes her turn. If “repeal single-payer protect and serve. We don’t and replace” is to work, perhaps a worthier think about these services because they have replacement is a system we’ve already agreed been so deeply and so long ingrained in the to use.

For the feminist movement, men are essential allies.

In the national debate on healthcare law, we should look to a familiar format.

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

PAGE 8

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Monica White Ndounou joins theater department faculty

By KASEY RHEE The Dartmouth

A new name has been posted on the office doors of Shakespeare Alley, welcoming Monica White Ndounou, who joined the Dartmouth faculty as an associate professor of theater earlier this year.

The theater department now has nine faculty members, not including adjunct faculty. The addition of a new faculty member is an exciting occasion, and the hiring committee’s search was especially intentional due to the department’s size.

Theater professor and department chair Laura Edmondson shared that thoughthescholarshipof eachcandidate was the primary factor, “because we are such a small department, we were looking for someone who also had familiarity and experience in the practical side of theater.”

Ndounou, a “scholar artist,” has a Ph.D. in theater and is a director and an actor. She observed that her perspective is “shaped by both of those worlds.”

Her directing history includes student productions such as August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” and Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf ” for Tuft University’s Department of drama and dance. Since

Dartmouth student productions all need faculty advisors, Ndounou brings experience to that role.

Edmondson recalled that members of the department felt they “hit the jackpot” with Ndounou.

“People tend to think of the theater department as doing productions, but we also have a discipline of theater and performance studies ... the history, the literature and the theory of theatre,” Edmondson said. “Not only was [Ndounou] a top-notch scholar of black theater and film, but she also had extensive directing experience.”

Ndounou explained that she became familiar with Dartmouth because of Errol Hill, a former theater professor at the college. “[His research] and the work he produced, especially while teaching at Dartmouth, has had a very profound impact on the development of black theater scholarship,” Ndounou said.

August Wilson held a Black Theater Summit at Dartmouth twenty years ago while serving as a Montgomery Fellow, and in the same vein Ndounou plans to host a reconvening of the summit in the near future, Ndounou added in an email.

Ndounou also made a visit to campus to give a presentation on her research, and Edmondson pinpointed that moment as particularly moving.

“[She] blew us away with her charisma and the clear rapport she had both with the students in the room and the faculty,” Edmondson said. “It was just very clear that she was a gifted teacher as well.”

Ndounou is teaching Theater 1, “Introduction to Theater” and Theater 22, “Black Theater, U.S.A.” this term, and her students echo Edmondson’s sentiment.

Jovanay Carter ’19, a theater minor and student in “Black Theater, U.S.A.,” described Ndounou’s teaching as “exactly what anyone would want from their professor.”

“We’re driven to think critically in a very engaging way,” Carter added.

“She’s excited to teach us. It feels good to be in her presence … super positive, a great spirit.”

Carter noted that just in these past few weeks of classes, she’s observed Ndounou’s encouraging attitude.

“She works off of what we contribute, and I appreciate that,” Carter said, citing how Ndounou’s leadership has affected her on a personal level. “[Ndounou is] someone who I can definitely relate to on campus … as a woman of color on campus, as someone who studies theater, as someone from the south … all things that are less common here,” Carter said. “It just feels good to have a black professor. It’s not that there

aren’t any other professors of color, but it is rare for me … this is my second time.”

The concept of representation is a significant focus of Ndounou’s scholarly work. She will not be teaching for both the winter and spring terms, instead conducting research. Ndounou’s current project is comprised of a digital archive, a book and a documentary film component that look at the different theories and practices that black Americans specifically have developed over the years in terms of actor-director training. She will be working at various institutions located both nationally and internationally. As an awardee of a New York Public Library shortterm research fellowship, Ndounou has already begun archival research both there and at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She will also be traveling to Yale University to see the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library’s collection, and to New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Ndounou said.

Elaborating on the motivation behind this project, Ndounou said her ultimate goal was to “spearhead an overhaul in theater training.”

“Many U.S. actor training programs rely primarily on theories and practices developed by white Americans or white

Europeans,” Ndounou said. “This is not an accurate reflection of the various contributions people of color have made to developing the crafts of acting and directing. My research will ultimately help to develop curricula that more accurately reflects the demographics of not only this nation but the world.”

Ndounou went on to explain that her work is to “demonstrate the particulars of black American cultural influences in theater and performance” which can then serve as a model to be applied to other cultural backgrounds that have contributed “culturally nuanced” approaches to theater performance, creation, theory, criticism and behindthe-scenes work.

“There are multiple worldviews that are not historically represented in the ways artists, scholars and critics are trained,” Ndounou said.

“As part of this larger project, my book considers strategies artists have historically used to humanize stereotypical roles and related narratives as well as roles that are more three dimensional and culturally nuanced.”

In the short term, Ndounou will be crafting and gathering resources that could provide students and professional artists alike with tools to feel comfortable accessing material from their cultural backgrounds.

Student Spotlight: director, performer Virginia Ogden ’18

By LEX KANG

The Dartmouth

As director of last spring’s student production “What Every Girl Should Know,” president of the all-female a cappella group the Subtleties and actress in “In The Next Room,” “Urinetown” and this fall’s “Cabaret,” performer and playwright Virginia Ogden ’18 has completely immersed herself in the arts at Dartmouth. Ogden spent the past summer as a student at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art as part of the Dartmouth theater foreign study program.

While comfortable taking the stage as the Emcee — a character in the upcoming fall mainstage production — Ogden’s interests go back to participating in acting classes at a very young age.

“My parents putting me in acting classes because I was shyer when I was younger is the lore, but I don’t think that that’s true,” Ogden said. “I was always kind of the weird kid who put

themselves out there.”

Her flexibility and omnipresence in the arts has led to a general passion rather than specialization at Dartmouth.

“If people ask me if I’m an actor, director or writer, I can’t tell them which one I identify as,” Ogden said. “I’m the kind of theatermaker that believes that the three of them really inform each other, and they don’t exist mutually exclusive of one other.”

Ogden plans to exercise that multidisciplinary emphasis and push herself to “combine” mediums throughout her fourth and final year at Dartmouth. This level of well-rounded involvement on campus is not an easy feat. Samantha West ’20, a member of the Subtleties, expressed awe about Ogden’s time commitments.

“I don’t know how she does it,” West said. “She’s part of like a million things.”

Brooke Goldner ’19, a fellow theater major who worked with Ogden on “Don Juan” two years ago and is currently in the cast of “Cabaret,” echoed West’s sentiments.

“[Ogden’s] involved in her a cappella group, her sorority, she’s involved in the theater in a big, big way and she’s a dedicated student,” she said.

Ogden confessed that all of her commitments come at a price.

“Sometimes you don’t get any sleep, and it’s fine,” Ogden said. “Coffee is great.”

Regardless of her variety of activities, Ogden’s true passion remains rooted in theater.

“I guess at the end of the day … what I want to do is make good theater,” Ogden said. “With my theater, I aim to create empathy, so I want to tell stories that people may have never seen before and have them empathize with characters that they didn’t think they could [empathize] with.”

For many theatermakers and artists, the world of theater rewards those with multiple skills and interests, as competition in the professional scene makes jobs scarce and once standardized definitions of a “play” and of “theater” themselves morph

and expand through experimentation. “[Ogden’s] kind of like a Renaissance artist, in the true meaning of the word,” Hannah Matheson ’18, a fellow Subtleties member and longtime friend of Ogden’s, explained. “She was born to do this.”

According to Ogden, the emotional and empathetic connections theater can provoke in its audience is the reason it is so special and “vital” to her.

“I love theater because it is the most visceral … and therefore most powerful art form,” she said. “Someone said that, ‘In the movies, you sit back. In the theater, you sit up.’”

Ogden’s focus on empathy and relationships interested her in community building in the theatrical process.

“This may sound a little unconventional, but I really, really like the community building that comes along [with theater],” Ogden said. “For me, the show community building [is my favorite] because I believe that a show should be as significant and as special

for the people that created it as it is for the audience.”

Ogden’s peers note that her leadership skills draw from that communal mindset.

“She’s an incredible, fantastic leader,” West said. “She knows how to command ... so that everyone feels important and valued in a room.”

Theater professor James Horton, who is a mentor to Ogden, noted that her capacity for leadership shows in her directorial style. “[Ogden’s] had more experience as an actress, but she shows great aptitude for directing and has done a very good job,” Horton said. “I could really see her directing projects in the future — I just think she’s a really great director.”

Horton, while acknowledging Ogden could have a variety of other plans for her future, said he believes “[Ogden] is designed to move forward in the theater professionally.”

Ogden intends to pursue a professional theatrical career after graduation.