The Dartmouth 10/26/17

VOL. CLXXIV NO.137

RAIN HIGH 52 LOW 41

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017

Three professors Fall foliage draws leaf under investigation for peepers to Hanover ‘serious misconduct’

By THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

OPINION

SHEN: GOING OUT CLOTHES PAGE 6

SANDLUND: HOPEFULLY CONFUSED PAGE 6

CHEN: WHEN YOU CAN’T CATCH A BREAK PAGE 7

ARTS

BOOK REVIEW: TONI MORRISON’S ‘THE ORIGIN OF OTHERS’

Psychology and brain sciences professors Todd Heatherton, Bill Kelley and Paul Whalen are on paid leave and under “ongoing investigations into allegations of serious misconduct,” according to a statement from College spokesperson Diana Lawrence.

Several posters were distributed around campus Monday asking “Where is Prof. Paul Whalen?” and “Where is Prof. Bill Kelley?”

The College has restricted the professors’ access to campus pending

the investigations’ conclusion, according to Lawrence.

“We are engaged in a thorough and impartial process that protects the rights of all parties and promotes the safety of our campus community,” Lawrence wrote.

Hanover Police Department captain Mark Bodanza said that the department does not have any active investigations regarding the three professors.

Emails to Heatherton received an automatic reply that the professor is “on sabbatical and not monitoring this email account until September 2018.”

Food Day promotes sustainability

By HYE YOUNG KIM The Dartmouth

Dartmouth Dining Services and several partners organized this year’s Food D ay p ro g r a m m i n g, wh i ch ran from Oct.1 to Oct. 21.

The programming, meant to highlight healthy and sustainable food, featured apple picking at Riverview Far m, a talk by activist and educator Malik Yakini, a screening of the movie

“An Inconvenient Sequel” and a Harvest Dinner at the Class of 1953 Commons.

In a joint interview with director of DDS Jon Plodzik DDS chef Christopher Kaschak and DDS dietitian Elizabeth Rosenberger said Food Day at Dartmouth began as a small-scale celebration in 2012 and has now grown into a month of events.

SEE FOOD PAGE 5

CAROLYN SILVERSTEIN/THE DARTMOUTH

Hanover and surrounding areas are currently experiencing peak foliage, drawing tourists.

By ABBY MIHALY The Dartmouth

As the days finally begin to get colder, the leaves are changing color, drawing what Northeasterners call “leaf peepers” — tourists who travel to the area to admire fall foliage.

Leaf peeping is important to local businesses, wrote New Hampshire division of travel and tourism director Victoria Cimino in an email statement.

This fall, the state expects 9.75 million visitors, a 4 percent increase over 2016,

Cimino wrote. Those visitors are anticipated to spend $1.5 billion, a 5 percent increase from 2016. According to Visit New Hampshire’s foliage tracker, Hanover and surrounding areas are currently at “peak” foliage, which will fade in the coming days.

Molly’s Restaurant assistant manager Jen Lafreniere said leaf peepers come from all over the continent.

“A ton of bus tours that come down from Canada, that come down from Maine, they come up from South

Carolina and Tennessee, we get a ton of different people from the South that come and just bombard us,” she said.

Environmental studies research associate David Lutz explained that foliage is a product of three classes of pigments in plant leaves.

Chlorophyll is the main pigment for photosynthesis and the predominant reason plants are green. Chlorophyll production and synthesis, however, spend a lot of the plant’s energy.

“Plants generally are very SEE FOLIAGE PAGE 3

CHaD Hero raises over $840,000

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HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

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The CHaD Hero event includes walks, runs and bike races.

The Green was a hub of activity this past Sunday as Upper Valley residents and Dartmouth students came together for the 12th annual Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hero

fundraiser. The event, which featured a half-marathon, a 5K run and walk, 25- and 50mile bike races and the “Cam’s Course” fun run, has raised over $843,000 so far.

The event had over 2,800 participants, 357 volunteers and over 200 Dartmouth athlete assistants this year, according

to CHaD event and project coordinator Hilary Schuler.

Of the 2,800 participants, more than 200 were Dartmouth students, Schuler said.

The $843,000 raised this year is a record amount for the event, Schuler said. Last year,

SEE CHAD PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017

Q&A with biology professor Celia Chen ’78 A&S’94 program developed?

CC: T he prog ram looks at the various chemicals in the Celia Chen ’78 A&S’94, a e nv i ro n m e n t a n d h ow t h ey principal investigator in the affect human health as well D a r t m o u t h To x i c M e t a l s a s e n v i r o n m e n t a l h e a l t h .

Superfund Research Program and T h e N a t i o n a l I n s t i t u t e o f biology professor, is an expert in Environmental Health Sciences ecotoxicology and aquatic ecology. funds this program within it She has researched the effects of called the Superfund Research metal contaminants on aquatic Program. There are about 15 food chains both in freshwater to 20 institutions around the and estuarine ecosystems over country like Dartmouth, and the last 15 years. Last month, she we all study chemicals that are represented Dartmouth as a non- found in contaminated sites, governmental organization at a which are called the superfund United Nations conference. There, sites. The superfund sites have she advocated that scientists be lots of different chemicals. We involved in the implementation don’t necessarily study the sites. of the Minamata Convention We study the chemicals found in on Mercury, a United Nations those sites and how they affect treaty adopted in 2013 that aims biological processes and human to protect human health and the health. Some of the studies look environment from the hazardous at human populations, and some effects of mercury. At the meeting, of them look at molecular science Chen joined delegates of signatory and how they affect molecular or countries of the treaty. cellular processes.

Within that program, we have H o w d i d y o u b e c o m e four projects. Two of them are interested in the field of what we call biomedical projects. ecotoxicology?

They look at effects on human CC: I went to Dartmouth, and I was health processes. And then two are a biology major non-biomedical. modified with “The fact that I My project is a nonenvironmental biomedical project studies. Then I teach in Costa Rica because I study got a master s has made me want aquatic ecosystems. in biological T he other nonto think about oceanog raphy. biomedical project A n d t h e n I doing research here in our program got a Ph.D. in down there.” is one by [biology aquatic ecology, professor] Mar y wh i ch w a s i n Lou Guerinot . freshwater. So, -CELIA CHEN ’78 She studies the I sort of have uptake of arsenic A&S’94, BIOLOGY been working in in rice. Arsenic is aquatic systems PROFESSOR a problem in rice most of the time. grown in certain I became part of areas, and so her a submission for study is really plant a big grant for a program called genetics. the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Of two biomedical studies, prog rams. We applied for a one looks at the populations of program grant in 1994, got it, and humans and how arsenic exposure we have continuously funded that affects early outcomes. The other by going through these competitive biomedical project in our program resubmissions for a new grant every is the effect of arsenic on lung five years, and we’ve had it now for function because arsenic has been almost 23 years. We study mostly shown to be related to respiratory arsenic and mercury because those kinds of problems. We’re really are two of the most important different kinds of scientists, but priority pollutants in the U.S., and we’re unified by the fact that we all mercury is a perfect one to study study metals, and we have a lab that for someone like me because the is also funded by this big program main exposure route for humans that analyzes our samples. is fish consumption.

How was the Minamata How was the Dartmouth Toxic Convention adopted and what Metals Superfund Research do you hope comes out of the

By SUSIE LEE

The Dartmouth

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

COURTESY OF CELIA CHEN

Biology professor Celia Chen ’78 A&S’94 represented Dartmouth at a United Nations conference on mercury last month.

Minamata Convention?

CC: The reason it’s called the Minamata Convention is because of the realization of Minamata disease, which was discovered in a population in Minamata, Japan, where people had been eating a lot of seafood, and over time there was a recognition that this chemical plant built in the 1950s had started discharging all this mercury waste into Minamata Bay. Nobody realized then that mercury gets into the water, and then into fish, and each level of the food chain gets higher and higher. It’s biomagnification. So people didn’t realize it — they found people were getting really sick and dying, and there were all these birth defects.

And then they started to realize that the disease was showing up in other cities besides just Minamata, but the treaty was called that in honor of those people who were first affected.

I think in the early 2000s, they started to recognize globally that there was this problem with mercury. Scientists have known it for a long time, but there was no collective will to have a treaty and that was in part because George W. Bush was our president, and he was not an environmental guy.

But there were other countries that were getting very interested in it.

And then it wasn’t until Barack Obama became our president, and he had always been interested in the mercury issue. He was a senator before, and he actually had introduced a mercury export ban in the U.S. because of this concern over mercury. When he came into office as president, he then was the impetus for the U.S. to say that we are interested in an international treaty. I’ve talked to other people who were very involved in the treaty and negotiations over these years, and they said that had Obama not been the president,

we wouldn’t have this treaty right now, which I think is interesting because hardly anyone knows that Obama had anything to do with mercury.

set of issues down there.

Are you c urre nt ly d oi n g research on any other topics?

CC: Most of my research has something related to mercury, How is your research related but one project I’m involved in t o c l a s s e s yo u t e a c h a t is on the evaluation of economic Dartmouth? valuation of small streams. Should CC: My research is in estuaries, we, in our communities, protect which is one of the systems I teach our water streams? What do they in marine biology and ecology. give us? What do people think?

I, often at the end of my course, So the economic valuation has talk about applied issues in marine to do with what people value and systems. So the protection sometimes, I will “I think that’s one of resources do one lecture that has to do on my research. of the coolest with whether I think it’s really things about people value from having them enough to been trained in getting to work in protect them. I’m marine science science — you can on another project that is why I can that has to do work on as much teach marine with ALS, the Lou biology, and I as your comfort Gehrig’s disease. l ove t e a c h i n g zone allows you to, There are a couple that course. And of neurologists I also teach the and ... I constantly who are biology foreign am learning from interested if any studies program, of the chemical people.” in the coral reef predictors and ecology course. algal blooms The fact that I -CELIA CHEN ’78 A&S’94, seem to predict teach in Costa the incidents of Rica has made BIOLOGY PROFESSOR the Lou Gehrig’s me want to think disease. So we’ve about doing been looking research down at exposure to there — there’s an opportunity to mercury, cyanotoxins, which are go look at the world of mercury blue-green algal toxins. This has a science where we have a lot of little bit to do with mercury, but it research that has been going on has a lot to do with other stuff too. in the temperate zone. But there I think that’s one of the coolest isn’t research that has been done things about getting to work in in the tropical areas. Since I go to science — you can work on as much the Caribbean, I started to collect as your comfort zone allows you samples just this last year, so it’s to, and getting to collaborate with teaching that course has given me people in other areas of expertise opportunity to expand my research is just cool because I constantly am to that system. So, it’s both ways. learning from people.

One is that I bring my research to one of my courses, and the course This interview has been edited and has allowed me to think about that condensed for clarity and length.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

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CHaD Hero sees more Leaf peepers flock to Hanover than 2,800 participants FROM FOLIAGE PAGE 1

To raise money, RVC challenged each of its seven departments to the fundraiser raised over $775,000 organize an individual fundraiser for and approximately $700,000 the the CHaD Hero and “incentivized year before. the staff … to get team members One of the driving forces behind and raise money,” Poljacik said. the CHaD Hero is Positive Tracks, While Poljacik said it was not a Hanover-based nonprofit that RVC’s goal to be the top group combines philanthropy with youth fundraiser, everyone at the club was athletic events. highly enthusiastic about getting According to Positive Tracks involved with the event for the first founder and chief executive officer time this year.

Nini Meyer, the organization “I’m glad we finally did it,” serves as the CHaD Hero’s “youth Poljacik said. “It was a pretty platform,” outstanding helping young experience and I people organize “I’m going to start think we’re going teams a n d volunteering [at to do it again fundraising year after year.” efforts leading CHaD] ... and do This up to the event. whatever I can. I think year’s largest The organization individual it’s something that’s also matches any fundraiser was a m o u n t t h a t really important.”

Saheer Mathrani participants 23 ’20. Mathrani and under raise. has had a M eye r s a i d -SAHEER MATHRANI ’20 vested interest Positive Tracks in pediatric was born out of medicine since her involvement he was in fifth in the first CHaD Hero 12 years grade, when one of his close friends ago, and the organization is now passed away from pediatric cancer. one of the event’s most involved “I’ve always been very interested benefactors. While Positive Tracks in furthering pediatric medicine helps young people get organized because it doesn’t get a lot of and “amplifies their efforts,” Meyer funding,” Mathrani said. said.

His concern for the area spurred In addition, the number of him to raise money for the CHaD CHad Hero Hero this year, participants this and he initially year significantly “It was a pretty set a personal sur passed the outstanding fundraising goal organizers’ initial of $200. goal of 2,000 experience and I think After emailing p a r t i c i p a n t s , we’re going to do it about 75 family Meyer said. and again year after year.” members M e y e r friends asking attributed the for donations, he event’s growth -JENNIFER POLJACIK, ended up raising and success $12,370 for the to community RIVER VALLEY CLUB event. e n t h u s i a s m , CHIEF EXECUTIVE Going forward, especially that of in addition to OFFICER young people in participating in the local area and the CHaD Hero at Dartmouth. again next year, According to Meyer, some of the Mathrani plans to become involved event’s largest donations come from with CHaD in other ways.

Dartmouth athletic teams and Greek “I’m going to start volunteering organizations, including Psi Upsilon there … and do whatever I can,” fraternity, which raised $25,042, the he said. “I think it’s something that’s second-largest amount of money out really important.” of the CHaD Hero’s fundraising In addition to being a major teams. fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital The River Valley Club, a health at Dartmouth, Meyer said that the and fitness club in Lebanon, raised CHaD Hero is also an important the most out of the CHaD Hero community-builder for residents of teams. The club has raised about the Upper Valley. $27,000 so far, according to RVC “It’s really cool to see youth and chief executive officer Jennifer adults of all backgrounds and all Poljacik, although she noted that shapes and sizes out there on behalf they are still accepting donations of CHaD,” she said. “It’s a beautiful and hope to reach a $30,000 goal. thing to see.”

FROM CHAD PAGE 1

careful about their chlorophyll levels because chlorophyll is an energetically expensive molecule to produce,” Lutz said.

For this reason, plants reabsorb these nutrients at the end of each season, losing their green color and revealing the yellow, orange and red pigments in the leaves, he added.

Lou’s Restaurant and Bakery general manager Craig Morley said that Lou’s depends on tourists who come to the northeast to see these colors for business.

“We do rely on them, and it is a big part of the business,” he said. “Because you end summer … and you hit a lull for a couple of weeks there, and then you look forward to foliage because it definitely brings the tourists out …

Tourists are what makes it work for us.”

Hanover Inn general manager Keith Wagner said this year, leaf colors have been more muted than in past years.

“From the leaf perspective, they don’t have the same [vibrancy] that they did last year,” he said.

Lutz echoed Wagner’s observations, explaining that the pattern of colors this year was varied, and the season was also longer.

“This is definitely a very interesting season ... It started out somewhat muted, and you’re seeing a lot of early leaf drop, but you’re seeing a lot of extension [of the season],” Lutz said.

Much of this has to do with warmer weather, Lutz said. He explained that plants need cold nights in order to trigger the senescence process through which chlorophyll exits the leaves.

This year, Lutz said that based on his records, the Upper Valley has experienced only a few cold nights, and even on those nights, temperatures have not dropped far below freezing.

He explained that this produces a slower and more prolonged foliage season because each plant is triggered

at a different time and rate than those around it.

Cold nights are what trigger abrupt changes in foliage all at once, according to Lutz.

“You really need multiple pretty cool nights to have it really impact the whole canopy,” he said.

Lutz added that rainfall also influences leaf color. Anthocyanins — responsible for the vibrant red color in leaves — prevent damage to cells and cellular systems. As a result, the red color is more prevalent when the plant is experiencing stress, such as during last year’s drought.

Wagner said that tourists still enjoy traveling to the region during fall regardless of whether or not the colors are especially vibrant.

“People still love it ... It still smells like fall and it feels like fall, even though it’s warmer,” he said.

In fact, Wagner said that warm weather might have encouraged people to visit Hanover.

Morley said that tourism has held steady this season despite less-thanvibrant colors.

“It’s been a good season,” he said.

“As dismal as the colors have been, the tourists have still come out.”

Lafreniere said that the College is an important draw for tourists even when foliage is not as colorful as usual.

“Just because of the campus itself bringing so many students and people coming to do tours, we get a lot of people and families from that,” Lafreniere said. “And this time of the year is perfect because they get to see just what quintessential Hanover looks like in the fall.”

Lafreniere said that Dartmouth’s Homecoming weekend is especially important for business. On each of Homecoming weekend’s three days, Molly’s saw 1,200 guests, many visiting to see the football game or attend the bonfire.

While climate scientists aren’t certain of what the future holds for foliage, Lutz said that the season may evolve amid changing rainfall totals and temperatures.

“If its tending to get warmer and wetter in New Hampshire ­— and that is what some of the downscale climate models suggest [is happening] — you could imagine that we may not see quite that vibrant display from the drought stress that we saw before,” Lutz said.

On the other hand, he said that the possibility of decreasing rainfall totals might make future foliage seasons more colorful.

Lutz noted that according to a study performed by Andrew Richardson of North Arizona University, the foliage season will likely lengthen, although researchers don’t yet know how a longer or less vibrant season would affect tourism.

Cimino said that tourism revenue tends to increase each year.

“A primary indicator of visitor activity in the state is rooms and meals tax revenue,” she wrote. “Historically this has shown increases between 5 to 7 percent year-over-year.”

Lutz explained that a shorter winters have encouraged some businesses, such as ski resorts, to cater to fall tourists.

“A lot of the resorts, because they’re dealing with less snow and shorter skiing seasons, are looking towards non-winter visits as an important stabilizing source of income. So what you’re starting to see these ski mountains do is do foliage tours up the skiways,” Lutz said.

At least for the time being, Hanover’s local businesses may be fairly secure, Lafreniere said.

“It doesn’t [have to do with how vibrant the colors are] ... People will come up anyways,” she said. “People just like to see what we do in the fall, even just the color change itself, whether it’s yellow, muted or super bright, they don’t care. They’re here to see it.”

LET’S GET QUIZZICAL

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Students participate in trivia during an event in One Wheelock on Wednesday night.

PAGE 4

DARTMOUTHEVENTS

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

NOT THE WORST

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017

RACHEL LINCOLN ’20

TODAY 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Lecture: “No Strain No Gain,” with University of Arizona professor Jon Njardarson, Steele 006

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

Film: “It’s Criminal,” directed by Signe Taylor, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center

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

Event: Montgomery Fellows Program presents rapper and songwriter Che “Rhymefest” Smith, Occom Commons

TOMORROW 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Seminar: “Investigating Multiple Trophic Levels in Arctic Alaska: Plants, Bugs and Small Mammals,” with Towson University professor Laura Gough, Life Sciences Center 201

7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Film: “City of Ghosts,” directed by Matthew Heineman ’05, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center

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.

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

Food Day programming events encourage healthy dining fresh pasta, 300 pounds of hake, 450 pounds of mashed potatoes “ T h e f i r s t t w o ye a r s w e and 550 portions of both banana celebrated Food Day on campus, bread and blueberry bread, which it was just me,” Rosenberger said. were all consumed by the end of Rosenberger said Food Day at the night, according to Kaschak. the College was first created in T h e H a r ve s t D i n n e r w a s c o r re s p o n d e n c e centered on with National what Kaschak Food Day, which “What I would describes as is on Oct. 24 every suggest is that the “clean eating” y e a r. N a t i o n a l and featured Food Day, invented students and the simplified by the Center for staff at Dartmouth r e c i p e s Science in the and fewer look more critically Public Interest in ingredients.

2011, celebrates at the food system

“If you healthy, affordable and figure out where saw our grill and sustainable area, instead there might be gaps.” o f h a v i n g dietary choices.

One of the key burritos or events of Food Day tacos, we did -MALIK YAKINI, this year was the a very clean, Harvest Dinner EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR simple roast held on Oct. 19 OF THE DETROIT BLACK chicken — in the Class of salt, pepper, 1953 Commons. COMMUNITY FOOD oregano, The d i n n e r SECURITY NETWORK a little bit served a total of of garlic,” 2,348 people and Kaschak said. represented over 20 local vendors, “And at the same time, we were according to Rosenberger. there carving in front of [students], T h e i n g r e d i e n t s D D S speaking with them directly.” purchased for the dinner were all Plodzik said the purpose of locally sourced and included 150 the Harvest Dinner was to bring individual chickens, 110 pounds of attention to the over 150 local FROM FOOD PAGE 1

partners of DDS. more localized food economy?”

In addition, DDS invited Oliver Edelson ’18 said he Yakini, the executive director of appreciated Yakini’s talk. the Detroit Black Community “Having a speaker like Malik Food Security Ya k i n i , w h o Network, to is a voice that “This year was a deliver a talk w e d o n’ t g e t t i t l e d “ T h e really good direction to h ear o f ten G o o d Fo o d in terms of meeting at Dartmouth, Revo l u t i o n : rightfully F r e e d o m , people on their own makes us Ju s t i c e a n d turf to talk about uncomfortable Equality” on in a lot of ways,” these issues instead Oct. 16.

Oliver Edelson Yakini, who of having them come ’18 said. “I views eating as to you.” think it was very an ecological, courageous and political, bold of the Food c u l t u r a l a n d -OLIVER EDELSON D ay p l a n n i n g social act, said committee to ’18, ENVIRONMENTAL he discussed the invite a speaker b a r r i e r s t h at STUDIES FOOD DAY like [Yakini].” have prevented REPRESENTATIVE Edelson has America from participated having an i n Fo o d D a y equitable food prog ramming system, such as capitalism and the in the past two years as a student patriarchy. representative of the College’s “What I would suggest is that environmental studies department. the students and the staff at According to Rosenberger, Dartmouth look more critically Apple Crunch took place in at the food system and figure out multiple locations on campus this where there might be gaps,” Yakini year, as opposed to Geller Plaza said. “Where are there possibilities in previous years. Apple Crunch to leverage the buying power to is an event in which students are support local growers to create a provided with free local apples

and information about the spirit of Food Day. The change in location was an effort to increase participation, Rosenberger said.

“This year was a really good direction in terms of meeting people on their own turf to talk about these issues instead of having them come to you,” Edelson said.

“I think that’s the format that is more conducive to real discussion and greater visibility.”

Edelson added that future Food Day celebrations can involve a student committee to drive discussions around food-related issues students care about. This year, Dartmouth Dining Services partnered with the environmental studies program, the Dartmouth Organic Farm, the Dartmouth Sustainability Project, the Student Wellness Center and 99 Rock.

Plodzick said DDS hopes to expand the Harvest Dinner to all three meals of the day and to encourage conversation between Dartmouth students and local providers.

“When we started this several years ago, it was my whole mindset to bring these people in so they could tell you their stories,” Rosenberger said. “Just a couple of sentences of how much work it is, what it takes, what it means to grow and get all of this stuff to market.”

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST SABRINA SHEN ’21

STAFF COLUMNIST WILLIAM SANDLUND ’18

Going Out Clothes

Hopefully Confused

We should not let the fear of sexual assault affect how we dress.

Smart, young, ambitious and confused: Corporate recruiting and growing up.

There is a collapsible, gray-and-white-striped conventionally “pretty” or “hot.” She argues fabric box from IKEA that sits neatly under my that her choices not to “diet, get plastic surgery bed. This box has a flip top that opens to reveal or hire a personal trainer” have resulted in her all of my “going out” clothes. All of my female having “almost no personal experience with men friends have their own versions of this box — a asking [her] to meetings in their hotel rooms.” dresser drawer, a storage bin, a section of their She explains that she dresses “modestly,” and closet, etc. On “going out” nights, we pull out she doesn’t “act flirtatiously with men as a various tops and bottoms, all baring more policy.” Those actions have protected her from skin than is entirely practical for the bitingly the sexual advances made by powerful male cold nights of Hanover. Getting ready takes figures in the entertainment industry such as us anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, complete Harvey Weinstein. Bialik does emphasize that with plenty of laughter, compliments and outfit women should be able to behave however they assistance on themed nights. want without fear of sexual assault, but since There is absolutely nothing wrong with we do not live in a perfect world, it is safer dressing up to go out — it can be fun, it can for women to protect themselves by dressing be exciting and, in a society that is constantly conservatively. Bialik has since apologized for teaching girls to put each the victim-blaming tilt to other down, I have never “The fine line between her comments, but her heard more genuine op-ed reminded me of c o m p l i m e n t s a b o u t trying too hard and the misgivings I have when appearances than I do too little transforms choosing clothes to wear on during those moments out. into the sharp blade of a night getting ready. There is also Every time I look at an absolutely nothing wrong slut-shaming culture outfit and wonder if I’m with not dressing up — when it comes to trying too hard or too little, sweatpants and a hoodie I have to remind myself do not mean that I’ve given ‘provocative’ clothing.” that no one but me has up on myself, that I’m sad the right to assign value or that I’m experiencing to what I wear. I know some terrible slump in my that the choices I make life. However, girls are taught from a startlingly with my appearance bear no weight on whether young age that they need to walk that fine line or not my experiences with sexual harassment between trying too hard and trying too little, as are deserved or inevitable. It should be obvious if such a line even exists outside the imagination now that victim-blaming is a fruitless, dangerous of misogyny. Girls are either made fun of for exercise; playing into the idea, as Bialik did, that their effort — the number of times I have heard dressing provocatively leads to sexual assault is jokes about “girls taking forever to get ready” an equally damaging practice. Of course, I am is higher than most of my grades — or they constantly told to “be safe” before going out are criticized for not putting in enough effort. because there is the all-too real possibility that I Heaven forbid I wear the same thing going out may be sexually assaulted that night. I choose to as I did to class. be brave in the face of that threat. At Dartmouth, The fine line between trying too hard and I make that choice two or three times a week. too little transforms into the sharp blade of slut- We do not live in a perfect world — Bialik was shaming culture when it comes to “provocative” right about that. Still, I choose not to let the fear clothing. In an Oct. 13 New York Times op-ed of sexual assault stop me from wearing whatever written by Mayim Bialik, known for playing I want, I choose not to let slut-shaming culture Amy Farrah Fowler on “The Big Bang Theory,” convince me that my clothes are a siren call to Bialik talks about her experience growing up anything but my own freedom and I hope every and entering the entertainment industry with one of those choices serves as a nod to the better the knowledge that she wasn’t considered world that I want.

I spent the first week of my senior fall early gauntlet of prospecting my future, like waking up early every morning determined a gold miner manically trying to determine to do work, only to remain in bed in the fetal the right plot of land to buy. The size of the position, paralyzed by stress. Thoughts of frontal lobe in a human is what makes us what I needed to do — apply for jobs, start my different from animals like dogs. It allows us thesis, apply to fellowships — overwhelmed to plan, among other executive functions. It me. The weight of infinite futures lay heavy also helps explain why dogs are happier than on my chest. And so the last rays of summer us. My frontal lobe came out the other side of light were lost on me. If birds chirped, I did the gauntlet in unusually good form; my brain not hear them. If the grass gleamed, awash had been soaked in cortisol and hardened for in early morning dew, I did not see past my the things to come. It was ready to direct the bedroom window. forces of my mind toward potential veins of Those who know me understand I am not gold and, after debilitating procrastination, I a natural planner, as much as I would like started to apply to a lot of jobs, many of them to convince future employers otherwise. My through corporate recruiting. This seemed like father has taught me (at least) three things: Do the best way to use my newfound mindset. It not waste, be organized for the next day and did not matter if the jobs themselves were do not plan too much. The last two lessons what I wanted to do — what mattered most may seem contradictory, but in the concept was that they were opportunities that could of the future exists a clear division. There is allow me to do some interesting future thing. the certain future of coffee and a nice poop And so I successfully convinced my brain and the uncertain future of “What am I to think seriously about not just one future going to do with my life?” For a long time, but the future that would come after that I existed primarily in imagined future. As if to the first version of the demonstrate the change future, one I like to call “I was desperate in how I thought about the subsistence future. not to find myself time, for a few weeks You live in this future if after my mental shift I at Commencement you have time and basic constantly thought the necessities provided for, looking around current date was the or if you have neither confused and asking, day ahead of the actual of these things and date. I was disobeying a must work so hard you ‘What next?’” fundamental tenet of my cannot plan ahead. Most father’s, but I was also Dartmouth students have forcing myself to seriously some version of the time-rich subsistence consider what I wanted to achieve with my future. It is nice and cozy, and everything education. is assured. You can still contemplate the big From my perspective, the money and questions, but you do it from the comfort of prestige are mere symptoms of what corporate the hypothetical. The hard reality of American recruiting really offers. These jobs provide social expectations is a fuzzy background. something people crave: a degree of certainty.

Sadly, that reality must be faced one day — You worry until you don’t have to worry. Some this is what I have told myself “growing up” students want these jobs so they can relax for means. It seems to me, though, that we do not the rest of senior year, returning at least for now grow up so much as change how we think. to the fold of the subsistence mindset. Others I was desperate not to find myself at enjoy the knowledge that these jobs will set Commencement looking around confused them down a career path they are interested and asking, “What next?” I did not want in pursuing. Still, others apply simply because to feel left behind, but I also wanted to find they feel like they should take advantage of a something personally meaningful to do. I’m good opportunity. I count myself in this group. sure many Dartmouth students who grew All of them take comfort in the knowledge that, up in America experienced this notion of if successful, they will be able to pay the bills. self-imposed peer pressure during the college Regardless of the rhetoric about selling application process. I did not. My high school one’s soul, recruiting is a privilege offered by sent graduates to so many different countries elite institutions. Most people work for forand random programs that, while there was profit institutions after college, because that is some sense of awe for the rare University of how the world works. I do not believe it is fair Oxford and Harvard University acceptances, to criticize these people as corporate drones most people were fairly content finding their because if you really care that much, you own path. There was an understanding that should criticize our society instead — and then we would wind up in vastly different worlds go about changing it. I’m not sure how to feel but that we all came from the same transient about recruiting in the context of complaints international school. Maybe I was just blissfully over a limited selection of job types, but I have unaware of the sense of competition; maybe enjoyed the experience of seeing my brain as I’ve gotten older I have become more change and become more planful. My duty is concerned with what others do. I certainly to broaden my perspective and to pursue the hope not — it is easier to believe something is things I find interesting. Ultimately, what you different at prestige-oriented institutions such have to do is understand your priorities and as Dartmouth, and that the difference points act on them with some conviction. In a world to fundamental traits of American culture. fettered by material necessity and materialism, Something switched in my brain after that that can be harder than it sounds.

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 7

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST CALLUM ZEHNER ’21

GUEST COLUMNIST KAINA CHEN ’18

Ini Tidak Bagus

When You Can’t Catch a Break

Hardline Islam threatens Indonesia’s secularism and pluralism.

We rarely hear about Indonesia in the blasphemy law, which was intended to protect same context as many other majority- against divergence from any of the country’s six Muslim countries. Yet with about 227 million official religions, was clearly abused when it was adherents within its borders, Indonesia has used to put Ahok in jail. And this was not an the most Muslims of any sovereign state. isolated incident — since 2014, 15 people have Indonesia has had, in its 68-year history since been imprisoned for blasphemy. Beyond this, its independence from the Dutch, a strong though, things became even more unpalatable. record. It has had a tradition of tolerance, state One of the judges on the Ahok case cited Rizieq secularism and moderate Islam. However, these Shihab, leader of the IDF, as an expert they features of Indonesian society are faltering. consulted before making the verdict. Yet Shihab Hardline Islamism is rising, and the success had publicly stated his belief that Ahok had of the archipelago’s secularism and pluralism blasphemed long before he was consulted — he are, as a result, at risk. therefore should have lost all credibility as an Indonesia is the birthplace of Islam independent source of opinion. The fact that Nusantara, an over 500-year-old Sunni he was still consulted despite his beliefs — and theology. Born out of the the fact that his opinion was interplay of Hinduism, accepted — reveals the degree Buddhism and traditional “Hardline Islamism to which conservative Islam has I s l a m w i t h i n t h e is rising, and the infiltrated Indonesia’s courts. archipelago, it advocates The province of Aceh, in the success of the a nonviolent, inclusive northernmost part of Sumatra, form of Sunnism. Islam archipelago’s is quite infamous. In May, Nusantara is still very secularism and two consenting homosexual much present today and partners were legally sentenced has defined the current pluralism are, as a to be beaten 85 times each with state of Indonesia’s result, at risk.” canes. Because Aceh is the only moderate Islam. The province in Indonesia allowed Nahdlatul Ulama, a to implement Sharia law on its m ove m e n t c l a i m i n g citizens, homosexuality is illegal 50 million members, in Aceh but legal in the rest of continues to push the theology’s agenda. the country. The fact that Aceh follows such When considered alongside Indonesia’s strict Wahabbist Islam should be disconcerting relatively stable democracy, Islam Nusantara enough, but it has also spurred other areas to can be largely held accountable for the small follow suit, with 442 Sharia-based laws passed numbers of Indonesians who have gone to fight across the nation since 1999. for the Islamic State. Indonesia is thought to This trend has been facilitated by Saudi have only 392 citizens currently fighting for Arabia. Since 1980, the Kingdom has the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, whereas invested millions of dollars in the exportation France, with a quarter of the population, has of Salafism, a strain of Islam, through the seen 1,700 escape to Syria and Iraq. It is also, construction of 150 mosques and a large in large part, responsible for the ability of university in Jakarta, among other initiatives.

Indonesia — a state comprised of a cocktail Indonesia has no incentive to disallow the of ethnicities — to function when other Kingdom’s actions — the Saudis effectively multiethnic states fail. This moderate form of provide free infrastructure. As a result, Islam has seen Indonesia through stable times. Indonesia’s strand of Islam is slowly being But Islam Nusantara is being eroded. This displaced by the Salafism favored by Saudi April, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, commonly Arabia. In the future, Aceh may cease to be referred to as Ahok, attempted to hold on to the exception but the norm. his position as Governor of Jakarta, Indonesia’s Indonesia has had the difficult task of largest city. The election did not go smoothly. uniting thousands of ethnic groups scattered Ahok, both ethnically Chinese and a Christian, over 17,000 islands and multiple religious was an easy target for hard-line Islamists. The affiliations, into a singular, functioning critical point came when Ahok made the state. It has done so in the past by keeping sensible remark that the words of the Quran the government’s role a secular one and by should not have prevented Muslims from implicitly proselytizing the moderate Islam voting for him. The Islamists, led by the Islamic Nusantara. To say that Indonesia has been Defenders Front, claimed that Ahok’s remarks perfect up to this point is incorrect, but it has insulted the Quran and pressed charges. Mass sufficiently satiated its population without the rallies against Ahok ensued. He lost the election, violence faced by the citizens of many other and the former governor is now serving a two- Muslim countries. Allowing hardline Islamism year prison sentence for blasphemy. to enter the realms of politics and law, whether This is a strong blow to Indonesia’s current intentionally or not, is a fatal mistake. It pluralistic model. In the gubernatorial race, threatens the delicate heterogeneous peace tribalism was invoked to paint Ahok as a threat that has more or less held since independence by stoking fears of the “Christianization” of and will likely cause the freedoms enjoyed by Jakarta. Since Jakarta is the country’s most its populace to slowly erode. These threats are diverse, globally-integrated city, this does not not worth the infrastructure and other aesthetic bode well for the rest of the archipelago. benefits that hardline Islamism brings.

The gubernatorial race is also concerning Indonesia has much to lose. It must reclaim since it allowed religious sentiment to become Islamism within its borders so that Aceh entwined in the country’s legal system. The remains an outlier, not a bellwether.

Phone-hunchers are rapidly descending upon campus — what can we do?

Given any post-2A moment at King Arthur Flour, the monster that stretches from the counter to the door is usually a too-long line of students taking the exact same pose — back hunched, eyes glued to their phone, two thumbs tapping or swiping, the user’s face either pulled into a grimace or an attempt at stifled laughter.

Regardless if you’re the fraternity boy casually holding a massive skateboard or the first-year from Texas dressed in four layers and a scarf (in other words: me, three years ago), a phone grants you an instant pass from social interaction. In true egalitarian fashion, you can avoid anyone irrespective of your social status, the amount of sleep you got the night before or your phone’s battery level. Yes, you — I see you tapping away on a black screen that is obviously dead.

I am very sympathetic to the phone-hunch.

When I’m standing in line, bleary-eyed and tired, there is a limit to how many minutes of lukewarm conversation I’m willing to commit before I reach the caffeine that I hope will provide instant revival.

Social interaction is tricky to navigate, especially when it’s with that professor that you had freshman fall who probably doesn’t remember your name but is trying a little too hard to make up for it.

But, to the phone-hunchers that trudge across campus seeing nothing beyond your phone and your feet: Pals, please explain. The almost-universal adoption of the phone-hunch has flavored my walks across campus with more annoyance but some unexpected entertainment.

Traveling from place to place has now become a game of dodging people. I admit that it is funny to watch the spectacle of two phone-occupied people almost crashing into each other and bikers helplessly trying to navigate a squad of phonehunchers. Once, I saw a guy in the middle of a frisbee game completely wipe out from a rogue disc. He might’ve been able to avoid it if he was looking at anything but his phone.

Funny, but also a little sad.

We live and take classes on a campus that is often ranked as one of most beautiful campuses nationwide. This school is so manicured that even cables are buried underground to avoid telephone poles marring the campus aesthetic.

And we are surrounded by fall foliage that gives New Hampshire street cred as a sought-after travel destination. Yet, we choose not to look.

Why do we choose to go from place to place hunched over our phones? My lack of qualifications to provide social commentary about the Dartmouth student body aside, here are a few guesses as to why phone-hunchers have infiltrated campus.

First, the phone-hunch is a way to insulate ourselves in our own bubbles of self-selected social sanctuaries. Phones give us a way to exclude certain people from our social bubbles. Tapping away on a phone is an excuse to avoid eye contact with that person you’d rather not make eye contact with.

Phones also give us a way to keep certain groups in our bubbles. Walking around campus can be considered a great time to catch up on group chats, tap through Snap stories and reply to that text you’ve been putting off. It feels good to be surrounded by people you know, even virtually.

Second, we’ve become acclimated to a heightened baseline of information intake.

With class, readings and the constant firehose of

information and events we receive in our inboxes, just taking a quiet walk from one part of campus to another is jarringly uneventful. Students are so used to constant processing that a few minutes of not taking in information feels out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, the new norm has framed unstructured time to think about anything at all as strange and unsettling. So, we fill that space with the meme page and emails from the campus listserv.

I want to believe that given the opportunity, students would choose to walk without crashing into people and to look up and appreciate our beautiful campus. I’d like to think that Dartmouth students can push past the fleeting comfort of miniature social sanctuaries that is our phones.

Because it’s not just on this campus that you see phone-hunchers, but in our generation as a whole.

It’s just more lamentable at Dartmouth because it seems like we’re missing out on a lot more.

What if there was another rational reason for the infiltration of phone-hunchers, one that we could provide some sort of solution?

Let’s consider phone-hunching as a symptom of the broader expectation that we must all stay constantly digitally connected. Once upon a time, mobile devices were characterized as freeing.

Instead of limiting work to certain places, anyone could work wherever they wanted, whenever. Now, we’re so chained to these devices that we can’t even let them go on a five-minute walk from the dining hall to the library. But the fact remains that when I send an email or a text, I don’t expect an instant response. So why am I always checking my phone?

This idea of staying constantly connected must entirely self-imposed. Sure, social rules exist — it would be bad taste to ignore an email for weeks — but no one will raise an eyebrow if we keep our short travels across campus for ourselves and respond a few minutes later.

So, Dartmouth — I challenge you, selfishly and courageously, to keep those phones in your pockets the next time you walk across campus.

Even during the most difficult moments and days, this place that you may or may not call home is beautiful. Sure, some of the beauty is fabricated; there are painters and carpenters working yearround. But most of the beauty is authentic. I see it in the incredible people on this campus — the kind, the determined, the selfless, the ambitious — that create this community. And whether you see it or not, we share this incredible place and get to make it our own.

Perhaps it is because I am a crusty senior on my way out, but I think we can all take five minutes to appreciate being present in this community. That text can wait two minutes, that Snap story will still be forgotten in five. Wave to that person you’re not sure you know — but made eye contact with anyway — because it will be, at worst, a fleeting awkward moment. But it quite possibly will be just a nice moment of connection between two people who are in this together.

See you around, Dartmouth.

Chen is a former staff member of The Dartmouth. She is a member of the Class of 2018.

The Dartmouth welcomes guest columns. We request that guest columns be the original work of the submitter.

Submissions may be sent to both opinion@thedartmouth. com and editor@thedartmouth.com. Submissions will receive a response within three business days.

PAGE 8

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017

Book review: Toni Morrison’s ‘The Origin of Others’ created to define oneself and restrict humanity. She hypothesizes that The Dartmouth violent forms of otherizing such as In one of my favorite memoirs, racism and sexism are byproducts of “Negroland,” acclaimed critic and a human failure to regard difference professor Margo Jefferson offers an as a non-threat to one’s selfaccount of her life as a Southern identification. Primarily concerned upper middle-class Black woman with the ways that literature has in the 50s and 60s, reflecting on been instrumental in “exposing/ the confounding nature of racial contemplating the definition of self,” categorization as a process which Morrison consults history, science, has saturated the lives of Black lived experience and politics to Americans. Jefferson asks a weighty deracinate this tendency. Through question to the masses: “What intimate analysis of the diaries of manner of man and woman are slave owners, the narratives of we?” It is a query that has remained former slaves, her previous fictional in my head since I finished reading works and a variety of American her memoir. With this question, canonical literature, Morrison Jefferson addressed the ways in attempts to locate the origins of which the otherness imposed on Othering. In this way, the book Black Americans necessitated is a byproduct of her reckoning conflict by defining our existence as with the ways that language and inherently divergent from the norm images work as assistants in the of humanity. In Toni Morrison’s pursuit of the “human project” to newest novel, “The Origin of “remain human” by “block[ing] the Others,” this question is asked and dehumanization and estrangement expanded to challenge the habit of others.” of “othering” altogether — taking A follow-up on her lectures in history, psychology and literature the Charles Eliot Norton series to task in a way that uncovers the at Harvard University, in which vast offerings of Morrison’s mind. Morrison was the fourth woman and As a longtime fan of Morrison’s the second black lecturer in the 92 work, I was content years of the series’ t o r e r e a d h e r “[‘The Origin existence, “T he novels whenever Origin of Others” I f e l t n o s t a l g i c of Others’] is a manifests within for her nuanced brief but dense her quest to uncover portrayals of historical patterns read, filled with African-American of Othering and life. This being said, [Toni] Morrison’s to confront the “The Origin of intimate idea that one Others” came as must “identify an a surprise to me. I investigations outsider in order was not expecting into the ways to define oneself.” another book from er lectures that the origins of H Morrison and sought to uncover certainly wasn’t Othering reveal the human fear expecting a work themselves in of estrangement of literary criticism. that strengthens In a diversion from the actions of the incentive to her most infamous those who are create strict works in fiction, divisions of race, invested in the the Pulitzer Prizegender, class and and Nobel Prize- maintenance of sexuality, asserting w i n n i n g a u t h o r distinctions.” that “the danger demonstrates her of sympathizing reflective and with the stranger meticulous nature is the possibility in this most recent of becoming a work of nonfiction, stranger.” offering her It is a brief readership both but dense read, surprise and consistency. filled with Morrison’s intimate In “The Origin of Others,” investigations into the ways that Morrison confronts the concept of the origins of Othering reveal the “other” as a social formation themselves in the actions of

By JORDAN MCDONALD

those who are invested in the maintenance of distinctions. In referring to the Atlantic Slave Trade, Morrison swiftly dismantles racial pseudo-science and myth as fabrications necessitated by Othering, explaining that “the necessity of rendering the slave a foreign species appears to be a desperate attempt to confirm one’s own self as normal.” Building upon her explanation, Morrison says of slave owners’ unwavering insistence on establishing racial otherness and inferiority that “the urgency of distinguishing between those who belong to the human race and those who are decidedly non-human is so powerful the spotlight turns away from the object of degradation but on its creator.”

Expanding the scope of her

vision, Morrison writes about how modern globalization exacerbates Othering by threatening man-made delineations. She explains that “the spectacle of mass movement draws attention inevitably to the borders, the porous places, the vulnerable points where the concept of home is seen as being menaced by foreigners.” She roots her argument in the assertion that the fear of Otherness calls us to “deny the foreigner in ourselves and … resist to the death the commonness of humanity.” Morrison’s theory of Otherness is a step in the direction of articulating our relationships to each other today in a time in which questions of race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation and other cross-sections of identity are being brought to the surface.

With a foreword by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the acclaimed author of “Between the World and Me,” “The Origin of Others” finds itself in conversation with America and its cultural products, whether they be literature or notions of identity formation and race as they have evolved over time. The book understands narrative fiction as a site for exploration, “a controlled wilderness” in which one can “be and become the Other.”

A continuation of Morrison’s legacy as a writer and publisher committed to “de-fang[ing]” cheap and uninspired renderings of the Other, “The Origin of Others” is an invitation to take part in the mental exercise of imagining new worlds and coming to grips with our current one.

TAKE IT OR LEAF IT

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

New England’s foliage often draws many visitors during the fall season when the leaves change color.