The Dartmouth 9/21/17

VOL. CLXXIV NO.112

PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 80 LOW 50

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Work on Gilman and Dana College places Halls will begin in November 11th in U.S.

News rankings for second year

By RACHEL PAKIANATHAN The Dartmouth

The demolition of the building is scheduled for late November through December of this year, with the interior abatement, interior demolition and the exterior abatement preceding it in the coming weeks. Demolition refers to the removal of walls, ceilings and floors in a building, while abatement is the removal of harmful building materials such as lead or asbestos.

Dartmouth has once again been ranked as the 11th best national university in the U.S. News and World Report 2018 college rankings, released last Tuesday.

The College was also ranked the second best college for undergraduate teaching, an improvement from last year’s seventh place.

Last year, the College also ranked 11th, a slight jump from 12th in 2016. The College shared its 11th place ranking this year with John Hopkins University and Northwestern University. In U.S. News’ list of institutions with the best undergraduate teaching, this year the College regained its second place ranking from 2016, up from seventh last year.

U.S. News calculates a college’s ranking using a set of indicators that it claims assess academic quality.

Graduation and retention rates, undergraduate academic reputation, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni giving rates all factor into a college’s ranking. The indicators are weighted at U.S. News’s discretion, with graduation, retention rates and undergraduate reputation each weighing 22.5 percent while other factors, such as alumni giving, weigh as little as 5 percent.

SEE CONSTRUCTION PAGE 3

SEE RANKING PAGE 2

OPINION

MALBREAUX: A JAMES BALDWIN DEBATE AT 50 PAGE 6

TRUONG: MOVING HIGHER IN EDUCATION PAGE 6

GHAVRI: FINANCIAL FEUDALISM PAGE 7

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Gilman Hall, which has been vacant since 2010, will be demolished starting this term.

By EILEEN BRADY The Dartmouth

The College will begin demolishing Gilman Hall and renovating Dana Hall in November, an undertaking projected to be completed in fall 2019, according to Dartmouth Campus Services.

Gilman, which used to house biological sciences, has been vacant since the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center opened in 2011. The space it

currently occupies will become part of a green space on the north end of campus, senior project manager Joe Broemel said. He added that Dana, former home of the biomedical library, will be renovated to improve the building’s safety and accommodate new faculty offices, a graduate student lounge and reading and study areas.

Broemel said all local permits for the demolition of Gilman have been acquired.

SIPS funding to come from house community budget

By KEVIN GE

The Dartmouth

Student-Initiated Programs, a residential life initiative that allocates funds to students looking to build community, is being assimilated into the house communities. According to residential education director Michael Wooten, the initiative’s $10,000 budget will now be incorporated into $1 million annual budget College President Phil Hanlon originally promised to the housing communities as part of Moving Dartmouth Forward. Despite this change, students

will still be able to create collegesponsored programming through their house executive board.

Previously, students were able to apply for project funding as long as it was intended to promote bonding between a residential cluster’s residents.

Past uses of funding have consisted of meals at the Hanover Inn and making winter fleece hats, according to the program’s website. Other examples include a group of students who had previously lived together using the funding to have a reunion the next year and students attending

a Broadway show, Wooten said.

Wooten said that SIPS was designed to encourage active participation in student life alongside the responsibility and joy of programming an event, as opposed to students simply taking advantage of the funding or attending events without putting any effort into them.

“You consume a program or two that you don’t have any skin in the game for and then you leave and go and do something else,” he said. “The model is a co-creation model ... [SIPS] was that and it continues to be that now. There is all sort of access to funds, but there is

some sort of skin in the game that you need to demonstrate to your residents that you will also put in the time.”

Former undergraduate advisor Andrew Sun ’18 said he did not see much success with SIPS programming during his tenure due to a lack of initiative in applying for the funding. “[SIPS] was challenging because a lot of [the responsibility] fell on the students,” Sun said. “It wasn’t designed for UGAs to do a lot of the administrative stuff. It was down to the students. I think that was the reason why I’ve never seen that many successful SIPS programs.”

SEE SIPS PAGE 3

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

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DAily debriefing A powerful earthquake killed at least 230 people in Mexico City on Tuesday, as reported by the Washington Post. In addition to the still-rising death toll, the earthquake damaged and destroyed several buildings, including hospitals and elementary schools, and knocked out the power of 40 percent of the city. The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale, the maximum of which is 10. The country has dispatched over 4,000 soldiers both in Mexico City and the surrounding area to provide relief and aid.

According to American officials, the United States Agency for International Development will send a team to assess the damage in Mexico City and help coordinate emergency efforts with local authorities. Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto said in a statement today that the country’s priority is rescuing people who still may be trapped and helping the wounded. The earthquake came on the 32nd anniversary of another destructive hurricane that struck Mexico in 1985, which killed 10,000 people, injured 30,000 and left thousands more homeless.

The alleged hanging of an 8-year-old biracial boy has put the town of Claremont, New Hampshire in the national spotlight after new details have emerged from an interview with the boy’s grandmother by Newsweek. Lorrie Slattery, the victim’s maternal grandmother, said the police did not take their investigation seriously until images of the boy’s neck were spread on social media. According to Slattery, her grandson was with his sister and four white 14-year-old boys, playing with a rope that had originally held up a tire swing.

The older boys allegedly put it around their necks playfully and then told Slattery’s grandson to do so, upon which they pushed the table out from underneath him. The four teens fled the scene, according to the boy’s sister, who alerted their mother after the boy was able to release himself from the rope.

He was airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where he was treated and later recovered. The boy told his grandmother said that the same boys had thrown rocks at him and called him the “n-word” a few days previously. The investigation is ongoing.

The 193 members of the United Nations are convening in New York for the organization’s annual General Assembly this week, as reported by The New York Times. Topics addressed by the Assembly so far include the volatility of North Korea’s nuclear program, atrocities in Myanmar, the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris Climate accord. President Donald Trump, addressing the Assembly for the first time, garnered both criticism and praise from pundits. On the first day of the Assembly, Trump both praised the potential and criticized the mismanagement of the UN. His comments stood in stark contrast to previous comments he has made about the organization, such as claiming in December that the UN is “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.” On Tuesday, Trump addressed the Assembly on topics such as North Korea and Venezuela. He vowed to “totally destroy North Korea” if it threatens the U.S., criticized the governments of both Iran and Venezuela for oppressive practices and praised the organization of the UN while also noting the importance of national sovereignty. On Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran criticized Trump’s attack of the Iran nuclear deal as “an embarrassment.” The Assembly will conclude its debates on Sept. 25.

-COMPILED BY CAROLINE BERENS AND PETER CHARALAMBOUS

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. 20, 2017): The original version of this article said that Pollack’s statement was issued to the University of Virginia Class of 2021, when it was actually addressed to the Cornell University community.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

College once again ranked 11th

by U.S. News and World Report

international student, said that he s t u d e n t s a n d p ro f e s s o r s a t didn’t choose Dartmouth based off Dartmouth contribute to its high D e a n o f u n d e r g r a d u a t e of its ranking and instead focused ranking. admissions and vice provost for on its reputation.

Dartmouth also ranks second enrollment Lee Coffin said that “I chose it based on the on U.S. News’s Best Colleges for rankings do not tell the full story. impression I got on the tours Veterans list for 2018, an increase “I think a n d [ f ro m ] t h e from 2017 when the College the rankings p e o p l e h e r e , ” ranked fifth. U.S. News ranks a r e u s e f u l “I think the rankings Kelmar said. “I colleges in this category based on in a broadly are useful in a believe Dartmouth their certification for the G.I. bill, defined way, broadly defined way, is ranked highly participation in the Yellow Ribbon bu t I d o n’t because it is a good program and numbers of enrolled t h i n k t h e but I don’t think the school, not a good veterans. r a n k i n g s rankings themselves school because it is Taylor said that her college themselves ranked highly.” consulting practice often are as precise are as precise as On its website, recommends Dartmouth as a a s p e o p l e people sometimes U.S. News claims favorable institution to veterans. sometimes t h a t t h e B e s t Coffin said that Dartmouth is a hope they are.” hope they U n d e r g r a d u a t e member of the Posse Foundation’s are,” he said.

Te a c h i n g l i s t Veterans program and has a strong F o u n d e r -LEE COFFIN, DEAN highlights schools contingent of veterans coming into of admissions t h a t e m p h a s i z e the College. As of November 2016, c o n s u l t i n g OF UNDERGRADUATE providing a high- 10 veterans are admitted each year firm I v y ADMISSIONS AND quality education through the College’s partnership Coach Bev for undergraduates. with the Posse Foundation, but VICE PRESIDENT FOR Tay l o r s a i d I t a t t e m p t s t o this total does not include veteran that s h e ENROLLMENT measure the quality candidates who are admitted believes the o f a c o l l e g e ’ s i n d e p e n d e n t l y o f t h e Po s s e methodology u n d e r g r a d u a t e Foundation. used by U.S. teaching b y The College ranked fifth in the News is flawed and that its rankings reviewing the responses of college High School Guidance Counselor are susceptible to manipulation presidents, provosts and admissions rankings, representing no change from by colleges. She added that she deans to its 2017 the 2017 rankings. encourages her clients to visit peer assessment “I chose According to U.S. colleges rather than focus on survey.

N e w s ’s w e b s i t e, rankings, but explained that C o f f i n [Dartmouth] based rankings in this for international students, U.S. i d e n t i f i e d on the impression category are based News rankings are one of the few D a r t m o u t h ’ s I got on the tours on responses from accessible sources of information performance in 1,100 high school comparing colleges and are this category as and [from] the guidance counselors consequently a popular resource. an institutional people here. I from private “No matter what we say to strength. independent schools students, mostly international “ T h e believe Dartmouth or high schools that students, they just consider U.S. recognition of is ranked highly received gold, silver News rankings their Bible,” Taylor our excellence in because it is a and bronze medals said. teaching, I think in the magazine’s C o f f i n a g r e e d w i t h t h i s is true, we are good school, not high school rankings. o b s e r v a t i o n a n d s a i d t h a t fantastic in that a good school These counselors international students are more regard,” Coffin were asked to rate the reliant on rankings because they s a i d . “ H av i n g because it is quality of a school’s are less familiar with the details of t h e r a n k i n g s ranked highly.” undergraduate the colleges. highlight that is academic programs “On the admissions side, when valuable.” on a scale from one we talk about holistic admissions K e l m a r -EVAN KELMAR ’20 to five. practices, that’s a very foreign said that as a “For students concept to many students from s t u d e n t , h e and parents using outside the U.S.,” Coffin said. “So, values excellent rankings as a way the rankings for them are a way u n d e rg r a d u at e of learning about of understanding the American teaching above other indicators, institutions, these rankings can point system and perceptions of quality.” and added that he believes the to a college’s long-standing years of Evan Kelmar ’20, who is not an strong relationships between excellence,” Coffin said.

FROM RANKING PAGE 1

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Construction on Gilman and Dana Halls to break ground that.”

While the timeline for the There are no plans to erect a new renovation of Dana is still uncertain, building in the space Broemel said July that Gilman Hall 2018 would be currently occupies. “Without an ideal time to The area will be [Gilman], students start it. He added, part of a green however that the corridor stretching will much more process “depends from Baker-Berry easily be able to on both funding Library through the and approval from just walk through McLaughlin cluster the College.” He to the Life Sciences that space where said he hopes the Center, Broemel Gilman was to site plan review will said. be completed later “ W i t h o u t get to [the Life this year or early [Gilman], students Sciences Center].” next year. will much more “Right now we easily be able to don’t want to name just walk through -LISA CELONE, a date, because we that space where CAMPUS SERVICES still don’t know Gilman was to get what obstacles to [the Life Sciences DIRECTOR OF might come up Center],” campus COMMUNICATIONS [in the design services director process],” Celone of communications said.

Lisa Celone said Gover nment in a joint interview with Broemel. professor and project steering “There’ll be some sidewalks, trees committee member Lisa Baldez put there, shrubs and things like said she is primarily focused on FROM CONSTRUCTION PAGE 1

ensuring that the architecture of educational spaces in Dana will be conducive to student learning, citing her experience in this area as the director of the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning.

The steering committee, composed of seven faculty members and staff, is responsible for refining the building’s design and make recommendations to provost Carolyn Dever and executive vice president Rick Mills.

“Any faculty member could certainly reflect different faculty perspectives, but my position really reflects the importance of thinking about any classroom space,” Baldez said.

Despite recent housing shortages, Celone said Dana will not become a residential building.

“Based on the master plan, I don’t think that [Dana] is a space where we would want to build [an] undergraduate residence hall,” Celone said. “We need faculty space, and that’s the right size and configuration of the building to accommodate [the faculty space] fairly easily.”

MEET THE GREEKS

STANISLAV VAN GENDEREN/THE DARTMOUTH

Students run booths at a Greek event hosted by the National Pan-Hellenic Council on Monday.

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SIPS funding will be allocated from house community budget

professors and typically received $250 or less from the College. The Julia Bonzanini ’21 said she smallest SIPS option, a standard appreciated the idea behind SIPS, program, typically received $50 or less as it promoted and was meant student bonding to facilitate and community. “It was down to the i n f o r m a l T h e S I P S students. I think that interactions initiative among residents. was the reason why f o r m e r l y

To be f e a t u r e d I’ve never seen that considered for t h r e e t y p e s many successful SIPS funding, students of programs: had to submit a building/cluster programs.”

SIPS proposal focused, faculty to be approved involvement by the respective -ANDREW SUN and standard. assistant director A b u i l d i n g / ’18, FORMER of residential life. cluster focused UNDERGRADUATE Any request for event typically $100 or more received $500 ASSISTANT required a or less from the meeting with an College and was assistant director. meant to promote larger-scale social After the event had ended, the events. The faculty involvement organizer was required to submit program was intended to facilitate a report and evaluation within 48 interaction between students and hours.

FROM SIPS PAGE 1

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DARTMOUTHEVENTS

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

MAKING FRIENDS

NEELUFAR RAJA ’21

TODAY

2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Workshop: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, 37 Dewey Field Road Building, Instructional Center, Basement Floor

4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Film: “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” directed by Paul McGuigan, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts

7:00 p.m. - 8:15 p.m.

Performance: “Dearest Home,” with choreographer Kyle Abraham, Moore Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts

TOMORROW

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

Colloquium: “The Secret History of the Pre-1960 Fields Medal,” with History professor Michael J. Barany, Kemeny Hall 007 (Bloom/Chao)

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Lecture: “The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life,” with Yale University sociology professor Elijah Anderson, Room 003, Rockefeller Center

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

Film: “Tracktown,” co-directed by Jeremy Teicher ’10 and Alexi Pappas ’12, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

FOOD, FRIENDS AND FUN

LAUREN KIM/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Vendors gather on the Green every Wednesday afternoon for the weekly farmer’s market.

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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

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CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST VALERIE TRUONG ’21

Moving Higher in Education Education curricula should be in the hands of the federal government.

There is a common saying often heard by husbands: “Happy wife, happy life.” This saying also holds true in the primary and secondary education system: If teachers are happy with their work life, both the administration and the student body will be more likely to thrive.

State and local governments currently have too much jurisdiction over education curriculum, which may be contributing to the lack of quality teachers across the United States.

The mantra of the public school district I attended is “Kids First … Every Student, Every Day.” Forget about the kids for a moment. I have seen first-hand the frustrated teachers, the stressed teachers and the teachers who leave after teaching for only a few years — partly because the district focuses on the end result, students, instead of the driving force, teachers.

In the United States, a whopping 8 percent of teachers leave their profession each year for both professional and personal reasons.

Although teachers earn approximately 20 percent less than other college-educated professionals, a lower salary is not the primary reason American educators flee the field. Rather, teachers become entangled in the bureaucratic red tape of the standards of the administration and state department. Educators are cornered into teaching students how to pass standardized tests instead of teaching them more valuable methods of learning and inquiry.

Furthermore, in low-income neighborhoods, teachers often are forced to carry the burden of their students’ problems at home. Children may come to school hungry or emotionally distressed about their parents’ acrimonious arguments over finances. However, these students are not blank slates, and the educator does not have the time to counsel and console each of his students. To make matters worse, states often have many unfunded mandates that force teachers to use their own money to buy school supplies such as books and paints for students.

My mother teaches kindergarten in a lower-middle class district. Recently, California state standards adopted the Common Core curriculum, replete with top-down requirements for educators. However, the state did not pay for recommended supplies for lessons. Instead of spending her own money like she had in years prior, my mother found a way to creatively make

the necessary supplies out of cardboard and paper she found at home. Although it did not cost her money, it cost her unpaid time outside of school.

Teacher retention rates are especially low in poor inner-city schools. Students that attend these schools due to a lack of financial and possibly familial stability need an experienced teacher who understands how to teach her pupils effectively. However, as is often the case with low-income districts, young, new teachers are assigned to teach these classes.

To fill the high demand for educators, these schools began hiring applicants with either no teaching certification or subject qualifications.

As a result, these inexperienced teachers quickly became frustrated and left the job only after a few months or years. The high turnover rate becomes a vicious cycle and ends up only hurting the students more because they do not have access to experienced teachers.

Education reform is greatly needed in this country. Currently, each state is responsible for establishing and regulating its own curriculum and teaching methods. States set their own standards for high school graduation, which vary from state to state. Clearly, this is not working well. By shifting the responsibility of education curricula to the federal government, a single, national standard sets the precedent for schools across the country. State and local governments should only support the federal government by enforcing the national curriculum.

The Department of Education must funnel more money toward teachers and educator training for elementary and secondary education. If teachers are well prepared for their field and armed with the right resources and enough funding to accomplish their curriculum, far fewer hurdles will need to be jumped over for student success. If teachers are excited to go to work each day, chances are, their students will be excited to go to school each day.

The problems that exist now in schools will continue to exist for a long time, but gradual change can occur if our federal government realizes that it must begin to focus more on teachers and staff. Student improvement and learning will come naturally when teachers are prepared and have the means to accomplish their job.

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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 21, 2017

STAFF COLUMNIST TYLER MALBREAUX ’20

A James Baldwin Debate at 50

A historical showdown over the American Dream carries lessons for today.

In a crowded hall at the Cambridge Union exertions which were made by other minority over 50 years ago, some 700 observers at the groups during the American experience.” world’s premiere debating club sat poised, eager In contrast to Baldwin, Buckley focused most to bear witness to an oratory spectacle. The of his speech on delineating “us” from “them,” motion of the day: “Has the American Dream dividing the people of the world into groups been achieved at the expense of the American that are inferior and superior. Unfortunately Negro?” Arguing in the affirmative, legendary for Buckley, this message was rather ineffective.

African-American author James Baldwin stood Baldwin won the debate, 544-164. at a podium in a dishearteningly white space. The talking points made in this debate over On the other side was William F. Buckley, 50 years ago remain in a very similar form conservative intellectual, tasked with defending today. It is hard to imagine a time where the the contrarian view of equal opportunity in struggle was not so real.

America.

I am left questioning how effective discussions I have watched this debate over and over again about racial identity are in aiding social on YouTube, entranced by the persuasiveness progress. Mark Lilla, a Columbia University of Baldwin’s speech. A professor, seems to think true master of rhetoric, that categorizing ourselves Baldwin could easily shift “… I too agree into groups based on race, from the philosophical that achieving the amongst other things, is to the personable. The bad for progress. Lilla American Dream is answer to the house’s wrote in The New York motion, he posed, “has at the expense of the Times that every moment to depend on … where American Negro, along of social progress in you find yourself in the American history is only world, what your sense of with a host of other possible via strong civic reality is, what your system marginalized peoples.” virtue — that is, when of reality is. That is, it every person can look at depends on assumptions each other and put aside which we hold so deeply physical differences and so as to be scarcely aware unite under a common of them.” flag, a shared destiny. He admonished the Moving away from the epistemological, current Democratic establishment for playing Baldwin narrows his focus to the individual, “identity politics,” which he contends is a key evoking feelings palpable to those of any reason why Democrats lost the White House color. In reconciling what 400 years of forced last year. labor does to the human spirit, he remarked I would love to believe in this perfect theory despondently, “I picked the cotton, and I carried of democracy. Doesn’t it sound wonderful — it to the market and I built the railroads under that peoples of any creed, culture or religion someone else’s whip for nothing. For nothing.” can live in harmony by virtue of knowing they That is what made Baldwin so masterful. all pledge allegiance to the same flag? Sadly, He knew his audience. He knew they could not that utopia has never existed, not in America, understand the master’s whip or the cashier’s not anywhere. There has never been a time stare, the refusal of service here, the denial that the line between politics and identity — of entry there. But surely they knew what especially race — was clearly demarcated. hopelessness felt like. Emotions transcend the Former President Harry Truman’s election boundary of race, and it has no color. What strategy hinged on appealing to a wide range of Baldwin led his audience to do was imagine ethnic and religious citizens who, otherwise, had the most extreme feelings of hopelessness they no common interest with each other. Former could imagine and multiply it by a million President Richard Nixon’s infamous “Southern times. That feeling is what it felt like for an Strategy” banked on creating a coalition of African-American to walk on American soil, working-class and suburban whites, still reeling “full of the corpses of my ancestors.” The from the cultural revolution of the 1960s. soil was tilled by those ancestors. But the fruit Posed with the original question Baldwin born of that soil belonged to someone else. and Buckley argued, I too agree that achieving For white people, that fruit was the American the American Dream is at the expense of the Dream. For black people, it was four centuries American Negro, along with a host of other of torture, lynching, rape, murder. Their work’s marginalized peoples. That dream is a mere fruits meant nothing. It was all for nothing. hallucination to far too many. Blacks and Buckley would have to respond tactfully to Hispanics remain largely underrepresented at Baldwin’s rousing speech. While certainly a top colleges. Their odds of every reaching the gifted speaker, his speech and his tone lacked upper middle class remain unforgivingly low one important quality: empathy. Perhaps his compared to their white counterparts. predetermined stance in the debate constrained Baldwin, in concluding his speech at his rebuttal speech. However, Buckley, a learned Cambridge, remarked: “I am one of the people student of American history, did not possess a who built the country — until this moment there modicum of care for the black peoples. Instead, is scarcely any hope for the American dream, he acerbically dismissed the evils of slavery as a because the people who are denied participation relic of the past. Opportunity in 1965 was ripe in it, by their very presence, will wreck it.” So for the taking. To Buckley, economic disparity is the case for extending the American Dream was not a failure of governance but a “failure to all, because if that does not happen, it will of the Negro community itself to make certain be “a very grave moment for the West.”

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

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CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST SIMON ELLIS ’20

STAFF COLUMNIST ANMOL GHAVRI ’18

Ignoring the Marginalized

Financial Feudalism

A response to a Mirror column on the origin of students.

Like many Dartmouth students, I went first aspect they use to pass judgment on me, through a transitional process from high not the fact that I am from the Midwest.” school hopeful to nervous college student Narasimhamurthy is a woman of color last fall, a shift that involved a great deal from Kansas City, Missouri, involved with of uncertainty and doubt. As Eliza Jane the South Asian community at the College.

Schaeffer ’20 astutely observed in her She said she has experienced disrespect of Sept. 13 article on adjusting to Dartmouth her cultural forms of South Asian dance and life, “The College on the (Northeastern) has found herself the only woman of color Hill,” ordering Collis pasta is quite the in many of her class groups and projects. feat for a first-year. In that same article, “ Y o u c a n ’ t m i s u n d e r s t a n d Schaeffer pointed out the unique challenges underrepresentation for discrimination,” Southerners face on Dartmouth’s campus, she said. “They are not equivalent.” where they are heavily outnumbered.

Feeling safe is a liberty that not all students The article is more than correct in on campus have, and it is not a liberty based argument, but could do more to recognize on where they are from, but rather one based and acknowledge the struggles faced on appearance, Narasimhamurthy said. exclusively by more visible minority groups I recognize that I am in a place of and those with more privilege on campus, a at stake than pushback “Outlining the distinct place of representation on their “antiquated and a place where I have speech” and chicken- lack of geographical never had to wonder if I based dietary choices. representation of am the only student like Outlining the distinct in a room. Coming students at Dartmouth me lack of geog raphical from Hawai’i, I was r e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f points out a rational well aware that I would students at Dartmouth problem but doesn’t experience many cultural points out a rational differences in everyday problem but doesn’t recognize the obvious life. Like Schaeffer, I had recognize the obvious and critical racial never heard the word and critical racial “Choate.” I was not a underrepresentation underrepresentation on part of the culture that campus, the experience on campus …” showcases ugly leather of students of color in shoes or pastel shorts. white-dominated spaces Rather than clinging to and the near-universal people who knew what trouble new Dartmouth students have in it was like in Hawai’i and silently judging adjusting to college life. the “Northeast elite,” I made a conscious Although I experienced a marked change ef fort to under stand the dif ferences in my way of life, I between us. Rather than do not remember my our focus in how “… I had never heard the rooting freshman fall as a time different we are and of misrepresentation word ‘Choate.’ I was not competing to see who or intolerance, largely part of the culture that can adjust the most, why because I look like not find the similarities in roughly half of the showcases ugly leather our narratives and talk student body. Looking shoes or pastel shorts.” about things that most outside of “geographical people can relate to, like minorities,” the Class living with a stranger or of 2020 is suffering from a more serious learning the Salty Dog Rag? lack of racial and ethnic diversity. The Schaeffer is right to encourage her fellow 2010 US Census reported that 12.6 students to “take advantage” of the wealth percent of American citizens identify as of representation on campus, but this can African American, but African American go beyond the geographical diversity of representation in the students. Her experiences Class of 2020 is a mere 8 “The very obvious in facing backlash for percent. Many students of being from the South color come from diverse and blatant are tangible. The very communities, causing the underrepresentation o bv i o u s a n d bl at a n t demographic change to underrepresentation of racial ... minority the predominately white of racial (and various Dartmouth campus to groups on campus is other) minority groups on be even more jarring. another luxury we campus is another luxury We c a n n o t i g n o r e we cannot afford. No the fact that certain cannot afford.” matter where we come groups on campus face from, every Dartmouth discrimination based student encounters areas on the color of their skin or their sexual of difference and change. It is in those preferences. differences that we should base our unity.

“When you are a person of color, that’s the first thing people see,” Himadri Narasimhamurthy is a member of The Dartmouth Narasimhamurthy ’20 told me. “That’s the business staff.

American consumers deserve compensation from Equifax.

It was announced earlier this month that Equifax, a consumer credit reporting agency, was hacked and the personal and financial information of consumers stolen. It was also recently revealed that Equifax knew about a significant breach of its network in March of 2017, five months before it was disclosed publicly. The company has stated that the hack in March was unrelated to the recently disclosed breach in which millions of American consumers’ personal information was stolen, which is questionable considering both incidents reportedly involved the same hackers.

American consumer s should have some form of compensation for Equifax’s incredible negligence in allowing the personal financial information of over 143 million Americans to be compromised.

Essentially, if you’ve ever engaged in any financial undertaking requiring a credit report, your social security number, address, birth date and potentially even your personal financial information has been compromised due to Equifax’s poor cybersecurity and the negligent way in which the credit reporting agency responded to its hacking. The executive director of the World Privacy Group Pamela Dixon said, “If you have a credit report, chances are you may be in this breach. The chances are much better than 50 percent.”

This will create a hardship and injustice for a struggling American middle class by forcing them to monitor their credit reports, dispute fraudulent activity, cope with decreased credit scores and freeze their credit reports. This comes at a time when the middle class is living paycheck to paycheck and credit reporting agencies and credit card companies take home record profits. This will stifle genuine bottom-up and middle-out economic growth in America.

This is financial feudalism, extracting wealth from the middle and working classes and giving it to banking executives while those in power preach “personal responsibility.”

The average American household has $137,063 in debt, with an average of $1,300 in payments per household per year for credit card interest alone according to NerdWallet.

Equifax provided resources to customers to check if their personal financial information has been compromised — but the system does not work and returns random results and results for fake entries, showing further negligence and contempt for consumers.

If this is not contemptuous and negligent enough, Equifax executives waited months after the March hack to disclose it to the public and have the nerve to argue that the March hack and the recently revealed theft of 143 million consumers’ personal information are “unrelated.” Moreover, the Department of Justice is investigating Equifax executives for potential insider trading for selling their stock in the company between the March of 2017 hack and the disclosure of any intrusion in September to the public. How convenient that two “unrelated” hacks committed by the same intruders occurred and Equifax

executives were able to sell their holdings before publicly disclosing either.

Senators and representatives in Congress should introduce a bill requiring all Americans’ credit scores to be reset, with preexisting debts and payment and repayment arrangements with companies being grandfathered in, but all missed payments, defaults and bankruptcies to be wiped clear from their credit reports and financial histories. Americans deserve a clean slate. Additionally, a “do not call”style government database should be instituted to allow instantaneous and free freezing and unfreezing of credit reports.

Moreover, the bill should make it as easy as possible to dispute and remove new activity and fraudulent accounts on credit reports reported to agencies on any date after the hack.

When a member of the struggling American middle class misses a payment or two on their lines of credit or mortgage, their credit scores are affected severely and their opportunities for credit and loans jeopardized. Why should big corporations and financial executives not be punished in the same harsh manner for negligence and financial crimes? How many Americans working multiple jobs will now have to take time to dispute fraudulent activity on their credit histories due to this hack of Equifax?

How many Americans live paycheck to paycheck due to credit card payment slavery and inadequate personal financial education and protections? This bill would stimulate the economy by providing Americans with a second chance and new opportunities to start businesses, buy cars, or get that new job that they could not before due to a poor credit history.

I recognize that much of what I propose is currently impractical considering the corporate ownership of Congress. Most congresspeople have a personal financial interest in or are supported by Wall Street and corporate America. Still, this is a oncein-a-generation opportunity for Congress to work on behalf of consumers. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently introduced the Freedom from Equifax Exploitation Act which would make freezing and unfreezing credit reports free. The bill upholds the idea that Equifax’s negligence is directly causing millions of Americans to freeze their credit and that Equifax should not be able to profit off of those freezes. The bill would also make uniform the federal process for freezing credit, make illegal the selling of consumer data for marketing purposes while someone’s credit is frozen, improve fraud alerts for consumers, allow consumers to obtain an additional free credit report per year and entitle consumers to a refund from Equifax if they paid for a post-hack credit freeze.

Congress should work on behalf of consumers and the middle and working classes, not function as intermediaries in a system of financial feudalism. Let us make an example of Equifax.

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

PAGE 8

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Telluride at Dartmouth features six films before release dates

By BETTY KIM

The Dartmouth Staff

Each year, Telluride at Dartmouth brings hand-selected films from the famous Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival to Hanover. This year’s Telluride at Dartmouth kicked off on Sept. 15 with a screening of “The Shape of Water” and ends tonight with acclaimed drama “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool.”

According to Hopkins Center for the Arts acting director of film Sydney Stowe, Telluride at Dartmouth was founded 32 years ago by former director of film Bill Pence, who retired last spring. Stowe and Pence currently work together to choose what six movies will come to Dartmouth.

Dartmouth is the only college that has a connection with Telluride of this kind, Dartmouth Film Society co-director and film office intern Jordyn Fitch ’20 said; it is a special opportunity to see critically acclaimed films months before their commercial release, if there is one.

Though the Telluride festival tends to screen more independent films, its repertoire ranges from commercial and conventional films to independent and niche ones, Stowe said. An important criterion for choosing the films to be shown at Dartmouth is balance.

“The Shape of Water” and “Downsizing,” both shown last week along with “Hostiles,” are commercial films that were chosen in part because they were predicted to have a great appeal to audiences.

In Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” Sally Hawkins plays a mute woman working in a government lab. She forms a deep connection with a merman-like creature captured from the Amazon, and they learn to communicate when she teaches him sign language.

Tension rises throughout the film as the creature’s future safety becomes increasingly uncertain. “[Del Toro] has always been interested in monsters and what they say about us; it is the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ story,” Stowe said. “Everyone will go see ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ but they’re not sure about this one. I cannot recommend it enough.”

Fitch enjoyed “The Shape of Water” but did not think it “lived up to the hype,” especially compared to the director’s older work, which includes acclaimed films such as “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Hellboy” and “Pacific

Rim.” “Hostiles,” Saturday night’s feature, was Fitch’s favorite film screened during the first week. In this adventure-drama film from director Scott Cooper, Christian Bale plays an army captain who comes into conflict with “hostiles” on the frontier as he accompanies a dying Cheyenne chief back to sacred lands.

“It was really well done,” Fitch said. “They’ve all been really good. I haven’t had any complaints.”

In the third film screened, Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing,” Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig play a couple who choose to “go small” in a universe where scientists shrink human beings to remedy overpopulation.

Christina Lu ’20, a member of the Dartmouth Film Society directorate, said “Downsizing” was her favorite film screened in the first week.

“It’s a really creative idea, excellent world building, and I think Hollywood films need a lot more of that, especially with how bad the summer has been for movies,” Lu said. “Telluride gives us the opportunity to see films at our

school for a really discounted price and really acclaimed films months before they come out.”

“The Other Side of Hope” and “First Reformed” were shown this Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

Aki Kaurismäki’s “The Other Side of Hope” deals with the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe in a unique way, telling the story of a refugee who arrives in Helsinki and crosses paths with a man who abandoned his wife to pursue his dream of opening a restaurant.

“I think it’s supposed to be a dark comedy that takes on the refugee crisis in Europe with compassion but doesn’t shy around it; it addresses the story of refugees that landed in Europe and how it affects people around them,” Stowe said.

This year, “The Other Side of Hope” is the only foreign-language film in the Telluride at Dartmouth lineup. There are usually two to three foreign-language films shown out of the six; Stowe said that this is the first year there is only one.

Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed” is similarly gripping in its portrayal of an emotional issue. Described by

the director as “Diary of a Country Priest” meets “Taxi Driver,” the film depicts Ethan Hawke as a reverend dealing with feelings of grief.

“First Reformed” is one of the more independent films in the festival.

Stowe described it as a “very small, very intense movie,” explaining that because films like “First Reformed” may not have a distributor, they will not be shown in regular movie theaters and will not be released for months.

“These films are advanced screening,” Stowe said.

Scottish director Paul McGuigan’s “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” the sixth and final film, will be shown today at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. The film features Jamie Bell as an aspiring actor and Annette Bening as a former movie star trying to “make it” again; the two fall in love, and an emotional story ensues.

Stowe said that the reception this year has been good, but she hopes there will be more students attending screenings in future years. “[Telluride at Dartmouth] is a chance to see a movie before someone can tell you how to feel about it,”

Stowe said. “The movie hasn’t been shown, there’s no trailers on TV, your neighbor doesn’t comment on it ...

It’s such a treat to see it and make up your own mind without anyone telling you how to feel about the movie. It’s a real opportunity to go see it in its most original form and make up your own mind.”

Stowe said that seeing “La La Land” at Dartmouth last year was an especially interesting, rare experience.

“We saw ‘La La Land’ before anyone else, the second night of the festival,” Stowe said. “We liked it, but we didn’t love it, and when everyone started loving it, I was like, ‘I wonder if I got it wrong.’ But it was because the hype got ahead of the movie. What’s nice about Telluride at Dartmouth is that we get ahead of the hype.”

Johanna Evans, acting manager of the Hop, expressed that she would also like to have more students attend the screenings but remains confident that the movies speak for themselves.

“The movies are the things that matter,” Evans said. “At the end of the day, getting to see the movie is exciting enough.”

A FARMER’S MARKET WORTH FALL-ING FOR

DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH

Students sampled local cheeses at yesterday’s Hanover Farmer’s Market on the Green.