The Dartmouth newspaper 11/04/15

VOL. CLXXII NO. 142

PARTLY CLOUDY

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

College will spend $4 million on professor houses

FAMILY AND STATE

HIGH 61 LOW 40

By CAROLINE BERENS The Dartmouth Staff

KATE HERRINGTON/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Students graduating later than June 2016 will be randomly assigned into on of six residential communities — based in pre-existing residence halls — the College announced Monday, along with other details about the new residential community system. The College has allocated nearly $4 million to build and renovate the professor housing that will accompany each house community, vice president of campus planning and facilities Lisa Hogarty said.

Students attend a lecture titled “Mexico: Crisis of the Family, Crisis of the State.”

SPORTS

CROSS COUNTRY FALTERS AT HEPS PAGE 8

OPINION

JEONG: HOME, HALLOWED AND LOST PAGE 4

ARTS

DSO TO PERFORM A MORE NARRATIVE SHOW PAGE 7

READ US ON

DARTBEAT BEYOND THE BUBBLE QUIZ: WHO IS REALLY YOUR BIG? FOLLOW US ON

TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2015 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

SEE RESIDENTIAL PAGE 2

College starts search for top admissions administrator

B y AMANDA ZHOU The Dartmouth

The search for the new head of admissions is underway, as administrators and professors across campus gather to form a search committee for the post left vacant after the departure of former dean of admissions and financial aid Maria Laskaris.

Dean of the College Rebecca Biron, who will chair the committee, said the position will be renamed vice

provost for enrollment management to elevate its importance for campus life, although the change in title will not affect the organizational structure or responsibilities of the dean. “[We want to] reflect the importance of those operations as the front door of our institution,” Biron said.

Cornell University is the only one of the College’s Ivy League peers with a vice provost for enrollment management. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Brown Universities and the University of

Pennsylvania have deans of admissions. Williams, Amherst, Colby, Bowdoin and Bates Colleges also continue to list deans rather than vice provosts for admissions.

Schools such as Boston College and Washington University in St. Louis — as well as many larger public institutions, including the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Indiana University at Bloomington — have vice provosts for enrollment management or some variation of this title.

Biron said enrollment management, a term that originated in the 1970s, denotes a strategic, data-driven approach to admissions, with the aim of best fulfilling the institution’s mission and priorities in the student body. She noted that enrollment management also aims to measure and quantify students’ experiences throughout their time at the College — as a result, admissions officers can better determine SEE ADMISSIONS PAGE 3

Professor elected to National Academy of Medicine B y sonia qin The Dartmouth

Every morning of his “Advanced Topics in Econometrics” class this fall, Myles Wagner ’17 could expect to receive an apple from his professor, Douglas Staiger, plucked fresh from the apple tree in Staiger’s his yard. Not only does Staiger capture his students’ attention — and stomachs — with fruit, but he has also captured the interest of the National Academy of Medicine. Staiger, Dartmouth’s John French Professor of Economics, was one of the 80 members newly inducted to the National Academy of Medicine with his work.

The National Academy of Medicine is an organization of professionals hailing from various fields including health and medicine and natural, social and behavioral sciences. The NAM seeks to address critical problems in health, medicine and related policy and promote positive action across sectors.

Every year, the NAM elects 70 regular members and 10 international members. The criteria for membership is, according to the NAM website, distinguished professional achievement in a field related to medicine and health; involvement with the issues of health SEE STAIGER PAGE 5

KATE HERRINGTON/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Eonomics professor Douglas Staiger has been teaching at the College since 1998.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAily debriefing Oct. 30, 2:18 p.m., Kemeny Hall: Safety and Security officers and the Hanover Fire Department responded to a cigarette disposal unit that was on fire. The officers extinguished the fire, and Hanover Fire determined that the incident was caused by paper in the cigarette disposal unit.

Oct. 31, 1:32 a.m., McLane Hall: Safety and Security officers, Dartmouth Emergency Medical Services, the Hanover Fire Department and the Hanover Police Department gave medical assistance to an intoxicated student. The student was admitted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for further evaluation.

Oct. 31, 11:26 p.m.: Safety and Security officers and Dartmouth EMS encountered a male student in a chicken costume showing signs of heavy intoxication. The student was transported to Dick’s House and admitted for the night.

Nov. 1, 12:13 a.m., Sachem Village: Safety and Security officers, the Lebanon Fire Department and Dartmouth EMS rendered aid to a student in Sachem Village on a Good Samaritan call. The student was evaluated then turned over to her roommate.

Nov. 1, 12:35 a.m.: Safety and Security officers and Dartmouth EMS along with the Hanover Police and Fire Departments rendered aid to a student who sustained injuries while running from Dartmouth Safety and Security Officers. The individual ran directly into a parked vehicle and was then transported to DHMC where he received treatment for his intoxication and minor injuries.

Nov. 1, 1:47 a.m.: Safety and Security officers encountered a student who appeared highly intoxicated. The student was evaluated by Dartmouth EMS and then transported to Dick’s House, where he was admitted for the night.

Nov. 1, 2:35 a.m., Rockefeller Hall: Safety and Security officers encountered a student staggering around Rockefeller Hall, showing signs of extreme intoxication. The student was evaluated by Dartmouth EMS and transported to Dick’s House where he stayed for the night.

— compiled by julia vallone

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

The Nov. 3 story “World Music Percussion Ensemble performs Wednesday” originally stated that the ensemble had performed many of the songs from Wednesday’s show in the past, because their spring show had featured “Clocks,” “Abakwa,” “Montilla,” “Mazacote” and “Pampa Lirima.” While the program featured these songs, the show was not performed due to a power outage. The ensemble has practiced these songs, but has not performed them.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

Professors hope to build community FROM RESIDENTIAL PAGE 1

Current students will be randomly assigned into one of the communities in February and will have the chance to request up to five students they would like to be in their house next month. Members of the Class of 2020 will be assigned houses next summer when they are given their first-year room assignments.

The system, part of College President Hanlon’s “Moving Dartmouth Forward” initiative, has been developed over the past year through combined efforts of a student advisory group and various committees comprising students, administrators and professors.

The six houses, which will occupy different residential dorms on campus, will each be led by a house professor who will live in close proximity to the community.

Hogarty said the system requires the construction of four new houses on Allen Street, School Street, Webster Avenue and Sanborn Road. Two houses on North Park Street and Clement Street will also undergo renovations. Construction of all the homes should be complete by the end of July 2016, Hogarty said.

Hogarty said each house has been budgeted approximately $650,000 for these efforts, totaling nearly $4 million for professor housing alone.

She said this money comes from the College’s central operating reserves, funds that are at the discretion of the President and Provost.

Houses will also each have programming budgets for events ranging from field trips, social gatherings and performances to service, house dinners and athletics.

Dean of the College Rebecca Biron said the exact budget for each residential house community has not yet been determined, since which functions will be funded centrally or by each house community remains undecided.

Biron said these activities will vary widely, with the unifying purpose of building community.

“The goal is to have a whole range of things from just hanging out in a social space in your house community in the student residences to just hanging out at the house professors’ houses, all the way up to more formal events with world leaders in the arts and academia,” Biron said.

Noah Manning ’17, a member of a working group committee that helped design the system, said its purpose is to bring a sense of not only community but also consistency to the constant flux and transition that the D-plan causes.

“We don’t have people who strongly identify with their residence halls right now. After freshman year, it’s primarily the place where you go to sleep,” Manning said. “We’re

a world class institution — we can do better than that.”

Future house professors expressed a similar sentiment as Manning.

Engineering professor Jane Hill, who will be overseeing Allen House, said that in seeing the impressive residential communities from other colleges, she agreed that the College had room to grow. She said it will also serve as a way to ameliorate some of the detriments of the D-plan.

Biology professor Ryan Calsbeek, who will be part of North Park House, said the D-plan can be very disruptive to students’ attempts to find community at the College.

“Not having a place to come back to, once a student arrives back on campus, comes at a real cost,” Calsbeek said.

Calsbeek said having a consistent physical and emotional base will be

“The goal is to have a whole range of things, from just hanging out...in the student residences to just hanging out at the house professors’ houses, all the way up to more formal events with world leaders in the arts and academia.”

-REBECCA BIRON, DEAN OF THE COLLEGE a “boost” for students.

Physics and astronomy professor Ryan Hickox, who will be part of West House, said the system aims to replicate the feelings of community and unity that people often experience on their freshman floor, which he noted are randomly assigned and thus result in significant diversity.

“Some of the best experiences that you have in college are with people who you might not normally hang out with, but get to meet because they happen to be a part of a community with you,” Hickox said.

Calsbeek also said that his motivation for becoming a house professor stemmed from his experience leading the biology foreign study program in Costa Rica, on which his family accompanied him. Seeing students interact with his wife and children made him realize how beneficial living in such close proximity to students could be, he said.

“Their interactions broke down the normal barriers between students and professors and really changed the intellectual landscape in a positive way,” Calsbeek said, suggesting that his position as a house

professor would engender similar interactions.

In response to arguments that Greek houses have already provided the benefits that the residential communities promise, Manning said the distinct difference is inclusivity.

Roughly three quarters of eligible students are affiliated, Manning said, but every student at the College will be able to participate in the new housing system.

He also noted that the system does not intend to replace or eradicate Greek life, but instead to supplement it with even more opportunities to develop a community on campus.

Biron said that all students graduating after June 2016 will be assigned a residential community, though they may live in alternate housing options, such as Living Learning Communities, off-campus houses, affinity houses and Greek houses. Where a student lives any given term is not the same as their house membership, Biron said.

Once house community assignments are made, they are permanent, she said.

Hickox noted that the challenges he predicts for the program will be harnessing sufficient enthusiasm for the system to make people invested in it.

“There might be questions about how this is different from what we’re doing now,” Hickox said. “It can be difficult to visualize just how powerful building these communities will be.”

Hogarty said much of the direction for the system will largely stem from students, at the recommendation of the Board of Trustees.

“The Trustees said, ‘Let’s experiment and have the students tell us what works well, what doesn’t work well, before we make longer-term investments directly into their residence hall buildings,’” Hogarty said.

Students have had mixed reactions towards the system’s implementation. Of 10 students interviewed, seven expressed hesitation or dissatisfaction with the impending system. While most acknowledged that the administrators’ intentions are admirable, they are doubtful of the system’s success in practice.

Undergraduate advisor Dru Falco ’18 said that for the system to be optimally effective, it needs to be implemented over a longer period of time. She said all of the change happening at the College right now is overwhelming.

Falco also noted that the administrators’ aim to replicate the unity of freshman floors might not be effective.

“As a freshman, you need that sort of community, but as an upperclassman, you aren’t looking for it as much, and it’s not as important,” Falco said.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

PAGE 3

Students say admissions should focus on community, financial aid FROM ADMISSIONS PAGE 1

the types of students who succeed during their time in Hanover.

Provost Carolyn Dever wrote in an email to the faculties of Arts and Sciences and the Thayer School of Engineering, as well as College staff, that this change “will open pathways within every aspect of Dartmouth’s admissions operation,” according to a College press release.

Dever also wrote that this new title represents “a sea change in the higher-ed admissions profession” that would enable the College to use new data and recruit students.

The name shift from admissions head to head of enrollment management is also meant to suggest that the person in the post should be engaged across campus, Biron said.

The vice provost of enrollment management should encourage all parts of Dartmouth to consider “institutional messaging,” or how they make their case to prospective students, Biron said. In particular, the future vice provost of enrollment management will collaborate with units across campus such as student affairs, faculty, institutional research, athletics and the regis-

trar, she said.

This plan is reflected in the background of search committee members — three professors, a Trustee, the vice provost of student affairs, associate provost of institutional research, the registrar, the College’s chief operating officer for advancement, the director of financial aid, the athletic director and the vice president for finance will sit on the committee.

Biron also stressed the importance of responding to a shift in the composition of the applicant pools.

“We’re trying to be able to think much more proactively in a context of changing demographics of potential student pools,” Biron said. “We want to be able to better predict what kinds of students can be most successful at Dartmouth.”

The search committee envisions the ideal candidate as a “bold thinker” in higher education, a good communicator and someone with technological and data literacy, she said.

The new head of admissions will serve as a steward of the College’s resources with respect to admissions.

“There’s all this newly-available data on how students perceive

messaging on Dartmouth’s distinctiveness and how we can market directly to students most interested in coming to Dartmouth,” Biron said.

She also hopes to use this information to decide which student support groups are most important so that future students can succeed at Dartmouth.

The execute search firm Witt/ Kieffer is assisting in forming the candidate pool. The search committee hopes the new vice-provost will be ready to start in July 2016.

A representative from Witt/ Kieffer declined to comment.

“We know this is an attractive position. We have a lot of enthusiasm and expectation that the search will be very successful,” Biron said. “This is a bold move for Dartmouth to take a significant stride forward to think about the future of enrollment and planning.”

Eight students interviewed about the admissions office’s priorities noted the importance of financial aid to encourage socioeconomic diversity in the student body. They also noted the importance of attracting international students.

“Dartmouth doesn’t have much

of a reputation internationally,” Shivang Sethi ’17 said.

He said the office should prioritize international diversity, especially following the College’s decision to end need-blind admissions for international students.

Following the decision, the International Students Association circulated a petition around campus that has received more than 1,600 signatures as of press time.

Amanda Durfee ’19, Ellie Ng

’19 and Sarah Caughey ’15 also emphasized the importance of financial aid, while Emily Charland ’19 and Margaret Cross ’19 stressed building a strong community of interesting people with a diverse group of talents.

Two members of the search committee redirected The Dartmouth to Biron, while two members did not respond to request for comment. One committee member was not available for comment, because of travel.

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

A group of prospective students tours the College.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

PAGE 4

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

Staff Columnist MIN KYUNG JEON ’16

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST ANMOL GHAVRI ’18

Home, Hallowed and Lost

The Pitfalls of the Practical

Pining for the past often impairs our ability to face up to the flaws in our lives.

Arguments for picking a practical major do not apply to Dartmouth students.

We all have a memory of a place or time, pure and precious, to which we long to return. Some recall the palpitations caused by the sight of a first crush on the playground. Others may think of the tranquil surface of a pond dappled with sunlight, seen on a trip through the countryside.

For me, it is the proud face of my grandmother, crinkled by her smile, at my elementary school matriculation ceremony. With final exams, job applications and “the real world” on the horizon, it is tempting to reminisce on our idealized pasts, but we are better off acknowledging that, in reality, they were as flawed as our current lives.

My own glorified past is inextricably tied to my experience moving to the United States. The South Korea of my childhood is a home that no longer exists, and the image of bygone days casts a rose-tinted shadow over my mind. To my 13-year-old sensibilities, my family’s relocation to America had constituted a grievous uprooting. With the unexpected move came the acute and constant alienation from my peers in the classroom, at track meets and during jazz band rehearsals. No matter the number of academic and extracurricular activities I threw myself into, I never once felt at home.

This sense of displacement, compounded by the usual growing pains of adolescence, led me on a frantic quest for something to numb the solitude and nostalgia. Unconsciously, I searched for figures to substitute Grandma, who had passed a couple years before my departure from Korea.

At 14, I was drawn to the myriad musical icons of the 1960s and 1970s, from the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix to Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan.

At 16, the rockers and the folk singers gave way to revolutionaries and ideologues, propelling me to study Spanish in an effort to dissect Che Guevara’s speeches. At 19, I was infatuated with storied philosophers and literary giants like Michel Foucault and Pablo Neruda.

Ultimately, no one, living or dead, measured up to Halmeoni, my grandmother who had toiled away at household chores while raising me and my brother for my working parents, worn her poverty with dignified defiance and cooked me food I can only describe as home. To this day, I

Dartmouth is a liberal arts college, yet some students approach it as if it were a vocational school. Only by freeing yourself from the fallacy of the “practical major” can you truly take advantage of Dartmouth’s amazing liberal arts curriculum and undergraduate teaching. Your major is not intended to make you an expert in your field or prepare you for a specific career.

Rather, a Dartmouth education is intended to teach you how to think critically, write with clarity, lead others and succeed in any career.

Students at the College are pursuing undergraduate degrees during a time of upheaval in American higher education. High school graduates are being encouraged to major in “marketable” fields, pursue vocational training or skip college altogether to avoid rising costs.

This atmosphere has given rise to the division of academic fields into “practical” and “impractical” subjects.

High school graduates are being encouraged to major in the hard sciences, computer science or business by parents, friends and even political leaders like Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush — who at a town hall meeting in South Carolina remarked, “Hey, that [psychology] major deal, that philosophy major thing, that’s great.

It’s important to have liberal arts ... but realize, you’re going to be working at Chick-fil-A.” Bush’s statement seems quite ironic in light of the fact he received a liberal arts degree in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

Concerns about finding post-graduate jobs and accumulating too much student loan debt have made the views expressed by Bush persuasive.

While these are valid and real fears, we should distinguish the nationwide problems of student debt and different hiring outcomes across majors from the local student loan and post-graduate employment rates at the College, as well as our peer institutions more generally.

Indeed, it would make sense to spend your time preparing for a career if you attend a university with higher-than-average student loan debt levels or below-average hiring rates. This would help a student to work toward a defined career path, ensuring not only that they can secure a postgraduate job, but also pay off excessive loans.

That is my take on the average American state research university, but Dartmouth and its peers

believe that Gran was the only individual in my life to bestow on me unconditional love, with her infinite forgiveness of my mistakes and unwavering faith in my potential to change the world.

The fear that I would never find somebody with whom I could share such a deep, instinctual emotional connection, around whom I could simply feel at home, has pervaded all my experiences thus far at Dartmouth. At every turn, I have ached for and felt betrayed by Gran’s affectionate chuckles — which used to inspire in me the courage to tackle anything in life — and my seven-year-old self ’s unadulterated passion, which seemed to put any aspirations within reach.

Gradually, however, I have come to understand the necessity of loss and disillusionment as a rite of passage into adulthood. Even on the immaculate glass case of my supposedly carefree childhood, cracks have been present as early as I can remember — I had merely turned a blind eye to the imperfections. In reality, denials and heartbreaks abounded throughout this imagined innocence — my parents’ many disputes about our lack of money, my third grade teacher’s callous verbal and physical attacks on a classmate from a poor, criminal background and the neighborhood kids’ taunting my brother’s mild Tourette’s symptoms, among countless others.

For first-and-a-half generation immigrants like me, who migrated to the United States during their early teen years, it can be particularly difficult to refrain from idealizing our former lives in our homeland. Often faced with enormous culture shock, psychological as well as geographical disorientation and overt and covert discrimination, we unwittingly romanticize the “good ol’ days,” selecting exquisite recollections frozen in time to loop in our minds, like the final montage of romantic scenes in “Cinema Paradiso” (1988).

The pedestal on which I had once placed my heroines and heroes, including my grandmother, was never mine to erect. Growing up requires coming to terms with the fallibility of our idols and taking off our rose-colored glasses. Only then can we be sustained, rather than imprisoned, by our pasts as we forge new memories to treasure in years to come.

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Katie McKAY, Editor-in-Chief jessica avitabile, Executive Editor

Justin levine, Publisher luke mcCann, Executive Editor

Laura Weiss, Managing Editor CHARLIE RAFKIN, Managing Editor PRODUCTION EDITORS emily albrecht, Opinion Editor carson hele, Opinion Editor MADDIE BROWN, Mirror Editor MAGGIE SHIELDS, Mirror Editor henry arndt, Sports Editor JOE CLYNE, Sports Editor MAYA PODDAR, Arts Editor amelia rosch, Arts Editor chris leEch, Dartbeat Editor JESSICA ZISCHKE, Dartbeat Editor Kate HErrington, Photography Editor ELIZA MCDONOUGH, Assistant Photography Editor TIFFANY ZHAI, Assistant Photography Editor alex moushey, Multimedia Editor

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ISSUE

NEWS EDITOR: Priya Ramaiah, TEMPLATING EDITOR: Celeste Kearney.

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.

are different. The College has an average student loan debt of $16,339, much less than the national average of $29,000.

Moreover, Dartmouth graduates of all majors — including psychology, math, government, history, economics, English, sociology and philosophy — find themselves working in careers in business, law, journalism and media, medicine, government and more. The College does not offer business, journalism or other pre-professional majors for specific career paths — something that should be made clear to prospective students.

Distributive requirements help to hone both the hard and soft skills of all students, and the language requirement certainly prepares students to compete on a global stage. Career preparation often comes through extracurricular and networking activities. Students unsure of the careers that certain majors can lead to have access to many excellent resources, including the Dartmouth Alumni Directory’s Career Network.

Taking individual classes that could provide useful knowledge for particular careers you may be interested in is an excellent idea, and following the pre-health track in addition to your academic major if you are interested in attending medical school is required. But majoring in a field that you are passionate about makes you a more knowledgeable and fulfilled person. Spending four years studying something you do not enjoy would be a waste of time, and enthusiasm for a subject — be it computer science or classics — will encourage you to do better academically.

At Dartmouth, an engineering major does not an engineer make, nor does majoring in economics make you an economist. All courses share the common aim of teaching students an abstract way of thinking. Dartmouth, in the best tradition of the liberal arts, prepares all of its undergraduates for all career paths. All students graduate with an ability to lead, articulate their ideas, innovate and adapt to changing times. Some math majors find themselves attending law school, and some history majors find themselves working in finance.

Dartmouth is a liberal arts college and is meant to create lifelong learners who are intellectually curious and passionate about their subjects — do not treat it like a vocational school. No major is more “practical” than another, so study what sparks your passion.

Vox Clamantis

Big Green Gratitude

To the Dartmouth community: The 2015 football season has been an exciting one for our team. The awareness and encouragement offered by faculty, administrators, staff, students and alumni have been deeply appreciated.

Nothing, however, can compare to the overwhelming show of support at Friday evening’s Harvard game.

Though disappointed with the outcome, we are all so appreciative of those who made the trip to Cambridge.

The energy, enthusiasm and emotion

was electric and deeply moving for all of us on the field.

In a larger sense, the atmosphere created by our students, faculty, alumni, friends and families sent a wonderful message to our hosts and a national television audience that Dartmouth’s legendary institutional pride and community is strong and alive! We value effort, commitment, dedication, persistence, excellence and cohesiveness in every venue Dartmouth men and women compete, study or perform.

We are proud to be members of such a special family.

—Buddy Teevens ’79, Head Football Coach

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

PAGE 5

Economics professor recognized for academic contributions FROM STAIGER PAGE 1

care, prevention of disease, education or research; possession of skills and resources likely to contribute to achieving the Academy’s mission and a willingness to be an active participant in the Academy’s work.

All candidates must first be nominated by two current NAM members who are familiar with the candidate’s work.

The principal focus of Staiger’s research has been in health economics, and he said that he is happy to be recognized and noticed by other academics.

Montana State University nursing professor Peter Buerhaus said he first met Staiger in Boston in the early 1990s during an economics seminar.

They have been colleagues for over 19 years and have worked on health care-related projects.

Buerhaus, also a NAM member, said that being a member brings a number of benefits not only to Staiger but also to the College and its economics department.

“It boosts [your] marketability and your ability to walk into a new organization where people are usually quite excited to have you there,” Buerhaus said.

Buerhaus said that Staiger has great insight on research-related matters in addition to being a pleasant colleague with a good sense of humor.

“Overall, he’s a colleague who provides a lot of knowledge and skills to our team that other people don’t have,” Buerhaus said.

Staiger started his career ABT Associates, a public policy consulting firm in Boston, where he worked on projects concerning Medicaid and Medicare. Within two years of arriving at ABT, he was already writing hospital payment regulations for New Mexico and looking at the effects of payment to hospitals on patient outcomes.

“When you cut payments to hospitals, you see mortality and complications in the hospital go up a little bit,” Staiger said. “That got me interested in what kind of things affect patient outcomes that we can control, whether it’s insurance or what we pay hospitals.”

Soon after, Staiger started working with patient outcomes in the health care system and measuring mortality and complication rates in hospitals.

Some of his early collaboration was with Mark McClellan, who later served as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and director of Medicare and Medicaid.

Staiger earned a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990 and came to the College as a professor in 1998.

“It was really natural for me to come here to Dartmouth, because the Dartmouth Institute and the Dartmouth Atlas like to measure patient outcomes,” Staiger said. “I got to work with John Birkmeyer, who is a surgeon thinking about why surgical outcomes vary across different hospitals.”

Out of his collaboration with Birkmeyer came the birth of ArborMetrix, a company co-founded by Staiger, Birkmeyer and Justin Dimick from the University of Michigan.

“It’s a company with software that creates performance measures and feeds it back for groups of doctors who are trying to improve quality and also insurers and hospitals that are all interested in how to measure and track performance,” Staiger said.

At Dartmouth, Staiger has worked with fellow economics professor Jonathan Skinner to tackle the economics of the health care system.

“The economics of this is very similar to thinking about why some countries are rich and some countries are poor,” Staiger said. “It’s all productivity differences.”

THE DARTMOUTH BUBBLE

KATE HERRINGTON/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Students receive bubble tea in the foyer of Novack Café on Monday.

He said that the worst 10 percent of health care providers have double the mortality rate of the best 10 percent.

Staiger feels that one of the most interesting projects of his career was studying why variations in patient outcomes exist and developing the theory that it is due to specialization in particular types of treatment. Some hospitals may be very good at doing complicated surgery, Staiger said, but not as good at simple medicine.

Although Staiger has completed countless projects and papers in his career, a paper he co-wrote on the nurse shortage in 2000 had “the biggest impact for the simplest point.”

This paper documented that since the 1960s, very few women and young people were entering nursing.

“We just made the point that if people don’t start going into nursing in huge numbers, we’re actually going to have an absolute decline in nurses, and there’s going to be a big shortage,” Staiger said.

Soon after the publication of his influential paper, huge campaigns were started to call for more nurses and many nursing schools throughout the country were opened, he said.

Over the 15 years since then, the number of nurses across the country has more than doubled and the threat

of a nurse shortage no longer exists.

Staiger said that the most challenging aspect of his work is trying to communicate technical yet important messages to a broad audience.

Staiger only teaches one class per year — “Advanced Topics in Econometrics” in the fall.

Wagner said that Staiger is a very energetic professor with a good sense of humor.

“He gives very flexible lectures, so his lectures always begin with some idea and anyone can jump in with a question — it’s very much like academic talks in economics,” Wagner said. “He knows a ton about everything, any kind of statistical or econometric method that you’d want to use to answer some question, he has great intuition for.”

Wagner said that the class has helped him develop an intuitive understanding for how data fits together and how to apply tools to actual data sets. Rather than a purely theoretical or technical course, Staiger’s class is more practical and hands-on, Wagner said.

In class, Wagner said that Staiger’s vast knowledge about the health care system “leaks through.”

“Every time he wants to give an example or some sort of situation where you might want to use this

particular technique or where this technique wouldn’t work, there’s some sort of example from the health care system or the hospitals,” Wagner said. “It’s really impressive how much he knows about that system.”

Harvard University professor Amitabh Chandra, a former Dartmouth faculty member, has been working with Staiger for 15 years. Together, they have collaborated on projects trying to understand productivity in health care.

Chandra, himself a NAM member, praised the Academy as one of the greatest honors that can be bestowed on any scientist.

“It is the premiere scientific society in medicine,” Chandra said. “I just can’t think of a better person to be inducted in the NAM than [Staiger].”

Chandra described Staiger as the “Obi-Wan Kenobi of economics,” also adding that his mastery of economics is breathtaking. “[Staiger] understands the complexity in the structure of economic theory better than anyone else that I know,” Chandra said.

Beyond Staiger’s professional qualities, Chandra also said Staiger is always open-minded and humble.

“The room is always lit up with [Staiger’s] humility and curiosity,” Chandra said.

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 12:00 p.m.

Town Hall meeting with U.S. presidential candidate and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Hopkins Center for the Arts, Top of the Hop

4:00 p.m.

Town Hall meeting with graduate studies dean Jon Kull, DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center, Auditorium H

4:30 p.m.

“The Challenges of Communicating Climate Change,” lecture with science journalist Angela Posada-Swafford, Haldeman Center 41

TOMORROW 12:00 p.m.

“A Musical Portrait of Paul Bowles,” performance, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Faulkner Recital Hall

4:00 p.m.

“Christianity and Human Rights,” lecture with Samuel Moyn of Harvard University, Rockefeller Center, Room 003

4:30 p.m.

“Challenges Beyond Number,” lecture with former acting homeland security secretary Rand Beers ’64, Haldeman Center 41

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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

PAGE 7

Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra explores storytelling with music

B y Amelia rosch

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

How central are words to telling a narrative? That is the question that the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra will explore through the work of Verdi, Mozart and Tchaikovsky in its upcoming concert on Saturday.

The Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra’s guest conductor Filippo Ciabatti said that all three pieces, despite their differences, express wider ideas of narratives without a story. He said that each of the pieces are distinct — an overture, shorter symphony and full-length symphony,.

Violinist and orchestra manager Alice Wang ’16 said that unlike other concerts that the orchestra has played, such as Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” in spring 2014, the three pieces had more of a narrative.

“There are glimpses of scenes,” she said. “It’s not a whole story, but there are suggestions and previews.”

The concert will begin with the overture to Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Nabucco” (1841). The opera, which was his third, was written shortly after his daughter’s death and helped launch his reputation. One of the opera’s themes became the unofficial anthem of the early Italian republic.

Ciabatti said that the Verdi over-

ture represents one aspect of the story by creating a sense of summary.

“The overture is a mix and represents what is to come,” he said. “It’s a way to tell the audience what they will hear, themes of what will be there.”

Saturday’s second piece will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Symphony No. 34 in C Major, K.338” (1780), which he wrote after being removed from the position of concertmaster from his hometown of Salzburg, Austria. The symphony is famous for the way Mozart pokes fun at Austria’s more conservative and militaristic style of music, as well as the way it foreshadows his love for opera.

Ciabatti said that while Mozart did not usually write explicitly for the theater, his symphony had a strong theatrical component to it.

“All of the themes are intense,” he said. “He is a master of melody and theatrical music.”

Wang said that she enjoys playing the Mozart piece because off how exposed he makes the emotions in it feel.

“In the Mozart, each new bar is a new revelation,” Wang said. “There is a constant shifting of emotions.

It is very effervescent, but there are moments of great intimacy.”

The concert’s final piece Pyotr Ily-

ich Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4 viola plays in it. in F minor, Op. 36” (1878) is the most “The viola gets a really interesting famous for its “Fate Motif,” made up middle part,” she said. “It’s usually of a mix of brass and wind instru- a key background aspect, but in the ments. While the symphony was ini- third movement, we get a fun part.” tially criticized Wa n g for being too said that she ballet-like when “There are glimpses also joined the it premiered, it of scenes. It’s not Tc h a i k o v s k y is now widely symphony bea whole story, performed and cause of how enpraised for his but there are gaging the piece handling of ro- suggestions and was. She said it manticism. was not uncom Ciabatti said previews.” mon to leave rethat the Tchaihearsal and hear kovsky piece cremembers of the -ALICE WANG ’16, ates the sense of orchestra whisa larger emo- violinist and tling sections. tional journey orchestra manager Ciaand is the least batti said it is programmatic hard for him to of the pieces in say which of the Saturday’s concert. three pieces is his favorite because all “It’s associated with fate, and the three artists have played an important motif is his way of saying that man role in his musical development. can never be happy,” he said. “It’s a “They all have a special place in journey of pain and melancholy.” my heart,” he said. “Verdi is an Ital Eleni Mora ’18, who plays the ian like me. Opera is a very Italian viola in the symphony orchestra, said tradition of music. Mozart, I started that while this concert was the first my career as a pianist playing Mozart. one where she has loved all the of the I could never live without Mozart. pieces, her personal favorite was the Tchaikovsky, well, it’s the biggest third movement in the Tchaikovsky piece, the most challenging. He’s one symphony because of the role the of those composers who just speaks

to the modern man.”

Before coming to the College, Ciabatti worked as the assistant conductor for Opera North in New Hampshire and has worked with the Florence Opera Academy, University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra and the Universidad Central Symphony Orchestra in Bogota, Colombia.

Mora said that while she misses former conductor Anthony Princiotti and adjusting to a new conductor took time, she has enjoyed the chance to work with Ciabatti.

“He’s passionate and young and dedicated,” he said. “He records all of our rehearsals and then gives us notes based on that, and we’re so happy to have the chance to work with him.”

Wang agreed that it took time for the orchestra to adjust to Ciabatti as a conductor, especially early in the fall when there was an influx of new musicians.

The concert will also include a preperformance talk given by Ciabatti at 7 p.m. on Saturday. The talk will be given in Faulkner Recital Hall and will be free.

The concert will be on Saturday at 8 p.m. in Spaulding Audiotorium.

Tickets will be $5 for students and will be $10 to $15 for community members.

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

PAGE 8

SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

FRIDAY LINEUP

MEN’S HOCKEY VS. BROWN 7 PM

Volleyball falls to second in Ivy League after three losses

B y daniel lee

The Dartmouth Staff

After losing to Harvard University last week, the women’s volleyball team dropped another two matches against Princeton University (11-8, 6-4 Ivy) and the University of Pennsylvania (10-12, 4-6 Ivy) this past weekend. The second half of the season marked the end of a five-game win streak and the beginning of a three-game losing streak, during which the team has failed to win a single set. After the loss against Penn on Friday, Dartmouth (9-10, 6-4 Ivy) lost its first-place standing to Harvard, dipping down to second place in the Ivy League standings alongside Princeton and Yale University (11-8, 6-4 Ivy).

After dominating in the first half of the season, Dartmouth’s second-half struggles have demonstrated an inability to adjust to playing teams a second time.

With the Ivy League title on the line, the Big Green will have to quickly return to form in hopes of regaining the top spot in the league.

“I think what we need to focus on is making the adjustments based on which team we’re playing. The three teams that we lost to played much better the second round than they did the first round,” Zoe Leonard ’19 said. “They made adjustments and knew what to expect from us. I don’t think we paid as much attention as to what we should

have be doing on our side.”

Princeton opened up the first set by scoring the first three points on kills. Both teams started the game aggressively as nine out of the first 10 points scored in the game were by kills. After trailing early in the game, the Big Green tied the game at 15-all and pulled ahead 21-19. The Tigers went on a 3-0 run on a service error, service ace and attack error to take the lead. After kills by Kaira Lujan ’16 and Paige Caridi ’16 and a service error by Sierra Lyle ’19, the set was tied once again, this time at 23 apiece. Princeton registered two kills to prevent a sudden death scenario and claim the first set of the game.

The second set started with another 3-0 lead by the Tigers. This time, the Big Green was unable to keep up and found itself in a 13-4 deficit early. Dartmouth continued to trail throughout the game and a kill by Princeton junior Cara Mattaliano ended the set with a final score of 25-21.

The third set of the game was much closer and neither team had a lead of more than three points at any time.

After trailing 8-5, Dartmouth went on a 9-3 run to lead 14-11, but Princeton managed to tie the game at 17-17. Both teams went on 3-0 runs to tie the game at 20-20, but an attack error and three kills by Astarita and Lujan brought the Big Green a point away from winning the set at 22-24. Dartmouth was unable

to finish the game, however, as an attack error by Lujan and three consecutive kills by Princeton senior Kendall Peterkin brought the game to a sudden death scenario and a 26-25 deficit for Dartmouth. Princeton scored the final point on another kill to win the set and the game 3-0.

Astarita and Lujan registered 14 and 11 kills respectively, while Zoe Leonard ’19 dove for 13 digs and Kayden Cook ’16 dished 33 assists.

Many of Dartmouth’s failures were due to attack errors late in the sets.

“We’ve been really struggling offensively to execute the ball,” Caridi said. “It’s one of the things where the intention is right and the thought process is right, but we’re just not putting away as many balls as we should be.”

The Big Green then traveled to Philadelphia to face Penn for an opportunity to end its late-season slump.

Both teams were neck-and-neck in the first set as the score was tied for the seventh time when a kill by Lujan tied the game at 11 apiece. The Quakers went on a 3-0 run, but a 3-0 run by the Big Green tied the game 22-22. A kill

by Astarita and two kills and an attack error by Penn brought the game to the second straight sudden death scenario for the Big Green, but the results were no different as two attack errors gave Penn the first-set win.

The two teams exchanged runs early

PREETI RISHI/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The volleyball team lost to Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania.

in the second set, knotting the score at 12-12. Penn went on a defining 6-0 run that set the momentum for the rest of the set and maintained the lead to win 2519. The Big Green’s offensive struggles continued into the third set as six of the Quaker’s first 10 points came from service or attack errors by the Big Green.

Trailing 22-18, Dartmouth committed three consecutive attack errors, giving Penn the win and extending the Big Green’s losing streak to nine sets.

Dartmouth registered a 0.038 attack percentage due to 26 attack errors and only 31 kills. Caridi recorded a doubledouble as the only Dartmouth player with double-digit kills, and Leonard added 19 digs.

“We’ve had some unforced errors after 20 [points] where [the game] is much tighter at that point and unforced errors can cause a huge change in momentum,” Lujan said.

In preparation for the four remaining games of the season, Dartmouth will work on the aspects of the game that they have struggled with in the past three games.

“We definitely need to show a little bit more determination to get every point we can,” Caridi said.

The final two home games of the regular season are this weekend against Columbia University (7-12, 5-5 Ivy) on Friday and Cornell University (6-14, 2-8 Ivy) on Saturday.

Cross country teams falter at Heptagonal Championships

B y Chris Shim

The Dartmouth Staff

The men’s and women’s cross country teams failed to produce the results they were hoping for at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships. Strong individual performances from Dana Giordano ’16, who placed second in the women’s race, and Brian Masterson ’16, who placed sixth in the men’s, were highlights of the teams’ performances at Van Cortlandt Park this past Friday.

As the two-time reigning champions, the women struggled to a last-place finish with 151 points, and the men, fourth place last year, fell to sixth with 103 points.

Giordano led the way for the women, completing the six-kilometer course in 20:55.4 — eight seconds behind the first-place runner and half a second in front of the third-place finisher — to place second and earn All-Ivy first-team honors. Giordano

also placed second in last year’s Heps cross country championships.

“One of the positives of the race was [Giordano]’s performance,” women’s head coach Courtney Jaworski said.

“She had a wonderful day — she was in the lead pack all the way through three [kilometers] and with about a mile to go, she was in sixth but she really turned it on. It was a really great, competitive effort from her.”

Behind Giordano, the Big Green had four more runners crack the top 50 — Helen Schlachtenhaufen ’17 (21st in 22:02.3), Reid Watson ’16 (31st in 22:14.7), Liz Markowitz ’16 (48th in 22:39.6) and Bridget O’Neill ’18 (49th in 22:41.6). Just outside the scoring five were Sarah Bennett ’16 (54th in 22:45.4) and Olivia Lantz ’19 (59th in 22:50.6).

On the men’s side, Masterson placed sixth, finishing the eight-kilometer course in 24:36.8. Joey Chapin ’16 (15th in 25:13.6) and Julian Heninger

’17 (19th in 25:20.3) also ran strong races on the hilly course.

“I was very happy with my performance individually, but that was quickly overshadowed by my disappointment at our team’s finish,” Masterson said. “We’ve gone into Heps the past two years thinking we had a chance to win, but we haven’t been able to perform on the day.”

Rounding out the scoring individuals on the men’s side were Nat Adams ’17 (31st in 25:29.7) and Daniel Salas ’17 (32nd in 25:29.8).

“The team was in a very good place at the starting line, mentally,” men’s head coach and track and field director Barry Harwick ’77 said. “The course tends to narrow down quickly, but I thought we were in [a] very good position when we entered the woods.

By the time we exited the woods, we had a bunch of guys lose a lot of places.

I thought that this course would play to our strengths, given the terrain that

we run on in Hanover, but it wasn’t the case.”

The coaching staff was left searching for answers after sub-optimal performances in both races.

“When some guys run an outstanding race, but other guys who ran the exact same training program struggle, that’s always tough to figure out,” Harwick said.

Both Harwick and Jaworski emphasized the importance of keeping Dartmouth runners together during the race and working together toward the teams’ success.

“One of the things that we’ve been working on throughout the season is running in packs,” Jaworski said. “But for some reason, with this meet, it wasn’t something that they executed well.”

Both coaches reiterated how this strategy of running in a tight pack will be what the team will focus on at the NCAA East Regional meet on Nov. 13.

“We averaged about 20 seconds between our first and fifth runners all season, but this race we had a 53-second spread [between the first and fifth runners],” Harwick said. “If we can get back to a 30 second spread, I think we can beat many of the teams that beat us at Heps.”

Both teams will have one hard workout this week and then will begin to taper — decreasing how much they run in order to rest and sharpen up for the regional meet. The teams will also focus on keeping their confidence and mental strength up.

“One thing to harp on is the idea of confidence, that they’re a very fit, talented, strong team,” Jaworski said.

“They’ve made these physical jumps from last year to this year, and just trusting that and being confident is another mental jump that they need to make. Helping them to believe and know that they’re that fit will kind of help pull a lot of that out.”