The Dartmouth 02/22/16

VOL. CLXXIII NO.35

SUNNY

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Conference focuses on Latino health

CULTURE NIGHT

HIGH 30 LOW 9

By SARA MCGAHAN

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

PAULA MENDOZA/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

SPORTS

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DAO hosts its annual culture night, featuring performances and a short film.

Isen ’18 wins Sinai award

By DANIEL KIM

The Dartmouth Staff

OPINION

CHUN: CARPE DOMUS PAGE 4

ARTS

FILM REVIEW: ‘THE WITCH’ PAGE 7

In reference to the Jewish value of engaging different opinions, Cameron Isen ’18 mentioned an old Jewish joke: ask a question to two Jews, you will get three opinions. For Isen, the debate was whether

as a Torah-observant Jew, he was allowed to study secular subjects. As a double major in economics and classics, Isen said he had been interested in the intersection between secular academia and Jewish theology.

Reflective of his own intellectual curiosity, Isen

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Q&A with Andrew Campbell on mobile health

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wrote a 10-page research paper examining the historical relationship between secular wisdom and Jewish theology and was awarded the Jewish Academic Innovation Award at the seventh annual Sinai Scholars

The Geisel School of Medicine chapter of the Latino Medical Students Association recently celebrated one year of existence.

Coinciding with their one-year anniversary, the group hosted the LMSA Northeast Regional Conference this weekend.

The conference, which is held every year at various institutions around the northeastern United States, attracted over 250 people to DHMC this Saturday, conference coordinator and LMSA member Claire Hogue Med’18 said.

Adrianna Stanley Med’18 and Fernando Vazquez Med’18 — the two founders of Geisel’s LMSA’s chapter — attended last year’s LMSA northeast regional conference at Johns’ Hopkins University. They decided to do so to figure out how to make their new chapter flourish and run effectively, Stanley said. While they were there, they placed a bid to host the conference this year.

“I think the reason we ended up winning was because we were such a new chapter,” Stanley

said. “We wanted to expand the LMSA further north.”

Geisel is the only rural medical school in the LMSA northeast region, and Stanley and Vazquez highlighted the unique programs they could hold when bidding to get the conference in Hanover, Stanley said.

Each year, the conference’s theme — which is chosen by the LMSA northeast executive board — changes. This year, the theme of the conference is “Fortaleciendo Raíces: Uniting Efforts in the Changing Face of Healthcare.”

“Fortaleciendo Raíces,” which means strengthening roots, is particularly appropriate for this year’s conference, as the conference this year brought together and strengthened the Latino community, Stanley said.

High school students, pre-medical college students, medical students, graduate students, physicians and others interested in addressing health disparities in the La-

The Dartmouth Staff

Computer science professor Andrew Campbell recently returned from his three-month sabbatical in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city. While he was there, he taught high school, undergraduate and graduate students how to program smartphones. The Dartmouth sat down with Campbell to talk about his time abroad.

Why did you decide to spend your sabbatical in Rwanda?

AC: Well, it was not a premeditated decision that I was going to do that.

It was sort of serendipitous. I went

to a seminar where Lisa Adams from the Dickey Center [for International Understanding] gave a talk and she described her research, and one thing led to another, and I ended up in Rwanda.

What was appealing about the opportunity?

AC: I definitely wanted to experience a different teaching environment, and I work in the area of mobile technology where I use smartphones to understand physical or public health.

Lisa was talking about her research there in Kigali and I thought that was appealing and I had heard about the prevalence of mobile technology in

Africa so I was definitely interested in that. Lisa also talked about how Carnegie Mellon University had opened a teaching facility, and I knew people at CMU in Pittsburgh, and one thing led to another and I was literally chatting with the director of the university in Kigali and he asked, “Hey are you interested in visiting us?”

What was the most challenging thing about teaching smartphone programming to these students?

AC: Well, the first thing was I wasn’t quite sure what technology the kids would have. So I brought the phones with me. I brought 20 smartphones

thinking, “How am I going to get through customs with 20 smartphones? They’re going to think I’m importing them or something.” So that was one initial challenge. Then when I got there and got to know the students and their capabilities, I [learned] they were quite good programmers [especially since they already had an undergraduate degree]. And the next challenge really was teaching them the tools and techniques they needed to have to learn to solve the problems I was presenting them with and they were really good at that, actually, and I thought, “I am teaching a fairly advanced class to students in a SEE Q&A PAGE 5

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

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DAILY DEBRIEFING A team of researchers from Dartmouth, the University of Vermont and Columbia University have developed a new way of projecting climate change at local levels, the Vermont Digger reported. While global models can simulate changes in climate many years into the future, they often cannot be scaled down to be accurate at the regional level. The researchers used relationships between temperature, elevation precipitation to create a “high resolution” data set. Lead author of the National Science Foundation-funded study and College geography professor Jonathan Winter said the data set will make estimates of climate change impact more specific and usable.

The Daily Mail reported that computer-generated images have become so realistic that untrained viewers cannot identify them accurately, according a study led by researchers at the College. In the experiment, 250 observers were able to identify images as computer-generated only 60 percent of the time. Computer science professor and lead study author Hany Farid said that this difficulty can cause problems when computer-generated evidence is presented in court cases, such as those involving child pornography. The researchers conducted a similar study five years ago and found that since then, viewers of computer generated images have declined in their ability to tell the difference between real and faked images, a trend that will likely continue as the field of computer graphics advances.

Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, may be linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, WMUR reported. Researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the University of New Hampshire recently published a report showing that chronic exposure to an environmental toxin derived from cyanobacteria may increase the risk of developing ALS. DHMC physician Elijah Stommel said that the study found that people who live next to lakes with cynaobacterial blooms have a significantly larger chance of developing ALS. The study included several lakes in the Upper Valley. The researchers plan to apply for a grant from the National Institutes of Health to further their studies of New Hampshire lakes.

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Conference brings 250 to DHMC FROM LMSA PAGE 1

tino community were invited to attend the event. Workshops that targeted many of these participants occurred at the conference, with topics such as learning how to ace the medical school admissions process to learning about medical imaging with individuals from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center’s radiology department.

Sergio Davila, a Harvard University doctorate, student who led a workshop about Latinos in biomedical research, said that he was excited that high school and college students on the pre-medical track were eager to think about their career in medicine and interested in enhancing their education.

Davila, who saw the modern impact of medicine firsthand after his grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and survived, tried to think about the uncertainties and questions he had as an undergraduate when he responded to the questions from younger students in his workshop.

While the workshops aimed to equip students with skills and resources, the panels aimed to educate the greater community about Latino health in general, Stanley said.

Two keynote speakers addressed the conference: Kenneth Dominguez, a medical epidemiologist working at the Center for Disease Control, and Chidi Achebe Med’96, the CEO and chairman of African Integrated Development Enterprise.

In addition, there was a session on the Dartmouth Geisel Migrant Health project, which is an organization that aims to provide medical care to migrant workers at no cost.

Stanley said that she thinks few people know about the significant Latino migrant dairy farm worker population living in the Upper Valley. This session was “eye-opening” to many members of the conference, Stanley said, as it focused on the often-unnoticed Latino population permanently living here.

Although they are a new student organization, Hogue — whose role as conference coordinator was to make sure everything ran smoothly on Saturday — said that the Geisel administration and other medical students were very supportive as they put together the conference.

Fifty volunteers from Geisel helped the day of the event, she added.

LMSA chapter member Aurora Robledo Med’18 said her favorite part of the conference was seeing so many people interested in learning about Latino health and celebrating Latino culture.

Vazquez added that he got the sense that people did not realize how large the conference was going to be, but the large turnout allowed the Dartmouth community to see how far the organization has come in just one year.

Stanley said that she wanted to found the LMSA chapter at Geisel after recognizing the lack of a cohesive Latino community amongst the student body at Geisel. Most medical schools have an LMSA chapter, which provides the com-

munity and the space for discussing distinct Latino experiences, Stanley said.

When she decided to come to Geisel, Stanely said to herself, “OK, Dartmouth is the fourth oldest medical school in country, and there’s no LMSA chapter. This is a huge problem and we need to change that.”

Vazquez echoed this sentiment, saying that he personally wanted to start an LMSA chapter at the College to help recruit more Latino students to Geisel.

“I have actually met numerous students throughout New England and the East Coast who were accepted to Geisel, but chose not to come because they felt like Dartmouth as an institution had nothing to offer them as Latinos,” Vazquez said.

Vazquez added that he also wanted to more adequately prepare his fellow Geisel medical students to care for their Latino peers slated to increase in number in the upcoming years through the founding of LMSA. When Stanley approached Robledo and told her about starting an LMSA chapter at the College, Robledo said she was excited to join. While there was a group of students interested in celebrating Latino culture and conscious of the health issues faced by Latino, there was not a concrete organization that got these students to congregate.

“It’s given us a good opportunity to meet together, to have fiestas every so often and to throw this conference,” Robledo said.

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Various student groups performed at The Cords’ annual Cocoa and Cords event.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016

PAGE 3

Student wins award for work on academia and Jewish theology said. “To really get hundreds, if not thousands, of Jewish students Society Academic Symposium held thinking critically and intellectually, in Carlsbad, California on Feb. 7. looking at sources — both ancient More than 100 campuses across and modern — to see the signifithe country have a Sinai Scholars cance or relationship that Judaism S o c i e t y p ro has today in the gram taught 21st century is “One of the things by rabbis. Exvery powerful. I ecutive direc- that I said in my think a lot of the tor of Chabad kids walk away mini-acceptance at Dartmouth thinking, ‘Wow Rabbi Moshe speech was that this ancient reGray founded ligion which is one of the powerful the Dartmouth 3,000 years old Sinai chapter things about Judaism has a lot to teach in the fall of is that it calls on me in 2016.’”

2006. Since Isen then, students each Jew to be a took a Sinai can participate part of the academic Scholars Sociin the eightety class taught week cour se, tradition.”

by Gray in the culminating spring of his in a five-page freshman year. report. Some - CAMERON ISEN ’18 He said that one students, such classics book as Isen, decide about the influto expand the ence of Greek paper to submit wisdom on Jewto the symposium. ish theology heavily influenced his “The value of Sinai Scholars final paper for the class.

Society is that students don’t always Isen added that he had long delve into the religious thought wanted to write a paper on the of their religion in an intellectu- Hellenistic influence on Jewish ally stimulating manner,” Gray theology, but did not have a reason FROM SINAI PAGE 1

to.

“[The Sinai Scholars Society Academic Symposium] became a really good excuse, so I started off thinking about how I can deal with writing about the classics in Judaism and fitting it into the theme, which was ‘Sinaitic Wisdom for the Modern Age,’” he said. “That kind of inspired me to say, ‘Let’s look at the history and bring it to the modern day,’ and that’s how the structure of the paper came about.”

Following the Sinai Scholars Society’s acceptance of his proposal, Isen was paired with Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe as his mentor for the research paper. After submitting his final draft of the paper, Isen and eight other students from across the country were selected to fly to California to participate in the academic symposium.

Isen noted that he enjoyed interacting with students who had committed to research different topics.

“One of the things that I said in my mini-acceptance speech was that one of the powerful things about Judaism is that it calls on each Jew to be a part of the academic tradition,” Isen said. “It was really inspiring to get to be a part of that and also to interact with other people who are

a part of that.”

Sarah Cohen ’18 took the Sinai Isen’s paper could have been one Scholars Society class last spring of over 2,000 papers submitted for with Isen, complimenting his dediconsideration, Gray said. Isen is the cation to working on the project. second Dartmouth student to win “He’s very passionate and the award since Brandon Floch ’11 strong-willed,” Cohen said. “He received the award in 2011. took on this paper while taking Gray emphasized how difficult three other classes, and he was doing this kind of project is to undertake research [for the Sinai Scholars pawhile balancing a full Dartmouth per] on top of that. That definitely course load and other activities. shows his willingness to go above “The fact that he did it and he’s and beyond of what’s required of able to take a him.” passion of his, “For anybody that I s e n’s the classics, and roommate Kyle come up with knows Cameron well, Dotterrer ’18 a cohesive pa- the fact that he won said Isen can be per that people characterized can read and the award won’t as hardworking say, ‘As a mod- come as a surprise.” and intellectuern American ally curious.

Jew, this speaks “ Fo r to me. I didn’t - KYLE DOTTERRER ’18 anybody that think there was knows Cameron a relationship well, the fact between secular that he won the knowledge and a w a r d w o n’t religious knowlcome as a suredge or Jewish knowledge,’” Gray prise,” Dotterrer said. “He’s somesaid. body who’s very curious about his Gray added that Isen’s work put religious beliefs. He’s also serious forth a strong claim that showed about his academics and his intelhow different leaders in the Or- lectual pursuits. The fact that he thodox Jewish world have tried to was able to combine the two — I’m understand this issue. impressed, but I’m not surprised.”

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STAFF COLUMNIST STEVEN CHUN ’19

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION STAFF

Carpe Domus

Opinion Asks

The house system is an opportunity that all students should capitalize on.

I recently ate dinner with an ’84. During out dinner, he hearkened back to older, less regulated times. One comment stuck out in our conversation. Back then, he told me, dorms had their own identities. There was no freshman housing, and people rarely moved around. Intramural sports had a Greek league and a dorm league whose champions played each other. Dorms had the power and funding from the College to host their own parties. Freshmen knew the sophomores, juniors and seniors in their dorms and dorms existed alongside a vibrant Greek scene. In many ways, it was exactly what the new house system intends to create.

Disclaimer: This winter, I joined one of the house community working groups. As always, however, this column represents my opinion alone. I would like to express something that comes up rarely in this process — optimism. I honestly believe that the house communities are the right move.

Dartmouth is changing, and while I can’t say I agree with all of it, fear of change shouldn’t impede the progress of the house system.

I would like to address the criticisms some students have raised. Whereas some are valid concerns, others are knee-jerk reactions to institutional change. While it may not be possible to have connected buildings and facilities, there is little reason for this to be seen as a fatal flaw. Surely, it would be ideal to have connected buildings — six dining halls, six libraries and six gyms. But, it’s simply not possible for a college of 4,200 students. On the other hand, the core components of the house system — proximity, social continuity, student governance and a unique identity ­— remain intact.

Amid suspensions, probations and derecognitions of Greek houses it’s not surprising that the house community system has been seen as a move to replace Greek life at Dartmouth.

However, in no way do the house communities have the ability or the desire to

infringe on Greek life. Someone living in his or her Greek house could theoretically, with sufficient obliviousness and apathy, continue on with his or her life completely unaware that the house system even exists.

Ideally, however, students should enjoy the house system and Greek life simultaneously.

They are not mutually exclusive; they are not even competing.

An unfortunate amount of the discussion surrounding the house communities has been couched in institutional turmoil.

Very little consideration has been given to what the house system could do for Dartmouth.

Almost everyone I’ve talked to, staunchly opposed to apathetic to enthusiastic, has agreed that the system will be good for the Class of 2020 and beyond. But in the short term, they feel like collateral. It doesn’t have to be that way. The houses are nearly entirely student-run. We don’t have to wait for the houses to become treasured institutions. If we want, we can make them great ­­— starting immediately. It’s hard to imagine a few hundred Dartmouth undergrads, unified by a single identity, enjoying access to significant funding and power being unable to foster a sense of community.

While the idea of the house system came from the administration, only the students have the power to shape. We complain about the administration’s deafness to student voices, and yet we turn our nose up at the authority the house system gives us.

We came to Dartmouth for the opportunities, to seize what the College offered and make it ours. I see no reason for the house system to be anything different. To frame it in Abraham Lincoln’s famous words about representative governance, the houses are of the students, by the students and for the students.

I am optimistic about the house system because I still believe in Dartmouth students.

I still believe in our ability to shape our College.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016

NEWS EDITOR: Noah Goldstein, LAYOUT MANAGER: Jaclyn Eagle, TEMPLATING EDITOR: Jaclyn Eagle.

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.

In light of the recent Yik Yak video highlighting offensive posts, should the app screen comments?

Comments should not be screened. As hurtful as these views are to minority groups, and I hope, to the majority of the Dartmouth community, they still represent an aggravating reality of racial intolerance, bigotry and hatred. What is perhaps more disturbing and more infuriating is that those expressing these kinds of opinions probably repress them in real life, and rely on anonymous outlets like Yik Yak to let out their insecurities, anger and frustration. That makes it far more difficult to locate the sources of racist and hurtful speech, and therefore far more difficult to educate them. Nevertheless, the response to those who attempt to silence members of our community is not silencing them back. It is fighting against them.

-Ioana Solomon ’19 I don’t believe comments should be screened from Yik Yak. From a business perspective, the lack of screening combined with the veil of anonymity is a large part of what allows Yik Yak to thrive. If we were to censor Yik Yak, another app would certainly emerge and take its place. I don’t believe this is an issue of censoring knowledge or political opinions. A large part of what people Yak about is humorous, and I do not think that unregulated space should be compromised because of a few idiots’ comments.

-Ben Szuhaj ’19

I actually deleted Yik Yak a while ago, because it just plain made me too sad. The fact that people I go to class with and interact with say racist and sexist things behind a keyboard made me way too upset. Maybe I’m not helping the problem by trying to cut it out of my life, but I just couldn’t handle that negativity on a day to day basis. That being said, I don’t think comments should be screened or removed, because everyone should be able to say whatever they want, no matter how awful it is. What I do believe is that Yik Yak shouldn’t be anonymous. If you believe in something enough to put it online where it could potentially affect people, then you should be comfortable with attaching your name to it. People have every right to say whatever it is that they believe, but if they’re going to do it in a forum that can hurt other people, then we have every right to know who they are.

-Andres Smith ’17, Opinion Editor Screening has absolutely no place on Yik Yak. As awful as many of these posts may be, they represent voices among us. Screening such comments is not only contrary to free speech, it does absolutely nothing to solve the true problem. If racism still exists, why ignore it or pretend it isn’t there? We cannot cure the disease if we cannot identify the symptoms. Screening might be necessary if there is a clear, imminent threat to our safety — a bomb threat or a call for violence ­— but not on the grounds that something is hurtful.

We are assuming, of course, that these posts are sincerely written and meant to be taken at face value. That being said, we must take the time to question their truthfulness. Could the posts just be the product of a few people’s sick sense of humor? Could they not be the work of trolls? Or could they even, perhaps, be the work of the purported “targets” looking to generate sympathy for a cause? Unless there is a clear and present danger to personal safety, no form of screening or censorship is ever an acceptable response.

-Jinsung Bach ’17 I believe that freedom of speech is an important aspect of our society, and that anonymous forums are integral to freedom of speech. Monitoring and restricting what people say won’t change how they feel and think; all it does is constrain public discussion on a topic.

Additionally, I think it is important to note that it is unclear how many individuals were posting on Yik Yak — or even if it was just one poster. Furthermore, many of the Yaks had no upvotes or were downvoted, even just in the few seconds to minutes that were indicated by the screenshots. I believe the vast majority of campus disagrees with the content of the posts (which was why almost all were downvoted to removal extremely quickly). However, forcibly silencing those few individuals who hold such unfortunate opinions won’t make those individuals or their opinions disappear. It is only through allowing such opinions to come to light and then having open dialogue and debate that people can change their views.

-Michelle Gil ’16 I don’t think that any additional screening is necessary. The freedom to post such statements that denounce and degrade persons of color and their movements — and the up/ down votes that go along with them — allow us to gauge the prevalence of ignorance and stupidity on campus. It allows us to see how many supposedly intelligent people harbor feelings of hatred and blindness toward inequality, as well as how many people agree with them. The truth is, we go to a school where many students care more about Canada Goose jackets or KAF cookies or getting next on table than they do about their neighbors of color having the same rights and opportunities as they do. Far too often, I have heard wealthy white Connecticutites say that movements like Black Lives Matter are unreasonable and have no place at Dartmouth. Such sentiment is not only worrisome, but sickening. These are people who will go on to become corporate executives and maybe politicians. Chew on that, Dartmouth.

Let those posts flow free on Yik Yak. Share them everywhere you can, so the world can see that Dartmouth isn’t simply the pretty little College on the Hill that so many people pretend it is.

-Billy Peters ’15

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016

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Campbell discusses his work teaching in Rwanda this past fall FROM Q&A PAGE 1

program which only had been going for three years.”

Was there anything that you learned while on sabbatical that you are hoping to integrate into your teaching going forward at Dartmouth?

AC: Yeah, they really love jokes and I’m a bit of a joker. So I’ve been teaching smartphone programing at Dartmouth and I’ve introduced more jokes to my class. I think what I brought back really was a real desire to engage these students that I met and talked with and got to know in Rwanda and I’ve encouraged at least three of them to apply to our Ph.D. program here at Dartmouth, and I’ve been working with two of them already on a research project on developing an application at the hospital in Kigali. So what I’ve brought back to Dartmouth hopefully, if I’m lucky, is that these two students apply to Dartmouth when they’ve finished their master’s degrees and then get admitted and come and do research here at Dartmouth. I think that would be wonderful for me as a researcher and great for our department and

campus to have more top students from Africa. We have no Rwandan students.

What is the biggest difference between teaching computer science to students in Rwanda versus students in the United States?

AC: So Dartmouth undergraduate students are very smart, and teaching them is very demanding, and as a professor you have to be nimble on your toes, and technology changes a lot and you have to be very adaptive.

So when I went over there, because it was a new school without a strong tradition, I wasn’t sure what level I could teach the students. I found that these students were at the exact same level, if not a little higher because they had already gotten their undergraduate degrees. So that was very encouraging. It’s not a stereotype to think Dartmouth is a top ten university and here’s a brand new institute in Rwanda, the kids might not be as smart or as driven, but I found these kids to be so incredibly driven and there was such a tight sense of community between them that there were strong parallels between teaching at Dartmouth and teaching in Kigali. It was unbelievable actually.

These kids had the same community spirit and sense of competition as Dartmouth kids. It was a very similar teaching experience when I was in the classroom.

What was one of your favorite experiences while teaching abroad? Favorite story?

AC: I think I got to know the students on a different level than what I do I here at Dartmouth. In one sense Kigali was not my home and these students realized that and I would have dinner with them in the café or they would invite me to lunch with them. One of the nicest experiences I had was a little different. So I live in Norwich, so I take my car into work, but in Kigali people get around in motorbikes, so there are thousands and thousands of motor bikes and I had never done that before. So to travel around, I would hop on a motorbike and that was, in a strange way, like living on the edge on the back of a motorbike. Taxis were on motorbike and as a passenger you put on a helmet, get on the back, and take off. That was an exciting daily experience.

How has this related to your past work, especially in terms

of the health and wellness app that you made?

AC: I met a bunch of Dartmouth doctors at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Kigali and I had this amazing experience, which was that I got to spend one day being a fly on the wall at the university teaching hospital in Kigali and I was shadowing a Dartmouth doctor, Robert Harris, around for the day. He’s a radiologist and I had met him before. What he was doing was that he was basically reading radiology scans every day and he would write a report. And what became apparent was that if you lived in the country a couple of hours away, then it takes six weeks to get an appointment because there’s only one [fMRI] scanner in the whole country.

[We’re developing] an app so that the radiologist would read the scan, write a report and send it directly back to the doctor. And so that really brought together an interest in mobile health and a real gap in the health care.

When the patient goes home and finally gets the result it might be too late so we wanted an application to fill that gap. And that development is ongoing with myself, the radiology and the two students. Rwanda actually has a really good health care system compared to a lot of the countries in

eastern Africa. They pride themselves on that and they have fairly progressive municipal health, but there are still limited resources in the country.

What was it like being away from your family? Did they go with you?

AC: Originally I was going to go for more than a year, but in the end, I only went for one term. I had this really nice, plush apartment in Kigali but I literally spent no time there because I was meeting colleagues. It was like being a bachelor again, and it was a very odd experience.

In addition to teaching, how else did you spend your time in Rwanda?

AC: The students there were actually crazy about Premier League soccer.

They had all had their teams and we would actually meet and watch soccer games on the weekends and that’s something I enjoyed. I did a little touring around. I visited the Congo, which is an amazing country. The Congo seems on edge and very tense.

I traveled around Rwanda quite a bit, it was a very beautiful country. I also joined a gym and got a trainer and actually became quite fit.

WINDY CITY BLOWS THROUGH THE HOPKINS CENTER

KATELYN JONES/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Students work through tech rehearsal for “Chicago” (1975), this term’s mainstage production. The musical is the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016

DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 4:30 p.m.

“What Should the Fed Be Doing Now?,” a conversation with professors Andrew Levin and Charles Wheelan ’88, Room 003, Rockefeller Center

6:30 p.m.

“The Great White Silence” (1933), Screening Room 101, Black Family Visual Arts Center

7:30 p.m.

Argentine Tango Class and Practica, all levels of experience welcome, Sarner Underground

TOMORROW 4:30 p.m.

“The Intersection of Art and Math,” panel discussion and reception, Hood Museum of Art

4:30 p.m.

“The Changing Security Environment in East Asia,” former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia Dr. Paul Heer, Room 003, Rockefeller Center

7:00 p.m.

Yamato Drummers of Japan, Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2016

‘The Witch’ (2015) falls short of its aim

We take on the family’s hysteric head turning, unsure of our alliThe Dartmouth Staff ances and enemies, much like we do There is no boil, boil, toil and while watching John Carpenter’s trouble, hooked noses or broom- “The Thing” (1982). sticks to be found in “The Witch” Could it be the hysteric mother, (2015) , the debut feature from the pious father, Thomasin, the Robert Eggers. Set in pre-Salem obnoxious twins, the libidinous son witch trial New England, the film Caleb or perhaps their goat, Black takes folklore and written narra- Phillip? But the film does not intives from the era and spins them dulge audiences in big, ghastly reinto a period piece of unsettling veals of witchcraft and demonism. magnitude. Eggers spotlights this “The Witch” deals in terror and rarely studied era, and captures the dread, anticipatory responses, paranoiac underpinnings that led rather than horror which centers to the mass hysteria of the 1692 on revelation and actualization. witch-hunts.

This aesthetic follows the cur“The Witch” fittingly begins rent indie, art-horror movement with a trial, in which an overzealous exemplified by “The Babadook” family of six casts themselves out (2014) , “It Follows” (2014) and of their “impious” New England “Goodnight Mommy” (2014) , village. Having already emigrated which values patient pacing, static from England, the family re-reset- long takes and nebulous monstrositles in an isolated clearing beside ties. These films are a reaction to an ominous wood. Since the Bible the modern slasher, hyper-dramatdeems the wilderness a cursed, ic horror films that rely on body lawless land, the Puritans saw the counts and jump scares — which forest as a center of demonic forces. are less motivated by horror and Eggers translates this abject im- more by audience reflex. mensity of the forest, a black abyss “The Witch” employs Baroque waiting to engulf the family like a tones and darkness, and creates tidal wave of trees hovering over Rembrandtian candlelit tableaux their life raft. In its disorder and and expansive canvases of the famdarkness the forest becomes un- ily’s isolation, a quiet yet haunting holy, a pagan sublime that battles cinematographic aesthetic. This the Puritan divine. new wave of artful craftsmanship As their crops slowly rot away harkens a new era of horror, brinand their newborn son disappears, ing new life to a genre which has the family’s unraveling begins, as seemed dead and buried since the they look to the forest, and then late 60s and 70s. each other, for Howanswers. Slowever, many of “As their crops l y, u n k n o w n these new artforces consume slowly rot away films struggle the family, until and their newborn under their own their paranoia stylistic weight, ravages their son disappears, the and ultimately sanity as they family’s unraveling buckle or run are picked off out of creative one by one like begins, as they look steam by ret h e i l l - f a t e d to the forest, and verting to the c r e w m e m - then each other, for kitschy tropes bers in “Alien” of their ideoanswers.”

(1979). logical adverH o w e v e r, saries. the film depicts “The the witch as a state of mind rather Witch” undermines its subtlety and than a body. The young twins sing nuance with trite images of sexy, folk songs about witches, and the caped witches, demonic séances eldest daughter, Thomasin, threat- and satanic texts. The clarifying ens them with spells. The figure epilogue saps the film of its funof the witch represents embodied damental ambiguity; it feels like an paranoia, a fear of the unknown un-twist ending, one that simplifies or the psychological refuge for the rather than complicates. distressed. Beyond brief glimpses While beautiful and unsettling, of obscured, Goyaesque women “The Witch” seems unsure of its devouring flesh, the titular witch identity, and settles for being a remains a figment of the family’s good film rather than a great one. fracturing psyche. Are the violent events products of their pious Rating: 7.5/10 psychosis and paranoia, eruptions of repressed, unholy desires or “The Witch” is now playing at the indeed the black magic of nearby Nugget Theater in Hanover at 4:30 witches? p.m. and 7 p.m.

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

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COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE

By ANDREW KINGSLEY

PAULA MENDOZA/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble performed pieces by composer-in-residence David Maslanka on Sunday.

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2016

Annual Dimensions show created by students, for students

By ELISE HIGGINS The Dartmouth

For those of us buried in the week eight grind, Dimensions of Dartmouth might seem like a distant memory, but for current and future freshmen, it is just around the corner.

Last week, hopeful ’19s applied to be part of this spring’s Dimensions program designed to welcome prospective Dartmouth students.

Students involved dedicate many hours and expend immeasurable energy to pull off a successful event.

Harrison Perkins ’18, a leader of Dimensions this year, says when looking at applicants, he and his co-leader, Maddie Chisholm ’18, look for students who are energetic, unique and passionate about Dartmouth. From the applicants, the pair will choose 15 men and 15 women to form the team.

Current Dimensions’ leaders are drawn from a pool of the previous years’ participants, Perkins said.

In addition to Perkins and Chisholm, other former Dimensions performers help with the production of the show.

Emily Smid ’18, a team leader for this year’s shows, said that as a leader or “dimentor,” she will be involved in helping the performers or “dimentees” pick songs and write lyrics for them.

Though upperclassmen provide some guidance and leadership, the freshmen truly have the power to bring the Dimensions show to life, Perkins said.

Aaron Cheese ’18 , another former Dimensions performer, said that the show was very student driven, specifically focusing on freshman, because they are the ones who choose the songs, write the lyrics and choreograph the dances.

Perkins said that his role as leader mostly includes helping the freshmen make decisions for the show.

“We’re more advisors,” Perkins said. “They do all the heavy lifting.”

Because of their experience, the leaders know which songs will work well and which ones will not.

Cheese said they look for songs that are upbeat, recognizable and have no long pauses. “[Pauses] make it very awkward because there is nothing for the performers to do,” Cheese said.

Smid seconded Cheese, adding that songs with short sentences as opposed to long, drawn-out phrases are better because the performers are shouting the lyrics rather than actually singing them.

Former Dimensions performer Zoe Snow ’18 said that the students perform songs about various topics ranging from academics to food.

“We address the qualms that

COURTESY OF JESS MA

Members of the class of 2016 pose for a picture before performing in the Dimensions show in spring of 2014.

freshmen might have coming into Dartmouth,” Snow said.

The choreography of the Dimensions show aims to be more entertaining than technical.

“Most of the dance moves were half brought up as a joke, then re-

COURTESY OF JESS MA

The Dimensions group is comprised of first-year students passionate about welcoming prospective students.

ally integrated into the dance just because everyone enjoyed doing them,” Snow said.

Smid said that all of the students contributed to the process of creating songs and dances.

“It was definitely a collective effort,” she said.

Students involved in last year’s show felt comfortable and willing to contribute ideas because the performers were all very supportive of each other, Smid said.

“It was a really great group to be a part of because everyone is really accepting of everyone else’s creative whims,” Smid said.

Rehearsals for the show are time-consuming, and students who participate often grow close over the hours spent practicing the songs and dances.

Once spring term begins, so do rehearsals for the show. Perkins said that the first practice is held the Sunday before spring term begins, and the show is the Monday of the fourth week. During these three weeks of preparation, the students put in many hours of rehearsal time, Perkins said.

Smid said that the performers averaged about eight hours of practice per week, with a four

hour rehearsal on Sundays and the rest of the hours divided between weekdays.

Though participating in Dimensions is a large time commitment, “dimentees” say they enjoyed the experience because of its fun and creative nature.

“It was really fun and I enjoyed doing it,” Smid said. “It sort of felt like I was just taking a break from my work.”

Smid, a member of the dance group SHEBA, had a wealth of performing experience to draw from before participating in Dimensions. However, not all performers were previously involved with the performing arts on campus.

“There are people who do Dimensions who don’t have other creative outlets, so it’s really cool to see those people step up and be excited about it,” Smid said.

The large number of applicants this year demonstrates Dartmouth students’ excitement for Dimensions, Perkins said.

This year’s Dimensions program includes two preset sections, April 12 to 13 and April 17 to 19, as well as a chose-your-own-date option for potential students who cannot make these two weekends.