The Dartmouth 05/26/15

VOL. CLXXII NO. 88

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Foundersdonate $21milliontoKing Scholarprogram

PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 89 LOW 64

By ERIN LEE

The Dartmouth Staff

COURTESY OF ESCAR KUSEMA

SPORTS

BEST MALE AND BEST FEMALE AWARDS PAGE 8

The current six Kings Scholars with the Tucker Foundation’s Jay Davis and his family.

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ARTS

“PITCH PERFECT 2” FALLS FLAT PAGE 7

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SEE SCHOLAR PAGE 2

Memorial Challenge raises $35,672 for cardiac research

B y Bob Wang

OPINION

SIMINERI: PAYING FOR LESS-THAN

Founders Bob King ’57 and Dottie King donated $21 million to the King Scholar Leadership Program, which will be used to expand the program to include more students and fund additional internships. The Kings’ gift will raise their total investment in the scholarship program to $35 million.

Program advisor and Tucker Foundation program officer for school outreach Jay Davis said the program works to alleviate global poverty by preparing students

More than 450 students came together to work out and celebrate the lives of Blaine Steinberg and Torin Tucker, both members of the Class of 2015 who died suddenly last year due to heart complications, at the first annual Memorial Challenge at Memorial Field last Saturday. The event raised $35,672, surpassing its goal of $30,000, which will go toward cardiac research at the Heart

and Vascular Center at DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center.

The event consisted of a onehour circuit of CrossFit- and Nordic ski-themed exercises at multiple challenge levels to be inclusive of participants at all fitness levels.

The 54 registered teams represented a wide range of students, including several fraternities, sororities and athletic teams, Adam Fishman ’15, one of the 14 Memorial Challenge organizers, said.

Carrie Wolf ’15, another or-

WISE advocate to begin work at the College this summer B y LAUREN BUDD The Dartmouth Staff

A WISE advocate will begin working at the College this summer to help students, staff and faculty affected by domestic violence or stalking, following an agreement between Dartmouth and the Lebanon-based non-profit.

The campus advocate will be a WISE employee, not an administrative or College employee, WISE ex-

ganizer, said that the event had a great turnout with students “from all different walks of campus.”

She said that it was important for members of the Class of 2015 to commemorate the tragedy of losing two classmates.

“Last year was such a difficult one for us,” Wolf said. “With graduation approaching, I think we needed this bonding experience and this moment of remembrance.”

Since they began collecting donations in late April, there have been

1,098 contributions, and fundrasing will remain open for one more week, organizer Jessie Frieder ’15 wrote in an email.

Freider said that the organizers had the idea for the fundraiser about a year ago and began working on the project last October. Dartmouth Peak Performance advisors, Prouty fundraiser planners and the Children’s Hospital at DHMC helped advise the team, she said.

SEE MEMORIAL PAGE 3

HOLI MACKEREL

ecutive director Peggy O’Neil said.

WISE serves 21 towns in the Upper Valley, including communities in New Hampshire and Vermont.

The role of the campus advocate is to be an on-campus resource to provide support for students, faculty and staff at the College who are impacted by sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking, O’Neil said. The advocate will

PREETI RISHI/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

SEE WISE PAGE 5

Students celebrate Holi, a Hindu festival marking the arrival of spring.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAily debriefing A new study published in Cerebral Cortex by researchers at the College and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center found that television commercials for food have a disproportionate affect on stimulating the brains of overweight teenagers, including the regions that control taste, pleasure and the mouth, Science Daily reported. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain responses to fast-food commercials and non-food commercials in overweight and healthy-weight adolescents from 12-16 years old. The study suggests that unhealthy habits may make it harder to lose weight later in life, and that dieting efforts should target not only the initial desire to eat food, but also subsequent thoughts about tasting and eating it.

A Dartmouth-led study has affirmed that the answer remains unclear as to whether climate change will make the Midwest drier or wetter, Science Daily reported. The study appears in the journal Water Resources Research and included researchers from Columbia University, the National University of Singapore and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The team ran multiple experiments to model summertime changes in the water cycle of representative Midwestern area, resulting in contradictory predictions.

The findings suggest that adaptation to projected increases in temperature should be given priority, as this could have large impacts on crop yields, and that there needs to be more observations and improved simulations of soil moisture.

A study published online last month in the Games for Health Journal by film and media studies professor Mary Flanagan and her team found that playing RePlay Health, a game designed by her Tiltfactor Laboratory, shifts attitudes to be more accepting and understanding of public health issues. The game involves role-playing, where players assume different identities and carry out different activities to improve their health with a fictional health care system in the background. The players learn how personal behaviors, workplace productivity, insurance, and health care costs are woven together and are presented with opportunities to improve both their own health and the health of their community by voting on policy initiatives.

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015

King Scholar program will expand FROM SCHOLAR PAGE 1

from developing nations to return to their countries “to make a difference.” The program, founded by the Kings in 2013, supports students and helps them take advantage of Dartmouth’s resources, he said.

Dottie King said they started the program because they wanted to make the world a better place and help facilitate an exchange of cultures at Dartmouth.

Bob King said the program is meant to develop future international leaders who can tackle substantial issues, particularly global poverty.

“There are a billion people who live on around one dollar and some change a day, and we want to correct it,” he said.

Since their initial investment in 2013, conversations between the Kings, College President Phil Hanlon, dean of admissions Maria Laskaris and others, convinced the Kings that expanding the program would be beneficial, Bob King said.

“We were very encouraged with their interest in making the program real and making it effective,” Bob King said.

Currently, there are six King Scholars enrolled at the College — Loveridge Bere ’18, Eric Iradukunda ’17, Cherrie Kandie ’18, Faith Rotich ’18, Marc Sepama ’17 and Theo Wilson ’17. The additional investment will eventually support a total of 24 scholars, Bob King said.

“The idea of investing in people is central to what we do and who we are,” Bob King said.

Next fall, four scholars will be admitted and six will be admitted each year after that, Davis said.

The new donation will also fund internships for the scholars during their undergraduate careers in areas of interest ranging from business to education to governance, Bob King said.

Davis said that during the winter interim period, the students will also travel as a group to Washington, D.C., and New York City for leadership seminar experiences, where they will participate in workshops with mentors and bond with their fellow scholars.

The additional donation will include advising to help scholars utilize existing resources and programs at the College, Davis said.

These include the Great Issues Scholars program, alternative spring breaks and the Young African Leaders Initiative — President Barack Obama’s program initiative to help foster international cooperation.

Dottie King said they are interested in making Dartmouth a more global institution that fosters teamwork and leadership.

“We hope to empower other people to understand that the world is shrinking and we need to improve its condition,” she said.

Sepama, of Burkina Faso, said the program helped him learn more about society in general. He said he is currently considering majoring

in economics and is involved with programming through the Tucker Foundation and Great Issues Scholars.

“What I learn here would directly enable me to apply skills back home,” he said.

Senior associate director of admissions Becky Sabky, who handles King Scholar admissions, said that all students applying to the College from developing countries automatically enter into consideration for the program. She said that when admissions officers choose scholars, they look for students who are intellectually curious, possess the necessary academic qualifications and are interested in helping their home country after graduation.

“We’re really looking for characteristics that Bob and Dottie King have set out for the program — students who are engaged with their communities, wherever they may be,” she said.

Sepama said he has appreciated the opportunity to have a personal connection with the Kings. The King Scholars went to the King family home for Thanksgiving this past fall and got to know each other well, he said.

Davis said the Kings have made a substantial effort to be available to students and to check in on them regularly. He added that they call and text the students often, “very much like grandparents.”

“What [the Kings] have is an amazing ability to see the forest while caring deeply about the trees,” Davis said.

A COOK-APPELLA

— COMPILED BY KELSEY FLOWER

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

The May 22 article “UFC distributes $1,080,000 to student groups” originally said that the Special Programs and Events Committee distributes funding to student groups requiring $5,000 or less, when it acutally allocates $5,000 or more. The article has been corrected online.

KATELYN JONES/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Subtleties, an a cappella group, performed at “Cookout for a Cause,” which benefitted the Dartmouth Prison Project.

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015

PAGE 3

Memorial Challenge sees a wide array of participants know Steinberg well, she felt that the event was a “positive way to “I had a big smile on my face,” get people to remember” through Frieder said. “It was such an awe- doing what both of them loved to some scene to see all my friends and do — workout. people I don’t even know ready to She said the event felt like a celebration rather than a memogo and having fun.”

The event started with an open- rial. The event built community ing ceremony which included short and gave students a sense of acspeeches and anecdotes from the complishment, Abreu said.

“We are a community, and we Steinberg and Tucker families.

Scott Tucker, Tucker’s father, care about each other and we care about what hapsaid he felt overto people whelmed by “We are a community, pens in our comthe event and munity,” Abreu “more connect- and we care about said. “We all ed” to the Dart- each other and we come out to do mouth family. something great “It’s really care about what for them, and heartwar ming happens to people in that was aweto have such a our community. We some to see.” great, enthusi Stuastic turnout for all come out to do dents from all [Tucker] and something great for classes partici[ Stei n b e rg ] , ” pated in the Scott Tucker them, and that was event, Fishman said. “He was awesome to see.” said. He said obviously rethat the event ally important showed that to these people, - sami abreu ’16, a Dartmouth is as they were to memorial challenge “ a n a b s o l u te him.” family.”

He said that participant “ Pe o Tu c k e r a n d p l e at D a r t Steinberg’s friends “took it on themselves” to mouth are the most important create this event and was pleased asset we have,” he said.

Frieder said that the event was by the end result.

“It’s one of the things I cherish a great opportunity for first-year — having connections with friends students to “rally around their classmates” and feel completely a of [Tucker],” he said.

Tucker said that he hopes that part of the Dartmouth community. this event becomes a tradition to Fishman said that the event went “remember [Tucker] and [Stein- smoothly for the most part, barring an issue with electricity on the field. berg] and the lives they lived.”

Sami Abreu ’16, a participant, He said that due to construction, said that although she did not the electricity needed to power the FROM MEMORIAL PAGE 1

scoreboard and other field utilities was provided by a small generator rather than the usual energy source.

Fishman, Freider and Wolf all said they hope that the event will become an annual fundraiser

spanning Memorial Day weekend.

The event will run next year under the leadership of Kristen Hinckley ’17, Ches Gundrum ’17 and Mary O’Connell ’16, all of whom helped plan this year’s challenge, Wolf said.

ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Organizers said that they were pleased with the diversity of participants in the Memorial Challenge.

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The Memorial Challenge surpassed its $30,000 fundraising goal for cardiac research.

Other organizers included Janine Leger, Adam Frank, Elizabeth Blackburn, Jesse Heussner, Jake Becker, Matt MacDowell, Stuart Maeder and Rick Pinkston, all members of the Class of 2015, and 82 people volunteered at the event.

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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

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TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015

Staff Columnist NICOLE SIMINERI ’17

STAFF COLUMNIST ISAAC GREEN ’17

Paying for Less-Than

Missed the Forest for the Trees

Off-term earnings are a flaw in the College’s financial aid policies.

Internships are an invaluable part of the college experience and are critical in providing the experiential learning that the College so values.

Many of these positions, however, are unpaid, and the costs of living, food and transportation can add up. Students on financial aid often face these additional expenses alongside the burden of expected leave-term earnings, presenting the choice between taking more loans to pursue a potentially invaluable internship or working long hours at a low-paying job — one that is often irrelevant to their future career interests.

As I discussed in my March 10 column “An Arm and a Leg,” financial aid is not the all-saving grace and privilege that many without it commonly believe. Rather, the College’s financial aid packages often include loans and work-study, both of which are automatically incorporated into the award packages of students with an annual family income of more than $100,000. A lesser known fact is that students on financial aid are obligated to contribute to their aid packages using earnings from their off-terms.

These leave-term earnings seem to receive minor attention on the Dartmouth admissions website or in brochures. The apparent reasoning of the financial aid office is that students should contribute to their education and therefore are expected to work during their off-terms, putting all subsequent earnings, and likely then some, toward tuition.

Yet Dartmouth students are exactly that — students. Without college degrees and little or no significant job experience, many of us will be unable to qualify for a job with decent pay or relevance to our interests. Pre-med students, for example, are unlikely to be paid to work at a hospital, and pre-law students will likewise be hard-pressed to find a paying position at a law firm. Paid opportunities in these fields, it seems, simply do not exist for current undergraduates.

It appears that most readily available and paid positions available to undergraduate students are at fast-food chains or retail stores in urban areas.

I imagine, though, that even these establishments are unlikely to hire Dartmouth students. After all, why would they hire out-of-town students for a

mere 10 weeks when they can potentially hire local students for an entire semester?

When advertising to prospective students, the College emphasizes the opportunities for students to secure internships using its vast alumni network or to receive funding for the expenses of volunteering abroad. These opportunities certainly exist, but they are incompatible with current financial aid policies. When I mentioned the clear impact the leave-term earnings policy places on the ability of students to pursue such opportunities, the response of the financial aid officer gave me the impression that the College does not consider this to be its problem. These policies do not seem to hold internships and jobs as fundamental parts of the Dartmouth experience but, rather, as choices. In the financial aid handbook, the College acknowledges that few students are able to earn enough to cover leave-term earnings yet offers no remedy other than more loans. The takeaway is clear — this $4.5 billion institution offers a number of amazing opportunities, but only for students who can afford them.

Administrators say that students should go change the world. Yet at the same time, the College often forces students on financial aid to choose between working a low-paying job or incurring more debt to do a relevant and useful internship.

Though College programs and departments may assist students in finding opportunities and funding for internships, funding awards cannot help cover leave-term earnings requirements. This expectation is yet another obstacle to success that students on financial aid face. As William Peters ’15 discussed in his May 15 column “Being Poor at Dartmouth,” it is tough for students on financial aid to get here, and it is even tougher for them to stay and have a full Dartmouth experience.

I focus on off-term earnings in this column because it is a policy that goes widely undiscussed.

This is far from the only deficient policy — loans and work-study obligations are even more distressing. Off-term earnings are just a tiny window into how ludicrous, arbitrary and discriminatory financial aid packages are. Students can do great things — but the College needs to provide the financial resources for them to do so.

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Criticisms of “What Dartmouth Doesn’t Teach Me” ignore the bigger picture.

Since before I matriculated, I have been troubled by our profound inability to engage in respectful discourse when it comes to questions of institutional change on campus. In a rough sketch, the problem often plays out like this — a small group of passionate students agitates for change, often in a well thought out and productive manner — though my most recent column “What Is Derby?” demonstrates that I don’t always believe that to be the case. Yet even when the student campaign is focused and respectful, a large portion of students seem to take personal affront to it. Michelle Gil’s ’16 May 21 column, “What Dartmouth Does Teach Me,” seems to typify this part of the problem with our inability to discuss and engage with these calls for change.

In her column, Gil looks at “What Dartmouth Doesn’t Teach Me,” a recent student-driven campaign to strengthen academic offerings in Asian-American studies on campus. Rather than engaging productively with the driving force of the campaign — that the largest minority group on campus is the least represented in the course catalog — Gil instead picks out individual statements made by students in the social media campaign and proceeds to dismiss them one by one as “ridiculous and obscure…fairly esoteric subjects,” “not reflections of the College’s failure,” “personal” and otherwise present as a part of many currently-offered classes — if you look closely enough.

Gil’s column exemplifies a ubiquitous inability to see criticism of certain aspects of the College as anything but a sweeping indictment of the institution as a whole. Gil needlessly rushes to the defense of “the professors, students and overall Dartmouth community.” She states from the beginning that rather than looking at “the overall argument that a specific AsianAmerican ethnic and cultural studies program should be created” she will merely “argue that the campaign is flawed.” Yet this seems to me such a monumental waste of an opportunity to examine the “overall argument.”

Pointing out a legitimate and obvious deficiency in course offerings through a focused and well thought-out campaign of personal

testimonials does not impugn the College’s honor — far from it. The campaign shows a commitment to ensuring that Dartmouth does not fall behind its peer institutions — Brown, Columbia, Cornell and Yale Universities and the University of Pennsylvania have far stronger Asian-American studies programs than the College — and that students have the opportunity have an in-depth engagement in those academic disciplines that interest them. Every student on this campus should have the opportunity to learn from an expert about their own people’s pasts with a distinct perspective from other academic disciplines. That’s not a radical thing to ask for nor an unreasonable demand to make. We have a Jewish studies program, an African and African-American studies program and a Native American studies program — we should have an Asian-American studies program as well.

The push for such a program at the College has been ongoing for more than 15 years. I sympathize with the challenge the organizers of this campaign face. They make a social media campaign to spread awareness, open it to anyone, makes legitimate points in a reasoned way about the educational opportunities individuals feel the College is failing to offer them and, instead of receiving support, their interests are dismissed as overly obscure and uninteresting. Gil’s argument suggests that anything not taught from a white, Western perspective is esoteric and that most of the details these minority students need to fill in their cultural histories can be found in the footnotes of American history textbooks and lectures on 20th-century United States foreign policy.

I know Gil is intensely committed to this College and speaks for many as a voice pushing Dartmouth to be the best that it can be. In this case, however, she has erred by delegitimizing the interests of her peers. Her argument — and the myriad arguments like it that I have heard over the years at this school — misses the forest for the trees. Caught up in defending her education and personal experience, she fails to see that the best version of Dartmouth would include a strong Asian-American studies program.

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

Advocate part of efforts to increase College-WISE collaboration she thought a formalized collaboration between WISE and also work to build a formal liaison Dartmouth would be. The “Movrelationship between WISE and ing Dartmouth Forward” policy initiative also outlined the hope to Dartmouth, she said.

“WISE and Dartmouth have enhance Dartmouth’s partnership had a long and rich history of with WISE. O’Neil also highlighted the fact working together,” O’Neil said.

The addition of the advocate that the White House has emphawill formalize this relationship, she sized the value of colleges working added, allowing WISE to extend with local crisis centers to combat sexual assault. their services on “It’s campus. been many The role has “The campus people over n o t yet b een advocate will be a really long filled, O’Neil time who have said, though the one of several of us wanted to see job announce- who will be actively this happen,” ment will be working with the O’Neil said. released this WISE week. She said College to make sure assistant direcs h e h op es to that WISE’s services tor Abby Tassel have the posisaid that the tion filled by July are more available.” addition of the 1. The advocate campus advowill also have -Peggy O’Neil cate makes to complete confidential WISE’s train- Wise Executive support servici n g p r o g r a m Director es available to and spend time the Dartmouth with the existing community in advocacy team at WISE to gain experience, she a way that they had never been before. added.

“The campus advocate will be “Students have been able to call one of several of us who will be our crisis line and been able to work actively working with the College with an advocate, but sometimes to make sure that WISE’s service Lebanon, New Hampshire, feels are more available,” O’Neil said. really far away from Hanover for WISE will also be working with students at the College,” Tassel Dartmouth to more thoroughly in- said. “It’s really about having tegrate their 24-hour crisis hotline greater access.”

Crisis as a campus recenters such source for the enas WISE have tire community, “I think the more a type of conO’Neil said. The colleges can fidentiality hotline makes an c ov e r e d by advocate, though collaborate with offlegal statutes, not necessarily campus resources Tassel said. the campus adthe better. It really E ve r y s t at e vocate, available has a law t o c o m mu n i t y shows a commitment covering crisis members at any to having the most centers, which time, she said. affir m that The on-campus options for students organizations advocate will be and for survivors.” that make up ava i l a bl e d u rthe statewide ing regular work coalition, in hours, she said, -Caeli Cavanagh ’14 this case the and will work wise at Dartmouth New Hampto connect these Chair shire Coalitwo resources. tion Against O’Neil said Domestic and there was not a Sexual Viospecific point in time when the idea for a campus lence, can train advocates and hold advocate came about, and that them to a level of confidentiality the conversation with alumni that makes it “almost impossible” and students had been going on for a survivor’s information to be for years now. Most recently, she shared with anyone, Tassel said. said that the addition of Title IX She said that legally, this is a key coordinator and Clery Act compli- distinction for allowing survivors to ance officer Heather Lindkvist and feel comfortable in coming forward the visit of Senator Kelly Ayotte, and considering their options as R-N.H., gave her the opportunity they proceed. to publicly share how important “It just gives them a level of FROM WISE PAGE 1

safety and flexibility while they figure out what’s going to be best for them,” Tassel said.

She clarified that this confidentiality does not mean that WISE is against working with the legal system, but rather that it allows the program to show a survivor all of their options so they can be fully informed when determining what will be best and making any

decisions, including potential legal proceedings.

This is a crucial difference between College services, she said, as people who are employed by the College are required to share some information with the institution. With WISE employees, information is only released when the survivor requests so and signs a release, Tassel said.

WISE at Dartmouth chair Caeli Cavanagh ’14 said that having an advocate is important due to the level of confidentiality they can provide. She also said that there are a number of people on campus who do not trust campus services because they believe the College has a conflict of interest, and having an outside resource would be beneficial for them.

SEOUL FOOD

PREETI RISHI/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Seoul food barbecue is hosted each year by the Korean Students Association and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015

DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 12:30 p.m.

“Youth Leadership in International Climate Conversations,” sustainability cafe, Class of 1953 Commons, Paganucci Lounge

4:30 p.m.

“Testimony and Southern Rites,” lecture and film screening with Gillian Laub, Hood Museum of Art, Auditorium

4:30 p.m.

“Emotiscope,” interactive video installation by Ellie Peterson, Black Family Visual Arts Center, second floor gallery

TOMORROW 5:00 p.m.

Spoken word poetry performance with English 27 and Ledyard Charter School students, Collis Center, One Wheelock

6:00 p.m.

“VoxMasters,” team communication and group discussions workshop, Rockefeller Center, Class of 1930 Room

7:00 p.m.

World Music Percussion Ensemble spring concert, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Spaulding Auditorium

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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015

“Pitch Perfect 2” tries hard but falls flat B y andrew kingsley The Dartmouth Staff

“Pitch Perfect 2” (2015) opens like a wrecking ball, with Rebel Wilson’s “Fat Amy” accidentally revealing her junk to the president at the Kennedy Center. Deemed an insult to the a cappella world in the aftermath of the incident, the Barden Bellas — three-time collegiate champions since we last saw them in the original “Pitch Perfect” (2012) — are set to be cast out of the aca-community unless they win the international championship. If the Bellas are to be victorious, they must find an entirely new musical sound, take on a new member and face a daunting opponent on the global stage. Yet somehow nothing in the sequel feels fresh. If you haven’t seen the first film, don’t fret — “Pitch Perfect 2” ends up being no more than a remix of the original, only with higher stakes.

Beca (Anna Kendrick) returns at the film’s helm, now trying to balance her friendships with her future as she strives to make it as a music producer in her senior year at Barden University. Director Elizabeth Banks, however, makes Becca deliberately unfunny, crippling Kendrick with awkwardness as if to accentuate the clowns around her, including Wilson, who is given even more of the spotlight as a graceless sidekick, now the Curly to Kendrick’s Larry.

Perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise— after the original “Pitch

Perfect,” Rebel Wilson became an insta-celebrity before quickly moving on to serve as a caricature of herself, the unpredictably gauche Aussie who uses her weight as a weapon. But the sequel milks that image for all it is worth, sacrificing novelty and acting range for hollow and hackneyed jokes we’ve heard before. No more than a one-note actress in the film, Wilson should not be center stage here, and hopefully she won’t be for many more movies unless she is able to expand her range. There shouldn’t be much room in Hollywood for actors whose image is their only joke, and unless Wilson can pull a Jonah Hill, who transitioned from a comic figure in “Superbad” (2007) to an Academy Award-nominee for “Moneyball” (2011) and “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), I don’t expect her to have many more leading roles.

Thankfully, the singing in “Pitch Perfect 2” is still on key, with flashier numbers propping up the tempo.

In many ways, the film resembles NBC’s “The Sing-Off ” (2009) on hyper-drive — producers even draw on previous winner Pentatonix and Dartmouth’s favorite Aire and former Sing-Off participant Michael Odokara-Okigbo ’12 in the final competition scene. But while the film’s German über-group “Das Sound Machine” dazzles musically with robotic precision, their humor and accents throughout the film remain about as complex as a kindergarten piano recital. I had to

PAGE 7

SINGING IN THE SPRING

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Dartmouth Gospel Choir ended the term with their spring concert on Saturday.

“pitch slap” myself to ensure that five — indeed, five — Green Bay Packers surrendered their dignity to act as an a cappella group in the film’s later stages.

Ultimately, Banks, lost in sequel land, resorts to trite high school motifs of sleepovers, pillow fights and campfires to give the movie any heart at all. In doing so, she loses the rebellious freshness of the original, turning “Pitch Perfect 2” into a cloying college drama. The side-plot of Beca finding her career could be removed without consequence, and

DANCING THROUGH THE SEASONS

Beca’s dictatorial boss — KeeganMichael Key, of “Key and Peele” (2012) fame — offers humor, presumably geared to the boyfriends dragged along in the audience, that flaunts no more than a low-brand of hyper-masculine aggression that’s about as subtle as a monster truck. It’s a shame, since at least on the basis of his Comedy Central performances, Key is too talented to be put in such a rudimentary role.

The film is kept alive, though, by its periphery characters, who form humorous caricatures of misogynists, racists and immigrants. Banks’ grace notes here are unrelenting and fortissimo in shock value — the announcers, politically incorrect versions of the Muppets’ Statler and Waldorf, keep the film in check, lampooning a cappella itself as only for those “too ugly for cheerleading.” Lilly, the whispering, satanic Grudge-doppelganger returns in full

force, along with Cynthia Rose, the libidinous lesbian, and a new face, Flo, a Guatemalan immigrant who offers horrible tales of her homeland. Politically-correct ears beware, this will be one hell of a cacophony.

All in all, the film itself fits into a critique often levied against a cappella itself — lacking the depth and creativity of an original, it repurposes its content for a good show.

Granted, there’s some flare thrown in with the dancing and character gags, but for the most part, “Pitch Perfect 2” is a letdown. Save this one for somewhere down in your Netflix queue.

Rating: 6/10 “Pitch Perfect 2” is now playing every day at The Nugget at 1:50 p.m., 4:20 p.m. and 6:50 p.m., with an additional 9:15 p.m. showing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.

DOWN TO THE CHOIR

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Dartmouth Dance Ensemble’s performances on Friday and Saturday included pieces by guest choreographers.

ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Jabulani African Chorus was one of many groups to perform at Africa Night.

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

PAGE 8

SPORTS

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015

TUESDAY LINEUP

No athletic events scheduled

The D Sports Awards: Hughes ’15 voted best male athlete

Courtesy of Bing Guan

The first junior to serve as rugby team captain in Dartmouth history, Madison Hughes ’15 received 65 percent of the 517 votes cast.

B y joe clyne The Dartmouth Senior Staff

After we published our nominees for The Dartmouth Sports Award for best male athlete on Friday, we asked our readers to cast their votes. With more than 500 votes collected over the weekend,

Madison Hughes ’15 was chosen as Dartmouth’s best male athlete of the 2014-2015 year, taking a resounding 65 percent of the votes.

In addition to being chosen as Big Green rugby’s first junior to serve as the team’s captain, Hughes captained the United States Eagles sevens squad this year and led the

team to a 45-22 win over Australia and its first title in a World Series competition. At the tournament, Hughes was chosen the Player of the Year and named to the Dream Team, his first time receiving the honor.

Though Hughes is the youngest player on the team, he still serves

as the national squad’s captain.

The United States finished sixth in the international World Series competition this year, an impressive display coming on the heels of a 13th-place finish in the World Series last year. The top four teams in the scoring automatically qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in rugby sevens, the first Olympic games to feature a rugby sevens event.

Looking forward, Hughes will look to lead the United States team to its own Olympic bid and a chance to take the field in Rio de Janeiro. On June 13 and 14, Hughes and the Eagles will compete in the North American and Caribbean Olympic qualifiers in North Carolina.

The team is favored to win the automatic bid to the Olympics from the North American and Caribbean region, though it will face some competition from a Canadian national team that beat the Eagles earlier this year.

In the past, Hughes had been recognized as a fullback for the U.S. national under-20 rugby union

team.

Hughes was also the top scorer at the 2012 IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy and led the U.S. team with four tries.

In competition with the Big Green, Hughes, playing at scrumhalf, led the Big Green to its eighth consecutive Ivy League XVs title and its third-straight Ivy League sevens title this past fall.

He was also an important part of the Big Green’s Collegiate Rugby Championship title defense in 2012. Hughes was the tournament’s third-leading try scorer and was named to the all-tournament team, an honor he would repeat in the next two years as well.

Hughes won the Best Male Athlete award over other nominees Patrick Caldwell ’17 (Nordic skiing) , Alex Adelabu ’15 (soccer) , Dovydas Sakinis ’16 (tennis) and Dalyn Williams ’16 (football) . In last year’s inaugural D Sports Awards, swimmer Nejc Zupan ’14 was named best male athlete.

Stay tuned for the nominees for best freshman and best moment coming in this Friday’s paper.

The D Sports Awards: Savage ’15 voted best female athlete B y JOE CLYNE

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

Over 260 readers voted to determine the winner of The Dartmouth Sports Awards’ prize for best female athlete. Big Green field hockey’s Ali Savage ’15 took this year’s prize with an impressive 42 percent of the votes.

Savage locked down her place in Dartmouth’s field hockey annals with a stellar senior season, leading the Big Green with 10 goals and 27 points. There’s a significant margin between Savage and her teammates, as no other member of the field hockey team scored more than four goals or 15 points. Savage’s prowess in the clutch also set her apart from all other competitors for the title of best female athlete. Savage scored five game-winning goals for the Big Green in 2014, which accounted for all five of the Big Green’s victories this season and led among women in the Ivy League.

This season capped off a career of excellence for Savage. She was the first three-time consecutive unanimous allIvy first team selection in the College’s

field hockey’s history and is one of only six athletes in program history to receive three first-team all-Ivy nods in her career. Savage is the second-leading goal scorer in Dartmouth history with 47 goals, and she also ranks second in career points with 119. Savage led the team in goals in each of the past three seasons.

Savage’s play is far from onedimensional, as she has powered the Big Green with her passing as well.

Savage finished second on the team with seven assists this year and places fifth on the team’s all-time assist list.

Savage also took more shots and had more shots on goal than any member of the 2014 Big Green.

The Big Green finished tied for fifth in the Ivy League this season, a repeat of the team’s fifth-place finish in Savage’s junior season. The team’s most impressive finish came in Savage’s breakout sophomore season when the Big Green finished second in the Ivy League, just one game behind perpetual field hockey power Princeton University.

Savage also received national rec-

BRUNO KORBAR/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Ali Savage ’15 tallied 10 goals and 27 points during her senior season, leaving her second all-time in both categories for Dartmouth.

ognition in the fall, as she was one of 38 seniors named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division I Senior Game. She was the only Big Green selection this season and one of just four Ivy seniors named to the team. Four Big Green seniors have

been named to this team in the past five years.

In winning the best female athlete award, Savage beat out fellow nominees Kristen Rumley ’15 (softball), Taylor Ng ’17 (tennis), Katie McEachern ’16 (softball) and Dana Giordano ’16

(cross country, track and field). In last year’s inaugural D Sports Awards, lacrosse goalie Kristen Giovanniello ’14 took home the prize.

Read the sports section this Friday to find out the nominees for best moment and best freshman athlete.