The Dartmouth 03/02/16

VOL. CLXXIII NO.42

LIGHT RAIN

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

DOUBLE TAKE: MEN’S TENNIS TAKES TWO

HIGH 38 LOW 7

College agrees to mediation over contamination

By ZACHARY BENJAMIN The Dartmouth Staff

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

ARTS

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: MOUZON ’18 PAGE 7

Men’s tennis won two at home against St. John’s and Sacred Heart universities. SEE TENNIS PAGE 8.

HARTLEY: A SOLUTION TO THE GREEK CRISIS PAGE 4

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR PAGE 4

SPORTS

MEN’S TENNIS WINS TWO AT HOME PAGE 8 READ US ON

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TWITTER @thedartmouth COPYRIGHT © 2016 THE DARTMOUTH, INC.

SEE MEDIATION PAGE 2

Hanover incentivizes ridesharing through parking

By JOE REGAN OPINION

The College has agreed to enter into mediation with Deb and Richard Higgins, a couple whose well was contaminated by carcinogenic chemicals originating from a nearby Collegeowned site, College spokeswoman Diana Lawrence confirmed in an email. In the 1960s and 70s, the College used the property, Rennie Farm, as a burial site for animal test subjects.

The chemical, 1,4-dioxane, is known to increase risks of liver cancer and other liver-related diseases. Tests of the water in the well near the Higgins’ home found levels of roughly

The Dartmouth

The town of Hanover recently started a pilot program with Upper Valley Rideshare in which commuters can coordinate carpools. Upper Valley Rideshare’s online platform will help users form rideshare groups, which are charged a reduced fee for parking in the Marshall Lot at 41 South Main Street.

Users pay $35 per month to park in a reserved space in the Marshall

Lot with a vehicle registered to carry two or more people. Normally, a single space without the ride sharing program costs $56 dollars per month.

Upper Valley Rideshare is a company that works within the Upper Valley to coordinate rides for residents of Hanover, Lebanon and the surrounding area. The free service is organized through Upper Valley Rideshare’s website, which requires customers to input commuter information and locations. The 24/7 service then uses this to match people together in a carpool.

Patrick O’Neill, Hanover parking division supervisor, said that this year, about $10,000 of the town’s parking budget would go to the partnership with Upper Valley Rideshare. A portion of the approximately $238,000 annual budget always goes to supporting alternative transportation programs, O’Neill added. He noted that the funds raised from parking meters and fines factor into the town’s budget.

Across the country, rideshare programs have implemented similar

models to increase access to carpools.

Joel Zlotnik, a Media Relations consultant for Orange County Transportation Authority, located in California, said “ridesharing is a small piece of the overall public transportation network.”

Thomas McCaughey, a consultant for Metro Rideshare, a rideshare service in Los Angeles, explained that the website functions as a middleman between people searching for carpooling opportunities. Metro Rideshare SEE RIDESHARE PAGE 3

Aprahamian wins Cram Lehn Pedersen prize

By PRIYA RAMAIAH

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

As an undergraduate, chemistry professor Ivan Aprahamian stumbled upon the field of supramolecular chemistry while searching for a senior project topic. Last week, years after this discovery, Aprahamian was awarded the Cram Lehn Pedersen prize in the same field.

Sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Communications Journal, the award is named after the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recipients and recognizes significant

original work in supramolecular chemistry by emerging investigators, defined as chemists within 10 years of having received their doctorate degrees.

Supramolecular chemistry is a field of chemistry that focuses on chemical systems in which molecules can interact and form larger functional units. Aprahamian received the award for his work on molecular switches, which he described as organic molecules that can be controlled using an external stimulus by changing some quality of in the molecule, such as shape or conductiv-

ity.

These switches have a variety of interesting functions and applications, he noted, and are also helpful to the microchemistry community, as many have already been adopted by other research groups for use in their labs.

“Recently a group in the UK incorporated one of our hydrazone switches into a nano-robotic arm that was used in transporting cargo at a distance of two nanometers,” Aprahamian said.

Aprahramian said his lab has developed switches that can be acti-

vated using infrared and visible light, which could be applied to control the effectiveness of cancer drugs.

Supramolecular chemistry also has applications in nantotechnology, drug delivery and data storage, As a CLP recipient, Aprahamian will be presenting at the International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supermicrochemistry this summer in Seoul, South Korea.

Aprahamian said that he first became fascinated with supramolecular chemistry when he had to select a topic SEE CHEMISTRY PAGE 3

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 2

DAILY DEBRIEFING Brown University: Two rugby players, Uzo Okoro and Kiki Morgan, were among 49 players named in a list of potential United States National Team members for 2016, The Brown Daily Herald reported. Okoro and Morgan will have a chance to compete with the national team during the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2017, following a series of camps and international competitions this summer. This year, Brown’s women’s rugby team held a 5-2 record in the regular season, but fell to Dartmouth in the Ivy League Championship game.

Cornell University: The World Health Organization partnered with Cornell University to create and implement public health policy, The Cornell Sun reported. Cornell, one of 700 WHO collaborating centers in over 80 countries, will work on areas such as nursing, occupational health, nutrition and health technologies.

The WHO Center will provide opportunities for Cornell faculty and students to help meet the needs of United Nations member states seeking policy guidance based on scientific research.

Columbia University: Over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students participated in the 2015 Quality of Life Survey, a biennial University-wide survey which seeks to assess student satisfaction at Columbia, the Columbia Spectator reported. The results of the survey revealed that students are slightly more satisfied with their experience at the university than they were two years ago.

However, the survey also highlighted inequitiable satisfaction levels among students with disabilities and students who self-identified as transgender or genderqueer. To combat such dissatisfaction, the University Senate Student Affairs Committee recommended that all school forms provide an option for identifying as transgender or genderqueer, and that more gender-inclusive bathrooms are added to buildings.

- COMPILED BY PAULA MENDOZA

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

The March 1 article, “Arson arraignment set for April 4,” incorrectly stated that College spokesperson Diana Lawrence confirmed in an email that Naidu is not enrolled at the College at this time, but said she cannot comment on the ongoing investigation. In fact, Lawrence confirmed this over the phone not in an email.

Well water highly contaminated FROM MEDIATION PAGE 1

six parts per billion of the chemical — double the state standard of three parts per billion.

In response, the College has provided the couple with bottled water to use, Richard Higgins said. They have also provided filtration tanks for the well and offered to place the family in a hotel. The couple has not drunk the well water even with the filter. Richard Higgins said that they do not trust it.

Many of the test subjects buried at Rennie Farm, a currently unused farm the College purchased in the 1950s, were contaminated with chemicals used in experimentations. In 2011, the College undertook a project to remove the bodies.

In the 1960s, before incineration was adopted as standard disposal practice, test animals were buried in bags underground. In October, the Valley News reported that the College still uses lab animals. According to the article, the College now freezes the carcasses and sends them to Stericyle, a medical and pharmaceutical waste management company based in Illinois, for disposal.

The March-April 2012 edition of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine noted that over 20,000 pounds of rats and other rodents were removed

from the burial site during the extraction process in 2011. When the $1 to $2 million cleanup of the 230-acre property began, the College did not know about any potential biohazard risks. Then-director of environmental health and safety at the College Michael Blayney said at the time that the project was about lessening the

“In our eyes, it would have been nice to know then that there was a problem. I don’t really know why we weren’t notified at that point.”

-RICHARD HIGGINS

College’s impact on the environment.

He further added that the voluntary cleanup “removed a lot of liability.”

In 2012, during a testing of the former burial site, the College discovered concentrations of 1,4-dioxane in the surrounding groundwater, 50 to 60 times the state standard. The New

Hampshire Union Leader reported in February that at the time the contamination seemed to be contained, according to an email from Lawrence.

Richard Higgins said the College did not release the news to nearby residents.

The Valley News reported in September that a letter from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services said that analysis from an environmental contractor indicated the cleanup effort might itself have disturbed the contaminant and led to its spread.

Richard Higgins criticized the decision to wait, given the high concentration of the chemicals so close to his home. “[The site] was less than a five minute walk through the woods,” he said. “In our eyes, it would have been nice to know then that there was a problem. I don’t really know why we weren’t notified at that point.”

He said he was also angered that neither he and his wife nor his neighbors were told beforehand about the excavation of the burial site.

In September, the College contacted the Higgins to let them know about the possibility that their well water had been contaminated, Richard Higgins SEE MEDIATION PAGE 5

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

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Rideshare program Prize celebrates emerging researchers decreases cost of parking kinds of awards brings more visibility and attention to their research for his senior project in college. not only in the community but also “As an undergrad, for my senior to a broader network of chemists in project, I had to pick a topic, and general.

I went to the library and looked at Colleen Gill Gr’19, a gradusome interesting ate student topics,” he said. “Some of the reactions researcher in “I found a book Aprahamian’s about molecular that we teach are the lab, also highcontainers, and reactions we’re using lighted the after reading the amount of time book I got very, on a regular basis and dedication ve r y e x c i t e d in the lab, though that A prahaabout the field. mian puts into supramicrochemistry It was not my his work.

Ph.D., but I was goes beyond that.” fascinated.”

Chemistry deM a rk M o partment chair ran, a postdoc- -IVAN APRAHAMIAN, Dale Miertoral fellow in CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR ke described Aprahamian’s Aprahamian as lab, described AND CRAM LEHN a “phenomenal him as extreme- PEDERSEN PRIZE WINNER colleague,” sayly driven and ing that Apradedicated to his hamian has field. contributed to “Winning the chemistry this award for him is a culmination department significantly beyond of that,” Moran said. “He expects a his research.

In the lot from us but a lot from himself.” chemistry department, AprahramiHe added that winning these an is the chair of graduate student FROM CHEMISTRY PAGE 1

FROM RIDESHARE PAGE 1

caters to many of the employees of the larger companies in LA, McCaughey said.

O’Neill said that ridesharing can reduce many challenges of a daily commute. He said he believes the program to be a good use of funds, and added that it was comparable to investing in public transportation that operates in the area that is open to the public.

“Anytime you can get a person to leave their car behind it is cutting down on traffic, congestion, and cutting down on the time that would have been spent looking for a parking space,” he said.

The Hanover service is open to anyone who pays the $35 dollars for a reserved parking space in the Marshall Lot, including students, town residents and College staff.

Currently, the College supports carpooling through a College program run though Zimride, which was started in 2008. Zimride allows anyone with a College email ad-

dress to connect with each other to share rides. According to Zimride’s website, people participating have posted over 1.5 million miles in the ridesharing program, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 335,318 pounds. The College also allows registered twoperson carpools to park in its lots at a reduced rate, and registered threeperson carpools may park for free in a designated space. Several other colleges and universities including Princeton University use a similar program.

Sarah Eckert, a resident of Hanover, said that she believes carpooling is a good idea. She added that traffic in Hanover can be “pretty horrible,” and said it could be particularly bad near the College.

Jim McShay, also a resident of Hanover, said that he thought the program makes sense.

“If you can save money you can bet people will do it,” he said. “The only problem I can see is if you don’t like the people you are carpooling with.”

recruitment and chair of a graduate student advisory committee that invites high school students to visit science laboratories at Dartmouth, Mierke said. The initiative is part of a program funded by the National Science Foundation.

Beyond research, Aprahamian teaches Chemistry 51, “Organic Chemistry” in addition to special topics courses in supramicrochemistry. He said that many of the concepts taught in the class relate to his research work.

“Some of the reactions that we teach are the reactions we’re using on a regular basis in the lab, though supramicrochemistry goes beyond that,” Aprahamian said.

Other projects that Aprahamian is working on include developing molecules that can emit light in a solid state, as well as non-equilibrium processes.

“This award is an outstanding recognition of the scientific research we’re carrying out here both at the undergraduate student and graduate student level,” Mierke said.

Erin Lee and Joyce Lee contributed reporting to this story.

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COURTESY OF IVAN APRAHAMIAN

Chemistry professor Ivan Aprahamian recently won the Cram Lehn Pedersen prize.

THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

GUEST COLUMNIST ABIGAIL HARTLEY ’16

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A Solution to the Greek Crisis

Voces Clamantium

People need to change their attitudes about the Greek situation.

This academic year has been, without a doubt, a rough ride for Greek-affiliated students at Dartmouth. SAE and AD have gone the way of the brontosaurus. KDE and Tabard are suspended, and who knows who else is next. Every remaining house seems to move with the care and anxiety of French Resistance agents, slinking around avoiding authoritarian attention, communicating clandestinely through Gmail lists and GroupMe conversations.

Under such stressful conditions, it is no wonder that the opinion section has hosted such a parade of impassioned pleas from affiliated students to protect the way of life they have held dear during their time at Dartmouth. The campus is changing, quickly, and not in their favor. It’s understandable that some people have started to feel a little antagonized by the way things are going. Understanding this sentiment, however, does not mean that I don’t die a little more inside every time I see another think piece that sounds like it was written by a particularly litigious child demanding a later bedtime.

Here is my unpopular opinion: I don’t feel bad for Greek life at Dartmouth. Institutional memory is short and the legacy of bad behavior at some of these houses is very, very long. AD and SAE were not random victims of administrative rage against fun and good times; they messed up. They messed up a whole lot, in ways that hurt real people. In exchange for the privilege of being a Greek organization that is recognized by the College, a house agrees to abide by certain rules.

Choosing to break those rules is the prerogative of the people within these organizations who make these decisions. However, if you get caught blatantly breaking the rules, there are going to be consequences. It’s as simple as that. The members of these houses don’t get to get caught ignoring the rules and then cry foul when they get in trouble for it. That’s just not how rules, or consequences, work. The social scene will adjust to their absence, and we will move on. In my case, I’m moving on

with the rest of my class directly into an entire world of things to do, where none of this will ever matter again. That’s what I think.

None of what I just said makes anyone feel better though, does it? That’s the thing — no matter how we try to explain the sudden shifts in our social scene, nothing really eases the discomfort or stops the steady build of frustration. We’re all upset, and we’re even more upset that there’s nothing we can do to stop being upset. So, in order to create a more friendly, inclusive environment here on campus, and in order to release everyone from the whiny hellscape that has taken over the opinion section, Yik Yak and every other platform, I invite all of you to fight me.

Yes, I really mean it — this could just be my giving Christian spirit talking, but I can no longer stand idly by while my friends and peers suffer. If seeing an organization be punished for blatantly disregarding policies that it agreed to follow is just too much for some people, I invite them to reach out to me to schedule an appointment for some good old fashioned fistcuffs. “See a need, fill a need,” to quote the movie “Robots.” I see a need for all of us to feel empowered on this campus, and I want to be the one to fill that need by offering myself as an adversary.

Every student should have the right to vent their frustration. Why do it through angry Yik Yak posts and misguided op-eds when you could get it out in a nice, wholesome back alley throwdown? Boxing, street fighting, Greco-Roman wrestling, I don’t care what we do, as long as it’s a recognized form of hand-to-hand combat, and we agree that the eyes and anything below the belt are off-limits. Being angry is no excuse to be unsportsmanlike. The sons and daughters of Dartmouth clearly can’t be expected to accept the consequences of their actions, about which they are warned, lightly. So, I volunteer as tribute. You may not be able to stop the shift in campus culture and the evolving Dartmouth social scene, but you could at least get a good, clean fight out of it.

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SUBMISSIONS: We welcome letters and guest columns. All submissions must include the author’s name and affiliation with Dartmouth College, and should not exceed 250 words for letters or 700 words for columns. The Dartmouth reserves the right to edit all material before publication. All material submitted becomes property of The Dartmouth. Please email submissions to editor@thedartmouth.com.

Readers write in to the editor to share their opinions.

To The Editor: Ben Szuhaj argued in his February 26 article “The Tragedy of Comedy” that “The Nightly Show” and “The Daily Show”’s fall in viewership could be attributed to an emphasis on race, class and gender and that Americans are too squeamish to broach the subject. I disagree that the fall in viewership has anything to do with the news anchors focusing on the topics of race, class and gender. And I especially disagree that Americans take offense to an outsider, like South African Trevor Noah, pointing out our idiosyncrasies.

One of the great successes of “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” was that the anchors could speak about any topic they wanted to; whether horrifying, shocking, dumbfounding or tragic. In most cases, the anchors were able to present various perspectives and highlight the major issues and inconsistencies in rhetoric that lawmakers or celebrities used to make their points. While bluntness was key, the anchors relied heavily on presenting a series of evidence and let video clips, news clippings and interviewers do the talking. Colbert and Stewart would only highlight and emphasize, sometimes rephrasing and summarizing what was said on very important issues. Occasionally, they would add a moral, ethical or pragmatic point to put the issue into context. Their successors, on the other hand, expostulate their topics. They overexplain the clips or issues before hand so that when the viewer sees a clip the punch line is given away Noah’s viewership is not down because he is from South Africa. In fact, Noah has a particular strength and authenticity because he is from South Africa. Indeed, John Oliver is not American yet he has managed to succeed where Noah and Wilmore falter. Oliver constantly uses his outsider status as a means to leverage his comparisons. And his accent is in no way an impediment, yet it is thicker than Noah’s. What Oliver has over Noah is that he has a faster speech rhythm, and he focuses on all kinds of news. Noah, on the other hand, has largely focused on developments in the United States. Americans have thick skins, and it does not matter to them where the presenter is from.

The main reason that viewership is failing is because their delivery is off. Both Wilmore and Noah use a measured and direct tone to bring their issues to the audience. This is a problem because there is very little variance throughout an episode, and everything feels slow and labored. An essential component to both Stewart’s and Colbert’s styles was a clipped speaking pattern and fast, often impassioned delivery. Their voice levels would change between low and high pitches so that the audience had to do a lot of work to follow what they were saying and to understand how the delivery fits the context of a set.

On the other hand, Noah and Wilmore are overly consistent. There is little variation in their voice levels. The issue is that a consistently measured tone leaves little room for highlights.

This is more of a problem for Noah. Sure, he is charming and his jokes have potential.

But there is little buildup and little variation because he takes so long to say anything. The

result is that the joke feels tired or obvious. The essence of a joke, and especially important for these comedy series, is the unexpected. But a special kind of unexpected, one in which plain and obvious individual parts come together to make a whole — a whole that is so obvious that it is incredible that the audience did not see the whole before when it was just composed of the individual parts. With Noah, you can see where the joke is headed. And while the joke is still funny, what is the point? Sure, both shows have established a reputation in discussing current events and issues. But at the base, both shows are comedy shows. If the jokes are obvious, then there is little excitement because the audience can already see what is coming.

-Alfonso Villegas ’12, South Royalton, VT To The Editor: I’m writing to congratulate all those involved with the production of “Chicago” at the Hopkins Center. I’ve seen the show on Broadway with Bebe Neuwirth as Velma Kelly and again in Singapore with the road company, and the Dartmouth production rivals both! From the actors to the sets, lighting, costume, they hit it out of the park. What a bright future all those talented young people have before them. I look forward to future Dartmouth theater productions.

-Jaimie Seaton, Hanover To The Editor: Climate change is justifiably a hot topic today, but the ecological crisis is far more serious than climate change alone. Numerous environmental limits have been violated, not just those relating to greenhouse gases. You — the young — face a perilous and frightening future.

The rational response to this disaster is to quickly reduce environmental impact by ending overconsumption, reducing the population and sharply increasing efficiencies. The old are in positions of power and could initiate these changes, but they have persistently failed to act. Unless they are jolted out of their immoral passivity, your lives will be much worse than theirs. Your children will suffer the most, with many dying prematurely in a degraded and chaotic world.

I am a baby boomer who has studied the environmental crisis for 25 years. I have concluded that the progressive and environmental movements are tightly bound to the prevailing order and will not spur the required economic and social transformations. The only hope is a youth ecological revolt: your militant refusal to succumb to an imposed fate.

I strongly urge you to strike, challenge teachers and administrators, disrupt school events, write scorching articles and in general disrupt society’s ecocidal flow. Do not be beguiled by the implied promise that playing by the rules will lead to a comfortable life. The current situation is unprecedented and the rules are obsolete. The promise is a lie.

History has dealt you a terrible hand, but swift action may yet salvage the biosphere and preserve your future.

-Frank Rotering, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

PAGE 5

Water tests positive for carcinogens FROM MEDIATION PAGE 2

said. Subsequent tests confirmed that the chemicals had spread.

Paul Rydel, a member of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services who is involved with hazardous waste management, said that in the case of the animals that were dumped at Rennie Farm, the 1,4-dioxane appears to have been used as part of a mixture to track radioactive decay in medical experiments. He noted he would need to check further to determine its exact use.

David Gordon, a public health risk assessor for the NHDES, said that at the level of three parts per billion, a person has a one in a 100,000 chance of developing liver cancer if they drink two liters of water a day for seventy years. Doubling the level to six parts per billion — the level found at the farm — also doubles the risk of cancer. Similarly, drinking over a smaller period of time reduces the risk proportionally, he said.

The main risk from the chemical comes from ingestion, Gordon said.

Showering in water with elevated levels would not present a significant risk to human health.

As Dartmouth is the owner of the property where the contamination occurred, it is the College’s responsibility to clean and monitor it, Rydel said.

He said that the College has been proactive in pursuing remediation of the site, investigating the monitoring wells and pursuing testing to better understand the distribution of the 1,4-dioxane.

Since the original sources of the contaminants have already been removed from Rennie Farm, the cleanup

“I’ve referred to it as if your house got hit by a bomb. You don’t know what to make of it. Each day it never leaves you.”

-RICHARD HIGGINS process now involves locating and containing water sources that have already been contaminated, Rydel said. Data points and monitoring wells can be used to track the flow of groundwater and find where the chemical plume has spread.

The actual process of cleaning would typically involve using hydraulic controls to pump out the groundwater and treat it with purifying agents, Rydel said. Because the contaminant is relatively long lasting, it is more dif-

ficult to treat than other contaminants.

The chemical has not been found in water sources for other residents in the area, Rydel said, nor has it spread to surface water further out from the site than the Higgins’ home. He estimates that the chemical spread about 1,000 feet from the original point of contamination — about the distance of the Higgins’ home from the site.

The College reached out to the Higgins’ lawyer during the week of Feb. 19 to discuss mediation, Richard Higgins said. While he would like to move forward with the process, he said that he is not willing to state a specific list of demands of what he would like from the College at this time, given the complexity of the situation. Richard Higgins said that the couple does not feel they could continue living in their house, and that the possibility of the College purchasing the property is an issue that could be raised in mediation.

The house was specially constructed to be accessible for Deb Higgins, who uses a wheelchair. The possibility of having to leave is another reason the news of the contamination has been so painful, Richard Higgins said.

Richard Higgins said that the situation has torn his life apart.

“I’ve referred to it as if your house got hit by a bomb,” he said. “You don’t know what to make of it. Each day it never leaves you.”

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Preston Singletary’s artwork takes the spotlight during a talk in the Black Family Visual Arts Center on Tuesday night.

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Audience members listen to a lecture on plasma.

PAGE 6

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

DARTMOUTH EVENTS TODAY 12:00 p.m.

“Fear Shot: Inoculating Students against Public Speaking Anxieties, DCAL, Baker-Berry Library, Room 102

4:30 p.m.

DEN Speaker Series with Gail Goodman, Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network Innovation Center, 4 Currier Place, Suite 107

4:30 p.m.

“Jack Kemp, 2016 and the Future of American Politics,” presented by journalist and trustee Mort Kondracke ‘60, Haldeman 41

TOMORROW

5:00 p.m.

“After the Arab Spring: Failed States and Incompatible Islams,” Oxford University Professor Eugene Rogan, Rockefeller Center, Room 003

7:00 p.m.

“Music Department Residency: Rhythm and Dance of India,” Moore Theater, Hopkins Center

9:00 p.m.

“Cool Sweats,” a storytelling experience assembled and performed

by Sam Van Wetter ’16, Bentley Theater, Hopkins Center

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THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

PAGE 7

Student Spotlight: Artist and actor Emma Mouzon

By MARGOT BYRNE The Dartmouth Staff

Emma Mouzon ’18 has always been artistically curious, but has taken her inventiveness to the next level in her most recent sculptures.

According to Mouzon, she began taking studio art courses at the age of eight, in her hometown of Los Angeles. Each week the class would embark on various drawing and painting projects, activities Mouzon found incredibly exciting and fulfilling.

After joining the varsity tennis team during her sophomore year of high school, however, Mouzon lost touch with her artistic pursuits.

Mouzon “missed just being able to go into the studio and paint,” she said.

Once arriving at Dartmouth, Mouzon immediately knew she wanted to enroll in a studio art class. During her first winter term, she signed up for “Sculpture I,” which not only forced her to leave her room and venture into the frigid temperatures, but also “encouraged [her] to embrace [her] more creative side again,” Mouzon said.

Mouzon bought a rubber duck in order to generate a unique mold for her first project of the course. For her second project, she was tasked with creating a gesture out of wood.

She decided to portray the ripple effect of raindrops falling into a puddle — a particularly difficult gesture to represent, according to her professor.

“Every time we received guidelines for our projects, [Mouzon] would always start tinkering away at new ideas and whenever she encountered a problem, she’d find a way to make it work,” Valeria Ramirez ’18, one of Mouzon’s classmates, said.

While making her “gesture,” Mouzon said that her professor instructed her not to replicate nature and abide by its laws, but rather to “go crazy with it,” to create work that is “representative” rather than “imitative.” Mouzon found this moment critical, as it inspired her to integrate a whimsicality into her aesthetic that she was afraid to channel before.

Mouzon expressed this newfound freedom in her culminating project, which required her to elect two mediums and assemble them however she wanted. To create the piece, entitled “Environment,” Mouzon “went wild,” attaching bamboo sticks to colorful pieces of tissue paper to create a cascading structure that was later featured in the popular Facebook page “Artists of Dartmouth.”

Mouzon intricately overlaid pink, blue and green tissue paper, molding these pieces into cherry blossoms that repeated throughout the sculpture. Mouzon did research on Japan in order to represent these blossoms accurately, tying them to the bamboo sticks in the traditional Japanese fashion. “[Mouzon] definitely worked the

COURTESY OF EMMA MOUZON

Emma Mouzon ‘18 rediscovered her passion for art during her freshman year at Dartmouth, after taking “Sculpture 1.”

longest hours out of everyone in the class, dedicating substantial time to outside work – probably around 40 to 50 hours per piece,” Kelsey Phares ’17, another of Mouzon’s classmates, said. “Yet she was still the most upbeat person at 2 a.m., always there to support others and

COURTESY OF EMMA MOUZON

Emma Mouzon ’18 stands with her “Sculpture 1” culminating project, called “Environment.”

give them advice on their work.”

Mouzon noted that she wanted her piece to be playful, in order to “oscillate between the realm of fantasy and reality.”

Ramirez feels that Mouzon accomplished that goal. “[Mouzon’s] sculptures embodied her essence. They were playful, loud and very magical,” Ramirez said. “They were especially dreamy, [making] me feel as if I were in a different place while looking at them.”

Mouzon also wanted the piece to be inviting and physically accessible, to allow viewers to form a more “personal” connection with the otherwise “impersonal” medium of sculpture. Phares said that Mouzon’s piece’s interactive quality heightened the experiences of viewers. “[She] probably did the best combination of different mediums and made them work together,” Phares said. “Her pieces were interactive — she understood the importance of people enjoying the art.”

For Mouzon, the compliments she received on “Environment,” combined with its social media appearances, were an “incredible honor.”

“I realized that I have this creative spirit in me that was denied in high school,” Mouzon said. “I want to create things that creates joy in others.”

In light of her artistic success with sculpture, Mouzon wants to

continue experimenting with art and performance, which led her to sign up for “Acting I” last spring term. She said that the freedom she had learned to embrace in sculpture carried over to acting, as it helped her to adapt the personas of the various characters she played. “[Mouzon] is certainly a person of great enthusiasm and positive energy, who committed herself wholeheartedly to the acting process,” theater professor James Rice said. “[Mouzon] was able to live truthfully under the imaginary circumstances.”

Mouzon said that both acting and sculpture are “invigorating,” as they allow her to become more thoughtful and purposeful with her work and find self-fulfilment. She particularly enjoys the intersection of fantasy and reality that both mediums permit her to explore, and is now considering a theater minor.

Currently on her off-term in California, Mouzon said that she is also eager to pursue her budding interest in photography, as she continues to expand her artistic repertoire. She wants to undertake a personal project when she returns to Dartmouth, photographing the seasons on campus and later painting replications.

“I love the seasons at Dartmouth and I want to embrace the beauty that campus has to offer,” Mouzon said. “I want to combine my love of painting with photography to create an original project of my own.”

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS

PAGE 8

SPORTS

WEDNESDAY LINEUP

No athletic events scheduled

Men’s tennis concludes winter term with a pair of home wins

By MARK CUI

The Dartmouth Staff

On Feb. 27, the No. 38 men’s tennis team defeated two more teams to bring its ongoing win streak to five games. Hosting both teams at the Boss Tennis Center, the Big Green first defeated St. John’s University in a close rematch 4-3 and followed up the win by demolishing Sacred Heart University 7-0.

Dartmouth first saw St. John’s two weeks ago in the ECAC Championships, beating the Red Storm 4-1. On Feb. 26, St. John’s had beaten then No. 32 Harvard University, making the team a much bigger threat coming into the game on Saturday. Although doubles has been the Big Green’s strength this season, the team failed to capture the doubles point against St. John’s.

“I think [we came out] a bit flat in the doubles, and that meant that we had a lot of work to do going into singles play,” Paul Midgley ’18 said. “[St. John’s] is a good team that fought hard, so we did well to come back into the match the way we did and end up with the win.”

The Dartmouth duos of George Wall ’17 and Brendan Tannenbaum ’16, and Max Fliegner ’18 and Max Schmidt ’17 both fell in close matches to their St. John’s opponents 4-6. The third match, in which Dovydas Sakinis ’16 and Roko Glasnovic ’19 led 6-5, was canceled after St. John’s had already secured the doubles point.

Without the security of the doubles point, the team relied on strong singles play to secure the match. The singles went 4-2 to win enough points to claim the match. At the No. 3 and No. 6 singles spots, both Fliegner and Eddie Grabill ’19 defeated their opponents with matching straight set scores of 6-4, 6-4. Wall and No. 70 Sakinis also came out on top, defeating their opponents with respective scores of 6-1, 7-6 (5) and 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

The two single losses against St. John’s were both extremely hard fought three set matches. Ciro Riccardi ’18 and Glasnovic both won the first set, but ended up falling with respective scores of 6-2, 4-6, 0-6, and 6-2, 4-6, 5-7.

“The guys did a really good job of responding to losing the doubles point and came out firing, winning six out of six first sets,” Midgley said.

“It came down to a few points in the end, with [Sakinis] coming out with some big shots at the right time to

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Diego Pedraza ’17, left, has been out with an injury recently. The tennis team has been able to finish the term strong, ending on a five-game win streak.

clinch the match. Coach Drake has worked a lot with us on the mental side of the game, and I think that showed against St John’s at the crucial moments. Roko did well to stay with his opponent right to the end, which took the pressure off [Sakinis] until the very last game.”

Rather than focusing too closely on the Feb 14. match, during which the Big Green blew away the Red Storm, the team relied on playing the same game and trusting its instincts.

“We didn’t really do anything differently this time,” Aman Agarwal ’18 said. “We just trusted our game. We kind of knew that if we just played the right way, we could win the match.

I think we were taken aback by the doubles loss, since we had won them recently. We actually won the doubles point earlier against them, which turned out to be pretty important.

It was just more about keeping our [mental composure], not getting too nervous.”

Later on the same day, the team proceeded to dominate Sacred Heart 7-0, sweeping both singles and doubles. Against Sacred Heart, the team’s priority was to keep its focus, especially since it was on the same day as the match against St. John’s.

“Against Sacred Heart, I think that we were just a better team,” Agarwal said.

In the matchup with Sacred Heart, Dartmouth tinkered with the lineup, switching up doubles pairs and bringing in different singles players. Despite the changes, all three double pairs won, with Wall and Tannenbaum

winning 6-4, Schmidt and Fliegner clinching a close 7-6 (3) and Joseph Haig ’19 and Glasnovic defeating their opponents 6-2.

Singles also cruised to victory, with all six coming in straight sets, during which no Sacred Heart player even approached a set victory. Sakinis, Riccardi, Tannenbaum, Schmidt, Agarwal and Midgley all won their matches, with respective scores of 6-0, 6-1; 6-1, 6-1; 6-2, 6-3; 6-2, 6-0; 6-1, 6-3 and 6-1, 6-0.

Although Agarwal and Midgley have not had much playing time, they both defeated their opponents with ease. Midgley was focused on getting off to a fast start and solidifying that lead.

“I was nervous at the beginning of my match but managed to win some tight games early on which gave me the confidence to go on and play some good tennis,” Midgley said. “It helped seeing six first sets on the scoreboard for Dartmouth, so I was able to relax a bit more and focus on closing out the match in straight sets.”

Agarwal also has not had much playing time but recognized the importance of his role on the team.

“You learn to play a role on the team, especially when you play matches against teams like Sacred Heart earlier in the year,” Agarwal said. “You just try to show that you’re ready to go when you can. Off the court, you just try to support the team and make sure the team is ready to go.”

The two wins have now brought Dartmouth’s overall record to 10-4,

and have increased its win streak to five games. This win streak is particularly impressive given that Diego Pedraza ’17, a starter earlier in the season, has been injured. Although the win streak is encouraging, Pedraza noted that the focus is still on each individual game.

“Streaks come and go,” Pedraza said. “The important thing is to have more good ones than bad ones. With our schedule, we understand that every time we go out there we can be beaten because we are playing really good teams. That said, we believe that we can beat anyone on our schedule.

So, it is just a matter of taking it one match at a time. We are coming up on our spring break trip in which we’ll play four top 50 teams, out of which two are top 25 and one is top 10. We are really excited and we are working towards that and the Ivy League season after that. Exciting things are ahead for this team.”

Overall, Pedraza also noted that the season so far, despite some bumps, has been largely successful.

“We have had some tough losses and some that we should not have happened, mainly Old Dominion [University] and [the University of Pennsylvania],” he said. “Still, I think the team is headed in the right direction. We have done a good job in moving forward without me in the lineup in both singles and doubles due to injury. It is always hard when a starter goes down, but this speaks to the depth and character of this team.”

Pedraza described the team’s

“ambitious goals,” which include winning the Ivy League and making the NCAA tournament.

“We still have a lot to work on and improve but we are happy with what I have done so far,” he added.

The team will next take a two-week break from games before going on a road trip that will encompass seven matches. Although the team looks forward to the break, Agarwal stressed that they must remain focused. The team has to balance schoolwork and training over the upcoming finals period.

“I think we will try to play as much tennis as we can, and stay focused on the physical aspect because spring break is coming and we don’t usually play much outdoors, so it’s going to be a different kind challenge,” Agarwal said. “It’s important that we do the best we can to stay in shape.”

Pedraza also reinforced the need to stay in shape, adding that the team has a great opportunity ahead of them.

“We are going to have a lot of physical practices to make sure we are as prepared as possible for outdoor tennis and the different temperatures,” Pedraza said. “Our goals remain the same and our intent and purpose do not waiver. We know what a great opportunity we have ahead and we want to make sure we do everything in our power to control the things we can control as best as we can. That is what is going to give us the best chance at winning against these teams. Then, it is just a matter of going out there and executing.”