Week in ReviewWe're #108 In its Oct. 7 issue, Sports Illustrated ranked our beloved College on the Hill the 108th best college for sports, behind Harvard (41), Princeton (56), Penn (72), Cornell (74), Brown (92), and Yale (95). Dartmouth beat Columbia (166), as well as the three military academies. Locally, Dartmouth is sandwiched between UNH (79) and UVM (171). The College is, of course, an intellectual institution committed to academic excellence. That said, if the College is going to participate in Division I athletics (Division I-AA in the case of football), the least it can do is make a decent effort to succeed. While our winter sports teams, namely the skiing and hockey teams, are quite good, and in general our women athletes are top-notch, the College's overall commitment to athletics has visibly declined. As recently as the fall of 1997, the football team was poised to continue as perennial contenders for the Ivy League title. In the years since, Dartmouth has resided in the cellar of the Ivy League. Much of the blame for this sad state of affairs can be directed toward the policies of President Emeritus James Freedman and successor James Wright. Not content with a student body that could acknowledge some sort of life beyond the walls of Baker Library, Freedman actively sought cello players and chess champions—his 'creative loners,' as he termed them in his inaugural address in the summer of 1987. Wright's attacks on the Greek system may be construed as a larger effort to emasculate the student body. The school's continued mediocrity in sports further fosters an environment in which one is afraid to maintain any sense of loyalty or school spirit, and a place where tradition is something that must be restored through the efforts of such an unlikely group as Palaeopitus, a society of seniors charged to facilitate interaction between campus organizations and preserve the College's customs and traditions.
Seventeen magazine identified and ranked the 100 'coolest schools where girls can get the best college experience' in its October issue. Rice University was awarded first place and Dartmouth, forty-second. 'From frat parties to professors' involvement, from campus safety to great shopping, we've picked the best of the best,' the magazine said. Coming in at number seventy-six was Wabash College in Indiana, an all-male college. We don't wonder how Seventeen's girls had such a good time at Wabash.
On Oct. 14, the Brace Commons underneath the East Wheelock cluster played host to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs committee and head of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. Hosted by the College Democrats, Sen. Lieberman was in New Hampshire to campaign for local gubernatorial candidate Mark Fernald. Sen. Lieberman stuck to his New Democrat credentials at the event; his remarks included a few idle criticisms of President Bush's economic policy and near-continuous plugs for the New Hampshire Democratic ticket. When answering questions, Lieberman voiced strong support for regime change in Iraq, stating that removing Saddam from power 'would be a victory for the war on terrorism,' and encouraging 'the UN to act and enforce its resolutions' on Iraq. Lieberman also referenced his ideas for 'a Marshall Plan to the Muslim world' that would 'expand the orbits of freedom, democracy, and human rights.' These comments were met with silence from the crowd of approximately 250 students. Mark Fernald, the Democratic candidate for Governor of New Hampshire, launched constant assaults on the New Hampshire tax system; strongly advocating a state income tax in the spirit of 'fairness.' Along that vein, when asked a question by a student in the audience about the role of faith in politics, Fernald went as far as to suggest that Biblical scripture and the organization of the Church advocate an income tax in the form of tithes. He further noted that 'the founders of this state were members of the church' and would approve of an income tax because they 'believed this bold democratic experiment should take that lesson from the church and apply it to secular life.'
The Dartmouth campus was covered in fliers last week by a former Daily Dartmouth reporter who protested the changes that the editorial board made to an article of hers and accused the Daily D of 'human crimes' and of 'MISQUOTING and MISREPRESENTING' (emphasis in original) the people interviewed. The reporter, Vassilia Binensztok, claims to have been fired for being too upset over the changes. The Daily D's reputation has sunk to the level that such claims were immediately assumed to be true. The reality? The Daily D's editors had edited the article. A College employee, Amin Plaisted of Administrative Computing and a former advisor to the Muslim student group Al-Nur, had been attributed an incorrect title. Certainly a misrepresentation, but hardly a misquote and hardly worth the signage. No word yet on what, exactly, the 'human crimes' were, but we're sure the International Criminal Court would love to hear the case.
According to the New York Times, on Oct. 3 Lee C. Bollinger 'used his inauguration as president of Columbia University yesterday to reassert the value of affirmative action in college admissions, to speak of Columbia's need to expand physically and to press for Columbia's greater engagement with the local community and the world.' Keep in mind that when Bollinger was the president of the University of Michigan, two lawsuits challenged the school's affirmative action policies. Lawsuits may follow Bollinger to the Ivy League.
Eugene M. Tobin, the president of Hamilton College tendered a resignation earlier this year—effective in July—over a controversy surrounding potential plagiarism in his convocation speech. A Hamilton professor noticed the similarity between Tobin's remarks on a book and another review of the book and quickly pointed out the similarities. Tobin joined Hamilton in 1980 and became president in 1993, in which capacity he presided over the ban on fraternity/sorority houses. A review of Hamilton's social scene, 'Slow Nights at Frat-less Hamilton College,' was a highlight of the February 4, 2002 issue of the Review.
Daniela Rus, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth, has been named one of twenty-four MacArthur Fellows for 2002. Each year, the MacArthur Foundation selects between twenty and thirty individuals as fellows, judging nominees on the basis of creativity and promise for future advancements. As a fellow, Rus will receive $500,000 over the next five years. Rus is founder and director of the Dartmouth Robotics Laboratory, and is best known for her work on self-reconfiguring robots, which adapt to different environments by altering their internal structures. Such machines might be used in fields from construction to internal medicine. Rus does not yet know how she will use the award, but says that it will allow her to 'pursue something in robotics that is exciting, risky and far out.'
Hearkening back to the 1960s, the Left's 'good old days' of campus protest, several professors at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have begun 'teach-ins' against the potential war with Iraq. As the Carolina Journal noted on October 9, the local chapter of the Progressive Faculty Network and other like-minded activist groups organized sessions to 'teach' students about 'the ethics and politics of an invasion of Iraq.' The September 23 seminar drew about 250 students to hear the various polemics against the U.S. government and the Bush administration. The five professors involved in the 'teach-in' come from such varied backgrounds as 'The International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic,' the 'Black Radical Congress,' the 'International Socialist Review,' and the 'Iraq Action Committee,' and they all shared an ideology of hating America and everything for which it stands. President Wright would be proud of the way they were all able to find such common ground, such as, for example, that the U.S. entered Afghanistan because 'the CIA needs the heroin...to fund its global operation'? Moderator and UNC history professor Richard Kohn later told the Daily Tar Heel that the 'panelists had varying perspectives' on Iraq.
The California Review reported on September 27 that the domain of the University of California-San Diego Che Café Collective included links to five organizations designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the FBI. News.com had reported previously the inclusion of a link to Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC); UCSD officials demanded the removal of the link on the grounds that it violated the USA Patriot Act. The school also threatened to discipline students involved with the Café, a confederation of a vegan collective, an organic-food café, and group of students advocating 'radical social change.' But on October 8, after reading a letter from the American Association of University Professors and nine other groups supporting the students, UCSD Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Joseph Watson said, 'We agree with the signers of this letter that links are a First Amendment right.'
The text below is from an e-mail message that was sent out by a Dartmouth professor, Ifi Amadiume of the Religion Department, to a recipient list of professors and two classes worth of students on October 11. She added her name to the list of signers of the petition and effectively challenged students enrolled in her courses, who submit coursework for grading, to do the same.
Considering the actions of our elected representatives in the House and Senate, this e-mail is just as irrelevant as it is inappropriate. And, embarrassingly, it is just as fraudulent. From the United Nations Information Center's website: Note: We have learned that there is a new petition circulating that claims to have been started by our office—we have not, nor have we ever, initiated any petition.
Last spring, Arizona State University political science major Yaser Alamoodi departed from campus after spring semester classes ended to return home to Saudi Arabia. This fall, as he attempted to return to the US to resume his academic career, he found that he was unable to obtain a student visa. As the ASU student newspaper, the State Press, reported on Sept. 27, the local chapter of Amnesty International and the campus 'Progressive Alliance' have taken up his cause, claiming that he is 'only a student' whose return 'would not threaten the United States.' Alamoodi was a member of the campus Amnesty International chapter and Young Socialists club, but that does not seem to be the reason why his visa application was denied. In fact, nobody seems very sure about why his application was denied. Alamoodi himself claims that it is because he fits a terrorist profile: he is a male between the ages of 18 and 25, from a relatively wealthy background, and from Saudi Arabia on a student visa. Nevermind that two of the September 11 hijackers fit that same exact description. The State Department has issued a precautionary freeze on Saudi student visas for men fitting that profile until more detailed background checks and interviews can be performed. Given the despicable record of the State Department's visa distribution in Saudi Arabia, as well chronicled by Joel Mowbray in the pages of The National Review, a temporary freeze on student visas seems quite logical. But Amnesty International its letter-writing campaign, which has managed to send 'forty-two letters of protest' to the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, begging for Alamoodi's return. Hopefully, until the State Department can fix the egregious errors in their visa program, Mr. Alamoodi and all those in similar situations will remain in Saudi Arabia.
The Washington State University student newspaper, the Daily Evergreen, has learned a harsh lesson on trusting content from the Internet. A front-page article in the October 3 issue was dedicated to celebrating Filipino-American history month and included historical information on Filipino-Americans. Unfortunately, their reporter copied those paragraphs verbatim from a website and, even more embarassingly, from a piece of satire. The article included the fascinating piece of information that many Filipinos arrived in the U.S. on a Spanish galleon called the Nuestra Senora de Buena Esperanza, which the reporter translated as 'The Big Ass Spanish Boat.' Apparently the article in question was proofread by no fewer than three members of the Daily Evergreen staff, at least one of whom questioned the translation. Nothing was changed, however, because the website they copied from 'looked official.'
The Review mourns the passing of historian Stephen E. Ambrose, who died on Sunday following a battle with lung cancer. An author of over 30 books, Dr. Ambrose was President Eisenhower's biographer and has written about World War II, Nixon, the trans-continental railroad, Meriwether Lewis, and numerous other topics. He is survived by his wife Moira and his children Andy, Barry, Hugh, Grace and Stephenie. Unlike Doris Kearns Goodwin, another historian accused of plagiarism, Ambrose was quite forthcoming in response to charges by some gumshoe reporters, even including a thoughtful statement at his homepage, www.stephenambrose.com.
At a recent concert in Los Angeles, the pop-punk band blink-182 tried to play off of the liberal, anti-Bush sentiments of its audience, only to discover that the audience had no such sentiments. Both Rolling Stone and the Weekly Standard reported on a concert where, after playing their first song of the night, blink-182, trying to drive excitement into the crowd, shouted such things as 'Fuck George Bush' and 'We have no business being in Iraq.' The response? Silence, shortly followed by a round of boos. When the band clarified that they were in fact opposed to the current president's policies ('No, no, you don't understand. I said fuck George Bush. Fuck him'), the booing intensified. At a loss for words, they quickly launched into their next song. |
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