Week in ReviewA Race to the Bottom This year's Student Assembly race kicked off without much fanfare as candidates began plastering the campus with their photos (mostly posed in front of prominent campus landmarks such as Dartmouth Hall, Baker Tower, and the Webster Avenue street sign) and uninspired slogans. James "Jimmy" Baehr '05, a candidate for Assembly President, gained some notoriety after students discovered his personal website, which links to an awkward home video of him sauntering around L.A. Baehr is running against former Assembly Vice President Julia "Molly B. Stutzman Junior" Hildreth '05, David Wolkoff '05, and Ralph Davies '05. Many Ralphateers are said to be excited about Ralph Davies. May's election will mark the end of the road for Janos Marton '04, whose two years as Assembly President were highlighted by last year's efforts to restore funding to the swimming and diving teams, as well as crazy "trademark" headbands.
Economics professor Andrew Samwick will replace Linda Fowler as director of the Rockefeller Center on July 1st. Samwick has taught at the College since 1994 after graduating with a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Selected by a committee led by psychology professor Todd Heatherton, Samwick currently serves as the chief economist on the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisors in Washington. Professor Heatherton cited "stellar scholarship and intellectual leadership," as well as an "articulate and thoughtful vision for the Rockefeller Center" as the qualities that made Samwick a clear choice. This vision, according to Samwick, includes efforts to "get students to be very savvy readers, listeners, and watchers of the media." Professor Samwick would also like to introduce students to alternate paths to success by bringing to Rocky entrepreneurs who found success doing "something very different from the status quo," such as intellectual giant and Southwest Airlines co-founder Herbert D. Kelleher.
After allowing Scholastic Aptitude Test takers to withhold their ethnicity in recent years, the College Board now fears that this has skewed racial gap in scores. Currently, the mean for black students sits at 857, 203 points lower than the mean for whites. Over a quarter of test-takers chose not to indicate their ethnicity in 2003. An analysis of SAT data has revealed that while 59 percent of test takers are white, they make up 82 percent of those who did not respond to the question. The data also showed that non-respondents tended to score slightly higher on the test, which leads one to conclude that the actual racial gap is even greater than the official statistics show. Researchers speculate that white students are reluctant to disclose their race because they believe that they will be less likely to be admitted to college.
Scandal recently rocked the campus of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when 541 of the school's 9,000 students paid a worker in the registrar's office to change their grades. The college estimates that a total of 2,500 individual grades were changed and that the students paid the assistant registrar between $75 and $400 to change each grade. Chancellor Edward R. Jackson has promised a full investigation and vowed to revoke any unearned grades of those students found guilty who are still enrolled in the college. He also said that the college might also revoke some degrees that it bestowed upon students who would not have graduated without cheating—a resolution that will most likely damage the institution's already-low graduation rate of 28 percent. Interestingly, the Chancellor said nothing about revoking the degrees of the students who changed their grades, but who would have graduated anyway had they not.
Many students believe their professors cannot teach well, so they will be heartened to know that the educators will soon have at their disposal the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning, to be headed by associate professor of English Thomas Luxon. The center, a clearinghouse for academic resources, is "the first [support service] that's really just for faculty," according to Luxon. Among the center's first projects will be an orientation session to introduce new faculty to Dartmouth's culture. Finding new ways to integrate technology into the classroom will also be an important task for DCAL, which will be located in the east wing of Baker Library. Unfortunately, high technology cannot remedy poor teaching.
The Student Assembly has proposed revived public bicycle program, known as Rides Across Dartmouth, in which the Assembly purchases and maintains bicycles that students can use on campus. A prior Assembly effort, dubbed Big Green Bikes, met with failure in 2001 after many bicycles were stolen or fell into disrepair.
Harvard's Institute of Politics recently conducted a nationwide survey of college students, asking a series of questions covering a number of social issues. The most publicized result shows Massachusetts Senator John Kerry holding a ten point lead over President George W. Bush among college students, although his support remains rather flaccid—many students indicated that they know little more about the ketchup-scion-by-the-transitive-property than that he's not Bush. Students also overwhelmingly view the job market as weak, contrary to results of nationwide polls. Also running counter to society at large, a slim majority of students favored the legalization of gay marriage. A large majority said they would not support a candidate who did not believe in God. Most importantly, however, the poll found that many college students do not fit comfortably into the traditional conservative-liberal continuum, implying that new distinctions are necessary in today's political arena. The researchers broke the group into four different ideologies. "Traditional liberals," made up 32 percent of the sample, strongly support gay rights, affirmative action, and other liberal pet causes, and support Kerry by a 79-to-8 margin. "Traditional conservatives" support Bush and approve of his job performance by about the same margin. They overwhelmingly consider the decision to go to war in Iraq to have been correct and homosexual relationships to be morally wrong. "Religious centrists" believe that religion should play a larger part in government and everyday life, yet typically believe in subsidized health care and affirmative action, unlike the famed Religious Right. They oppose gay marriage and support Bush by a 55-35 margin. Most noteworthy, the religious centrists are also the most racially diverse group. "Secular centrists" favor less intrusive government and a diminished role for religion in government. Most oppose affirmative action and favor gay marriage; they are split between Bush and Kerry. However, they are also the least likely to vote.
Bones Gate fraternity returned this week from a 20-week probation enforced by the Organizational Adjudication Committee. Bones Gate had been scheduled to return from its social hiatus on April 5th, but the punishment was extended when it admitted to violating the stipulations of its probation. The College prohibited the fraternity from holding social events with alcohol or from serving alcohol in public areas in the private house; unannounced inspections by Safety and Security enforced the policy. In celebration of their return to the Webster Avenue social scene, Bones Gate threw a large party on 4/20.
To: President James E. Wright Dear President Wright, Recently I had the fortune of attending a performance of the Kinsey Sicks, a "dragappella" show held in Collis Commonground, sponsored and funded by the Programming Board. In case you were unable to attend, allow me to recap some of their production. Four eccentric men dolled-up in wigs, make-up, and dresses entertained the audience with barbershop quartet vocals and several spoken interludes. They sang some endearing songs about the merits of masturbation, and occasionally opted for astute political commentary, but my favorite moment of the concert revolved around a romantic tryst that you apparently had with one of the performers. In a lengthy vignette, one of the Drag-appella members (I believe his/her name was Tramp-olina) described in detail a recent date she went on with one President Wright. And in an emotionally entrancing solo on both knees, reenacted the fellatio that you reportedly received, and examined the pros and cons of swallowing. For your sake, I can only hope that Trampolina made the appropriate choice. After all, according to Trixie, she was voted "Most Likely To Suck-Seed" in high school. Allow me to switch gears for a moment and describe another event I attended; this one was slightly more compulsory. You summoned a meeting, led by Linda Kennedy, of members from each a cappella group on campus. The a cappella image, she announced, has recently been "tarnished" by our lascivious behavior and advertising methods. For example: one group produced a poster with a beer bottle on it, and put it up on campus; another group apparently said the word "penis" during a show. Linda Kennedy urged us to reconsider our approach in the performing arts and be less offensive. While she said you still adamantly maintain that this is a very "free speech campus," she advised that we be more mindful in the future. I described the first instance not for shock-value, but to demonstrate an increasing disparity in the attitude of the administration. It is apparently okay for full-grown men in drag to sing about giving the President of our beloved College a blowjob, yet it is verboten for Dartmouth students to do or say anything that might possibly, maybe have a chance of in some way offending another member of our sacred "community." The Kinsey Sicks got carte blanche because they had a unique lifestyle choice, and we must respect that. We, on the other hand, are merely students at this school and must delicately tread around all sensitive issues. (Such as a beer bottle on a poster.) I wasn't offended by the Drag-apella show on Friday—they should be able to do and say whatever they want in their performance. I write only to underscore an unsettling discrepancy in the treatment of students. I sincerely hope to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Jenn Buck, a reporter for the Daily Dartmouth, was detained on a military base in Iraq while taking photographs of military equipment. According to an e-mail message from a soldier stationed there, military police arrested a woman identifying herself as a reporter from Dartmouth College after she took photographs of planes landing at an airbase. Buck's amateurish photos and gripping stories, that could have been written while watching CNN, have lately graced the cover of the Daily D.
The College's Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility will release next week a list of Dartmouth's investments in publicly-traded companies. The committee, consisting of faculty, alumni and undergraduate and graduate students, is authorized to vote on behalf of the College in those public companies in which it invests. ACIP's director, religion professor Ronald Green, will hold an information session on May 12th to discuss responsible investing—in other words, to discuss which profitable companies the College should divest itself from.
Dartmouth's figure skating team claimed a victory in the Intercollegiate National Championships on March 27th after an undefeated season. Finishing with 84 points overall, the College's 14 women skaters ended well ahead of the second-place University of Delaware team, which garnered only 65 points despite their traditional strength. This is the first figure skating title for the Skating Indians and their first-ever season without a loss.
Eight students from Middlebury College were arrested last week after Hanover Police discovered their sport utility vehicle full of trophies and composite photographs stolten from fraternities and sororities. As many as eight houses were robbed early in the morning of April 15th. Police returned the items and charged the students with theft and, for those under 21, underage possession of alcohol. The students were involved in a scavenger hunt, according to a police spokesman. |
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