I have what might be some rather depressing news for Mr. Wenda Gu, if indeed he is the D reader I always suspected him to be: I have neither spoken to, nor heard of, or from a single person who enjoys your multi-million-dollar imposition into the middle of our library. In fact, the highest praise of the work that I did come across was that it is merely "a little creepy." And this when I was pretending to adore the sculpture, in a quest for a little positive response. But the reasons behind this reality might not be quite so obvious or shallow as Dartmouth's publishing community professes, albeit in a laudably comedic manner. No, I (rarely) like to (do anything/) stir up a little excitement, a little interest (maybe even a little controversy?) on this apathy soaked campus. So, instead of attributing Wenda's distinct lack of support at this institution to such mundane factors as the general grossness of braided human hair or the fact that the artist uses the sweat of Chinese factory workers to make whole his visions of genius, I am taking it to the source: "The Dartmouth Administration ... " Oooooh.
In all honesty, I am not a complete hater. I enjoy the general goings-on of the school; the this; the that; even the other, every now and then. I could never accuse the administration of running the school poorly for the very simple reason that I enjoy Dartmouth, but I do accuse them of distinctly poor communication skills. The Gu original down there in Baker exemplifies this issue. I took two terms off last year, and wasn't really around for the drama but from what I hear, there was quite a bit. Something about intolerance and a Day Against Hate that ended in more hate? This was the general impression I garnered from 5,000 miles away. Regardless, it was clear that the administration was under a great deal of pressure to end all of the negative publicity, and, if there was time, to actually foster some compassion and communication among students ("I don't know," mumbles a hassled president Wright, "I don't know if we'll have time."). Outcome? An incredibly expensive and imposing monument to...Well, monument to what? To the Dartmouth Administration's dedication to spending millions of dollars in poorly construed and misguided attempts at unifying the student body? Or was it to the Dartmouth Administration's dedication to spending millions of dollars in poorly construed and shallow attempts at good publicity? I don't know, it's a very subtle piece, very difficult to assign a single interpretation.
Still, I seriously, really don't mean to hammer Mr. Gu. He is little more than a victim by association in all of this. Truth be told, I am ok with the piece. It's hair, but not just any hair; human hair, and colored...no, multicolored. The world is a colorful place. And interspersed among all of this color are little brass plaques, each emblazoned with a different United Nations country; but not just, like, regular emblazoned. Backwards. Its simplicity is so beautiful it's almost stupid. But this really, seriously is not the point. The point is that the administration goes about its business not terribly, not brilliantly, but sort of mediocre-ly, and with a complete lack of any student input (then, when things are going particularly badly, President Wright takes it upon himself to compose a long, painfully biased and tediously boring report on the magnificent state of the college). The deans seem to be a sort of benevolent but completely powerless veil behind which 'Big Brother' resides. In response to my characteristically angsty queries about why, exactly, seniors are not allowed to park in the senior-apartments parking lot, a very sympathetic and very unhelpful dean consoled me with, "well, if it was up to me...". Well, who is it up to? Who is this mystical and rather foreboding presence that manages and creates the school's policy from a position of absolute and unquestioned power? Don't they think that the actual students, drunk and ignorant as we are, might have something of interest to add to the procedure?
Apparently they do not; and while I am not in a position to concretely criticize any one of the administration's practices, I will say this: their failure to make more of an attempt to include the entire student body in the decision making process, or at least in one or two that apply directly to us, comes off as insecurity. That 'Presidential lunch' nonsense is not going to cut it. No, I don't have any specific solutions at the moment, but it's their job to facilitate that discussion as well. All I ask is that they add 'communicate honestly and openly with students' to their undoubtedly long to-do list. And, I beg them to some day actually look at that list ... please?
