By the time you see the words “Unveiling Bureaucracy” splashed across this magazine’s cover, you’ve probably already fallen half-asleep.
This was intentional. After last week’s trenchant, hard-hitting food issue, The Mirror needed to lie low. No use stirring up too much trouble in the beginning of the term. Publish one too many searing exposés of campus dining culture, and you never know what you might dredge up.
There’s enough turmoil on this campus already. The last thing the College needs is for journalistic ventures to uncover some of campus’ darkest secrets, like the horror of the Convenience45 meal plan (how have we not witnessed mass protests over the news that this plan offers “no value,” per DDS) or the scrumptious momo dishes at Base Camp Cafe.
What with the inevitable kerfuffle occasioned by this column — I know campus talking heads are still poring over last week’s, attempting to determine where a bright, young talent fell victim to his frenetic desire for fame and fortune — The Mirror simply can’t afford any more controversy.
Enter my vision for “Unveiling Bureaucracy.” Pitches about paper-pushers and abstruse regulations abound. If you’re snoozing, that means The Mirror survives. Consider the magazine a down-payment on the food issues of years to come.
Here’s the trouble: My writers have once again foiled my plot. Administration, they reasoned, touches campus life in complex — and actually deeply interesting — ways. It’s not difficult to tell human stories that consider how bureaucratic strictures impinge on students’ daily ebb. From the College’s charter to the untold stories of Dartmouth librarians, these articles are weighty.
Thus I shiver at the certainty that this issue merits your attention.
