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(04/07/15 10:45pm)
With graduation just around the corner, I have been thinking about the practice of gift-giving and the obligations attached to receiving gifts. Admittedly, this line of thought comes from the hope that I may be the recipient of such gifts, which might seem like a thinly-veiled hint to any family members or friends who are reading this. Typically, presenting someone with a gift is seen as a selfless, generous act. It is not, however, always the case that the giving of a gift is meant as a gesture of kindness or friendship to the recipient. It is my position that only freely giving — offering without any expectation in return from the receiver — is actual gift-giving, complete with all the positive connotations that come with the practice. Attaching implicit expectations to a present — as opposed to explicit expectations, which by definition mark the act as a contract rather than an altruistic offering — indicates that it is not being given out of sheer generosity. When a gift-giver accords more importance to the benefits or advantages that they gain — including expressions of gratitude or a gift of their own in reciprocation — than they do to the recipient and the recipient’s feelings, the gift is distorted into a covert contractual agreement driven by self-interest.
(02/23/15 12:52am)
You can tell when it’s about to happen — you’re talking with a relative stranger and then there’s a lull in the conversation, an anxious eagerness in their eyes — “So what do you do on campus?” I’m sure this usually receives an agreeable response, with the addressed student shooting off club after club until finally the two can form a connection, even if peripheral. This is not, however, the case with me. My clubs and activities are limited, but I spent quite a bit of my time working on campus. Far from seeing this as a social or professional deficit, I have gained valuable experience from my work, and I think jobs can solicit as much growth as a more typical student activity, if not more. Not only do student workers — and all workers — deserve the same amount of respect regardless of whether they are on the job or not, but students must also recognize and appreciate that student jobs are as legitimate and meaningful of an on-campus activity as more conventional involvements like extracurriculars or athletics.
(02/09/15 12:02am)
As far as I have witnessed, most expressions of dissatisfaction with the status quo on campus coming from marginalized groups have been met with one swift rebuttal — “If you don’t like it here, leave.” This is a popular response, especially when the Greek system and the College’s culture are being questioned. Not only is this largely unfeasible, it is offensive to the notion of progress and equality.
(01/28/15 1:18am)
After perusing — or, more accurately, skimming — approximately 33 syllabi during my tenure at Dartmouth, I have always gotten stuck on a few recurring components: an emphasis on in-class participation and the assertion that medical exemptions be voiced early in the term, with some professors even mandating doctor’s notes excusing an inability to perform classroom duties. I believe that the former has sexist, ableist and classist implications, while the latter has classist and ableist implications. Though these are clearly not the intended results of the policies, professors should consider the disproportionate burdens these requirements might impose on their diverse student body when structuring a course.
(01/12/15 1:31am)
It is safe to say that virtually all of us condemn deadly violence as a reaction against speech, ideas and opinions. Few would argue that speech — regardless of its content — is a sufficient provocation for murder, and we can all agree that the Charlie Hebdo shooting is a great tragedy.
(11/11/14 10:11pm)
As many of you are already aware, on Sunday night I asked Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, if he would have anal sex for $102 million. This is why I did it.
(11/03/14 12:16am)
Internships — and the pressure to land as many prestigious ones as possible — are constantly on college students’ minds. However, in our quest to find them, many of us settle for underpaid or unpaid positions. I wonder how many of us ask ourselves if this is a morality we want to implicitly endorse and a phenomenon in which we are content to take part. Last summer, I took an underpaid internship in an effort to grow intellectually and add the precious line to my resume. Though I feel that I achieved both of those things, my experience taught me that “invaluable” internships impose a heavy price. In order to make myself seem attractive to future employers, I contributed to a corrupt practice that upholds classist systems, disadvantages many young people and affirms corporate voraciousness.
(10/19/14 9:03pm)
Each term, usually around the time professors get nicknames straight and summarize the syllabus, we are reminded of Dartmouth’s Academic Honor Principle. For our purposes, it is the dogmatic, underlying recognition of every student: do not cheat. “Cheating” here encompasses perhaps a larger realm than in high school, but the notion is the same. However, accepted within that code is the understanding that it is reciprocal — a departure from our more elementary understanding of academic honor, which consists solely in our duty to educational institutions. This reciprocity does much to lay the foundation for a mutually respectful professor-student relationship, a bond in some ways unique to Dartmouth. If we build further on these principles, however, the honor principle could facilitate an atmosphere in which honor is not only obeyed but respected. The understanding should be made explicit: professors must treat students like adults.
(10/05/14 8:28pm)
Though I appreciate the star power Emma Watson lends to the feminist movement, the HeForShe speech delivered to the United Nations on Sept. 20 disappointed me and made me uncomfortable.
(09/21/14 8:39pm)
Dartmouth students, unlike other people in my life, seem to have a particular impatience with too much talk, while the institution itself organizes a discussion committee at the first sign of trouble. I hear “don’t just talk about it — do something” so often on this campus that the phrase has begun to sound like some athletic brand’s motto. Though I agree that conceptualizing issues out of reality is dangerous, talking through complex problems is an important and necessary step toward progress.
(03/30/14 10:28pm)
Every time I go back home to the heart of Tennessee, I am reminded not only of my pet allergy, but also of the alarming prevalence of casually offensive and offensively casual disrespectful remarks. From offhanded xenophobia to falling back on negative (and, of course, inaccurate) racial and gendered stereotypes, my hometown displays the gamut of ignorant “-isms” and “-phobias.” However, this is not to say residents of Murfreesboro, Tenn., are bad, hateful people; rather, I view much of it as an unfamiliarity with social consciences.
(02/27/14 2:18am)
One day, while working in my dad’s office during the summer of 2008, he asked me to look up a clip from “Deliverance” (1972). Instead of finding the clip, I discovered the full-length movie, legal and free, nestled in the arms of the warmest place on the Internet: Hulu. My dad and I looked at each other, knowing that we had just discovered every movie buff’s dream.
(02/12/14 11:14pm)
I first heard the name “Andrew Lohse” from chatter among my friends in FoCo — “Have you read that article? Disgusting.” — and pulled the story up on my phone. I paused among the hordes as I got into the more disturbing bits of the hazing scandal, shocked that I was standing in a place where such things may have happened. I remember walking across campus with an uncertain sense of uneasiness. I would look at people, mostly affiliated men, and wonder if they hazed or had been hazed. The thought that my classmates and friends might have participated in something like that left me numb.
(01/29/14 11:33pm)
Last April, former editor-in-chief Jenny Che wrote a letter from the editor (“Creating a Constructive Dialogue,” April 29) addressing concerns over The D’s then-current comment policy. The concerns, which regarded the offensive and hurtful nature of some comments on opinion columns or news articles, resonated with me. As a columnist, I expect a certain degree of backlash, both on the site and in my daily life. However, that others’ pieces about sensitive, personal issues (such as sexual assault) receive hateful and incredibly callous comments from anonymous sources is not something I wish to tolerate.
(01/15/14 11:24pm)
Although the College has recently taken steps to curb sexual assault and enacted programs to ensure student safety, the most potentially effective step, lowering the drinking age of “soft” alcohol (as in, not wine and spirits or liquor), is out of its hands.
(01/07/14 3:08am)
My writing this column is a testament to the College’s progress in gender equality, since 40 years ago, key aspects of my anatomy would disqualify me from attending Dartmouth. But I think we can agree that Dartmouth, just like the rest of society, needs to make progress. Female faculty members, for instance, are still underrepresented in math and science departments, and the same trend holds true for students. Recent studies have shown that this phenomenon is not due to an inherent male superiority in these fields. Rather, it is the result of a society in which young girls are told that boys are naturally better at math.
(08/06/13 2:00am)
Affectionately called "Camp Dartmouth" by some of the student body, sophomore summer seems to hover in the balance (or wobble on the slack line) between an outdoor bonding retreat and the usual rigorous academic term. The "camp" designation is often taken a step further; many current students and alumni alike fondly refer to summer as a party term. From the moment I came to Dartmouth, all I heard about was how much fun it is and this leads me to ask, "What exactly is this term all about?" If it is not about academics, why are we still paying full tuition?
(06/21/13 2:00am)
During the summer of 2010, my hometown of Murfreesboro, Tenn., was invaded by a militant terrorist organization, under the command of Sharia Law, intent on establishing a sleeper cell in the heart of a Southern town. At least, that is what an outspoken group of opponents to the mosque thought. In reality, Murfreesboro's Muslim community, present in the area for over two decades, wished to establish a larger community center in order to accommodate their growing congregation. This simple urge to worship sparked a shameful amount of spitting hatred and xenophobia in some residents of my town, revealing undertones of intolerance I had hoped were long since gone. As Aasif Mandvi from "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" quipped, "As you know, opponents say that building a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero is simply too close. But did you know that 18,000 blocks is also too close?" Here, this brings the phrase "too close to home" to an entirely new level.
(05/15/13 2:00am)
Coming from a town where the nearby college has a dry campus, it immediately struck me as odd that Dartmouth's administration takes such an interest in student life, drinking or otherwise. Even after being here for almost two years, it still has not quite clicked for me. I do not understand why it is the College's business to legislate how and where adults drink and party.
(04/15/13 2:00am)
With film critic Roger Ebert's passing earlier this month, many of us, concerned with pop culture or not, mourned along with the rest of the country. A national icon of humorous and biting criticism, Ebert injected the industry with much-needed ego checks and a genuine appreciation for art. And there are many others like him, doling out stars and grades in place of his characteristic thumb rating system. However, with the influx of bloggers and the decline of print journalism, Ebert and his peers may be a dying breed. Many young people are now asking themselves why they should care which way thumbs point or how many gold stars a movie has gotten. Despite this trend, movie critics play a vital role in the entertainment industry, as individual bloggers can never replace the likes of Ebert and the insight that comes from a professional critic.