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(05/24/11 2:00am)
Every couple of years, citizens of democratic countries have the chance to vote and hold their elected lawmakers accountable. As college students, we have no equivalent institution at our disposal that would hold responsible those whose policies directly affect our lives here on campus. The failure of student protests to bring about change on issues from the river docks last summer to the meal plan this term reveals the extent to which means for asserting our rights are largely stripped from us when we enroll as students in college. Short of storming Parkhurst, there appears to be no way for students on this campus to have their opinions heard en masse in an effective manner.
(05/10/11 2:00am)
In his commencement address last week at the University of South Carolina's College of Arts and Sciences, former United States Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman called on young Americans to give back and serve their country. Huntsman, a Republican who has worked under three Republican presidents, was governor of Utah when tapped by President Barack Obama to be the ambassador to China three years ago. In his USC address he focused on his most recent experience as a Republican serving in a Democratic administration. "In the end," Huntsman importantly noted, "while we might not all be of one party, we are all part of one nation."
(04/11/11 2:00am)
Last week, both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., delivered speeches on the Senate floor during which they invoked the legacy of Henry Clay, the "Great Compromiser" of the 19th Century. By alluding to Clay's legacy, Reid and McConnell may have been using one of America's greatest heroes to score political points. But politics aside, their invocation of the "Great Compromiser" amidst the tense budget negotiations revealed what this Congress and this generation is severely in need of: a Henry Clay of the 21st Century.
(03/29/11 2:00am)
The new dining hall renovations announced this winter have drawn a wide variety of objections from the student body. With criticism ranging from costs to lack of student input, nearly all aspects of these changes have received attention. One controversial aspect of the plan that has skirted by relatively unexamined, however, has been the enhanced control of student nutrition by College administrators. These new changes to nutrition include reducing plate, cup and tray sizes in an effort to curb overeating ("Dining plan costs freshmen more," March 8). While these adjustments aim to improve nutrition, they nonetheless go too far in attempting to dictate the personal behavior of students. Alas, they reveal a larger problem that exists on campus: the administration does not trust students to make decisions for themselves as exemplified by the College's approach to combat binge drinking on campus.
(08/06/10 2:00am)
If you're like me, you probably received a few blitzes over the last few days from various campus organizations telling you to come learn how to have an orgasm. One of the more recent blitzes I received was from Sexperts. The subject line reads: "Is it possible to have an orgasm without being touched?" What I should have done was stopped reading there and simply pressed delete. What I did instead was make the mistake of opening the e-mail. "Is it possible to have an orgasm without being touched? With your clothes on? By breathing?" Who knows, I wondered. Who really cares? While I apologize for having to put you all through another reading of this e-mail, I do so to prove a point: Sexual discourse on this campus has gotten out of hand.
(07/23/10 2:00am)
During the inaugural installment of the Presidential Lecture series last Friday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged students to find "common sense, common ground solutions" to difficult problems ("Bloomberg presents his B Plan,'" July 20). A few hours later, the student body received an e-mail from the Dean of the College with an update on the administration's decision regarding swimming options this summer. Signed by Acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears, Associate Dean of the College for Campus Life April Thompson, and three members of Student Assembly, the e-mail effectively shuts off the dialogue between students and administrators about viable alternatives to the dock this summer. The decision and the manner in which it was made, however, make neither "common sense" nor reach "common ground." Alas, our first Presidential Lecturer would have been ashamed of the College's actions.
(06/29/10 2:00am)
Last Friday, Natalie Colaneri '12 wrote a column bemoaning Dartmouth's "culture of artificially exaggerated happiness" ("The Happiness Dilemma"). Colaneri's piece was but the latest in a long line of opinion articles whose topics are based solely on the author's personal grievances. In these rant-like articles, the individual complaints of the author overshadow good reasoning and argumentation. Written for an audience of one, these columns read more like a diatribe than an argument. They are precisely the types of articles that have no place on the opinion page of The Dartmouth.
(04/21/10 2:00am)
I never thought I would attend a protest. My ideas are fairly moderate and I am both unreceptive to fiery rhetoric and quite averse to extremism of any kind. Most of all, I find overly passionate political protestors to be rather off-putting. But for all of my hesitations, something this past Thursday compelled me to go to the Tea Party's Tax Day protest just a few blocks down from my apartment in Washington, D.C., where I'm spending my off term.
(03/03/10 4:00am)
March's arrival reminds us that another Black History Month has come and gone. For some, those 28 days of February were a revival, a re-excitement of sorts that celebrated the African-American community's rich history. For others, the month went by almost unnoticed. But for me, this past February raised doubt in my mind that celebrating black history for only a month is an effective means of fostering understanding. Dwelling on this, I came to question whether or not Black History Month still serves a purpose in its current form in twenty-first century America.
(02/12/10 4:00am)
Last winter, I went over to Rauner Library to see "something cool," so I could check off another item on my "things to do before I graduate" poster that I got during freshman Orientation. While there, I picked up copies of the Aegis from the 1950s and 1960s the "good ole days," if you will and flipped through them, immersing myself in a world that seemed at once so similar and yet so distant from the Dartmouth I know and love.
(02/04/10 4:00am)
I cannot help but feel like Dartmouth is getting a bit bigger these days. Perhaps it is all these enormous numbers being thrown around by the College administration $100 million in budget cuts and $1.3 billion in fundraising for the "Dartmouth Experience." No one can comprehend such enormous figures.
(01/21/10 4:00am)
In his column last Friday, Zachary Gottlieb '10 quipped about his fellow opinion staffers feigning expertise when writing about national issues ("Fouad For Thought" Jan. 15). "Many of my fellow opinion columnists," Gottlieb wrote, "have decided to tackle national issues with the peculiar self-impression that they are experts."
(01/06/10 4:00am)
On January 4th, the United States government put into place a round of security measures that it hopes will be a "significant enhancement of our security posture." What these new measures call for is the screening of 100 percent of passengers from 14 countries deemed "terrorism-prone." On that list are countries such as Nigeria and Yemen where Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was respectively raised and trained along with other African and Middle Eastern nations, North Korea and Cuba. All passengers from these countries and possibly non-citizens passing through them will be subject to a full-body pat down and extra scrutiny of their baggage regardless of race or creed under the new guidelines that went into effect Monday.
(12/01/09 4:00am)
Over the past few months and years, sustainability has turned into a pseudo-religion on this campus. Everywhere I turn, I see students taping up posters on doors a la Martin Luther about how to live a more sustainable life. Just like weekly sermons at church, we receive weekly blitzes in our inboxes. Like bible study, we have weekly council meetings on climate change. Our church is the Sustainable Living Center. We even have a sustainability officer staff that can talk to students one-on-one. I feel as though I should be repenting for my use of a to-go container last night.
(11/18/09 4:00am)
Flair, like Homecoming or Winter Carnival, is a Dartmouth tradition. But part of what distinguishes this tradition from our termly festivals is the fact that flair is worn year-round it begins with Trips and ends, well, never. Whether worn as party attire, used as a costume to cheer on a team or donned just for fun, flair is about as ubiquitous on this campus as beer and snow. Even more than a tradition, it seems, flair has become a Dartmouth obsession.
(10/28/09 3:00am)
It's not hard to grasp why the White House hates Fox News. Since President Obama moved into the White House, the network has been attempting with surprising success to embarrass his administration's every move. What is hard to grasp, however, is why Obama, the seemingly unfazed, post-partisan politician, has made it a priority of his administration to delegitimize the news station. Wasn't he supposed to be above it all? Wasn't he going to leave the partisan bickering to the rest of us?
(10/08/09 2:00am)
When it was announced that College President Jim Yong Kim had been selected to be Dartmouth's next president, a stranger asked me in passing whether or not I agreed with the assertion that Kim seemed to call to mind President Barack Obama. At the time, I concurred with that stranger. After all, the two men had an uncanny number of similarities with respect to their backgrounds as minority "outsiders" from the Midwest.
(09/22/09 2:00am)
Sitting on the steps of Robinson Hall during this year's DOC Trips, I heard yet another dean invoke the idea of the "blank slate" while speaking to a group of enthusiastic incoming freshmen.
(05/28/09 2:00am)
I am perplexed. How can it be that someone is a "better" Republican than someone else? I never knew one's commitment to his or her political party could be measured, let alone ranked. Nevertheless, Republican infighting between Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Rush Limbaugh has been reduced to just that: who can lay claim to the title of best Republican. Turn on any news program nowadays and you can watch "America's Next Top Republican."
(05/20/09 2:51am)
In a larger sense, our society is guilty of throwing around the term "hero" as if it does not mean anything. Plug into an Xbox, and you too can become a "Guitar Hero." Turn on a TV and you can watch paid actors and actresses pretend to be "heroes." Ask a 14-year-old boy who his "hero" is, and he might say Manny Ramirez (well, so much for that).