Osserman: Greenwashing Dartmouth
Like many other students, I went to Beta Alpha Omega fraternity after learning the news of Osama bin Laden's death, curious to see what the commotion was about.
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Like many other students, I went to Beta Alpha Omega fraternity after learning the news of Osama bin Laden's death, curious to see what the commotion was about.
Apparently words have more power than I thought. Last Saturday, I was hanging out with a group of poets visiting from Washington University who wanted to see a "Dartmouth party." A friend and I took them over to a fraternity that was hosting one. As soon as I entered the house, brothers began whispering to one another and pointing at me. I was in the basement for less than a minute before two brothers surrounded me.
Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone has made clear that Dartmouth is no longer immune from state laws. Yet, while fraternities and sororities scramble to respond to Hanover Police's charges of underage drinking, neither the Greek system nor the College administration seem to be doing anything to address the most visible and widespread criminal act that occurs on campus hazing.
Once again, the Verbum Ultimum ("To the Class of 2014," Oct. 1; "The Countenance of Change," Feb. 26) missed the point on sexual assault. On Wednesday, an anonymous author blitzed Dartmouth students a catchy (albeit cheesy) song about rape in Dartmouth fraternities, entitled "Out of Control." The Dartmouth condemned the action as "ineffective" for its anonymity and for "demonizing a campus constituency that has in fact often led the discussion on sexual assault."
In an article published in The Dartmouth last Fall ("Kim to focus on Greek system's public image," Sept. 23, 2009), College President Jim Yong Kim stated that the Greek system suffers from a "public relations problem." Last week, Kim stood by the remark, arguing that Dartmouth's "Animal House" reputation is a derogatory and inaccurate stereotype of our upstanding Greek community in an interview with members of The Dartmouth opinion staff.
Since Ancient Greece, scholars have contended that the law is "above men" that there are singular, "objective" meanings to laws and constitutions that judges should apply impartially to legal disputes. Then, around the late 1970s, a group of radical leftist lawyers (including Dartmouth's Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote speaker critical race theorist Kimberl Crenshaw) began to challenge this notion, fusing the emerging world of post-modern thought with contemporary jurisprudence by arguing that the interpretation of the law itself is as inherently political as the legislators who write them. Crenshaw and others focused their work on revealing how those with the power to interpret the law do so in their best interests, often by reinforcing racial and socioeconomic inequalities. At conferences, scholars debated how to direct the politics of the law and radically reshape the legal system so that it ensured liberty for all.
January 26th's Student Assembly meeting which the Assembly debated whether to pass a resolution asking the College to explain publicly why staff have been excluded from the budget committees ("SA debates inquiry of staff input on budget," Jan. 27) made me, for a moment, ashamed to be a Dartmouth student.
For a sci-fi film that is essentially about the struggles of a group of 3-D blue cat people, James Cameron's "Avatar" has generated a surprising amount of controversy and grossed over $1 billion dollars worldwide.
A few days ago, Dartlog (The Dartmouth Review's blog) pasted the text of the mass e-mail advertising "Bondage 101," a rope-tying workshop organized by a number of student groups on campus. Brian Nachbar '12, the author of the blog post, wrote, "Note that the event is funded by [the Council on Student Organizations]... I'll leave it to the reader to assess how responsible a use of the College's money this is."
I'd like to offer you my congratulations on your landslide victory this Monday. A lot of students -- myself included -- are really excited to see how you will continue and improve on Molly Bode's great work as student body president.
On Dec. 14, a few days into winter break, I received a campus-wide e-mail from Dean Crady informing me that my friend, Cody Lavender, had died a day earlier in a tragic accident on the Edinburgh FSP. When the news reached me, I was in the middle of a phone conversation with my mom, casually scanning BlitzMail, and not expecting anything from the message entitled: "Sad News." I read the e-mail and immediately fell silent. My mom started asking for me, and all I could do was hang up the phone.
Shortly after Barack Obama was elected president, his transition team created the web site Change.gov. Focused in part on appeasing disgruntled Republican voters, the site features a bland array of details on the incoming bureaucracy, a blog with posts like "Common Ground: Obama and McCain meet," and -- in a somewhat hyperbolic reminder of Obama's commitment to being a man of the people -- an online job application for potential Obama appointees.
For the past four years, progressive activists at Dartmouth and beyond have spent countless hours organizing to elect Barack Obama as president. At first, they fought an uphill battle. Pundits predicted that Hillary was an unstoppable political machine, destined to victory from the moment she announced her candidacy. But then Obama won the Iowa caucus, and in his "They said it couldn't be done" victory speech, he laid the groundwork for a hard-fought triumph in the Democratic primaries.
On September 28, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich spoke on the floor of the House in regards to the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout, asking, "Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs?"
There are a number of privileges that we freshmen get to enjoy for just three terms: We can suck at pong, be unabashedly promiscuous and go frat hopping in obnoxious groups of 15, just to name a few.
What do Harvard, Princeton and Brown have that we don't? Forget about tougher admissions -- apparently we beat Brown by 0.1 percent. Nope, they've all got female presidents. And as the Board of Trustees continues its search for the next leader of the Big Green, it's time we set a new requirement: straight white men need not apply.
Last term, the Gay-Straight Alliance officially changed its name to Gender Sexuality XYZ -- GSX for short. While I think the new acronym sounds more like a Ferrari model or extreme sports tournament than a group of students fighting heteronormativity, the concept behind the name change is an important one.
At a liberal arts college like Dartmouth, it seems inevitable that undergrads will study social movements at some point in their education. Who hasn't read something about the civil rights movement, feminism or gay liberation? And while not all of us will dedicate our four years to understanding what makes such a movement succeed or fail, we're all aware that there is a body of literature on the topic, and even some of our own professors are major contributors.
From Saturday night party games involving a Frisbee and hallucinogenic research chemicals to dorm room doors equipped with homemade fingerprint detectors, even Alpha Theta's Dartcon can't hold a candle to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's nerd-dom. But what stood out most during my short visit there this Thanksgiving break was what I least expected: every student bathroom had a box filled with a cornucopia of condoms -- and not just Trojans, either. These safe sex boxes were bountifully overflowing with every size and style imaginable.
The freshman fifteen is a little exaggerated. Maybe it's the alliteration or just a result of melodramatic eighteen-year-olds, but I don't think too many college first-years actually undergo such extreme weight gain. I'll admit that before writing this introduction, I weighed myself and discovered that I had, in fact, gained a few pounds during my first term at Dartmouth. But my jeans are snug -- not busting at the seams.