McKay: When You Least Expect It
Content warning: The following contains images and content that may trigger survivors of violence or sexual assault.
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Content warning: The following contains images and content that may trigger survivors of violence or sexual assault.
As America’s oldest college newspaper and an independent daily, The Dartmouth presents students the opportunity to grow throughout their time in Hanover. Whether interviewing College President Phil Hanlon on major policy initiatives or selling ads to national clients, our staff members develop skills that will benefit them throughout their personal and professional lives.
In today’s opinion column, “A Tribute to Fribble,” staff columnist Jon Miller ’15 discusses The Dartmouth’s online commenting system and our comments policies.
The first term of the academic year points to the possibility of a fresh start as new faces arrive on campus. But each fall, one constant remains — rush. And while the conversations that surround the process have gotten louder and more refined, they are, in many ways, as static as ever.
The popular rhetoric surrounding race suggests that we live in an America that Martin Luther King, Jr. only dreamed of: a colorblind nation with a black president to prove it. Yet the recent shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, illustrates how pervasive structural racial inequality truly is. This shooting has led to police violence, riots and a state of emergency in Ferguson, Missouri. Further, it has incited nationwide debate surrounding race, excessive use of police force and inequality. While the rhetoric of such debates has been largely sanitized of overtly racist language as a result of post-racial ideology, the turmoil in Ferguson reveals that American “colorblindness” is only an illusion.
William Deresiewicz’s recent column in The New Republic, “Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League: The nation’s top colleges are turning our kids into zombies,” denigrates American elite education (particularly the Ivy League) and the parents who send their children to these depraved institutions. Beyond the obvious hypocrisy (Deresiewicz is a self-described “sleepwalker” who spent 24 years in the Ivy League, studying at Columbia University and teaching at Yale University), implicit in his moralistic overture about higher education, meritocracy and America’s elite is a critique of our generation — the intolerable “millennials.” The column is not addressed to the students of the Ivy League, but to the parents who chose to send us here. The entire argument hinges upon a complete rejection of our agency as students and as human beings. We are not sheep, and Deresiewicz is not our new shepherd.
Hello, nervous freshman. I presume you are reading this because you are a member of Dartmouth’s Class of 2018. Congratulations.
In this week’s Summit on Sexual Assault, presenters offered an array of perspectives on how best to prevent and respond to sexual assault on college campuses. What was clear throughout the conference was that the vast majority of participants – survivors and advocates, college administrators and White House officials and scientific researchers alike – were genuinely devoted to combating the issue. Yet less formal conversations about sexual assault are often fraught with tension or even hostility and are, unfortunately, often unproductive. A lack of transparency along with misconceived social norms which the majority of individuals privately reject, but falsely believe that others do not, has led to a perceived conflict of interests surrounding what should be a straightforward issue.
In a June 18 campus-wide email Provost Carolyn Dever and Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson announced that the new unified disciplinary procedures for sexual misconduct would come into effect the next day. This change, they wrote, “will provide for the prompt, effective, fair and impartial investigation and resolution of complaints of sexual assault.” But the policy excludes some survivors entirely. College President Phil Hanlon has repeatedly emphasized that Dartmouth is a trailblazer in the fight against sexual assault. Hanlon writes in Time Magazine that prevention is critical to eradicate campuses “of the extreme behaviors that harm our community and distract us from the passions of our pursuits.” Prevention is undoubtedly necessary, but what about assaults that have already occurred?
Last week, a group of students protested a talk given by Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister of Israel. Though I hesitate to even call their action a “protest,” because, as the video footage can attest, the interruption failed to be more than a mere disturbance.
Spreading oneself too thin is the natural tendency of many students — it is often what got us here in the first place — but it is also a tendency we should learn to overcome. Many of us share perfectionist tendencies that drive us to settle for no less than excellence in our academic and personal pursuits. Working hard and being involved are certainly admirable goals, but too often students find themselves equally disengaged from all aspects of their busy lives.
Dartmouth's latest sensational gimmick Beta Alpha Omega Fraternity's Gawker-gate "scandal" has failed to draw the shock the author clearly aspired to because people just aren't surprised anymore. The so-called dialogue about Greek life is becoming increasingly stale, and it's time for an attitude adjustment.
As I've started to settle in for my second year at Dartmouth, I've been faced with a variety of unfortunate circumstances that have not helped my uncertainty about the years to follow. First, I was placed in arguably the least optimal dorm on campus the Lodge. Second, my lack of a concrete plan of study and general ambivalence about many of the courses offered, combined with lengthy waitlists for the few courses I could potentially enjoy, led me to struggle to find a course load with which I could fully get on board. Third, due to a variety of emotional and personal factors, as well as a general sense of anxiety brought on by the whole process, I decided to drop rush and wait until the winter to make another attempt at affiliation.
As always, fall term has begun with marked excitement over welcoming in the new class of first-year students, and the onslaught of fresh faces on campus has produced an interesting trend: some of the upperclassmen females seem to be on edge. While some women remain unperturbed in their enthusiasm about the new class, others seem burdened with insecurity.
Since protesters broke into the Dimensions show chanting statistics and asking for change, sexual assault has been brought to the forefront of campus conversation. I have heard many say, "I think we can all agree that sexual assault is", followed by an adjective such as "bad" or "harmful." Yet there still seems to be a lot that we cannot agree about when it comes to sexual assault. Dangerous misconceptions and a poor understanding of the basic definition of sexual assault prevent people from actually addressing the issue as it exists on this campus.
In the wake of the Dimensions protests, opponents have gone to significant lengths to marginalize them. Many characterize them as radical extremists, embittered students on the periphery of the social life. Some say they were seeking attention, some say they simply hate Dartmouth, but most agree that they are at odds with the rest of the student body. By marginalizing the protesters, people invalidate their opinion and place them solidly outside of the "standard" Dartmouth experience.
"We would have said fracket' here, but we already had too many references to Greek life," my friend, a member of the Dimensions welcome show, told me as we listened to some of the songs that would be performed. "People worry about it, so we wanted to downplay it."
As a boarding school graduate, I have plenty of experience living on a campus. Most of the time, I draw on this experience subconsciously, but as housing deadlines for next year approach, I have actively started referring back to my high school days. Because Dartmouth, like my high school, does not allow first-years to choose their own roommates, this will be the first time many of us make this decision. As a veteran of the drama and anxiety of this process, I have come to believe that students have a misguided approach to housing. Students, especially first-years, make room draw unnecessarily difficult because they are inexperienced and unable to emotionally detach themselves from the decision, which leaves them vulnerable to unnecessary damage.
As a first-year student, I have not officially declared my major, but I have certainly declared it to myself, countless times. One day I am an English major and another I am government. One week I want to be an economics minor, while the next I am looking toward women's and gender studies. I have plenty of time to explore my interests, yet I spend a large portion of time stressing about it nonetheless.
On the first day of my Writing 5 class, my professor asked, "Why does the college require that you take Writing 5?" The question seemed so obvious that one student replied, "To learn how to write better?" My professor pressed us further. Why else? Eventually, we decided that students come to Dartmouth from a variety of educational backgrounds and that Writing 5 is Dartmouth's attempt to ensure all students receive the same writing instruction. In fact, the '16s are the first class that cannot test out of the writing requirement, so everyone receives the same equal treatment.