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Who Hacked Dartbeat?

It’s Big Green vs. Big Red, the online journalism edition.

Cool Things at Rauner: MLK Day Edition

I was especially excited to write my Dartbeat story for this week after receiving my assignment from my editors. Grace’s exact words to me were this: “Ask the Rauner librarian to show you the coolest shit they have.” Following her eloquently stated orders, I did just that (though using a slightly more polite phrase, of course).

Graduate student Scott Smedinghoff found dead at 28 on Friday

Graduate student Scott Smedinghoff died, College President Phil Hanlon and Dean of graduate studies Jon Kull announced in a campus wide email on Saturday afternoon.

Overheards

’19: "My bed is a haven of cleanliness."

Dartbeat's Winter Term Bucket List

Originally, the campus-wide snowball fight occurred during the first snowfall of the year. Unfortunately, winterim threw a wrench into this plan and so far the snow conditions have not progressed to snowball throwing levels. I know this because I threw a snowball at a girl yesterday (not to brag) but it fell apart mid-air before she was aware of what happened. So look forward to this event sometime in the near future where the snow acts less like cold sand and more like snow.

There's a Snap for That

To snap or not to snap? That is always the question. Waking up with bed head — not to snap (okay well maybe just to friends #wokeuplikethis). Morning KAF line — definite snap. Thursday night rager at Bar Hop — add a filter and snap that to your story ASAP! Snap what you want when you want and it will disappear in just 24 hours. Although snaps disappear after a few seconds, can they have long term effects on your mental health?

Social media therapy: Reaching out for help on Yik Yak

SAMANTHA COOPER

VERBUM: A Good Start

Last week, the newly established Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives released its first annual report on faculty diversity, which discusses the office’s work in recruiting, retaining and supporting underrepresented minority faculty. Their stated goal is to increase URM faculty from 16 percent to 25 percent by 2025, which would require the hiring of about 60 new minority faculty members. The college has set aside $22.5 million in endowment funds to support URM recruitment and retention. This comes at a time where diversity on campuses has been prominent in the national consciousness, with a great deal of airtime being dedicated to racial issues at colleges around the country, including our own. While we view faculty diversity initiatives as a crucial step in the right direction, there are others who believe that these kinds of initiatives are not only unnecessary, but also wasteful of the College’s funds. It is no secret that the Dartmouth student body is far from reflective of the country as a whole when it comes to URM students, and it is alarming that faculty representation doesn’t even live up to our currently skewed student demographic. Diversity in the classroom is incredibly important; so many facets of a liberal arts education are built on strictly Western ideals, and a lack of diversity in our education could lead to a narrow understanding of a broad world. Many people argue that this concern over diversity shouldn’t extend to faculty, that race shouldn’t be a factor in education. In a completely post-racial world that might be the case, but we don’t live in a post-racial world by any means. Every instructor is going to offer a different perspective, and the exact same material can be seen in countless different ways through different people’s eyes. It is important that all of us, minority students or not, come to see the world just a little bit through different perspectives. An understanding of the world around you that has only come from people similar to you is an extremely narrow one, if it qualifies as understanding at all. Faculty diversity is also incredibly important when it comes to mentoring. Again, people will argue that a student should be able to find a mentor in anyone with similar academic interests, and theoretically this is true. However, research has shown time and time again that minority students perform better under minority teachers. This is often attributed to the “role-model effect.” Put simply, students have been shown to set higher goals and expect more from themselves when they see that people of their race, gender, nationality or class in positions of prominence. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we all make assumptions about ourselves based on people that we perceive to be similar to us. So, if a URM student has little to no exposure to professors of their same race, they might operate with the unconscious understanding that, “People like me just don’t become professors”. Many critics of diversity hiring initiatives argue that going out of our way to hire minority professors could end up hurting the students in the long run — the best professors should be hired, regardless of race, end of story. Unfortunately, the best professors often aren’t hired when race enters into the equation. Studies have proven that most companies and organizations tend to choose candidates that they assume are white based on names over minority candidates with identical resumes. So, perhaps it isn’t that URM candidates don’t stack up, but rather, that URM candidates are being overlooked. This initiative is a good first step in boosting faculty diversity. It dedicates roughly a million dollars a year to recruitment and retention efforts, which we assume will most likely go towards recruiting expenses (trips, meals, tours, etc.), salary increases and signing bonuses. Recruiting top talent to come to a small, isolated town is hard enough, but getting minority professors to come to an institution that has a track record of racial and cultural homogeneity would likely cost every penny of that money. Some of the resources are also being dedicated to maintaining the existing pre-doctoral fellowships dedicated to the study of minority issues and establishing one new one, and hopefully these efforts will serve to bring up a class of new professors who get their start at Dartmouth and commit their careers to the College. This report is not going to solve the faculty diversity problem on campus. However, it’s a good start. It sends a message to up-and-coming professors around the country that Dartmouth is a place that cares about diversity, and that we are willing to back it up with more than just words. It brings an issue that is often ignored by the majority of campus to light and gets an important conversation started. Hopefully, going into the future, this initiative will serve as the groundwork for a comprehensive effort by Dartmouth to recruit the best minority faculty in the country. Each professor has a different and fascinating perspective, and any college student should be dedicated to seeking out as many of them as possible.

Bernie Sanders to speak at the College this evening

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will be speaking at 7 p.m. this evening in the Hopkins Center's Spaulding Auditorium.

23 Things Less Time-Consuming Than Sorority Rush

Cover photos are changing, bad puns are being made, and “what you know” is being thrown. It’s women’s rush season again at Dartmouth, and whether you’re affiliated (rad), unaffiliated (rad), rushing (rad), not rushing (rad), shaking out (rad) or a dude safely removed from this process (also fine, I guess), I think we can all agree that GLOS sorority rush takes a ton of time.

Chews Wisely: Cantore Pizza

I drove down Main Street in the rain and the fog, the windshield wipers of my 2004 Subaru Baja beating frantically to keep pace with nature’s onslaught. My tires held onto the rocky pavement for dear life through several inches of standing water as I navigated the road’s twists and turns. I was almost there — my heart pounding in anticipation of a good meal, my stomach growling, my mind focused on the task at hand. There. In the distance. Could it be? A strip mall that I knew to be my destination loomed in the distance. It was go time.

BREAKING: $150 million will go towards ten academic clusters

Dartmouth has achieved its goal of securing $100 million in philanthropy to establish ten new interdisciplinary groups of faculty members, called “academic clusters,” by the end of 2015. The clusters will focus on crucial world challenges such as global health, poverty and cybersecurity. The endowment was secured in 20 months time, due to three final gifts given in December.

Picks of the Week 16W.1

Dartbeat asks a group of musically inclined students to recommend their favorite song picks of the week. We then share a few of those tracks. Enjoy!

Mirror Asks: Career Survey

The results of a campus-wide survey to which over 250 students responded.

Verbum Ultimum: Reworking Rush

In an email to campus early Monday morning, the Panhellenic Council announced Sigma Delta sorority’s decision to pilot a shake-out program during winter recruitment next week. Sigma Delt will not take part in formal recruitment this term — instead, their parallel rush process will be coordinated with Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority.

Office of Academic Initiatives releases first annual report on faculty diversity

Opinion Asks: Study Abroad

Students tend to think about opportunities like studying abroad in terms of how they contribute to their major. Going to Spain obviously benefits someone studying Spanish, just as studying abroad in China benefits someone interested in East Asian studies. A student’s interests, however, do not have to be internationally related for a term abroad to be valuable; studying abroad is useful for a student of any major. As an English major and writer, I know that travelling can help me discover creative possibilities that would be impossible if I simply stayed on campus every term. This discovery does not depend on travelling with the English department. Many writers who I respect took inspiration from visiting other countries, such as Zora Neale Hurston, whose “Tell My Horse” was spurred by a visit to Haiti and Jamaica. And collaboration between scientists from multiple countries to develop new theories and experiments is common, therefore taking STEM courses in another country helps a student grow accustomed to a globalized world of science. Studying abroad also has benefits outside of the academic as the experience leads to adaptability in new situations, independence and, most importantly, open-mindedness.

Sigma Delta sorority to pilot shake-out this winter

Sigma Delta sorority will pilot a shake-outprocess to recruit potential new members for the winter term. The sorority will notparticipate in formal recruitment this term, according toa Monday morning email announcement by the Pan-Hellenic Council.

Opinion Asks: Primary Voting

We asked our opinion staff: "Do you plan on voting in the upcoming New Hampshire primary? Why or why not?"

Tate Ramsden '17 died Saturday while on vacation with family

Tate Ramsden ’17 died Saturday while swimming at the YMCA in Sarasota, Florida, where he was on vacation with family, according to a campus-wide email from College President Phil Hanlon.