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(01/07/13 4:00am)
During former College President Jim Yong Kim's administration, Dartmouth pursued a poorly-conceived and half-baked mission of globalizing the College's reach and increasing its international profile. It placed greater emphasis on graduate programs particularly Geisel Medical School, whose international reputation has always lagged behind that of Tuck Business School and on professors' publication of research. This effort, while well-intended, had the side effect of diluting Dartmouth's strongest merit, which has always been its emphasis on undergraduate education.
(10/22/12 2:00am)
On Oct. 12, Gawker writer Adrian Chen published a lengthy article outing 49-year-old Michael Brutsch as the infamous Reddit troll and moderator Violentacrez, who created, contributed to or moderated threads such as "Chokeabitch," "Rapebait," "Hitler," "Jewmeria," "Beatingwomen" and "Jailbait." The last of these threads, which Brutsch and thousands of others used to share provocative photographs of underage girls, drew so much criticism last year that Reddit was forced to shut it down. As the self-described "creepy uncle of Reddit," Violentacrez used anonymity and "free speech" to promote racism, sexism, violence and myriad other things offensive to the general public.
(09/04/12 2:00am)
Dear '16:
(07/10/12 2:00am)
Last week, the New Hampshire legislature overrode Governor John Lynch's veto on a bill requiring photo identification to vote in elections, thereby passing one of the most draconian voter ID laws in the United States. If the Department of Justice approves it, the new law, which is set to go into effect in September 2013, will suddenly make New Hampshire's election process significantly less accessible to elderly, low-income and student voters who are least likely to have the specific forms of ID permissible.
(05/22/12 2:00am)
Last Monday, I attended City University of New York professor Cindi Katz's lecture, "Superman, Tiger Mother: Aspiration Management and the Child as Waste." Katz claimed that the "Asian mode of parenting" described in Amy Chua's "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" is producing a society of strivers, in which the middle-class Asian family compels students to experience constant pressure to succeed in order to stay competitive. While Asian-American families do value success, it is inaccurate and definitely harmful to perpetuate the idea that Asian families are unique in their regard for "traditional" academic success. Unfortunately, Katz is not alone in her belief that Asian students, particularly at the high school level, are soulless, grade-grubbing automatons fixated on admission to a top university.
(05/18/12 2:00am)
Conspicuous consumption the idea of buying lavish goods and services to display one's wealth is a hallmark of contemporary America. If the credit crisis of 2009 revealed one thing about our cultural identity, it was our obsession with the acquisition of things. Clothes, shoes, property, the latest and greatest in technology: We want them all, and we want to flaunt it when we have it, particularly on college campuses where much of a person's social identity is formed by their socioeconomic identity. Dartmouth's culture of consumption particularly as practiced by those among us with the means to fully engage in it makes students on financial aid and those from low-income families particularly visible and, paradoxically, simultaneously invisible on this campus.
(05/08/12 2:00am)
We are categorized into a gender before we are even born, squeezed and confined into tightly defined conceptual boxes for the sake of easy identification. Expectant mothers are often asked, "Is it a boy or a girl?" There is an assumption of a binary system of categorization that assumes the child is either a boy or girl. This harmful practice constrains our potential for understanding ourselves and others while also othering those who fall outside its bounds. As members of a progressive society, it is our responsibility to question and challenge this construct.
(04/17/12 2:00am)
After what was the only seriously contested World Bank presidential selection process in history, College President Jim Yong Kim was elected as the new World Bank president yesterday. While congratulations are certainly in order for our soon-to-be former president, there is ample room for debate over whether or not Kim is indeed the best choice for his new job. The Bank's decision to pass over Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was certainly not an apolitical decision. In an unfortunately astute commentary on the Bank's inner workings, Okonjo-Iweala herself commented, "You know this thing is not really being decided on merit."
(04/12/12 2:00am)
As a generation heavily influenced by mainstream media culture, we are trained to think of rape as an inherently violent act. It's supposed to involve screaming, pleading with the perpetrator and tears. But this is not the reality of many cases of rape, particularly on college campuses. More often than not, rape occurs when intoxicated partners are unable to give consent. While we are all told as freshmen and throughout our time at Dartmouth that inebriation precludes the ability to give consent, who among us really takes that idea seriously?
(03/27/12 2:00am)
This week, The Wall Street Journal asked the question, "Has the Sexual Revolution Been Good for Women?" Hoover Institution research fellow Mary Eberstadt answers "no," arguing that the sexual revolution has made women unhappier, disinclined to settle down and more likely to suffer from mental health issues. Eberstadt blames the deteriorating social safety net, decline of the nuclear family and increasing incidence of voluntary single motherhood via adoption and donor sperm in vitro fertilization on the ills of the post-pill world. While Eberstadt does point to some interesting cultural phenomena, the idea of the sexual revolution being their root cause is wrong-headed due to alternate causalities and unrelated external pressures.
(03/06/12 4:00am)
In middle school, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor of "Shiloh" fame was one of my favorite authors. However, it was the "Alice" series that elevated Naylor to favorite author status. The series follows the life of Alice McKinley as she and her best friends navigate the treacherous waters of adolescent social life. The trio deals with jealousy, bullying, popularity, teen pregnancy and the issue that dominates the book the struggle to find, evaluate and keep potential boyfriends.
(02/27/12 4:00am)
On Monday night, Chris Brown and Rihanna celebrated her 24th birthday by both dropping remixes: Rihanna's "Birthday Cake" from "Talk That Talk," and Chris Brown's "Turn Up the Music" from his album "Fortune." Da Internz, who produced the "Birthday Cake" remix, promised that it would "shock," and it sure did. Given that Brown assaulted Rihanna over the weekend of the Grammy Awards a mere three years ago, it is shocking indeed, disturbing to see the two coming together for a collaboration once again.
(02/02/12 4:00am)
As French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr once wrote, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." The literary tradition's unfortunate encouragement of toxic relationships is a prime example of this. Popular culture across the centuries has been littered with unhealthy romantic entanglements. From Greek mythology to 21st century teen literature, the romanticization of unhealthy relationships has remained a troubling constant throughout the ages, with deeply disturbing implications for normative standards of "proper" female expectations in romantic relationships. Moreover, the persistence of this paradigm may be linked to the perpetuation of men's subjugation of the female sex.
(01/19/12 4:00am)
As a moviegoer, I'm eagerly anticipating the forthcoming live-action version of "Akira," a Japanese manga that was made into a groundbreaking animated feature film in 1988. However, as an Asian-American hearing that all but one of the actors rumored to be in consideration for the film are white Americans, I can't help but feel some concern for both the intellectual and artistic purity of the film.
(01/10/12 4:00am)
In the Iowa primary, Mitt Romney beat Rick Santorum in an outcome that may have seemed, to many observers, like a repeat of Florida's Bush versus Gore standoff in the 2001 presidential race. With a mere eight ballots separating the two candidates, it was a timely reminder of the importance of every individual's vote. The right to vote is tremendously important, but it is currently under attack.
(11/22/11 4:00am)
Some policy analysts have predicted the outbreak of "water crises" caused by large, water-poor nations like China attacking smaller, water-rich areas like Tibet while seizing resources at a terrible cost to human life. However, formal water wars are unlikely. While water scarcity does result in regional conflict, even two bitter enemies such as India and Pakistan have a peaceful water partnership. What we should be concerned about instead is internationally sanctioned water privatization in the developing world
(11/09/11 4:00am)
Observing the frantic urgency of the Occupy Wall Street movement in all of its sign-toting, street-clogging glory, I cannot help but think that the 99 percent is fixating on the wrong problem. While the middle class has indeed suffered from the current economic downturn, that proverbial storm will eventually pass. The people who really deserve to be angry are those on the edge of the federal poverty line. As it stands now, the FPL hardly serves as an accurate measure of families' abilities to meet their needs. In light of the increasing number of long-term unemployed Americans who are struggling to make ends meet, it is time for the Obama administration to make drastic changes to the poverty cutoff.
(10/25/11 2:00am)
Last Thursday, the world learned that rebel forces had killed Moammar Gadhafi, the former dictator of Libya and a man who had previously been thought to be undefeatable. Within hours, the CNN home page boasted a host of photos and videos of jubilant Libyan citizens, the triumphant rebel forces and grainy documentary footage of Gadhafi's final moments.