A New Day in Washington

Over the past week I’ve had the fortune (misfortune?) of being The Dartmouth’s Washington correspondent for the presidential inauguration. Normally, the start of midterm season is a strange time to find oneself in a city 500 miles south of Hanover. However, after unexpectedly testing positive for COVID-19, I found myself spending the second and third weeks of classes in isolation at my uncle’s house in northwest Washington, D.C. So, for better or worse, I was unintentionally sitting right at the epicenter of American politics when the inauguration rolled around last week. 

The Dreaded Positive: Talking with Students in Isolation Housing

While most of the Dartmouth community has now emerged from quarantine, a select group of students must wait a bit longer: those in quarantine and isolation housing. 

Behind the Mask: Dartmouth’s On-the-Ground Testing Operation

Since the College partially reopened in the fall, making the trek to the south end of campus to receive a COVID-19 test has become a regular ritual for the Dartmouth undergraduates living in the Hanover area. The process is quick and simple: Students register for an appointment slot online, check in at the specified time, take a nasal swab test and depart, knowing that within the next day or so, results will appear in their inbox. 

What’s Happening @Now: A Guide to a Virtual Winter Term

These days, whether you’re at home or on campus, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the usual bustle of being a Dartmouth student. Even in a pre-pandemic term, many campus events fly under the radar unless you seek them out or stumble upon them serendipitously. 

Editors' Note

Just like that — we’re already in the thick of midterm season, rush and the start of a new presidency. In Hanover, time seems to pass as fast as the snow builds up, and it looks like we’ve already gotten a few more inches. For those of us on campus, we’ve come to the end of our time in quarantine, and we’re all antsy to get out of our dorms. Thankfully, many of our favorite campus facilities have started to open up — although for now the excitement might be limited to studying in the library across from friends. But hey, we’ll take it.

MLK Day in a Year of Racial Reckoning

Each year, Dartmouth puts on a celebration for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, hosting programs that relate social and racial justice to work done at the College. After a year that laid bare racial inequities in American society, this week’s events took on a renewed sense of importance. 

A Deadly Disparity: Health Inequality During COVID-19

In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a press conference at the convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights.

Clothes and Chaos: Online Shopping Sees a Pandemic Surge

There’s something about getting a package in the mail reminiscent of an early scene in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” where Edmund has just tumbled through the wardrobe only to come face-to-face with the White Witch. Cold and beautiful, she promises that she can get him anything he wants. “Turkish delight?” he asks. Thousands of kids remember watching the intricately carved box appear from nowhere, delivering a sense of comfort and well-being even in the midst of the unknown. 

Editors' Note

In a time of many firsts, this week marked yet another novel experience for many Dartmouth students. Whereas setting up dorm room decor is usually a pre-term activity, move-in this term took place in six-hour time blocks last weekend, between weeks two and three of the term. Arriving in Hanover, the process was orderly but time-consuming. First stop: trek through Leverone Field House to stick a cotton swab up your nose. Second stop: haul luggage to your room. Third stop: wait.

A Shot in the Dark: Students Receive Early Vaccines

When I virtually signed Dartmouth’s “Community Expectations” agreement last summer, I didn’t think much of a certain line. I agreed to “receive a vaccine for COVID-19, should one become available that is both FDA- and Dartmouth-approved,” if I wanted to live on campus and access Dartmouth’s facilities. At that point, a COVID-19 vaccine seemed years away — a promise overshadowed by the stress of preparing for a virtual academic year.

Looking Ahead: Students React to Winter Term Changes

Every winter, Hanover undergoes a transformation. The days get shorter, temperatures plummet and snow covers campus. However, this winter features a more dramatic shift than usual. As Dartmouth prepares to welcome students back for the winter term, signs of a more fun, social experience are appearing around campus.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel?

As the pandemic drags on into the new year, many people are getting sick of strictly adhering to COVID-19 guidelines. With the first doses of the vaccine rolling out across the country, some have started to let their guards down and regard restrictions with a more lax attitude.

Quarantine Creations: Students Make Art in Isolation

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began almost a full year ago, I’ve thought a lot about the future of art. If art is a mode of self-expression, what happens when your sense of self, removed from the places and people that shape it, is rocked? If art is a vessel for our joy, what happens when the sources of joy change? I was afraid that life in lockdown would make us too tired to create things, or that stress and lack of materials would immobilize us even when we wanted to create things. I hoped that making things was such an inherently human act that it would pull us through the wildest of circumstances.

Mirror Asks: New Year's Resolutions

Every January, gyms fill up with fresh-faced clientele eager to fulfill New Year’s resolutions made the night before over glasses of champagne. For many, New Year’s resolutions are a way to try something new, refocus on old rhythms or buckle down on long-term goals. After the dumpster fire of 2020, it’s hard to say whether New Year’s resolutions feel completely irrelevant or more important than ever. In this edition of Mirror Asks, a few Mirror writers share their own thoughts on the new year and the things they’re looking forward to in 2021, both big and small. 

Editors' Note

Dear ’24s: Freshmen Reflect, in Their Own Words, on Fall Term

Dear Class of 2024, These 10 weeks have flown by much quicker than I expected. I was nervous to be on campus, but I'm now very grateful that I came. I’m going to miss being here.  The experience certainly wasn't what I originally expected. Given the circumstances, some things were difficult.

Making the Grade: Students Adapt to Reduced Tutoring Resources

At the end of week five, I hit a breaking point studying for my upcoming microeconomics exam. In a stressed-out frenzy, I sent an email to the Tutor Clearinghouse, politely asking if my individual tutoring request for ECON 21 had been processed. I added that I “would be really grateful if my requested pairing could be made!”

Dining at Dartmouth with Disordered Eating

Food is an inescapable part of our campus culture. We find it everywhere: in dinner picnics on the Green, as fuel for late-night work sessions in Novack and as an oddly popular topic of conversation. But not everyone’s relationship with food is straightforward. Many students with eating disorders struggle to navigate Dartmouth’s dining halls and food-dominated social scene, and their difficulties are only compounded by COVID-19 restrictions.

Skiway Offers Socially Distant Opportunities for Winter

Each day’s early sunset is a reminder that winter is coming. The intensity of the cold and the scarcity of the daylight hours strengthen the appeal of the indoors. But as COVID-19 cases rise and many students plan to return to campus in the winter, the announcement of the Dartmouth Skiway’s reopening was a bright point in a dreary-looking flurry of information.

A Separate Space: Socializing and Studying at Baker-Berry

Dartmouth students have great affection for our libraries — take our interactions with the Dartmouth Library Instagram account. When I was a freshman, my First-Year Trip leaders showed me which parts of Baker-Berry were social and which were designated for intense studying. Although different spaces within the library function in different ways, the library as a whole feels like home to many students. This time last year, I remember stacking my belongings — essay drafts, extra pens, flaming hot cheetos and caffeinated yellow vitamin water — in the shelves of the periodicals, preparing to practically live there until finals were over.