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The Dartmouth
July 25, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth
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News

Raj asks for help to end plight of untouchables

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Indian writer and activist M.C. Raj pleaded for Americans to support the liberation of India's "untouchables," who are assigned the lowest rung of the country's social and economic hierarchy under the Hindu caste system. "I seek your support and solidarity in whatever ways possible to you," Raj said to the crowd of over 50 Dartmouth students in attendance at his speech yesterday entitled, "Plight of the Untouchables: Breaking Down Caste Systems." Raj -- himself a Dalit -- outlined many of the daily atrocities that this group lives with.


News

Students launch local answer to eBay

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Those monthly trips to West Lebanon may not be so crucial after all. Hanover's newest shopping venue offers Dartmouth students a bevy of choices for their eclectic tastes. What's more: to make purchases from televisions and textbooks to the occasional used car, students don't even need to leave their residence halls. Operated by student-run Netbay Solutions, Darbay -- an online commerce site open only to the Dartmouth community -- made its debut earlier this month. The site, located at www.darbay.com, allows users to bid on an array of products offered by students and local merchants.


News

College lures '06s to alcohol survey

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Recently launched to encourage safe consumption of alcohol among the student body, a new Dick's House-run online program called "AlcoholEdu" is being heavily promoted to the Class of 2006. AlcoholEdu is a two- to three-hour-long program that "is designed to improve a person's knowledge, attitude and behavior towards alcohol," according to the program's website. "Primary prevention is educating everyone who doesn't necessarily have alcohol problems yet to prevent problems and minimize alcohol abuse in the future," Dick's House Director Jack Turco said. The program starts with a pre-assessment survey and ends with a final exam, which a student can either pass or fail. Turco said that it is more important to him that students are actually taking the course than whether or not they are passing the post-assessment exam, and that the results of the test are not used in any sort of way to discipline or hurt the participant. After completing the course, half of the participants will have a very brief follow up in six weeks and the other half in six months. All first-year students finishing the AlcoholEdu program by the Fall Term will receive two movie passes that can be used at the Nugget Theatre.



News

S&S officers lack the training of officers in blue

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Those green-and-white uniforms aren't the only trait that distinguishes Safety and Security officers from the blue of the New York Police Department. Although Dartmouth's Safety and Security officers are charged with the protection of the College's student population and the enforcement of College rules and policies, they are not police officers.


News

Tuck's French relishes rural life

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Tuck School Professor Kenneth French is one of the world's top thinkers in economics and finance, but if you don't find him in his office, look for him to be out skiing or cycling in the New Hampshire countryside he loves. French and his academic partner, University of Chicago Professor Eugene Fama, were on several shortlists to win this year's Nobel Prize in economics.


News

Vendors increase scrutiny of IDs

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Following the arrest of two Dartmouth students for the mass production of fake identification, area vendors are being warned to check IDs from California, Florida and New Mexico and may be clamping down on those seeking to buy alcohol underage. Police allege that Tom Allason '02 and David Seidman '04 produced over 100 fake drivers' licenses prior to their arrests in early September. Although mostly not new additions, the ominous warnings like "Don't try it if you're under 21" and "If you're under 30, expect to be proofed" that decorate the windows of Hanover's gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants may have taken on new meaning since the arrests. "We don't mess around," said Nigel Leeming, the owner of Mojo's Bistro and Murphy's on the Green. Establishments in Hanover use a variety of methods to detect fake IDs, ranging from the use of scanners to manual examinations, but each takes the use of false identification seriously. Stores that are caught for selling alcohol to minors face a minimum $1,000 fine on the first offense, which is reason enough to be careful, Leeming said. Many shops that sell alcohol in Hanover have books with complete listings of all state manufactured IDs in existence.


News

Sam Means '03 tests his mettle on 'Weakest Link'

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Over the summer, Sam Means '03 and a friend traveled to New York City for an open audition for the popular television game show, "Weakest Link." After a mock game with other hopefuls, designed for the producers to pick actual contestants, Means took a dim view of his chances. "I thought they would want someone more interesting," he said. But last week, Means competed for real.


News

Time well spent on ranking polls?

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As fluctuations in the rank of certain elite schools on U.S. News and World Reports' annual rankings list continue to capture the public's attention -- and even as the debate over such rankings' merits continues to rage -- the significant demands such rankings make on administrators' time go largely unheeded. But that's the way it should be, according to a number of deans and public relations officers responsible for providing the data used in the rankings, including deans of admissions and directors of public relations from the Thayer School of Engineering, Tuck Business School, Dartmouth Medical School and other Ivy League institutions. Theirs is a mostly pragmatic approach to the rankings.


News

College sells house on seniority sys.

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Despite Dartmouth's recent budget cuts, officials in the College Real Estate office still plan to sell a house located at 1 MacDonald Drive in Hanover on the basis of seniority, rather than trying to sell it at the highest possible cost. Priority will first be given to bidders who have not lived in the Dresden School District -- which includes Hanover and Norwich, Vt.


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Students and faculty debate elusive 'canon'

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Anyone who has taken a literature course understands the total puzzlement of class book lists. Rows of titles represent definitive examples of "The Nineteenth Century English Novel" or "American Prose," but where these masterpieces come from and what makes them worth studying remains a mystery. Most of these books are members of the "literary canon." The mother of all book lists, the canon is comprised of the books that scholars by and large regard as "great." Often referred to but seldom defined, the literary canon and what it includes has always inspired controversy. "One pictures a marble hallway lined with busts of literary figures," said Meredith Esser '03, giving a visual description of the canon at an English Department discussion in Sanborn Library on Monday.


News

Report: Lib. arts are practical

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A recent report released by the Association of American Colleges and Universities suggests that American schools need to remove the "artificial division" between liberal arts and pre-professional studies. According to the report, many colleges are not meeting the needs of their students as they do not provide "a practical, liberal education," focusing instead on vocational careers. "People often say that a liberal-arts education is not practical," said Ross Miller, director of programs for the AACU's Office of Education and Quality Initiatives.


News

Researchers say N.H. dropout rate is at 25 percent

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Forget about college. Recent research shows that for New Hampshire high schoolers, just leaving high school with a diploma is proving difficult. High school dropout rates -- a problem often perceived as being limited to depressed urban neighborhoods -- have reached 25 percent in this largely rural state, data collected by the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies indicates. That number is markedly higher than recent estimates from the N.H.


News

New Ivy rule requires athlete rest

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A recently-implemented Ivy League rule that requires at least 49 days of rest for varsity athletes during the off-season is drawing resistance from many athletes and coaches at Dartmouth. The rule states that athletes cannot be required to participate in any practices, competitions or training sessions for at least seven weeks during the off-season.



News

License-plate thief may be collector

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A flood of license plate thefts -- 25 in total -- have taken place at A-Lot and Webster Avenue since the beginning of the term, and many students believe that the thief is motivated by a desire to collect all 50 states' license plates. According to Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaccone, several frontside license plates have been reported stolen from cars parked at A-Lot and Webster Avenue since the beginning of October. Although students have reported these incidents to both Safety and Security and the Hanover police, "there have been no leads and no current suspects," Giaccone said. Giaccone explained that the Hanover Police officers frequently patrol A-Lot and Webster Avenue, though not for any set amount of time.




News

SAAP events look at the 'hook-up' culture

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What started out as an event to provide first-year students with a chance to hear upperclassmen talk about relationships and sex at Dartmouth turned into a forum for older students to voice their personal views on the subject, as groups gathered Monday and Tuesday night for a Sexual Abuse Awareness Program-sponsored event billed, "Sex, Relationships & the Social Scene at Dartmouth." Each night a small group of students gathered on the couches and floors of Delta Delta Delta and Epsilon Kappa Theta sororities amid soda and snacks in order to informally discuss the College's social arena. Both scheduled speakers and audience members spoke openly about their brushes with the so-called "hook-up scene" and the ups and downs of dating at Dartmouth. Monday night's event, held at EKT, attracted a total of five first-years -- all women. The conversation centered around self-respect and awareness when venturing into Dartmouth's social life. One speaker, LeVaur Livingstone '02, summed up the general message of the upperclassmen best, saying, "you need to be you and then everything will be good." During the discussion portion of the talks, several '03 audience members stressed to the first-years that they should respect themselves and not be pressured into unwanted activities. Many upperclass women also made sure to point out that "hooking up" was not a way to earn older guys' respect. While the upperclass students directed their comments toward the '06s in the room, the discussion was also an opportunity for the older students to voice their own feelings about the Dartmouth social scene. The first-year students themselves were noticeably quiet throughout the discussion. The first speaker of the night, Adam Salem '03, later commented that he was "glad it was very honest [because] that's the only way to get a real perspective." The event's organizers, SAAP Coordinator Abby Tassel and Sexual Abuse Peer Advisor Intern Kathleen Szilagyi '03, agreed that the discussion went extremely well, and said that the small turnout actually fostered a more intimate, honest conversation. However, several of the first-year women who attended agreed that while the older girls' perspectives were helpful and forced them to think, the talk was rather "bitter" and "depressing." The first-year turnout did not improve the second night at Tri-Delt, with only seven '06s present. However, while last night's event was similarly structured -- starting with a group of speakers, then opening up to a larger conversation -- the dynamic was quite different. The discussion that evolved was an interesting mix, touching on individuals' opinions of the Dartmouth "scene" as well as recitals of various personal experiences. Toward the end of the event, the mood became more somber as the conversation turned to the sensitive subject of sexual assault at Dartmouth. Several women cited friends' experiences with sexual assault as a turning point in their view of the campus social scene. Unfortunately for the event's organizers, all but one '06 had left directly after the speeches and did not hear the group conversation, a more honest peek into the Dartmouth social experience than most first-years will learn from booklets or their UGAs. The desire to share was clearly on the upperclassmen's side.