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The Dartmouth
April 10, 2026
The Dartmouth
Opinion
Opinion

Students Apathetic Toward Cultural Causes

By Amanda De Larosa | May 15, 1996

To the Editor: Last Saturday I attended the "Crisis is Nigeria" discussion presented by AfriCaSo in which key note speaker, Hafisat Abiola, daughter of the imprisoned president-elect, described the plight of her family and her country.

Opinion

Education Department Poses a Dilemma for the College

By G. Mark Vogel | May 14, 1996

To the Editor: John Dewey said: "What we want and need is education pure and simple, and we shall make surer and faster progress when we devote ourselves to finding out what education is and what conditions have to be satisfied in order that education may be a reality and not a name or slogan." Moreover, "the constant factors [in education] are the formation of ideas, acting upon ideas, observation of the conditions which result, and organization of facts and ideas for future use." When this cycle of learning is embraced by an entire community, it represents the essence of democracy and the core purpose of a liberal arts college. The education department is a century-old experiment.

Opinion

A Major Dilemma

By Marc Yasuda | May 14, 1996

One of the springtime rites of passage of every Dartmouth sophomore is picking a major. In spite of the mercurial nature of our recent selections, a major question has since festered in my mind: What says more about a person -- their major, or the reasons they choose that major? In order to alleviate your "anticipating columnist cliche" pains, I will get my hackneyed but applicable dose of cliches out of the way early and rephrase my question at the same time: Do your means justify your ends, or do your ends justify your means (perhaps more idealistically, can your ends ever truly justify your means?). An overdue explanation will now follow. As far as my sophomore eyes see it, the major scenario plays out to three general schools of thought. First, there is the anal-retentive career-oriented bunch who choose their major for the sole purpose of inflating their grade point average (the most over-heard, over-emphasized words on any Ivy League campus) to the brink of its 4.0 boundary. Second, there are the premeditated pre-professionals whose tunnel-visioned folks have scoped out the most accommodating job market.

Opinion

The Future of Food

By Sam Bonderoff | May 13, 1996

After a long weekend of mediocre revelry and occasional insanity, a friend and I sat down outside the Hop on a fine rainy Sunday morning.

Opinion

'The Histories'

By Abiola Lapite | May 10, 1996

What good is history? Since Herodotus first earned himself the title "father of lies," it has been the penchant of a few men to note down accounts of the words and deeds of the ages preceding theirs. Perhaps, as Henry Ford suggested, these men have been wasting their time; perhaps, like the alchemists and astrologers, they were chasing after nonsense; perhaps what we really need in this age is to do away with history entirely and concentrate on subjects which will fit men to deal with the problems and occupations of our day. At this point Santayana's famous quip on the matter comes to mind, but this is not a good defense, for even if history has lessons to teach us, we must not forget that history never repeats itself -- perhaps it is sometimes better that we do not pay too close attention to what learned accounts tell us. There is a better defense of the study of history.

Opinion

Leveling the Playing Field

By Miranda Johnson | May 10, 1996

In "Confronting Reverse Racism" [The Dartmouth, May 6], Adam Siegel '98 points to Ward Connerly, the man spearheading the drive to abolish affirmative action programs in California, as an example of why these programs are no longer necessary.

Opinion

College must commit to education

Abolishing the education department flies in the face of the College's aim to provide students with a well-rounded education and to equip them with an appreciation for the value of education. With the privilege of attending Dartmouth comes a responsibility to make a positive contribution to society.

Opinion

The Purpose of Education

By Theresa Ellis | May 9, 1996

One of the fundamental purposes of Dartmouth College is to educate men and women who have a high potential for making a significant positive impact on society -- so states the first sentence of the Dartmouth College Student Handbook.

Opinion

College must support community

The College has failed to live up to its commitment to fostering community at Dartmouth and to the College's Native American community by not allowing this year's annual pow-wow to take place on the Green. With an expected increase in attendance, it was necessary for this year's community celebration to be relocated from its usual site at the Bema.

Opinion

A Woman's Right to Choose has been Stigmatized by the Pro-Life Movement

By Amy L. Mclean | May 8, 1996

To the Editor: As a representative of the newly re-established Dartmouth Students for Choice group, I feel compelled to respond to Ellen Wight '97's column "Being Pro-choice and Anti-Abortion" [The Dartmouth, May 3]. I find it very unfortunate that somehow the term pro-choice has come to mean pro-death or pro-abortion in the minds of some of the "lost middle of Americans" that Wight refers to in her column, as the assumed antithesis of the term "pro-life." This has never been the case; the pro-choice movement has never advocated making abortion more widespread or less ethically serious.

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