Dartlog: 05/18/2003 - 05/25/2003

The Dartmouth Review

Friday, May 23, 2003

Re: Furstenberg Responds

Furstenberg's response is confusing... He says The D "misconstrued both the facts and my statements." He then says "32 percent of the Class of 2007 will be students of color, not 40 percent as reported."

But in the article, The D never claimed that 40 percent of the students are minorities... Rather, it quoted Furstenberg as saying that, as we approach 40 percent, we are seeing progress. Here's the quote:

Furstenberg said that as "we are approaching 40 percent non-whites on campus" it "represents real progress."

Plus, the article quotes Furstenberg himself, saying quite clearly that 32 percent of the incoming class is minority:

The class is comprised of 32.4 percent students of color, Furstenberg said, a record figure.

I never thought I'd be defending The D's journalistic accuracy, but it seems they got it right this time. Furstenberg ducked the question.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Emmett at 3:21 PM (0 comments)

Furstenberg responds

In response to my blitz and D op-ed:

Alexander,

Thanks for your note. Unfortunately the D misconstrued both the facts and my statements. It turns out that 32 percent of the Class of 2007 will be students of color, not 40 percent as reported. Further, it is true that Admissions works very hard to recruit and enroll a diverse student body. We have made "real progress" on these efforts which reflects the growing diversity of the applicant pool not any effort to exclude anyone from any particular background. Of course our high degree of selectivity means we must say no to many applicants but this decision is the result of a thorough consideration of all aspects of each student's candidacy.

Best wishes for the remainder of the term.

Karl Furstenberg

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by alex at 2:31 PM (0 comments)

Re: Mascot Wars

Alex, I think you mean "Granitepeople," as I can't imagine "Granitemen" would have a snowball's chance in hell.

Plus, Stan Horowitz emails

I think the Jolly Green Giant would be really cool.� No animal abuse wailing, realmascot differentiation, potential cooperation from a major food marketer.� Big, strong, green, friendly.� No costs of trying to keep a moose in captivity.�Maybe he could even have a feather.�Well worth looking into.

I?ve sent this idea to various forums before.� Everyone must think I?m crazy.

Not a bad idea, but, as an Ivy League institution, couldn't Dartmouth go a bit more upscale? Is there a mascot for Rebel Yell?

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Andrew Grossman at 2:04 PM (0 comments)

Re: Mascot Wars

Emmett, if you haven't done so, check out the latest issue of the Review, all about Indians and budgets. On sports, from the Week in Review: "Lax Indians Scalp Ivy League." I'd also recommend Stefan's article for a current defense of the Indian and Joe Rago's for a description of Anand's "week-long series of discussions" that made the Indian ineligible. I think saying "discussion" might be a bit of an exaggeration.

Last time they tried the moose it failed miserably. I doubt anything can prevent it happening again, since it is, quite frankly, a really lame mascot. More depressing though is how much of our money they're going to waste in the process. I mean the trade-in has been a failure (aside from a few free T-shirts in exchange for some old Tomahawk chops we found in an old storage unit when we switched offices), and the moose thing will probably waste even more money. An organization this absurd should not have the monetary resources they do (30K per year, is that correct?).

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Alston B. Ramsay at 1:49 PM (0 comments)

Re: Mascot Wars

Several Things:

1) I've been pushing for a real moose for years. That would make it all worth it.

2) I wouldn't read too much into the vote for the Indian. Dartmouth has just experienced a round of "Indian=Racism" bullshit. Hence, the section of Dartmouth that finds that kind of stuff really really annoying naturally lashes out by picking the Indian just to shove it in the face of Amit and Co. I think support for the Indian is generally based less on a real attachment to it, than on a response to the absurdity of people trying to ban it in the first place. It's anti-PC more than pro-Indian.

3) I propose the Granitemen, a la the Syracuse Orangemen. It's tied into the school tradition (think the alma mater), it's unique, and it'll confuse the hell out of everyone else.

4) Shouldn't we be a little more concerned about getting a football team with an actual winning record than about what we'll call it when people start going to the games again?

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Alexander at 1:47 PM (0 comments)

Re: Mascot Wars

My personal feeling on the moose is that if we adopt it officially, we go all out, which means going the U. of Colorado route and getting a real honest to god moose ala Ralphie the Buffalo. That would actually be sweet, though it would royally piss off the animal rights crowd on campus I'm sure. The absolute worst idea would be to go back to that stupid Bullwinkle ripoff.

Bears and Eagles are much too generic and besides, why would we want to copy Brown or Boston College?. Likewise the Timberwolves is already taken and not generic enough to be ripped off.
Pine Trees is worse than the Big Green.
Mountaineers wouldn't be too bad, nor would the Dragons - though Dragons pales in comparison to the UVM Catamounts in terms of cool mythical figures.
But among the listed choices, Indians would still be the logical choice were it not for the politicalization of this process.

In my opinion, if these are the only choices they should just keep the nickname the Big Green and stay without an official mascot, especially in light of the fact none of the choices got even 30%, let alone 50% or more. The Student Assembly has no idea what they're doing, shocking though that may be, as they don't even know the difference between a team's/school's nickname (Phillies, Yankees, Red Sox, Wildcats, Crimson, etc.) and a mascot (Phillie Fanatic, San Diego Chicken, Herbie Husker, Ralphie, Uga, etc.). Mascots are not necessary, and we already have prefectly acceptable logos in the Block D, the script D (think the hat the baseball team wears), or the college seal/shield (center ice at Thompson Arena).

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Ben at 12:54 PM (0 comments)

From the D

Now this is a thesis:

For some members of the class of 2003, a senior thesis has meant weeks of toil among dusty volumes in Baker library. For seniors like Jillian Powers '03, however, the path to an honors degree has been considerably more exhilarating.
"I did my research on stigma management of a deviant occupation," Powers said. "Basically, I studied strippers."
Powers, Brian Bollinger '03 and Ingrid Biedron '03 are among the over 200 undergraduates who have spent the last several months at work on a senior honors project.
Powers said her thesis focused how rural strippers reconcile their professional lives with their standing as part of a close-knit community. She noted that exotic dancers in rural areas are not able to "blend into the atmosphere," as in urban areas.
"Everyone knows you're a stripper," Powers said.
Powers documented a number of different mechanisms by which rural strippers coped with stigma. Many women chose to live far from their workplace, traveling for as long as two hours to get to work each morning. Some strippers with shorter commutes simply made friends with other exotic dancers.
"If all of your friends are strippers, then it really isn't that bad," Powers said.
The sociology major expressed great satisfaction with her thesis and research.
"My feeling with writing a thesis was that I didn't want something that would bore me," Powers said, "and it worked out really great."

Wonder if she used this classic Review article for her research.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Ryan at 12:30 PM (0 comments)

Re: Great Moments

It certainly pales next to the French understanding of Jew-bashing. Our home-grown anti-Semites have a lot to learn.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Emmett at 10:00 AM (0 comments)

Re: Great Moments in Dartmouth Discourse

I'm not sure either comment is anti-Semitic, though Jewpublican begins to push up towards the line. There's simply something very unsavory about people who constantly claim to be fighting the intolerance of conservatives harping on the ethnicity of a politician they dislike.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Alexander at 9:49 AM (1 comments)

The Mascot Wars

So the Student Assembly held an unofficial poll on the mascot. In a move straight from Bashir al-Assad's playbook on democracy, the Indian was not allowed as an option. Despite this, 19% of respondents -- almost one in five -- chose Chief Wah-Hoo-Wah. Only the sad moose came in with more votes, and the moose has the benefit of quasi-incumbency.

In any vote, when second-place is held by a choice not even offered, it's clear that the poll is not addressing what people want. Likewise, it's clear that SA's vain attempts to cajole the campus into picking something else don't get to the heart of the debate, because they assume that the Indian is a dead letter. It's not.

Can anyone send me the text of the poll? I'd love to see it...

NOTE: As always, I stand by my post on the assumption, perhaps ill-advised, that The Daily Dartmouth has reported accurately.

ALSO: I really think this is encouraging news. I hope The Dartmouth Review still refers to our sports teams as "the Indians." That should not stop, least of all now. If, after twenty years, the Indian still commands the loyalty of one-fifth of Dartmouth students -- even when they are told that their choices won't count -- then we have by no means lost.

What would an honest poll show, I wonder? Probably something like this.

UPDATE It's even better. Seven years ago, in a similar poll, the top three choices were the moose, the dragon, and the "mountaineer," with the Indian receiving just 10%. (No word on how this compares to the other choices, though. Was The D ever any good at reporting?)

Support for the Indian has doubled since then, and the tepid alternatives still can't seem to generate any buzz.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Emmett at 9:47 AM (0 comments)

Thursday, May 22, 2003

Shameless Self-Promotion

If you plan on being on Dartmouth's campus this Monday, Memorial Day, I hope you'll keep your afternoon free. Thanks to the College Republicans, I will be giving a speech on freedom of expression in higher education, with particular emphasis on Dartmouth's rather sorry record. The place and time are to be announced, but I imagine it will be in Rocky somewhere, and I suspect it will be at mid-afternoon. Whatever political tribe you belong to, I would be honored by your presence.

PS -- There are many folks I've sparred with through Dartlog, but whom I don't know in person. If you attend my speech, please introduce yourself to me -- I'd love to meet you in the flesh.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Emmett at 10:20 PM (0 comments)

Re: Great Moments in Dartmouth Discourse

That's not the end of it, Alex. Besides Nick's inexplicable comment and Jared's inexplicable (but predictible and, it appears, anti-Semitic) blather, we have:

Clint Hendler calling Jesse Roisin a "protofascist" for expressing perfectly reasonable conservative views.

Nikhil Gore insinuating that we are irradiating the Afghanis ("Bringing Freedom...And Cancer").

Nikhil, again, lamenting America's reluctance to send peacekeepers (meaning those who keep no such thing) into the morass in the Congo. And lastly,

Graham Roth throwing a Howard Dean quote at the Bush Administration's environmental record.

Anti-Semitic, intolerant, paranoid, hypocritical, and wrong... Yep, that's liberalism!

UPDATE Actually, Nick's comment isn't objectionable. He's wrong that, but for Connecticut's Jews, Lieberman would be a Republican -- he's a moderate, surely, but he's no conservative. However, he may well be right that Connecticut's Jews might not look kindly on a switch, for whatever reason. His statement isn't anti-Semitic.

Jared, on the other hand...

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Emmett at 6:35 PM (0 comments)

Great Moments in Dartmouth Discourse

Nick Duquette:"If you would like to promote women's rights and eliminate prostitution, go take Econ 1 and then get out in the real world and start fixing things. Take Lynne Cheney, Tipper Gore and Joe "I'd be a Republican If That Wouldn't Piss Off My Fellow Connecticut Jews" Lieberman with you."

In the comments, Jared Alessandroni: "You can hide the symptoms, but if you're going to watch the disease grow, I hope it's you who gets killed. [That's specifically for the Jewpublican in Ct. who's never seen the causes, but is afraid when his nephews are tainted by the symptoms.]"

Charming...

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Alexander at 4:13 PM (0 comments)

Re: Ryan's post

Ryan, I think you forgot the letters H-O-L-E in the last word of your post.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Nilanjan at 4:06 PM (0 comments)

Re: Commencement Address

The Rockford paper is publishing emails from people around the country who read about the Hedges speech. This one is my favorite. Too bad we all can't be as enlightened and sensitive as this guy:

* �I have heard that college students generally have been becoming more conservative, and, well, less sophisticated and aware of current events. Living near Harvard and MIT, I don�t get to see these trends. But I guess the dumb, bizarre behavior of Rockford�s graduation class indicates that the �Dumb and Dumber� mentality does indeed exist.�

� Bernie Connelly, Somverville, Mass

What an ass.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Ryan at 12:03 PM (0 comments)

Liberals Congratulate Each Other

I wonder if this prize would ever go to a conservative student. What "isms" can we fight? Here's my favorite line:

"In wearing the signs and just speaking out about these things we're not supposed to talk about -- we're not supposed to talk about racism, we're not supposed to talk about sexuality -- I want to be some sort of inspiration or comfort for the person who feels left out."

Who is he kidding? People won't shut up about these issues...

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Emmett at 9:50 AM (0 comments)

Men's Hockey schedule for 2003-2004

Though this isn't official yet, here's what next season's schedule is setting up to be. From an objective standpoint, it's one helluva schedule, and should be applauded, as Dartmouth takes on pretty much all of the traditional eastern hockey powers in UNH, Maine, BU and BC from Hockey East and of course Harvard and Cornell in ECAC conference play.

However, from a biased fan's point of view - especially as a senior facing his last year of free hockey, this is quite possibly the worst home schedule ever put on paper. The 4 games against the Hockey East powers are all on the road (technically the UNH game is at a neutral venue, but the crowd will be 80-90% pro-UNH). As well, the home game against our travel partner Vermont is on January 2nd, when most students will still be on Winter Break, and for the second straight year Dartmouth will be on the road during Winter Carnival weekend, which would otherwise afford some of the more raucous crowds of the year given the party atmosphere. Plus the Harvard game, which is sure to be huge since we haven't beaten them in 3 years, is one of only 3 home games during the entire fall term, all of which take place during a two week period at the begining of November. Along the same lines, Dartmouth goes two straight months between home games (November 8th vs. Harvard through January 2nd vs. Vermont), which means they could be out of it before they even get their feet under them unless they do much better on the road than they have the last three years.

Obviously, the highlights of the home schedule are the November 8th game against Harvard and the February 7th game against Cornell. And I encourage as many students as possible to goto the UNH game in Manchester on January 13th, as it will likely be the biggest single crowd for any Dartmouth sporting event all year at 11,000 people or so, even if most of them are rooting for the opposition.

Sat 11/01/2003 Holy Cross (nc) 7:00 ET
Fri 11/07/2003 Brown 7:00 ET
Sat 11/08/2003 Harvard 7:00 ET
Fri 11/14/2003 @ Union 7:00 ET
Sat 11/15/2003 @ Rensselaer 7:00 ET
Fri 11/21/2003 @ Yale 7:00 ET
Sat 11/22/2003 @ Princeton 7:00 ET
Tue 11/25/2003 @ Boston College (nc) 7:00 ET
Fri 11/28/2003 @ Boston University (nc) 7:00 ET
Sun 12/14/2003 @ Maine (nc) 2:00 ET
Sat 12/27/2003 vs UMass (nc) 4:00 ET (1)
Sun 12/28/2003 vs Minn State/Vermont (nc) 4:00/7:00 ET (1)
Fri 01/02/2004 Vermont 7:00 ET
Sat 01/10/2004 @ Vermont 7:00 ET
Tue 01/13/2004 vs UNH (nc) 7:00 ET (2)
Fri 01/16/2004 Clarkson 7:00 ET
Sat 01/17/2004 St. Lawrence 7:00 ET
Fri 01/23/2004 @ Colgate 7:00 ET
Sat 01/24/2004 @ Cornell 7:00 ET
Fri 01/30/2004 Rensselaer 7:00 ET
Sat 01/31/2004 Union 7:00 ET
Fri 02/06/2004 Colgate 7:00 ET
Sat 02/07/2004 Cornell 7:00 ET
Fri 02/13/2004 @ SLU 7:00 ET
Sat 02/14/2004 @ Clarkson 7:00 ET
Fri 02/20/2004 Princeton 7:00 ET
Sat 02/21/2004 Yale 7:00 ET
Fri 02/27/2004 @ Harvard 7:00 ET
Sat 02/28/2004 @ Brown 7:00 ET
(1) Auld Lang Syne Tournament in Burlington, VT
(2) Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester, NH

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Ben at 1:29 AM (0 comments)

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Sorry FreePressers...

Dartlog was down this morning due to a temporary glitch. We are, however, back in business.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Ryan at 4:39 PM (0 comments)

Wah-Hoo-Chao

Former Review editor Hugo Restall '92 lands Sen. Mitch McConnell with a piece on his Asian Wall Street Journal editorial page.

One of Washington's first couples, Sen. McConnell is married to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. Her impressive resume includes studies at Dartmouth. Does anyone know the nature of her studies here?

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by alex at 11:37 AM (0 comments)

Monday, May 19, 2003

Re: Penn minority graduation galas

"Often, they don?t receive the same recognition and psychological support as other students at the university."

We should all remember that Penn's black students, denied the recognition of being able to march at the regular, white graduation ceremony, are taking initiative in creating a ceremony of their own, equivalent to that denied them.

Update: Wait, nevermind. They are allowed to march with everyone else. Who knew?

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Andrew Grossman at 1:36 PM (0 comments)

Black matriculation

ChienWen Kung '04 says, "I don't know about separate graduation ceremonies for blacks, but I do know (courtesy of a friend of mine who attended it) that there's a black matriculation in addition to the regular, integrated one."

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by alex at 11:48 AM (0 comments)

Penn minority graduation galas

Troy Blanchard '05 brought this article to my attention.

In this 2001 Review article, Darren Thomas and I discuss Dartmouth's affirmative action, minority recruitment weekends, affinity housing, mailings, and enrichment programs.

Dartmouth's 2003 Commencement schedule of events doesn't include any minority graduation ceremonies. Does anybody know anything to the contrary?

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by alex at 11:17 AM (1 comments)