Sunday, January 31, 2010

Scene Fourteen: Compas

I break with the format of my blog to bring you an article from the D about Dartmouth's performance arts community's response to the tragedy in Haiti. As a member of Hafiz Shabazz's World Music Percussion Ensemble, I was among the hundreds who made up this mega show.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Scene Thirteen: Terry Tempest Williams

Eight East Wheelockers, myself included, are poised around Professor Susan Brison's living room in the White House, attent on Terry Tempest Williams.
"You said, sort of in passing, that you always tell your students not to apologize," I say in reference to last night's public lecture, "What do you think the role of the apology in our lives should be?"






There is a term at Dartmouth to describe those times that define your experience here. They are the things that you will remember long after the grade from your First-Year Seminar fades from memory. We call them "Dartmouth Moments." The answer that Terry Tempest Williams gave is one of those moments.
I will not even try to recapture the eloquence with which she spoke, but know that her words were life-changing. I don't use cliches lightly.
If you followed the link of Mrs. Williams' name above, then you know that she is on campus as one of Winter term's Montgomery Fellows and Professors. I had the pleasure of being required by my Writing 5 professor, Nancy Crumbine, to attend Mrs. Williams' lecture at Tuck earlier in the week. By its end, several streams of tears had left tracks on my cheeks, and I was not among the minority. For an hour (or more?) she suspended time with her finely spun stream of words. Through tales of triumph and tales of tribulation, she reminded us what it is to live. Then, with the quick precision of an expert seamstress, she cut us free.

Dartmouth is nothing without its people, and oh what people it has.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Scene Twelve: Mahna Mahna

"Mahna Mahna, doo doo doo doo doo..."





Sometimes even something as enjoyable as writing to you is too time-consuming. Today is one of those times. So, listen to Cake. I promise its what I'm doing as I write out my life story in Arabic.


Thursday, January 21, 2010

Scene Eleven: Advance Transit

"Clear!" barks a wizened bus driver as he signals for new passengers to board. I step into warm relief from the biting breeze and name my stop, "DHMC."





Advance Transit is the Upper Valley's free public transportation system. Routes run to Lebanon, Norwich, White River Junction, and several other nearby towns as well as to DHMC, the Route 12A Plazas, and all parts of campus. For students like me, sans automobile, it is the only way to get around without spending on a taxi. To be fair, the local taxi companies are run by friendly (however shrewd) people and are reasonably priced, but a free alternative is alway trump to me. The only catch is that the buses don't run on weekends. At all. Ever.
For me, this is a disabling catch. On weekdays I am often busy from 7am until 6pm and the buses stop running between six and seven. Even if I have time to get a bus to somewhere, I have no way of getting back.. other than a taxi. I am very grateful for the bus system, but I would like to see it more accommodating of my college schedule.


Monday, January 18, 2010

Scene Ten: Sunrises

"Good mornin', GOOD MORNIN'! It's great to stay up late!"
The refrains of Gene Kelly's old ditty trip through my half-conscious mind at 6:45am as I tumble out of bed and stumble to the shower...






The mornings at Dartmouth? They're uniformly gorgeous.













At Dartmouth, very rarely does a class begin before 9:00am. I am one of the thirteen students this term to take the only class that begins at 8:00am, Arabic II (Beginning Arabic) with Professor Jamila Chahboun. Oh, well. If we didn't have to get up for class we'd have to get up for drill.



All photographs © Callista Womick 2010

Friday, January 15, 2010

Scene Nine: Lay-Offs

Wrapped against the biting New Hampshire winter, I rush from Andres to Courtyard Cafe to grab a hummus wrap and an orange. As I near the crosswalk, I see a crowd of people in front of the Hop, braving the cold to hold high their picket signs...





If you are not familiar with Dartmouth's planned budget cuts, read President Kim's letter to the community about it.

The faces in the crowd were familiar. I saw FO&M employees, Collis staff, and DDS workers. I stopped to speak with them. What brought them together was a common fear of losing their jobs. Most people present were members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), but the College refuses to bring them to the table for budget cut talks. While I am not familiar with the niceties of employment law and union rights, my morals tell me that Dartmouth is in the wrong.

SEIU members outside of the Hop
© Callista Womick 2010

Their presence was concurrent with President Kim's second public forum on Dartmouth's finances. As I stood with the protesters, he approached on his way to Alumni Hall (in the Hop). He stopped briefly to talk and the crowd remained civil. Despite my daunting homework load and impending meeting at DHMC for the Dartmouth Ears, I dashed to Collis Commonground to watch the proceedings on the overflow screen. Although my schedule only allowed me to stay for an hour, I was disappointed by the part that I was able to see. It was little more than a recap of his previous forum and just as vague. The two new details that I gleaned were that Thayer will be renovated and renamed the Class of 1953 Commons (as opposed to constructing a new dining hall for which the $12 million donation from the class of 1953 was originally intended) and budget cuts may or may not affect financial aid. Despite the redundancy of this presentation, I was disappointed by how few people were in Commonground. Faculty outnumbered students by far, and I'm not sure that the only other students weren't there because they were reporting for various campus publications. Don't my peers recognize the long-term repercussions that the decisions made within the next few weeks will have?

Where will we go from here? I'm not sure, but it doesn't look good.

Commonground, almost empty during President Kim's budget forum
© Callista Womick 2010

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Scene Eight: Fire and Ice

Fire and Ice

"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."

~Robert Frost





Guided by Professor Crumbine, my Writing 5 class spent over half an hour today contemplating the niceties of Frost's classic. Beyond the universal implications of romance and religion, though, the imagery of this poem resonated with two campus events from earlier in the week.
On Sunday, a fire sent residents of Phi Delta Theta out into the snow. They watched as their possessions were consumed by flames and ruined by water damage. A more complete story and photos can be found at The Dartmouth's report on the event. Almost immediately, campus organizations banded together to help provide the brothers with necessities such as winter-wear and towels through donations from the student body. Dozens of Blitzes sent within hours of the fire and collection boxes established in the entrances of many buildings that day attest to the quality of Dartmouth's community.
Also over the weekend, the brothers at Chi Heorot attempted to build an ice rink in the yard behind their house. The rink was constructed of compressed wood sides and clear plastic sheeting. As no tape or other sealants were used, all the would-be ice flowed out and formed a treacherous sheet around the geographic low point- the back exit of Andres. There are now wood planks upon which to cross the ice, but suspiciously proximate rolls of duct tape and new layers of black plastic sheeting suggest that the brothers might be gearing up for round two. This, too, attests to the quality of Dartmouth's community.
Was Frost perhaps watching all this from his perch in College Park and reciting to himself, "Some say..."?

The attempted ice rink behind Chi Heorot
To the left Andres, in the middle The White House, to the right Chi Heorot 

© Callista Womick 2010

Monday, January 11, 2010

Scene Seven: DPP Retreat

(The frozen surface of Lake Morey. A breeze sharpens the fangs of the biting air. Teams of Dartmouth students attending the Diversity Peer Leadership Program (DPP) weekend retreat race down a smoothed stretch of ice on kicksleds.





Following the advice of my UGA and one of my trip leaders, before winter break I applied to participate in DPP. I delighted at the blitz that informed me I was among the thirty-or-so students chosen. One of the group's goals is to educate the Dartmouth community, students in particular, about diversity and social justice in order to bring about positive changes on campus. But that sounds so abstract, doesn't it? After returning to campus I began to get cold feet about giving what constituted an entire weekend (Friday at 4pm to Sunday at 3pm) to a program about which I knew relatively little.
Would I know anyone? Would it be stuffily academic and PC? Would I learn anything at all? These, and other wonderings, troubled me. That is, until I joined the group in the lobby of the Hop.
I'd just dropped my backpack into a melee of other bags and assumed my "this is rather awkward" posture when a voice rose above a tangle of bodies to my right,
"All Penguins must waddle to the bus!"
The voice belonged to Sharang Biswas, a '12 who, I later learned, had completed training to become a Diversity Peer Adviser; he was one of the facilitators responsible for guiding new DPPers through the weekend's activities and discussions. The group was bisected into Polar Bears and Penguins and encouraged not to interact with members of the other species. "Not very social-justicey," we chuckled.
A thirty-minute bus ride, Hulbert Outdoor Center orientation, and heartfelt rendition of "Baby Got Back" later, we Penguins were hunched over spiral bound notebooks trying to define words like "prejudice," "discrimination," and "-ism." Guided discussions later revealed that our group had a dynamic openness, an implicit trust, that enriched the process with anecdotes and admissions.
Though I was raised in a way that exposed me to people of many faiths, ethnicities, sexual orientations, classes, and abilities, the area in which I grew up was largely lacking the acceptance of diversity that I found here at Dartmouth. In comparison to home, the college seemed like the epitome of unified diversity. A weekend with OPAL staff and DPP facilitators, though, revealed a different campus. From the intrinsic sexism of Dartmouth's Greek system to campus buildings accessible (or inconveniently accessible) to people with disabilities, there are many ways in which our community can by improved that I now recognize.
Attending DPP was an intense, eye-opening experience. Where do I go from here? Hopefully I can train to become a Diversity Peer Adviser, just like Sharang kept us laughing throughout. Hopefully, I can encourage other Dartmouth students to participate as well, just like my friends did for me. Surely, I can begin working on making Dartmouth a safer place for all people.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Scene Six: SNOW!

(A room in Andres. Around me are strewn text books, articles of clothing, Sharpies, dishes, and syllabuses. It is the first week of classes.)





This will be brief, nearly wordless in fact. I'm busy beyond belief, off to a Diversity Peer Leadership Program retreat this weekend- I simply haven't time to convey any insight beyond the visual right now. So, enjoy a few shots of what Dartmouth looks like with a blanket of snow.

To the left New Hampshire Hall and to the right Wilson Hall.
© Callista Womick 2010


By the entrance to Silsby Hall
© Callista Womick 2010


To the left Baker-Berry Library, in the middle Rollins Chapel, in the right foreground Thornton Hall, and in the right background Dartmouth Hall
© Callista Womick 2010