Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Dartmouth: Kantaria, Danford win Student Assembly elections

Shared from The Dartmouth:
After a close and highly contested election, Suril Kantaria '13 and Julia Danford '13 were elected the new Student Assembly president and vice president, respectively. A total of 2,239 people voted in this year's Assembly election, a 574-vote increase from last year's election, according to Election Planning and Advisory Committee chair Richard Stephenson '12.

Kantaria received 716 votes, defeating Erin Klein '13 with 705 votes, J.T. Tanenbaum '13 with 701 votes, Rachel Wang '13 with 335 votes and Max Hunter '13 with 281 votes. Danford received 774 votes, defeating Sahil Joshi '13 with 759 votes, Callista Womick '13 with 389 votes and Troy Dildine '13 with 368 votes.

Kantaria said he is excited about the victory and is eager to begin his role as president of the Assembly.

"I am thrilled to hear that Julia and I won, and I am really excited to begin implementing our platform on reform," he said.

Kantaria and Danford ran together on an official ticket in the election, though students voted for presidential and vice-presidential candidates individually.

Danford said she was "humbled" by a victory against so many qualified candidates.

"It really was an honor to be in such a close race with so many very accomplished and worthy running mates," she said.

Kantaria and Danford said they plan to begin implementing changes to the Assembly as soon as possible.

"Julia and I really want to jump right into some of our promises and platforms and work closely with both [current Student Body President Max Yoeli '12 and current Student Body Vice President Amrita Sankar '12] to ensure a seamless transition," Kantaria said.

Kantaria is not sure of the "details" about when the transfer of power will occur but plans to discuss the "best way to have an effective transition" with Yoeli and Sankar soon, he said.

"We want to change the structure of [the Assembly] and create liaisons from different groups on campus so we actually have a functioning [Assembly] with a revitalized membership," he said.

In addition to reaching out to campus leaders and bringing them into the Assembly, Danford and Kantaria plan to bring back the Assembly's Course Guide and begin working on a freshman mentorship program, that will aim to "ease the transition" to Dartmouth by pairing them with an upperclassman with similar interests, Danford said.

"The goal of that program is really to have freshmen paired up with a peer, an upperclassman peer, who would ideally be able to help them and guide them through their first year and beyond," she said.

The marked increase in voter turnout in this year's election is likely the result of the larger number of candidates and "active participants" in almost all of the races, Stephenson said.

"I think all the races were very competitive," he said.

Because more people ran in the election, it "hit a more diverse pool" of people on campus, encouraging many to vote, Stephenson said.

Although this year's election included more candidates and inspired more students to vote, it was less controversial than last year's Assembly elections.

"This year was more docile but more contested," EPAC advisor Eric Ramsey said.

Stephenson said that the close results of this year's election are not unusual. Because the approval voting system allows voters to vote for multiple candidates, people are not "forced to choose" between their friends, and candidates can glean votes from the same constituency, he said.

Student body presidential candidate Tanenbaum said that Kantaria deserved his victory and commended all of the candidates on their work throughout the campaigning process.

"It's obvious that all the candidates ran a very solid campaign," he said. "I think Suril worked very hard, and he deserves every success that he has achieved."

Klein said she hopes Kantaria and Danford will consider the comments made by all the candidates at the four debates held during the week of campaigning.

"I think we've seen a lot of passion over the past week, and I hope that it doesn't go to waste," she said.

Wang also said she hopes the positive ideas brought out during the campaigning process will be enacted.

"I personally felt very inspired while running, and I hope we can accomplish some of what we've said during the past week," she said.

Vice-presidential candidate Joshi said that all of the candidates expressed similar visions of improving the College during the campaigning process and should continue to work to bring their visions to fruition.

"We're all on the same team in terms of all wanting to improve Dartmouth," he said. "I'm just hoping that that kind of mentality continues, that we all work toward that whether or not we have a position."

Dildine said that "whoever is elected is elected for a reason," noting that he will continue to be actively involved in the Assembly over the coming year. Womick also said she will continue to work on addressing "the problems that I want to tackle during my last year here."

"I will still be doing all the things that I promised I would do during my campaigning, and I hope that Suril and Julia can honestly say the same," she said.

Georgia Travers '13 was elected 2013 Class Council president and Ben Newton '13 was elected 2013 Class Council vice president in the elections. Chisom Obi-Okoye '14 and Gina Greenwalt '14 will serve as 2014 Class Council president and vice president, respectively, and Emmanuel Kim '15 and Justin Sha '15 will serve as 2015 Class Council president and vice president, respectively.

Yoeli declined to comment on the results of the election. Hunter could not be reached by press time.

The election was held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Dada poetry from the Admissions Office

In a message sent to the entire student body by the Admissions Office today at 2:48pm, some intern decided to take advantage of his or her clerical privileges to promote the following Dada poem:

ℼ佄呃偙⁅呈䱍倠䉕䥌⁃ⴢ⼯㍗⽃䐯䑔䠠䵔⁌⸴‰牔湡楳楴湯污⼯久㸢਍䠼䵔㹌䠼䅅㹄吼呉䕌㰾启呉䕌ാ㰊䕍䅔栠瑴⵰煥極㵶潃瑮湥⵴祔数挠湯整瑮∽整瑸栯浴㭬挠 慨獲瑥甽楮潣敤㸢਍䴼呅⁁潣瑮湥㵴䴢䡓䵔⁌⸶〰㘮〰⸰㜱〱∹渠浡㵥䕇䕎䅒佔㹒⼼䕈䑁ാ㰊佂奄ാ㰊㹐渦獢㭰⼼㹐⼼佂奄㰾䠯䵔㹌਍

Which, in (Google) translation, reads:

π Han uh Di was Sui Bo Yu Mei Shi Tang sewage long roar Kure Kai Kure Ren JueHuan very the entire Li the Address Litu Fushunaotang Zhengbinyouyu scratch generous won Wen the the Quan the mulberry Min using Wen Minli the Tu ⁌ ⸶ DrainageThe the gushing accounted Zheng suddenly vortex Xiao Zheng suddenly

Brilliant.

Someone else came along at around 4pm to try to clear away the situation, writing "**We apologize for the previous email if you received a blank or unreadable message.  We had a power outage during the sending.**" and appending a more business-as-usual correspondence. I prefer my hypothesis, however, and salute the (possibly fictional) intern responsible. Just because you no longer have a job with Admissions doesn't mean that you're unemployable. I hear that Dartmouth is on the lookout for its next Robert Frost.

Friday, April 13, 2012

The Dartmouth: SA Candidates talk Greek issues

(Even though they didn't report on any of my thoughtful remarks) shared from The Dartmouth:
Student Assembly presidential and vice-presidential candidates participated in the third of four scheduled debates at Sigma Delta sorority on Thursday night, discussing the aspects of the Greek system that they think make it essential to campus life as well as ways they would seek to improve it in the future.

Most of the debate's questions were directed to presidential candidates Max Hunter '13, Suril Kantaria '13, Erin Klein '13, J.T. Tanenbaum '13 and Rachel Wang '13, though vice-presidential candidates Julia Danford '13, Troy Dildine '13, Sahil Joshi '13, James Lee '13 and Callista Womick '13 also took part.

Shortly after the debate concluded, Lee announced his decision to withdraw from the race.

"Having reflected and talked to various people and friends, I've started to see what I want my senior year to look like," Lee said. "I no longer feel that the vice president position is in my best interest."

Thursday's debate was hosted by the Greek Leadership Council. The debate moderators, former Panhellenic Council president Ellie Sandmeyer '12 and Greek Leadership Council moderator Duncan Hall '13, asked the candidates about the role of Greek life on campus and their ideas to address the problems of exclusion, binge drinking, sexual assault and violence associated with the Greek system.

Greek organization presidents asked the candidates questions in person or submitted their questions to the moderators before the event, and there was a brief opportunity for the audience to ask questions at the end of the debate. By the debate's 6 p.m. start time, the audience filled the first floor seating of Sigma Delt, and latecomers were forced to stand in the back or crowd the entryway.

All five of the presidential candidates are affiliated with a fraternity or sorority, while three of the five vice-presidential candidates identified themselves as affiliated.

The presidential candidates agreed that Greek organizations provide a social space for affiliated and unaffiliated students to enjoy and create strong bonds between members. While they said that the fundamental system is not flawed, candidates argued that there needs to be an emphasis on increasing accountability, transparency and respect among those who choose to participate in Greek life.

"We need to ensure that we're staying true to the values of community," Klein said. "We should award houses for having the highest [grade point averages] and philanthropy hours."

Presidential candidates were careful to note the Assembly's limited jurisdiction in dealing with the problems in the Greek system and instead emphasized the need for house leadership to take on these tasks.

Hunter, Kantaria and Wang advocated for more sorority houses on campus to make the Greek system less male-dominated. Klein disagreed, arguing that the solution to the problems created by gender-specific spaces would not be solved by creating more of these spaces. Tanenbaum focused on the need to increase ongoing education within the houses about these issues, a focus that other candidates then jumped to affirm as well.

Hunter emphasized the problems posed by national sororities, which do not allow open parties for the whole community to attend.

"We need to get rid of the ridiculous ban on local sororities and support more physical plants for new houses," he said.

Wang argued for more non-Greek spaces such as the one currently being designed in the basement of the Class of 1953 Commons and discouraged her fellow candidates from labeling these spaces "alternative."

Hunter, however, argued that Wang's plan would probably not work because these spaces will not attract students under the legal drinking age.

When the presidential candidates were asked about what aspect of the Greek system they would change, the candidates generally agreed that Greek houses should increase their mechanisms for internal accountability. The candidates noted, however, that administrative positions are already in place for Greek system oversight.

"It's not the role for [the Assembly] to govern the Greek system," Tanenbaum said. "We need to get the GLC, [Inter-Fraternity Council] and Panhell more involved in individual houses through using outreach to work with Greek students and emphasizing education programs."

Kantaria stressed similar points and said that Greek houses should focus on developing their own standards for acceptable behavior by establishing a code of conduct within their house.

Klein was alone in suggesting that the Assembly play a part in applying social pressure to Greek organizations that have a record of breaking College policy instead of relying on existing Greek policies and general College administrators.

Klein's suggestion was met with rebuttals from Hunter and Tanenbaum.

The candidates agreed that the Assembly could play a greater role in advertising the variety of Greek organizations on campus, citing the limited information that freshmen received about houses that were not seen as being "mainstream."

Kantaria took this point further by emphasizing his plan to have liaisons from various Greek organizations attend Assembly meetings a suggestion that other candidates compared to a similar, failed plan by former Assembly President Eric Tanner '11.

Instead of establishing liaison positions, Tanenbaum discussed the need to increase communication and dialogue among Greek organization leaders.

"We need to come together to talk about issues we all face," Tanenbaum said. "I've talked to a lot of people in leadership positions, and they say that they don't feel like they know anyone else running groups across campus."

Candidates were asked how they would react if they found a letter describing plans for future hazing by a student group on campus. Wang, Kantaria and Klein said that they would quickly take action to contact the relevant group's leader to follow up on the situation.

Hunter and Tanenbaum said they would be careful to try to understand the context of the situation before acting.

"On paper, hazing looks very black and white," Hunter said. "But hazing is not a catch-all. It's not about wearing funny clothes."

Tanenbaum said that any member of the College community, not just the Assembly president, should be impelled to act in such a situation.

Upon resigning, Lee said that the other candidates all "bring their own capabilities to the table." Although he has not decided to endorse a candidate, Lee said that experience on the Assembly will be especially important to a successful presidency.

"The candidates need to critically examine the proposals that they have made to see if they are feasible within [the Assembly] and can be met in their three terms," Lee said. "Given the general lack of [Assembly] experience, it's even more important that a presidential candidate have experience because its likely he is going to need to train his VP."

Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Dartmouth: Assembly hosts first of debates

Shared from The Dartmouth:

Photo by Nathan Yeo | Callista Womick 5th from Right
Student Assembly presidential and vice-presidential candidates participated in the first of four scheduled debates on Tuesday, focusing their discussion on the Assembly's inefficiencies and their plans to address them.

Presidential candidates Max Hunter '13, Suril Kantaria '13, Erin Klein '13, J.T. Tanenbaum '13 and Rachel Wang '13 and vice-presidential candidates Julia Danford '13, Troy Dildine '13, Sahil Joshi '13, James Lee '13 and Callista Womick '13 attended the debate.

Elise Smith '13, who did not attend the debate, said she has withdrawn from the presidential race. She said she rescinded her candidacy after determining that the Assembly is not the best "outlet" for her to effect change on campus.

Smith said she "deeply cares" about the Dartmouth community and plans to continue to address issues that affect the student body. She has not endorsed another candidate at this time.

The debate began with short introductions by the candidates, who described their activities on campus. During the question-and-answer portion of the debate, each presidential and vice-presidential candidate was given 35 seconds to answer questions posed by either audience members or the moderators, Ben Ludlow '12 and Rohail Premjee '14. Candidates also had the option of providing 15-second rebuttals.

The presidential candidates all said the role of president has not been effectively used to represent the entire student body and suggested a number of ways to rectify this problem.

Klein said she hopes to hold "leadership summits" that bring together community leaders from across campus to form "community standards" and recommendations for the administration, while Hunter said that student satisfaction should be "paramount" to administrative decision-making.

"We need to continue saying we are not satisfied until the administration listens," Hunter said.

Wang said that the Assembly must increase transparency in order to bring "information back to the students." The Assembly should hold office hours and update its website more frequently, she said.

Tanenbaum said he plans to reach out to campus groups and use the Assembly as a forum to advocate for their needs. The current practice of asking representatives to attend Assembly meetings has not worked in the past, he said.

"We need to say, We're going to send representatives to you,'" he said.

Kantaria disagreed with Tanenbaum's proposal and said that the small size of the Assembly would place an undue burden on its members if they were required to attend campus group meetings.

A campus-wide survey to gather student opinions on changes made to the dining plan was the Assembly's greatest accomplishment this year, according to Hunter, Wang and Kantaria, though Hunter said the Assembly could have more thoroughly addressed the results and pressured the administration to enact real change.

The Assembly should seek to improve its advocacy in order to "actually get change to happen," Wang said.

Klein said the Assembly's greatest strength is its potential to be used as a mechanism for support and advocacy, a potential that it is not currently utilizing effectively.

Tanenbaum said the Assembly's greatest achievement has been its increased effort to collaborate with the administration. Hunter, however, argued that the administration had not effectively responded to student feedback.

In response, Klein said that "it's easy to keep blaming our administration" for the problems the student body is facing, but many student issues, such as sexual assault and hazing, must be tackled by students.

Wang also said that "a lot of the responsibility is on us," noting that the student body must also be held accountable for campus issues.

Whereas the president focuses his or her attention outward, the vice president is most responsible for the internal organization of the Assembly, vice-presidential candidates said.

The vice president should actively reach out to student groups "on their ground" to get them more involved in the Assembly, Womick said.

"We don't really have an active [Assembly]," she said. "People don't really take it seriously. They don't go to it."

Lee said that the key role of the vice president is to "look internally" at the organization of the Assembly to consider where change is necessary. Lee's experience as a member of the Assembly since his freshman year places him in the best position to "effectualize that promise," he said.

Danford emphasized the importance of membership both obtaining and retaining members in the Assembly. The vice president should be "friendly and outgoing" in order to make people comfortable, she said.

Dildine agreed that the vice president needs to establish a community within the Assembly to ensure that the environment is "fun and safe." The vice president should also play a role in ensuring that there are voting representatives from each campus organization present at meetings, he said.

Joshi said he agreed with the other candidates' sentiment that the Assembly has been ineffective thus far. Many Assembly committees are unnecessary because similar, more effective organizations already exist, he said.

"There's a lot of redundancy in what [the Assembly] does and what a lot of campus organizations do," he said.

Presidential and vice-presidential candidates also said that the Assembly has not been using its budget effectively.

The organization spends money on "silly, frivolous things" like excessive food at poorly attended meetings, and it still maintains a $40,000 budget surplus, Klein said.

Wang, who said her work on the Council on Student Organizations has made her "passionate" about the budget, said the Assembly should spend money on areas of campus that currently lack funding.

Following the debate, all five presidential candidates said they were satisfied but noted the difficulty of the time constraints posed by the large number of candidates.

"I think that with so many candidates, it's difficult for everyone to have a significant amount of time to address the questions," Kantaria said. "It was often difficult to express all my thoughts."

Hannah Decker '13, who attended the debate to support Kantaria and Danford and out of "general interest" in the other candidates, said she was happy to see so many candidates attend the debate, even if the number is "a little unwieldy."

"I actually think it's really powerful," she said. "It's inspiring that so many students want to take a leadership role."

She said the debate's focus on the "dysfunctional" nature of the Assembly, rather than on the candidates and concrete issues, was disappointing.

Patrick Campbell '15, an active member of the Assembly, said he would have preferred to hear more "specific" ideas instead of the broad goals outlined by the candidates, though the nature of the candidates' statements was influenced by the time restrictions.

The debate, sponsored by the Assembly and the Elections Planning and Advisory Committee, was held in Paganucci Lounge in the Class of 1953 Commons on Tuesday afternoon. The Afro-American Society and Inter-Community Council will host a diversity-focused debate tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Cutter-Shabazz Hall. A third debate will be held on Thursday night, and The Dartmouth will host a debate on Friday. Voting will take place on Monday, April 16 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Dartmouth: Assembly candidates prepare to campaign

Shared from The Dartmouth:
In addition to the previously announced candidates, Callista Womick '13 is running for the vice-presidential position. Womick, a studio art major from North Carolina, said she hopes to make the Assembly more effective at bringing campus together to "discuss issues that are important to our community."

If elected, Womick said she will reach out to student groups across campus by attending meetings herself, and she said she hopes to create a fund for "social events" that bring these groups together.

Womick has no formal experience with the Assembly, but she has worked as a student coordinator of the Diversity Peer Program through the Office of Pluralism and Leadership.
They neglected to mention me in the initial candidate article, so I got a mention all to myself. Cool?

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Something We Can Do Better

At the very least there's something we can do better because when I walk across campus they avert their eyes and check nonexistent text messages and become very interested in distant scenery and even when I catch them looking and catch them not looking away and catch them with a smile they don't smile back, not usually anyway, and I know that it's because they're here because I don't do that at home at home at home I would stop to speak with a stranger for five minutes about the weather and our families and whatever is important to us in the moment and sure it's just a different kind of superficiality but at least it's a warm, human superficiality that nods to the fact that there are two people existing with worries and loves and hungers and they're going to see each other for this moment even if they never see each other again and you can make your comments about racism and homophobia and ignorance, I won't refute them, but when I brought my girlfriend to my grandparent's weekly family dinner they hugged her and said they hoped to see her again and they meant it, and even though they didn't know that underneath the tablecloth I stroked her nervous hand and used my fingertips to kiss away the knowledge that if I kissed her with my lips they would turn stormy and talk about God or, worse, change the subject entirely because did you hear that the Cox boy graduated from law school and, bless his heart, is now playing social with Wes Kivett who we all know has been heavy on the bottle for years but at least he's at church every Sunday morning and was at the Kiwanis pancake supper but they were kind to her because that's how they were raised and that's how I was raised and as long as we don't talk about unpleasant things we can pretend that they don't exist but here they know that the unpleasant things exist, they know and they see them everywhere like a house isn't just a house, it's where one or two or dozens of our sisters were raped and President Kim playing baseball on the Green isn't just President Kim playing baseball on the Green, it's a photo shoot cover-up to make the front page instead of the dozens of students decrying an unfair meal plan and that's just the way things are, the way things are, we don't like it but who are we to say otherwise will it be linked to our name and if it's linked to our name will it hurt our chances of getting a bid, a vote, a job will it keep us from being successful will we ever be successful because six digits isn't good enough if you can get seven so you better stick to that diet keep your hair clean not laugh too loudly join the right house know the right people work hard play hard and be happy about it because if you're not happy with this then there's something wrong with you, this is it this is privilege there are millions of people who would kill to have your looks, your skin, your mind, your education, your status, your life so if it doesn't make you happy you're an ungrateful fuck you're everything that's wrong with this place you should man up shut up and just get out of the way and THAT'S NOT RIGHT that's not how it works that's not how people are made we're all different and unique and beautiful so if you have a passion for consultingfinance, fine, do it if it makes you happy rush if it makes you happy hookup black out and graduate if it makes you happy, but if it doesn't then don't stand for it you can do better you deserve better you deserve happiness, yes you do, you don't have to prove anything or repay anyone you can just grow a beard be a teacher drop out get married kiss boys eat lasagna cut your hair wear tennis shoes study Greek say "no" say a prayer quit your thesis quit your job join the army write poetry wear makeup transfer and go to bed at 10pm every night if it makes you happy, but you can't go on doing those things that you 'should' 'ought' 'must' because when you pass me on the sidewalk you look away because you don't want me to see who you are or what you could be you want to be seen on your own determined terms but me passing you on the sidewalk isn't in the script so you look away and it isn't fine but I'm going to smile anyway because I'm a person and you're a person and for that moment we're together it's intimate, your castaway glance tells me more than you would in twosome solitude and I want to tell you back that it's not right for you to feel that way, that it's ok to hurt and be unsure and look at me, that you're so goddamn beautiful that there is another way that it isn't as hard as you think to smile back. But I understand because I stopped smiling when I came here and I averted my eyes and checked nonexistent text messages and became very interested in distant scenery and when I caught them looking I was terrified I'd quicken my pace I'd stumble and sometimes smile back but always too late for them to see it because everything moves so fast here that it's easy to miss a smile, a moment, a month and it's easy to not learn a thing in 10 weeks to not see a friend for 10 months to be too ground down and worn out to raise a whisper when shady politics play out across the front page to be broken by the load of unanswered questions and unquestioned answers and at the end of the day say "Fuck it I'm going out" because it's better to pretend not to be unhappy among strangers it's easier it's the scene and you'll probably lament the dominance of the Greek system at some point but not now and not loudly because at the end of the day it's easier to play pong than politics and if anyone thinks that the only thing keeping the system standing are it's richpowerful alumni with their fingers in everything and money where it counts then anyone hasn't witnessed the joke that is GLOS defending the upstanding principles of brotherhood and sisterhood when Giaconne comes knocking because another underage swimming recruit was sent to DHMC with alcohol poisoning and yes, I'm in a house, and yes, I love it, but if I thought the system were the cause of the problem rather than an amalgamation of its symptoms then I would tear my house down brick by brick and see all the others down, too, but the houses aren't to blame, I guess, any more than you or I because they're just the manifestations of their constituent parts and I used to not smile just like you and it felt low and dirty and ugly and sometimes my hands would sweat in my pockets because I knew they knew I wasn't looking at them and I knew it made them feel just as it made me feel when they didn't look at me and I didn't want them to feel that way I wanted to tell them that they were the most inspiring intelligent passionate people I've ever known, that they were beautiful and whole and graceful even in their gracelessness but they looked away so I learned to look away because we're all pretty socially awkward here and we all want so desperately to fit in that we'll ignore one another to do it and we do and I did but I don't anymore because it felt wrong and cruel and cold and that's not the way that I was raised and sure it's a different kind of superficiality but at least it's warm, human superficiality that nods to us in the moment, existing with worries and loves and hungers and at the very least there's something we can do better: we can smile.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

I'm Back

After nearly a year without posts and longer than that without quality posts, I've decided to return to this project for my remaining year at Dartmouth. I can't promise that everything I have to say will be complimentary, but I can promise that it will be candid. Soon.