Interview with Richard Asala '13

Excerpt from my April 18 interview with Richard Asala '13:

Callista Womick: Ok, so, big question: How do you think being at Dartmouth has changed you?

Richard Asala: I think—and sometimes I find it difficult to admit it to myself—but I think being at Dartmouth has taught me to be less idealistic than I am—than I was, let’s
put it that way. Because I just, I don’t know—my experiences here have shown me how being practical about some things gets things done. Something like networking, something like getting contacts, having people push you in the business world, for example. That showed me that—I mean, you can sit down and say that everything has to be fair, you have to do this this way and you have to do everything by merit, and all that, but then if no one else works in that same way, you wouldn’t get what you want. And you need to, you know, get what you want ‘cause that’s what’s important— that’s the bottom line in most cases.

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Dartmouth Community and Dartmouth’s World is an ongoing oral history project that launched in 2012. The project’s goal is to document the changing nature of the Dartmouth community in the second half of the twentieth century with an emphasis on the concept of the insider and outsider and how those roles and perceptions change for various constituencies over time. Narrators will include members of the Dartmouth community from 1945 to the present, representing a broad spectrum of voices and perspectives.

Interview with Karen Afre '12

Excerpt from my April 17 interview with Karen Afre '12:

Callista Womick: What would you say makes a difference being woman on
campus from being a man, other than just the spaces? Although that’s a big part of it.

Karen Afre: That’s definitely a big part of it. But, like, even looking at our professors, like, specific departments all have male professors. It was just very different for me being from an all-girl high school. I think maybe we had three male teachers. And so I wasn’t really used to learning from a male professor. And so I know it’s been really hard for a lot of my friends, too, majoring in the sciences or majoring in engineering not to have many female professors.

And then even class dynamics. In a lot of the upper level science courses, it’s, like, maybe you’ll have two or three women in the class, and that’s pretty much it.

Womick: Yeah.

Afre:  Yeah. So it’s just—it’s just been so different. So when I applied here, I didn’t know that Dartmouth had just gone co-ed—this is, like the forty—forty years of coeducation, so wehad a conference and that’s it. [Laughs.] Like, there’s nothing else on the student side. But I have that in the works. I’ve been speaking with a couple of other students, and I think we might be doing this panel in the fall, kind of like Dartmouth women through the decades.

Womick: Oh, cool!

Afre: Yeah. So I started the planning for that way too late, so it’s not realistic to do it this term, so I think we’re going to postpone it. We’ll see what happens. But I’m going off topic. [Laughs.]

Womick: No, this is good.

Afre: No, no, no. What was the original question? Oh, yeah. So I was talking about professors and, like, class dynamics. Yeah. And so I didn’t know it had only been forty years. So it blew my mind when I actually sat down and thought about it. I remember
wearing Dartmouth rugby gear. And one of our warm-up suits was sponsored by the Originals, the first class of Dartmouth women who played rugby. And then I saw the
date on it, and I was, like, Whoa! Like, that was so recent! [Laughter.]

But just, like, little things. Or even when older alums come back and they want to sing “The Men of Dartmouth” song, which is the alma mater. And, I remember, kind of like cringing at that and just being, like, “Wait, wait! What song are you talking about? ‘The Men of Dartmouth’ song?” And them just being, “Oh, no, we have women now. Let’s sing the Dartmouth song.”

I would be curious to—I kind of wish I had—I mean, this statement’s not coming out right. Not that I wish that I’d gone to another school, but I wish I could know how it’s like going to another school that went co-ed a long, long time ago and not just forty years ago.

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Dartmouth Community and Dartmouth’s World is an ongoing oral history project that launched in 2012. The project’s goal is to document the changing nature of the Dartmouth community in the second half of the twentieth century with an emphasis on the concept of the insider and outsider and how those roles and perceptions change for various constituencies over time. Narrators will include members of the Dartmouth community from 1945 to the present, representing a broad spectrum of voices and perspectives.

a few suggestions

Make the Seuss Room actually Seuss-esque. Right now it's downright disappointingly dull.

Expand financial aid to cover PE classes, extra course fees (for Studio Art materials, labs, and other classes), and text books. These are all required aspects of academics and should be considered part of tuition. 

Require all students to work at least 10 hours per week. Some students have a far greater academic and social advantage because they need not work. Other students are at a disadvantage because they must work. Part-time campus jobs build responsibility and discipline, offer additional learning experiences, and provide opportunities to work with Dartmouth faculty and administrators. Let's level the playing field a little, at least time-wise, and teach students greater responsibility and discipline in the process. 

Do not make more than 15 hours of work-study per week part of any student's financial aid package. While some students will undoubtedly still choose to work more than this, they should not be institutionally required to do so as it may come at a loss to their academics. 

Reinstate family housing options for undergraduate students. As is, undergraduates with families are forced to live off-campus, sometimes quite far away. 

Make diversity awareness education a standard part of the first-year curriculum. Sex ed, too. Lots of people come here without much/any experience with either.

Also include a course on Dartmouth history in the first-year curriculum. It's important for people to understand the context of the institution/community if they are to find their place within it and make it their own.

If we're going to keep using the term "first-year," then make it second-year, third-year, and fourth-year, too. 

Invest more resources in recruiting and retaining top-notch mental health providers. It's institutionally embarrassing that it can take weeks to get a non-emergency appointment with a counselor. 

Stop requiring majors. They can be useful for suggested courses of study but they can also be very limiting. 

Institute residential colleges so that students have a greater sense of community and continuity.

Assign a 24/7-accessible space on campus to student artistic expression. It could be a mural wall or something more creative. Just keep it uncensored and all-hours accessible. This campus needs a communal art outlet. 

Do away with grades. At this level, they just inspire greater stress in students. A pass/fail system coupled with more meaningful individualized feedback would better serve the student body. 

Encourage professors to allow students to demonstrate mastery of course material in more interdisciplinary and individualized ways than papers and exams. While useful as standardized assessment tools, papers and exams do little to prepare students to tackle real-world problems; at best they prepare students for the world of academia, which most of us don’t intend to remain a part of after graduation. Project classes are both more engaging and more applicable to life post-Dartmouth. 

Do away with the exorbitant fee for transferring academic credits from another institution. This is an unnecessary barrier to academic exploration and it favors students from more affluent backgrounds.

Require professors and administrators to have a meal plan with DDS to encourage them to engage more casually with their students. Perhaps this would also lead to greater overall changes in the meal plan options. 

Speaking of which: ideal meal plan situation: No student is required to have a meal plan with DDS; the available options include termly packages cheaper than $875; students may choose to put whatever amount of money they wish into their dining account; all meal plans are all DBA (with no value lost for people who still choose to eat at foco); DBA rolls over from term to term and year to year. As is, DDS is an overpriced monopoly that all students are required to support. 

Re-evaluate the DSGHP exemption requirements. Many students come here with health insurance perfectly suited for their needs but are required to pay/take out loans for the expensive DSGHP because their plans are found to be inadequate. 

Adopt a zero-tolerance policy for students found responsible for sexual assault. Expel them. 

Create more gender-neutral restrooms, at least one per building. The long-term goal should be that all restrooms are gender-neutral. 

Make all ORL residential spaces gender-neutral. 

Implement a more sensible room draw system. Surely there are automated options on the market that could optimize happiness for all of campus. MIT has a beautiful system. <http://housing.mit.edu/undergraduate/how_housing_assigned>

Make Banner course reviews publicly available. Seriously, why hasn't this been done yet? 

Either start seriously enforcing the drinking age (stringently punishing those who violate it and derecognizing any groups and organizations that facilitate it) or stop with the theatrics of doing so. S&S walk-throughs are a joke. The new UGA program is detrimental to the residential dynamic. Take a hard stance one way or the other, preferably in favor of non-enforcement. 

Withdraw institutional support from Greek-letter organizations, or at least single-sex ones. As is, and as has been, they perpetuate unhealthy social dynamics, binge drinking, and antiquated ideas of gender identity and interactivity. Letting them be independent would also allow them greater freedoms with regard to new member initiation, pledge terms, and whatnot. See, everyone wins.

Withdraw institutional support from senior societies. They perpetuate a toxic culture of elitism and exclusivity.

Allow people of all gender identities to attend the Proud to Be a Woman dinner. Yes, that includes men. Allyship, no? 

Place readily distinguishable communal bicycles around campus. Maybe fewer privately owned bicycles would be stolen. 

Do away with the D-Plan. It affords some very exciting academic, internship, transfer, &c. opportunities, but at a huge cost to the cohesiveness and continuity of our community/communities. Not to mention how difficult it is to master a subject in only ten weeks. Students would be far better served academically if allowed to study things more deeply and thoroughly. We need time to process and reflect. We don’t have that right now. It’s unhealthy. The benefits of the D Plan are far outweighed by the costs. 

If Collis can have compostable to-go containers and silverware, then so can and should every DDS establishment. 

Stop selling bottled water in campus dining facilities. It may be lucrative, but it comes at a terrific environmental cost. 

Make composting available in all College-owned  buildings.

Make this a non-smoking campus, at least in public spaces. 

Denounce rules imposed by sorority nationals which prohibit chapters from hosting parties, keeping alcohol on the premises, and other such antiquated and misogynistic things. 

Do away with the minimum family contribution. Some families just can’t pay it.

Create first-year trips that don’t actually involve the outdoors all that much for students who don’t want and/or are unable to participate in the current offerings. Neither the outdoors nor the standard discomforts (not showering, strenuous activity, trail food, mortal peril) are necessary for class bonding and expanded options would surely attract more incoming students.

Implement a system through which individuals can easily create and subscribe/unsubscribe from various campus listservs. Campus-Events is at once too broad and too exclusive (individuals and academic departments may not use it, for instance). 

New mascot. It’s time we had one. 

Fix the bells. Seriously they’ve been in a constant state of broken for years.

First Prize in Hand Bookbinding

Shared from Preservation Services:

The Book Arts Prize is a juried award given every year in recognition of excellence in the creation of a hand printed and bound book made in the Book Arts Studio by a Dartmouth College undergraduate.  The cash prizes are made possible through the generosity of the Friends of the Library.  The winners are:

First Prize in Hand Bookbinding

Callista Womick, ‘13

You Can’t Take It With You

First Prize in Letterpress Printing

Malika Khurana, ‘15

Prayer

$150 award

Honorable Mention in Letterpress Printing

Julie Skinner, Grad

Julie Skinner Manegold 2012-2013 Portfolio

$75 award

Congrats to Malika, Julie, and those who won Community Excellence awards! Our work will be on display for one year in the Treasure Room cases in Baker Library beginning Saturday, June 8. 

You Can't Take It With You in progress:

hansewn binding |  © Callista Womick 2013

Interview with Damaris Altomerianos '13

Excerpt from my April 6 interview with Damaris Altomerianos '13:

Callista Womick: Do you think that the Dartmouth community is good at bringing people from all these different backgrounds together?

Damaris Altomerianos: I think it—hmm. I think it brings people to this place, but I
think it doesn’t do—I think we could do better. “We,” including students, could do better at making that a bigger part of everyone’s life. Like, meeting people from different backgrounds should be part of everyone’s life here. It’s really shocking to me how we can all go through our time here having just spent our time with such a small cross-section and not really branching out. That, like, defeats the purpose, right?

Like, if we’re supposed to be able to really learn from each other and each other’s experiences and to be inspired by each other and to really push each other and challenge each other as peers here, you can’t get that when you’re only with people who are just like you.

This is why I like the idea of sort of random assortment for a social system. I
really would love to see us in a residential college system in a full way, very full way. In a way that requires,—so this sort of big vision is still entirely impractical in some ways.

But imagine if we were to sort of just clear out our residential spaces, right?—and, like, take back all of these Greek houses. And so now there’s empty buildings, and now you can remodel them essentially, right? And it would be really nice if we could make them all the same size, to hold the same number of people, I mean, and, like, of the same, like, quality level, so it’s not like some people are living at really, really bad-quality housing versus good. So we’d even that out.

And then wouldn’t it be really nice if each cluster, really, could be its own thing, randomly assigned, so that you can imagine, like—imagine the Choates, for example, right? Wouldn’t it be great if there could be people of all different years there, but keeping first-year students on the same floor, who—say, like, imagine Brown. Brown One could be first-year students. Brown Two can be sophomores. Brown Three—like—
and you can make it like that, and people have the option of, you know, of co-ed floors or, like, single-sex floors, whatever you want—like, whatever. Make all the options
available for each place, and people still have some choice in that.

But each place also has a physical plant. So, like, pick any of these houses—Webster Ave, right? And so if any—pick one of those—could be connected to the Choates—like,
connected not literally, but connected to the Choates—where, like people who live in the Choates would now have that whole physical plant to, like, cook together, eat dinners together, to have dance parties together, to play pong together, where you at least have a sense of space that you can call your own that is with people that were randomly assorted there. That, I think would be a great thing because you need to get people to meet other people in social settings and in living settings. I think it needs to be random to get there. I really do.

And I really think that wouldn’t diminish sense of community. I really think people can find a community in that community. I don’t think people—like, people would argue, “But it wouldn’t be as close because they wouldn’t find as great as friends.” No, I think you would. And I think to a large degree, like—because of the counterfactuals [that are], like, fundamentally unobservable, you don’t know. Maybe you missed out on some of the best friends you could have had here because you didn’t branch out to other people, because you kept yourself in this small group that then rushed the same house, which then...—whatever.

And so I wish that we could all have that sense of space, 'cause space is important. Physical plants really, really matter. And I think everyone here, regardless of paying this amount of dues or, like, getting into this place, should have a sense of space that they can call part of their own.

Womick: Have you been able to find a space like that at Dartmouth that you feel is your own?

Altomerianos: Hmmmm. Not like a physical plant, I would guess. I mean, obviously, like, the neutral ones. Like, “Collis and the Hop and the library.” But I’d say, like, not, like, a social—like a physical plant for the sole purpose of, like, a social body. I think that was upsetting. But I don’t even know how many people really feel that way, obviously, because not every place can actually be open and host events, so there’s that whole issue, too. 

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Dartmouth Community and Dartmouth’s World is an ongoing oral history project that launched in 2012. The project’s goal is to document the changing nature of the Dartmouth community in the second half of the twentieth century with an emphasis on the concept of the insider and outsider and how those roles and perceptions change for various constituencies over time. Narrators will include members of the Dartmouth community from 1945 to the present, representing a broad spectrum of voices and perspectives.

The Dartmouth: Students criticize PB's choice of ASAP Rocky

Shared from The Dartmouth:

A group of students have started an online petition in protest of ASAP Rocky's headlining act for today's Green Key Concert. The Change.org petition, which criticizes the artist's misogynistic and violent lyrics, garnered 32 signatures by press time.

Referencing a string of ASAP Rocky's lyrics, the petition argues that Dartmouth "can and should be better than this," referencing to Dartmouth's recent decision to cancel classes Dimensions protesters received threats.

"We cannot, in good conscience, use student money to bring someone to campus who will espouse sexism, misogyny, homophobia, violence and the perpetuation of male hypersexuality," the petition reads.

The petition was started by Callista Womick '13, who began sending the petition to other students and organizations on Thursday. Although she had heard some of ASAP Rocky's songs before, Womick did not investigate the lyrics until a friend told her that the rapper would be performing at Dartmouth.

"[ASAP Rocky] seems to be pretty hateful and he will alienate a lot of people on campus," Womick said. "As I read more and more of his lyrics, it was just more of the same."

Using student funds to bring ASAP Rocky to campus suggests that the College and Programming Board supports the rapper's lyrics, said Divyanka Sharma '13, who signed the petition. Sharma, who has worked with the Sexual Assault Awareness Program, said that not acting against the choice of artist would make her a hypocrite.

Signers of the petition alluded to the campus climate since the Dimensions protests.

"We felt like it was such a bad time for something like this to come to campus," Sharma said. "In general, it's a bad idea, and it's specifically bad now."

Matt Cloyd '11, who signed from Boston, said bringing ASAP Rocky to campus would set back the recent progress in the College's climate.

"Using student funds to pay for pro-rape and anti-gay rhetoric to be brought to campus is counterproductive to all of the dialogue that's been occurring," Cloyd wrote.

Not all were supportive of the message of the petition or the students' tactics. The "contentious" means of communication should be replaced with more "constructive" methods, Susanna Kalaris '16 said.

Kathryn Gautier '16 said that protesters of ASAP Rocky's performance are missing the opportunity to expose more important campus issues.

"The time spent protesting could be spent protesting something that will make a lasting difference," Gautier said. "Having a performance for one night on one weekend isn't really the issue."

Students at the University of Pennsylvania outraged the choice of rapper Tyga for their Spring Fling concert last month by posting signs with Tyga's lyrics around campus. The students eventually garnered 250 signatures on a similar Change.org campaign.

When Tyga was announced as on the lineup for Harvard's Yardfest, more than 1,000 people signed a petition asking Harvard administrators to cancel the performance. Harvard senior Leah Reis-Dennis started the petition in response to Tyga's "explicitly and violently misogynistic" lyrics.

"We were outraged that someone who promotes sexism and violence against women so explicitly would be selected to perform at our college, and we thought that was wrong so we decided to start a petition," Reis-Dennis told The Harvard Crimson. "Tyga has a right to sing and to write whatever he wants, but that doesn't mean Harvard should give him a platform at our biggest concert of the year to promote that kind of sexism and violence."

Programming Board chair Alexander Martin '13 did not respond to requests for comment.

The Dartmouth: Yarnbombing gains popularity

Shared from The Dartmouth:

Photo by Dennis Ng; Callista Womick

Callista Womick '13 will take her knitting skills to the streets and color campus by "yarnbombing" public spaces.

The unusual art form, also known as graffiti knitting or guerrilla knitting, uses knitted pieces to cover areas or objects in a community. In recent years, yarnbombing has become popular in metropolitan hot spots of the world, from Paris to New York. Popular yarnbombing targets include parking meters, bike rails, potholes, tree trunks and even famous statues.

Womick, who received Year of the Arts student grant funding, used the stipend to collect knitting needles, crochet hooks and of course, dozens of colors of yarn spools. The studio art major hopes to enlist as many people as possible to transform Hanover into a more interactive space filled with this unseen-on-campus art form.

Womick ventured into yarnbombing after sewing and knitting throughout high school. Upon her arrival at Dartmouth, Womick noticed a lack of public art that centered around fun and whimsical pieces.

"I love pieces of intervention artwork," Womick said. "They serve to make the space more beautiful and engage the people in a different way and make people just feel happy. We have lots of really intelligent, creative people and I think most of us have a sense of humor and like to have fun, and I'd love to have more art that reflects that."

Womick describes yarnbombing as an easy way to transform the way people engage with their outside surroundings.

"My favorite pieces of yarnbombing have these fun elements that can be removed," Womick said. "For example, I did a parking meter that had a vine with many flowers that have clips, so they can be removed. People could then put them on their bags or wear them in their hair."

Womick looks forward to yarnbombing a railing behind Parkhurst and Louise Bourgeois' famed "Crouching Spider," located in front of the Black Family Visual Arts Center.

"Dreaming big, I'd love to yarnbomb the spider," Womick said. "I don't know if I can get permission, but hopefully, it'll work out with [Facilities, Operations and Management.]"

Sam Van Wetter '16, who has previous experience in knitting, said he is eager to help Womick with this initiative after admiring a yarnbomb artist on his own.

"I've been knitting for a while and came across yarnbombing through my favorite craft store," he said. "Soon after I found [crochet artist] Agata Olek, known as Crocheted Olek,' and I've been a big fan of her work since. While she crochets and I knit, her rad designs and installations still inspire me. It's cool to see her have done the transition from public graffiti-based yarnbombing to taking those same concepts into gallery spaces."

Olek most famously installed a crocheted suit over Wall Street's iconic "Charging Bull" sculpture in New York in 2010.

Elizabeth Southwell '15 sees yarnbombing as an opportunity for the greater community to give ordinary objects a second glance.

"It forces us, especially us forward-thinking, routine-driven Dartmouth students, to take a brief pause to notice something beautiful," Southwell said. "Yarnbombing also helps draw our attention to objects, like trees and railings, that we wouldn't normally find beautiful. It helps us to appreciate the beauty in everyday objects."

The ability to share art with passerbys is not always feasible with other art forms such as paintings.

"The greatest part of something like yarnbombing is that it's an art from that's out there in the community and everyone can enjoy it," Womick said. "In terms of art on campus, there isn't a lot. There are statues, paintings in the residence halls, but they're kind of stiff. There isn't much fun art around campus."