The Week in Review

New Dean of Faculty

Deputy Provost Jamshed Bharucha was recently appointed the new Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Dartmouth, replacing Professor of Biology Edward M. Berger. Bharucha, the John Wentworth Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, will oversee 580 faculty members, well over half of whom are tenured or tenure-track.

Bharucha, who was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar College, has earned a master’s in philosophy from Yale and a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard. Well known for his work in the perception of music, Bharucha has been published in numerous journals as well as the New York Times and U.S. News and World Report.

Out of the Loop

The Boston Globe recently announced that it intends to cease production of the New Hampshire Weekly. A separate section in the Sunday editions of the Boston Globe, the New Hampshire Weekly provides weekly coverage of news in the state.

The demise of the supplement is due to economic pressures on the paper. The Boston Globe plans to increase coverage of news in the Boston area where it sells a majority of its papers. However, since the Boston Globe has an adequate share of subscribers in New Hampshire, the editions that are delivered to southern New Hampshire will include expanded coverage of that region.

Richard H. Gilman, publisher of the Boston Globe, said that the Globe ''remains committed to readers and advertisers in southern New Hampshire, and we feel we can still serve them well with the North and Northwest sections."

No Place Like Home

Dartmouth students just completed the room draw process for the fall term. As per usual, many rising sophomores are unsure of where they are living next year. This disenchanted bunch is forced to hold their breath and ride it out on the waiting list. Although Dartmouth claims that all the students on the list will receive housing eventually, there is reason to be skeptical. What the administration does not say is that some of the students on the wait list find their own housing off-campus, while others decided to take the fall term off entirely after constant letters from the administration. The college has made no mention of the increased housing demand that will accompany the ‘05s, the largest freshman class ever.

New to this year’s process was the elimination of blocking and the initiation of squatting. The elimination of blocking, where one student can reserve multiple rooms for his friends, has hindered students, especially sophomores, from living near their friends. Presumably, in an effort to counter this drawback, the administration began the process of squatting. This enables students living in certain dorms, mostly those on the east side of campus, to draw a room in those dorms before the rest of campus, regardless of housing draw number.

Doesn’t sound very inclusive. For those brave souls out there trying to find off-campus housing, good luck. Most of the leases are secured a year or more in advance. McClaughy Realtors in town hasn’t had properties to rent in months. Just another process handled famously by Dean Redman.

Freedman Still on the Rolls

A recent examination of the school’s tax returns revealed little of interest, as the school has not yet filed its taxes for the last two years. The Review was able, however, to obtain a copy of Dartmouth’s tax return for the year ending June 30, 1999, according to which the school raised $164 million in tuition to bring the school’s net worth to well over $2.1 billion. Eight hundred eighty-six employees received over $50,000, including President Wright, who, with over $350,000 a year, was the fourth highest paid employee. Then-President Emeritus James Freedman received over $900,000, roughly half of which was severance pay. The school made over $23 million from clinical services at the medical school, nearly $3.5 million from The Hanover Inn, and $400,000 from "Parking Operations."

The End is Near

Dartmouth has announced that Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, will deliver the main address for the College’s 2001 Commencement exercises on Sunday, June 10, on the Green.

Included during commencement will be the granting of several honorary degrees. Albright herself will be conferred a degree of Doctor of Laws. Other honorees include: former New Hampshire Poet Laureate Donald Hall; former Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution I. Michael Heyman ’51; Founding Director of Montreal’s Canadian Centre for Architecture, Phyllis Lambert; co-discoverer of the "double helix" structure of DNA, James Watson; and former Chairman of the NAACP, Myrlie Evers-Williams.

Other speakers for this year’s commencement will include Dartmouth President James Wright and the class valedictorian (who has yet to be announced). The graduating student with the highest GPA, however–Brian Stults– will not be allowed to speak. In a letter to the student, Dean James Larimore stated that, since Mr. Stults was an ’02, he would not be allowed to speak at a graduation made up primarily of ‘01s. Mr. Stults’ proposal to let both the highest-ranking ’01 and himself speak was rejected by Dean Larimore.

Art Imitates Roadkill

Ben Jennings’ sculpture stinks, according to University of Wisconsin-Marathon County school officials.

Jennings, an art major at the university, found artistic inspiration in the eviscerated remains of a dead raccoon lying beside Highway 29. Combining the animal’s corpse with wild turkey feathers, a deer skull, and a dead crow, Jennings encased the sculpture within a hypothetically smell-proof box. He figured he had created a masterpiece. Dean Jim Veninga disagreed, and sent the piece to the top of the school’s compost heap.

The foul odor of decaying flesh slowly leaked its way outside the case and slowly began wafting down the halls only two days before the opening of the exhibit. Dean Veninga acted quickly, ordering the removal of the sculpture. "All I saw was the feathers and the raccoon, and I knew I had to move quickly with this," Veninga said. "The smell by that point was really terrible. I sort of like raccoons, but I don’t want them in the university’s gallery, dead or alive."

Though disappointed in its removal, Jennings understands the rationale behind the decision. Jennings defended his piece, however, claiming that it was dynamic and that would change without the help of the artist. Everyone else thought it was trash.

Hey, That's Not Funny

Ironically, on the same night of Zeta Psi’s derecognition for publishing offensive humorous material, a packed house of students at Collis Commonground was treated to an hour and a half of very funny offensive humor, courtesy of Dartmouth College. Stand-up comics Jim Dunn and Paul Nardizzi told jokes (laced with frequent expletives) on a variety of topics ranging from the "air headed" or beauty-obsessed behavior of women to the way some black people talk (Jim Dunn's closing joke was about the announcer at a baseball game). While these talented comics may still, sadly, have the right to say whatever they want in their seedy comedy clubs, their kind of humor is certainly offensive to women and African-Americans, and thus should not be allowed and should not, in any way, be supported by Dartmouth. To do so is to violate the principles of the Dartmouth community. Isn't it?

Spare the Bra, Spoil the Child

A 19-year old at a Flatbrush, New York  is suing his former parochial school for $22.5 million because a teacher forced him to cross-dress as punishment for bad behavior. Caleb Guerrier attended the Excelsior Seventh Day Adventist School when, at the age of thirteen, he was sent to Pauline Williamson, a teacher at the school, for being disruptive in class. Ms. Williamson then told Mr. Guerrier to put on a wig, high heels, a bra, and a skirt that were kept in a box. Mr. Guerrier alleges that the uniform had been used to punish other boys before him.

Mr. Guerrier refused to don the costume. According to the suit, Ms. Williamson then turned to six other boys in the class and had them beat Mr. Guerrier and forcibly dress him in the humiliating outfit. The suit claims that Mr. Guerrier was so traumatized by the event that he later dropped out of high school in the 10th grade.

Ms. Williamson has left her position at the grade school. Mr. Guerrier now works at an auto parts store.

A Phallagocentrist Patriarch

A teacher in a Syracuse-area high school was reprimanded by a state appellate court today for using sexual imagery in his literature class. Mr. Richard Bernstein teaches a class on feminist literature at Norwich High School. In 1997, a student asked him the definition of the term ‘phallic.’ Mr. Bernstein began to explain, by way of example, the feminist notion of ‘phallagocentrism’ by making reference to the male sexual organ.

The court found that he had violated educational standards established by the school district. Although he was fined $3,000 and given a letter of reprimand by a hearing officer in the school district, the state Supreme Court decided that, although he had violated the rules of the district, there was no provision for a fine to be levied. The appellate court upheld this decision in its ruling.

Allegedly, the ruling has some members of Dartmouth’s Women’s Studies Program concerned. However, they need not fear. The town of Hanover has no standards of decency relating to college education.

Come to think of it, neither does the Women’s Studies Program.

Shut Up!

Students at MIT gathered for a ‘Speak Out!’ rally last Tuesday in protest of what some students have claimed was a racist incident at one of the school’s fraternities, Alpha Tau Omega. The previous weekend, two students got into a fight with members of the rap group the Roots, who are black.

At five in the morning on Friday, May 4, two members of the fraternity and two members of the rap group became engaged in a dispute that came to involve racial slurs. The students were on a rooftop and the musicians were on the ground below. When the argument became heated, two members of the rap group ran through the fraternity and onto the rooftop, yelling at the people assembled there and demanding to know who had been shouting at them. One member of the Roots, ‘Jag’, assaulted one of the students with an over-sized spoon, while the other student kicked another band member, ‘Black Thought’, in the head.

The two students involved in the incident were suspended from the fraternity. Because of this incident, too, the house is now required to undergo sensitivity training and to co-sponsor a symposium on diversity. The members of the Roots performed as scheduled that Friday night.

Students at the ‘Speak Out!’ railed against racism and sexism in society, many of the attendees sporting "unity in our community" buttons. They demanded, among other things, that one of the two male figures in the school seal be replaced with a woman, and that the curriculum expand its offerings in ethnic studies.

Separate But Equal

Black students at Northeastern University in Boston caused a ruckus on campus last Thursday in protest of new plans for the John D. O’Bryant African-American Institute there. Students marched in the streets and stopped traffic during rush hour to ensure that the school’s president, Richard Freeland, could not leave the campus.

Students have been occupying the Institute since mid-April in protest of the new plans. Northeastern is looking to tear down the 15,000 square-foot building that dates from 1968 and replace it with a 150,000 square-foot complex that will house the African-American Institute, as well as other programs.

''They're not hearing our voices," commented Ellis Reed, a junior at the university, to the Associated Press. "We're making noise now, and we'll continue to make noise until the university actually hears us.''

The Institute houses a technology center, a 6,000-volume library, and numerous resource materials for black students, ranging from mentoring programs to scholarships. None of these facilities is projected to be cut once renovations begin in 2003.

Although the building was once on the outskirts of the campus, development in recent years has placed it squarely in the center. University officials decided that the excellent location was being poorly utilized.

The protesters at Northeastern, however, argue that they deserve a "freestanding structure" dedicated to black students alone. They do not want to see the Institute housed in a building where they would have to share space with programs not directly related to African-Americans.

No More ‘Net

The Hambastigi, an Iranian reform newspaper, reported on May 13 that police have ordered 400 Internet cafes in Tehran to close. Café owners now need permits for their establishments and for use of the Internet itself. Additionally, they will have to register with a trade union for computer and business-machine operators. This union, run by Iranian conservatives, opposes the vast increase in Internet use that has occurred since the election of President Mohammad Khatami in 1997.

One café owner said, "It's the phone company behind this, because they don't want people to come here anymore and be able to connect and talk abroad for hours." The state-owned telephone monopoly has been losing money to chat rooms, e-mail, and online phone services to the increasingly-popular, until now, cafés.

Thuggish unions backed by inane government regulation to the detriment of consumers? Iran’s more Westernized than we thought. Sounds like Detroit.