Search Results

Arrington: We Can Learn From the Pandemic

Since the world shut down back in March, most of us, myself included, have been anticipating the end of the pandemic and hoping to get back to our regular lives. And with recent news of the apparently successful Pfizer vaccine, many of us have grown even more fixated on ending this crisis. However, with so much time devoted to predicting the end of the pandemic, its causes are often overlooked. Our society made choices that allowed this pandemic to occur, and we need to evaluate them so that we can avoid similar disasters in the future.

Mobley: Looking Back on 20F

Verbum Ultimum: Lessons Learned

This term has been a bleak one. Students arriving in Hanover faced a 14-day quarantine in their rooms, almost all classes have been conducted online and the College has strictly regulated all face-to-face social interaction. In the face of rising COVID-19 cases nationwide, the College has taken and will continue to take many precautions. But now, after a term’s worth of experience, the College must take a step back and consider those areas in which it can improve students’ experience for the winter.

Harrison: Supreme Imbalance

We are in uncharted territory. With the recent confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Americans are living with the most conservative court since 1950. Never before has each one of the Supreme Court’s sitting justices been so closely affiliated with the party of the president who appointed them. All Americans, regardless of party, should know that the kind of partisanship that has infected the Supreme Court offers a terminal prognosis. And if the U.S. Senate — or the next president — does not act to reform the Supreme Court in nonpartisan ways, the American people can rest assured that the U.S. will be at the mercy of a decidedly political Supreme Court. 

Allen: Dartmouth's Dining Setbacks

Dining at Dartmouth saw a number of changes this term, from a meal delivery system during quarantine to limited occupancy in dining halls. However, amid these changes, it is clear that the College’s dining services have failed students more often than not, despite the best intentions of College administrators.

Dickman: Decriminalize Dorm Socialization

This fall has seen an unknown number of students, many of them ’24s, sent home for violating the College’s COVID-19 restrictions — most commonly, it seems, the limit on the number of students allowed in dorm rooms. Several students have testified to their experiences, recounting that their floors have been almost entirely cleared of people — some all at once, and some over the course of the term. The College’s rules on gathering limits leave ’24s between a rock and a hard place: To obey the strict rules, students must sacrifice their social and mental well-being. Amid this dilemma, it is clear that the students are not failing the administration — the administration is failing its students.

Arrington: Big Money Threatens Democracy

During election season, we love to talk about democracy. Between walking around Dartmouth’s campus and scrolling through Instagram, I have seen countless phrases such as “Make your voice heard” and “One person, one vote.” But how much impact do ordinary American citizens actually have on policy after we exercise that right to vote? Apparently, not much.

Levy: Stop and Smell the Biden-Harris Roses

This year’s presidential election was fraught with fear — fear that partisan hostilities would collapse into full-on riots and violence, fear that President Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine American democracy and values would succeed, and most of all, fear that we would be stuck with another four years of Trump’s immorality, incompetence and idiocy. As a result, media coverage leading up to the election and throughout the ballot counting was largely cynical. 

Moore: The Implications of a Cold Winter Term

I woke up to a frost this morning and a few inches of snow coating the trees outside my window. As the Upper Valley gets colder, I’m beginning to think about the impending winter and its social implications. COVID-19 is primarily spread indoors — but the outdoors aren’t always an easy place to be during the Hanover winter. With temperatures dropping, feelings of isolation will become even more prevalent if Dartmouth doesn't offer some warm way for students to gather together. 

Verbum Ultimum: What Next?

It’s not over yet — but the results to date indicate that former Vice President Joe Biden has a clear path to being elected the next president of the United States. The election so far has not seen the overwhelming repudiation Democrats had hoped for. And for many, the continued widespread support for President Donald Trump — even after four years of hate-filled governance — is a slap in the face. But now is not the time to lament the unexpected or curse those who voted for a second term of Trump. Instead, it is up to us — as part of a driven, young generation newly instilled with a drive to make change  — to carry forward the momentum behind the 2020 election in pursuit of meaningful progress in America. 

Dokken: The Nation We Could Be

I am 19 years old — born the year of 9/11, and the year that U.S. troops first touched down in Afghanistan. I have never known an America that wasn’t at war, or an America before mass shootings. I grew up without financial security because this country decided that the cost of my father’s cancer treatment was my family’s peace of mind. I grew up watching Hurricane Michael, a hurricane of unprecedented strength obliterate my aunt’s town and home due to our country’s decision to prioritize corporate interests over its citizens. I grew up rehearsing what to do if someone decided to make my school into a murder scene amid our nation’s inability to enact common sense gun control while children continue to be gunned down in their classrooms.

Cavrel: Dartmouth From Home

Teszler: Follow the Local Results Too

The end is here. Over 93 million people have already voted, with tens of millions more still to vote tomorrow. And then comes the count. Due to the high proportion of mail-in votes, election-night calls of certain key states, such as Pennsylvania, are highly unlikely. I for one, will likely stay up watching results anyway, while others will make the wise decision to go to bed and check in the morning. But whether you're glued to CNN or waking up to a phone alert the morning after, there’s something likely to be missing from your radar — the results of local elections. 

Mobley: Happy Halloween, Dartmouth

Verbum Ultimum: Joe Biden for President

Updated Oct. 30, 2020 at 1 p.m.

Arrington: We Need More Women in Politics

The 2020 election is the first time I am eligible to vote in a federal election, and as such, it also marks the first time I have religiously followed politics. I was very eager to cast my vote, but after opening up my mail-in ballot, something struck me: There were 28 names on the ballot for Hanover. Of those, 11 were women. The other 17 were men — a 40-60 split. And these numbers are actually on the high end for women — a Pew Research Center study shows that women make up merely a quarter of those who state that they have campaigned for election.

Allard: An Unpopular Vote for the Electoral College

When Indiana’s Democratic senator Birch Bayh launched his campaign to reform the American presidential election system in 1966, he aspired to dismantle the Electoral College by constitutional amendment. Recently, Bayh’s efforts have been reincarnated by Democrats whose presidential candidates have lost the presidency despite winning the popular vote. Instead of abolishing the Electoral College, though, both Bayh and the Democratic Party should take up a much easier, safer project that would achieve the same goal: abolishing the winner-take-all electoral system. 

Pak: Why I'm Phone Banking for Another State

My history of political engagement — or lack thereof — is embarrassing. I don’t do my research on the candidates running for Senate or House in my home state of Maryland, I don’t read my local newspaper and at best, I’ll drop in to events on campus to see a presidential candidate talking to Dartmouth students. Even though American politics matters for me as a U.S. citizen, I often get lost in the ordinary demands of the day-to-day, and political engagement just ends up taking a backseat.     

Allen: Oh, the Racist We Support

After a summer of historic racial reckoning, institutions across the United States have reflected on the roles they play in perpetuating racism in this country. Colleges and universities have tried to be especially vigilant in these reckonings. Princeton University has been one of the most visible institutions addressing its past: It recently removed former President Woodrow Wilson’s name from its School of Public and International Affairs and one of its residential colleges. A new residential college built in its place will be the first at Princeton to be named after a Black alumna. While the actions of Princeton and other universities undertaking similar efforts do not erase these schools’ pasts, they do represent important first steps in addressing years of racism within their walls.

Arabian: Don't Ignore the Caucasus

On Sept. 27, the Caucasus erupted into violence as the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched a brutal offensive on the Nagorno-Karabakh region — known as Artsakh to the Armenians — a de facto independent state inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians but recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan. Since 1994, this inevitable conflict had been held off by a delicate ceasefire organized by the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe — co-chaired by Russia, the United States and France. Today, however, even this basic ceasefire seems untenable due to the rise of a new obstacle to peace: Turkey. While Turkish involvement elicits painful memories of the 1915 Armenian genocide for many Armenians, many non-Armenians seem to be unaware or, worse, generally apathetic towards it. The Dartmouth community must do its part in raising awareness of these events, since the world’s collective silence may lead to another Armenian genocide.