2000 SA election had late start
This year's Assembly race off to smooth start after problems last year
This year's Assembly race off to smooth start after problems last year
Dear President Wright and Members of the Board of Trustees: In January 1999 the Board of Trustees issued a promising document announcing a program of substantive changes in student life, including substantive changes to the Co-Ed, Fraternity, and Sorority (CFS) system.
Having recently been placed on probation by its international organization, Dartmouth's Zeta Psi chapter announced yesterday its decision not to have the Coed Fraternity Sorority Council's Judicial Committee preside over its impending hearings. Zeta Psi faces College charges for a series of offensive newsletters attributed to the house and will soon undergo judicial hearings.
Prosecutors have disclosed more evidence that links the two Vermont teenagers to the brutal stabbing of Dartmouth professors Half and Susanne Zantop. Recent documents also suggest that one of the teens, Robert Tulloch, 17, may have been lying to investigators when he told them he had sustained a cut on his leg when he fell on a maple syrup spigot. Three days after the couple was killed, Tulloch, who recently pleaded innocent to the first degree murder charges against him, told his girlfriend, Christiana Usenza, that he actually received the wound when he dropped a hunting knife on his leg. "The defendant admitted to his girlfriend that he obtained the wound by dropping a hunting knife on his right leg," read the court documents, which go on to note that "the defendant's girlfriend observed the wound and saw him walking with a significant limp during the week following the homicides." The court documents seek blood and hair samples, as well as a handwriting specimen from Tulloch. "Sufficient facts exist to support the state's request for blood and hair samples and a handwriting exemplar," reads the eight-page brief. The court document, filed by New Hampshire Assistant Attorneys General Kelly Ayotte and Michael Delaney, is in response to the objection of Tulloch's attorneys to provide prosecutors with those samples. Physical evidence is piling up against Tulloch and his accused accomplice, James Parker, 16, placing them both at the scene of the crime. The newly filed documents show that police discovered a fingerprint on a chair at the Zantops' home that they have now confirmed belongs to Tulloch. In addition, the court documents report, authorities have matched a boot print found at the Zantop's home with a boot belonging to Parker. Prosecutors previously found blood on a boot belonging to Tulloch to be consistent with a mixture of DNA belonging to Susanne Zantop and an unidentified male. In addition, older court documents have noted two knife sheaths were found to have latent fingerprints matching Parker's.During a search of Tulloch's bedroom, police discovered two knives possessing traces of DNA from both Half and Susanne Zantop. Blood discovered on the floor mat of a 1996 Green Subaru registered to Parker's parents matches the DNA of Susanne Zantop, the documents report. Paul Newcity, of Canaan, N.H., said earlier that he saw a green station wagon speeding out of the Zantops' driveway the afternoon before the professors were murdered. He told police the driver of the car appeared to be a thin, dark-haired white male in his early 20s, with no facial hair. This description matches that of both defendants. Ayotte said Tuesday at Tulloch's hearing that a decision on a trial date would be made before the end of this month but that it is unlikely that a trial would begin before next February.
Bush's new abortion bill is 'dangerous,' panelists say
The annual scramble for corner rooms, half baths and prime locations which students know as room draw kicked off Monday night and will extend through next week. The most visible change to the lottery system this year has been the institution of the "squatting" policy, in which students who currently live in certain dormitories and will be on campus next Fall have the opportunity to remain in their cluster. "This was an attempt to provide some kind of continuity to the [residential] experience," Director of Housing Services Lynn Rosenblum said of the new system, noting that squatting is a common policy at other colleges. Squatting replaces last year's system of "grouping," in which students were able to select up to seven students with whom they wished to share a floor. "We heard from a lot of students that were very unhappy -- people were finding group-mates while at Leede arena [during room draw], rather than grouping with their friends," Rosenblum said. Rosenblum described the dormitories selected for squatting this year -- Ripley/Woodward/Smith, Wheeler/Richardson, The Lodge and the Fayerweathers -- as "second tier." Earlier this week, 83 students squatted rooms in the Ripley/Woodward/Smith and Fayerweathers cluster and 30 students claimed space in Wheeler/Richardson.
An open letter to the Board of Trustees and College President James Wright signed by 101 faculty members released early today urges the College to revisit the issue of radically reforming or abolishing the Greek system. Citing recent incidents in the Coed Fraternity Sorority system, the letter suggests the College has not adequately addressed issues of misogyny and racism many faculty say are fostered by the Greek organizations. "We ourselves have never felt more disappointed by the administration's failure to address the systemic and incalculable harm that both our students and our own pedagogical work suffer by Dartmouth's acceptance and support of structures that promote such attitudes of entitlement and disrespect," the letter says. The letter expresses frustration with what faculty perceive as the failure of the Student Life Initiative to live up to expectations of addressing "institutionalized forms of discrimination and segregation that still dominated student social life." "Two years later, we on the faculty still are teaching female students and students of color who suffer from institutionalized practices of sexist and racist humiliation that fester largely unabated within secret fraternity culture," the letter states. Declaring "solidarity" with victims of verbal and sexual abuse, the faculty members who signed the letter are seeking to work with students and College administration to create alternatives to the current system they say is based on "exclusion, self-indulgence and an arrogant sense of entitlement." "It's very important for Dartmouth at this point to re-open the issue and to really explore the very real consequences that the Greek system has for the academic life of this campus," Spanish and Comparative Literature Professor Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, one of the letter's initial sponsors, said. Lugo-Ortiz collaborated with nine other professors in the writing of the letter, which then circulated last week and was signed by many other faculty members, a significant proportion of whom were from the English Department. The letter "reiterates the faculty's feeling that this structure that dominates Dartmouth's social life is antithetical to the intellectual, moral and social life of the College," according to another sponsor, English Professor Ivy Schweitzer. Yet Schweitzer said she feels that it is important for faculty to continue to make their voices heard, especially in light of recent incidents such as "The Zetemouth," the shouting of allegedly racist and sexist slurs from the Psi Upsilon porch and the attempted arson at Chi Gamma Epsilon. Anti-Greek sentiment among the faculty is nothing new -- they have voted against the continuation of the CFS system several times over the past three decades. At a meeting in February last year, the faculty voted 81-0 to urge the administration to withdraw College recognition from all Greek organization as soon as more residential space is available. Many of the letter's sponsors and signers have long been critical of the Greeks, voicing public support for the system's abolition during faculty meetings and public forums. For example, Professor of Religion Susan Ackerman, another letter sponsor, said after last year's faculty meeting that the CFS system "stands so antithetical to our academic message of openness." While expressing support for coeducational, non-exclusive organizations, Ackerman said yesterday, "I believe that selective single sex organizations at Dartmouth need to eliminated." The letter invites members of the Board of Trustees to attend the upcoming public meeting of the general faculty, scheduled for May 14, to discuss the future of the Greek system at Dartmouth.
For author, journalist, political analyst and some-time professor David Rieff, spending 18 months living amongst refugees in war-torn Bosnia is the sort of decision one simply "stumbles into." Rieff, a specialist in issues of immigration and international emergencies visiting Dartmouth to speak on issues of humanitarian aid, recounted living and working in Berlin during the summer of 1992. "I was trying to write a book on refugees emigrating from Eastern Bloc nations to the West.
Along with racism and controversy, two perennially intimate bedfellows, Dartmouth College has found itself party to a less than holy trinity in the eyes of other minority communities in recent decades. Take, for example, the infamous 1986 shanty affair.
Student Assembly's two-year campaign to reform the fees and fines system has made more progress with a resolution to lower parking fines for students that will go into effect this summer. Under the new plan students will pay considerably less for parking violations in the "core" areas, such as behind Mass Row and near the Fayerweathers, Molly Stutzman '02, Student Life chair for the Assembly explained. Stutzman has been working with the Assistant Director of Administrative Services in Facilities, Operations & Management Bill Barr to restructure the parking fine system. Now students that have paid to park in A Lot will pay a fine of $25 for each ticket received.
Declining popular opinion of Asian-Americans, and especially Chinese-Americans, have worried many in the Asian-American community that racism and stereotyping will always be a presence in American society. According to a recent survey conducted by consulting firm Yankelovich Partners, and commissioned by the Committee of 100, an elite group of Chinese-Americans that includes the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and architect I.M.
Race-relations at Duke University hit a stumbling block following last week's announcement that allegations of hate-crimes are currently under investigation.
Renee Tajima-Pena, director of tonight's Hopkins Center featured documentary "My America (...or Honk if You Love Buddha)" said that rather than attempting to create a specific message with her work, she hopes that the film will encourage viewers to think critically about both sides of a controversial issue. "I usually make a film because I am really pissed off about something," she said, adding that in the process she often ends up learning just how complex and ambiguous most issues really are. The film, inspired in part by the peripatetic legacy of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road," takes Tajima-Pena on a physical and metaphoric journal around the country searching for what it means to be Asian American. There is no overarching theme to the film; Tajima-Pena allows each of the Asian Americans to tell their own unique story.
Fraternity offers close-knit community for brothers
One consequence of a more diverse student body at the College has been an increase in episodes of friction between the different racial, ethnic and religious groups that comprise the Dartmouth Community.
Still no bail set for alleged teen killer
Freedom of expression is one of the most fundamental rights afforded by the United States Constitution.
Hand in hand a beaming bride and groom emerge from Rollins Chapel, wedding party in tow. This is a sight that is familiar to many students and bound to become increasingly more so.
Star Parker's speech "Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats: The Stunning Transformation of a Former Welfare Queen" sparked heated debate from a crowd of nearly one hundred students yesterday evening. Parker, president and founder of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education and former welfare mother, brought the libertarian ideas she recently espoused on the Oprah Winfrey talk show and the Senate floor to a rather critical Dartmouth audience. According to Parker, due to the "failure" of 1960's Great Society legislation, both the welfare and Social Security systems are in need of large-scale reform, with the most important "steps out of poverty" being represented by personal responsibility and education. Although the inflammatory title of the speech incited rumors of possible student protest yesterday afternoon, most attendees calmly listened to her mainstream Republican views. Parker claimed that the current welfare system creates a sentiment of entitlement for recipients, most of whom live by the government -- prescribed mantra "don't work, don't save, don't get married." "Can anyone name one [welfare] program that works?" Parker challenged the audience. Indeed, she referred to the Social Security program as an illicit "pyramid scheme" in which "current workers pay for current retirees." Her views on the state of the country's education system were equally grim, especially regarding inner-city schools. "They're graduating kids who can't read the very condom packets they're passing out in the classroom," she said, making no secret of her Republican anti-abortion stance. Although no members of the audience challenged Parker's assertion that government programs are in need of reform, in the subsequent question and answer session, many took issue with the conservative methods she advocated for it's future improvement -- privatization of retirement savings accounts and school vouchers. One student pointed out that "there aren't enough schools" to accommodate the potential flood of students out of public education with the introduction of the voucher system. Yet another student asked the former "welfare queen" how the government should deal with the immediate problems of welfare families while the nation waits for the invisible hand to reshape the system in the long run. One of the more controversial aspects of Parker's speech was her emphasis on the role of religion in mainstreaming the lives of current welfare recipients.
Globalization and technology are creating a world that is increasingly interdependent and increasingly dependent on America, according to Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Dean of the Haas Business School at Berkeley and former National Economic Advisor to President Clinton. "Technology has made the slowdown much faster, more synchronized and it takes in more of the world," said Tyson in a well-attended lecture last night at Dartmouth's Cooke auditorium. The world is more interdependent than it ever has been before, said Tyson.