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The Dartmouth
November 13, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth
Michael Ross
The Setonian
Opinion

Hosokawa's Column Misrepresented the Role of the Sciences in Education

By Michael Ross | April 30, 1998

To the Editor: As a Computer Science major, I feel the need to take the time to respond to a few points raised in Kenji Hosokawa's most recent column ["The Harvardization of Dartmouth," April 28]. Although I am a student of one of Hosokawa's "master sciences," I completely disagree with his characterization of their role in the educational process.

The Setonian
News

College prepares for Class of '00's arrival

By Michael Ross | August 2, 1996

With most of the members of the Class of 1999 at home and enjoying their summer vacations, the Office of First-Year Students is preparing for the arrival of their successors, the members of the Class of 2000. Accompanied by more than a little help from the upper classes, the office is organizing a host of orientation activities and other programs designed to help the freshmen in their transition to Dartmouth life. "Most of the summer is spent putting together this giant logistical puzzle, which is orientation," Dean of First-Year Students Peter Goldsmith said.

The Setonian
News

Campus and national politics created exciting year

By Michael Ross | July 27, 1996

Heated debate on the Greek system, rallies against racial intolerance, visiting Republican presidential candidates and imploding hospitals were some of the incidents dominating the 1995-96 Dartmouth year. Although the College includes less than 5,000 students and is located in a small town distant from large cities, Dartmouth still experiences a wealth of controversies, politics and outrageous incidents to fill this newspaper daily, and last year was no different. To begin with in September, Dartmouth welcomed the arrival of the Class of 1999, the first freshman class to include more women than men since coeducation began in 1972. Also during the autumn months, the College's place among the premier universities of the United States was reaffirmed by U.S.

The Setonian
News

Voices seeks College recognition

By Michael Ross | July 5, 1996

Voices, a new student group hosting events that enable members of the Dartmouth community to listen and converse with some of the College's most unique students, professors and administrators, is now seeking College recognition. The group, founded by Grayson Allen '97, Kenji Hosokawa '98 and Ken Yasuhara '98 in the spring of 1995, invites members of the College community to speak to and converse with an audience about a topic of the speaker's choice. Dean of First Year Students Peter Goldsmith will serve as Voices' first faculty advisor, Yasuhara said, although he indicated that the group may want to have multiple advisors as it increases the scope of its activities. Instead of passively listening, the audience joins the speaker in a discussion of the topic and related issues. This term, the group has been working on achieving official College recognition. As part of the recognition process, Voices has drafted a constitution for the Committee on Student Organizations to review. The document details the operation of the group and grants a great deal of power to its Advisory Board, which will be open to any student that has attended two Voices gatherings over the past three terms. This body will select speakers and make decisions about any other activities the group wants to branch out into. A smaller executive board will carry out the decisions of the Advisory Board. Hosokawa said the group is "nearly done" with getting recognition from COSO. At first, the administration was a bit skeptical that Voices could succeed because of the past failure of similar campus groups, Yasuhara said. During the Summer term, Rohit Chandra '98, Lisa O'Brien '97, Hosokawa and Yasuhara, will act as the executive board of Voices. "Starting in the fall... we'll get the Advisory Board up and running," O'Brien said. Hosokawa said Voices "was originally based on an event at my high school, Phillips Exeter Academy, which was called 'Meditation'." Every week, "faculty members would be invited to speak on a matter of personal significance for 15 to 20 minutes," he said. A casual conversation about "life in general at Dartmouth," between Hosokawa, Yaushara and Allen led to their effort to institute similar discussions at Dartmouth, Hosokawa said. Taking Meditations as their model, Voices modified its format to include audience participation and a greater variety of speakers. "It is an interaction that Voices encourages," Hosokawa said. "We make an effort to have a professor, a student, and someone from the administration" each term, Yasuhara said and noted that the pool of potential speakers shows no signs of running dry. "We choose from such a wide range of speakers that inevitably they appeal to different audiences," Yasuhara said. In the past, former Assistant Dean of Freshmen Tony Tillman, Government Professor Roger Masters and Iason Demos '97 have spoken at Voices' gatherings. This term, Voices has organized gatherings featuring Kevin Walsh '98, Professor William Cook and Professor Donald Pease. Walsh will be speaking on "Heresy and Liberal Education" next Tuesday, July 9, at 9:00 p.m., while Cook, who will be featured on July 17 at 8:00 p.m.

The Setonian
News

Greek council elects summer presidents

By Michael Ross | July 1, 1996

Plans for a fraternity Olympics, the production of a document summarizing each of the College's fraternities and revising new member education for College sororities are some of the proposals being studied by the Summer term officers of the Inter fraternity and Panhellenic councils. The IFC is the self-governing body of the College's single-sex fraternities, while Panhell is the sororities' umbrella organization. In elections held this Thursday Panhell choose Mariam Malik '98 of Delta Delta Delta sorority as president and Kristin Dwyer '98 of Sigma Delta sorority as vice president. Christine DuRocher '98 of Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority was elected treasurer, Abbie Roberts '98 of Sigma Delta as Judiciary Council representative, Tara McDowell '98 of KDE as Judiciary Council alternate and Kimberly Coffey '98 of Delta Gamma sorority as secretary. Programming chairs are Ann Marie Nee '98 of Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority and Aimie Cryer '98 of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority as programming co-chairs. Malik, who has previously served as programming co-chair of Panhell, said she sees the summer as "primarily a continuation of what we started the last couple of terms." "I'm going to especially focus on the new member education program," which has been revised over the past couple of terms, Malik said. Although Panhell does not usually initiate programming, Malik said the organization would continue to support sororities' programming and continue to actively coordinate the different houses' events. Malik also cited the importance of reaching out to the campus, noting that the sororities have always tried to schedule at least one open event per week and will continue to work with other campus groups. "One of the reasons I became involved with Panhell is because we have reached out to other organizations ... we have specifically made it a top item on our agenda," Malik said. The IFC board, mostly selected at the end of Spring term, consists of President Spiros Maliagros '98, a brother at Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity, Vice President MacKenzie Hurd '98, a brother at Theta Delta Chi fraternity, Treasurer Tim White '98, a brother at Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity, Secretary Tom Loughrey '98, a brother at Theta Delt, and Social Chair Matt Brennan '98, a brother at Psi Upsilon fraternity. Maliagros said the IFC planned to spend the summer working on a fraternity summer Olympics and compiling a booklet describing all of the College's fraternities. The fraternity Olympics, currently scheduled for July 13, would feature basketball, swimming, track, arm wrestling and volleyball competitions, Maliagros said. In the current plan for the event, only fraternity members will compete, Maliagros said. However, he stressed that the plans have not yet been finalized. The winner of the event will be awarded the Fraternity Cup, he said. The IFC's other project, a booklet on fraternities at the College, is aimed at providing information for those considering rushing a house. He characterized the booklet as "a prospectus, a summarizing look at what fraternities are all about," similar to the publications of many other colleges' Greek systems, but new to Dartmouth. As IFC president, Maliagros said he wanted to show "fraternities are for bringing people together, for creating life-long bonds and for putting smiles on people's faces - and that's the bottom line." Both Maliagros and Malik expressed a desire to foster cooperation within the Greek system. Malik said Panhell would work with the IFC and the Coed, Fraternity, Sorority Council on programming events. Malik and Maliagros also noted the importance of the Greek organizations to Dartmouth life.

The Setonian
News

Cost increases $220 for computer package

By Michael Ross | June 25, 1996

After several years of declining prices in the recommended incoming freshman computer package, the price of the suggested hardware for the Class of 2000 is expected to cost as much as $220 more than last year's package. According to Director of Computing Larry Levine, the Council on Computing decided in late April to recommend a Power Macintosh 7200/90 computer package to this year's incoming freshmen. The recommended package includes a 500 megabyte hard disk drive, 16 megabytes of memory, a quadruple speed CD-ROM drive, and a 14-inch Multi-Scan monitor While the package includes a more powerful machine than any previous class at the College has bought, freshmen buying the system will for the first time in years have to pay more than the previous year's freshman class. The total cost of the package will be $1590, Levine said, although that price may eventually drop slightly. Last year's recommended package, the Performa 636, cost $1370, but no acceptable packages in that price range were available, according to council member Andy Daubenspeck, a professor of physiology. In the past few years, the price of the freshman package has been dropping slightly, from $1423 for the Class of 1997 to $1405 for the Class of 1998 to $1370 last year. Regarding the sharp rise in cost, Daubenspeck said the council's hands were tied.

The Setonian
News

Lightfoot sentenced to five years of probation

By Michael Ross | January 3, 1996

Anthony Lightfoot '92, who plead guilty to violating the civil rights of Morris Whitaker, the treasurer of the Black Alumni of Dartmouth Association, was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to sell his assault weapon to pay for fines imposed by a federal court last Friday, according to the Valley News. Judge James Muirhead also ordered Lightfoot to participate in counseling and a mental health program, the Valley News said. Lightfoot, who is part black, part white and part Native American, plead guilty in September to mailing a letter to Whitaker in which he threatened to lynch him and rape his wife, according to the Associated Press in September. He allegedly wrote the letter because he was upset that the Black Alumni Association had sent him mail, according to the AP. According to the Valley News, Lightfoot proclaimed his embarrassment and shame for his actions at his sentencing, but later told reporters "my remarks were strictly for [the judge's] benefit." Hanover Police Sergeant Frank Moran told The Dartmouth he was "not unhappy" with the results of the case. "I don't have any grave misgivings about" the outcome, he said, though he pointed out that the small number of federal indictments the department is involved in makes it difficult to judge the case's relative success. In reference to Lightfoot's admitted insincerity at his court appearance, Moran said, "I thought his comments were bizarre under the circumstances," but added that he would not put too much trust in any of Lightfoot's statements. Although the College has no official response to the sentence, Dean of the College Lee Pelton said Lightfoot was still under suspension. The Dean of the College's Office suspended Lightfoot last April when a warrant was issued for his arrest. Pelton would not say whether Lightfoot had applied for reinstatement to the College, but said a student in his situation would need to submit to a hearing before a Dean or the Committee on Standards in order to be reinstated. Pelton also pointed out that the College's code of conduct holds students responsible for their actions on and off campus. Lightfoot has not finished his Dartmouth degree, due to his decision to take two and a half years off from school to serve in the Gulf War.

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