"Who knows, someone might actually learn something," said Jon Wang, a lead character in the final moments of "Asian-Americana" Saturday night.
Ani DiFranco is back with "Educated Guess," her first solo recording in a decade. The album is probably best described as homemade.
A panel of eight current students shared their personal experiences on sexuality in a panel discussion entitled "DON'T Yell Fag from the Porch II" at Alpha Delta Fraternity yesterday. Addressing a packed house, some panelists reviewed their personal coming-out stories while others spoke about their experiences with dealing with GLBT issues on sports team and in the Greek system. Before coming to Dartmouth, some panelists didn't realize "there was a world outside heterosexuality," said Kate Huyett '05. Other panelist said they only realized that they could relate to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer issues when they arrived on campus, but were still reluctant to come out of the closet. Taica Hsu '06 realized that college was the place where people could "reinvent themselves" and "show their true colors." However he said he decided not to come out in the beginning and remained "closeted" most of his freshmen year. Chelsea Voake '06 spoke about how she felt that the "question of sexuality is so irrelevant to one's definition" as a person.
You might sense it at a dining hall table, in a club's membership, or in the group of friends gathered on the other side of the Green. "Ethnic clumping," the tendency to group persons with shared characteristics in fixed categories, was the subject of a keynote address given by psychology professor Jennifer Richeson at yesterday's Pan Asian Council community dinner. The address, entitled "Why should I say 'Hi' to you?" tackled these issues from the perspectives of both the "perceivers" and the "participants." An audience of approximately 150 students came out to listen. Richeson spoke about the inaccuracy of generalizations, saying that there are basic categories such as age, sex and race which are often "activated automatically." According to Richeson, people can't help this behavior, because they usually categorize others at first glance.
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the progressive Jewish magazine Tikkun, urged undergraduates to value love, cooperation and "recognition of the humanity of the others" in a speech in Brace Commons yesterday. Lerner said that, for the past several thousand years, there has been a "big struggle going on between two world views." The first is one that believes that "human beings are fundamentally aggressive, and desire to dominate and control others," Lerner said.
As if there weren't already enough pretty pop- stars out there who can't sing. Unfortunately Columbia Records decided there weren't.
"Short of God making known to me that I should not move forward, I intend to be consecrated on November the 2nd," Reverend V.
When Alexandra Giese, a prospective '08, told a good friend of hers at Brown that she intended to apply to Dartmouth, her friend's immediate response was simple: "Eww, Dartmouth's really conservative." Karl Furstenberg, Dartmouth's dean of admissions, acknowledged that many prospective students, like Giese's friend, do view the school as highly conservative, although he thought that the campus has changed greatly. He maintained, though, that the persistence of this stereotype rarely prevents applicants with more liberal views from applying. Several current students who were concerned about the political climate on campus before applying also saw a clear contrast between Dartmouth's reputation and reality. Furstenberg likewise believes that the conservative stereotype has faded.
Daveheads, you can rest easy. Dave Matthews' first solo album "Some Devil" isn't all the doom and gloom it's being built up to be.
"If today, you are an American, and you can't understand why the people of the south don't like America, you are not aware of what's going on," Dr. Tariq Ramadan said yesterday. In a speech entitled "Terrorism and Al-Qaeda: What Muslims in the West Think About Them," Ramadan argued to a capacity crowd that no true definition of terrorism exists, and every American should consider their position in the world. Ramadan, a professor at Universities of Fribourg and Geneva, Switzerland, pointed to books, historical studies and official papers from the United Nations and other European governments to support his thesis. Ramadan said that the list of terrorist groups changes depending on the government and public political interest of the time.