Dartmouth’s Only Independent Newspaper

Volume 30, Issue 8

February 25, 2011
The Hanover Review, Inc.
P.O. Box 343
Hanover, NH 03755

Of Grim Times &

Budget Cuts

An interview with Keith Hennessey,

Former director of the National
Economic Council
Plus:
A Tour of Jewish Vilna & Staffing
Changes in Dartmouth Football
 Page 2 The Dartmouth Review February 25, 2011

Gunther Kress is Smarter Than You

By Blake S. Neff out the basics of his quest for a general theory of communica- could not afford a textbook from the last 20 years), this poem
tion through the study of multimodality and meaning-making. now must share space with line numbers, a more prominent
On Wednesday, February 23, a guest lecture was delivered To start off, he brought up a picture of a surgical team as an background illustration, assorted footnotes, and the like. As
at Dartmouth. Such an event is ordinarily unexceptional, as example of the many ways one can communicate. The picture Kress put it, the poem is no longer a literary work, but is now
plenty of distinguished academics fleet through the College’s contained a surgeon, assistant surgeon, anesthetist, and nurse. “transform[ed] into a pedagogic object.” Who knew that a
hallowed halls every year to expound upon some new theory As he described it, the surgeon will talk, few line numbers could make such a
or defend an old one. Unless the topic is particularly trendy, but not about surgical matters, while
amusing, or controversial, it’s unlikely to draw many students the nurse will rarely talk and instead
except for the inevitable several dozen there at a professor’s communicate via gestures or gazing.
behest.
L ine numbers on the poems difference? Gunther freaking Kress,
in textbooks: are they
that’s who.
Following this, a quick blitz was
The assistant surgeon will notice the writing? Questions like these made through the remaining aspects
This, however, was no ordinary guest lecture. No, this nurse’s gaze, feel nervous, and pay close of social semiotics and multimodal-
was Gunther (freaking) Kress, here all the way from the attention to his role to avoid error. All
scream out for answers.
ity. He summarized the importance of
University of London to enlighten us on “Social Givens and of this communication is fraught with the various modes, or technologies of
Semiotic Response: Principles of and Resources for Com- meaning and must cross a host of professional boundaries. transcription. The tools of transcription, he said, have their
position in 21st Century Conditions of Provisionality.” With With all of this meaning getting tossed around, it’s amazing own epistemological and ontological trends that are crucial
a title like that, it’s frankly surprising that the school’s 2A the surgical team ever has time to operate. Kress himself to recognize. Images show, writing tells, color frames and
X-hours weren’t canceled in despair of anybody choosing to seems to have noticed this problem, as he ended the sojourn highlights. Deployed properly, they have the power to reshape
attend class rather than the 4:30 lecture. into the surgical field with a jab at the foolish neoliberals in meaning. Not even something as apparently concrete as a cell’s
The web page hyping the event online announced that the British health care system who broke up the country’s structure can exist as a truly independent fact. Instead, it can
Kress’s lecture would “sketch an approach to multimodal system of surgical teams in the name of efficiency. The audi- only be expressed in assorted signs whose meanings change
composition which assumes that meaning comes from the ence sagely guffawed at his socially conscious jab. with their composition. Saying “every cell has a nucleus” is
social and from social interaction.” Reading this, I could hardly After finishing with this example, Kress moved on to lay vastly different from saying “in every cell there is a nucleus.”
contain my excitement. Like all thinking men, I had long been out a rudimentary social semiotic sketch of communication. Furthermore, both of these sentences are nothing like the
willing to accept that meaning As he described it, complete meaning expressed in a drawing of a cell, particularly if said
came from social interaction, with gratuitous italics, interest drawing, like Kress’s, looks vaguely like the puffballs in old
but to see that meaning could is central to attention, selection, Zoloft antidepressant ads.
also come from “the social” and interpretation. Not only Following the lecture, the floor was opened to questions.
was something I just had to see that, but interest is central to One audience member asked whether Kress’s assessment of
proven with my own eyes. the making of signs, including meaning-making was merely historical and descriptive, or
Kress himself is branded signs for oneself. Sign-making also prescriptive with a direct lesson that educators should
as one of the world’s leading itself is meaning-making, and apply. Favoring the ever-appealing middle approach, Kress
experts on multimodality, meaning-making is learning. argued that his approach was prescriptive but only moderately
which is proven by the fact that Therefore, interest is central to so. The world, he said, is going through a major transforma-
a Google Search of the term learning. tion in communication largely rooted in the relative decline
brings up a paper by him as To back up this chain of writing. Instead of being ideologically central, it is now
—This is Gunther Kress’s drawing of a cell with a nucleus,
the sixth result behind several of logic (as if that were really just one of many meaning-making means, and is frequently
which he used in a paper. This imitation of a Zoloft puffball
pages dealing with an unrelated necessary), samples of “interest” a marginal one at that.
is actually a cell with a nucleus. But it’s not about what
concept in computer science. taken from a museum visitor- With this change in writing’s role and rise of new modes,
we mean, it’s about what this means to you—
According to one reviewer, his studies project were presented. questions are coming up. For example, the line numbers on
book Multimodality “represents Visitors to an English museum the poems in textbooks: are they writing? Questions like these
a paradigm shift… yet, for all its path-breaking intellectual were asked to draw a map representing their experiences. scream out for answers.
innovation and conceptual profundity, it contains a disarm- An unwilling young boy drew a picture whose main feature A companion of the author was perplexed by this answer
ingly clear view of meaning-making, one in which human was an airplane he saw used in a diorama, while a visiting and took the opportunity to proffer his own question at the
agency is at the centre.” Quite, unknown reviewer, quite. German woman provided a more relevant sketch detailing the very end of the event. In the grand scheme of things, he said,
Upon arrival at the event, it was clear that organizers museum’s natural history focus. These anecdotal examples hasn’t writing actually been on the rise due to the dramatic
had feared overcrowding would result in a deadly stampede from a foreign visitor and a 10-year-old were used to make increase in literacy? Can we really say that writing is being
and responded by pretending to cancel the lecture, since the the case that “interest determines our engagement with an marginalized when it still pervades our lives and more jobs
only other people there appeared to be adults or graduate object.” No arguments there. than ever are based around forms of reading and writing rather
students. Presumably, only this author’s general obliviousness After the matter of interest was dealt with, the lecture than manual labor?
and nocturnal habits made him miss this announcement and moved into the immensely important realm of framing and Absolutely not, sprach the professor. He laid out the
arrive at the lecture anyway. kinds of frames. Kress declared that the sentence constitutes whole argument for this poorly uninformed fellow. Bringing
A German raised in Australia teaching in Britain lectur- one of the most important frames, and used a small sampling up another surgery photo and a sign directing drivers to a
ing in America, the well-traveled Kress opened with a quote of textbooks to make his case. A 1936 science textbook had supermarket parking lot, he challenged anybody to describe
from Goethe (classy!), declaring that “Der Mensch wird many clauses in its sentences, while a 1988 textbook for the in words what was in these pictures. The impossibility of this
durch seine Umwelt midifiziert; er modifizier die Umwelt.” same subject never used more than two. In a similar vein, the task, he said, demonstrates that writing, while not disappear-
He unfortunately did not provide an exact translation of 30’s book had just a handful of illustrations that were still ing, is not the sole maker of meanings. He then elaborated by
this phrase, no doubt because everybody in the audience is notable enough to gain praise from reviewers, while the 80’s making reference to the first satellites, which taught us that
already fluent in that most postmodern of languages. The textbook was saturated with the sorts of cost-raising pictures the world is actually not that big. Therefore, humans learned
author chastised himself for studying Spanish and thus being every child of the period is familiar with. that when we pour our cooking oil down the sink, it doesn’t
poorly prepared. To the uneducated plebe, such differences may be trivial, go away.
Following this, Kress cut right into the matter of laying but Kress would have none of that nonsense. To make his point, Following this explanation, the author’s companion still
he showcased a poem from a 30’s literature textbook, which seemed quite perplexed. But really, if such a lucid argument
Mr. Neff is a sophomore at the College and a week editor was paired with nothing more than a Constable painting. By like that isn’t sufficient, what hope does one have? Some minds
for The Dartmouth Review. the 1980’s (given current academic budget cuts, perhaps he simply insist on seeing mud in the clearest of waters. •

Mr. Ding is a sophomore at the College and a Managing

Editor of The Dartmouth Review.
 February 25, 2011 The Dartmouth Review Page 3

Editorial
Founders
Greg Fossedal, Gordon Haff,
Our Generation Pays for
Competing Demagogueries
Benjamin Hart, Keeney Jones
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win great
triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take
rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor
“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to us who are still in school, or are just starting our careers —
suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that
knows neither victory nor defeat.” be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.” — H.L. Mencken don’t vote.
—Theodore Roosevelt On Monday, Keith Hennessey, formerly the head of
The 112th Congress is only a month into its first legisla- President Bush’s National Economic Council, came to speak
Charles S. Dameron
tive session, but the race to the bottom has already begun. at Dartmouth at the invitation of the Rockefeller Center. In
Editor-in-Chief
This week, House Republicans proposed $5.7 billion in cuts an indication of just how politically engaged Dartmouth
Mostafa A. Heddaya to federal Pell grants for the remainder of the fiscal year. Pell students — some of America’s “future leaders” — are, about
President grants, which are targeted at helping students from America’s ten students showed up to round out an audience composed
poorest families afford a college education, are one of the of the economics faculty and a smattering of people from
William D. Aubin centerpieces of federal education aid — our government’s the Hanover community. Mr. Hennessey gave a compelling,
Executive Editor
biggest experiment in voucher funding for education. though highly partisan, presentation that laid out potential
Blair E. Bandeen Meanwhile, by a largely party-line vote of 281 to 148, the political solutions to our budget crunch. He was highly op-
Vice President House upheld the US Army’s annual $7 million sponsorship timistic that the wave of fresh faces in Congress, many of
of NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Ryan Newman. Of course, $7 them elected on the support of the Tea Party movement, will
Sterling C. Beard • Ke Ding million is but a drop in the federal bucket. But $7 million a help put an end to political gridlock on entitlements.
Managing Editors year would pay for about 1200 Pell grants — hardly a pittance We should believe it only when we see it. In any event,
to those students who would stand figuring out how to reduce the
David I. Rufful to benefit from them. There is clear deficit is only half of America’s
Sports Editor evidence to show that sharp reduc- political battle, something that
tions in federal financial aid are many Republicans currently seem
Blake S. Neff • Benjamin M. Riley likely to spur on the United States’ to blissfully unaware of. Jimmy
Week Editors already atrocious college dropout Carter-Barack Obama analogies
Chloe Teeter Katherine J. Murray rate. Pell grant recipients (and the notwithstanding, the United States
Photo Editor Arts & Culture Editor American labor market) truly need is in a period of deep malaise right
the investment. NASCAR driver now — a malaise that is mostly
Thomas L. Hauch • Joshua Riddle Ryan Newman doesn’t. unrelated to our budget woes.
Coleman E. Shear Republicans in Washington What is interesting about this dis-
Associate Editors are whipped up into a frenzy about content is how unevenly it is felt
deficit reduction, and rightly so. between those in Washington and
Contributors
The budget proposed by President New York and those in the rest of
Christina Chen, Svati Narula, Michael Marcusa, J.P.
Harrington, Kirk Jing, Mene Ukueberuwa, Lillian Wil- Obama this year would have the US the country. A recent Rasmussen
son, Michael Klein, Stuart Allan, Harry Greenstone, Jeff government borrow $1.65 trillion; poll said it all: 68% of Americans
Hopkins, Melanie Wilcox, Mike Edgar that’s a healthy sum to add onto overall believe that America is
our already astronomic $14 tril- on the wrong track; yet the exact
Mean-Spirited, Cruel and Ugly lion outstanding public debt. Yet inverse is true among the “political
Legal Counsel given the scale of the problem, class,” of which 68% thinks that
The Review Advisory Board it would seem that congressional
Charles S. Dameron
America is on the right track.
Martin Anderson, Patrick Buchanan, Theodore Cooper- Republicans’ much-ballyhooed effort Getting to the bottom of this dis-
stein, Dinesh D’Souza, Michael Ellis, Robert Flanigan, to cut $100 billion from the budget this year is heavier on crepancy ought to be a top priority for both parties; the party
John Fund, William Grace, Gordon Haff, Jeffrey Hart, political appearances than it is on policy substance. that is first able to genuinely connect with popular angst and
Laura Ingraham, Mildred Fay Jefferson, William Lind, The grim truth is that no matter who wins the current act on it could be the beneficiary, as were FDR’s Democrats,
Steven Menashi, James Panero, Hugo Restall, Roland budget brawl in Washington, young people are likely to be of an epochal realignment in American politics. President
Reynolds, William Rusher, Weston Sager, Emily Esfahani among its biggest losers. The reason is simple: the American Obama has thus far clearly failed to tap into it. Coming into
Smith, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Sidney Zion public has proven consistently its preference for a low-tax, 2012 and beyond, the Republicans will have a golden op-
high-entitlement regime that transfers wealth from the young portunity to respond effectively to the American people’s
“What about clean coal?”
to the old and runs bucketfuls of red ink for which our genera- concerns. But doing so will require that they substantially
1929 cover image of Mt. Moosilauke Carriage Road tion will end up paying. The arithmetic of our budget woes is broaden their view of the problems we face and the tools at
courtesy of Harold H. Leich and Jeffrey R. Leich. simple. A handful of programs make up the bulk of the federal the federal government’s disposal.
Special Thanks to William F. Buckley, Jr. government’s expenses: Social Security, defense, welfare and As TDR’s interview (pp. 6-8) with Keith Hennessey in-
unemployment relief, and Medicare and Medicaid. Invest- dicates, Republican leaders have opted to put off discussion
The Editors of THE DARTMOUTH REVIEW welcome cor-
respondence from readers concerning any subject, but ments in the future — in infrastructure, education, scientific of serious, systemic problems with the long-run American
prefer to publish letters that comment directly on mate- research, ecological protection, diplomatic outreach, and all economy. When asked why Republicans were choosing to
rial published previously in THE REVIEW. We reserve the the rest — are wedged into an increasingly narrow slice of cut federal education aid — a direct, long-term investment
right to edit all letters for clarity and length. the pie. in the American workforce — Mr. Hennessey ended up set-
Submit letters by mail, fax at (603) 643-1470, or e-mail: The American people are completely uninformed about tling on the explanation that “a blue-collar worker in Ohio
charles.s.dameron@dartmouth.edu the fix we’re in. Recent polling has demonstrated that 56% with a high school education, whose kids are going to have
of Americans are opposed to benefits adjustments for Social a high school education” shouldn’t be forced to “subsidize”
THE DARTMOUTH REVIEW is produced bi-weekly by Dart-
Security, and 64% oppose much-needed changes to Medicare. privileged college students. Leave aside the faintly patron-
mouth College undergraduates for Dartmouth students
At the same time, a solid majority of Americans is unwilling izing tone that lingers around that idea — the real problem
and alumni. It is published by the Hanover Review, Inc.,
to pay higher taxes to help fund these overdrawn subsidies for with it is that it gets the issue exactly backward. Pell grants
a non-profit tax-deductible organization. Please send all
retirees. Even among Republicans, only 41% are willing to are aimed at low-income students, many of whom are the first
inquiries to:
support entitlement cuts; the numbers are much lower among in their families to attend college.
The Dartmouth Review independents (32%) and Democrats (22%). Americans do More troublingly, when asked why the US experiences
P.O. Box 343 come out in strong numbers to support cuts to foreign aid, greater inequality of wealth than most other industrialized
Hanover, N.H. 03755 even though that represents one of the United States’ most nations, Mr. Hennessey professed, “I don’t know. Ask some
effective foreign policy tools and eats up around only around of the labor economists that question.”
Subscribe: $40 1% of the federal budget. The GOP may be the party with ideas for cutting the deficit,
The result of this incoherence is easy to predict. The but when it comes to very real macroeconomic issues — the
president and his party are essentially unwilling to talk about issues that are fueling Americans’ frustrations — conserva-
The Dartmouth Review
entitlement adjustments and cry foul about any attempt to do tives are out to lunch. The divide in fundamental outlook
P.O. Box 343 so. Republicans take a hatchet to those discretionary slivers between elites and the nation at large is largely a function of
Hanover, N.H. 03755 of the budget which actually represent tangible investments America’s growing disparity of fortunes. American populist
(603) 643-4370 in our future —like Pell grants, early childhood education, anger at Wall Street and Washington isn’t irrational. But it
or the country’s environmental regulatory apparatus — in gets channeled in all the wrong directions.
Fax: (603) 643-1470 order to appease the base, while making transparently vague At the end of the day, Republicans cannot blame all our
Contributions are tax-deductible. promises about entitlement reform. Knowing full well how woes on big government. Tax cuts and spending cuts are
poorly informed we are, both parties are all too happy to play not a winning formula by themselves — either politically,
us for idiots. And why wouldn’t they be? The people who economically, or morally. For the sake of our own electoral
www.dartreview.com will get stuck with the bill for all this profligacy— those of interests, we should stop pretending that they are. •
 Page 4 The Dartmouth Review February 25, 2011
The Week in Review
Pell Grant Cuts
Threaten Higher
College Costs
While budget debates consume much of legislators’ at-
tention at both the state and federal levels, for many students,
a rising cost of attending college looms. Two bills backed by
one of the major parties are being batted around as means to
reduce spending; both bills include among other things some
major educational cuts. The Republican bill reduces funding
for Pell Grants, a key portion of federal financial aid, by 15%,
while completely eliminating the Federal Supplemental
Educational Opportunity Grant program. The total loss to
Dartmouth’s financial aid budget would exceed $1.6 million
under the Republican plan.
Although President Obama hopes to preserve these
programs, the Democratic proposal includes increasing a key
interest rate on Perkins loans from 5 percent to 6.8 percent,
thus severely taxing students and families relying on these
loans. Administrators and students at the College are closely
watching this legislation unfold, as millions of dollars of the
financial aid budget could evaporate if these cuts pass. No
doubt there will be much wailing an gnashing of teeth, but
ultimately, pain is a part of all meaningful cost-cutting.
Exactly which plan becomes law will determine whether
the burden falls on the College or students receiving financial
aid. In either case, perhaps the looming threat of federal fund-
ing pullbacks will force an honest assessment of the College’s
spending and how it relates to the cost of a degree.
Administrative Pay
Lags Behind the
Times
The Chronicle of Higher Education published a list of
median salaries for a variety of top administrative jobs at
American universities on February 21. At first glance, the
list offers cursory look into the otherwise shadowy realm of
administrative workings, itself a rare and valuable opportu-
nity. A closer reading, however, reveals a pair of startling and
objectionable trends.
First, the inexplicable disparity between compensation
for certain jobs and departments: The Chronicle reported
a median income of $93,646 for deans of mathematics
and $104,721 for deans of social sciences. Compare these
with statistics for less popular and questionably applicable
departments like “forestry and environmental studies” and
performing arts, the deans of which earn median salaries of
$185,480 and $140,814 respectively.
Second among the suspect trends demonstrated by the
list is the more than generous compensation for several posi-
tions whose very existence evokes perplexity, most notably
the $102,447 for “chief diversity officers.”
Such prominent financial imbalances and irregularities
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Cups, Balls, Paddles, Accessories
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at the top levels of our academic institutions are particularly
troubling in the context of frantic budget cutting measures
taking place at businesses and government programs across the
country. Universities will have to learn to resist the overbear-
ing pressure of advocacy groups, the unquestionable cause of
certain positions’ exaggerated salaries, or find themselves left
behind in the current and future era of financial austerity.
Harvard Sparks Bad
College Romance
With the advent of a new Harvard social network,
Dartmouth students have taken yet another step forward
from having to actually interact with real people. Harvard’s
CrimsonSpark has just rebranded itself as CollegiateSpark
in preparation for its expansion in “serving” various other
colleges (also known as pretty much just Dartmouth). Lib-
erated from the burden of having to pay attention to social
cues, Dartmouth students can now sign up at CollegiateSpark
and “spark” individuals they are interested in. A spark can
only be seen by an individual who independently returns the
spark, sparing the easily-shamed Dartmouth student from
any possible social sanction for ludicrous targeting.
The creation of a new outlet for romantically-frustrated
Dartmouth students to channel their negative emotions into
may be largely responsible for the recent drop in activity for
Bored At Baker. Though depending on your point of view, it
may be actually less productive for a Dartmouth student to
endlessly wait with their MacBook on their lap in anticipation
of being sparked back (likely to no avail). Despite all of this,
CollegiateSpark already has hundreds of Dartmouth students
signed up — a pity, since we thought that online date facilita-
tors were something that one resorted to in the desperation
of the post-college years. But insofar as anything decreases
traffic on B@B, we’re fine with it.
Dartmouth Fires
Janitors, Dumps on
Profs
Dartmouth’s color may be green, but nothing can ruin
that delightful fact faster than the obnoxious efforts of the
various eco-fiends on campus. Not only do students have two
different waste bins in their room now, professors are required
to take out their own trash. This program has been ongoing
since the summer and now professors are required to use a
bucket that would normally be seen in the construction of
sandcastles. Once their small plastic pails buckets are filled,
professors are required to haul their trash to the nearest set
of trash/recycling bins and dump their detritus according to
its type (paper, plastic, glass, etc.). Heaven help them if they
have to make multiple runs.
All of this is part of an effort to reduce janitorial fees,
though “voluntarily” going green is apparently the cover story.
This is, of course, a great idea when we operate in a competi-
tive environment to hire and retain highly paid professors.
Wesleyan Launches
War with Freedom
of Association
Troubling news down in Connecticut. President Michael
Roth of Wesleyan University, one of the so-called “Little
Ivies,” has recently issued a stunning letter which declares
that starting next fall, students “will be prohibited from resid-
ing in — or using for social activities — houses or property
owned, leased or operated by private societies that are not
recognized by the University.” Students who violate the policy
will face punishments up to and including suspension.
The policy is aimed squarely at Wesleyan’s Beta Theta
Pi fraternity, which currently remains unrecognized by the
university. The school hopes to force the fraternity to seek
recognition from the college or else have its membership
subject to suspension. Not surprisingly, though, such a broadly
worded policy also in effect bars students from associating
with other private societies in the vicinity of Wesleyan, such
as the Elks Lodge.
In addition, the policy blatantly violates the school’s own
“Joint Statement on the Rights and Freedoms of Individuals,”
which promises that the college will not inhibit any of the
students’ “rights of citizenship” either on or off-campus. Of
course, freedom of association has been considered a First
Amendment right since 1958’s NAACP v. Alabama. Count
on one of the nation’s most liberal universities to initiate a
policy opposing a major civil rights decision
Sheepish Princeton,
Harvard Bring Back
Early Admission
In a sharp reversal of previous policies designed to help
support lower-income students in the college admissions
process, university administrators at both Princeton and Har-
vard announced Thursday that they would once again accept
applications for ‘early action’ college admissions starting this
fall.
The move comes just four years after Harvard and
Princeton agreed not to accept early applications, since it
is widely believed that early applications disfavor low- or
middle-income students whose college choices often hinge on
the size and availability of need-based financial aid, which is
generally not disbursed until well after early admission deci-
sions are released. Traditionally, early admissions programs
have been seen to benefit legacy applicants and recruited
athletes.
Princeton president Shirley Tilghman and Harvard Dean
Michael D. Smith were eager to play down the significance of
the change, and both noted that they hoped their institutions
continued to prove attractive to lower-income applicants.
Thursday’s announcement is expected by college admissions
experts to reduce applications to Yale.
 February 25, 2011 The Dartmouth Review Page 5

SexFest: Techno Breasts & Weenie Angst

By Michael Hoch and Samuel Johnson the question of why anyone bothered. However, everybody the booth offered no advice on the best method to ward off
but us apparently has a survey fetish, because the table had any unctuous types: our best friends Smith and Wesson ‘52.
Well, it’s February again. While lesser minds may look collected several dozen completed surveys by the time we Evidently, it’s better to invest time that could be spent at a
forward to skiing, corporate recruiting, Winter Carnival, or stopped by. Good for them? shooting range learning martial arts and other hand-to-hand
other plebeian activities, the real intellectual elites of our However, given the content of the other booths at SexFest,
self-defense techniques. Just how useful these techniques
beloved college on the hill all know the true summit of the one could be forgiven for wondering if the counter-cultural would be against an adversary with an 87-pound weight
second month: SexFest. view of Worth the Wait was necessary. While there was the advantage was unclear.
Yes, once again, it wais time for all of us to get reac- usual assortment of fetish booths and advice on sex toys (bat- All that said, not every booth impressed upon visitors the
quainted with the finer aspects of carnal living, lest we forget teries not included), a majority of booths served to highlightcatastrophic dangers of sex. The infamous lube-tasting booth
and fall into that sexless torpor we was back in all its glory, inviting
call “marriage.” The horror! Thusly passersby to compare flavors such
we girded our loins, cinched up our as watermelon, mint, and berry,
(chastity?) belts, and readied our- much in the manner those little old
selves to set forth into the cave of ladies offer you product samples at
carnal knowledge known as Collis Sam’s Club. However, lube con-
Commonground, for that one night noisseurs like ourselves were upset
doubling as Dartmouth’s very own that the finer brands of Burgundian
Sodom and Gomorrah. lube-making were not represented;
But alas, SexFest is not as we such are the sacrifices to be made
once knew it. Like an old lover, it for our age of austerity and for mass
has lost some of that spark, some of appeal (by the way, watermelon
that luster and innate attractiveness is the best flavor). Also back was
that once beckoned like a gleaming the sex toys booth, complete with
light, or at least like glow-in-the- products so incredibly amazing and
dark lube. The event, last year a detailed that our editor has viciously
two-hour-long orgy of everything censored any description of them.
relating to man’s only desire, was Similarly censored is the booth on
this year shortened to an hour and a taboos, sadomasochism, and all
half, and was starting to close up by those other fun things that people
the time the correspondents arrived do not talk about outside of their
50 minutes in. We suppose it’s true secret basement torture chambers.
what they say happens to you as you Sometimes you just have to be
get older...shorter and less stamina. there, folks.
One didn’t have to walk far be- Notably missing, though, was
fore bumping into a table purporting the booth for Planned Parenthood,
to discuss “the five love languages.” which had held a prominent spot
And no, those aren’t Latin, Spanish, at last year’s SexFest. Perhaps the
French, Italian and Portuguese. No, impending loss of federal funding
good friends, these were the lan- has forced them to “abort” such out-
guages of quality time, acts of service, reach efforts while totally oblivious
gifts, physical touch and words of to the irony.
affirmation. Te adoro, chica. As in years past, each participant
“Services as in, like, building a who wished to ogle at the oddness
house?” Mike asked. was handed a “sexual passport”
“As in doing things for some- which could be stamped at each
one,” answered one of the peppy of the booths. Upon securing ten
girls behind the table. stamps, people could enter into a
“Ah,” Mike said. “In the context drawing to win The Guide to Get-
I’m thinking of?” ting it On, a brick sized bible for
“Like, mowing the lawn,” she all bedroom banging, with chapter
replied. titles like “Sunsets, Orgasms and
“So more in the Boy Scout sense Hand Grenades,” “Techno Breasts
of the term.” and Weenie Angst,” and “Popsicles
“Yes.” and Penises.” While no doubt a fine
Samuel’s curiosity still wasn’t conversation piece, this may be one
sated, however. of those rare occasions where length
“Are the women all getting gifts? is off-putting.
Because that would explain a major So perhaps SexFest itself was
stereotype.” —As you don your condom, take a moment to celebrate diversity— anticlimactic. This isn’t terribly
“Gifts doesn’t [sic] have to be surprising, as it has been increas-
buying something, per se, it can be like, a card or something the dangerous, depressing, or terrifying aspects of sex, leav- ingly marginalized as an event over the years, possibly out of
like that.” ing one to wonder why anyone would be foolish enough to embarrassment. But we should not despair, as what was once
“Yeah, but they want us to buy things for them.” engage in such a lethal activity. There were multiple booths a mild collection of sex-related February festivities centered
“No,” she insisted, “I think the most common is quality for topics like sexual assault, abusive relationships, and the around a “V-Day” on Valentine’s Day has ballooned into “V-
time.” various types of STD’s one can acquire, from herpes simplex Week” and now into the less definable “V-Time,” during which
“Dude...” Mike muttered, trying to drop the hint that to herpes complex. Well, actually, they’re called STI’s now, every effort is made to turn stiflingly patriarchal Hanover
Samuel might be trolling just a little too hard. because “sexually transmitted diseases” did not account for into a glitzy Vaginopolis. Positioning itself as a campaign to
“Hey,” Sam laughed, “if I can’t express misogyny at the fact that not all infections end violence against women
SexFest, where can I express it?” are diseases. This rhetorical
We both thought that, given how saucy and “enlightening” shortcoming was so devas-
SexFest tries to pass itself off as, it was almost disappoint- tating it had to be changed
ing to find out that “acts of service” didn’t refer to “acts of posthaste.
P ositioning itself as a campaign to end and their objectification as
sex objects, many events
violence against women and their objecti- this year sought to identify
fication as sex objects, many events this year women with a uniquely sex-
servicing.” Not particularly informative, but harmless. Whatever the rhetorical
Once again taking up its position as the lone voice crying issues, these booths were
sought to identify women with a uniquely ual organ as strongly as pos-
sible. As with most aspects of
out in the darkness, much like a Salvation Army outpost in the probably the most educa- sexual organ as strongly as possible. feminist theory and planning,
red light district of Amsterdam, Worth the Wait was back for tional aspect of SexFest. For there’s no perceivable way
its second year. Backed primarily by religious organizations on example, one booth advertis- any of this could backfire.
campus such as Aquinas House, the booth offered articles from ing the HPV vaccine — now for men! — informed us of evi- But as our fathers always told us growing up, it’s not
publications such as The Economist discussing the modern dence of a link between oral sex and various facial and throat the size of your SexFest that matters, it’s how you use it.
virtue of celibacy and the sexual toll that modernization has cancers. To think that Deep Throat, one of the most famous This isn’t to say that all the events are total wastes of time. A
had on women in particular. They also offered passerby the and popular pornographic films ever made (we had to look documentary shown on February 23 in Collis Commonground
opportunity to fill out surveys where they could express their that up on Wikipedia, we swear!), was actually responsible titled Very Young Girls discusses sex trafficking of girls and
own attitudes towards sex and marriage. It is highly doubtful for countless deaths. It’s depressing enough to drive one to young women in the United States, a sobering topic to be sure,
that anybody planned to read these surveys, which leads to celibacy or to the Computer Science department. delivered with a tone much more likely to raise awareness. A
Similarly, another booth informed us of the myriad pity more of the “wacky,” “fun” and “hysterical” booths out
Mssrs. Hoch and Johnson are juniors at the College and means by which women could protect themselves from the there can’t take the same sober approach. If they did, people
contributors to The Dartmouth Review. predators who threaten them at every turn. Unfortunately, might just take SexFest seriously. •
 Page 6 The Dartmouth Review February 25, 2011

TDR Talks Econ with Keith Hennessey

By Charles S. Dameron step in and prevent these institutions from failing because we because we have what’s called bracket creep, because we
were afraid of the consequences to the rest of the system if have a progressive tax structure, and we have the economy
The Dartmouth Review: You’re a member of the Finan- they failed in a disorderly fashion. growing — revenues will grow as a share of the economy
cial Crisis Inquiry Commission. What’s your summary over time. You have to come in every so often and tamp that
distillation of the causes of the crisis, and where does the TDR: How do you unwind the moral hazard that’s been down so you don’t have taxes growing and growing and
US go from here? created by the bailouts of 2008? growing as a share of the economy.
So absolutely the Bush tax cuts were the right thing to
Keith Hennessey: It was primarily an economic crisis driven KH: If we were now in the position where the financial institu- do in 2001 and 2003, because I care not just about the deficit
by economic forces. I think the explanation of the crisis has tions could be allowed to fail, then I wouldn’t worry about it. effects, but also about the share of the economy that’s going
to start with the credit bubble. I think the biggest mistake that The problem is, to whatever extent we increase moral hazard through the government. I’m not a starve-the-beast guy. I
a lot of people make is that they start off by looking at US by intervening, combined with still having a financial system don’t believe that if you cut taxes that will create a political
financial system policies and regulations and US supervision. where we can’t allow those biggest institutions to fail. incentive to cut spending. That’s what some people used to
But you have to recognize that at least the initiating force of My policy instincts would be to worry a lot about moral argue twenty or thirty years ago.
the crisis was global, and that while the most visible aspects hazard. Based on what I saw in the crisis, it doesn’t appear to I do believe in the converse of that, which is “don’t feed
of the crisis were in the US, there were parallels going on in have been that big of a factor. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. the beast.” If you leave money on the table in Washington,
Western Europe and even It certainly exists, and people in Washington will find a way to spend it. There’s a real
other parts of the world. you have to be concerned danger in that, especially with the modern-day configuration
There were housing bub- about doing anything in Washington, where it’s, “every dollar of taxes we raise,
bles in at least half a dozen, that exacerbates it. Some we’re going to find something to spend it on.” And that’s a
a dozen other countries. argue that the government problem?
There were large financial interventions in early
institutional failures — 2008 helped contribute TDR: You talked about a starve-the-beast mentality. It
big banks failed in a bunch to problems later in 2008, seems clear that the political situation in the US militates
of other countries. and I don’t buy that. against any tax increases — people aren’t willing to vote
And so what that for tax increases — but they’re also unwilling to vote for
means is, if you’re look- TDR: You’ve been writ- benefits or spending cuts.
ing solely at particular ing a lot about the cur-
flaws in the US financial rent fiscal crisis and our KH: I think the first has always been true. I think the second
system — and there are looming deficit burden. has always been true, up until recently. The absolute great
plenty of them — those by Jonathan Chait in The thing about all these new members of Congress who are
themselves can’t explain New Republic has gone coming in is that they are absolutely rejecting that. They’re
why bad things happen after you, saying that the saying, “government is getting too big, and I don’t care
in other countries. Alan Bush Administration what the sacred cows or political risks are: we need to make
Greenspan’s deregula- was at least partially government smaller.”
tory philosophy prob- responsible for the fiscal And so, I think that seeing the statements from congres-
ably didn’t cause German hole we’re in now. What sional Republicans now, saying that they’re going to propose
banks to fail. And flaws are your thoughts about real entitlement reforms, is an incredibly responsible thing to
in US housing policies that? Looking back on do. The conventional wisdom is that it’s politically risky. So
probably didn’t cause the it, do you think that good for them for standing up and proposing not just to go
Spanish housing bubble. the Bush tax cuts were after the 15% of the budget that’s non-defense discretionary
And flaws in US housing imprudent? And if they spending, but to take on the things that have been sacred
policies did contribute to weren’t, how do you go cows, because that’s where the money is — it’s in the entitle-
the US housing bubble, but —Keith Hennessey served on the National Economic Council for about righting the Unit- ments.
you need to have a broader six and a half years. Prior to that, he was an economic aide to ed States’ fiscal position I think it’s also great that these new members are coming
explanation to explain Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi— without substantially in and saying the problem is spending. I am a low tax guy,
why it was happening in raising taxes? but Republicans in the past have often wanted to spend all
different parts of the world. of their time talking about taxes, and not enough of it talking
So I think it starts with the credit bubble. I think there KH: A couple of points. First, we care a lot about deficits. We about actually cutting spending, and it’s great, because they’re
were some foul-ups in US housing policy on both the too- also care a lot about the size of government. The deficit is of in now and they’re doing it. And they just voted for it.
much-government-intervention side and in the misdirected- course the delta between spending and revenues, and that’s
government-intervention side. I think as a general matter, too big, and it’s going to be getting even bigger, and we have TDR: Do you think that the proposed non-defense dis-
elected officials of both parties always wanted to subsidize to do something about that. At the cretionary cuts are appropriate?

I
housing more, and so we had a system that was encouraging same time, the levels of spending am a low tax guy, but Republicans Like you said, it’s a really small
everybody everywhere to get as big a house as they could and revenues have shifted upward chunk of the federal budget.
ever think of, and I think that hurt. considerably, so that a greater in the past have often wanted to
share of society’s resources is go- spend all of their time talking about KH: Look, like I said, I’m a small
TDR: Including the former president, President Bush… ing through the government rather taxes, and not enough of it talking government guy, so you put me in
than through the private sector. We a room with spending cuts, and I’m
KH: I think elected officials of both parties, absolutely. I think should care about both of those about actually cutting spending going to be naturally attracted to
this is a broadly bipartisan issue where every elected official things. Washington debate tends to doing them. In almost every substan-
says, “I’m for more homeownership.” And I think the needle focus only on the delta between the two, and not the absolute tive discussion about spending cuts, I end up being one of
turned too far in that direction. At the same time, I think that level of spending and revenues, and that’s a mistake. the guys who’s arguing for all or almost all of them. I have
the disclosure rules for mortgage lenders were poor, and in The criticism of President Bush’s fiscal policy all tend not gone through the full list of everything they did, but as
some cases non-existent, and so you had a whole lot of people to take the forms of, “If only he had done x, which I prefer, a general matter, they’re going in and doing absolutely what
who were taking out mortgages that they didn’t understand then we would have ended up in a different situation.” If they should have done, and will they make some changes that
and couldn’t afford in the first place. you look at the results of where the fiscal policies ended up, I might not have done by myself? Yeah, maybe. But you also
I spend most of my focus on what happened once we had federal spending as a share of the economy was lower under have to remember that this is not a single decision-maker; this
all of these bad loans in the financial system, and in particular President Bush than it was under his dad and under President is a group of a couple of hundred people, all trying to pull
on what we call the “concentration of highly correlated risk,” Reagan. Taxes were lower and deficits were lower. together and all trying to achieve the overall goal of reducing
by which I mean, most of the big banks made the same bad bet The attacks that come from the left almost always center the total amount of spending.
on housing. When the tech bubble burst in the late 1990s, lots on a mistaken economic projection that was made in 2001, So even if they do it in a way that is somewhat different
of people lost a little bit of money that they had in the stock where the budget forecasters all thought that the tech bubble from the way I would have done it if I had a magic wand,
market. Here, the losses on housing-related financial assets and the higher revenues from it were going to continue forever. those differences are far less important to me than the fact
tend to be concentrated in large financial institutions. Our And then they compare the trillions of dollars of surpluses that they’re achieving the top-line goal, which is to get the
whole financial sector was very highly leveraged on a single that were incorrectly foreseen at the time with the resulting total amount down. If they cut things that I would naturally
flawed assumption that housing prices would rise forever. It policies. If you look at the resulting policies, Bush’s deficits not have cut, more power to them, because they’re the ones
was that concentration of risk that meant that when that bet were very close to the historic average, measured as a share who ran for office and they got elected. They have the privi-
turned out to be wrong, the whole system imploded. of the economy. lege of making these decisions. Good for them for making
The other big thing was that we had a system in which the decisions and taking the risk.
policymakers and supervisors were afraid of letting the TDR: If Bush hadn’t enacted the 2001 tax cuts, you think
biggest financial institutions fail. When you have a system there wouldn’t have been a surplus anyway? What would TDR: The conversation in DC is really focused on the
where you’re unwilling to let certain financial institutions have been the fiscal result of that? budget deficit, which is exciting. For Republicans, it’s
fail, you’re in trouble. We experienced that heavily in 2008 exciting. But I also wonder about the conversation on
and 2009, where we felt like there was no alternative but to KH: Well, first of all, enacting the Bush tax cuts — if you employment numbers, and the macroeconomic trends of
take out the short-term economic cycle aspects of it — were the economy. We’re still in a pretty bad spot.
Mr. Dameron is a senior at the College and the editor- necessary to keep revenues at or near their historic average
in-chief of The Dartmouth Review. share of the economy. If you don’t come in and cut taxes — KH: 9% unemployment is real bad. It’s not just pretty bad;
 February 25, 2011 The Dartmouth Review Page 7

Bush’s National Economic Council Chief

it’s real bad. there anything else after Korea? Or does the administration
want to be one and done? And you know, the Korea FTA is
TDR: What do you see going forward the next few years a good deal, and we absolutely should get it done.
with employment? What are the options that the federal But we also need to make sure that the administration
government has? isn’t just going to do that one, and then not doing anything
else on free trade for the next couple of years. There’s a risk
KH: So I’m not a forecaster. The smartest forecasters who of that, and I think that you need to make sure that you get
I listen to generally think that some sort of commitment from
he United States needs to be out them that they’re going to be
loans, so that they’re paying them off when they’re 28 rather
than 27. You know, that’s too bad, but if the alternative is to
tax that blue-collar worker in Ohio — I’m not for that.
TDR: I was talking recently with a Republican who men-
tioned to me that Republicans aren’t talking about these
bigger issues with the American economy. Something he
cited was growing economic inequality in the United States.
And that’s something that traditionally hasn’t been on

T
the recovery is going to be slow.
Recoveries tend to be slow after pushing. And not just Colombia the agenda on the right. What are your thoughts about
recessions caused by financial there pushing for free trade and open and Panama, which are important that — is that a real issue?
crises, and this appears to be one investment. We’ve seen basically radio at least as much for the foreign
of them. The really hard thing for reasons of helping friends and KH: I think the term “growing economic inequality” is a
silence for the past couple of years. allies in Central America. But little too broad. You have to understand both what is going
Washington is when you have a
bad problem in front of you, what you also have to see: what are we on in terms of the increasing inequality and why you think
do you do when none of the policy options you have look to doing on global free trade talks? that’s a problem. So, if I remember correctly — and I haven’t
be effective? Do you do something that you know is probably What are we doing to push back on protectionism? We just looked at this in a couple of years — the principal increase in
going to be relatively ineffective, but will allow you to say haven’t seen that yet? income inequality is happening at the very top. It’s not that the
you’re doing something? Or do you admit that you really don’t poor are getting poorer. It’s that the top tenth of one percent
have the tools to solve the problem, and say, “Sorry, but we’re TDR: One of the items you mentioned when you were or top one-hundredth of one percent — those stratospheric
just going to have to suck it up and wait for the economy to talking about long-term growth was the US commitment incomes — are getting even more stratospheric.
recover.” And that’s what Washington has been struggling to education — higher education — and investments in And what’s interesting is that people’s reactions tend
with for the past couple of years. It was interesting during human capital. The front page of The Daily Dartmouth to differ based on the industry in which the person operates.
the State of the Union address how little airtime the president today was talking about cuts to federal education aid. Does an incredible athlete deserve the multi-million dollar
dedicated to the short-term situation and to the short-term Do you think that’s an appropriate austerity measure? contract that he gets? Most people tend to think that they’re
economic messaging. He was not selling his China message Obviously, these are tight budget conditions, but do you okay with that, since it’s a competitive market, and that’s
or his infrastructure message primarily as a short-term job think it’s appropriate to be cutting that? what the player is worth. Is an incredible actor or actress
creation program. He was selling it as a long-term economic worth the millions of dollars that they can clear per picture?
competitiveness strategy, which has its own issues. But it was KH: So there are three different aspects when you are talk- The very top dozen actors or actresses are making millions of
astonishing to me how little he talked about [the short-run ing about the world-class universities. One is the cost to dollars per picture. And we tend to react not that negatively
situation], and how much the debate has now shifted to what students of attending them. The second is the output of those and say, “Look, they’re superstars. They’re producing a lot
was previously called the austerity discussion. universities in terms of smart, young graduates. The third is of value in the economy, or at least something that people
By the way, as we approach the 2012 election, to the the output of those universities in terms of research that is are willing to pay a lot for, and so they’re getting the fruits
extent unemployment does stay high, I expect that to rise being done, to push the envelope on all sorts of things that of their labor.”
back up in prominence. It will be the major point of political make our economy more productive. Most of the benefits You get very different reactions when you talk about Wall
debate. of graduating from Dartmouth accrue to the individual who Street, or the financial sector, where it’s much harder for us
to understand if there’s value being created,
TDR: You sort of hinted at this with or if there’s some other flaw in the system
your discussion of Obama’s agenda for where people are figuring out how to skim
long-term US competitiveness, but what the cream for themselves without actually
conditions need to be in place for the US producing a benefit for society. If so, then
economy to recover? there are flaws within the financial system,
within the incentives that are built up. That’s
KH: I think you have to look at why the what would concern me much more than
US economy has been so successful and the results of the fact that a star athlete or a
so strong in the long run. And you look at superstar in some other unbroken industry
things like a stable legal framework, and can clear tens of millions of dollars.
a sound monetary policy — both of which
lend predictability so that people can do TDR: Why is there greater income in-
business. Relative to a lot of other rich equality in the US than in most other
economies, we have traditionally had a low- industrialized nations?
tax, low-regulatory environment. We’ve
had an entrepreneurial culture. We’ve had KH: I don’t know. Ask some of the labor
a system of higher education and R&D that economists that question. I don’t really
creates a lot of intellectual talent, intel- know. You know, I’ve read a lot about the
lectual capital. Before the financial crisis, superstar theory, which is that with mass
I would have said that we have deep and communications and technology, these
flexible financial markets. That’s clearly —Hennessey (second from left) with President Bush’s economic team in late 2008— superstars can leverage their abilities or
under repair. But we also have very deep skills to capture an even greater share of
and very flexible labor markets. graduates from Dartmouth. So reducing the subsidies for the market or to do more for whatever they’re doing. But I
And you know, the key word is always flexibility. You people — and most of the studies show that if you go to don’t really know.
want the economy to be able to adjust when bad things happen. Dartmouth, even if you have to borrow a lot of money, it’s
And you want to make sure that policies don’t slow down that a good investment as a financial matter — so if, ultimately, TDR: You came on board as chief of the National Economic
adjustment, so that when you have a financial shock, or you we have to reduce the subsidy for something that’s otherwise Council right at the tail end of the Bush Administration.
have a natural disaster, you have some sort of other economic a good investment… What was that like — taking on the top NEC job as the
shock, the economy can recover and adapt as quickly as it can. economy went into crisis?
To me, that means creating predictability on the long-term TDR: What about students who aren’t going to a place
fiscal path, and it means making sure you’re not massively like Dartmouth? KH: When I got bumped up in the end of 2007, we knew
expanding the regulatory agenda. It’s scary what EPA can that we had a foreclosure crisis,
do with its authorities, and is starting to talk about doing — KH: Yeah, and that’s why, first of
where it can come in and regulate all over the place. This is all, colleges and universities have
the carbon stuff. And they could really slow down economic financial aid programs. It’s why
growth, with little to no discernible environmental benefit.
P art of what gives me hope is and serious mortgage problems
that were going to develop through
seeing the rise of the Tea Party 2008 and 2009. But we did not see
they target the private dollars that and all of the related political and the evidence of the financial shocks
So you have to worry about these things. Health care they raise — generally, they target societal forces that we’ve seen over that were going to occur. So at that
is the other thing, where you’re massively expanding the them toward lower-income kids point, 2008 looked like it was going
reach of government and slowing things down in all sorts of and families. the past couple of years to be a normal economic policy year
ways. The question is: should a blue- in the last year of an administration,
So I think you do those things. I also think you need to collar taxpayer in Ohio with a high and we learned otherwise as the year
actually have an international economic agenda. The United school education, whose kids are going to have a high-school progressed. Obviously, it was a lot more responsibility, but I
States needs to be out there pushing for free trade and open education, should that worker pay higher taxes to subsidize was doing very similar kind of work to what I had done for
investment. We’ve seen basically radio silence for the past a non-poor kid going to Dartmouth? And elected officials the five and a half years prior to that. I mean, I was literally
couple of years. probably can’t say that. moving up one rank in an organization — I spent six and a
You know, college is incredibly expensive. It’s also, as a half years on the president’s National Economic Council. For
TDR: Well, the Korean Free Trade Agreement is back financial matter, it’s a cash-flow issue. You need the cash up me, it all flows together.
on the table. front to pay the university, and then you have to pay it back
on the back end. Maybe, if you reduce the subsidy, it means TDR: Before that, you worked on the Hill for a long time
KH: Korea’s back on the table. The follow-on question is: is that someone has to work another year to pay off their student as an aide to senators Pete Dominici and Trent Lott. How
 Page 8 The Dartmouth Review February 25, 2011

Hennessey Focuses on Spending & Debt

By J.P. Harrington ask, “Why would anyone lend the US Treasury money?” He to kill us before…we get to rising healthcare costs.” Long
later noted that we don’t know when our sources of funding before healthcare costs wreck the United States’ balance
“I hope to end on a somewhat happy note.” After uttering will dry up. Once we hit that wall, however, we will have to sheets, demographic costs will have ripped them to shreds.
those ominous words, Keith Hennessey launched into an hour endure the same hardships now facing Greece and Ireland. Politicians have no choice but to cut entitlement payments.
and a half long deconstruction of entitlement programs in the For those of our readers who have been living under a rock That leaves them with an unpleasant choice between cutting
United States – and how their costs will soon balloon past a for the past few months, that would be very bad. benefits or raising the retirement age. Essentially, politicians
sustainable level. Hennessey is too qualified to be dismissed The government will also become bigger. As a result of get to choose whether to take candy from the baby’s right
as just another deficit hawk, briefly soaring in from the far the crisis, the government last year spent 25% of the national hand or left hand. Neither of those is a particularly popular
right to screech for a moment or two. GDP in an attempt to boost the economy. The efficacy of that proposal. Historically, the political response has been to ignore
Hennessey spent about ten years in Washington, D.C. measure has been, and will no doubt continue to be, debated the situation entirely until it explodes. Hennessey termed this
analyzing economic policy. From 2007 to 2009, he served as along partisan lines, but the fact remains that government avoidance of hard decisions the “Illinois Syndrome,” which
Director of the National Economic Council under President spending was unusually large. According to Hennessey and the has lead to that great state’s current fiscal difficulties.
Bush. Since leaving the White House, Hennessey has run government’s projections, that trend will continue. President So where exactly does Hennessey find hope among all
a blog analyzing macroeconomic issues, financial market Obama’s budget proposals would maintain federal spending of this doom and gloom? Well, Hennessey believes that the
issues, tax policy, energy and climate change, health care, at 25% of GDP, with projected growth in coming years bring- 2010 midterm election results demonstrate that Americans
Social Security, and almost ing it to an all-time high of have finally realized that they are driving towards a cliff. He
every other policy realm 32%. All of these numbers cited as evidence the Tea Party movement and Congressman
under the sun. Hennessey mean one simple thing: Paul Ryan’s proposals to cut the growth of spending drastically
shoulders his Herculean more and more of America’s over the next few years. Yet this silver lining was somewhat
policy expertise surpris- resources would be allocated tarnished by Hennessey’s answers during the follow-up
ingly well — according to by politicians and bureau- Q&A session. When this Review staffer asked for a counter-
The Wall Street Journal, crats in Washington.How is example to the Illinois Syndrome, Hennessey responded that
he runs one of the top 25 this happening? The simple there wasn’t one. Sadly enough, even after a significant bit
economics blogs on the answer is that Social Secu- of research, I would have to agree. Of course, this time may
internet. And he exudes rity, Medicare and Medicaid be different – but the political track record for responsible
a certain joie de vivre in will grow and grow until the spending does not instill confidence in the slightest.
spite of the dark future he entire system collapses. The During the coda of the speech, Hennessey also described
foretells, grinning even as more complicated answer is his efforts under President George W. Bush to reform both
he discusses the calamitous that due to decades of “kick- the Social Security and Medicare programs. Bush floated the
possibility of foreign lend- ing the can down the road,” idea of reforming Medicare in order to reduce costs and pay
ers refusing to buy Treasury politicians have been able to for Medicare Part D (which paid for seniors’ prescription
bills. ignore difficult decisions. As drugs). Congress rejected the reforms, but naturally accepted
Before he began dis- —Projected budget shortfalls threaten to cripple long as the crisis wasn’t im- Part D’s expansion of government aid: yet another example
cussing the unsustainable the US government— minent, spending decisions of the Illinois Syndrome. A few years later, when Bush sug-
future of government spend- could be put off until the next gested Social Security reform, the proposition was met with
ing, however, Hennessey quickly reviewed the past fifty years election…and then the next…and so on. Today’s politicians a very cool response from congressional Republicans and a
of government expenditures. Surprisingly enough, the federal aren’t responsible for the coming crisis: their predecessors’ frosty reaction from the Democrats. In each case, both parties
government’s spending has been relatively stable. Over the predecessors were. For the past few election cycles, politi- rejected the chance to slam on the brakes – or even pump
past few decades, the United States has generally held to an cians have known that these entitlement programs offer too them. Instead, for the past few years, America has continued
80/20 rule. According to this rule, the federal government many benefits and collect too little in taxes. They just didn’t to accelerate towards the chasm of bankruptcy.
spends approximately 20% of the national GDP, leaving the want to have to go to voters and explain the hard truths. Although Mr. Hennessey’s slight optimism may be
remaining 80% to be divided between the state and local The problem is that the government has continued to promise founded more on wishful thinking than on hard facts, his
governments and the private sector. Generally, the federal the equivalent of unlimited candy to all Americans despite speech was certainly worth an hour and a half of attention.
government borrows 2% of GDP to cover the difference the massive demographic changes of the past few years. The Sadly, the majority of the audience was closer to receiving
between spending and taxes — a gap that Hennessey prefers main difficulty is that the ratio of retirees to active workers Social Security than their undergraduate years. Despite the
to call “future taxes.” has ballooned thanks to both the post-World War II baby fact that these entitlements will oblige our generation to sup-
Hennessey then turned to future projects of spending and boom and the medical advances of the past few decades. So port seniors through lifestyles that we will not enjoy, students
tax revenue, saying “…it starts to get a little scary.” That may we have more seniors collecting entitlement payments for hardly seem to care.
be the understatement of the year. Hennessey’s graphs are the longer. The only way to sustain this is to somehow reduce the Or at least they don’t care yet. Let us hope that Hennessey
most frightening images that I have seen since an exhibit of amount paid out or to dramatically increase taxes. Without is right – that older Americans, at least, have finally gathered
Bosch’s paintings of Hell. Essentially, the United States gov- reducing the acceleration of spending, the United States will the political will to cut these liabilities to a manageable level.
ernment’s projections reveal that in the future, deficits will be continue to run larger and larger deficits. If we could also reduce the size of the federal government,
big and they will keep getting bigger. Essentially, the growth Other analysts claim that the lion’s share of future deficits at least back to the 80/20 rule, then that would be the best
in spending is going to accelerate at an unbelievably high rate, is purely a function of increasing medical costs. Often these of both worlds. At the end of the day, the American people
far outpacing the growth in tax revenues. In all of the projec- fear mongers will brandish graphs of exponential curves need to stand up and solve this problem themselves. Politi-
tions, this trend has no end in sight, prompting Hennessey to labeled “medical costs.” Even if we set aside the troublingly cians are unwilling to take away the bountiful promises of
Malthusian reasoning behind these graphs, a new hole ap- Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. It’s high time the
Mr. Harrington is a freshman at the College and a contribu- pears in their reasoning. To paraphrase Butch Cassidy and American people grew up and accepted that there is no such
tor to The Dartmouth Review. the Sundance Kid, as Hennessy chose to do, “the fall’s going thing as a free lunch. •

Hennessey: “The Dynamic is Changing...”

did you get into being a Capitol Hill economic advisor?
KH: After I went to the Kennedy School, I worked for a
bipartisan commission on entitlement and tax reform for
seven months in 1994. Toward the very end of that was the
Republican Revolution of 1994, when Republicans took over
the House and Senate. And that was seven weeks before the
commission was ended. So it was a great time to be a young
Republican in Washington, DC with a little bit of knowledge
about fiscal policy. There were job openings, and I managed
to get a job working for Dominici and kind of slotted in
right when they were hiring — sort of like it is right now.
If you’re a Republican getting started in Washington, there
have been a bunch of openings for young Republican staff
on Capitol Hill.
TDR: What do you think will happen to the role of gov-
ernment as we become a grayer society?
KH: You might think I’m going to say that it’s going to get
bigger. But I don’t actually know that. And part of what gives
me hope is seeing the rise of the Tea Party and all of the related
political and societal forces that we’ve seen over the past couple
of years. The common-sense instincts of the American people
are pushing back and saying, “government’s trying to do too
much.” That was kind of spontaneous and organic. It didn’t
come from Washington. And it’s an incredibly powerful force.
I happen to think it’s an incredibly positive force. When it is
that broad-based, it can completely change the dynamic in
Washington. As long as the conventional political rules ap-
ply to Washington, government is just going to keep getting
bigger and bigger. But what gives me some hope is that the
American people have changed the rules over the past couple
of years, and nobody saw it coming. This pushback that you
have — which is unprecedented in the twenty years that I’ve
been doing this — is so powerful that it can overwhelm other
political forces. And you have new members coming in and
saying, “I don’t care if you old-timers think what I’m doing
is politically stupid. This is why I’m here; this is the right
thing to do, and I’m going to do it.” And that throwing out
of the old political rules gives me hope.
TDR: That’s liable to make one very optimistic. Do you
think, though, that a lot of the passion driving the Tea
Party movement is going to stick around once you’re
talking about changes to Medicare? You know, they may
all want to cut foreign aid, but it gets a lot harder…
KH: Look at Chris Christie and Mitch Daniels. Both of them
spoke recently. And Paul Ryan is a third. All three of them
are out there saying things that ten years ago no Republican
elected official would have said. Not only are they not being
punished for them, but they’re being rewarded for having
said those things, even though they’re saying very unpleas-
ant things.
It was less noticed but last year, before the election, the
current Speaker of the House floated the idea of looking at
the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare. Five
years ago that was sacrosanct. No elected official in his right
mind would have gone out there and said that. The dynamic
is changing. And what you hope is that the American people
will reward Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, John Boehner, Paul
Ryan, and Eric Cantor and a bunch of other folks for saying
those kinds of things because they’re unpopular. Someone
is finally up there and saying, “Look, I’m not going to lie to
you anymore. I’m going to tell you that this situation is really
bad, and here’s what we’ve got to do.” And you hope that
the American people will reward those politicians for doing
that. •
 February 25, 2011 The Dartmouth Review Page 9

Stroll Show A Vital Piece of Dartmouth

By Christina Chen to witness their enthusiasm and respectable solemnity toward effect mainstream fraternities and sororities have on the
the roles of fraternity brothers. Greek houses at Dartmouth are undergraduate population, yet from my standpoint, divisive
Webster Avenue and its spectacles are infamous among not usually cited for being pinnacles of proprietypriety. Rather, effects occur in all instances when a defined community ex-
the student body, and at other colleges, for being the most they are centers of entertainment and socialization in the rural ists.
notable and defining aspect of the Big Green experience. Upper Valley. Alpha Phi Alpha, on the other hand — and I Both the minority and mainstream Greeks are commu-
This assumption proves fallible, as it only considers the daresay this applies to other minority Greek organizations nities that ably carry out their role on campus., At the same
most obvious social options on campus even though several as well — understand that its campus mission is to produce time, these organizations are prone to certain flaws. Frat row
alternative communities exist,
such as Dartmouth’s minor-
ity fraternities and sororities.
These five houses form a
special niche in the Greek
system that, while holding
a less prominent spotlight,
provide an alternate option
for students not interested in
traditional Greek life.
In addition to the oth-
er twenty-eight houses,
Dartmouth is also home to
the fraternities Alpha Phi
Alpha and Lambda Upsilon
Lambda, and the sororities
Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sigma
Lambda Upsilon, and Alpha
Pi Omega. Their legacies in
relation to Dartmouth’s over-
all Greek system are young,
with the earliest organization,
Alpha Phi Alpha – a his-
torically African-American
fraternity – established on
campus only in 1972. Despite
their short histories, minority
fraternities are an important
dimension of campus life, and
with their historical racial af-
filiations, add to Dartmouth’s
diversity by providing a
community for those who do
not find mainstream social
venues attractive.
It’s the Saturday evening —A stroll show at George Washington University—
of Winter Carnival 2011, and
I’m going to go see the Stroll Show, a minority Greek event leaders. As Tyler Melancon ’12 puts it, Alpha Phi Alpha men carries out its responsibility as the entertainment and social
in which members represent their respective house through are “exceptional both academically and socially.” center for undergraduates, as well as providing a brother-
synchronized dance routines that display their organiza- Of course, parties do help to establish the Alpha’s social hood or sisterhood for students seeking that specific type of
tion’s unique and signature moves. These moves include the reputation on campus, Alex Tejeda ’12 admits, but the frater- community. Minority fraternities and sororities act similarly,
Alpha Kappa Alpha ladies’ use of their hands as mirrors to nity accomplishes so much more per term, giving each of the but with a different target audience. Both sides of the Greek
simulate checking their reflections, and the Lambda Upsilon nine brothers a substantial workload. “On Wednesdays, we’re system claim openness and inclusivity, but this rhetoric proves
Lambda brothers signaling the Greek letters that compose planning events,” Tejeda says, such as the Evening of Roses: is belied by the persistence of minority discomfort on frat row,
their name. Women’s Appreciation Dinner, community service trips, and along with white discomfort with minority organizations.
A Dartmouth stroll show however is less noted for its of course, strolls. Their goal is to reach out to all minori- There is a diverse set of communities on campus giving
strolling, and more for its markedly different attitude, scene, ties, not just the African diaspora, and to make Dartmouth a all a place to fit in, a characteristic of Dartmouth that helps to
and audience as compared to something like Monday Night friendlier and more comfortable environment for everyone. explain our consistently loyal alumni base. Some communities
Freeze. The show is held in the hygienic and aboveground Melancon cites the Alpha’s diversity — past members have are admittedly more conspicuous than others, but these loud
Collis, and its attendees are overwhelmingly ethnic, an also included Dominicans and Asians. The stroll show allows presences should not negate the existence, or importance, of
observation someone behind me keenly puts as “this is defi- the Alphas to communicate with Dartmouth students, and the quieter others. Find the community you fit into, and if
nitely like a minority event!” I think many would agree that share their pride in being fraternity brothers and leaders of no community exists to your liking, emulate the founders of
the audience could be awarded “‘most diverse for a Greek minority communities. Alpha Phi Alpha. They began their organization as a study
event attendance,”’ as all the colors of the race spectrum are Yet amid all the positive reaction towards the show’s group while students at Cornell University in 1906, in order
represented, from Native American to Asian to Caucasian. message, there are inevitably those who express other opin- to support one another in the face of racial antagonism.;
I’m at Collis with my (white) friend Kyle, and a crowd ions. Waiting in line for a Hop breakfast sandwich Sunday We benefit from diversity at Dartmouth. As a Dartmouth
forms a circle on the floor for the fraternities and sororities morning, I shamelessly eavesdroped on a conversation in student, I am free to see a stroll show, attend DAO (Dartmouth
to stroll in. The music starts, the strolls commence, and the which two white girls discussed the previous evening’s fes- Asian Organization) Culture Night, and play a game of pong
Commonground becomes alive, not in the ”cheer after the a tivities. They enjoyed the show, citing its cool attitude and in a frat basement. Our statistics certainly show a higher per-
capella group performs” alive, but a “start dancing to the beat “chill” atmosphere, but they also admitted feeling “kind of centage of white students than any other race, but numbers
with the strollers while calling out encouragements” alive. uncomfortable, actually.” should not be the focal point. Diversity isn’t simply about
The Alpha Phi Alphas have on their game faces, expressions At last year’s stroll show, I had also felt uncomfortable, seeing different colors; it’s also about embodying acceptance
emulating the organization’s symbol, and the Alpha Kappa not from dissatisfaction with the strolls, as I had clearly and awareness. Accepting other campus groups and respect-
Alphas dance in their black stiletto heels, intriguing some of enjoyed it enough to warrant attending another show, but ing the significance they hold for others — as well as being
the audience members. because it was different. Growing up in Southern California aware that while you may feel at home in the group, others
Kyle, having never heard of a stroll show before, responds — where the ethnic makeup of my school was half white and may not necessarily share in your comfort — is an important
humorlessly, claiming “that was awesome” with a cool shrug half Asian — Dartmouth seemed like a rainbow campus to part of being a citizen of Dartmouth. Diversity is not enhanced
of his shoulders. I agree. There was an ineffably fly and me. Certainly, this highlights my high school community’s simply by changing statistics, or by sporadic realizations and
sharp characteristic about these performances that harkens to lack of diversity, but I had simply never been exposed to the espousals of heated rhetoric at 3 a.m. in the morning. This
Thunderbirds and Pink Ladies, minus the hair gel. With the communal sense that minority fraternities evoked. Despite issue does not sleep while we play pong or watch a stroll
addition of a lively audience who all collectively participated being fit for an Ivy League education, I had been completely show, because the dynamics of diversity persist everywhere
in cheering and whooping encouragements during each stroll, unprepared for a stroll show. that communal differences occur. Take the initiative to step
the show offered up more than just dance routines. It was also A parallel sense of discomfort is usually expressed in the out of your community and your comfort zone so that you
an opportunity for cultural expression from traditionally less feelings many minorities experience on frat row, as the racial can empathize with the other in those moments when you too
visible communities on campus. makeup of affiliated undergraduates is statistically whiter than do not fit in. That attitude of openness then makes it much
In sitting down with a few brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha that of the total undergraduate population. Looking through easier to actively seek out new or different members and
(all other organizations declined to be interviewed), I was able the archives of The Daily Dartmouth, several past articles on make them feel welcome when you’re sitting easily within
diversity issues cite this exact sentiment among minorities as your community. It is a credit to Dartmouth, and to my friends
Miss Chen is a junior at the College and contributor to a major obstacle towards feeling at home here at Dartmouth. and peers here, that I can call this place home, no matter what
The Dartmouth Review. These articles aim at exposing the unpleasant and divisive situation I find myself in. •
 Page 10 The Dartmouth Review February 25, 2011

The World of Jewish Vilna Recalled

By Coleman E. Shear toric capital, but in 1920 the Polish army seized Vilna from different groups in the ghetto were still there and could be
the newly independent Lithuanian state. The Poles told the fierce but never quite reached the level of animosity they
Many Dartmouth students, even those of Jewish descent international community that their military captured Vilna on did in Poland.
would not know the differences between a Galicianer, an its own without orders and that the situation was out of the The traditionalists in Jewish Vilna were the Orthodox
Oberlander, a Yekke, and a Litvak, but to their grandparents Polish government’s control. In reality, the Polish governmentJews who followed the Mitnagim, also known as the Lithu-
and great-grandparents, these differences and the stereo- staged these events in order to annex Lithuania into the new anian brand of Orthodox Judaism. These Jews largely rejected
types that accompanied these different types of Jews were Polish nation. Between the world wars, Vilna had more Poles Zionism and were against assimilating into Lithuanian and
very real. After the Holocaust, the differences Polish society. They believed that the lives of
amongst European Jewry ceased to exist, and the Jewish people could be improved through
Jews became, simply, Jews. The once vibrant the study of Torah and the strict adherence to
world of yiddishkeit culture was destroyed. At the laws of Judaism. The Zionists believed that
the center of this extinct Yiddish world was the Jews would never be safe in Eastern Europe
Jewish Vilna. and that they could never truly be Poles or
Samuel Kassow, professor of Russian His- Lithuanians. For the Zionists, the only way was
tory at Trinity College, is one of the world’s immigration to the land of Israel and the founda-
experts on Ashkenazi Jewry. His lecture on tion of a Jewish homeland there. The Zionists
“The Uniqueness of Jewish Vilna” temporarily were a diverse group; they included fiercely
brought this lost world back to life in the minds socialist Labor Zionists, right wing revisionist
of all those in attendance. Zionists who followed the ideology of Vladimir
Vilna, known today as the city of Vilnius Jabotinsky and religious Zionists who mixed
in Lithuania, stood at the crossroads between Orthodox Judaism with Zionism.
empires. Before the First World War, it lay The Bundists, a Jewish socialist party, were
between the German and Russian Empires, another popular political organization in the
and in the interwar period between the Soviet ghetto. They held that Jews should work to build
Union and the newly independent nations of a socialist community in the Diaspora and that
Poland and Lithuania. Vilna’s location on the only true socialism could lead to Jewish equal-
Baltic and its ethnic diversity; a city of Jews, ity and acceptance. The Bundists were known
Poles, Lithuanians, White Russians, and Germans — A group of World War II Jewish partisans from Vilna, modern-day Vilnius— for championing the use of the Yiddish language
made it a constant battleground. The Jewish com- as the language of the Jewish people. Communism
munity in Vilna was the capital of the Litvak Jewish world, than Lithuanians, and so the Poles viewed it as a part of the was also popular amongst some Jews in Vilna. Communist
an Ashkenazi and Sephardic world that this author’s great- greater Polish nation. Jews rejected Judaism as a religion and ethnicity altogether,
grandfather and namesake, Kalman, came from. The cultural The Jews in Vilna never identified as Lithuanians, Poles viewing ethnicity as a bourgeois creation meant to keep the
area that was Litvak Jewry included Lithuania, Northeastern or Russians. Most had no desire to identify as Lithuanians workers of the world in an endless circle of hatred, never
Poland, Belarus, and Northern Ukraine. or Poles of the Mosaic faith because Jews in Germany had realizing that their true enemies were their capitalist masters.
The historical differences between the Litvaks and Polish attempted to identify themselves as ethnic Germans of the All of these political forces existed at once in a community
Jewry lie in the Litvaks’ rejection of Hassidic Judaism. The Mosaic faith. This created an extremely distinct culture from of fifty-five thousand Jews.
Hassidic brand of Judaism emphasized Jewish mysticism, and the societies that surrounded them. They identified as Jews first Professor Kassow told two stories of Jewish martyrdom
demanded more equality in learning for all Jews. The Vilna and foremost. This created an interesting political situation that I believe greatly reveal the character of Litvak Jewry, both
Gaon, the chief Rabbi of Vilna and one of the leading Rabbis amongst the Litvak Jews, who were constantly being wooed their secular and religious sides. Both men involved in their
of the Middle Ages, rejected Hassidism and worked hard to by the Lithuanians to identify themselves as Lithuanians of acts of martyrdom held very different views on the world, but
stop its spread out of Poland. the Mosaic faith. This would they were both motivated by a willingness to die for a Jewish
He preferred the traditional
Yeshiva world’s strict adher-
ence to rules to the mysticism
T he Jews in Vilna never identified as give Lithuania more credibility cause. One story is of an 18th century Polish nobleman who
Lithuanians, Poles or Russians in the eyes of the League of converted to Judaism from Catholicism, and was burned at
Nations in their claim over the the stake for his actions. The convert’s ashes were spread next
city of Vilna.
of the Hassidim. While Jewish to the burial place of the Vilna Gaon, and supposedly a tree
mysticism became popular in Poland, it never took hold in During the interwar period, Poles made up the majority grew there in the shape of a praying man. The other story of
Lithuania. The Litvaks rejection of Hassidism greatly influ- of Vilna’s population. Many Jews in Lithuania were surprised martyrdom is of Hirsh Lekert, an active Bundist. Lekert was
enced generations of Litvak Jews, who — although being by the ferocity of Lithuanian collaborators in the Holocaust angered by the Tsarist Governor of Lithuania flogging Jewish
Orthodox, Jews — were notably less religious than their because many recalled that before the war, they had always workers during the Bundist May Day parade. Lekert attempted
Galicianer Polish cousins. Professor Kassow explained this gotten along better with their Lithuanian neighbors than their to assassinate the governor in response, but failed. Before
difference through an old joke about how the Polish Jews Polish neighbors. Of all the countries in Eastern Europe, Lekert was hanged, he was given the option of talking to a
complained that the Litvaks “wore a cross on their forehead”, Lithuania had one of the highest rates of collaboration with Rabbi. Lekert refused to beg for mercy as the Rabbi suggested
and the Litvaks responded back “You don’t need to kiss my and went to the gal-
forehead”. This story illustrates the sort of chutzpah that lows proudly. Lekert
Litvak Jews were known for: displaying a stereotype that reached a “secular
they proudly wore. sainthood” in the
The other great separation between Litvak Jewry and eyes of the Bundist
the rest of the Jewish world was in their use of language. movement. Both
For the Litvaks, Yiddish reigned supreme. It was spoken in these stories reveal
the home, and treasured. Vilna was the center of the YIVO, the strong passion
the Jewish Scientific Institute, which was responsible for the that Litvak Jews felt
preservation of the Yiddish language. Even the Zionist groups for the Jewish people
in Vilna usually didn’t challenge Yiddish’s supremacy in favor whether in a religious
of Hebrew as the language of the Jewish people, knowing or secular sense.
how unpopular this decision would have been. While Yiddish The Jews of
th
continued to be spoken in Poland, by the early 20 century Vilna created a vi-
with Polish independence and Jewish emancipation, many brant culture where
Jews began to abandon Yiddish in favor of Polish, wanting Yiddish was the main
to appear to be good Polish citizens of the Mosaic faith. language of commu-
Professor Kassow told a story of a Polish Jew who wanted nication. This culture
to study at University in Vilna, but lacked the necessary was renowned for its
Yiddish language requirements. Thus, he enrolled in Yiddish theaters and both its
language classes. He was walking on the streets of Vilna secular and religious
with a group of Litvak friends who were speaking Polish learning. Vilna truly
so that he could better keep up with the conversation. When was the Jerusalem of
his Litvak friends saw a group of Poles approaching them, Lithuania. Like all
they immediately switched back to Yiddish. The Polish Jew stories of the Jews
was amazed because in Poland it would happen the opposite —The skyline of modern Vilnius— of Eastern Europe,
way. Litvak Jews were determined to set themselves apart this one ends in the
from the Lithuanian and Polish communities that surrounded the Nazis and after the loss of Vilna and the takeover by the tragedy of the Holocaust, which largely wiped out the whole
them. Despite being more secular than their Jewish cousins in Soviet Union, Lithuanians viewed the Jews as collaborating community. The majority of the survivors left for Israel after
Poland, they carved their own niche out through their defiance with the Soviets, which was far from true. the war. Vilna’s greatest legacy though, which should be re-
to ever be classified as anything but Jews. The Jews of Vilna, despite having many different views membered to this day, is that a community of very different
The Lithuanians have always claimed Vilna as their his- amongst themselves on what would bring about the deliver- people were able to coexist despite their political differences.
ance of the Jewish people, managed to create a united com- This community — rich and poor, secular and religious —came
Mr. Shear is a sophomore at the College and associate munity where even secular and Orthodox Jews cooperated together to help one another and achieve a united polity that
editor for The Dartmouth Review. for the greater good of the community. The rivalries between was greater than the sum of its parts. •
 February 25, 2011 The Dartmouth Review Page 11

Football Staff Addition Strengthens Indians

By Sterling C. Beard Sheehy shouldn’t have much trouble bringing in someone
Now, as any football enthusiast will tell you, the O-line is the
offense’s engine and will make or break an offense. Fortu- good; they’ve proven they can bring top coaching talent to
There have been some interesting moves within the Hanover. One need only look at the staff’s newest hire to see
nately for the Indians, they bring one of the most experienced
Dartmouth football coaching staff this off-season. what I’m talking about.
lines imaginable, with four of the starting five offensive line-
First, the program mutually parted ways with one year men returning from the 2010 season, including all-Ivy first Calvin Thibodeaux is the newly minted defensive line
offensive coordinator Jim Pry, citing coach for the Indians. Thibodeaux, a 2006
“philosophical differences.” Under his graduate of the University of Oklahoma,
direction, the Indian offense averaged was a four year letterman as well as an
over ten more points per game than Associated Press All Big-XII selection
they had in 2009, climbing from 16.1 as a junior, a season in which he was a
to 26.4, which placed them third in the terror on the edge. That year, he posted
Ivy League in terms of scoring offense, 10 sacks from his position at defensive
just behind League champion Penn and end, good enough to rank 15th all time in
second-place Harvard. The rushing game the Sooner record books. He also played
also saw improvement, with the ground in four BCS bowl games, including the
attack piling up 57.9 more yards per game Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange, the lat-
for an average of 165.7 in each contest. ter of which were for the BCS national
The aerial assault regressed by seven championship.
yards per game, from 184.9 to 177.9, but After he graduated from OU, he
this is due to the success the squad had briefly played for the Calgary Stamped-
in running the ball more than any other ers in the Canadian Football League
factor. before becoming a graduate assistant at
Fry’s departure will now leave University of Houston under head coach
Dartmouth searching for its third of- Kevin Sumlin. His first year coaching for
fensive coordinator in as many years. the Cougars, they ended a decades-long
This may seem like a problem, but it’s bowl drought, defeating Air Force in the
important to remember that whatever co- 2008 Armed Forces Bowl, and finishing
ordinator Athletic Director Harry Sheehy with an 8-5 record.
and Head Coach Buddy Teevens ’79 bring Thibodeaux was then hired as de-
in, he’ll have a stacked deck with which fensive line coach and video coordinator
to work. for Navarro College (Corsicana, Texas).
Dartmouth operates a spread offense, During his tenure there, the Bulldogs com-
primarily basing out of four wide receiv- piled an 11-1 record, winning the National
ers sets and sets with three wideouts and Junior College Athletic Association cham-
one tight end. This allows the numerous pionship over Butler Community College
playmakers on the squad to get the ball in (El Dorado, Kansas), thereby avenging a
open space and do some damage, whether first game loss and the lone blemish on
it’s a pass caught in the open field or their remarkable championship crusade.
spreading opposing defenses thin for the The run defense was outstanding, rank-
Indians’ powerful running game to smash ing 11th overall while allowing a mere 81
through. QB Conner Kempe ’12 returns yards per game, and the defense as a whole
for his second full year as field general ranked 12th, while hauling down the op-
with a fleet of pass catching threats that posing QB 41 times. This was thanks, in
should inspire jealousy in any squad in —Calvin Thibodeaux, the Indians’new defensive line coach, graduated at the University of Oklahoma, no small part, to the Bulldogs’ sophomore
the Ivy League, including the top three where he played in four BCS bowl games— defensive lineman Toby Jackson, who
receiving threats off of the 2010 squad, recorded an eye-popping thirteen sacks
all-Ivy honorable mention Michael Reilly ’12 (22 catches team selection left guard Ryan O’Neill ’12 and second team and was named defensive MVP of the championship game as
for 525 yards and 3 TDs), second team all-Ivy tight end John selection center Austin Fletcher ’12. Fletcher has started 28 well as an NJCAA All-American; he has committed to play
Gallagher ’12 (16-133-3) and all-Ivy first team selection Tim out of 30 games in his career, an impressive number. Equally for the University of Central Florida.
McManus ’11 (38-528-2), who was granted a fifth year of impressive is that the offensive line allowed less than a sack Thibodeaux’s had plenty of experience playing and coach-
eligibility due to a broken leg that kept him off the field in per game, 0.7, to rank seventh nationally. This group is a ing on big stages. He’s a young hire as well, who’s already
the ’09 campaign. fortress when it comes to pass protection and should have no had wild success. He’ll be taking over from James Jones,
The backfield is well stocked; co-Ivy player of the year trouble opening up gaps for the one-two punch of Schwieger who is now at Northern Colorado. There’ll be no shortage
Nick Schwieger ’12 will return for his senior year after amass- and Pierre. of experience for him to work with, either. Eddie Smith ’12,
ing 1840 yards toting the rock and an additional 210 receiving “I think we will have the most explosive offense in the defensive tackle, has made 20 consecutive starts in the middle
while racking up 14 TDs in only nine games. He’s quickly Ivy League,” Nick Schwieger stated in a brief e-mail inter- and 25 overall. Also in the middle will be Mark Dwyer ’12,
climbing up the charts of Dartmouth’s all-time rushing list, view. “Look for us to run the ball with authority, as our goal who has had varsity experience since his freshman year. The
only 412 yards behind Al Rosier ’91. Joining Schwieger in is to run for over 200 yards every game.”Schwieger could edge isn’t without its strengths, either, as Connor Philips ’12
the backfield will be Dominick Pierre ’14, the lightning to very well be right. In total, the Indians return eight players and Teddy Reed ’12 return, looking to make the same sort of
Schwieger’s thunder, who averaged 5.1 yards per carry and with starting or playing experience on an offense that saw impact that Charles Bay ’11 had.
found the endzone four times despite seeing limited action. marked improvement from the year before. This is an absurd Overall, the staff in place is excellent and the Indians will
amount of talent and veteran perspective. A goodly number put one of the most experienced teams on the field they’ve had
Mr. Beard is a junior at the College and managing editor of offensive coordinators would be salivating at the chance in years. The whispers are beginning…Dartmouth is poised
for The Dartmouth Review. to take charge of the situation at Dartmouth. Teevens and to make an Ivy League title run in 2011. •

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 Page 12 The Dartmouth Review February 25, 2011

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