New Chair of the Board of Trustees

Ed Haldeman '70 was elected chair of the Board of Trustees, replacing William Heukom '64, who is retiring from the board. Haldeman is the CEO of Putnam Investments and has been on the Board since 2004. Stephen Mandel Jr. '78 was elected to fill Neukom's seat as a charter trustee, and Leon Black and Jose Fernandez were reelected to their seats.

The Dartmouth press release includes a letter from Haldeman to alumni.

Federal Court: Stop the Censorship

Today, a federal appeals court in New York struck down FCC regulations that create penalities for airing "indecent" words over broadcast TV. The lawsuit was filed against the FCC by the four major broadcast networks - NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox. Under the Bush Administration, the FCC has been taking a much stronger approach towards punishing networks for language, particularly accidental and unplanned expletives. The court ruled that these blurted words were typically said out of momentary emotion, and were therefore not truly obscene, in context. The decision also cites the use of curse words by Bush and Cheney to illustrate that the Bush Administration's claim that words like "fuck" automatically carry a sexual connotation is ridiculous. I think that this court ruling is a great victory for free speech. While broadcast television should generally be appropriate, the Bush Administration has obviously overreached in punishing networks for uncontrollable moments of live TV. The Bush Administration's Orwellian behavior is the perfect example of why censorship should not be a government function.

Go See "Knocked Up"

I saw "Knocked Up" today, the new film by Judd Apatow of "40 Year Old Virgin" fame. It was absolutely great, one of the best movies I've seen in a while. What's most striking is that it's your usual low-culture comedy, complete with a bunch of stoners, but done impeccably well. The critics also love it.

Stolen Comment

Up on the Student Assemblog, there's a funny, over-the-top comment to an article about Jim Wright's work with wounded soldiers:

SLI! SLI! HE'S AN EMBARASSMENT TO THIS SCHOOL! I'LL NEVER BE PROUD! SLI! FUUUUUCK HIM!!!!

I don't agree personally, but I wonder to what extent the author reflects the general sentiment of alumni. Have people really gotten over the Student Life Initiative, or will it forever mark Wright's reign? As a student, it feels like a long time has passed since SLI (obviously I wasn't here). But in the lifetime an alumnus/a, it's a very short period of time.

DFP's "Senior Issue"

The Dartmouth Free Press just published their "senior issue." It's a good read.

Here's a scorecard:

Connor Shepherd, "We'll Make It I Swear: Overcoming Tradition" - About the Greek system, drinking, tradition, career choices, and superficiality. Whatever. I'm not really sure what he's talking about, but I'll take his word for it. [5/10]

Yuki Kondo-Shah, "You Belong: Finding The Right People" - Interesting inside perspective to admissions with Dartmouth. I agree with Yuki's views when it comes to admission and affirmative action, and I found this insightful. [8/10]

Andrew Seal, "Common Expressions: Broadening The Discourse" - Self-expression, male dominance of campus dialogue, etc. I've read it before. But Seal's a big media guy - why no female contributors to the Little Green Blog? [3/10]

Meredith Wilson, "You Can Change The World" - Using the Iraqi Kids Project to demonstrate how to organize and get stuff done. Self call by the author. Not a bad guide. I'll give it a good score. [6.5/10]

Heather Strack, "Activism And The Greeks: They Go Together" - Being an activist and a Greek at the same time is "liberating and suffocating." I don't understand. My affiliation with my house has absolutely no influence on my political views. Why should it? There are both liberals and conservatives in my house, with various levels of devotion and extremeness. I don't want my frat to act as a political organization - that's not why I'm a brother. [3/10]

Michelle Davis, "Myth Of The Dartmouth Liberal: Looking Beneath The Rhetoric" - On the prevalence of fake liberals around campus. Includes a little test. I agree with Michelle that a lot of people claim falsely to be liberals. At the same time, any sort of label is oversimplified, and I think that there's a wide of range of liberals. FYI - I'm the real thing, I promise. [6/10]

Michael Amico, "On Wants And Wishes: An Agenda For The Self" - One of the gutsiest articles I've ever read. Shock-value off the charts. Props to Amico. [10/10]

Soralee Avyar, "Injustice For All: A United Way" - I generally agree. [5/10]

Vivian Chung, "Short Lessons I've Learned: Losing Yourself To Find Yourself" - Sort of like Mike Amico's article but boring by comparison. [4/10]

802?

The New York Times has an article about a rap video from three Vermont teenagers. Okay, well it's sort of funny, but I always knew that Vermont was wack, I just didn't want to think about it.

NY Times Messes Up

In the late afternoon, the New York Times posted an article on their website about a baseball team from a public middle school, I.S. 286, in New York City. The original version of the article discusses a game between I.S. 286 and Hunter College High School, where I went to school from 7th to 12th grade. Trymaine Lee, the author, describes Hunter as trash-talking I.S. 286, attacking them for having no uniforms. There was also an altercation started when a Hunter player said, "that’s why y’all mothers smoke crack." I was surprised. Hunter kids don't normally talk like that. We do have our ghetto side, of course, but we're also one of the best high schools in the country, public or private.

Well, it turns out the Times completely fucked up. When I went back to the article tonight, every mention of Hunter was changed to J.H.S. 104. I guess that explains it. That's too bad. It's not often that Hunter gets mentioned for its athletics or for its trash-talking skills.

Oppose the Boycott

Today, Tanner Tananbaum '10 blitzed the campus about an open letter that will be sent to Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the British University and College Union, which represents British professors. The UCU recently voted to boycott Israeli academia. Students can show their opposition to the boycott by signing the letter via blitz or in Thayer or Novack.

As an Israeli-American, I find this boycott to be outrageous and completely unacceptable. Regardless of your views about the Middle East conflict, it is blatently wrong for British academic institutions to discreminate against Israeli professors and Israeli research. Please show your support by signing the letter!

Here is the letter:

June 1st, 2007

Sally Hunt
General Secretary
Association of University Teachers
Egmont House
25-31 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9UT


Dear Madam,

On May 30th, 2007, an organization that you represent, The British University and College Union (UCU), voted 158 to 99 to endorse a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

We, students at Dartmouth College, USA, recognize that this motion does not represent the sentiments of all members of the UCU. However, as a leader and spokesperson for the UCU, we feel that it is vital that you and your colleagues do all in your power to make sure this boycott does not come to fruition.

This boycott, if approved, would violate the sanctity of the educational process and create a precedent whereby any national organization, held captive by a vocal minority of its constituents, might enter the political fray and become a lightning rod for bias, bigotry and divisiveness. This is especially abhorrent when it involves academia, the one area of human endeavor, and until now human success, that is above the bickering and prejudice that has emplasticized so much of mankind today.

Do you really want the UCU to be remembered as an organization that led clear thinking people towards the abyss of conflict and conflagration? Are British educational leaders now going to punish and ostracize their compatriots in another country because they do not agree with the way that country is run?

To boycott Israeli academic institutions, to boycott the academic institutions of any country, will not benefit, change, move forward, or in any way alter the Middle East Peace Process. But your actions do have the potential to ostracize academics who live in a country that values individual expression and maintains the highest level of academic integrity and scholarship. Indeed, the schools of higher education in Israel, like those of Great Britain and The United States, have become a refuge for liberal thinkers and proponents of peaceful worldwide coexistence.

Academics and research, the two components at the receiving end of this boycott, are the core tenets of our liberal arts education here at Dartmouth. Dartmouth College and its liberal arts program rely on its internationally diverse student body and faculty to bring new ideas and solutions to the universal problems that are plaguing our planet.

We would be betraying the stated goals of this college, and all colleges and universities in the free world, if we did not register our protest at the ignoble proposal that the UCU has brought to the table. We are free men and women only as long as we allow others to be free. We can reach the highest plateaus of knowledge only as long as we allow the free flow of that knowledge. And we can bring forth new ideas and solutions to the problems of the world only as long as we do not automatically reject new ideas and solutions from others.

For all those reasons we at Dartmouth College request that you rescind your call for a boycott of Israeli institutions of higher learning at once:

A. Charles Tananbaum, Class of 2010, Alexander P. Lee, Class of 2010, Melisa Garber, Class of 2008, Nathaniel F. Obler, Class of 2010, Jay B. Markson, Class of 2010