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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Figure skating coach resigns, faults administration

The Valley News reports that the head coach of Dartmouth’s “five-time national champion figure skating team has resigned after a disagreement with the college about the program’s position in the athletic hierarchy.”
VALLEY NEWS
8/27/2008
Figure Skating Coach Quits Dartmouth Team
By: Tony Lane
Valley News Staff Writer

Hanover -- The head coach of Dartmouth's five-time national champion
figure skating team has resigned after a disagreement with the college
about the program's position in the athletic hierarchy.

Loren McGean, a Dartmouth Class of 1992 member who began co-coaching
the club with her father, Michael (Class of 1949), in 2002, submitted a
letter of resignation to several Dartmouth administrators, including
President Jim Wright, last week.

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Valley News,
McGean cited the need on her part for more "financial transparency" in
the use of funds that were donated specifically for Big Green figure
skating.

In spring 2007, Dartmouth announced the creation of the J. Michael
McGean Endowment Fund, the club's first permanent source of funding, to
support the figure skating team's $80,000 budget.

McGean also wanted another athletic category established between
varsity and club to accommodate current club teams (of which figure
skating is one) that compete on a national level.

"To date these requests have all been either ignored or denied,"
McGean wrote in the letter, "and the College has refused to consider a
reasonable solution or an acceptable working environment to fully
support the Dartmouth Figure Skating Team, a recognized, legitimate
intercollegiate athletic program.

"I regret that under these circumstances and in the absence of these
needs being met, I am unable to continue my work as Head Coach of the
Dartmouth Figure Skating Team."

McGean confirmed yesterday she was resigning and offered no further
comment. There was no immediate word on a coaching successor.
Dartmouth athletics director Josie Harper regretted that McGean
decided to decline a reappointment contract.

"We really value everything Loren and her father did to take the
club where it is today," Harper said yesterday. "The program has always
been very important to us."

In addressing McGean's concerns about financial oversight, Harper
said: "All the club teams have the same opportunity to raise funds.
Figure skating wasn't any different. We feel we supported them fully,
and we certainly have no intention of cutting that support."

As for the creation of a competitive level between varsity and club
sports, Harper said the college simply didn't have the structure to
adopt it.

"We recognize that some club sports can compete at the highest
level," Harper noted. "Rugby works within our structure."
The figure skating club was founded by former student Amy Stetson --
with the help of Michael McGean -- during the 1996-97 school year.
Dartmouth has been undefeated in competition since the fall of 2003 and
has won the U.S. National Intercollegiate Figure Skating Team
Championships every year since 2004.

Daniel Dittrick, a club skater and co-captain who graduated last
June, was a member of the Club Sports Commission of the Student Assembly
that issued a report in the spring of 2006, urging Dartmouth to increase
facility and financial support for club teams.

Reached Monday by phone, Dittrick refrained from speaking of
McGean's resignation, but said the college had responded to some of the
commission's recommendations.

"There has been a lot of changes -- the recognition of a couple more
sports like women's lacrosse," Dittrick said. "There's also a full-time
administrator in Joann Brislin that works with club teams."


Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Emily Esfahani-Smith at 2:30 PM (18 comments)

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Former TDR editor to run for State Assembly

Former Dartmouth Review editor, Harmeet Dhillon ’89 is running for a seat on California’s State Assembly. The State Assembly--which does for California what the House of Representatives does for the United States--is divided into 80 assembly districts, each representing a geographical region of the state. Ms. Dhillon is running for the 13th district, which represents San Francisco.

Both Ms. Dhillon and her opponent, Tom Ammiano, ran unopposed in their respective primaries, Ms. Dhillon for the republicans, and Mr. Ammiano for the democrats. Though Ms. Dhillon is running as a republican in one of the most liberal cities in the country, she is optimistic about her campaign: "I'm a balanced civil libertarian--not some kind of extremist. And citizens and taxpayers have civil rights too--the right to safe streets and the right not to be tripping over street criminals when they walk through the financial district after hours. Tom and his cohorts are not advocating the rights of the law abiding residents of San Francisco," she tells The Dartmouth Review.

Her record, which includes a commitment to human rights issues, only underscores her point: as a lawyer, she has represented “several South Asian women victims of a high-profile sex trafficking ring in Berkeley in 2002....[she] has served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Northern California Chapter, [and] she has also served on the board of Santa Clara County’s Support Network for Battered Women,” according to her campaign website. She has received several awards and honors for her work.

As a civil libertarian, Ms. Dhillon is generally opposed to government regulations, which stands in stark contrast to her opponent. Mr. Ammiano is famous for introducing a health care tax, imposed on San Francisco businesses, that taxes employees a dollar an hour. In addition, Mr. Ammiano supports policies that result in murders and higher crimes in San Francisco: for instance, he wants to shield criminal juvenile illegal aliens from being turned over to the federal authorities to be deported.

“Even after a triple murder in June caused by a juvenile illegal alien,” Ms. Dhillon explains, “he still wants to grant them the same rights as other American juveniles.” In challenging Mr. Ammiano, Ms. Dhillon hopes to bring a more moderate view to the State Assembly.

"Even if you’re a taxpaying law-abiding democrat," she says, "you are going to be startled by some of my opponent’s policies. This isn’t a race about republicans versus democrats, but about normal people versus extremists.”

If you are interesting in contributing to her cause, click here, or attend her September 16th fundraiser at the Yale Club in New York. For further questions or details, please e-mail Harmeet Dhillon at harmeet@dhillon08.com.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Emily Esfahani-Smith at 9:36 PM (1 comments)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

College Presidents Urge Consideration of Lowered Drinking Age

Hey, President Wright's getting one thing right. Link to the news story can be found here. The full list of signatories can be seen here.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Ben at 12:00 PM (19 comments)

Monday, August 11, 2008

TDR Summer 2008

The new issue is online and packed with goodies, the likes of which you don't often see. Among them:


Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by A.S. Erickson at 6:10 PM (40 comments)

Thursday, July 31, 2008

UChicago Faculty Protest New Milton Friedman Institute

From the Milton Friedman Institute website:
“The goal of the Institute is to build on the University’s existing leadership position and make the Milton Friedman Institute a primary intellectual destination for economics by creating a robust forum for engagement of our faculty and students with scholars and policymakers from around the world,” said President Robert J. Zimmer. “The Milton Friedman Institute will continue Chicago’s extraordinary tradition of creating new ideas that stimulate the academic world and innovative approaches that influence policy.”

If you have not yet read the original protest letter, it is here.

The document speaks for itself, but the quality of its prose makes one wonder why professors of English would attach their names to it.

Read U of C Graduate School of Business Professor John Cochrane's riposte here.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by Katherine J. Murray at 9:41 PM (3 comments)

Dartmouth Grads Scrape By

Ten to Twenty years out of school, Dartmouth grads earn more money on average than the alumni of other American schools according to a recent study compiled by PayScale.com. Edging out the second place Princeton alums, who make $131,000 a year, the average Dartmouth alumnus makes $134,000 ten to twenty years after his graduation. The findings are particularly remarkable considering that recent graduates (within the last five years) make $58,000—good enough for only 18th place when compared to their peers. Forbes, which reported the findings, largely attributed the success of Dartmouth graduates to the loyal and tight alumni network. While Monica Wilson of career services, told Forbes that the success was based on the College’s success at creating well-rounded people. Dartmouth also placed well when schools' top ten percent of earners were averaged, coming in second behind Yale.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by A.S. Erickson at 12:27 PM (15 comments)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

More Newss

From July 21, courtesy of Regret the Error:























P.S. A reader points to this from the VNews as well:

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by A.S. Erickson at 2:57 PM (10 comments)

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Are You Financially Literate?

Dartmouth Econ. Prof. Annamaria Lusardi has devised the following test to determine a person's financial literacy. The results are disturbing. Only one third of the respondents that were older than fifty managed to get all three questions right. For the answers to the three questions and an interesting interview with Prof. Lusardi, follow this link.

1. Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2 percent per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow?

a. More than $102
b. Exactly $102
c. Less than $102
d. Do not know

2. Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1 percent per year and inflation was 2 percent per year. After 1 year, would you be able to buy more than, exactly the same as, or less than today with the money in this account?

a. More than today
b. Exactly the same as today
c. Less than today
d. Do not know

3. Do you think that the following statement is true or false? “Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.”

a. True
b. False
c. Do not know

P.S. More on Lusardi here.


Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by A.S. Erickson at 11:19 PM (10 comments)

Treasury Taps Wilson '69

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson '68 has taken on fellow alum Ken Wilson '69 to help him sort out the financial mess the country is currently in. This is from today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required):
In Mr. Wilson, Mr. Paulson gets a formidable ally in navigating the current problems, with years of Wall Street experience and a Rolodex of well-placed friends and clients. Mr. Wilson, the head of Goldman's financial-institutions group, has served as Wall Street's go-to banker during the last year, as firms from Wachovia Corp. to National City Corp. have turned to him for advice on their mortgage woes. Helping burnish Goldman's reputation: During the current crisis, it has managed to avoid some of the big mistakes that have plagued rivals such as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co.

[. . .]

It is perhaps no surprise that Mr. Paulson, once the CEO of Goldman Sachs, called on his former colleague. The two men met at Dartmouth College, and Mr. Paulson helped recruit Mr. Wilson to Goldman. Once a year, the two head to Andros Island in the Bahamas for a few days of bonefishing. In a nod to Mr. Wilson's influence, Mr. Paulson gave him an office on Goldman's 30th floor, a power alley that includes current firm Chairman and Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein.
Meanwhile, on one of the Journal's blogs, Heidi Moore remarks on the quiet presence of Dartmouth alumni all over the financial district.

(Photo is courtesy of Reuters.)

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by A.S. Erickson at 9:07 PM (0 comments)

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Hanover: New Arts Center is Hideous

The Valley News ran a story today on the College's new Visual Arts Center. Construction on the building is scheduled to begin in the Fall of 2009. The building's location—southeast of the Hopkins Center—was chosen specifically to give a more grandiose southern entrance to Dartmouth. The project is not without controversy, as residents (quite rightly) fear that the new arts building will be as aesthetically disturbing as the Hopkins Center.
College officials' upbeat presentation yesterday was a sharp contrast with the negative reviews from members of a Hanover community group the college convenes to discuss potentially sensitive matters.

“I can't be very tactful about it,” said Marilyn “Willy” Black, a former selectwoman and current town moderator who sits on the Dartmouth Liaison Committee. “I just think it's hideous.”

She and other members of the committee said the building's design was panned at a recent session with college officials.

“It doesn't tend to generate a neutral reaction,” said Town Manager Julia Griffin, who said she's not yet decided what she thinks of the design, which she said makes “a big, bold statement.”
The whole story, here.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by A.S. Erickson at 2:23 PM (34 comments)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Harvard Forced Out by Administration

This from today's (occasionally) Daily D:
Andy Harvard, director of the Outdoor Programs Office, stepped down on Friday, according to an e-mail sent by acting Dean of Student Life Joe Cassidy. Several students and alumni associated with the Dartmouth Outing Club, however, said they were confused about the suddenness of Harvard’s departure and believed that Harvard likely did not step down voluntarily.
Perhaps the most inadvertently hilarious claim was that "Palmer and Polashenski said many members of the DOC were “shocked” by Harvard’s departure and upset by the secretiveness surrounding the resignation." This from a segment of campus known for its opacity in things like selecting croo members and spreaders of goodwill. Nonetheless, the question is still out there: why was Harvard forced out? Especially when 76% of DOC members wrote to Dean Crady expressing their support for him.

P.S. See the comments for more from DOC insiders. Also, if anyone knows the precise reasons for his dismissal, blitz me.

P.P.S. Here is Davenport's Op-Ed, and a pdf of Polashenski's letter.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by A.S. Erickson at 11:12 AM (56 comments)

Monday, July 07, 2008

Campaign Stops and the Klan

A pair of interesting pieces in today's Wall Street Journal. First a book review of Michael Cohen's Live from the Campaign Trail by David Shribman '76:
This year, so far, we have heard two speeches that aspired to greatness: Mitt Romney's treatise on religious freedom and Barack Obama's "more perfect union" remarks on race relations in America. Both were ambitious and provocative, but they were also derivative, haunted by echoes from nearly a half-century ago, when Sen. John F. Kennedy addressed the Houston Ministerial Association in September 1960. It was there that Kennedy attempted to address concerns that the nation would not elect a Roman Catholic to the White House.

The great American campaign speech is obviously hard to pull off and, for the readers among us, now hard to find. Students no longer stand before classrooms and recite the hallowed words of past office-holders and -seekers, and the small volumes of political speeches that once lined every American library – I cadged some splendid ones when Dartmouth's Baker Library disposed of its collection 35 years ago – are a thing of the past.
Also of interest is this piece by Dorothy Rabinowitz:
Keith Sampson, a student employee on the janitorial staff earning his way toward a degree, was in the habit of reading during work breaks. Last October he was immersed in "Notre Dame Vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan."

Mr. Sampson was in short order visited by his union representative, who informed him he must not bring this book to the break room, and that he could be fired. Taking the book to the campus, Mr. Sampson says he was told, was "like bringing pornography to work." That it was a history of the battle students waged against the Klan in the 1920s in no way impressed the union rep.

The assistant affirmative action officer who next summoned the student was similarly unimpressed. Indeed she was, Mr. Sampson says, irate at his explanation that he was, after all, reading a scholarly book. "The Klan still rules Indiana," Marguerite Watkins told him – didn't he know that? Mr. Sampson, by now dazed, pointed out that this book was carried in the university library. Yes, she retorted, you can get Klan propaganda in the library.

The university has allowed no interviews with Ms. Watkins or any other university official involved in the case. Still, there can be no disputing the contents of the official letter that set forth the university's case.

Mr. Sampson stood accused of "openly reading the book related to a historically and racially abhorrent subject in the presence of your Black co-workers." The statement, signed by chief affirmative action officer Lillian Charleston, asserted that her office had completed its investigation of the charges brought by Ms. Nakea William, his co-worker – that Mr. Sampson had continued, despite complaints, to read a book on this "inflammatory topic." "We conclude," the letter informed him, "that your conduct constitutes racial harassment. . . ." A very serious matter, with serious consequences, it went on to point out.
Read the whole thing.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by A.S. Erickson at 12:41 PM (0 comments)

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Summertime TV

A discussion between author Tom Wolfe and former Dartmouth Professor (and neuroscience expert) Michael Gazzaniga.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by A.S. Erickson at 9:42 AM (3 comments)

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Lawsuit Withdrawn

As expected during the recent election, the new AoA Executive Committee has decided to terminate the AoA's lawsuit against the Board of Trustees. The College's press release is here.

Full post and comments below the fold.

Posted by A.S. Erickson at 4:52 PM (94 comments)

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