Dartblog
Special Feature: In Pursuit of a New President
The College is on the hunt for its seventeenth president after James Wright announced his June 2009 resignation. A search committee has been formed; its antecedental task is the resolution of this question: is this a time for steady-as-she-goes, or is there a mandate for fresh leadership? Updates here.
Archived post
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Criminals v Over-worked, Fed-up, Stressed-out Students
AbovetheLaw reports on a law student at Arizona State University who refused to give his precious outlines and case notes to a robber. The full news story is here, but the gist is that, confronted by a bat-wielding mugger, a student gave over his money, guitars, etc without blinking, but took a stand when he demanded the student’s computer, the life-blood of any student, containing hours of papers, resumes, applications, notes, outlines, music, photos, movies, and all the other stuff of life. The student, bravely and rightly, grabbed the bat and beat up the would-be mugger.
I have always thought that muggers/ thieves could be a bit nicer. I get the idea of stealing a person’s wallet, for the cash and maybe to use their credit cards, but wouldn’t it be nice if they would send back whatever they didn’t want? What, I wonder, could a pickpocket do with my Dartmouth student I.D. card or my driver’s license or any of the innumerable cards and papers that we invariably have. If, for the thief in New York or wherever else, it comes down to wanting free student admission to Dartmouth hockey games, I would gladly reimburse them the $6, and dispense with the hassle of getting a new I.D.
I used to joke with one of my friends that we should put a note to this effect in our wallets in advance, acceding to thief’s prerogative to take our money but asking for the return of these items, perhaps including a stamp. In the case that Dartblog can count among our readers any pickpockets, if you are not going to stop stealing, at the very least please do instill this little bit of common courtesy in your vocation.
Featured posts
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May 31, 2009
Kangaroo Court, Indeed
In an interview with The Dartmouth, alumni-elected trustee T.J. Rodgers ‘70 explained his reasons for declining to participate in future evaluations of trustees up for “re-election,” namely the “kangaroo court” nature of such discussion in… -
March 23, 2009
Post Prop 8 Optimism
An interesting piece in the Washington Post today about the future direction of gay marriage in California vis-a-vis Prop 8. Dartblog has offered contrasting perspectives on the subject, see here and here, but agreed that… -
March 20, 2009
Faculty Politics in the Classroom
An article from Inside Higher Ed looks at a new study by Neil Gross, a researcher at the University of British Columbia on faculty politics, available here. This study and article raise a number of… -
March 5, 2009
Professors, Politics, and Purpose
An interesting article in Inside HigherEd reporting on survey data that shed interesting light on what university professors believe and how they conceptualize their role. Among some of the more interesting findings, there have been… -
March 2, 2009
A Template for College Governance
With the announcement of Dr. Jim Kim this afternoon, I thought that I would present a template for College governance. The humble points that follow are value-neutral; they do not mandate any specific course of… -
November 17, 2008
Reconsidering Prop 8
Dartblog has been covering and opining on the gay marriage debate, particular in reference to “Prop 8” California’s recent constitutional amendment to ban the practice. Some past thoughts here. I have been mulling the issue…