Dartblog

Hello, Phil here. Some of you may be familiar with my work seeing as it has been linked here before, but for the reader to whom I am a new name allow me to introduce myself. I am Philip L. Aubart, a proud member of the class of 2010. However, only my dear mother refers to me as Philip, so please call me Phil.

I guess you could say I came to Dartmouth on a unique path. My senior year of highschool I enlisted in the United States Army. I qualified for the Military Occupational Specialty of Human Intelligence Collector and embarked on two years of training in Arabic and intelligence. So I came to Dartmouth 20 years old and fluent in Arabic. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that I am majoring in Arabic modified with History and am seeking a minor in International Relations. A member of the ROTC program at Dartmouth and house manager for Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity as well as working for the Dartmouth Dining Services, my schedule is full, but everyone’s is here.

I have spent the past two years, all the way up to this past Wednesday offering my opinions in the Daily Dartmouth. Now my time there is finished due to the D’s curious policy of pretending as if they actually pay their writers and refusing to allow any sort of writing on the side. But more on that later. I will say that I was very happy with my time spent at the D. Although I had an opinion that was shared with few, if any, other members, my editors always respected my work and helped me to grow as a columnist. The opportunity to reach a readership that refused to read The Dartmouth Review was one that I valued and I would like to think that my articles were read by many, but the bi-weekly publishing schedule made it difficult to develop a strong following.

Thus when offered the opportunity to join Dartblog I thought seriously about it. On the one hand I would be losing my safety net of editors and there is the chance I might lose access to some of those who disagree with me most. On the other hand, I hadn’t had a response to any of my columns all spring and was questioning whether or not anyone was even reading anymore. The most frequent response from my friends was “Oh, I don’t read the D.” However, I decided to give the D another shot this fall to see if the doldrums I felt I really entered this spring would be different with the newest class. Ironically, the most responses I’ve received in a while was for my last article, but none of the comments were from students, so I agreed to join Dartblog.

I look forward to the next year plus and hope that I measure up to the high standard this blog has established. I hope we can enjoy the ride together