All of the events will be sailed in Club Flying Junior boats, which are manned by a crew of one sailor and the skipper. The racing will take place on Lake Travis and will be hosted by the University of Texas and the Austin Yacht Club.

Lake Travis last hosted the national championships in 2005, when sailors were treated to consistent wind speeds around 12 knots and good weather throughout the competition. Conditions this year should be similar, despite a significant drop in water level due to a drought. With more land exposed, there will likely be more wind shifts off of the land, making it less of a boat speed race and more of a tactical race, according to Carissa Crawford ’14, one of the sailors in the women’s race.

“Our coach [John Storck] won the team race and coed nationals [at Lake Travis] seven years ago, and when he was here last, the lake was about 60 feet higher [than it is now],” Crawford said. “The lower water level will lead to flatter water since waves won’t really have a chance to build.”

The women’s semifinal, which consists of 18 boats, is scheduled for an 8 a.m. report time and a first race warning at 10 a.m.

Crawford will race with New England Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association 2012 Rookie of the Year Deirdre Lambert ’15. Both women received all-NEISA honors earlier in the season and are expected to make a splash in Austin.

“We’re looking forward to the chance to compete against the best in the country,” Lambert said. “It is a unique opportunity and one that teams don’t get all the time, so it is really awesome that we were able to do well enough this year to get the chance to show our skills in this context.”

Sailing is a sport in which adapting to the conditions is crucial, something that the team’s training has stressed throughout the season.

“The training we do for nationals has really just been working hard all year,” Lambert said. “Putting in time and good, focused practice exposes you to all sorts of wind and conditions, which is crucial in order to be prepared for what competition will throw at you.”

The conditions can even change who sails, something the Big Green needs to consider in each race to be as fast as possible. If the wind picks up, Crawford may be replaced by Catie O’Sullivan ’14, who has a size advantage over Crawford.

“If the wind is strong, that heels the boat over, something that slows us down,” Crawford said. “Catie’s weight would flatten the boat to make us go faster.”

The women’s group will sail until nine teams make it out of the semifinals to join the nine previously qualified teams to compete for the championship. Racing will commence in a single round robin format and continue until June 2, when a women’s team will be crowned national champion. The Dartmouth women’s team placed fifth out of 17 teams at the NEISA Women’s Championship to qualify for the national semifinal.

The Dartmouth men will join the Dartmouth women on Lake Travis for the coed dinghy national championship, slated to begin on June 6 at 8 a.m. The coed dinghy team qualified for nationals after it placed eighth out of 18 teams at the ICSA national semifinals on May 13.

“The most important factor will be consistency,” Matt Wefer ’14 said. “At a regatta with this many quality teams, everybody is going to have bad races. The factor that separates the top few boats from everyone else is the ability to stay away from the really deep races and take advantage of the opportunities to have good races when they are presented to you.”

Eighteen coed teams will compete in single round robin racing through June 8, when the Henry A. Morse Memorial Trophy will be crowned. The Big Green last competed at the national final in 2007, when the team finished second to the College of Charleston.

Men’s Soccer

This year’s men’s soccer team took home the Ivy League Championship after a breathtaking final regular season game against Brown University. The Big Green (8-6-4, 4-1-2 Ivy) entered its final game tied with Brown (12-5-3, 4-1-2 Ivy) in the Ivy League standings. After 90 minutes of play and two overtime periods, the teams remained tied, 0-0. With a tie between Columbia University and Cornell University on the same day, Dartmouth and Brown shared the Ivy League title, but due to its win over third-place Columbia, the Big Green advanced to the NCAA Tournament, in which it lost to Providence University in the first round. Lucky Mkosana ’12 was awarded Ivy League Player of the Year after notching 10 goals and one assist on the season. Co-captain Nick Pappas ’12, midfielder Kevin Dzierzawski ’13 and goalie Noah Cohen ’14 also received All-Ivy honors.

Football

This year’s football team finished the season in a four-way tie for second place in the Ivy League. After a rough 1-4 start, the Big Green (5-5, 4-3 Ivy) won its last three games to salvage its season. Dartmouth clinched its first winning Ivy League record since 2003 with a 24-17 win over Princeton University in the final game of the season. Co-captain Nick Schwieger ’12 was a major contributor to the Big Green’s success and became the first Dartmouth running back to rush for over 3,000 yards in his career. Schwieger signed with the St. Louis Rams in April and will have a chance to earn a roster spot with the team over the summer during training camp.

cross country

On the men’s side, Ethan Shaw ’12 made Dartmouth history by winning the individual title at the men’s Heptagonal cross country meet in the fall. Shaw came from behind to pass Columbia’s Kyle Merber in the final meters and win by one-tenth of a second. Shaw’s first-place finish was the first for a Big Green runner since 2008. Shaw helped Dartmouth place third as a team in the race and went on to place 54th in the NCAA Championship race. On the women’s side, Abbey D’Agostino ’12 also made Dartmouth history by placing third in the NCAA Championship cross country race. With a time of 19:42.9, D’Agostino was just 1.7 seconds behind national champion Sheila Reid from Villanova University.

skiing

This year’s men’s and women’s ski team finished fourth at the 59th Annual NCAA Skiing Championships with a total score of 590 points during the four-day event. Dartmouth posted the highest score in the Nordic portion of the event, but the University of Vermont took first place overall with a record 832 points. Ski Racing Magazine named Sophie Caldwell ’12 the 2012 Collegiate Nordic Skier of the year. Caldwell won three races during carnival season and placed third in the 5K freestyle and second in the 15K classic at the NCAA Championships.

Women’s Lacrosse

The 2012 women’s lacrosse team won its first Ivy League Tournament title by defeating regular-season champion University of Pennsylvania, 6-4, in the final. With the title, the Big Green (12-4, 7-2 Ivy) received an automatic bid to play in the NCAA Tournament, where the team lost to Syracuse University, which finished as the runner-up in the NCAA Tournament. Dartmouth held Penn to its lowest goal total of its season in the Big Green’s first win over the Quakers in Philadelphia since 2005. Leading the Big Green were Kirsten Goldberg ’12, who recorded 39 goals and 10 assists, and captain Sarah Plumb ’12, who recorded 37 goals and 12 assists.

Baseball

This year’s baseball team won its fifth consecutive Rolfe Division title. The Big Green (24-18, 14-6 Ivy) won three out of four games against rival Harvard University to secure the title in the final weekend of the regular season. Dartmouth faced Lou Gehrig Division champion Cornell in the Ivy League Championship Series. The Big Green battled to even the series at one before falling, 3-1, to the Big Red (31-15-1, 14-6 Ivy) in 11 innings in the deciding game. The Big Green was led by co-captain Joe Sclafani ’12, who hit .288 over the season with a .401 on-base percentage and a .442 slugging percentage. Sclafani was named to the All-Ivy first team along with Jake Carlson ’12, Ennis Coble ’13 and Dustin Selzer ’14. Four other Big Green players were selected for the All-Ivy second team.

Men’s Golf

Peter Williamson ’12 posted a six-under-par 207 to tie for fifth place at the NCAA Central Regional Golf Tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich. Williamson made up for a slow start on the first day of the tournament by finishing his collegiate career with a birdie on each of his last three holes. Williamson became the second player in history to win three career Ivy League titles and led the Big Green agonizingly close to its first league championship since 1983.

Club Sports

This year, several Dartmouth club teams gained national recognition. The Big Green club figure skating team won its sixth Intercollegiate Figure Skating Team Championship title. Joseph Miller ’14, Kelsey Anspach ’15, Isabel Hines ’13, Deborah Lee ’12 and Kirsten Seagers ’15 all won gold medals in their events. The Dartmouth men’s club fencing team won the United States Association of Collegiate Fencing Clubs National Championship. Despite not having a coach, the team edged out the U.S. Military Academy to win its first top finish in a national tournament. The Dartmouth men’s rugby team also continued its tradition of success by advancing to the quarterfinals of the USA 15s Collegiate Rugby Tournament and will play in the USA 7s Collegiate Rugby Championships this weekend.

Director Wes Anderson returns with his latest film “Moonrise Kingdom” (May 25), the story of two prepubescent children who run away together and the ensuing search for the duo. Starring Bruce Willis and Edward Norton, the film looks as quirky and charming as anything Anderson has ever directed.

In a few weeks, the comedy “Safety Not Guaranteed” (June 8) will come to theaters. The film is based on the true story of a man who placed an advertisement in a local paper looking for a partner to travel back in time with him. The film stars Aubrey Plaza, who currently shines as the hilariously downbeat April Ludgate on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” and it should be a treat to watch.

Taking a bit of a detour from the norm is “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” (June 22), a retelling of Abraham Lincoln’s life in which he, well, hunts vampires. It’ll be sure to confuse anybody who fell asleep during history class.

Opening the same day is the apocalyptic comedy “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” (June 22), the story of two neighbors, played by the awesomely matched pair of Keira Knightley and Steve Carell, who embark on a road trip to fulfill their wishes while a meteor threatens to destroy the Earth.

The following week will see the release of “Magic Mike” (June 29), a film based on the true story of star Channing Tatum’s pre-celebrity stint as a stripper. If there’s one film guaranteed to attract a large female audience, it’s safe to say that it’ll be this one.

Those looking for slightly more serious work would be interested in Oliver Stone’s new film “Savages” (July 6), which details the fight between two marijuana dealers and a Mexican drug cartel after the latter steals the former’s shared girlfriend.

“Savages” looks like it will be a return to form for Stone, who after some boring dramas seems to be returning to the frenzied mood of his previous films “Platoon” (1986) and “Natural Born Killers” (1994).

In that vein comes Rodrigo Cortes’ “Red Lights” (July 13), a thriller about a psychologist investigating a psychic. Cortes’ previous work, the surprisingly engaging “Buried” (2010), proves that the fledgling director has already gained a strong grasp on the art of suspense.

Jumping into August comes the romantic comedy “Hope Springs” (Aug. 10), a story of a couple, played by Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep, who try to revive their failing marriage by seeing a renowned marriage counselor played by Carell in his second appearance of the summer. Streep alone should be reason enough to put this on your must-watch list.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also going to have a busy year with four movies set for releases in the next few months. One that has received particularly noteworthy hype is “Premium Rush” (Aug. 24), which follows Gordon-Levitt as a bicycle messenger trying to keep a package out of the hands of a dirty cop played by Michael Shannon.

Rounding out the summer is the Prohibition-era drama “Lawless” (Aug. 31), which showcases Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf as bootlegging brothers fighting against corrupt law enforcement. The film is the brainchild of the Australian team of John Hillcoat and Nick Cave, the film’s director and writer, respectively. The two are also the creative minds behind the graphic but gripping Western “The Proposition” (2005).

And last but not least, the biggest must-see movie of the summer — although it isn’t exactly low-key, nor was it made on a shoestring budget ­­— is “The Dark Knight Rises” (July 20), arguably the most anticipated movie of the year.

This sequel to “The Dark Knight” (2008) promises to serve as a definitive end to Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy and a ridiculously ripped Hardy — in his second appearance of the summer — as its main villain. There are those who doubt that Nolan can make this film as good as its predecessor, but I’m not worried — I subscribe to the old motto when it comes to this director: “In Nolan we trust.”

“The Dark Knight Rises” is not the only sequel to be released over the course of the summer — the Men in Black return with “Men in Black III” (May 25), just released last week to audience acclaim.

In addition, Anderson is not the only notable director with a cult-like following to release a new film. Woody Allen’s new film “To Rome with Love” (June 22) will be on limited release and will star Penelope Cruz alongside up-and-coming comedy stars like Jesse Eisenberg and Ellen Page.

Overall, this summer promises a list of highly anticipated films ranging from big blockbusters to independent pearls. So take a break from the hot summer weather and hit up some air conditioned theaters this summer for the “what to watch for” lineup.

No one ever really knows what to say when a tragedy happens because there is nothing to say, not really. It’s fucking horrible. A human has died, and that’s all there is. We can’t understand tragedy beyond that, and we don’t want to — because it reminds us of our own mortality, the losses we’ve endured, the impermanence of everything.

Just a week prior to her death, she wrote a column for the commencement issue of the Yale Daily News about the opposite of loneliness — the feeling of comfort, love and togetherness she found during her undergraduate years. She wrote about regrets and possibility, memories and the future. Of being young and having time, and how a lot of us are lost, but how that’s OK. The piece was really beautiful. And then she was gone.

I can’t write a narrative about a stranger’s death. It seems wrong, and no one can do something like that justice. But please take a moment and read her column. Think of her.

Life is fragile. We don’t think about it when we’re young and healthy and have never experienced someone dying, especially someone young, whose time shouldn’t have come so early. But life can be taken from us at any moment, in a million ways we can neither expect nor plan for. We like to think we’re here with our whole lives in front of us — and we are. But that isn’t something we should take for granted.

When I was 11, my older brother died from a heart condition that I have, too. Mine has never been as severe, but it’s always there. For most of high school and college, I took that fact as a license for escapism. I worked really hard and partied a lot. I thought to myself: I’m here and I’m alive, so I’m going to do everything and try everything. If life could end at any moment, I should just go all in. It was fun, and I didn’t have to think about things too hard.

This past winter, though, I had a problem. My new defibrillator was set wrong after a surgery and ended up shocking me a lot of times, for no real reason. During those shocks, I thought I was going to die — and I might have, I guess, had things gone another way. It scared the shit out of me. When I got back to school, things were different. I had to stop indulging, and, through that necessity, lost my ability to escape. It was really hard. I had a lot of time to think, at a time when the last thing I wanted to do was think. Life slowed down, which doesn’t happen too much here. Some nights during that time, I concluded that everything is just overwhelmingly depressing and sad. Sometimes that’s true. Things do suck sometimes, and death happens. Tragedy happens, and we could die young and unfulfilled. But it’s in these brushes with death and mortality — when time slows down and we’re forced to confront real life — that we become intensely aware of what it means to be alive. You start to see how every moment is precious and every decision kind of profound. Since this winter, I’ve never felt more appreciative of my friends, or happy with my life, or content with just existing.

You can’t put a silver lining on death. When a life is lost, it is always tragic. But you can learn from close calls. So to my fellow seniors in particular, in your last few weeks here, realize what you have. Slow down. Take a walk outside and look at how pretty everything is. Really appreciate the love you have in your life, and don’t leave any words unsaid. Never try to escape from your life, but always dive into it with passion and feeling. Don’t waste time, unless it’s just to be and to think. Spend time with people you love. Remember those that aren’t with you.

Our whole lives are ahead of us until the moment they aren’t. Thankfully, for now they are. So make the most of it. Good luck.

The playing field for summer jobs, however, is deeply polarized at Dartmouth. While Dartmouth students will spread out across the globe to work for a variety of organizations this summer, only some students can take on the financial burden of an unpaid internship. Those who cannot are restricted to jobs that can provide them with a sufficient stream of income.

Although unpaid internships are not fundamentally wrong — it makes sense that low-budget non-profits rely on having unpaid summer interns — the line of legality often becomes blurry when for-profit organizations hire unpaid interns. Federal labor laws stipulate that unpaid internships at for-profit organizations are legal if and only if the employer “derives no immediate advantage” from the intern’s work and if the intern’s training is “similar to what would be given in a vocational school or academic educational instruction.” But too often unpaid internships straddle the line of menial labor or lack educational content, thereby crossing over to the territory in which an individual should be compensated for his or her work.

Unpaid internships also perpetuate a concerning cycle of inequality. Only those students with the financial resources to work for free are able to take unpaid internships and use their summers to build their resumes. Other students have to take jobs that satisfy their financial needs but not necessarily their career ambitions. In the for-profit fields in which unpaid internships dominate, a summer of unpaid labor is often the key to attaining a paid job down the road. The inequality of opportunity that these types of internships create is fundamentally against the ethos of Dartmouth — an institution that rewards merit, not wealth.

Dartmouth has tried to combat the pervasive growth of unpaid internships among for-profit organizations. The College does not offer academic credit for unpaid internships, a strategy many companies use to avoid the burden of insurance and proper compensation. Additionally, Career Services has imposed a baseline salary for for-profit companies participating in the recruiting process, and funding for non-profit internships is available through a variety of academic departments and institutes across campus. However, the College can further ameliorate the inequality perpetuated by unpaid internships by increasing the transparency and funding available for non-profit internships and by taking a formal stance against unpaid internships at for-profit companies.

Right now, dozens of centers, departments and organizations on campus dispense funding to students for non-profit work. Although some efforts have been made to centralize information about these internships and standardize application procedures and dates, we need a database of funding opportunities — a centralized digital hub and perhaps even a physical office, not just a haphazard set of links to antiquated web pages.

Furthermore, the College needs to take a consistent stance toward unpaid internships at for-profit companies. Right now, Career Services provides funding for unpaid internships at for-profit companies for work in “advertising, public relations or publishing” and “children’s educational media/literature.” These awards should be redirected to unpaid work at non-profits. Although the amount of money shifted would be nominal, this change would bring consistency to the College’s actions toward unpaid internships at for-profit organizations.

To make this change sustainable, the College needs to ally with its peer institutions to take a firm stance against the inequality created by unpaid internships by preventing for-profit companies from advertising unpaid internships through their career services departments. Although this change would cut down on the amount of opportunities that are advertised through each university’s career website, it would signal to for-profit companies that their reliance on unpaid student labor perpetuates inequality.

If we stand back and let unpaid internships at for-profit companies continue without taking a stance, we are complicit in creating inequality in employment opportunities. We cannot continue to pay for the privilege of working for free. Instead, we must demand change. We have the authority and credibility to affirm the value of student labor and the equality of career opportunities, and it is our obligation to act on this opportunity.

The group, known as “The Friends of Eleazar Wheelock,” sent a whistleblower letter to several government officials, including New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney.

The New Hampshire State Attorney General’s Office received a copy of the letter in February and announced Tuesday that it is currently reviewing the allegations before deciding whether to pursue further investigation, according to Director of the Charitable Trusts Unit Anthony Blenkinsop.

The letter accuses the Board of several offenses, including directing the College’s endowment into hedge funds, venture capital and private equity funds with ties to Board members.

“For over a decade we have been witnessing the quiet takeover of this great College by a cabal of external, wealthy alumni/ae of the college,” the letter said.

The letter attempts to create a false impression that members of the Board have used their positions to influence the College to invest in their firms, according to Donin, who said he has no information regarding the identities of “The Friends of Eleazar Wheelock.”

“Dartmouth follows a very careful due-diligence process which assures that every investment decision is made independently based on recommendations by the professional staff of the investment office and on an arm’s-length basis,” Donin said.

The accusations suggest that the trustees have “furthered their own self-interest at the expense of the College and the Upper Valley” by receiving management fees through investments managed and owned by Board members. These actions are a violation of the non-profit status of Dartmouth based on state law, according to the letter, whose authors have advocated for the resignation of Board members on the College’s Investment Committee with such conflicts of interest.

High ratings from independent financial agencies indicate that the College meets its financial commitments and maintains obligations at low credit risk, Anderson said in an email to The Dartmouth.

“It’s worth noting that Dartmouth’s long-term debt carries the highest credit rating — AAA — from Fitch, which notes the College’s ‘strong balance sheet liquidity; healthy fundraising ability; and diverse revenues further support the rating and provide the college with a healthy financial cushion,’” Anderson said.

Dartmouth’s investment decisions are in compliance with state law, and financial transactions with companies that are affiliated with members of the Board require a two-thirds majority vote among the trustees, excluding the associated member, according to Donin.

“After it has been approved, the notice of the transaction is filed with the attorney general of the state of New Hampshire, including the amount of the investment and the name of the company involved and the trustee who is associated with that company,” Donin said. “In addition, that same notice is published in the newspaper.”

The state retains the right to contact the College in the case of concerns regarding an investment decision but has never exercised this right, according to Donin.

The letter distributed by “The Friends of Eleazar Wheelock” includes a list of 10 trustees, of the Board’s 25, with ties to the investment industry, as well as details regarding the portion of the College’s endowment invested in their respective funds.

“For years Dartmouth has been run by and has paid sky-high fees to a group of investment manager trustees, all Dartmouth graduates, who have then recycled some portion of the fees (for which they were taxed at a favorable 15 percent) back to the College as generous ‘donations,’” the letter said.

The list includes Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley Bradford Evans ’64, private equity executive and founder of Apollo Management Leon Black ’73 and Chairman of the Board and founder of Lone Pine Capital Stephen Mandel ’78.

In each of these cases, the College began investing with the company before the affiliated individuals joined the Board of Trustees, according to Donin.

Although the letter implies that the College’s investments in alumnus or trustee-managed funds or companies is improper, this accusation is “categorically untrue,” Anderson said.

“These investments are explicitly legal and entirely proper, and Dartmouth meets or exceeds all provisions under the law governing such transactions,” he said.

The letter states that Mandel’s firm Lone Pine Capital manages over $130 million of the College’s endowment and that the College has paid Lone Pine an estimated $24 million in fees. Donin said that these management fees are not unusual and reflect “typical” fees paid in the industry.

The letter also states that investments in Board members’ firms have “average to poor” returns, failing to financially benefit the College, and cites a 2010 report from the Tellus Institute questioning the College’s investment strategy.

The College’s Investment Committee considers the recommendations of the professional staff of the Office of Investments, according to Donin. Employees of the office prepare memoranda documenting the performance of proposed investment companies and comparing the terms of the transaction to the terms of similar transactions with companies not affiliated with trustees.

While the membership of “The Friends of Eleazar Wheelock” has not been determined, faculty interviewed by The Dartmouth expressed the importance of examining the College’s management practices for ethical purposes.

History professor Russell Rickford said that while he was unaware of the whistleblower group before reading an article on Business Insider, Dartmouth students should consider the implications of higher education and Wall Street becoming more synonymous and intertwined. “Higher education is a center for the production of knowledge and the cultivation of independent thought, critical thought,” he said in an email to The Dartmouth. “Wall Street and the financial sector are the centers for the reproduction of privilege and the expansion of corporate hegemony. There are — or should be — profound conflicts between these two missions.”

A Tuck School of Business professor who wished to remain anonymous due to the controversial nature of and a lack of information about the subject said that the alleged practice of investing in firms managed by alumni seems both “unusual” and “disappointing.”

“My honest interpretation is that these guys believe that their funds are better than any other alternatives,” the professor said. “It’s more a sign of hubris rather than greed.”

The College’s investments in trustee-related funds and companies have allowed the College to succeed financially, according to Anderson.

“Had we chosen to exclude these funds as an option for our investment staff simply because of a connection to an alumnus or trustee, our endowment returns would have been lower,” he said. “Overall, Dartmouth’s endowment has performed in the top-quartile for the 10-year period ending June 30, 2011 within three applicable universes of higher education and/or non-profit institutions.”

A 2010 Chronicle of Higher Education study of 618 private colleges reported that 25 percent of these institutions have financial ties with trustee-affiliated companies.

The Chronicle found that the IRS requires colleges to disclose potential conflicts on their tax returns in an effort to promote transparency and discourage abuses.

“But how those conflict-of-interest polices are written varies widely, as does the level of disclosure in tax forms,” the article said. “Conflicts involving boards have caused hand-wringing in some higher-education circles for decades, particularly when a scandal flares. Where to draw the line remains murky.”

Similar conflict-of-interest accusations have been made at a number of Dartmouth’s peer institutions.

A report released by Tellus found that the Harvard Management Company, the private investment management corporation that manages Harvard University’s endowment, is “among the worst offenders in transparency,” citing its failure “to identify by name the board members involved in related party transactions.” The report also listed Williams College, Boston University and Tufts University as among the least transparent institutions in reporting related-party transactions involving members of the schools’ boards of trustees.

College Chief Investment Officer Pamela Peedin did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Staff writer Sharla Grass contributed reporting to this article.

At the event, “Polar Environmental Trends and Their Policy Implications,” Kelly said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent report, released in 2007, underestimated the rates of change recorded for Earth’s rising sea levels and water temperatures.

Rising sea levels in the Arctic region will have a dramatic effect on the coastal Northeast region of the United States, Virginia said. Local and state governments in this region have been “quietly” working with zoning boards to prepare for flooding. Unlike federal politicians, local and state officials are able to plan for potential future flooding without drawing attention to the contentious issue of global warming, he said.

For the first time, Arctic researchers have discovered that melting water has begun to flow from high elevations of the Arctic’s ice sheets, which is an “alarming” indication that temperatures have been rising at an elevated rate, according to Kelly. The flow of water from the tops of ice sheets lubricates the sheets, causing them to slide faster into the ocean.

Because there is little recorded data about the Earth’s climate prior to 1850, scientists use proxy records, like lake sedimentary deposits and subfossil plants, to understand natural climate variability, Kelly said. Her research of ice sheets has shown that the most recent “ice advance” occurred around 300 years ago, during the “Little Ice Age,” the coldest time on record for the current interglacial period.

“The climate can change really rapidly in a matter of decades, and we don’t yet understand what causes these changes,” Kelly said.

Since proxy records have shown sudden swings in Earth’s temperature, scientists need to remain cautious when following climate patterns and predicting future scenarios, according to Kelly.

The oil and gas industries plan to explore the Arctic’s continental shelf in order to potentially extract natural resources, which environmental activists claim will harm wildlife and increase society’s dependence on fossil fuels, according to Virginia.

Tensions have begun to emerge between the United States and other countries invested in the Arctic region, according to Virginia. The United States considers the Northwest Passage an international strait, while Canadian officials have referred to it as an internal waterway. Russian leaders have also challenged the United States by seeking to militarize the Arctic region, he said.

Sections of the Arctic Ocean do not fit within the radius of any country’s borders, and the international community will have to collaborate in order to protect that region, he said.

If the ice continues to melt, businesses will seize routes for tourism, moving oil and gas and fishing on a large scale, according to Virginia.

“Who’s going to regulate the passages?” he said. “There’s already no search and rescue capability through much of the region and no environmental protections for oil spills.”

Thayer School of Engineering professor Donald Perovich said that instead of focusing on predictions about when the last pieces of ice will melt, people should instead realize that the ice has already melted to a point where human activity is impacted. Specifically, humans will be threatened as huge sources of methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide, are unearthed and released because of the melting ice.

The lecture was sponsored by the Sierra Club of the Upper Valley.

The University of Missouri announced plans to begin shutting down its university press beginning in July, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. While similar undertakings at other institutions have been met with controversies, the University of Missouri community has produced little protest, according to The Chronicle. While the state of Missouri did not cut funding for higher education this year, it will allocate funds away from traditional publishing. The Missouri Press, established in 1958, publishes approximately 30 books per year, with subject matter ranging from military history to poetry. Other universities, including the University of Arkansas and Southern Methodist University, have also attempted to phase out their presses as a result of emerging technology and educational budget issues, according to The Chronicle.

Princeton University will increase the number of residence hall rooms available for freshmen and the capacities of many introductory-level courses in order to accommodate the over-enrolled Class of 2016, according to The Daily Princetonian. The university will also broaden its selection of writing seminars and plans to increase the number of part-time non-tenure track faculty it hires. Princeton Dean of Admissions Janet Rapelye said that the class is over-enrolled by 50 to 65 students as a result of Princteon’s reinstated early admissions program, which had not been in place since 2006, The Princetonian reported. Representatives from other Princeton programs ­— such as eating clubs and the Bridge Year program — said they will not make accommodations for the larger Class of 2016, according to The Princetonian.

Benjamin has served as the coordinator for counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department since his 2009 appointment by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Although he has never worked within an academic institution, Benjamin said in an interview with The Dartmouth that he looks forward to collaborating with the student body, particularly one “renowned” for its talent.

The Dickey Center offers an opportunity to facilitate public debate at the College and foster a relationship with the world beyond Hanover, he said.

“It’s clear that the Dickey Center has a central role in the life of the College,” Benjamin said. “It’s a platform that the College has for showcasing student scholarship and bringing outsiders in.”

A key part of the Dickey Center director’s role includes acting as a “magnet” for leaders in international relations and attracting speakers to visit the College, according to Siddharth Sathe ’14, secretary-general of the Dickey Center student organization Model United Nations.

Benjamin said he hopes his range of acquaintances within the field of international relations will be an asset for the College, as a number of these leaders would “welcome the opportunity to come to Hanover” and speak with members of the community. Benjamin will replace Acting Director of the Dickey Center Christianne Wohlforth, who was preceded by former director Kenneth Yalowitz.

As a former ambassador, Yalowitz, who retired in December 2011, said Benjamin’s experience with policy and think tank environments will benefit the Dickey Center. This background will enable Benjamin to take part in the conversation about the dichotomy between the theories central to academia and the practical stresses faced by policymakers.

“I think one of the key things is to really develop and improve the dialogue between government and the academy,” Yalowitz said in an interview with The Dartmouth. “There’s a real need to improve that dialogue, and that’s something I really hope the Dickey Center will do more of in the future.”

Yalowitz said he hopes Benjamin will further the center’s development and maintain a goal of “bringing the world to Dartmouth students and taking Dartmouth students to the world.”

His expertise will build upon the current abilities of the center while allowing him to work with faculty members to produce innovative goals, Acting Associate Provost for International Affairs Lindsay Whaley said in the release.

Sathe said he hopes the new director will be as accessible to undergraduates and as able to “get students excited” about the field of international relations as Yalowitz was.

“Yalowitz did a great job of interacting with undergraduates and being really approachable and available, so I would hope that the new director would feel the same way,” Sathe said.

Model UN President Sean Donovan ’13 also emphasized the need for the new director to become engaged with students’ lives and intellectual pursuits and to make the opportunities present at schools in the Washington, D.C., area available to Dartmouth students despite Hanover’s “isolated” location.

“Interaction and relationships with individuals like Ambassador Benjamin who have remarkable experiences and the benefit of hindsight in life decisions have the potential to positively shape students in a manner that cannot be replicated by a class or any on-campus programming,” Donovan said.

Although students were not among the members of the selection committee, Sathe said he trusts that the process was carried out effectively and with the Dickey Center’s mission in mind.

Benjamin received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and his master’s degree from Oxford University. At the State Department, Benjamin was involved in the creation of the multilateral Global Counterterrorism Forum, according to the release. He is also the author of a number of books examining the effects and future of terrorism.

During the 1990s, Benjamin spent five years at the National Security Council and worked as a speechwriter for former U.S. President Bill Clinton, according to the release. He has also directed the Brookings Institution’s Center on the United States and Europe. Benjamin became interested in international affairs at a young age and covered the fall of communism and the unification of Europe as a writer for Time Magazine in the 1980s, he said. He later served as a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and was motivated to move to Washington, D.C., by his interest in speechwriting.

The search committee consisted of faculty members from across multiple departments at the College.

Staff writer Michael Riordan contributed reporting to this article.

Placing contemporary Palestinian politics within a historical context, Barfi traced the roots of Palestinian diplomatic dissension and stalemate through decades of internal strife and murky political arrangements between members of ruling parties.

The current diplomatic paralysis among Palestinian authorities has resulted from the leadership’s collective inability to resist popular and revolutionary impulses, according to Barfi. He conceived a model to explain the delicate balance of power within the Hamas organization, which he called the “Hamas Triangle.”

The sheer complexity of how power is assumed, maintained and manipulated in the Palestinian region can at times prevent a clear understanding of the region and its political future, he said.

The 1980s — a decade that featured both the First Intifada, or uprising, and the founding of Hamas — marked a turbulent and transformative time in Palestinian politics, according to Barfi. 1987, the year of Hamas’ founding, was a pivotal moment in the history of Palestinian culture, reflecting a shift away from secularism in the regional conception of political authority. Students interviewed by The Dartmouth said that popular media often simplifies the complex relationship between Palestinian leaders and their Israeli counterparts, neglecting subtle but telling sociocultural tensions, motives and historical allegiances that determine the shape of Palestinian diplomatic policy. “Journalism in some of our country’s major newspapers is often lacking when it comes to the intricacies of the region, so any time a lecturer can be brought in to bring a face-to-face account of the region, it’s extremely helpful,” Paul Lazarow ’13, president of Chabad at Dartmouth and the lecture’s head organizer, said in an email to The Dartmouth.

“The talk helped me appreciate the complexity of the issue,” Dartmouth Students for Israel president Adam Schneider ’15 said. “There are so many parties involved and nearly all of them exhibit a total lack of leadership.” Students said that the lecture offered attendees a more profound and contextual understanding of their relationship to the Israel-Palestine conflict. “As for my personal role or place in the conflict as an American Jew, I care deeply about the Jewish state and its decades-long quest for peace,” Lazarow said. “Integral to the Jewish state’s quest for peace is the Palestinian leadership and people.” Barfi is a regular contributor to Project Syndicate, the world’s largest commentary-focused association of newspapers. His articles’ topics range from the Libyan political climate to Egyptian foreign policy, and his writings have been featured in The Guardian, The New Republic, Foreign Policy and The Washington Post.

Since January 2011, Barfi has worked as a research fellow at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. Barfi also spent six months in Libya during the Arab Spring last year and has since published various papers and articles about the Libyan political climate.

The event was co-sponsored by the government and history departments, the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and Chabad at Dartmouth.

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AUSTIN, Texas — If there’s one thing that South by Southwest has in bountiful supply, it’s free stuff. Not free music, just free stuff: chips, tacos, drinks, koozies, barbecue food, CDs, t-shirts. Their apparent logic: If you give festival-goers enough free stuff, they will become hooked and start buying products in droves. So it’s a beautiful thing when the crowds turn the tables on these companies, and it’s a sight to behold when the crowds turn the tables on the venues, too.

That’s where A$AP Rocky came into the equation yesterday afternoon at a venue called Formerly TOPS. The Harlem-based rapper made the eager crowd wait nearly 45 minutes after his set was supposed to start, and in the meantime, some company selling water in milk carton-style paper containers was tossing free boxed water into the crowd. A questionable decision.

After several “ASAP!” chants, the rapper and his entourage finally erupted onto the stage, jumping around to the hazy beats. The bass was thumping harder than anything I’ve ever experienced, and weed smoke continuously drifted into the rafters of the warehouse-style venue.

Things then started to get a bit rowdy after a song or two, and A$AP Rocky egged the crowd on with his stage banter. One member of his crew seemed to try to keep A$AP from encouraging the audience to wreak havoc on Formerly TOPS.

“I don’t give a f-ck — these are our people!” A$AP said to him. “Feel free to get buck naked and f-ck, I don’t give a f-ck.”

Boxed waters started flying, smashing the water company’s hopes for market share and nearly ruining the laptop that A$AP’s DJ was using. Fans also threw trash barrels, and many people — including A$AP Rocky himself — crowd surfed. While some of A$AP’s tracks unfortunately had his vocals prerecorded on the chorus, the bass was something to behold and provided an impressive soundtrack to the mayhem.

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Other audiences Saturday night seemed to also hold chaos in higher esteem than anything else. When hardcore punk group Ceremony took the stage at Red 7, the front row consisted entirely of photographers jockeying for a good shot of offbeat lead man Ross Farrar. Then, a couple of songs into the set, the real punks in the audience came out of the woodwork, bursting into a mosh pit that sent the photographers and the rest of the crowd retreating 15 feet back from the stage.

The standoff seemed all too symbolic — the fashionable photographers looking for a good shot for their music blog were scared off by the kids bumping into each other, and the kids seemed unenthusiastic after realizing how few of them were there to actually get into the music. As a result, Farrar made for the majority of the spectacle as he continued to jump off the stage and flail around by himself to the band’s straightforward guitar hooks.

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At Club de Ville, OFF! played a rowdy set that was a more concrete articulation of ’80s nostalgia, which Ceremony seemed to be hinting at with their earlier performance. A mosh pit of all ages — from mid-20s to mid-50s — rocked out as the supergroup, led by Keith Morris of Bad Brains and Black Flag, rocked through their incredibly short songs. Within 30 seconds of the set’s beginning, a string of Christmas lights had been ripped down from the ceiling.

“We’re all friends here — no fighting,” Morris said in between one of the songs. Rowdy yet ostensibly responsible, Morris made for a picture-perfect image of the aging punk star that ’80s music fans must have expected.

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On an unrelated note, I highly recommend Scottish indie pop band Django Django. They played a really tight set at Latitude 30 last night — their synths, wide array of percussion and standard guitar and bass made for an engaging set of light, poppy rock songs.

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Mikal Cronin also played great at the Mohawk with Ty Segall, helping out as part of the backing band. Cronin’s songs ranged from fast and light summer jams to grungier rock songs, all of which had the audience hopping around and dancing.

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That’s it for me this week — SXSW has come to an end. Time for all involved in the music industry to get some sleep and ask themselves: Is this really a sustainable lifestyle?

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AUSTIN, Texas — The band Pond would be really hard to pin down if the seemingly clashing components of their music and image weren’t individually so familiar. During their performance last night at Buffalo Billiards, the band would settle into psychedelic prog rock for a minute or two, only to smash that apart with thick, juicy guitar licks reminiscent of ’70s glam rock that drowned out the oddball vocals of lead man Nick Allbrook, who seemed to walk right out of the early ’90s. Throwback was the order of the evening for the Australian band, which consists of two members of Tame Impala.

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When he wasn’t singing, however, Allbrook would often grow impatient of standing on stage, jumping into the audience to successfully — or not-so-successfully — crowd surf, or otherwise to simply flail around on the ground. It might have felt like a punk show, but the music sounded anything but.

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The entire band seemed to adore the idea of being rock stars — it was somewhat unclear whether Allbrook preferred interacting with the crowd or the camera flashes that came with his unique antics — as they shoved each other into the crowd, ripped each others' shirts off of their backs and generally messed around while they let loose their catchy classic rock. I threw out any questions about just how tongue-in-cheek some of the goofy antics were when the lead guitarist asked the sound technicians, “How long we got left, muthafuckas?”

Speaking of throwbacks, I had the chance to relive my high school summers last night when I saw The Shins on the rooftop of a parking garage. Unfortunately, some of the youthful nostalgia was undercut by the fact that I was surrounded by a bunch of mid-20 to mid-30-year-olds who were probably, I dunno, networking the whole time or something adult like that. Such is the sad irony of 21+ events — music that often speaks most to younger kids is played in settings where said kids are not allowed. Then again, Richard Swift of The Shins was celebrating his birthday last night and certainly wasn’t turning 22 years old, however much they joked about it on stage. Age dynamics in rock music are weird. I digress.

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The Shins struck a nice mix between cuts off of their first three albums and the new material off of their new, highly anticipated LP, “Port of Morrow,” which comes out this Tuesday. The first new song they played, “Simple Song,” was the third song of their set and is also their first single. I particularly liked “It’s Only Life,” which lead man James Mercer said is the second single off of their upcoming LP.

It wasn’t all about nostalgia last night — I got a chance to check out THEESatisfaction, a female rap duo, at the Sony Club at Red 7 last night. The pair often traded off on vocals, as one rapped or sang while the other would intermittently whisper key words in the background. The duo did not incessantly interrupt their rhymes to try and hype up the crowd as can be the case in other hip-hop shows, but no matter — many audience members were grooving to the beats that went from glitchy to soulfully smooth, and THEESatisfaction had some short dance routines that made the show even more fun to dance to.

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I also checked out Reptar, which features Ryan Engelberger ’12 on bass, at The Stage on Sixth during the Paste Magazine day party. When I saw the group at South by Southwest last year, it was in a much more modest setting, and some of the sound tech elements weren’t working, making the set suffer. Yesterday, however, Reptar was on point with a larger band than last year and a much fuller sound with bigger percussion. Graham Ulicny, the lead vocalist, continues to be a captivating centerpiece of their live performance, as his face and body contort while he yelps his distinctive vocals. Their set included plenty of new tracks off of their upcoming debut LP, “Body Faucet,” available on May 1.

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AUSTIN, Texas — What makes a live show a worthwhile live show? Thursday afternoon and evening, I caught several acts that make heavy use of prerecorded loops and several acts that didn’t, leading me to wonder if it really is the manipulation of instruments that makes a performance interesting, or if it is something entirely different.

I always find it interesting to see how an artist like Grimes has changed over the course of a year. In my very first South by Southwest show ever last year, Grimes played an unassuming yet ethereal (I hate using that word) set in a small bar to a decent-sized crowd. Since then, Grimes has garnered tons of buzz online and received critical praise for her recently released LP, “Visions.” Last night, she found herself on a much larger stage than in 2011, performing at Pitchfork’s official SXSW showcase at the Central Presbyterian Church.

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Her dreamy electro-pop filled the high-ceilinged nave of the church, which made for a pleasant listening experience as a bunch of Pitchfork-loving heathens sat in the pews. Still, I couldn’t help but feel like her live performance was lacking — something about watching two people press buttons and hit sample boards just didn’t do it for me. There just wasn’t much substance there to for me to rally around.

Then there’s Youth Lagoon — I ended my night catching his set at Club de Ville. It is without a doubt among the best and most special performances I’ve seen this year. Trevor Powers used plenty of loops and samples but was miles beyond Grimes with respect to the engaging nature of his performance.

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In what I later learned was an unintentional artistic decision, Powers went without vocal effects during his live set, transforming his airy, reverb-heavy tracks into emotionally arresting songs on stage. Powers sang in a distinctive near-groan, adding several pauses to his vocal track to make the performance all the more wrenching. The few extra milliseconds between the repetitions of “I blame you” on “Bobby” felt like a heart-wrenching eternity.

The emotional investment in the songs didn’t simply flow from a raw vocal track or a few key pauses — the strain on his face was evident each time he unleashed key lyrics. I didn’t find this investment in the more light-hearted performance style of Grimes. And while Powers did use loops, the majority of the songs consisted of his synthesizers and his friend Logan’s guitar, with the loops providing the waves of bass that anchored the tracks.

Did I mention that the chatter of fans further back in the audience was a consistent auditory feature of the experience? Ugh.

Catch my full interview with Trevor Powers of Youth Lagoon, where we talk a bit about the transition from recorded music to stage performance.

Purity Ring, who played before Grimes at the Central Presbyterian Church, also had lots of loops and such, but actually tried to physically evoke the dream-like nature of their songs, making use of an interesting set of light bulbs that apparently doubled as some sort of electronic sample board.

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The merits of loops and electronic music in live performances aside, the band Friends made their Thursday evening performance at The Parish a hit by, well, acting as if they were playing in front of a bunch of friends. Samantha Urbani ventured into the audience frequently, dancing up on a number of audience members. Their loungey, sassy indie pop certainly made for an easy-going dance party.

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One Dartmouth-related aside: I caught a few songs by Filligar last night at Empire Automotive. They had the crowd — which included a few alumni, no surprise — engaged with a cover of “In Bloom” by Nirvana and a couple of their own tracks.

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Listen to my interview with Youth Lagoon here:

Shoutout to Erin Lansky ’12 for waiting for me outside my hotel as I finish writing this. Time to get some Texas BBQ!

Lansky is a former member of The Dartmouth Senior Staff.

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AUSTIN, Texas — “Alright, we’re The Men,” was all we heard from the Brooklyn-based alternative punk quartet before they dove into a blistering, non-stop set Wednesday night at the Elysium Bar in Austin.

I’d tell you which one of them said these choice four words, but they had the stage lights turned down so much you could barely see them. Because that night at the Elysium was all about punk rock: no frills, no chitchat in between songs. The only respite was found in several discordant interludes during which The Men would mess around with their instruments.

The show was all about their pounding music, which draws on everything from shoegaze to metal. Their most recent album, the critical hit “Open Your Heart,” even draws upon surf music and psych rock.

Despite their growing palette of influences, there was plenty for the mosh-hungry attendees to rally around, as they broke into a crazy pit the moment that The Men dove into their hit title track, “Open Your Heart.” It’s one of the best parts of South by Southwest — watching the shock on the faces of music industry do-gooders in their fancy evening outfits when some band they’d never heard of unleashes chaos.

If SXSW 2012 is the year of Danny Brown, A$AP Rocky and others, that’s not to say that there isn’t an impressive array of punk, post-punk, post-hardcore, noise rock and anything else that kicks ass and makes plenty of noise. This is the first year I’m taking wearing earplugs quasi-seriously, and Wednesday was a good day to start. As should be expected given the strength of their most recent release “Attack on Memory,” Cloud Nothings had plenty to offer the crowd during Wednesday’s Consequence of Sound day party at Beauty Bar. Dylan Baldi riffed on lead guitar with his underage hands X-ed out in permanent marker, while the rhythm guitarist was nearly entering convulsions, sweating and spitting on stage as he went completely nuts on songs like “Separation.” I’ve never seen a drummer act more like Animal from The Muppets, and the bassist churned out a really gritty, intense bass line to tie together the brooding post-hardcore songs.

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Don’t be misled by the fact that I started this post with a band called The Men — there were some incredible female leads rocking out last night. Three-piece band Screaming Females, who are just finishing a tour with Friday Night Rock alumni Titus Andronicus, features Marissa Paternoster on lead guitar and vocals. Her banter in between songs sounded shockingly meek given her deep rebel yell-esque singing punctuated by the occasional shriek. Screaming Females made plenty of noise but also made room for Paternoster to shred on guitar. She often riffed on high notes as if she was in a metal band, but the pounding bass and drums anchored everything back to a grungier punk aesthetic.

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Bleached played a solid set during the Panache Booking agency’s showcase Wednesday night at Beauty Bar. While their music isn’t entirely revolutionary and seems to draw heavily on a Best-Coast-meets-The-Ramones aesthetic, the songs made for a really fun show. Bleached played a couple of new tracks beyond the four songs they have already released (as far as I am aware) — slower, summery pop punk songs might be Bleached’s forte, but these new songs were noteworthy for their faster pacing, which injected the right amount of energy into the set.

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Now back to rap for a second. I caught my first glimpse of Danny Brown, whose music works really well for live shows. His distinctive yelping style transitions nicely into gruff shouts, making for an aggressively paced show. Brown had the crowd gleefully chanting along on the chorus for “Blunt after Blunt” and went a cappella for several chunks of his songs, proving that his ability to rhyme could stand alone without produced beats.

G-Side took a few songs to get the crowd going at Lustre Pearl, but once they got into songs that tapped more into their braggadocio, the crowd was bouncing along to the southern-style beats. Backing singers made for a nicely organic supplement to their rhymes, and the rap duo knew how to spread the wealth, featuring three guest emcees during their set.

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I would have something to say about A$AP Rocky, but I only heard “Peso” from the line outside — it was the only show I saw Wednesday night that was at capacity. Perhaps that serves as an indication of the infectious popularity of A$AP, but I would also submit that the non-wristband holders who paid $10 to see the last 30 seconds of A$AP’s set might be a better indicator of the Harlem rapper’s appeal.

DJ and producer Star Slinger was in the crowd at G-Side’s set, and I got a chance to talk to him about his collaborations with rappers such as Danny Brown and about what he looks for at rap shows:

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P.S.: Reptar bassist Ryan Engelberger '12 reports that Dan Deacon was wearing a Reptar tour shirt during Deacon's set at the NPR showcase last night!

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AUSTIN, Texas — “I do this in my sleep, man,” Brooklyn-based rapper Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire told the crowd at the Pitchfork Interactive Showcase at the Mohawk in Austin on Tuesday. “I’m not all hype. I’m actually talented.”

However much in jest he was reassuring us of his talent, the comment is apt given the circumstances. The South by Southwest Music festival was ransacked last year by offbeat rap collective Odd Future, who stole all the hype and buzz with their irreverent music, raucous shows and unbridled disrespect for any boundaries whatsoever. A year later, it seems that now the ship might be sailing on Odd Future, as their gross-out tactics are fraying at the edges for lack of as much substance as some other underground rappers are bringing to the table. Swag on.

This year is different, however, and it might be the most promising year of rap at SXSW in a long time. On Tuesday, Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire shared the bill with Los Angeles-based Schoolboy Q, in addition to non-rap acts such as Bear in Heaven and Matthew Dear. The emergent underground of rap now welcomes figures whose press coverage focuses more on their music, collaborations with producers and boundary-pushing lyrics than on their goofy antics. The likes of Danny Brown, Main Attrakionz, A$AP Rocky, Cities Aviv and others are popping up on many different showcase bills around the city.

That said, Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire’s presence on stage was a perfect complement to his laid-back New York rap, in which he often talks about drinking, having sex, buying fast food and hanging out in his native Brooklyn. His set stole the show last night, as a group of roughly 15 people joined him on stage. With only two mics being passed around and one DJ on stage, most of them chanted along and bounced to his music and the beats that went with it.

“That’s the Brooklyn way,” he told me after the show. “It’s traditional that you have all your buddies and your friends and your entourage and the people that helped you get to this point, because I’m from the hood.”

Scroll down to listen to the rest of my interview with Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire and hear more about his entourage, where his music comes from and what he felt like popping his SXSW “cherry.”

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The highlight of his set was “Huzzah!”, which included what I would call the first quasi-mosh pit I’ve seen at a rap show. Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire stepped down into the crowd, and his entourage showered listeners with bottled water, evoking the celebratory nature of the sing-along chorus in the song: “Drunk drivin’ on a Wednesday!”

It was interesting to see how the crowds came and went — middle-aged men jamming out to art-house producer Star Slinger were, perhaps unsurprisingly, nowhere to be seen by the time Schoolboy Q unleashed his hit “Hands on the Wheel” at the end of his set. Schoolboy Q did an impressive job filling out the stage without an entourage, or even a hype man. He had a few things to say about Oxycontin and his hometown of L.A., and his aggressive dancing around the stage evoked the gruffness of some of his lyrics.

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Other acts of note last night included Oberhofer, who played a set at the Hype Hotel that sounded much fuller and hard-hitting than when he stopped by Friday Night Rock at Dartmouth a year ago. Brad Oberhofer was none too shy, shrieking into the microphone and jumping all around stage. He played all the familiar songs from his EP o0Oo0Oo, but they sounded stronger and bolder, rightfully hinting that he is on the cusp of something bigger.

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My Interview with Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire: [soundcloud]

So far, the Canadian alt-rock band Barenaked Ladies has signed on to score the musical while Tony winner Casey Nicholaw of "The Book of Mormon" and "The Drowsy Chaperone" will provide direction and choreography. Playwright Michael Mitnick will adapt the screenplay.

Universal Pictures Stage Productions will produce the musical along with Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and James L. Nederlander.

Set at a college based off our very own bucolic campus in 1962, the original film begins as "Dean Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi Fraternity, though the frat's misfit group of troublemakers has other plans."

The original producer of the film, Matty Simmons — a founding publisher of National Lampoon magazine — will serve as executive producer. Chris Miller '63 co-wrote the film, which is loosely based off his experiences as a member of Alpha Delta fraternity.

"Animal House" starred the late John Belushi, Tim Matheson, Karen Allen, future Tony-winning "Spring Awakening" lead producer Tom Hulce and Kevin Bacon.

From the basements of Amarna and Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity to the Hollywood scene, filmmaking duo Phil Lord ’97 and Chris Miller ’97 are taking the skills they learned at Dartmouth to the big screen.

The screenwriters and producers for the early seasons of the television series "How I Met Your Mother," the writers and directors of MTV’s "Clone High" and the critically acclaimed animated feature "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" (2009), Lord and Miller are credited as two of the youngest filmmakers in the industry. The team is currently set to release their latest project, "21 Jump Street" (2012), an action comedy starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum among others, for public viewing on March 16.

Miller and Lord’s strong friendship may be traced back to the craziness of their freshman year.

“We had a mutual friend who said, ‘I know someone just as crazy as you are,’ and introduced us, and we became friends,” Miller said. “The moment we really became friends was when I lived upstairs from Phil’s freshman year girlfriend, and I was playing a game called, ‘Let’s see how close we can get a lighter to Heather’s hair without her noticing’ while she was playing Tetris on her computer. I won and her hair caught on fire, and then Phil was upset because her hair smelled bad, and so then we became friends.”

Although Miller majored in government, Lord, an art history modified with film major, convinced Miller to take an animation class during their freshman year, sparking an interest in animation and film. The two became committed to pursuing a career in the entertainment industry during an outing in San Francisco, where Miller had been interning during his junior summer.

The two became a team as a result of miscommunication on the part of the Walt Disney Company. After graduation, Miller and Lord set up a meeting with the company and flew to Los Angeles. Upon showing up for their interviews, the company assumed that they were a team and hired them together, creating a partnership that lasts to this day.

Miller and Lord later went on to create the MTV series "Clone High, USA," which was a learning experience for the duo who had never worked on a television show before.

“We had a lot of growing pains, but we got there completely unsupervised — there was no oversight,” Lord said. “They just gave us money to make a TV show, and we started making it. Having no experience like that and being so naive that you didn’t know what you didn’t know made it a really fun time.”

The team decided to direct "21 Jump Street" after completing "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs." The team was compelled to undertake a live action movie in order to avoid being restricted to the realm of family-oriented animation movies.

The team drew inspiration from the Peter Hines film "Running Scared" (2006), a comedy cop movie, for "21 Jump Street." The question of how they would act if given the opportunity to repeat high school also interested the duo.

“Now I know a lot better how to handle myself, but really if I were to do high school over again, I think I would fall back into the same insecurities that I had the first time around,” Miller said.

Working on the set of the movie was exhausting as the cast and crew plan for months to attempt to “capture a spontaneous moment between actors,” Lord said.

“It’s a lot like trench warfare, except that this trench has all the mixed nuts and fruit and soda pop that you could ever hope to have,” Lord said. “Everybody is definitely tired because we work long hours many, many days in a row, and everything is always about to fall to pieces. And it requires all the equipment and all the capital, and it’s really just about trying to put together enough of those spontaneous, strange, wonderful human moments to make up a movie that’s long enough to be in theaters.”

With the release of "21 Jump Street" less than two weeks ago, Miller and Lord have held test screenings and observed the phenomenon of “pearl-clutching” due to the film’s raunchy content.

“It’s not appropriate for people who wear pearls because the pearls will fall off their body from the mere shock of witnessing some case of foul language, so don’t wear pearls to '21 Jump Street,'” Lord said. “Actually, probably if you’re the kind of person who wears pearls often, don’t see '21 Jump Street.' Any other person on the Earth I would rather, and should, see '21 Jump Street.'”

Miller and Lord are currently dividing their time promoting "21 Jump Street" and working on the animated Warner Brothers’ film "Lego" (2012.

- Collider interviews Lord and Miller

Get an overview of the issues facing the College, and have the opportunity to ask Dean Johnson (Dean of the College) any questions.

Eat Local, Eat Well: Discussion with Beth Dooley (Haldeman 041) @6:30-7:45 p.m.

Attend a presentation by Minneapolis author and food critic Beth Dooley. Lou's pies served.

Tuesday

Upper Valley Voices (Tucker Living Room) @12:00-1:00 p.m.

Russian Tea (Russian Seminar Room, a.k.a Reed 220) @4:30 p.m.

Join the Russian department for an afternoon tea with snacks.

Best of Stonefence Poetry Reading (Left Bank Books) @7:30 p.m.

Take a study break to hear some poetry, then enjoy a reception and refreshments.

For Your Glory Praise Showcase (One Wheelock) @7:30-8:30 p.m.

Enjoy song, dance, poetry, and food!

Wednesday

Rocky Voxmasters (Morrison Commons, Rocky) @6:30 p.m.

Improve your public speaking skills and enjoy some free Jewel of India/Ramuntos!

Kwame’s Open Mic (One Wheelock) @ 7-10 p.m.

Stop by One Wheelock for a cozy study break, Lou’s pie, and musical performances by Dartmouth students.

Thursday

Soup for Thought (Tucker Living Room) 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Mellows (Alpha Theta Coed Fraternity) @10 p.m.

Chill out and snack on free food.

. Friday

Students Fighting Hunger Dinner (5 Summer Street) @ 4-6:30 p.m.

Help cook dinner/hang out with our community members of the Upper Valley every Friday! Dinners are held at Our Savior Lutheran Church, which can be found on the campus map toward the bottom right corner.

Bait and Bullet Feeds (Psi U) @ 7 p.m.

Bait and Bullet is Dartmouth's premier hunting and fishing club! Come to Psi U Friday night for their weekly dinner.

Saturday

(nothing yet)

Sunday

Sunday Evening extravaganza (Phi Tau) @ 10 p.m.

Take a nighttime study break and relax at Phi Tau while enjoying a free ice cream sundae.

How does the Winter term manage to be simultaneously painfully long and cripplingly short?

Okay, so I know it's technically the shortest term, but it feels so long since I last had a holiday or even a day off that I'm beginning to lose a grasp of what the phrase "lie-in" even means. My friend asked me on the phone the other day whether the term was "winding down for the holidays."

Oh, for the days when that meant playing hangman on the blackboard and watching Disney films because your class teacher couldn't be bothered to try to teach you anything new. Instead, it means writing 45 pages in 10 days, followed by exams. I really, really need a break, and I'm guessing that you guys do, too.

When spring break finally does arrive, I'll probably spend the first two days alternating between Canoe Club and my bed, but then I'm determined to get the hell out of town for a few days. I'm thinking either New York or Florida, so I'm mentally preparing myself for both eventualities.

When you're going on a mini-break, the last thing you want is to be hauling a great big suitcase around with you, so packing requires some careful planning. We've all heard the phrase "capsule wardrobe" — a modest set of clothing that you can mix and match to create different outfits. The most crucial part of designing your holiday clothes like this is making sure that, as much as possible, everything goes together. As you can see, I've chosen a muted color palette for the city-break capsule wardrobe I've put together here (in case I end up in New York).

A good pair of jeans is always a great place to start. Skinnies are good because you can dress them up for evening with some heels, some jewelry and perhaps a blazer. Another absolute essential is a pair of shoes or boots that you can comfortably walk in all day. You don't want to have to bow out of that shopping trip/museum visit/walking tour because your feet can't hack it.

You also don't want to have to cut your day's activities short because you're too cold. Don't be fooled by the sun streaming in through your window in the morning — there's still a definite nip in the air pretty much everywhere but Florida (and I'll be dealing with that next week). Layers are the best way to address this: A cozy cardigan, a pashmina (a fine-knit cashmere blend like this one will keep you warm without the bulk) and a medium-weight coat ought to do the trick. I've also included a felt fedora to keep my head nice and warm because that's what I imagine people to be wearing in New York. You can tell I'm foreign, can't you?

Since you're leaving Hanover, you should make the most of the fact that you can go to actual bars (that stay open later than 1 a.m.) and maybe even nightclubs. What a novel idea. Pack a dress and some nice heels, preferably ones that also go with your jeans, and perhaps a small clutch (though if you have a good handbag, this isn't really necessary).

Don't forget to also pack: tights (always useful), sunglasses, a camera, a bathing suit (you never know when you might have the opportunity to blag your way into the spa of the swanky hotel next door) and some ballet pumps for wearing around your hotel room. If you've got all that, then you're pretty much set.

Whistles Sweater

Reiss Hat

ASOS Boots

Reiss Dress

ASOS Satchel

Topshop Boots

Reiss Coat

Urban Outfitters Top

Topshop Jeans

Topshop Cuff

Zara Top

To Nick Knezek ’12, of Sanger, Texas, Dartmouth Idol is just one more part of a lifelong engagement with music of all kinds.

In addition to playing the piano since kindergarten, he played the clarinet for seven years and learned the drums and marimba three years ago. In high school he joined the school and church choirs and even participated in musical theatre before coming to Dartmouth.

On campus, Knezek is a member of both the Glee Club and X.ado. A physics and engineering major, he is also interested in philosophy and outdoor sports like hiking, skiing, snowboarding, canoeing and swimming.

For his final "Dartmouth Idol" performance, Knezek will perform four songs: “Take On Me,” “Let’s Stay Together,” a Johnny Cash and Garth Brooks medley and the part of the Grinch in a group performance of Seuss songs.

In particular, “Let’s Stay Together” will pose a challenge to him because of its high key and unfamiliar style, he said. He admitted, however, that challenge was exactly what drew him to "Dartmouth Idol" in the first place, when he auditioned last year.

“When I began singing, I always sang choral bass parts, but recently I've been trying to transition to singing higher, more modern music, and I thought Dartmouth Idol was a great way to push myself,” he said.

Knezek likes to listen to pop, indie, jazz and classical music, citing Sara Barrielles, The Shins, Adele, Debussy and Sam Cooke among his favorite artists.

His inspiration? Richard Feynman, whom Knezek describes as a “brilliant physicist who moonlighted as a professional bongo player” and whom he admires for enjoying life and having a great sense of humor.

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Phoebe Bodurtha ’15 of Stamford, Conn. is also looking forward to performing in the "Dartmouth Idol" finals and said that she is already grateful for all that she has learned from the preparation and performing experience.

A member of the Dodecaphonics and Fusion Dance ensemble, Bodurtha is a prospective Arabic major who also volunteers with Prison Project through the Tucker Foundation.

All her life, she has been involved with singing, she said.

She first began performing in middle school, playing the lead role of the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. As a high school freshman, she joined her school’s concert choir and the following year began singing in an all-female a cappella group.

This isn’t Bodurtha's first major performance by a long shot: she’s performed the National Anthem in Times Square for a Veteran’s Day ceremony and for Mets games at Mets Citifield on two separate occasions.

In the finals, she will perform Beyonce’s “Love on Top,” which will challenge her to use her head voice through four key changes — something she says she normally steers away from when singing. She will also sing “House of the Rising Sun.”

Nonetheless, she says the guidance she has received through her a capella mentors and the feedback process of "Idol" has helped her master songs that would have otherwise been a stretch for her.

“I wouldn’t have felt as comfortable performing a song that pushes me beyond my comfort zone if I hadn’t gotten the advice and guidance that would make me best prepared to sing it,” she said.

Bodurtha is really looking forward to Dartmouth Idol finals, which she considers a welcome break from preparing for finals of other kinds.

“I think it’s a really unique venue, and I don’t know when I’ll have another chance to perform in this kind of setting after college,” she said. “Singing is one of my favorite things to do so I always look forward to anything that involves singing and music.”