DEMOCRACY All In On the Election

DEMOCRACY All In On the Election

AROUND THE GREEN

Wide swath of speakers engages students on presidential politics.

A group of heavyweight political speakers made their way to campus in the lead-up to the November 5 election—and more are coming. The Election Speaker Series, along with a fall government and public policy course called “The 2024 Election,” included scheduled visits by former Vice President Mike Pence, neoconservative writer William Kristol, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, foreign affairs specialist Fiona Hill, former Donald Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway, civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill, and Donna Brazile, former chair of the Democratic National Committee. After the election, CNN political data editor Harry Enten ’ll and Brandeis professor Anita Hill will visit.

The speaker series is the work of Dartmouth Dialogues and the Rockefeller Center. “In our partisan times, it’s even more important that universities help students learn how to think, not what to think, part of which we do through invited guests from across an ideological spectrum,” says President Sian Beilock. “These speakers reinforce our commitment to bringing a variety of perspectives to campus as we promote civil dialogue, bridge-building, and finding solutions.”

Many of the guests were set to interact with students enrolled in the one-time class taught by Herschel Nachlis, associate director of the Rockefeller Center, and government professors Russell Muirhead and William Wohlforth. “I don’t think there’s another course like this anywhere else in the country,” says Nachlis. “To bring to Dartmouth top experts on many aspects of the election from diverse ideologies and identities—and to assemble a teaching team with diverse expertise and interests—all in such a short time, is remarkable.”

Muirhead says the class is using the election to talk about American politics more broadly. “What’s at stake for domestic policy, for foreign policy, and for what we are as a country? How have our politics changed over the last 50 years and the last five year’s?” he says. “Ultimately, we hope that by looking at the election in a spirit of intellectual openness and curiosity, we can inform and enlarge the commitments that motivate us so urgently as citizens.”

Adds Nachlis: “A liberal arts education is about engaging ideas and people, not shouting them down. The course reflects that.”

—TheEditors

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

On one frosty pre-Christmas morning the good folk of Hanover were aghast to learn of a theft that definitely went against the sentiment of the season. Someone (or ones) had filched one of the several score Yule trees put out by the Chamber of Commerce. Not only was the tree gone, but the lights, bucket, bricks and all were missing too. Significantly, it was one of several trees that stood directly in front of Parkhurst Hall, the

College’s main administration building. And significantly too, the theft occurred at the height of the Fall Term final examination period.

Since all Christmas stories should have a happy ending, it should be reported that the tree was returned as mysteriously as it had disappeared. But with a difference. The once missing evergreen was gaily bedecked with silver tinsel.

-DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1967

CRAFT MASTER

Internationally acclaimed Navajo weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas demonstrates loom technique for Hood Museum curator Ashley Offill as part of a recent campus workshop.