80% of learning...

There's an old axiom that says most of learning at college takes place outside the classroom. It doesn't take very long to figure out how true that is, and we're fortunate at Dartmouth to have a lot of really great opportunities for extending our education beyond the classroom walls.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking about the crisis in Georgia with my fellow blogger and intern Jeff. I remember saying to him "Man, I wish I were taking classes now so I could actually have a discussion about what is going on." Sure enough, about a week later I got an email from the government department administrative assistant about a panel discussion that was taking place on that very subject. Turns out that Dartmouth has three of the most qualified people in the country to have this discussion.

The panel was led and organized by Ken Yalowitz, the Director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding here at Dartmouth. Now, I'd always known that Mr. Yalowitz was a former US Ambassador. I'd no idea that his assignment happened to be Georgia (1998-2001). The next panelist was Professor William Wohlforth, chair of the Government Department here at Dartmouth. Again, I knew that Prof Wohlforth was one of the top international relations scholars - particularly concerning big-power politics - in the country; I didn't know he's also an expert on Russian foreign policy. Finally, the last panelist was Professor Bridget Coggins, a heavy hitter when it comes to state creation and succession. So between the three of them, we had pretty much every perspective covered.

The discussion began at 4 last Thursday and the panelists spoke for about half an hour before opening it up for questions. Their perspectives were fascinating. Professor Wohlforth basically said that there wasn't anything particularly "Russian" about Russia's response to Georgia's action in South Ossetia. He said that it was responding like any other great power would. For example, he said, if 16 American peacekeepers were killed in a state in Mexico, one wouldn't have to look back to Manifest Destiny to explain how and why America would react. Similarly, Russia doesn't want Ukraine, Georgia, and the other Caucasian states to join NATO for the same reasons that the U.S. wouldn't want Canada or Mexico to join a hostile alliance: basically, and for a lot of reasons, it wouldn't be prudent. Since NATO denied Russia's request to join the organization twice in the 1990s, the Kremlin has every reason to treat NATO as a hostile alliance. The final important point I took away from Wohlforth is that the only difference between Yeltsin and Putin/Medvedev is Russia's capability to achieve their goals - that is, their foreign policy goals were and are largely the same; the only difference is that Russia was broke in the early 90s, and that's no longer the case today.

Meanwhile, Yalowitz seemed to imply that Georgia was baited here - that it was provoked by South Ossetian rebels (who would have had tacit Russian support) - and Russia actually wanted it to attack Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. If Russia was indeed the provocateur, then Wohlforth's argument is essentially irrelevant. At any rate, Yalowitz's familiarity with Georgian history and insight into its government was incredibly helpful and informative.

Finally, Coggins used her knowledge of separatist movements around the world to put South Ossetia and Abkhazia into context for the rest of us. By comparison (to the Tamil Tiger Rebels in Sri Lanka, for example) the movements in these two Georgian enclaves are relatively small and non-violent. She also explained the number of ways that Ossetia and Abkhazia are different from Kosovo.

Then it was time for questions, and lo and behold the audience members turned out to be as impressive as the panelists. More than a few people had very intimate knowledge or, barring that, were very passionate about the situation. One man, for example, had just come back after spending ten years in Georgia living with friends and was obviously very emotional as he asked, toward the end of the session, "How is this going to end?" Another woman who, it should be noted, had an Eastern-European accent, had a different opinion, lambasting President of Georgia Saakashvili's administration and stopping just short of calling him a criminal. Once again, one got the feeling that Hanover is much larger and more cosmopolitan than the almanac would suggest.

As for me, I'm not sure where this is heading. As Wohlforth pointed out, I like we're likely to see the majority of players (including the NATO nations and NATO hopefuls) in this conflict break into two camps once the conflict ends. On one hand, there will be countries (France and Germany, probably), that will be reluctant to let states like Ukraine and Georgia join NATO because they will fear being pulled into another conflict with Russia. 40% of natural gas in Europe comes from Russia, and our European NATO allies will have very little room to negotiate when it comes to an issue that Russia sees as a direct threat to its security. On the other hand, the United States will feel a strong need to protect the fragile (and relatively successful) Georgian democracy, not to mention its oil pipeline - the only one in the Causasus that does not go through Russia. The Causasian states themselves seem to be torn - the silence of Azerbaijan and Armenia has been deafening, but Viktor Yushchenko, the western-leaning President of Ukraine, has pledged his staunch support to Georgia and is trying to use his leverage over Russia's Black Sea fleet, which is stationed at the Ukrainian port at Sevastopol, to put pressure on the Kremlin. Meanwhile, he's reiterated his country's need to join NATO, even while the tensions in Georgia show no signs of easing.

And in fact, they keep getting worse. Today, Russia announced its official recognition of South Ossetia and Abhkazia as free independent states and in doing so has upped the ante considerably. I really don't know what the next move is. But I'm definitely looking forward to the start of the fall term when the '09s will be back and classes will be in session and I can try to figure this all out with some of the best international relations scholars in the country.

Did you hear?

A few days ago, Dominic Seiterle, Dartmouth '98 took home a gold medal for Canada in the Men's Eight in Beijing. While most Dartmouth Olympians compete in the Winter Games, we've got four representatives this summer, now including a gold medalist. Go Big Green!

P.S. Here's an article about Dartmouth's representatives in this summer's Olympics.

The Cords

As summer draws to a close, I find myself more and more looking forward to the fall term and all that it entails. My fellow '09's will once again descend on campus from all around the world as a class - this time as seniors - while on the other end of the collegiate spectrum, the Dartmouth campus will welcome more than 1,000 new faces representing the Class of 2012. I'll be taking classes again for the first time in more than 6 months. The Giants will begin their quest to defend their Superbowl Championship. And of course, I will start singing again.

One of my most important extra-curricular activities over the past three years has been my involvement in the Cords, one of Dartmouth's three all-male a cappella ensembles. I auditioned for the Cords at the end of my Freshman Orientation, and it was really the first group or activity that I joined on campus. It was really one of the best things I could have done for myself. Not only did I have a cool group of guys to hang out with, but it was a great opportunity to meet and get to know upperclassmen. Ultimately, the Cords is one of the reasons I didn't feel I needed to join a fraternity: I already had my brotherhood.

The Cords usually consist of about 16 guys. Because of the D-Plan and the fact that our members are always coming and going, our repertoire varies term by term and we'll often have to learn new parts to cover missing ones. We rehearse about 6 hours of week, and do somewhere between 4 and 7 on-campus shows per term, with a few off-campus shows in the mix as well. While traveling during the term can be fun, our favorite shows are the ones we perform here in Hanover for Dartmouth students, usually in a fraternity or sorority living room or a common room in a residence hall. A cappella is (strangely) popular at Dartmouth, and people really turn out for our shows. It's a great feeling to have so much support from our fellow students.

The Cords rehearse on the National Mall in D.C. while on tour in '06

Each winter break, the Cords go on a ~10 day collegiate tour to colleges all along the Eastern Seaboard. While there are usually some other venues mixed in, we try to maximize the number of college shows we do because they are the most fun. A couple of years ago, for instance, we got a gig at a pretty posh resort in Orlando. They hooked us up with 4 suites (for 14 guys; it was amazing), and we did one or two shows a day in the lobby and restaurants for the guests. It was pretty much a paid vacation for us, but the best times we had that tour were still at the colleges we performed at along the way. The routine is usually something like this: leave Dartmouth on the last day of finals, go to a school, do a show with an a cappella group there, party, sleep, wake up, travel to another college, repeat. For 10 days. It's exhausting. By the end of tour there are usually only about 9 or 10 songs we can sing because people's voices are completely shot. But it's probably my favorite week of the year, and I'm really looking forward to this December and my last Cords tour. And maybe some more baseball games: in the past two years, we've sung the National Anthem at Fenway Park in Boston and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia for the Red Sox and Phillies, respectively.

The Cords prepare to sing the National Anthem at Fenway Park

The Cords has also provided me with some truly unique leadership experience. I managed our tour my sophomore year and was president of the group last year. I'm currently serving as our business manager. Because the Cords are entirely student run, the president of the group is truly the executive of the organization - there is no faculty or Council on Student Organizations (COSO) advisor. Even in the corporate world, CEOs have boards and investors to report to; for most student organizations at Dartmouth, the buck stops at the student leaders. Thus, for a year, I got to play the role of chief executive of an organization that's not only an extra-curricular activity, but a semi-professional performing ensemble and a small business as well. It's hard to get that experience anywhere else, and I'm really appreciative for the opportunity that I had and for the friends I've made along the way.

Animal House and the Real World

Like its peer schools, Dartmouth is famous for a number of different things, and in particular: its liberal arts tradition and undergraduate focus; its active alumni body (and their financial success - tops in the country); its idyllic location; its unique academic calendar; its championship ski teams; and, as I've discovered through conducting a number of student forums, Animal House.

For those of you unfamiliar with the film, it's a 1978 National Lampoon's Comedy co-written by Chris Miller, class of 1963, and is based on his experiences as a brother of Alpha Delta Phi (now Alpha Delta, or AD). Starring John Belushi and Tim Matheson (and featuring Kevin Bacon in his cinematic debut), the film centers around the antics and degenerate members of Delta Tau Chi at a fictional college in Pennsylvania. You can check out a plot summary here.

For better or for worse (I and most others would argue for better), the Dartmouth Greek system no longer resembles (if in fact it ever did), the system portrayed in Animal House. But before I offer my take on it, some facts about the Dartmouth Fraternity, Sorority, and Coed (Greek) system.

Dartmouth currently recognizes 16 fraternities, 9 sororities, and 3 coed houses. There are also two undergraduate societies that are not a part of the Greek system. About 60% of eligible students do join a house. Eligible students are sophomores, juniors and seniors; freshmen cannot pledge, or join, a house. There are a number of implications of this policy, all of them positive. First, it gives Dartmouth students who think they may join a house their entire freshman year to scope out the organizations and see where they feel the most comfortable. More importantly, it means that students' social networks here are determined more by the friends they make during freshman year and through the organizations they're in more than the house they're in. If a student decides to pledge, his affiliation is usually just one more thing that he does on campus. Both of my fellow full-time interns are affiliated, but you'll never hear Madhavi introduce herself as a KDE or Jeff as an Alpha-Theta. Jeff, in fact, had thought I was in a fraternity until we did a forum together and the question came up. And while organizations' memberships may be as high as 150, each house only has about 20-25 beds and no dining facilities. Thus, most affiliated students live and eat on campus like everyone else, and there's little delineation between those who are in houses and those who are not.

One more reason for this lack of clear distinction is that the Greek system at Dartmouth is really inclusive: parties are usually open to the entire campus regardless of students' affiliations, and they're usually pretty fun. Most houses on campus are known for one particular party they'll throw about once a term. My favorite is the early 80's party at Sigma Nu, but I went for the first time to Sig Ep's Foam Party this past weekend and had a really fun time. Not sure I'll do that one again, but it was definitely worth the experience of standing waste-deep (or higher) in bubbles.

All that said, I am, as I mentioned, unaffiliated. For me, there just didn't seem to be a compelling enough reason to join a house. I'd already found my "fraternity" in my a cappella group, and I've been involved in so many different activities with such a wide range of students that I didn't really need to add another social network (or the accompanying time commitment). And while a majority of students do pledge, there's a large minority (40%) of eligible students who do not. While the Greek system does provide a lot of entertainment here, it is not the be all and end all of the social scene at Dartmouth, and while the College would be a lot different without it, there are students who go 4 years here without setting foot in a Greek house and are no worse off for it. But because of the large number of organizations, we're lucky to have a lot of variation between our houses, and there are a number of students who come to Dartmouth thinking there's no way they'd ever want to be a part of the Greek system (perhaps they'd seen Animal House?) but end up pledging sophomore fall. For me, with everything else there is to do here, I just didn't think it was necessary. But when you visit colleges, and wherever you end up going, I encourage you all to keep an open mind about all the options available to you. College can be a bit (or a lot) overwhelming at first, but in time, everyone finds his/her place. If you have any questions about the place that I've found, I'd be happy to answer them.

Dartmouth Abroad

When I was a prospective student looking at colleges, one of Dartmouth's biggest draws for me was the number and availability of foreign study programs for Dartmouth students. Indeed, I cannot imagine Dartmouth without its LSAs (Language Study Abroad Programs) and FSPs (Foreign Study Abroad Programs). And these programs are as pervasive as they are ubiquitous: Dartmouth has the highest participation rate in foreign study programs among all doctoral-granting institutions in the United States. Most students go on at least one; about 1 in 10 students go on three.

Dartmouth has about 44 Dartmouth-only programs available to its students. Many are for foreign languages. French, for example, has programs in Lyon, Toulouse, and Paris. Spanish has programs in Puebla, Mexico; Barcelona and Madrid, Spain; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. There are two German programs in Berlin; Chinese in Beijing; Arabic in Fez, Morocco (that program is soon moving to Tunisia, I think); Japanese in Tokyo; Portuguese in Salvador, Brazil; Russian in St. Petersburg; and a few programs in Rome.

There are three types of language programs. The first are LSAs (Language Study Abroad). The prerequisite for these programs is the level 2 course of a language at Dartmouth (e.g. for the French LSA in Lyon, students must have taken or passed out of French 2). The LSA+ is a little more advanced; its prerequisite is level 3 (and in some cases 10, which follows 3 in the sequence.) The most demanding program is the FSP, or Foreign Study Program, which has a higher prerequisite.

In addition to the language programs, most majors have their own FSPs. These programs are taught in English and occur all around the world. For example, there's engineering in Thailand; Biology in Costa Rica; Geography in Prague; Environmental Studies in South Africa; London has Government, Music, Theater, and History; there's Linguistics and Anthropology in New Zealand; Art History in Rome; and others.

Dartmouth's off-campus programs function as if you were here at Dartmouth taking classes. Your course credit is given the same way, and tuition and financial aid are also exactly the same. But enough with the details. Let me tell you a bit about my experience on the French LSA+ in Toulouse.

Getting to Toulouse was an adventure in itself. I flew from New York to Paris via Detroit (wasteful economy, anyone?) where I met a friend from high school who was in France for the year on a Rotary exchange. We hung out in the city for a little while before heading to Bourges where he was living. His host dad met us at the train station and drove us home, where I was given dinner and my own room to sleep in. In the morning, Jim's host dad drove me back to the station to catch my train to Toulouse. Definitely a great start to the trip.

I think the best way to describe my early impressions of being in Toulouse is to actually copy a blog post I wrote for my friends after being in France for about a week. I'm a little far removed from the experience now, and I think this does a better job of capturing my feelings at the time:

"The train got into Paris at 10 to 5 on Saturday, just in time for me to meet my host family. They’re really great people, and I feel pretty lucky since the family is probably the most important part of the LSA experience. My parents, Miki and Hervé, are a retired couple, and they live in a house pretty close to downtown (Centre Ville) Toulouse. Miki is always worried about whether I’ve eaten enough and if I’ve liked what she cooks, which is great because French cuisine is, well, you know, different. Turns out though I’ve happened to like just about everything she’s mentioned, and she’s convinced I’m lying to her. Having wine at every meal is a great backup though, because it can drown out the taste of just about anything, so I have no fear of trying new things. It makes me kind of sleepy though.

My host mom, Miki, telling me to try *this much* foie gras.

"Hervé is a really cool guy. At first I thought he wouldn’t take much of an interest in me, but it turns out we have a lot in common (at least when it comes to what to watch on TV), so it’s been fun so far. He used to jump horses and he’s interested in most sports, so between those and game shows, that’s pretty much what we watch. We also showed each other card tricks the other day, and he was mad cause he thought he’d figured mine out but in the end he hadn’t. The Dakar Rally is going on now, and so there’s coverage of that every night. I guess it’s interesting… And the French are really into American basketball. I swear I know more about how the Nuggets are doing now than I ever have in my life before.

"Mami, Miki’s mom lives upstairs, but is here for lunch and dinner every day. She’s 87 and of course smokes (everyone does), but is in excellent health. She’s just like a grandma – she corrects my French when I mess up, and than passes me chocolate under the table. Since my only grandparent (mother) that I knew passed away when I was 9, it’s really cool for me to have someone like Mami around.

"Miki and Hervé’s granddaughters, Jeanne and Ninon, who are 2 ½ and 7, have also been around a lot, along with their dad, Laurent. Both of the girls are fascinated by me because I’m American. It’s really funny. And for me, coming from such a small family, it’s awesome to have 4 generations coming in and out of the house."

La Garonne at night - Toulouse

I went on to describe the early social scene, which mainly involved going to clubs and discotheques with most of the other Dartmouth students from the group and some French friends we'd picked up along the way before getting to the heart of what going abroad really meant for me:

"There’s a lot more I could write about, given that there have been so many ‘firsts’ in the last week and half, but I’ll stop here and end with an early observation. Globalization is made very obvious when you travel abroad. My Bourges friend’s host dad drove a Ford, and everywhere you look you see foreign cars. Nissan is popular, as is Suzuki. I was watching a show before that featured a Honda Accord and a Chrysler Sebring. I saw a sticker on the back of car before that said "J'aime ma Toyota" (I love my Toyota). The music here is mostly American, and you hear it a lot in commercials or as background music during some television shows. It's funny. I’ll be like "Ah, the theme from American Beauty," and I look at the TV and it's a commercial for dog food or something. It's also interesting to realize that so many of the goods advertised in America are not really American at all. It was strange at first to see a Volkswagen commercial in French, but really, France is a lot closer to Germany than we are. It’s just interesting, I think, that we (or at least I) think of a lot of things as inherently American, when they’re not at all. And the French do a lot of things right. It was so nice to go to the morning market my first day here and see everyone out buying fresh food for the day, and even though this is the 5^th largest city in France, my host mom met no fewer than 7 people that she knew in the short time we were there. Businesses are closed on Sunday, which is something I wish we’d see more of in the US. Most of the stores are small and locally owned. Banks don’t charge you for using their ATM’s. And eating dinner together as a family every night (not lunch for me during the week since I’m at the university) is something I look forward to every day."

Villefranche-sur-Mer: one of my vacation stops during our 10 day break

Over the following 9 weeks, I had many great adventures, built amazing relationships with not only the Dartmouth students but also a number of other French people, and learned a lot about myself. It would take me pages and pages to begin to relate these experiences, and maybe I'll make a mention of one or two of them in a later blog entry. But this post is getting rather long and, to be honest, no two individuals' off-campus programs are going to play out even remotely the same, so it's more or less inutile for me to relay specifics about mine. I recommend checking out this page to see a (almost) complete list of off-campus programs available. More than that, if you visit campus, I strongly encourage you to ask students you meet about their foreign study experiences. I can promise you won't hear the same story twice.