The Write Stuff
English professor Jeff Sharlet, who teaches creative nonfiction, knows the genre well. Last year the Washington Post, in its review of Sharlet’s Sweet Heaven When I Die, declared that the collection of 13 essays about people and faith “belongs to the tradition of long-form, narrative journalism best exemplified by writers such as Joan Didion, John McPhee, Norman Mailer…and David Samuels.” The professor, who arrived here in 2010 after spending several years at New York University, says the book’s reception was better than expected. “There isn’t much hunger for books of essays these days,” he explains. The author of several books and a contributing editor for Harper’s Magazine and Rolling Stone, Sharlet spent part of last fall reporting on the Occupy Wall Street movement in Zuccotti Park in New York City. He helped organize OccupyWriters.com, a site where more than 3,000 writers have  submitted pieces about and voiced support for the Occupy movement. Sharlet’s students seem unfazed by their teacher’s prolificacy. “They have confidence and anxiety,” he notes, “a good combination for writers.” He would, however, like to see them be even more adventurous and escape the campus “bubble” more often. Oh, and one more thing: “They need to get used to receiving more than just one set of revisions.”

Save the World
“A deadly disease has broken out in your neighborhood, and it’s your job to contain the disease!” That’s how Apple’s iTunes store describes the Dartmouth-built iPad app, Pox: Save the People. For 99 cents Pox shows gamers how disease spreads and the impact of vaccination on people. The goal: Stop everyone from dying. Pox is a creation of Tiltfactor, a lab started by digital humanities professor Mary Flanagan with a mission to create games that incorporate social causes and humanistic inquiry.

Pelzel to Retire
Senior VP of Advancement Carrie Pelzel announced her retirement, effective June 30. “I stand ready to support President Kim, as needed, in planning the transition,” she wrote colleagues in an e-mail in January. During her 15 years at the College she oversaw the $1.3-billion Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience.

Help Wanted
Cheerleading at Dartmouth has undergone a revival in the last four years. “My freshman year there were times when there were five or six of us,” says co-captain Jeremy Guardiola ’12 of Houston. Now the team has 30 members—and a greater sense of athleticism. “A big part of what we do now is stunting,” says Guardiola, referring to the acrobatic basket tosses and pyramids for which the team is known. Joann Brislin, assistant director of athletics for intramurals and club sports, attributes the growth to “very strong student leadership” and coach Josh Hartman. Last summer, however, Hartman accepted a position at New York University, leaving the squad without a coach. Cheerleaders cannot conduct stunting practices or do stunts at games without an NCAA-certified coach. “One weekend, athletics actually flew up a former co-captain from Florida [who is NCAA certified] so we could cheer at Homecoming,” explains Guardiola. “But that’s a Band-Aid.” Brislin is currently working with the team to fill the position. —Sarah Schewe ’12

Dead Animal House
More than 20,000 pounds of long-dead rodents and other small critters were exhumed from College-owned Rennie Farm last fall. The Hanover Center location served as a graveyard for mammals—used in lab experiments and potentially contaminated with small amounts of radioactive chemicals—in the 1960s and 1970s. Michael Blayney, Dartmouth’s director of environmental health and safety, says the project is all about “lessening our historical environmental impact.” Restoring the 230-acre property is “the right thing to do,” he says, even though tests indicate no significant biohazards at the site. The reported $1- to $2-million cleanup is not unlike what other schools have had to deal with as scientific methodology and environmental awareness evolve. Before incineration became common, it was accepted practice to dispose of lab-experiment animals by burying them in plastic bags, says Blayney. The voluntary cleanup at Rennie “removed a lot of liability” from the College, he adds.

Sweet Dreams
Looking for a sugar fix? You won’t find one for sale at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where sugar-sweetened beverages will no longer be offered. “We’re not banning them,” says spokesman Rick Adams. “We’re just not selling them anymore.” He adds the new policy is consistent with the hospital’s mission to promote a healthy population.

Play Ball
The softball team should be playing in its new 400-seat park—located in the southeast corner of the Chase Field complex—sometime during the 2012 season. Workers broke ground last August and now just need seven dry, warm days to lay down the artificial turf. Thanks to the $3.1-million project, the team will no longer have to travel off campus for games. “This field will be the best in the Ivy League,” says head coach Rachel Hanson. “And it will help us compete for the top talent in the nation.” The first home game is April 6.

Mummy Dearest
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries tourists visiting Egypt often returned with souvenir antiquities they had obtained. About 350 such pieces were later donated to or purchased by the College, but because of their uncertain origins, they have rarely been displayed. A few years ago the Hood Museum asked Christine Lilyquist, the recently retired head of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to study the collection. (In the 1970s Lilyquist curated the hugely popular Met exhibit “Treasures of Tutankhamun.”) The result is “Egyptian Antiquities at Dartmouth,” an ongoing exhibit now at the Hood.

Researchers Honored
The American Association for the Advancement of Science has elected five professors as fellows. “It’s kind of a merit badge of excellence,” says Medical School dean Wiley Souba. Here are the new fellows and how long they’ve been at Dartmouth:

Did You Know?
Short campus tidbits.

6
Ranking of Dartmouth's Winter Carnival among all such carnivals in the world, according to National Geographic Traveler magazine.

“There’s the possibility of an indoor occupation somewhere.”
—Occupy Dartmouth organizer Nathan Gusdorf ’12 after the Occupy encampment outside Collis was voluntarily dismantled in January due to cold weather

“No words can explain how happy I am.”
—Lucky Mkosana ’12 on being selected by the Chicago Fire in the second round of January's Major League Soccer draft

50
Years philosophy prof Bernie Gert spent teaching at the College, making him the longest-serving faculty member in Dartmouth history. Gert died in December at age 77.