Former U.S. Solicitor General Gregory Garre ’87 represented the University of Texas in Fisher v. University of Texas before the U.S. Supreme Court in October. The plaintiff, a white student who was denied admission to UT, argued that the university does not need to consider race in admissions. The Huffington Post reported that during oral arguments before the court, Garre used language from the 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, which upheld a university’s right to consider the race of an applicant to help “achieve a critical mass of diversity in the entering class.” A decision is expected by the end of June.

Jill Kelley, who sparked the discovery of Gen. David Petraeus’ affair with Paula Broadwell, is married to Dr. Scott Kelley ’88. As reported at Fishbowl DC, ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper ’91 revealed the Dartmouth connection when he tweeted the following on November 15: “True story: Jill Kelley’s husband Scott was in my fraternity.” Both were brothers in Alpha Chi Alpha.

In October Texas State Sen. Kel Seliger ’75 took over as chairman of the Texas Senate higher education committee. Although the Amarillo Republican lacks a strong background in higher education policy, a fellow state senator told The New York Times that Seliger was chosen because of his ability to work well with all members. “I’m going into it all with an open mind and a seriously, seriously open door,” Seliger said.

The Court Side Newspaper reported in early October that former Big Green basketball star Jabari Trotter ’12 had signed with Ireland’s Dublin Thunder pro team.

Pherabe Kolb ’94, the Smithsonian Institution’s associate director of strategic communications, directed the first-ever national advertising campaign for the 166-year-old institution, which launched in September. She told The New York Times that surveys showed people generally viewed the Smithsonian as “a little bit boring and intimidating,” and that 18- to 34-year-olds have the most negative perceptions. The effort focuses on social media and a new website, seriouslyamazing.com, which includes questions and answers that highlight the Smithsonian’s research. “We’re really trying to show people that what we have to offer is exciting and relevant to them,” Kolb told the Times.

In 2003, after Dean Foods’ stock had returned to shareholders a 29-percent annualized return for eight years, Forbes ranked CEO Gregg Engles ’79 among the best bosses. But by 2011 Forbes had named the Dartmouth trustee one of its “Worst Bosses for the Buck” after the company’s stock had fallen to nearly $7 a share in 2010, and last spring Motley Fool noted he had averaged $20.4 million in compensation during the previous six years, while Dean’s stock fell 11 percent a year on average. In an article about the dairy industry in October, The New York Times examined Engles’ role in dairy consolidation and the antitrust lawsuits filed against Dean Foods by dairy farmers. As the Times noted, Dean Foods settled both lawsuits “without admitting wrongdoing,” and the company’s stock is now up to $16.74. This led CNBC’s Jim Cramer to declare that it may be “the best corporate turnaround of the era.”.

On Election Day several Dartmouth alumni won re-election or were elected to national office for the first time. Democrat Ann McLane Kuster ’78 defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Charles Bass ’74 to become part of New Hampshire’s all-female congressional delegation. Democrat Michael Capuano ’73, the U.S. representative for Massachusetts’ eighth congressional district, won re-election as did Democrat John Carney ’78, the U.S. representative for Delaware’s at-large congressional district. In the U.S. Senate, New York Democrat incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand ’88 fended off a challenge by Republican Wendy Long ’82 and former Maine Gov. Angus King ’66, running as an independent, won the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe.

The death of Lori Grimes, the character played by Sarah Wayne Callies ’99 on the hit AMC television series The Walking Dead, was a shock to fans in November. Callies, whose acting was “brilliant,” according to GQ, told the magazine she was relieved that her character was never transformed into a zombie, and said she felt her character died in peace. “We came into her life when the world ended,” said Callies, “but a week or two before that, her world ended. She didn’t have time to stop and think, from the pilot to the day she died.”

The feature film debut of director Jeremy Teicher ’10, Grand Comme Le Baobab (Tall as the Baobab Tree) premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival in late August. The movie was filmed on location in rural Senegal and is based on true stories about a girl who returns home from high school in the city to try to save her younger sister from an arranged marriage. Teicher described Grand Comme Le Baobab as “an intimate window into village life” in Quebec’s The Suburban Magazine.

“Passion is not something you follow. It’s something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world,” Cal Newport ’04 wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times about the danger of basing your career path on the “Cult of Passion.” Rather than following your passion, the Georgetown University computer science professor and author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You told The Dartmouth in October that, “developing ‘rare and valuable skills’ and becoming accomplished at one’s job” is the key to a satisfying career. “It has nothing to do with, ‘Oh I was interested in this when I was 19.’ ”