El Salvador: Universities Under Siege S w arth m ore’sn ew p er form ing a rts center. >4: PHOTOGRAPH BY J. MARTIN NATVIG Big and ugly? See page 12 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN • NOVEMBER 1990 2 Universities Under Siege In El Salvador there is an extraordinary vision o f the role o f the university in society— a vision that thrusts education into the middle o f a nation’s struggle fo r social justice. B y Barry S chwartz 8 After the Revolution Replacing communism with market economies has created a whole new set o f challenges fo r the people o f Eastern Europe. By F rederic L. P ryor 12 Big and Ugly? PHOTOGRAPH BY J. MARTIN NATVIG Editor: Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 Managing Editor: Jeffrey B. Lott Assistant Managing Editor: Kate Downing Copy and Class Notes Editor: Rebecca Aim Assistant Copy Editor: Ann D. Geer Designer: Bob Wood Cover: Though bombed and strafed by government forces just a year ago, the. University of El Salvador has reopened. The devastation, shown here in the engineeiing administra­ tion building, serves as a profound backdrop for the education of young Salvadorans. Photo by Cindy Karp. The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN 0888-2126), o f which this is volume LXXXVIII, number 2, is published in September, November, December, Febru­ ary, May, and August by Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081-1397. Second class postpge paid at Swarthmore, PA, and additional mailing offices. Post­ master: Send address changes to Swarth­ more College Bulletin, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081-1397. Swarthmore’s new performing arts center has sparked much comment. An art historian enlarges our perspective. By T. K aori K itao 13 A Portfolio “My camera work is alchemical, creating a visual poetry o f heart, idea, and spirit, ” writes photographer Bruce Cratsley. B y B ruce C ratsley ’66 20 The Summer of ’42 It used to be that parents picked the colleges to which they sent their children. Paul Mangelsdorf rejoices in his own father’s choice fo r him in the summer o f 1942wSwarthmore. B y Paul M angelsdorf, J r . ’49 -------fl DEPARTMENTS 24 The College 27 Class Notes 30 Deaths 42 Alumni Connections 50 Recent Books by Alumni 56 Alumni Council Universities under siege by B arry S ch w artz P rofessor o f P sych ology 1 In El Salvador higher education is at the center o f a violent struggle fo r social justice . Teachers battle to teach— and sometimes die SWARTHMORL COLLEGE BULLETIN uring the week of May 14, while government to withdraw its support of a Swarthmore students and faculty repressive Salvadoran regime that had been were frantically taking and grad­ guilty for more than 10 years of terrorizing, ing exams, I visited El Salvador torturing, and murdering its own people. as part of a delegation from Delaware Having worked with this refugee family County. All of the people in the delegation for more than three years, we decided that were members of religious institutions that it was time to visit El Salvador and examine had formed a coalition to provide sanctuary the economic, political, and social life of the to a family from El Salvador. The family country firsthand. The idea was to speak to had been forced to flee political persecution as many different constituencies as we pos­ and death threats from the Salvadoran mili­ sibly could—the government, the military, tary more than four years earlier. They were various popular organizations that opposed just one family among thousands now taking the government, and perhaps representatives refuge from their government in the United of the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National States, and we were just one sanctuary Liberation Front), a coalition guerrilla force coalition among hundreds who were pro­ that had been waging a war against the viding assistance to refugees and urging our government for a decade. So in the fall of D 1989, we planned a trip. We would go in January 1990. We bought our tickets and arranged our interviews. Then in November the FMLN guerrillas launched an offensive in San Sal­ vador. Fighting lasted for more than a week as the guerrillas took over significant parts of the city. It was during this time that the Salvadoran military entered the campus of the Central American University (UCA) and murdered six Jesuit priests, their cook, and her daughter. After the hostilities stopped, many of the popular groups with whom we were going to meet were forced underground by the military. People were threatened, and offices were destroyed. Going now was out of the question. The trip was postponed indefinitely. Miraculously, things in El Salvador very quickly returned to their pre-offensive char­ acter. The trip was on again, this time for mid-May. In the interval between Novem­ ber and May, a group of faculty members at Swarthmore had responded to the murder of the Jesuits by initiating two projects. The first, a translation project, was intended to produce one or two volumes of selected works of the murdered priests translated in­ to English. The second, an exchange project, was intended to establish a sister relationship between Swarthmore and the UCA, with faculty from each institution visiting the other on a regular basis {see box, page 7). As a member of this faculty group, I now had a second mission to add to my mission as part of the delegation: to visit the UCA and find out as much as I could about what conditions were like there now and how we at Swarthmore could be most helpful to the UCA faculty and students. At the same time, I hoped to visit and find out about the University of El Salvador (UES), the coun­ try’s major public university. Our delegation arrived in El Salvador on May 14 and spent five days meeting with representatives of more than 15 different organizations. We visited both the University of El Salvador and the Central American University. I discovered that people at these institutions have a vision of university edu­ cation that is significantly different from our own American view. It is a vision that brings great hardship to them. The national university is analogous per­ haps to Temple University in size, in strucThree times since 1972 the military has closed E l Salvador’s national university— most re­ cently after a bloody N ovem ber 1989 guerrilla uprising. W hen it reopened this fall, a m ural declared, “The University o f E l Salvador will never die!” NOVEMBER 1990 3 ture, and in clientele. Its main branch, in the capital, has 30,000 students. It charges no tuition and thus serves the poorest segment of Salvadoran society that is able to obtain appropriate preparatory education. It offers programs leading to degrees in more than 20 different areas (for example, law, medicine, engineering, agriculture, business, psychol­ ogy, economics, nursing, and the like). I said that we visited the university, but actually that’s not quite accurate. We visited a small office across the street from the university. That was as close to the campus as we could get because the university had been closed by the military since November. In this office we met with the rector of the university and other officials. The rector informed us that since the November guer­ rilla offensive, the campus had been closed and occupied by the military police. It had been closed because of government allega­ tions that the university was a hotbed of guerrilla activity and propaganda. And it had been closed because fighting had actu­ ally occurred in the streets surrounding the university during the offensive. Indeed, the government had fired mortars and rockets at the university, doing a greal deal of damage, while the conflict was at its most intense. ¡¡¡¡¡| llllil ¿mm When the university stopped being just a "trade” school, the ccording to the rector, the military By 1988 the university was operating took over the university for the with armed guards at each entrance, and all first time in 1972. University vehicles and pedestrians were subjected to i authorities were detained and searches. Over 100 official political arrests then deported to Nicaragua (at theoftime university people occurred in 1989, with under the rule of right-wing dictator Anas- unofficial detentions far higher. In addition, tasio Somoza). The remaining university six members of the university community employees were then fired, and the univer­ were assassinated in 1989, and many student sity was closed for a year. When it reopened, leaders and university authorities received all of its authorities were appointed by the death threats. Deans had their houses government, in direct violation of the uni­ bombed, and a vice rector was shot while versity’s constitutional right to administra­ riding in his car. tive autonomy. Then came the offensive. When the guer­ Conditions remained like this until 1978, rillas occupied the university, it was strafed, when some measure of autonomy was re­ firebombed, and rocketed by the military. turned to the university. But then guerrilla Much further destruction was done. The uprisings in 1980 brought the close of its university was again closed. Though the of­ doors again. This time the military also fensive lasted only about a week, the univer­ destroyed virtually every piece of equipment sity remained closed. A full reopening was on the campus and severely damaged many promised for the end of June. (Current buildings. The rector of the university was reports are that it has reopened, but it has gunned down by members of a death squad, been so decimated that it is not clear how and the university stayed closed until 1984. well it will be able to function.) When the university was allowed to reopen Why has all this military hostility been again in 1984, it was a shell of its former self. directed at the university? The rector told us Much of its infrastructure was destroyed, that for years the UES basically taught and many of its best faculty members had people trades and professions. Then, in the been forced to flee the country. Nevertheless, early 1960s, the university introduced a it did function, in the face of constant general liberal arts component into the cur­ military intimidation and efforts to replace riculum. It was intended to teach all univer­ the constitutionally elected governing body sity students about what is called the of the university with people whom the “national reality.” This general-education military controlled. component began to radicalize the students. A Top: Students continue to work in the shell o f a U ES building destroyed by mortar fire. Above: Obdulio Losano Lopez tends a rose garden he planted where his wife, daughter, and six Jesuit scholars were gunned down. Left This portrait o f A rchbishop Oscar Romero, killed while saying mass in 1980, was torched by an arm y flam ethrow er at the UCA. PHOTOS BY CINDY KARP NOVEMBER 1990 The adversarial relations between the mili­ tary and the university began when the university stopped being just a trade school. In teaching a general curriculum, it became a part of what the rector called the “social projection.” The idea was that students must be active in the community at the same time that they are studying in the classroom. There was a degree requirement of 500 hours of community service. And this com­ munity service was not just charitable work. It was integrally connected to what went on in the classroom. In the classroom there was an ongoing project that compared the the­ ories students studied in their texts with the realities they encountered in their commu­ nity work. When theory and«reality didn’t match (as they frequently didn’t, especially, for example, in development economics), the theories were altered. This was how the faculty put the university in contact with the national reality. The rector gave us a concrete example. Medical education used to be high-quality, high-tech, U.S.-style. This training had al­ most no relevance to the national reality, since the country in general lacked the facilities, and the people in general lacked the money, to get the kind of care that training like this made possible. So doctors kept getting trained, and infant mortality, mothers’ death in childbirth, serious malnu­ trition, and death from infectious diseases kept increasing. By focusing on relating classroom teaching to the national reality, the UES changed medical education. There developed a focus on prevention—on sani­ tation and nutrition and prenatal care. There was training in folk medicine, since most people couldn’t afford prescription drugs. The result was lowered infant mortality, less illness in childbirth, less infectious disease, more use of natural remedies. All of this reflected a lining up of the national univer­ sity with the national reality. This constant confronting of theory with reality, and the forced exposure of students and faculty to the poorest sectors of Salva­ doran society, radicalized the institution. The UES came to be regarded by the gov­ ernment as a guerrilla breeding ground and stronghold, and the conflicts began. How­ ever, we were assured by the rector that the UES has never supported the guerrillas. The university has been advocating negotiations between the government and the guerrillas from the beginning, but in 1980 such talk was viewed as support for the guerrillas and led to persecution and aggression. One reason for this is that sections of the rightwing ARENA party (which is now in power), as well as sections of the military, have steadfastly opposed negotiations. We met next with the university’s director of international relations, whose wife, a leader of the Salvadoran women’s move­ ment, was killed in the offensive. He told us that the university had received significant financial aid from various European nations, including France (for medical education), Italy (for engineering), Spain (for agron­ omy), and Holland (for central administra­ tion). In addition, it has had direct links with 10 universities in Canada and with the Canadian government. Only the U.S. has been singularly unforthcoming. The U.S. Embassy has consistently refused to meet with university representatives and has blocked the allocation of congressionally approved funds for university reconstruc­ tion. It has reliably characterized the univer­ sity in the same pro-guerrilla terms in which the Salvadoran army characterizes it. The U.S. has chosen instead to provide funds to a string of small private universities that sprang up to provide the narrow technical training—without concern for the national reality—that the UES was no longer willing to provide. In addition, because these uni­ versities are private, they are not accessible to 85 percent of the students who attend the UES but can’t afford to pay tuition. According to the rector, what the univer­ sity community wants is for the university to have autonomy with sufficient funding for it to remain free. The government response is a new proposed law that would end the university’s autonomy and start requiring students to pay their own way. This, of course, would destroy the university as it is currently constituted. What few progressive faculty members remain at the university would be driven away by fear, and only students from the middle and upper classes would be able to afford to attend. wo things were especially striking to me about what these university leaders had to tell us. First, they had an extraordinarily different vision of the role of the university in society from the one I’m used to. Their view was that the university simply had to get involved in the social life and social problems of the country. Dispassionate scholarly analysis— judicious, measured evaluation of all sides of an issue with action left to others—was irresponsible. The university had to be a social actor. In the U.S. a view like this would be regarded by most academics as a deformation of the proper mission of the university. At Swarthmore, for example, we tell ourselves that we’re supposed to provide the best education possible, and we hope that somehow our students will put that T education to use in the service of social justice. Second, the Salvadoran educators were extraordinarily matter-of-fact in describing their ordeal at the hands of the government. The campus is closed, people have been assassinated, buildings have been destroyed, the military is occupying and harassing them, but still they teach. They find an empty room and they teach. And they continue to send students out into the com­ munity. Two thousand students a year have been getting degrees in more than 20 differ­ ent professions since 1984 in a “university in exile.” This has been done in the face of substantial interference by the Salvadoran government. This has been done at enor­ mous personal risk to individual faculty members and students. This has been done with no help from the United States. They told us this last bit matter-of-factly as well. “How could it be any different,” their tone of voice said. “You know as well as we do that your government thinks we’re the enemy.” They left, and left me mortified. The UES has close historical ties to the Central American University, the UCA, because it was the transformation of the UES that brought the UCA into existence. Founded in 1965 by Jesuits with the help of loans from the Inter-American Develop­ ment Bank, it was intended to provide a refuge from the radical masses for the chil­ dren of the Salvadoran upper middle class. While the Jesuits ran 'the university, more than 90 percent of the faculty members were laypeople. And virtually all the stu­ dents who attended were interested only in becoming professionals. Almost from its inception, however, there was a transformation of the UCA from within. A consensus formed among the Jesuits that faith could not be separated from work for justice. The UCA began working for justice by supporting agrarian reform projects. These projects never came to fruition, but supporting them cost the UCA financial support from the Salvadoran government. But its commitment to the pursuit of social justice continued undeterred. In the mid-1970s Father Igna­ cio Ellacuria came to the UCA as rector. A promi­ nent liberation theologian, El­ lacuria pushed forcefully to have the uni­ versity serve the needs of El Salvador’s popular majority. A human-rights institute, directed by Father Segundo Montes Mozo, was established. Its focus was on documenting human-rights abuses and educating people as to what their human rights were. An information center, which published a weekly report called Proceso, was also es­ tablished. Its focus was to document and analyze the national reality. A public-opin­ ion institute, headed by psychologist Father Ignacio Martin-Baro, was also established. It did polling, again to try to document the national reality. And finally, the Pastoral Center was established, headed by Father Jon Sobrino. All of the key people in running these various centers, except So­ brino, were now dead. They had been brutally murdered by the army in the early morning hours of November 16. Sobrino was spared only because he was out of the country at the time. Our visit to the UCA began at the Pastoral Center. The Pastoral Center is the part of the university that depends most on the Jesuits. It is where students study theology and “religious and moral sciences.” The very phrase “religious and moral sciences” cap­ tures as well as anything the essential differ­ ence between the UCA and universities in the U.S. Imagine any reputable university in the U.S. claiming to offer a science of morals. For most “enlightened” people in the U.S., “science” and “morality” represent HOTOS BY 0.1NDY KAR striking contrast exists between the public national university and the private Jesuit univer­ sity. The UES (right) looks like— and was— a war zone. The UCA (left) reminds visitors of a beautiful Califor­ nia campus. Yet liberalism and social action have been under attack at both institutions, and both have seen their share of bloodshed. R SWARTHMORL COLLEGE BULLETIN ss¡3 i mutually exclusive categories. Morality is a matter of opinion, while science is a matter of facts. At the UCA the faculty thinks that it is possible to develop facts about morality. The faculty thinks that the facts of the national reality have clear-cut moral impli­ cations and that these implications point to social policies that will aid the popular majority. Faculty Exchange We want to develop an ongoing relation­ ship with the UCA. To this end, we invited Charles Beirne, S.J., for a two-day visit to Swarthmore in April of this year. Fr. Beirne, then academic vice president of the Univer­ The murders at the Central American Uni­ sity of Santa Clara, became in August vice versity (UCA) in El Salvador last November rector for academic affairs at the UCA, had particular meaning for some members filling the position formerly occupied by r at least some of the faculty of the Faculty Seminar on Central America Martin-Baro. While here, in addition to members think that it is possible at Swarthmore College. One of the publica­ giving public addresses, he talked with the to develop facts about morality. tions of the UCA, Estudios Centroameri­ president and provost, faculty and student Most of the 180 faculty members canos (edited by Ignacio Ellacuria, the mur­ groups, a group of professors and adminis­ rector of the UCA), has been over the who are not Jesuits are much more dered conser­ trators from Philadelphia-area universities, vative than the Jesuits are. They want to years a major source of information and and the press. Extended conversations with pursue their scholarly specialties, train stu­ analysis that has guided members of the him laid the foundation for our relationship dents in the professions, and stay out of seminar in their process of self-education on with the UCA. Beirne proposed that a politics. And the students are even more Central America. In addition, a few of us Swarthmore faculty member could go to the conservative than the faculty. More than 50 use works by some of the murdered profes­ UCA to give an intensive course to UCA percent of them voted for the right-wing sors and their colleagues in our courses. In faculty members and that a UCA faculty ARENA party in the last national elections. order to express solidarity with our col­ member could come here for a brief period, And the students’ parents are more conser­ leagues at the UCA and to make the thought both to speak about Salvadoran issues and of the murdered professors more readily to engage in his or her own research. During vative still. Despite this reluctance to get involved on available in the U.S., members of the Faculty the current academic year, we will initiate the part of most of the UCA community, the Seminar have engaged in three ongoing this pilot project with one faculty member Jesuit leaders have been committed to the projects. going in each direction. In the future we project of consciousness-raising and social hope to increase the numbers of professors Translation Project transformation. They have tried to make the Three of the murdered professors-Slgna- in exchange with Swarthmore, and, more faculty as well as the students conscious of cio Ellacuria (philosopher, theologian), Ig­ ambitiously, we want to develop a consor­ the national reality. They have imposed nacio Martín-Baró (social psychologist), and tium of Philadelphia-area universities and Please turn to page 54 Segundo Montes (sociologist)—wrote pro- colleges to participate in these exchanges— lifically, but few of their works are available and eventually have a broader exchange in English. A group of us, in collaboration with a similar consortium of universities in with Dr. Adrianne Aron of the Committee Central America. With the provost’s support, two meetings for Health Rights in Central America (a U.S. organization of psychologists that have been held with local colleagues from worked with Martín-Baró), are engaged in several universities to work on this project. a project to publish English translations of The next step will be to construct a consor­ some of their works. We have proposed a tium. To lay the foundation for this, we two-volume collection to Georgetown Uni­ organized a committee with representatives versity Press, which is now evaluating the from seven local colleges and universities proposal. The first volume, tentatively en­ and planned a fall conference. titled Towards a Society That Serves Its Fall Conference This conference commemorated the anni­ People: The Thought o f El Salvador’s Mur­ dered Jesuits, aims to present a portrait of versary of the professors’ deaths on Novem­ the scope, quality, and unity of the Jesuits’ ber 16 and 17. It focused on the thought of work. It will contain essays by Ellacuria on the three Jesuits whose works we are pre­ the meaning of liberation, the “preferential paring for translation. The speakers included option for the poor,” and the social role of a number of Salvadoran scholars, former the university; by Montes on human rights students and colleagues of the Jesuits, and and the social structures and political forces some North Americans who participated in in El Salvador; and by Martín-Baró on the research projects with them. This conference psychological effects of violence, psycho­ was unique in its focus on the scholarly logical dimensions of religious responses to contribution of Central American intellec­ conflict, and the “psychology of liberation.” tuals rather than on their personal reflections The second volume, tentatively entitled Psy­ or political analyses. It served as a tribute to chology and Politics: Martin-Barb’s Psy­ our murdered colleagues and introduced chology o f Liberation, aims to reach a broad important thinking to our community. — Hugh Lacey audience of psychologists. Professor o f Philosophy Three projects link Swarthm ore facu lty group to Salvadoran colleagues O NOVEMBER 1990 7 J. MARTIN NATVIG ow that there is but one Ger­ the same country, a poster featured a pho­ many, I wonder what happened tograph of Vaclav Klaus, the minister of to the East German Communist finance, who was shown wearing a tie Party Central Committee func­ bearing a small portrait of Adam Smith. In tionary I met last spring. His politicalHungary world the election posters were even had crumbled in a matter of months, and he more daring. One had two photographs side was pessimistic about the future of his by side: the first was Leonid Brezhnev party—which had renamed itself the Party kissing Erich Honecker—the former East of Democratic Socialism. “The biggest mis­ German communist boss—on the mouth at take we made,” he lamented, “was in think­ some airport reception; the second showed ing that we had made a revolution. After 40 a young couple sitting on a park bench, years the people still think in the same way chastely smooching. The legend read, “The choice is yours. Vote Young Democrats.” that they did before.” East German political parties lacked such While I am not sure that he was entirely correct, it is certainly true that from his point a light touch. Instead one saw posters of a of view, the “revolution” may never have grinning West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl with the words, “In the 19th century, only one man could unify Germany; his name was Bismarck. In the 20th century, only one man can unify Ger­ many; his name is Kohl.” Bulgaria had relatively few pos­ ters; most of the political activi­ ties were carried on in rallies or happened. He was facing a new world of on television. But I accidentally stumbled markets and money, of private property and across a monarchist rally for King Simeon democracy—and of deep uncertainty about (the former monarch, who now lives in the future. No one can predict that future, Spain, left the country in 1946) with a but during a 10-week visit to four Eastern demonstrator carrying a poster of Simeon European countries last spring, I examined declaring that he’d like to be the constitu­ some of the problems that the sweeping tional monarch of Bulgaria following the model of King Hassan of Morocco. When changes there had wrought. When I planned my research trip more I saw that proclamation, he lost my vote. The conversations I had often bordered than a year ago, I had no inkling of the transformation that would occur in that on the bizarre. Once the chairman of a region by the time I got there. Political and Czechoslovakian collective farm spent 15 economic changes made my original re­ minutes telling me why Ronald Reagan was search plan impossible, but my sponsor, the one of the world’s great political figures. He National Council for Soviet and East Euro­ was particularly impressed with Reagan’s pean Studies, gave me free rein to investigate “Evil Empire” speech, a sentiment I never expected to hear in that country. any other problem that interested me. In Bulgaria I had a group interview with My trip covered Bulgaria, Czechoslo­ vakia, East Germany, and Hungary, where the leaders of a collective farm. When they I talked with more than 100 specialists on began to argue furiously among them­ agriculture, including a number of collective selves—almost becoming violent—I asked farm chairmen. In contrast with what I them to calm down, noting that Bulgaria found on previous trips to the region, our had the highest murder rate in Europe. The conversations were open and frank. For the farm chairman immediately asked me how first time, people talked freely and had little I knew that since it was a state secret, and hesitation about expressing their opinions. I I said that it had been published in a United Nations report on the causes of death in certainly got an earful. The most obvious changes in the political Europe. Then one of the other farm leaders climate could be seen in the election posters. chimed in, “But that doesn’t include the In Czechoslovakia I saw one poster with a pope,” a surprising reference to the failed picture looking down on the balding Lenin assassination attempt by an agent of the with the legend “Beware of Skinheads.” In Bulgarian secret police. N the Revolution Can Eastern Europe fulfill the new promise o f capitalism? by Frederic L. Pryor J. MARTIN NATVIG Professor o f Economics In contrast to his previous visits there, this spring Professor Frederic Pryor (left) fo u n d people in Eastern E urope to be open a n d fra n k , expressing opinions without hesitation. NOVEMBER 1990 9 In the economy two words are heard everywhere: “privatization” and “marketization.” Both of these processes are easy to talk about but much harder to introduce. Several interesting schemes have been pro­ posed to privatize state-owned industry. In Czechoslovakia the finance minister has proposed giving each citizen a “wealth voucher” with which such property could be purchased, since the total amount of savings is far less than the value of assets that will be sold by the state. Others have pro­ posed letting the citizens use vouchers to bid at auction for such property. Poland plans a modified version of this voucher scheme. But in the other two countries I visited, the voucher system was undiscussable. was reported in a Soviet newspaper that told of the plight of an agricultural engineer who had leased a greenhouse. He had been unable to take advantage of seasonal de­ mand because the farm had turned the greenhouse over to him four months later than the contract specified, and under Soviet law he had no legal redress. The entrepre­ neur was an agricultural engineer, but a state official forced him to use a particular tech­ nology that he felt was inappropriate. In the contract the farm agreed to supply a particu­ lar input, but they delivered another. And although the contract followed guidelines set down by the government, the farm forced him to renegotiate it when they decided he was making too high a profit. Finally, when his profits still continued 1 four countries I visited have above a limit the farm felt socially desirable, taken steps toward returning the it canceled the lease completely. Clearly a land brought into the collective market cannot function where property i farms to its original owners or rights are weakened by such interference. their heirs. Some severe political fights have Strong property rights thus require a legal arisen, however, over the dates at which environment in which contracts can be en­ such land claims will be recognized and forced quickly and expeditiously. East Ger­ over recognition of land reforms made im­ many has been able to take advantage of its mediately following World War II. Indeed, situation simply by accepting West German the Hungarian government may fall because law on a variety of commercial and eco­ the majority party, Democratic Forum, is in nomic issues. But other countries must create a coalition with the Smallholders Party, such a legal structure from scratch. which wants to return all land to its owners Marketization is equally difficult. Poland as of January 1947. The big winners under and East Germany have tried “shock ther­ this plan would be urban dwellers, since apy,” also known to economists as the “big most former landowners have left agricul­ bang” approach. In Poland almost all price ture. Roughly 50 percent of those currently controls were removed on January 1, 1990, working in agriculture would remain land­ including limits on the foreign-exchange less if this plan were implemented. rate. Prices shot up and then, after April, Many farms and industrial firms would began to level off. Although production by like to sell shares to foreigners so that they state and cooperative enterprises fell, much can obtain funds to renew their equipment. of this was unwanted production. With the This, of course, is opposed by those who are major burden of adjustment borne by price alarmed at the prospect of selling off their changes that began to reflect scarcities, many national heritage. But the latter do not parts of the private sector—except for agri­ specify how badly-needed capital stock culture—have been booming. might be renewed. The East German big bang was different. Privatization alone is no solution; prop­ Price controls were released at the time of erty rights must also be strengthened so that the currency union with West Germany, government officials cannot interfere with and prices headed toward the West German the new enterprises. Although yearly pro­ levels. Because prices didn’t reflect East duction plans handed down from the state German scarcities, much of the economic planning commissions have been scrapped movement has been in quantity adjustments. in all four countries I visited, such govern­ Since East German workers are unwilling to ment interference is still common. When a take wage cuts and their productivity is Czechoslovakian government official told lower than in West Germany, unemploy­ me that farms did not need to be reorganized ment is soaring. After price reforms began in because farm managers have had the right Poland, it took about six months to reach 5 to do this for the last eight years, I replied percent unemployment, and it looks as that one farm manager had told me govern­ though Polish unemployment will be less ment officials had blocked his reorganization than 10 percent at year’s end. In East Ger­ plans until just a few months ago. The many a 5 percent rate was reached in just bureaucrat’s reply was simply, “What was three weeks, and a rate of 20 to 40 percent the name of that manager?” is expected by December. A telling example of “weak” property It is difficult to assess the overall response A 10 to marketization, yet I saw many instances of entrepreneurial activity. On an East Ger­ man collective farm, a young section leader had seen that the farm’s repair shop employ­ ing 50 mechanics was underused and that the farm had a surplus of trucks. He had initiated a program of buying used cars in Hamburg (West Germany), having the farm’s mechanics repair them, and then reselling them to East Germans. With the excess trucks, he had started a rural taxi service. His boss, the collective farm chair­ man, was a handwringer who was doing nothing, so the young entrepreneurs on the farm were planning the East German equiva­ lent of a leveraged buyout. In Czechoslovakia I spoke with a collec­ tive farm chairman who had discovered a peculiar niche market in West Germany, a market for what were called “ecochickens”—poultry raised according to sound ecological principles. When I noted that wrapping the chickens in cellophane was not such a good idea because his customers would also demand an eco-wrapping, the chairman immediately whipped out a notebook, wrote this down, and thanked me for the commercial tip. y contrast I also saw total passivi­ ty and confusion. One East Ger­ man collective farm was in terri­ ble shape. Its capital stock was depleted and it owed the banks $40 million. It was using technologies current a halfcentury ago, and its managers had no plans for meeting the market. When I suggested that they would be bankrupt within a week of the currency union, I was told that this would be impossible because East Germany had no bankruptcy laws. It pained me to tell them that such laws would soon be in place. In Bulgaria I asked the manager of a greenhouse that grew only roses and carna­ tions just how she determined the proper mix of the two flowers to bring to market. Even though she gained a higher profit from carnations, she did not believe it would be useful to plant more of them. She explained that roses had been the original source of income for the farm, and she saw no reason to change. She had a lot to learn about functioning in a market economy. Marketization also implies competition, and since most of the enterprises in these countries are very large, they must be broken up into their components, which would then compete against each other. Although this seems obvious, the government bureaucrats with whom I discussed the problem had little understanding of what should be done. Farmers were terrified of being caught be­ tween a state monopolist seller of inputs and B SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN t?»jkptiJïaiOfc V a state monopsonist buyer of their products. In Czechoslovakia farms were planning to process their own products and to produce many of their own inputs, but given world trends in these technologies, such small in­ put production or processing cannot achieve economies of scale. Dyckerhoft. In Bulgaria some large farms are refusing Escaaa .. to sign any contracts with the state buying FAG Kugel4' Feidmur agencies. They are storing their produce, Fiachgla trying to precipitate a food crisis in autumn Fuchs F so as to force these state purchasing agencies Bihdtr E>M1' to raise their prices. Although such a tactic is quite understandable to obtain higher prices, it also invites governmental interfer­ ence in their internal affairs. With the exception of East Germany, I do not believe that these economies will achieve functioning market systems very quickly. For the Soviet Union, it will be ar even more difficult because of greater ideo­ ig Holding logical reticence. For instance, even in Voiding March 1990, the new law allowing the 'Wm mm création of private farms never mentioned the term “private property.” In other parts of Eastern Europe, by way of contrast to the Soviet Union, the major political forces all seemed determined to move toward 1 jeid marketization and privatization. reinigte Staaten sser . Despite this determination1 ltit aalsanieihen 1 91 Ge Gias prn 5 Jahre 1 73 Gest'« ||jj seems clear' that some Eastern LMI 0 Jahre .. 1 36 Gildemeister IC* -30Jahre....... 1 14 Goidschmidt European nations may not suc­ •rodollaranieihen ceed in creating an effective mar­ ,_ ad Funas 0 iahr) '■ 22 Hagen Batterie 8 ¿4 -tarpener i reasury Bills (3 M ket economy and will, in a 8 54 -teioelb Zement lOllar (3 Monate) .. 8 54 Ai tanz phrase often heard in the re­ nsefkurs DM,'Dollar S 43 Bayer Hyocbank jßbritannien 8.24 Bayer. Verein gion, be “Latin American­ .aatsanleihen 77 Berliner B' ized.” This means that their - bis 5 Jahre............... 87 3t BHF Be aber 5 Jahre 166 /'mnn level of economic develop­ uroptuno-Tagesgeid Anlr uropfuno (3 Monate) ment will not rise and that £ ■Gel u Vechselkurs OM Pfund they will become essentially «man t seems clear that __________ 1 4 93 Third World countries. In , . , WÊSÊÊBKBSÊBB&. the worst case, countries such as many Eastern Bulgaria, Romania, and the U.S.S.R. w* European nations may may turn back toward Stalinism be­ cause the current democratically inclined not succeed in creating governments will not be able to gain political effective market legitimacy or overcome the massive political unrest—the politics of anger—that underlies economies. Their the mob action that is destabilizing these level of economic nations. I hesitate to predict what will happen development might not next in the region. Because events in these rise above Third World nations often have multiple meanings, it is easy to misjudge their significance. But standards, and they every morning I rush to my newspaper to could become “Latin read about the latest unexpected political lurch. The evolutionary—and sometimes Americanized. ” In the revolutionary—changes will provide a con­ tinuing drama for years to come. worst case, some may B r Frederic L Pryor, professor o f economics, is currently completing a book on the organi­ zation o f agriculture under Marxist regimes. NOVEMBER 1990 m*s I tu r n b a c k to Stalinism, Dividen­ den KGV rendita Philips Kommun. Phoenix' Gummi ■ Porsche Preussag ------ Puma - .'I P W A ................ Rheinelektra Rheinmetail O & K . ... Philips Kommun. Phoenix Gummi Porsche ------ Preussag Puma ........ PWA Rhèmeiekîra R heinm etail ■fctasrswerke ^K nk 90 ■ f B a n k . . . '12.0 IR n e r Bank 10 0 ^ n k f u r t e r H ypo . '2 r Ind Kreditbank . . . Münchener Rück Rhem Hypobank Trink & BurkhjC. Vx Vereins* u Westbk 2780 0 0 462 0 0 435 0 0 52 004 Of 900 •6.00 sr ig li 31 % T i 10 12C ’ /SiC 12 C — 5 J a h r e ....................... — 10 Jahre — 30 Jahre Eurodollaranleihen........... Fed Funds (1 üahr) Treasury Bills (3 Monate) EurodoHar (3 Monate) Wechselkurs D M Dollar Großbritannien Staatsanleihen.................. — bis 5 Jahre — über 5 J a h r e ................ Europfund Tagesgeld Europfund (3 Monate) Wechselkurs DM'Pfund Japan Staatsanleihen . . . . . . . . . . Euro yen .¡3 M o n a te ).. . . W e c h s e lt t s D Schweiz Eurofrar, ((pchselk DM/Frankt Europ Ger iili. Big and Ugly? A ll things considered, the Lang Performing A rts Center is a very fin e building by T. Kaori Kitao Professor o f A rt History Editor’s Note: New buildings always engen­ der critical comments. No exception is the Eugene M. and Theresa Lang Performing Arts Center, scheduled fo r occupancy in January 1991. Professor T. Kaori Kitao o f the Department o f Art, a trained architect and practicing architectural historian, ad­ dressed some o f the building’s critics in an article in the September 7 Phoenix. Her article has been adaptedfo r use here, and we hope it will serve as an invitation to come see and judge the building fo r itself. Many will say the new Eugene M. and Theresa Lang Performing Arts Center is too big. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. It all depends on what one considers big; and, since bigness is relative, then in relation to what is it too big? Yes, the building is big by the norm of academic buildings on Swarthmore’s cam­ pus; but is it too big? As a theater building, it is surprisingly compact, especially if one considers what it holds—two theaters (which, when combined by lowering a par­ tition, will make one large hall to take the place of Clothier auditorium), a theater studio, two dance studios, an art gallery, plus classrooms and offices. The building’s designers, Dagit-Saylor Architects, should therefore be congratu­ lated for ingeniously interlocking spaces and facilities in a building that packs in so much so tightly, for the advantageous use of a sloping site to keep the building’s silhouette low (matching Martin, well below the cor­ nice of Parrish, and still lower toward Lang), and for the three-part horizontal articulation of the facade that makes the building appear more like an academic building (which it is essentially) rather than a commercial theater 12 (which it definitely is not). The College administration is equally to be congratulated for adhering so responsibly to budgetary constraints and for so adamantly insisting on a series of severe reductions in square foot­ age as the design process went forward. In other words, the Lang Performing Arts Center is not actually as big as it might have been, nor does it look as big as it might have looked. The comment that a building is “too big” could mean, on the other hand, that it is too big for the site rather than for the needs it was meant to accommodate. What this criticism really means is that the building is overscaled for the space, that it looks too big for the space it occupies. The issue has to do with the way a building defines the spaces around it, and in this regard, I claim that the PAC works superbly well. A smaller build­ ing—say, 30 percent less in height and breadth—would have been overpowered by the masses of Parrish and Martin, like a wimp between two bullies. Previously, with the low-lying Hall Gym, the area between Martin, Lang, and Parrish was spatially amorphous, a nobody’s land. The PAC completes the lines of academic buildings that will eventually enclose the quadrangle established axially by Parrish and Du Pont —assuming of course that Parrish Annex, considered a temporary building for decades and now staked for future demolition, will eventually be removed. It also provides a needed closure to the passage up from Sharpies, itself prolonged and poorly articu­ lated. And above all it creates a clearly defined entry plaza for the Lang Music Building, which was previously tucked away as though in the College’s backyard. There are those who wouldn’t have any building in this area, big or small, but this is a question of siting. I favored this site over the alternatives, among which were the site of the old Tarble below McCabe and a site more or less where Trotter now stands. But imagine how much more “too big” the PAC would have been in those locations. We must remember that it could not be volumetrically smaller, and if it had been broken into two or three buildings, one of them still would have been as tall, given the ceiling requirement of the theater. Moreover, I would fight hard against any proposal that would take away more of the big open green spaces that are the special assets of this campus. I would hate to see Swarthmore give up its pastoral setting and become a suburban development, with buildings sprawling out all over, with inert, nonde­ script spaces between, and without ample vistas anywhere. I argue for keeping our academic buildings close together in order to keep open fields intact, as any master plan (if we had one) might suggest. In short, to use the urban planner’s jargon, I prefer con­ centration to scatteration. If the PAC is not too big, is it ugly] No, ugly is not the word, though if something is too big, it may be ugly—as some think of a nose. But is the building deformed, rudely stamped, and curtailed of fair proportion, as Shakespeare’s Richard III said of himself? Most likely those who think the building ugly have its surface treatment in mind rather than its form. Some prefer more color, more texture, more slickness; many prefer more expensive material, like fieldstone or even marble. Yet an expensive surface treatment is often one way a weak architect packages a building in order to cover up poorly conceived architecture. Dagit-Saylor’s decision to avoid stone facing was partly economic, but it was also a wisdom in design. Fieldstone, for example, would make the building look colossal. Even “ugliness,” however, is not always bad. I.M. Pei’s pyramid for the Louvre is hated by Parisians, but so was the Eiffel Tower a century ago. They called it “ba­ roque,” meaning grotesque in the day’s diction. There were many who considered the Pompidou Center ugly when it was built; there are fewer of them today. Frank Furness’ Victorian buildings in Philadelphia, like the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, were thought to be so ugly and were so hated that most of his 300 buildings were deliberately demolished in the last halfcentury. Now the dozen or so that survive are lovingly admired. The PAC is not ugly; regrettably, it’s not Eiffel or Pei or Furness. It ain’t that distinguished. Others would say that though the PAC is not ugly, it is boring, bland, and utterly undistinguished. It doesn’t dazzle. To a de­ gree this was intentional; a building that calls attention to itself—a supercolossal piece of sculpture—would have been disas­ trous in relation to the buildings around it, however artistic or attractive on its own. A building is not an objet d’art; it belongs to a community of buildings. The architects evidently and wisely tried hard to make the building not stand out, to make it fit with rather than compete with its neighbors. Hence its buff color, its flat surfaces, and its inset ornamental motifs—all admittedly part of the diction of the current Postmodern style. The major challenge for the architects was to make a building with its own identity that fits the community, no mean task. First, Please turn to page 55 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN BRUCE CRATSLEY ’66 R E A C H I N G F O R A R T , N E W Y O R K , 1989 ften I photograph the unseen, things which are not there, sensations and mysteries. There is a presence in absence. My camera work is alchemical, creating a visual poetry of heart, idea, and spirit. Each picture which succeeds is a gift: I am a channel, imaging my inner and outer world. In photography I experience magic.—Bruce Cratsley, 1987 O DEATH IN VENICE LIDO 198? SWAR'f HNiORE < O i l ! GE BUJ.JXTJN ROBERT FERRO AT HOME, 1987 NOVEMBER 1990 (j | ÈHM BEACH, ATLANTIC CITY, 1977 16 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN J H H i W lB Ê Ê Ê Ê B Ê Ê Ê tÊ Ê SB Ê B m Ê Ê IÊ Ê Ê Ê Ê B Ê m SWARTHMpRl BROOKLYN BRIDGE CENTENNIAL, 1983 Bruce Cratsley ’66 studied art history at Swarthmore and the University of Pennsylvania and photography at the New School and privately with Lisette Model. He was associated for 10 years with photography galleries in New York and in 1986 began to pursue photography full time. His one-man exhibitions have appeared in New York, Philadelphia, London, Ferrara, and Venice. Cratsley’s works are in collections at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, the Brooklyn Museum, the New York Public Library, and Harvard University, and a retrospective of his work will be exhibited in the new gallery of the Performing Arts Center on campus in late spring. NOVEMBER 1990 19 The Summer of ’42 “You know, I love this place.. . . ” Reflections on Swarthmore then and now I first walked on this campus as a prospective student in March of 1942.1 remember very clearly that on my way to a scholarship interview, I saw chalked on the sidewalk, “Beware the ides of March!” Instantly I knew that this was my kind of place. My first semester at Swarthmore was the summer semester of 1942.1 remember it as a hot, sticky summer with lots of thunder­ storms. I never ever again spent a whole summer in Swarthmore. I sometimes claim, only partly in jest, that I once spent a summer in Swarthmore and I once spent a summer on the Amazon. On the whole the Amazon was a more comfortable place. That summer of ’42 we still enjoyed the last traces of some of the prewar elegance of Swarthmore: Meals were served by wait­ resses on tables set with real table linen; the men were required to wear jackets and ties for the evening meal; peanut butter and honey were traditional on the table at lunch­ time, and one was expected to mix these into a rich spread that was wonderfully tasty on freshly baked biscuits. China cups were nested together in fours on top of stacks of saucers. Old “china hands” could dispense a saucer and a single cup in one grand sweeping gesture that must have required hours of secret practice. Along the walls of the dining room were bronze plaques, one for each graduating class, with the names of all the class members and the class motto. In the dorms our rooms were cleaned daily and the beds made for us by maids who only occasionally commented on our messier personal habits. In Wharton C sec­ tion, we had single rooms, with one bath­ room for the whole floor. The campus was still so segregated by gender that when any woman other than a maid appeared in the quad, the shout went up: “Fire in the quad!” Most of this has changed completely. The dining hall is all cafeteria style; the cups are stored in large plastic cup racks; peanut butter and honey can only be found in those deep stainless-steel cylinders at the condi­ ment table, along with mustard, jelly, may­ onnaise, relish, marmalade, catsup, and three kinds of gloppy synthetic salad dressing. No tablecloths, no linen napkins, no waitresses. I wonder how many years it’s been since anyone except a returning alumnus has re­ marked on the presence of a woman in Wharton quad! The maid service is greatly diminished. I think you have to make your own bed now. No freshman is allowed the luxury of a single room. On the other hand, many of the dorms now have private or semiprivate baths. Times change, customs change, people’s values change. Many of these changes took place during the war. I went off to the war in the middle of spring semester ’43. Going off to war was surprisingly fashionable in those days, compared to what we saw in the ’60s during Vietnam. I came back in time for the spring semester of ’46 and finally grad­ uated with the Class of ’49. For me, aca­ demically, going away to be in the service for almost three years was a great blessing. Before I went away, I was once told by Professor Wayne Garrett, after I overslept a final exam, that I was the worst physics student he had ever seen. When I came back, I was ready to settle down and apply myself, and I did very well and enjoyed my studies immensely. My brother Clark [’53] similarly profited from a hitch in the service before he came to Swarthmore. For some years I’ve been a Quaker, and by Paul Mangelsdorf, Jr., ’49 20 I can no longer in good conscience recom­ mend military service as a therapeutic mea­ sure for late bloomers. Training people to kill other people is something the world can well do without. But there must be some­ thing equivalent that would help a lot of people get far more value from their subse­ quent college experience. I finally came back to the campus for the third time in fall of 1961, replacing Irv Dayton ’48, who had just decided to make his big move to Montana. After the third time, I never left, except for summers and a few sabbatical leaves. And I’m not planning to leave now. You’ll find me here for quite a few years yet. As I say, over these past 48 years, I have seen a fair number of changes in this College. It used to be that parents picked the colleges to which they sent their children. My father, a professor at Harvard, came here to give a Cooper Foundation lecture. He came home and announced that he had found the place where I should go to college, so I applied here and that was that. No backup, or maybe Harvard was my backup, I can’t recall exactly. How things change! None of our four children was interested in my suggestions as to where they should go to college. The kinds of things that might make a college attractive to parents are not the same kinds of things that would make a college attrac­ tive to a prospective student. Parietal rules, firm discipline, in loco parentis, were good selling points as long as the parents were doing the picking. No more, no more! What about the educational experience here at Swarthmore? Has that changed too? I think so, and I think it has changed in ways that have not all been for the best. I think one of the worst influences has been the emergence of Swarthmore as a name insti­ tution with very high public ratings. When many of us were students, nobody outside the immediate area had ever heard of Swarth­ more (“Swarthmore? Isn’t that a girls’ school?”). We knew that it was one of the best places in the country, but it was a wellkept secret that gave us a lot of pleasure and satisfaction. Nowadays the students all know that Swarthmore is supposed to be the best and that all kinds of very bright people get turned down by our Admissions Office. No freshman can believe that he or she actually belongs here or is really good enough to be here. So there’s a lot more anxiety than there used to be. I remember looking over my freshman classmates and thinking that the women seemed very bright, but it looked as though the College was admitting anything in trousers that applied. I later found that 22 was not quite true, but it was a very comfort­ ing thought. One consequence of this anxiety is that it’s very hard to get people, especially fresh­ men, to ask questions in class. Almost everyone’s afraid to demonstrate ignorance in front of classmates or to question the authority of the instructor. Perhaps also the TV experience has accustomed people to passive reception of information and ideas. In any case it’s too bad. One thing that really impressed Dad about Swarthmore when he lectured here was that at Swarthmore the students asked questions, unlike his own Harvard students. He was very disappointed when he came back about 15 years ago to give another lecture and nobody asked a question. Needless to say, I too was very disappointed. Another odd thing that may discourage questions is that a great many more instruc­ tors nowadays are teaching courses in par­ ticular academic specialties that they have thoroughly mastered. Too much mastery by the instuctor leaves many students turned off. There’s a lot more natural student inter­ est in a topic that’s new and unexplored, where the students can quickly get beyond the instructor’s competence. A course with two instructors who disagree is also attrac­ tive for the same reason: Where authority falters or is challenged, student initiative is aroused. It might even be advantageous if seminar instructors were often teaching outside their specialty, even outside their discipline. The first time I ever taught quantum mechanics I was scared to death. It had been one of my weakest subjects in graduate school. I was barely competent to put together the weekly assignments. But the students taught them­ selves, and they taught me! Two members of the seminar got Highest Honors and went on to illustrious careers centered on the seminar material, and another member of the seminar received a MacArthur Fellow­ ship for her work in an area she first encountered in that seminar. I really think there ought to be more place hen I first came here as a student, people had to go off campus for sex, for alcohol, and for chamber music. in the educational process for the inspired amateur who’s trying out a subject for the first time, and I think that was, in fact, more common in the old days. I was amazed to read in the biography of Jesse Herman Holmes, better known to our elders as “Ducky,” that he jumped from teaching science at George School to teaching philos­ ophy and religion at Swarthmore with the benefit of only one intervening year at Oxford to bone up. What would our Philos­ ophy Department say today if someone came along with credentials of that sort! Similarly, the admissions process nowa­ days doesn’t leave much room for the aca­ demic nonconformist. You have to be a good student all the way through high school with plenty of extracurricular achieve­ ment to make it past the first cut. I doubt that my own high-school record would have passed muster today. My brother Clark had a really disastrous high-school record, but, with the connivance of Dean Everett Hunt, we managed to shoehorn him into the Class of 1953, in which he finally graduated as the McCabe Award winner—the outstanding engineer. And he went on to get a doctorate at M.I.T. and to teach engineering here and later at the University of Pittsburgh. In fact, one of our current engineering faculty members was a graduate student with Clark at Pittsburgh. I don’t think our Admissions Office could take that kind of gamble today—simply because there are too many good applicants with really superior highschool records. I don’t mean to sound as though every­ thing is going downhill around here. Things change, but many things change for the better. For instance, take the tri-college shuttle. There’s a free shuttle bus running to Haverford and Bryn Mawr every daytime hour during the semester so that all the specialized courses at those other two col­ leges are available to our students. Bryn Mawr has a wonderful program in geology and geochemistry, of which a number of our students have been able to take advantage. And many students from those places take courses here. When the Blue Route is finished, the travel time between here and the Main Line will be cut to about 15 minutes, making that shuttle even more useful. Yes, the Blue Route is coming! You can see it actually taking shape across the Crum Valley. I thought it never would. The first semester I taught here, Clark and I went over to Marple-Newtown High School to attend the public presentation of the final plans for the Blue Route. I have joined protest hikes along that route all the way from Eddystone up to Route 30 in Radnor. I have spent a SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN “There ought to be more place in the educational process fo r the inspired am ateur w ho’s trying out a subject fo r the fir s t time, ” says Professor Paul M angelsdorf Jr., ’49, who retired last June. whole academic career at Swarthmore under the threat of that Blue Route. Now that I’m retiring, it’s about to materialize. On the whole I don’t think it is as bad for the campus as, say, the Dutch elm disease, but maybe when they start running those big coal trucks over it, I’ll change my mind. Another thing that has greatly improved on this campus is music. Last year at an occasion honoring Peter Gram Swing, I remarked that when I first came here as a student, people had to go off campus for sex, for alcohol, and for chamber music. That was stretching a point because Dr. Dresden’s Monday night gatherings were barely off campus, certainly not as far away as Plushie’s, the beer joint over on the Pike. I don’t know where people went for sex! Wasn’t that the whole idea? “No Sin at Old Swarth­ more!” Anyhow, we have marvelous chamber music these days, and all other kinds of music as well. The Lang Music Building has managed to provide the focus for an enor­ mous amount of musical talent. Those prac­ tice rooms upstairs are heavily used, and not just by music majors. Three of our graduat­ ing seniors, especially, have contributed reNOVEMBER 1990 peatedly to our musical offerings. Ossie Borosh, our star pianist, who came here as a former student of the late Lili Kraus, is going on to the Juilliard School in New York. Baird Dodge, our concertmaster, dem­ onstrated in his senior recital that he can switch readily from violin to viola and back again with complete sureness of touch. He graduated as a chemistry major, but this next year he will be playing with the Dela­ ware Symphony in Wilmington. Phyllis Fuchsman, our principal oboist, will be going to graduate school in environmental studies. For each of these students, and for many others, Swarthmore has provided a unique opportunity for a complete liberal arts education combined with musical study and performance at the conservatory level. Here at Swarthmore and, so far as I can tell, only at Swarthmore can students pursue both aims fully without having to make a choice. In quite another vein, Roger Smith, who just graduated as an English major, has enriched the airwaves with his scholarly weekly broadcasts from WSRN-FM of American popular music from the ’20s and ’30s—the heyday of Tin Pan Alley. One of Roger’s finest shows was his tribute to Irving Berlin the morning after Berlin’s death was announced. It surpassed any of the tributes the networks were doing, even though one of the WSRN turntables began to misbehave right in the middle of the show. I might add that Roger graduated with High Honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Over the years we have accumulated quite a number of buildings that weren’t here when I graduated. Willets Dormitory on the terrace where the College peony collection used to live. Du Pont Science Building where the old fobtball field used to be—the old football field, not the old, old football field that was right behind Trotter, where Hicks and Papazian can now be found. Sharpies Dining Hall, which my children disapproved of because it was planted in the middle of the best sledding slope on campus—but later on two of them had their first paid jobs on the serving lines there. McCabe Library where the old Somerville Gym and swimming pool used to be—I love that library. The Lang Music Building—on the outside it looks like a piece of the Maginot Line, but inside it’s wonderful. I love the Underhill Music Li­ brary too. The old Cutting Collection of 78 RPM records has expanded to about 10 times the shelf space in LP records—about 40 times as much recorded music available as there used to be. Do any of the men here remember Blanche Devereux and the men’s infirmary in F section of Wharton? Now there’s the Worth Health Center, coed of course, with a full-time professional nursing staff, over by the tulip trees behind where the old library used to be. That old library building was converted to the Tarble Social Center, but it burned down in 1983 in the most spec­ tacular fire I have ever seen. That silenced the bells in the clock tower until last year, when the bells finally returned to ring out the hours and quarter hours from a new home in Clothier tower. The rest of the social center came over to Clothier even earlier, three floors of activities cleverly tucked into that vast space where we used to have Collection, movies, concerts, and plays. Compulsory Collection expired about 1967: The student body had grown too large to fit into Clothier and too rebellious to put up with anything compulsory. Now I’ve gotten out of strict chronologi­ cal order because after the Worth Health Center, and long before the new Tarble in Clothier, we had the new Mertz dormitory down on the lower campus alongside Ches­ ter Road. Three new buildings that I don’t have clearly fixed in my time frame are the Please turn to p age 55 23 COLLEGE Presidential search, Swarthmore style: intense, quiet debate In small groups across the campus, in Parrish parlors and in faculty living rooms, Swarthmore’s presidency is the subject of intense but quiet examination and debate. What kind of president should replace David Fraser when he leaves Swarthmore next sum­ mer? The question has en­ gaged members of the Board of Managers and the Presiden­ tial Search Committee since Fraser announced his resigna­ tion last May, and now it has come to occupy many seg­ ments of the College com­ munity. A September 14 letter from the committee to the entire College community proposed six key characteristics desired in Swarthmore’s new presi­ dent. These include strong academic credentials, unques­ tioned integrity, leadership and communication skills, strong interest in fostering a culturally and racially diverse community, visibility, accessi­ bility, and excellent interper­ sonal skills. These traits have become a starting point for the campus wide discussion. To solicit faculty perspec­ tives, a series of informal small-group dialogues be­ tween faculty, Board, and Search Committee members has been held. English litera­ ture Professor Philip Wein­ stein, one of three faculty members on the committee, said that “while no clear-cut composite of an ideal candi­ date has emerged from these meetings, many faculty mem­ bers concurred with the com­ mittee’s feeling that a strong academic background would be useful.” Students have been in­ cluded in the process through the student members of the committee, seniors Naomi Fisher and Sameer Ashar. The two have been in close con­ tact with a wide range of stu­ dent leaders, asking for their assessment of Swarthmore’s needs over the next 10 years and of how the new president might help fulfill them. An October 4 open meeting be­ tween students and members of the Search Committee was attended by more than 40 stu­ dents. Fisher said that students seemed particularly concerned about questions of cultural and racial diversity, the future of the Honors Program, and the need for better communi­ cation between students and top administration. According to committee chair Samuel L. Hayes III ’57, the committee had received “several hundred” nomina­ tions by early October and would continue to consider new nominations throughout the process. Committee mem­ bers are also contacting more than 100 additional sources —college presidents, deans, heads of foundations, etc. —in their search for the best candidates. They hope to pre­ sent a final recommendation to the Board of Managers by March 2, but Hayes said that “there is no firm commitment to this date. If we don’t have a right recommendation to make at that time, we will keep the search open until we do.” The consulting firm of SpencerStuart Inc. has been engaged to help with the details of the search. It will gather information for the committee and advise on the process, but, Hayes empha­ sized, “the consultants will not screen candidates, nor have they been involved in devel­ oping the profile of the kind of president we are looking for.” This is in contrast to the role of search consultants at many other institutions, where the consulting firm often does the initial screening of candi­ dates for the committee. “We are looking at every single one of the nominations,” said Hayes. Alumni are invited to sub­ mit nominations to any mem­ ber of the committee, or to its executive secretary, Constance Ridgeway, at the College. Periodic progress reports will be issued by the Search Com­ mittee, and it is expected that—within a framework that guarantees the confiden­ tiality of candidates—a lively debate over Swarthmore’s next president will continue until a decision is made. JONATHAN WILSON ï N ancy Ham lett, associate professor o f biology (right), w orks with D enise Dittrich o f Strath H aven H igh School (left) a n d L akiesha D ixon o f Chester H igh School (center) preparing laboratory bacteria cultures to fre eze f o r later testing. Dittrich and D ixon were am ong eight students and three high-school teachers who spent the sum m er participating in the second y ea r o f the Science Laboratory S u m m er Research Program. F unded by a $900,000 grant fro m the H ow ard H ughes M edical Institute, the program is aim ed at encouraging students, particularly minorities and women, to enter careers in re­ search and teaching in medicine and the biological sciences. SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN E C Four staff vacancies filled Vacancies left by the depar­ ture of four College adminis­ trators were filled over the summer. Claire Sawyers has been named director of the Scott Arboretum, replacing Judith Zuk, who accepted the posi­ tion of director of the Brook­ lyn Botanic Garden. Before coming to Swarthmore, Sawyers assisted in garden management at the Mount Cuba Center for the Study of Piedmont Flora in Greenville, Del., for seven years. Prior to that she was a teaching and research assistant in the Horticulture Depart­ ment of Purdue University. She has worked in gardens all over the world, including Belgium, France, and Japan. Sawyers earned a bachelor of science degree with distinc­ tion and a master of agricul­ ture in horticulture degree from Purdue and also holds a master’s degree in ornamental horticulture from the Longwood Gardens/University of Delaware Graduate Program. Joseph Mason was named assistant dean and director of the Black Cultural Center, replacing Patricia Darrah, who left to develop a special­ ized education program for inner city children. A doctoral candidate at the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, he was most re­ cently a research assistant to the dean of the Bryn Mawr Graduate School. Mason was previously an adjunct faculty member at Bryn Mawr, as well as at the School of Social Work of Virginia Common­ wealth University in Rich­ mond. Mason received a bache­ lor’s degree in sociology from Haverford College and a mas­ ter of social service/master of law and social policy degree from Bryn Mawr. NOVEMBER 1990 Claire Sawyers O L L E Jeffrey Lott has been ap­ pointed associate director of publications and managing editor of the Swarthmore College Bulletin. For the last two years he has been with Varia, a pleasure-reading magazine for physicians, first as special projects editor and then as senior editor. Prior to that he was director of publications and public relations at Episco­ pal Academy in Merion, Pa. Lott earned a bachelor of arts degree from Middlebury College and a master of arts in teaching degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. Deborah Gauck ’90 has been named assistant to the deans and coordinator of CIVIC, the campus volunteer program. She will help admin­ ister programs funded by the Swarthmore Foundation (see inside front cover) and other campus volunteer programs. While pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in women’s studies, she spent her under­ graduate years at Swarthmore working with rape-crisis, domestic-abuse, and abortion centers in Philadelphia. While a student Gauck re­ ceived several grants from the Swarthmore Foundation to work in Chester, Pa., as an intern and as a court advocate with Women Organized Against Rape. Former Art Department chair Hediey Rhys dies Jeffrey Lott Hedley Rhys, professor emeri­ tus of art history, died Sep­ tember 26 after several years of failing health. He was 80. An authority on the Ameri­ can impressionist painter Maurice Prendergast, he came to Swarthmore in 1948 and was chairman of the Art His­ tory Department from 1970 until his retirement in 1976. Professor Rhys was born in Wales and came to America G E in the early 1920s. He served as director of the Works Prog­ ress Administration art pro­ gram for the state of West Virginia from 1935 to 1938 before earning a B.A. from . West Virginia University. He also held an A.M. and a Ph.D. from Harvard. An art critic for The Phila­ delphia Inquirer in the 1950s, Professor Rhys was respon­ sible for the 1960 Cooper Foundation symposium on art and science and was editor of the subsequent book, Seven­ teenth Century Science and the Arts. Program attracts minority scholarsin-residence Swarthmore is hosting two scholars as part of the second year of the Minority Scholarin-Residence Program initiated by member schools of the Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence at Liberal Arts Colleges. John Alston, a predoctoral student in music, has joined the Music and Dance Depart­ ment, and Yevette Richards, a predoctoral student in Ameri­ can studies, is in the History Department. The program is designed to encourage African-American and Hispanic-American schol­ ars to teach at liberal arts col­ leges—institutions that fre­ quently lose out to the large and wealthy research univer­ sities in bidding for the rela­ tively small pool of minority scholars. Two types of fellow­ ships are awarded: dissertation (predoctoral) fellowships for scholars who have completed all the requirements for the Ph.D. or M.F.A. except the dissertation, and postdoctoral fellowships for scholars who have recently been awarded their degrees. The program’s first year, in which 13 fellows were placed at 11 member schools, was highly successful. Eight of 25 E the first fellows have been of­ fered appointments to tenuretrack positions, three have been given additional oneyear teaching appointments at their host colleges, and two have returned to graduate work. The consortium evolved out of a conference on recruit­ ment and retention of minori- c ty students at liberal arts col­ leges held at Swarthmore in 1987. It now includes 26 schools. The fellowship pro­ gram was the first consortium project to be launched. A sec­ ond project began last winter when a joint recruitment bro­ chure was sent to thousands of minority high-school stu­ dents throughout the country. 071486028321 Janus guards the College larder Larry Schall ’75 remembers Catherine Lucas, who stood at the top of the Sharpies Dining Hall stairs, a latter-day Janus, the Roman god of entrances and gates. Among her other duties, Catherine handed out the steak tickets on Saturday nights. Like Janus, Catherine seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. “You could get a ticket,” recalls Schall, “then go down to the dining hall, change your jacket or hat, and come back disguised to try for another one, but she’d always catch you. She knew every face and every name, and there was no way to get through the line twice.” Catherine retired in 1978, and Larry is now Swarthmore’s associate vice president for facilities and services. But you still can’t go through the line twice. Today’s Janus is different. It’s a computer located in the 26 offices of Morrison’s Custom Management, the College’s food service. And its “Cathe­ rines” are magnetic card read­ ers located at the checkouts in all College dining facilities— in Sharpies, in Mary Lyon, and in the snack bar at Tarble in Clothier. Each student now carries a credit-cardlike ID card, which, in the parlance of our age, is “swiped” through the magnetic reader. Once your card is swiped, the com­ puter will bar you from eating again at that meal, no matter how clever your disguise. The system, installed this fall, is more than just a gate­ keeper, however. What it means for students is that they can miss the early breakfast at Sharpies and still get a mid­ morning snack at Tarble. Or they can skip the dining hall dinner and still get a compara­ bly valued meal at Tarble as late as 1:00 a.m. In addition to the magnetic strip, the photographic student ID cards carry a bar code like L E the ones found on magazines and cereal boxes. By Sep­ tember 1991 this machinereadable code will be used by the tri-college library system to track book circulation. According to Schall, future uses of the new card might include bookstore charges or even electronic entry control at College dormitories. Swarthmore students have accepted the system with a minor amount of grumbling in the pages of The Phoenix, and Schall reports a “much smoother than anticipated” transition. Yet in a college where the mail is still de­ livered by name instead of box number and where stu­ dents did not even have ID numbers until about 1980, it’s a significant change. Catherine Lucas, by the way, has a room named for her in Sharpies. It is doubtful that the computer will receive a similar honor. G E South Africa divestment is completed As of September 30, Swarth­ more completed its with­ drawal of investment in all U.S. corporations doing busi­ ness in South Africa. The divestment follows a March 1986 policy decision by the Board of Managers that pledged the College to full divestment in a financially prudent manner if apartheid were not ended. The Investment Committee of the Board estimates that the divestment policy will cost Swarthmore about a third of one percent in lower return on the approximately $175 mil­ lion in domestic equity securi­ ties held by the College. The College’s 1990-91 budget, based on then-current market values, reflects this lower return. It shows a divestment cost this year of $639,000, according to Suzanne Welsh, College treasurer. Victory.. . . R obert Williams, professor and chair o f physical education a nd athletics, a n d the G arnet cheerleaders pose during H om ecom ing with the C ollege’s latest acquisition in the team-spirit line— a victory bell that once graced the World W ar IIL ib e rty Ship S.S. Swarthmore Victory. A lthough the details o f the sh ip ’s history are m urky, the bell cam e to the College fro m the U.S. M aritim e A dm inistration thanks to the sharp eye o f M a rk Schlefer, a maritime lawyer and husband o f M arion K in g Schlefer ’45. Schlefer spotted the C ollege’s nam esake ship on a list o f m othballed vessels about to be scrapped and contacted Sw arthm ore administrators. The bell was buffed to restore its brass, a set o f wheels was built to m a ke it mobile, and now it is used to signal a College victory in all intercollegiate sports. SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN It was in the cards Card trick leads to mathematical discovery fo r David Bayer ’77 “ It was like Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes, but mine was about five,” says David Bayer ’77 of the spurt of publicity he and his collaborator enjoyed for their discovery that it takes seven ordinary shuffles of a deck of cards to mix the deck thoroughly. News of the dis­ covery appeared in The N ew York Times, then in Time, R eader’s Digest, Seventeen, and even in D e r Spiegel in Germany. Bayer even man­ aged to squeeze an appear­ ance on G ood M orning A m erica into his five minutes of fame. Bayer, an associate profes­ sor of mathematics at Barnard College, collaborated on the shuffling study with Dr. Persi Diaconis, a Harvard mathe­ matician and statistician. Dr. Diaconis first interested Bayer in the mathematical problem. “ Persi’s a magician— he’s been a magician longer than he’s been a mathematician. So he’s always had an interest in both cards and mathematics, and in how people use cards,” Bayer explains. In a lecture at Columbia, Diaconis specu­ lated that seven shuffles would be necessary to mix a deck of cards, and he explained a card trick that took advantage of the fact that a deck of cards is not well-mixed after only a few shuffles. Bayer was in­ trigued by the trick and tried to simulate it on his computer: “ It was sheer play; I had no belief whatsoever that it would lead to anything that would allow me to be con­ sidered a productive mathe­ matician.” While working on the program, he talked to Dia­ conis about the shuffling prob­ lem, and in the course of their conversation they came up with an idea about how they could prove that Diaconis’ speculation was correct. That idea resulted in a “ truly absurd and longwinded” proof, but once Bayer and Diaconis had a 46 better idea of what they were aiming for, they were able to come up with shorter and shorter proofs. “ Now it’s actu­ ally something you can show someone in five minutes. We were kind of amused and amazed that no one had thought of it before.” Bayer explains what happens in shuffling by com­ paring it to other “ mixing phenomena.” “ Say you have a huge bowl that’s filled with lots of tiny beads. And say half of them are black beads and half are white beads. You get in there with a canoe pad­ dle and you start swirling around with the paddle. First you’ve got these big swirls going around, and the more you stir, the tighter the swirls get. As you keep stirring, all of a sudden you’re going to reach a point where it starts to look like all the swirls dis­ solved into each other, and it w ill look gray. It’sjust like cards. The mixing is gradual from some points of view, but it takes place quite suddenly from the point of view of per­ ception, and this effect can be quantified mathematically. Seven shuffles is the closest whole number to where this really radical perception change takes place. If you were to keep shuffling further, you could get them closer and closer to perfectly mixed. You could shuffle 41 times, and the 42nd would make it imper­ ceptibly better, but the sev­ enth shuffle is the last one that makes it perceptibly better.” The experiences of bridge players gave Diaconis and Bayer one early indication that they were right that cards usually weren’t shuffled enough to ensure good mix­ ing. “ When the best bridge players started seeing com­ puter-generated hands in tournaments, they felt that the computer wasn’t shuffling the cards right because the hands they were getting were dif­ ferent from the hands they would deal themselves. So they logically suspected the computer of being the odd man out. But we believed the computer’s method of ran­ domizing the deck was work­ ing, so it drew suspicion on the way people did it.” So it seemed only fair that bridge players saw immediate benefits from Bayer and Dia­ conis’ finding. “ I still get phone calls from bridge play­ ers saying, ‘We started shuf­ fling seven times, and it really makes a difference.’ You might guess that more evenly mixed hands would be more balanced, but in fact that’s totally backwards. Turns out that the most interesting bridge hands are the ones with the wildest distribution of cards— somebody gets 11 hearts, that kind of thing. The act of playing bridge leaves the cards too uniform, and shuffling seven times breaks them up so that they’re truly random, leaving more room for truly exciting, oddball hands. So when people shuffled seven times in bridge, they got more exciting hands.” How does this effect the odds at gambling? Could you use this information to make a killing at the casino? It’s pos­ sible. “ People have been using card sequencing for years to make lots of money at black­ jack,” Bayer says, and he goes on to explain. “ What some­ times people do is they’ll memorize 20 cards in a row. Then the dealer shuffles, but the dealers shuffle very poorly because their main interest is getting the game on. If they take 10 minutes for shuffling, that’s 10 minutes when they’re not making any money. So you watch for a sequence of cards, and say you see one of the cards you know before a dealer’s down card, and then you see another one you know after the dealer’s down card, and there’s one missing in between, then you know what the dealer’s down card is. O f course, to do it well you have to know a dozen things like that.” But rest assured, the house isn’t taking advantage of you by not shuffling the necessary seven times. Bayer explains, “ If you can’t tell what’s going on and they can’t tell what’s going on, then it’s random enough to fool both of you.” Think mathematics and you don’t usually think of card tricks, gambling, and bridge playing— but Bayer enjoyed working with some­ thing that people could relate to. “ Most math and science is so remote. It’s fun to do some­ thing in which people are interested.” — Rebecca A im SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Recent Books by Alumni We welcome review copies o f books by alumni. The books are donated to the Swarthmoreana section o f M cCabe Library after they have been noted fo r this column. Emily K. Abel ’64 and Margaret K. Nelson ’66 (eds.), Circles o f Care: Work and Identity in W om en’s Lives, State University of New York Press, 1990. Focusing on women who provide care to children, disabled persons, the chronically ill, and the frail elderly, this book explores what caregiving actually entails and what it means in caregivers’ lives. Peter Bart ’54, Fade Out: The Calamitous Final D ays o f M G M , W illiam Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990. The descent of the once-regal movie powerhouse is chroni­ cled in this inside look into Hollywood over 20 years: a time of mergers and junk bonds, corporate musical chairs, and the selling off of the film library and the company back lot. controversies, music busi­ nessmen and high-society groupies, black-tie dinners and a cathartic rodeo. DiMaggio ’71, Structures of Capital: The Social Organi­ zation o f the Econom y, Cam­ bridge University Press, 1990. Written for sociologists and other scholars approaching the subject for the first time, this volume represents a wide range of perspectives on the sociology of economic life and presents both a broad over­ view and empirically based accounts of significant aspects of economic organization, be­ havior, or change. Lois Fishman ’72, et al., Spain 1990: A B antam Travel Guide, Bantam Books, 1990. From Picasso’s G uernica to the cocina nueva, from the flamenco to the 1992 Olym­ pics, Spain is one of the hot­ test travel destinations in the world today. This guidebook offers tips on hotels and res­ taurants, priorities, language, and more. i L. Nakhimovsky, M. Lamotte, and J. (Jacques) JoussotDubien '49, H andbook o f L ow Temperature Electronic Spectra o f Polycyclic A romatic Hydrocarbons, Elsevier, 1989. Compiled for a variety of researchers in the field of photophysics, this collection contains highly resolved low temperature absorption spec­ tra of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules. Richard Martin ’67 and Harold Koda, Splash! A History o f Swim wear, Rizzoli, 1990. This book is more than a chronicle of the attire worn to the beach or pool in our century, for clothing reveals— in every way— a great deal about our encounter with the water. Rachel T. (Thies) HareMustin ’49 and Jeanne Sharon J. Gates and Pekka A. Mooar ’75 (eds.), Ortho­ Marecek (eds.), M a k in g a Difference: Psychology and the Construction o f Gender, paedics and Sports M edicine fo r Nurses: Comm on Problems in M anagem ent, Williams & Row, 1989. Citing tales of dis­ covery and disillusionment, this study charts the slow pro­ gress of science toward an un­ derstanding of radiation in all its manifestations and tells of the countless mistakes, poten­ tially dangerous accidents, and cruel experiments along the way. Yale University Press, 1990. In this book five leaders in feminist psychology pose new questions that go beyond cur­ rent debates about how men and women differ. Arguing that most differences between women and men are created by society, they challenge psy­ chologists to direct attention to the social relations through which psychological knowl­ edge is created. Wilkins, 1989. This guide for clinicians brings together rele­ vant, significant orthopaedic information from medicine and nursing about prevention and risk reduction as well as about disease detection and treatment. John Diebold ’49, Joseph Horowitz ’70, Catherine Caufield ’71, M ul­ tiple Exposures: Chronicles o f the R adiation A ge, Harper & The Inno­ vators: The Discoveries, Inventions, and Breakthroughs o f O ur Time, Truman Talley Books, 1990. This is a book of high adventure that takes the reader to the scenes of dis­ covery where small groups of now-famous innovators made some of the most astonishing technological breakthroughs of modern times. 50 Sharon Zukin and Paul The Ivory Trade: M usic and the B usiness o f M usic at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Summit Books, 1990. In addition to proposing steps to make music competi­ tions more benign, the author focuses on the Eighth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition— an event crammed with concerts and Bela Balassa and Marcus Noland ’81, Japan in the World Econom y, Institute for International Economics, 1988. The dramatic growth of Japan’s role in the world economy is one of the central events in the second half of this century. This book ana­ lyzes how this transformation occurred, what it means for the world economy and the U.S., and what future policy changes are needed to foster stability and harmony between Japan and its eco­ nomic partners. Rachel Pomerantz (nom de plume) ’69, W ildflower, Bris­ tol, Rhein & Englander, 1989. Spread over five years and two continents, this novel explores the turbulent per­ sonal lives of a group of young American Jews who find their way to Eretz Yisrael as a result of the great reli­ gious awakening of our times. Robin Ridington ’62, Little Bit K now Something: Stories in a Language o f A nthro­ pology, University of Iowa Press, 1990. The Dunne-za, the Beaver Indians of British Columbia, say that people who speak from the authority of their experience “ little bit know something.” This book contains stories about this people’s “ thoughtworld.” Robert Roper ’68, M exico Days, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989. A sinister account of two families locked in the vio­ lence of erotic betrayal, this novel explores the relationship between a brother and a sister trying to understand the underpinnings of an exotic reality beyond their grasp. Constance Schraft ’77, Instead o f You, Ticknor & Fields, 1990. In this funny and touching novel, a younger sis­ ter, following the death of her older sister, must learn to cope with her nieces, her parents’ separation, and unwanted attention from the man next door. Donald Stokes ’69 and Lillian Stokes, A Guide to Bird Behavior, Vol. Ill, Little, Brown and Company, 1989. This book is the third in a series for bird-watchers. Unlike the other two, which feature many common vari­ eties, this one highlights many species that are hard to watch and others that are uncom­ mon or rare. The H um m ing­ bird B ook, Little, Brown and Company, 1989. Everything you need to know about SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN U niversities Under Siege Continued from page 7 distribution requirements—including the­ ology and social analysis—on all students,, no matter what profession they are being trained for. Further, they have required students to do social work—in impoverished communities and with popular organiza­ tions. Many of the Jesuits serve as pastors in small rural villages on weekends. After working all week in their university posi­ tions, they journey for hours to the country­ side to minister to the needs of their local campesino congregations. The UCA had been under attack for these activities from the beginning. Its printing facilities had been vandalized or completely destroyed several times. Its library had been torched. But the most recent attack on the UCA was the most devastating. On Novem­ ber 11 the guerrilla offensive began. The army had the UCA under surveillance from the beginning of the offensive. The military school and the army high command are located only a few blocks away, with a high observation tower from which the army could observe goings-on at the UCA around the clock. On November 13 Father Ellacuria re­ turned from Spain, where he had received an award. The army entered the Pastoral Center and did a complete search of all the priests’ living quarters. Ellacuria let them in and accompanied them. They found noth­ ing, though they carefully asked Ellacuria who slept in each room. On November 16 at 1:30 a.m., about 50 soldiers entered the university and came for the Jesuits. One group worked on burning and destroying the downstairs public areas using flamethrowers. A smaller group went upstairs. Again Ellacuria opened the door for them, but this time they weren’t inter­ ested in searching. They took the six priests out to the garden, made them lie down on the grass, and shot them, blowing their brains out. A little while later, they dis­ covered the priests’ cook and her teenage daughter and killed them as well. Students moving past the site of this tragedy looked no different from students at a private university in the U.S. If the UES seemed analogous to Temple, the UCA seemed analogous to Penn. The gap between the realities of these students and the national reality was startling. But it occurred to me 54 that Swarthmore is probably at least as unreal and that I’m just not struck by the unreality of Swarthmore because I’m so accustomed to it. The UCA campus is a remarkably pretty, serene kind of place, almost totally insulated from what goes on outside its walls. Except, of course, for the murdered priests. We went next to visit the UCA humanrights office and the documentation center. Though their leaders were now dead, they continued to function. The Proceso, the weekly publication that provides an ongoing analysis of the political and social situation in El Salvador, continues to be published. The Proceso reports on national news and also reviews what is being said in other publications, notably U.S. publications of record like The New York Times and The Washington Post. After talking to us about the Proceso, our informant from the documentation center described his view about the role of the university in his country. He said that there were two roads a university could take. It could run itself along First World lines, as an ivory tower that could be located anywhere, and operate in a way that is completely abstracted from the reality of its particular location. Or it could get involved. His own opinion was that the main function of any university is to cultivate rationality and its use. In a country like his, which is so dominated by irrationality, the university’s task is to introduce rationality. For this rea­ son it should not be detached. He spoke simply, matter-of-factly. He minimized the risk involved in his commit­ ment. He didn’t want credit. He just wanted to do his work. I was struck once again by the enormous difference between this place and the institutions I know back in the States. Were he to say what he just told us in a faculty meeting at Swarthmore, he would probably be attacked, accused of compromising the integrity of the university. I found myself wondering how we might import his understanding of what univer­ sities should be to my country. For the remainder of my time in El Salvador, and for much of my time since returning, I have been thinking about the Salvadoran government’s war against the universities. The government knows what it’s doing. The UES and the UCA are a threat, perhaps the most serious threat the government faces. As long as they are allowed to function freely, and as long as they remain committed to documenting and transforming the national reality, no amount of U.S. military support for the Salvadoran army will stop the Salvadoran people from seeking justice. As long as the universities are committed to teaching people about their economic and civil rights and to helping them secure those rights, the Salvadoran people will not suffer their repression in silence. And eventually they will prevail. Unless, of course, they’re all killed. But both the UCA and the UES are imperiled. They can survive the destruction of facilities. They can’t survive the destruc­ tion of people. At the UCA commitment to social transformation was very much in­ spired and driven by the people at the top. Now they are all dead. There is no guarantee that the people who replace these murdered leaders will be able to marshal sufficient courage and determination within the com­ munity to continue the project. It’s so much easier—and safer—just to mind one’s busi­ ness and train the next generation of profes­ sionals. I asked the university people I spoke to in El Salvador what private citizens and academic institutions in the United States could do to help. And what they told me was that while they certainly could use material support, far more important was moral support. It was the support of visiting delegations like mine that gave them the courage to continue their struggle. So we in the States can help with public declarations of support. We can help by visiting these institutions and letting the people working in them know that we’re behind them, and letting their enemies know that we’re watch­ ing. We can help by making sure that our congresspeople know about the attacks on the universities and by demanding that they urge an end to U.S. support for the attackers. We can help by establishing formal relations between these institutions and our own academic institutions, maintaining a steady dialogue through faculty (and perhaps stu­ dent) exchange. And we can help by making the writings of these fallen leaders available in English so that their ideas about the proper social role of the university can gain a wider audience. This last activity will help the UCA and the UES far less than it helps us. For by learning about why and how universities in El Salvador have chosen to be a moral force in their society, universities in the United States may be sparked to play a similar role in our own society. And should we manage to transform ourselves in this way, our students, our faculty, our institutions, and our society will be greatly enriched. Barry Schwartz is professor ofpsychology at Swarthmore and author o f The Battle for Human Nature. He has been involved for four years in work to promote just and humane U.S. policy directed at El Salvador. SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN to be here! It’s a privilege I know I haven’t especially deserved any more than my class­ mates—my fellow alumni. It was just a matter of luck, and I’ve tried always to value that privilege as I know any of the rest of Continued from page 23 you would value it, have tried to represent squash courts—do those date back to Court­ the rest of you and recognize the rest of you. ney Smith’s time? And the Tarble Pavilion. Early on I realized that for all of us And the Ware Swimming Pool. And I’ve left alumni, Swarthmore is a kind of intellectual out Dana and Hallowell! home. This is the one place where we would Then about 1982 Julien ’30 and Virginia like to have our accomplishments known Stratton Cornell ’30 gave us the Cornell and recognized, the place where we really Science Library, which is one of my very like to display our trophies. I’ve seen this favorite buildings. Shortly after that a new over and over again when alumni come research wing was added on to Du Pont. back to talk with students and old faculty. Last year we got a new water tower, and I remember especially how pleased Sandra some of us watched with great excitement as Moore Faber ’66 was when the news that the old one was pulled down early one she had just been elected to the National Sunday morning, with a great satisfying Academy of Sciences came through the very whoomp as it hit the ground, followed by a day she arrived here to give a lecture on her great clanging as its conical lid flew off recent astronomical work. Having it cele­ down among the trees in the Crum! And all brated at Swarthmore was the best part. this building continues. David Baltimore ’60 came here to talk to The new Performing Arts Center looms the biology students shortly after he received on the site of the Hall Gym, replacing the gym and swimming pool. If its cultural influence on the campus is in any way proportional to its size, we are in for a major cultural renaissance! You’ll also notice the renovations going on in Beardsley to make it a tad more congenial to the studio arts. Continued from page 12 If you walk down to the Crum, you’ll see the PAC contains such diverse functions. In that the walkways there have been cleared addition, since it may be approached from and smoothed and protected against erosion three different directions, three of its four and also that there’s been a lot of sprucing sides must function as main facades. Finally, up. One student is responsible for that: Seth three existing structures of entirely different Major, one of our physics majors in the character are around the building. The three Class of ’91. Seth organized the cleanup sides, unified by general articulation, are campaign with the help of other student ingeniously differentiated in surface design volunteers who come out on Saturday morn­ to echo the neighboring buildings that come ings about once a semester. Tools and sup­ into view in each of the different approaches. plies have been provided by the College, but This measure of the PAC’s success, detected the manpower and womanpower has been only after careful inspection, owes greatly to supplied by the students. the architects and deserves our appreciative Even with all these new buildings, the attention. College still feels the same as you come up Note, for example, the variety of fenestra­ Magill Walk, with Clothier looming high on tion on the long side elevation, and note your left and the front steps of Parrish up how the semicircular stair turret serves as a ahead looking as welcoming as ever. For focal point for those who approach the years it gave me an odd sensation to be building from the public parking by Du walking that way hand-in-hand with one of Pont. It leads them to the corner entrance at my children, in the same place I had walked the right and along the building to the left. hand-in-hand with their mother when we Note also how the two left-most bays are were students. Now occasionally I walk differentiated, not only to reflect the build­ there hand-in-hand with my little grand­ ing’s internal organization but also to prepare daughter—that’s a really odd sensation!— those who approach the corner—like a hop, like looking into one of those mirrors in the skip, and jump. Since it would be counter­ barber shop where the reflections seem to go active to emphasize all four facades equally, on and on as far as you can see. the architects opted to make the one toward You know, I love this place. It’s been a Lang the building’s showpiece—and it is. It rare privilege to live and work here—to is an Italian piazza, and it calls for a fountain. actually be here full time—to even be paid The facade seen coming up from Sharpies is Sum m er ’4 2 his Nobel Prize—and I’ll bet that the warm reception he got here was even more re­ warding than the official ceremonies in Stockholm. But this thing works both ways—your need to share your accomplishments with us is matched by our need to hear about them. After all, your accomplishments are the proof of the pudding, the justification of the Swarthmore education. What you do out in the wider world in terms of accomplishment, and citizenship, and service, and scholarship, and human betterment—that is what ultimately justifies this little enclave of beauty, and friendliness, and privileged equality. Anyway, your deeds and your lives are what tell us whether this privilege, these resources have been well used. Paul Mangelsdorf retired this year as Morris L. Clothier Professor o f Physics. This article is adaptedfrom remarks he made to a group o f alumni during Alumni Weekend 1990. Big and Ugly? NOVEMBER 1990 the most “boring” and thus most vulnerable to criticism, but from this direction it is viewed trom a low elevation and is thus seen truncated. It makes sense in that it pays full obeisance to the venerable Parrish to the right. It is my contention that what distinguishes a great building from a good one is surface treatment; on the other hand, a good build­ ing distinguishes itself from a mediocre one by the intelligence of its internal organiza­ tion. Architecture, like politics, is an art of compromise. If the College cannot afford great architecture, it is fortunate to have good architecture, a building that serves its users well even if it does not take their breath away. If you cannot afford a Mer­ cedes-Benz, you’d be wiser to get a car that may look like a box but runs well rather than something that’s smart-looking but breaks down easily. The PAC promises to be functionally supportive, and even dazzling internally. All things considered, the PAC is a very fine building, but it takes time to grow on you, like a good personality that sometimes comes without striking looks. Dagit-Saylor may not grace a cover of Time magazine by this building, but, to say the least, they have delivered the money’s worth. Big and ugly is after all pretty good. 55 ALUMNI COUNCIL hank you for your ongoing work for Swarthmore and for taking this weekend not only to renew your understand­ ing of the College but to contribute to shaping its future through questioning and consultation. Alumni volunteers make an incredible difference to the strength of the College in innumerable ways, and you—as admissions representa­ tives, class agents, reunion chairs, and Connections leaders—are an integral part of this enriching tapestry.”— President David W. Fraser, Volunteers Training Weekend, September 11-12 T The Swarthmore College Alumni Association aims “to promote unity and fellowship among the alumni and to advance the interests of Swarthmore College.” Among alumni immediately engaged in this work are officers of the association and members of the Alumni Council. We print their names, addresses, and phone numbers below with the hope that you will get in touch with them when you have questions, suggestions, or concerns regarding the College. The Connections chairs would appreciate your suggestions for special events and your offer to help with them. They very much hope to see you at the next one in your city. Please use the form provided to let us hear from you I M , J o C Sincerely, A n ^u ^T Participating in Volunteers Training W eekend in Septem ber were (front row) R oshini Ponnam perum a ’84, R achel W einberger ’80, Brendan Flynn ’86, Harriet D ana Carroll ’38, Jessica W iner ’84, D on Fujihira ’69; (second row) Lisa Nicholas ’81, Kathryn P iffat ’86, M egan Laycock ’86, Virginia M ussari Bates 73, W illiam Carroll 38. Elinor Meyer Haupt ’55 President, Swarthmore College Alumni Association The officers of the Alumni Association and the Alumni Council want to hear from you! Please write to Elinor Meyer Haupt ’55, president, Swarthmore College Alumni Association, in care of the Alumni Office, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 190811397. Good people for Alumni Council candidates:_______________________________ Good people for Alumni Managers: Good people for Nominating Committee: Fd like to serve as a resource for the Career Planning and Placement Office: fj Serve as Extern Sponsor ] Talk to students about career opportunities in my field J Provide leads for summer jobs j] Participate in a career panel on campus Your job/career description_________________________________ I wish Alumni Council would do something about: Signed: name and class. address_____ Alumni Association Officers & Alumni Council President Elinor Meyer Haupt ’55 250 Between-the-Lakes Road Salisbury, CT 06068 203-824-7851 President Designate Francis M. James III ’57 15 Graylyn Place Lane Winston-Salem, NC 27106 919-723-4690 Vice President Gretchen Mann Handwerger 56 3427 34th Place, NW Washington, DC 20016 202-966-3826 Michael A. Gross ’64 R.D. I, Box 288 Hughesville, PA 17737 717-584-3324 Deborah Carey Lyons ’70 419 West Union Street West Chester, PA 19382 215-436-5759 Samuel C. Newbury ’67 7422 Ben Hur Street Pittsburgh, PA 15208 412-731-9569 Vice President Jane Martin Newcomer ’45 600 Pleasure Road Lancaster, PA 17601 717-392-6156 William C. Fredericks ’83 17 West 64th Street, Apt. 2B New York, NY 10023 212-496-1074 David C. Rowley ’65 401 Strath Haven Avenue Swarthmore, PA 19081 215-328-0103 Secretary Zone B (New Jersey and New York) Margaret L. MacLaren ’49 152 East 94th Street, Apt. 2B New York, NY 10128 212-722-0698 Zone A (Delaware and Pennsylvania) Nancy Fitts Donaldson ’46 765 East Forge Road Media, PA 19063 215-565-4043 Adrienne Asch ’69 316 West 104th Street, Apt. 3A New York, NY 10025 212-864-5668 C. Dante DiPirro ’83 4658 Province Line Road Princeton, NJ 08540 609-921-8366 Alumni Volunteers Make a Difference Debra Felix ’83 501 West 121st Street, Apt. 56 New York, NY 10027 212-662-9561 Barbara Starfield ’54 2008 South Road Baltimore, MD 21209 301-367-8572 Anne Smith Weatherford ’51 Route I, Box 102 Black Mountain, NC 28711 704-669-6293 John W. Harbeson ’60 86 Old Post Road South Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520 914-271-9706 David H. Wise ’67 3943 White Rose Way Ellicott City, MD 21043 301-465-9590 Henry O. Leichter ’48 845 West End Avenue New York, NY 10025 212-749-1616 Zone E (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin) ZoneG (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) Carolyn Shuler Minionis ’56 82 Rushmore Avenue Roslyn Heights, NY 11577 516-621-5504 ZoneC (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) Lucy Hoisington Carver ’48 R.R. 2, Box 103 Lincolnville, ME 04849 207-338-4200 Robert M. Lippincott ’74 60 Meadowbrook Road Weston, MA 02193-2406 617-899-6006 Beverly Bruhn Major ’57 R.F.D. 3, Box 631 Putney, VT 05346 802-387-5737 Patricia Imbrie Moore ’55 Off State Road, Box 96 West Tisbury, MA 02575 508-693-6716 Colgate S. Prentice ’49 672 River Road Westport, MA 02790-5161 508-636-2821 Frank R. Borchert, Jr., ’58 2631 Ashton Road Cleveland Heights, OH 44118 216-932-7139 Barbara Allen Fuchsman ’63 192 Forest Street Oberlin, OH 44074 216-774-1804 Allen B. Maxwell ’61 2705 West Jefferson Road Kokomo, IN 46901 317-452-6965 Nancy Roberts ’76 2616 West 55th Street Minneapolis, MN 55410 612-927-7536 Peter J. Schoenbach ’62 19519 Shrewsbury Road Detroit, MI 48221 313-342-4613 Jill Kempthorne Thompson ’73 974 Osceola Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105 (Unlisted) Stephen C. Schoenbaum ’62 18 Osborne Road Brookline, MA 02146 617-734-0790 Zone F (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, territories, dependencies, and foreign countries) Heinz Valtin ’49 Route 1, Box 526, Bradley Hill Road Norwich, VT 05055 802-649-1838 Peter Calingaert ’52 711 Churchill Drive Chapel Hill, NC 27514 919-929-3908 ZoneD (District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia) Sara Guthrie Geers '56 P.O. Box 232 Cuba, AL 36907 205-392-7017 Carol Ann Dubivsky Becker ’57 12 Fendall Avenue Alexandria, VA 22304 703-823-4878 Gretchen Gayle Ellsworth ’61 1837 Mintwood Place, NW Washington, DC 20009 202-483-7981 Thomas E. Simkin ’55 4902 Rock Spring Road Arlington, VA 22207 703-241-3937 NOVEMBER 1990 Margaret Reno Hurchalla ’62 5775 Southeast Nassau Terrace Stuart, FL 33494 407-287-0478 William D. Jones, Jr., ’54 1051 Coronado Drive. NW Atlanta, GA 30327 404-237-7442 Robert N. Stauffer ’45 7 Downshire Lane Decatur, GA 30033 404-636-5167 Franklin J. Apfel ’67 302 Henry Street Ukiah,CA 95482 707-463-2473 Ann Baerwald ’60 4938 Alhama Drive Woodland Hills, CA 91364 818-887-2568 Boulder Diana Royce Smith ’68 1930 Oak Avenue Boulder, CO 80302 303-443-8629 Chicago Mary Schless’81 2553 North Southport, #2R Chicago, IL 60614 312-549-5340 Hartford Brendan T. Flynn ’86 22 Farms Village Road Wethersfield, CT 06109 203-721-9267 Los Angeles Consuelo Staisey Woodhead ’70 500 Prospect Boulevard Pasadena, CA91103 818-449-8581 Dana Carroll ’65 498 11th Avenue Salt Lake City, UT 84103 801-533-0989 New Haven Carol Thompson Hemingway ’52 250 Moss Bridge Road Bozeman, MT 59715 406-586-3233 Rikki Abzug ’86 66-15 Wetherole Street RegoPark, NY 11374 718-896-6225 John F. Humphrie, Jr., ’74 4442 South Morgan Street Seattle, WA 98118 206-723-9165 New York Catherine Kapp ’66 1903 2nd Avenue West Seattle, WA 98119 206-283-2124 Members at Large Joan Heifetz Hollinger ’61 735 The Alameda Berkeley, CA 94707 415-528-8504 Alice Handsaker Kidder ’63 239 Randall Road Berlin, MA 01503 508-838-2586 Lowell W. Livezey ’66 5400 South Eastview Park Chicago, IL 60615 312-324-7250 Lynne A. Molter ’79 115 Forest Lane Swarthmore, PA 19081 215-328-8078 Gloria Thomas Walker ’85 745 Baltimore Pike, P.O. Box 1091 Concordville, PA 19331 215-558-1596 Connections Boston Virginia Mussari Bates ’73 115 Ashland Street Melrose, MA02176 617-665-0623 Donald Fujihira ’69 1199 Park Avenue. Apt. 7B New York, NY 10128 212-722-2741 Rachel Weinberger ’80 878 West End Avenue, Apt. 5D New York, NY 10025 212 - 222-0211 Philadelphia Carolyn Morgan Hayden ’83 116 Willow Way Folsom, PA 19033 215-328-2954 San Francisco Sohail Bengali ’79 3643 Glenwood Avenue Redwood City, CA 94062 415-367-1613 Seattle Constance Gayl Pious ’53 3602 East Schubert Place Seattle, WA 98122 206-325-4789 South Florida Craig E. Stein ’78 5700 Collins Avenue, #8M Miami Beach. FL 33140 305-865-4760 Washington, D. C. William R. Carroll ’38 4802 Broad Brook Drive Bethesda.MD 20814 301-530-0459 Amanda Orr Harmeling ’73 108 Chestnut Street North Reading, MA 01864 508-664-2432 57 1991 m LkLR s /® |/® •^jppjv/ (o y o r / o m f V w ALUMNI COLLEGE JUNE 5 ,6 ,7 The Soviet Union Today: Challenges and Prospects Mozart, Jazz, and Intelligent Listening The twin policies of perestroika and glasnost have sparked enormous changes in the Soviet Union. What are the challenges facing the Soviet people and their government? What are the prospects for the 1990s? Lecturers include Robert Weinberg (chair), nationalism and religious revival; Laurie Bernstein, women’s movement; Thompson Bradley, cultural change; and Frederic Pryor, economic reform. Explore the relationship of composer, performer, and listener through a Mozart string quartet and two jazz compositions involving Charlie “Bird” Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and others. Peter Gram Swing, Daniel Underhill Professor Emeritus of Music, has designed the course to teach intelligent listening. It will culminate in a concert for string quartet including works by Mozart, Borodin, and Shostakovich. Complete inform ation and registration form will be m ailed in fanuary. Swarthmore College Bulletin, Swarthmore, PA 19081-1397 STRETCH YOUR M IND IN