AS [YOU] ARE Swarthmore students today feat u r e s d e partments profiles 16: When the Ground Shakes 3: Letters Readers share their thoughts. 61: When Malaria Is a Fact of Life 4: Collection Terrie Taylor ’77 devotes her life to saving children from the deadly disease. Highlights from campus By Susan Cousins Breen 40: Connections 69: In Search of Solitude Swarthmore reaching outward Kevin Hood ’91 monitors and seeks to preserve wilderness. Swarthmore’s Taiko Program dances and drums on. By Eliza b e th R e d d e n ’ 0 5 20: A Taste of Spirituality During a week of events focused on religion, faith becomes an unusually hot campus topic. 42: Class Notes By Carol B r é v a r t - D e m m Alumni have their say. 27: As You Are 49: In Memoriam Swarthmore students today Remembering departed friends and classmates Photogra p hs b y E l e f t h e ri o s Ko s t a n s Text by J e f f r e y L o t t 36: The Floating Pool Lady 64: In My Life To Venture Out Fearless Decades of persistence pay off in a unique public pool. B y S u s a n ne Monahan ’86 By Paul Wa c h t e r ’ 9 7 74: Books + Arts Big Dams of the New Deal by David Billington and Donald Jackson ’75 R e v i e w e d by Faruq Siddiqui 80: Q + A Why Is Sarah Willie So Delightfully Tired? B y E l i z a b eth Redden ’05 ON THE COVER Carlos Villafuerte ’08 of Los Angeles, Calif., listens to “Shine a Little Love” by Electric Light Orchestra on his iPod. Of himself, he says, “I can cook, tango, and massage.” Meet more Swarthmore students “as they are” on page 27. Photograph by Eleftherios Kostans. OPPOSITE At twilight on a winter night, the windows of Clothier Hall frame the flag high atop Parrish. Photograph by Eleftherios Kostans By Audree Penner parlor talk M y earliest memory of church is of the scratchy wool suit I was required to wear on Sundays. And of lying on the living room floor in that suit, reading the funny papers while my parents prepared for church. We were Presbyterians then, driving from our suburban home to attend the in-town church my father had grown up in. I remember nothing of the Sunday school, except that the church had a gymnasium, where we played while our parents had post-liturgical coffee. In the late 1950s, our family became Episcopalians. I wasn’t consulted, but I suspect this denominational switch was prompted more by convenience than theology; our new church was just two miles from home. I still had to dress up on Sundays, for it was a “high” Episcopal church. My mother always wore a hat, often with a hint of a veil. At age 13, following classes with The Rev. Harold Towne, I was confirmed in the church and received first communion from the local bishop. Father was a member of the vestry and sang baritone in the choir; Mother served in the altar guild; and I became an acolyte, carrying the big brass processional cross while dressed in a red cassock and bright white surplice. I had a church, for sure, but did I have religion? Even today, I can recite the creed—“born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.” But credo means “I believe,” and, all along, I wasn’t sure I did. The end came at college. The Rev. Towne made an annual tour of the New England schools where his parishioners habitually sent their progeny, and he arranged to visit me in my freshman dorm at Middlebury. He was a friendly, likeable man, popular with young people in the church, and I knew him well, having helped him prepare and serve communion many Sundays. But after some pleasant conversation over dinner in a nice restaurant, there followed an awkward attempt at mutual prayer. I balked; he left. I knew my churchgoing days were over. (They were not, but that’s a story for another day.) For many young people, whether arriving as skeptics or believers, college can be a challenging time. Independent living, the rationalist intellectual atmosphere, and the opportunity to meet people of many backgrounds can either confirm or undermine a young person’s belief system. Yet, the same challenges to faith can also draw students closer together, either in familiar religious communities or in exploring the ideas of others. This year’s Religion and Spirituality Week at Swarthmore (see page 20) was a way for students to affirm and to explore—something they do every day in their academic, social, and spiritual lives. It’s part of the journey of living, part of Swarthmore. —Jeffrey Lott For many young people, whether arriving as skeptics or believers, college can be a challenging time. But it’s part of the journey, part of Swarthmore. 2 : swarthmore college bulletin Swarthmore COLLEGE BULLETIN Editor: Jeffrey Lott Associate Editor: Carol Brévart-Demm Class Notes Editor: Susan Cousins Breen Staff Photographer: Eleftherios Kostans Desktop Publishing: Audree Penner Art Director: Suzanne DeMott Gaadt, Gaadt Perspectives LLC Administrative Assistant: Janice Merrill-Rossi Interns: Lauren Stokes ’09, Lena Wong ’10 Editor Emerita: Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 Contacting Swarthmore College College Operator: (610) 328-8000 www.swarthmore.edu Admissions: (610) 328-8300 admissions@swarthmore.edu Alumni Relations: (610) 328-8402 alumni@swarthmore.edu Publications: (610) 328-8568 bulletin@swarthmore.edu Registrar: (610) 328-8297 registrar@swarthmore.edu World Wide Web www.swarthmore.edu Changes of Address Send address label along with new address to: Alumni Records Office Swarthmore College 500 College Avenue Swarthmore PA 19081-1390 Phone: (610) 328-8435. Or e-mail: alumnirecords@swarthmore.edu. The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN 0888-2126), of which this is volume CIV, number 6, is published in August, September, December, March, and June, with a special issue in September, by Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081-1390. Periodicals postage paid at Swarthmore PA and additional mailing offices. Permit No. 0530-620. Postmaster: Send address changes to Swarthmore College Bulletin, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081-1390. © 2007 Swarthmore College Printed in U.S.A. letters SUFFICIENT WIND It is with great enthusiasm that I celebrate the College’s decision to purchase 30 percent wind power for its electricity needs (“Collection,” March Bulletin). But the decision came somewhat as a surprise, since most of academe has been fueled predominantly by wind for generations. What considerations could possibly prevent the College from moving immediately to purchasing 100 percent of its electricity from wind-power producers and other nonhydrocarbon resources? Is there perhaps lurking anywhere on campus a craven desire to appease the producers of fossil fuels? If, by chance, there’s an economic factor at work here, would the College care to disclose the higher cost that it is choosing not to incur? Quite possibly a socially aware benefactor might come forward with a contribution to cover that cost. As a purely intellectual exercise, might an economics class be invited to research alternative uses for those funds such as additional financial aid, increased faculty salaries, or additional vice presidents? A philosophy class might then be asked whether the logic associated with not taking the steps to purchase the full 100 percent might in any way be applied to the initial 30 percent—taking into proper account the sheer embarrassment of being associated with an institution with an insufficiency of wind. STEVE PENROSE ’66 Dallas, Texas Editor’s Note: According to Ralph Thayer, the College’s director of maintenance, “We buy ‘national wind credits’ from Community Energy Inc. Purchase of wind credits is a contractual agreement that kilowatt hours equal to the credits purchased will be generated by a wind turbine and injected somewhere into the nation’s electric grid at some point in the year. Those credits are purchased at a premium on top of our electricity supplier’s regular rate. Last year, the College bought a total of $1.34 million worth of electricity. At today’s best price for wind credits—and based on last year’s total usage—we would have added $68,000 to our electricity bill by purchasing 100 percent wind power.” According to Stephen Bayer, director of development, a gift of $1.6 million to the College’s endowment would “just about cover the additional cost” at current electricity rates. “Call me,” he added. “Let’s talk.” Neither Thayer nor Bayer would comment on the sufficiency of wind on campus. STOPPING SPRAWL It was with great interest that I read “Stopping Sprawl” (March Bulletin), which focused on the Pennsylvania Route 41 corridor through western Chester County. In the mid-1960s, I was the planning consultant for a cluster of seven contiguous townships south and west of Coatesville, Pa., including two through which Route 41 passes. I worked with these townships to achieve adoption of their first comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances. At that time, I saw development pressure coming from the east—the Philadelphia suburbs extending beyond Valley Forge and West Chester. In fact, that happened. An informal inspection of the area in 1993 revealed that more than 300 houses had been constructed in the easternmost township, with the charming name of East Fallowfield. Fortunately, town officials had followed my plan, and the subdivisions were clustered near Coatesville, thereby avoiding suburban sprawl. In the 1960s, I did not envision the Wilmington-Lancaster pressure in the Route 41 corridor. I hope my clustering plan is working there as well, but I commend Dee Durham ’83 and Denis Newbold ’71 for fighting to keep Route 41 two lanes. This area is too beautiful to allow highwayinduced sprawl to occur. STEVE PITKIN ’57 Stuart, Fla. HOW WORD TRAVELS When I filled out the forms Swarthmore sent me the summer before my freshman year, I gave the names and addresses of both my grandmothers (my only living grandparents). My father’s mother lives in Iran and doesn’t speak or read a single word of English, but I provided her name and address anyway. I knew that Swarthmore sent the Bulletin to grandparents, because my American grandmother praised its interesting articles. But I never considered that Swarthmore would send the mag- azine to my grandmother living in Iran. My dad told me that when mailings first started arriving in Iran, my grandmother— not being able to read anything that was arriving—was terrified that she owed the school money and that I would be kicked out if she didn’t respond. She called my dad in a panic, but he assured her that she could merely enjoy the pictures in everything she received and that she didn’t owe any money. So, after enjoying the pictures in the magazines, my grandma passes them on to a close family friend in Iran who speaks and reads English fluently. Apparently, every time Mr. Mansoori— this family friend—talks to my dad on the phone, he asks after me. He always tells my dad that he is very impressed with everything he reads about the school, and recently he said he had decided that Swarthmore is the best college in the world. Amazing how word travels, no? ZSALEH HARIVANDI ’07 Swarthmore A CALL FOR LIBRARY MEMORIES Been holding those Swarthmore library memories on reserve? The time’s long overdue to share them in a project being undertaken by College Librarian Peggy Seiden, who is researching an article about “library as place.” What are your memories of the library during your college years? What part did the library play in your intellectual or social life? Share your recollections with Seiden at pseiden1@swarthmore.edu, or write to her at McCabe Library, Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081. june 2007 : 3 KAREN MAUCH collection With Simple Dignity— A Portrait of Gilmore Stott When the President’s Office called on Professor of Studio Art Randall Exon to paint a portrait of the late Gilmore Stott, the College’s beloved associate provost emeritus and special assistant to the president, Exon felt honored yet a little intimidated. As a close friend of Stott, he feared that his personal feelings might interfere with the need to provide an institutional “look” to the work, which now hangs in the entrance lobby of Parrish Hall. planning process proceeds The process of envisioning Swarthmore College in the year 2020 and weighing future institutional goals and priorities will kick into high gear in the fall. After soliciting suggestions from students, faculty, staff, and alumni, a campus steering committee met this spring to identify several broad areas—such as academic priorities, student life, financial aid, and College resources—which will be examined and widely discussed during 4 : swarthmore college bulletin “Finally, though, I just decided to forego the institutional aspect and concentrate on what I knew of Gil. Then, it became very straightforward.” “He was an interesting man,” Exon says, “ in that he appeared almost aristocratic in the way he carried himself, and yet he was so down-to-earth, so comfortable to be around, always trying to make people feel at home. He was a real intellectual but never defined himself that way—he was just a person of the world, and he respected everybody. To capture that, I painted him wearing a simple shirt, with his sleeve rolled up—but the shirt is dark purple, which I thought might convey that sense of the stately.” Stott, a violin and viola virtuoso, learned to play the cello in his 70s, says Exon, who took violin lessons from him. “Within no time at all, he was playing the cello as well as he played the viola. He was so musically inclined, it just came naturally to him, and I wanted to show that, too, but with him thinking about music rather than playing it.” Exon has happy memories of his music lessons at the Stott home. “I don’t know how well it comes across in the portrait, but my lessons were always in the early evening, when the sun was going down, and I recall his house being filled with that late afternoon light while we played music. So that was on my mind, too. “After all these thoughts came to me quite quickly, I thought I’d be able to capture him in a moment of contemplation and relaxation,” Exon says. The portrait was unveiled at the Swarthmore College Orchestra Concert on April 28 to the delight of the audience and several members of the Stott family. “To my father,” says William Stott ’75, “there was nothing more important than maximizing human potential in all forms. He taught himself to play the cello late in life to complete our family quartet.” He added that Exon had been one of his father’s favorite violin students and a dear friend. “It was a highlight for me to do this,” Exon says. “It brings a closing to the past two years since Gil’s death—a strange time for me, almost as if one of the major buildings had gotten up and walked away. This project allowed me to reflect on what Gil meant to the College and to me. He was enormously proud of his association with the College, so it’s nice that the College returned that.” —Carol Brévart-Demm the academic year 2007–2008. A February letter and e-mails from Board of Managers Chair Barbara Weber Mather ’65 and President Alfred H. Bloom to members of the College community elicited more than 200 responses, according to Robin Shores, director of institutional research. “Each touched on an average of three topics,” says Shores, “so we started with a lot of input.” A list of six to eight areas for the planning process will be finalized during the summer. It is expected that focused planning groups will be formed by the fall to research each topic and engage the College community in considering options. As yet, no date has been set for a final report. The planning process that resulted in the goals for The Meaning of Swarthmore, the recently concluded campaign for Swarthmore’s future, lasted for two years, from 1997 to 1999. The Planning Steering Committee includes faculty members, administrators, students, and members of the Board of Managers. The Alumni Council is represented by Sam Awuah ’94 (see page 41). —Jeffrey Lott Linus landed a job last fall. PHOTOGRAPHS BY ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS Sherelle plans grad school. Sherelle in everyday garb Linus in his econ T-shirt DRESS FOR SUCCESS (IN BORROWED CLOTHES?) “The first impression you make is very important! Research shows that the image you project is an important aspect of the recruiter’s decision-making process. Therefore, it is necessary for you to give some thought to your dress and overall appearance” when showing up for a job interview, counsels Swarthmore’s Career Services Office (CSO) Web site. In addition to helping students polish their resumes, the CSO recommends that they also polish their shoes. Appar- ently, it’s better to look like the PC guy than the Mac guy in those Apple commercials. Recommended for men are: A well-fitted medium to dark gray or navy blue suit (pinstripes or not); a classic width, small-print or striped tie; black or navy socks; and slip-on or lace-up shoes. Women interview best in a well-fitted—“not too tight”— conservative dark suit (although pants suits are “acceptable in most industries”); plain leather pumps; light or dark hose; and maybe a scarf. Although the site (www.swarthmore.edu/x10731.xml) lists local clothiers for men and women that range from Target to Talbots, the CSO acknowledges that many students don’t want to shell out for a new suit that they won’t exactly be wearing to chemistry class. Enter the Career Closet, a not-quitecouture but clean-and-ready collection of interview duds on loan for those special jobsearch occasions. Here we meet seniors Linus Waelti (left) and Sherelle Harmon attired in Career Closet finery—and in their usual Swarthmore apparel. Waelti, an honors economics major with an honors mathematics minor, was offered a job last fall as an actuarial associate at the Boston consulting firm Towers Perrin. Harmon, who majored in psychology, is—as of early May—still looking for a transitional job before heading to graduate school in clinical psychology or public health. —Jeffrey Lott june 2007 : 5 collection ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS Students planted an organic garden across from Mary Lyon, hoping to raise some produce for the Chester Co-op and Sharples Dining Hall. SUSTAINABLE, LOCAL, ORGANIC Planting an organic garden is just one idea emerging from a new campus initiative called Swarthmore Good Food—a group of students committed to sustainable, local, and organic foods and ethical food habits. Good Food members sponsored a week of events in April, including a Sharples “takeover” that included delicious organic salmon and kale; a lecture on the “Future of Food”; a discussion with Mari Clements, a nutritionist at the Worth Health Center; and a campus discussion about what it means to eat ethically. Most Good Food members are vegans or vegetarians, but the group also includes “conscientious omnivores,” who are mindful of where their meat comes from. Putting their ideals into practice, students planted a College produce garden in a plot across the street from Mary Lyon Hall. Using organic seeds, they are trying out a variety of crops—including carrots, garlic, potatoes, scallions, peas, spinach, kale, eggplant, beets, and tomatoes—to see what grows best. In the future, planting will start in the campus greenhouse in late winter and, assisted by helpers funded by the Scott Arboretum, continue through the summer. All students who enjoy grubbing around in soil and breathing fresh air are welcome to work in the garden. One gardener, Mia Adjei ’09, explains, “I think it’s important to be connected to where your food comes from,” but she is also happy to reconnect to an activity she has enjoyed since childhood. Claudia Seixas ’10, who enjoys teamwork, reflects, “I like the communal aspect of gardening.” With the student plot adjoining plots cultivated by other Swarthmore residents, Claire Galpern ’10 says, “I feel more tied to the people.” Project members will sell their produce to the Chester Co-op, which started last June. According to Marshall Morales ’08, one of the founding members of Good Food, “The Co-op fits into our ideals of food justice”— the notion that everyone should be able to afford organic food. He explained that grocery chains often avoid locating in impoverished communities like Chester. The Co-op will give Chester a community-based grocery store capable of supplying local food, such as the lettuce, spinach, and kale that will be coming from the Swarthmore garden in early summer. When students return in the fall, the garden will supply Sharples Dining Hall. “We can’t supply all of Sharples,” Morales says, “but we want to slide in where we can. They’ve been very willing to work with us.” So, in early September, students can look forward to Swarthmore-grown pumpkins and watermelons. —Lauren Stokes ’09 More than a dozen a capella and dance groups from Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford joined to kick-off the Tri-College Peace Week in March. The weeklong series of free events also included speakers, displays, and films—all dedicated to reducing violence. Peace Week is a project of Students Against Violence Everywhere Are Us (SAVE R US), an international student-run anti-violence organization, founded in 2001 by Brandon Lee Wolff ‘08. In addition to the annual Peace Week, SAVE R US runs a “Peacemakers” program that sends trained college and high school students into elementary schools to conduct programs aimed at fostering diversity and working against violence, especially among youth. “Through Peace Week and the hands-on Peacemakers program, we hope to educate the youth of today so that we will have a less violent society in the future,” Wolff says. 6 : swarthmore college bulletin JIM GRAHAM PEACE WEEK PROMOTES NONVIOLENCE IN COMMUNITIES AND SCHOOLS Brandon Lee Wolff (left) works with fellow students on a poster at the beginning of Peace Week, which Wolff coordinated for the third time in April. FOUR RECEIVE TENURE MERTZ HALL RO R TE PA 32 0 – CH ES ALICE PAUL HALL In March, ground was broken for construction of David Kemp Hall, the companion dormitory to Alice Paul Residence Hall. The two residences, both with environmentally sustainable designs, will share a landscaped courtyard. Like Paul Hall, Kemp will house 75 students in single and double rooms and bi-level lofts. The leadership donation of $7 million for the new hall is part of a $10 million gift from Gil Kemp ’72 and his wife, Barbara Guss Kemp, to The Meaning of Swarthmore. David Kemp Hall, named for Gil Kemp’s grandfather, is scheduled to be completed in April 2008. In its April 2007 issue, Glamour magazine chose Stephanie Nyombayire ’08 as one of its Top 10 College Women for her work as a co-founder of the Genocide Intervention Network. The organization has raised $1.5 million to support the peacekeeping forces in Darfur and $250,000 to provide armed escorts for women refugees who risk rape when they leave their camps to seek firewood. Nyombayire had met many such women during a 2005 trip to the Chad-Sudan border, when she served as a correspondent for mtvU, MTV’s campus television network. She was one of three students chosen to collaborate with the network on a film documentary on the crisis in Sudan. A Rwandan native, Nyombayire lost more than 100 family members during the 1994 genocide there. “Two years ago, when we went to Chad with MTV to make the documentary and let people hear the voices of the refugees we spoke to and get them to care about the issues there, few knew where Sudan or Darfur were,” Nyombayire says. “This award indicates that people are paying attention to the work we’re doing. It represents a growth in awareness of what is happening in Darfur, how receptive people have become, and how much they wish to remain involved—and that’s great.” —Carol Brévart-Demm june 2007 : 7 WILLIAM RAWN ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS DAVID KEMP HALL AD GROUND B R O KE N FO R N E W RESIDENCE HALL ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS At its February meeting, The Board of Managers approved the promotion of four faculty members to associate professor status with continuous tenure. Diego Armus is a historian of Latin America whose interests range from the urban experience of modern Latin America to medicine and disease. He is the editor of Disease in the History of Modern Latin America: From Malaria to AIDS (Duke University Press, 2003). Kendall Johnson teaches American literature in the Department of English Literature, focusing especially on 19th-century writers. His forthcoming book, Henry James and the Visual, will be published by Cambridge University Press. Jose-Luis Machado, a native of Columbia, is an ecologist whose research focuses on the structure and dynamics of temperate and tropical forest communities and ecosystems, including Swarthmore’s Crum Woods. Art historian Patricia Reilly specializes in Italian Renaissance art and art theory and in printing and the graphic arts. She also teaches the art and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. Full professorship was awarded to Sydney Carpenter, studio art; Sibelan Forrester, Russian; and Allen Kuharski, theater. COURTESY OF BELLA LIU collection Memory and Hope in Rural China Lang Opportunity Scholarships, awarded annually to no more than six sophomores, reflect Eugene Lang’s [’38] vision that students with demonstrated commitment to social justice should be enabled to design and implement innovative solutions to social problems. Here, in her own words, is the story of Lang Scholar Bella Liu ’07 (above right), a biochemistry major from Pittsburgh, Pa., who has worked at a children’s AIDS clinic in her hometown and is the founder of Swarthmore’s chapter of Amnesty International. I was filled with both awe and doubt when I saw the front cover of a May 2006 Newsweek, depicting a glamorous Chinese movie star against a Shanghai skyline with the title “China’s Century.” How many readers would stop to think that just a 14-hour train ride away from the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai, most homes have dirt floors and the nearest hospital is a day’s bicycle ride away? Today, China is a rising superpower, experiencing unrivaled economic growth and modernization. Yet there is a tremendous socioeconomic difference between the wealthy urban China known to the Western world and the poor rural China still covering most of the country’s territory. Last summer, I worked with a community in rural China that has suffered from this difference. In the 1980s and 1990s, thousands of rural peasants in several central provinces, notably Henan, were infected with HIV/AIDS when, to alleviate their poverty, they sold their blood in places that used poor sterilization techniques. After an initial cover-up of the crisis by local officials, the Chinese government offered free medical treatment to the country’s HIV/AIDS patients. Although medicine is now available and the infection rate has been curbed, the difficulty remains of helping the affected families deal with the 8 : swarthmore college bulletin deepening poverty and stigma in their communities. In an area where a large portion of a working-age generation has succumbed to HIV/AIDS, the blood-selling disaster represents a deeply rooted socio-economic problem. This problem is particularly reflected in the situation of a growing number of children from Central China who were orphaned by the epidemic. Most of these children are not HIV-positive themselves. Yet, with parents who are sick or dying, the children often lack the funds or motivation to stay in school. Socially isolated, growing up without parental love and care, with no means to provide for themselves, many children risk ending up destitute, illiterate, and alone. Extremely few programs are in place to ensure their psychological and long-term well-being. In high school, reading about the families of the “AIDS villages” in Central China, I wondered how I could connect with and help them. Then, I found a Chinese charity, the Chi Heng Foundation, one of a handful of nongovernmental groups allowed to operate there at the time. They sponsored the education and living costs of the children orphaned by HIV/AIDS and planned to start a secondary program to provide the children with psychological support. The summer of my freshman year, I teamed up with the foundation and, with a Swarthmore Foundation Grant, created the China Memory Book Project. The goal was to help the children deal emotionally with their stress by making memory books, similar to scrapbooks. The memory books were printed “activity booklets” with guiding prompts, focusing on the children’s future and not just their past. The children were not only prompted to describe their parents, family traditions, and any worries but also to record contact information for relatives, their progress in school, and their personal achievements and aspirations. Through the Chi Heng Foundation, memory books were given to more than 3,000 children along with collected writing and drawing supplies. As I worked on the China Memory Book Project—and read many copies of the completed books—I realized how important a connection with society will be for these children when they grow up. Without guidance, many are left questioning, even doubting their future role in society. I began my Lang Opportunity Scholarship project in summer 2006 with that in mind. Working with Chinese university students, I helped create Big Brother Big Sister Mentorship Programs for the Chi Heng Foundation children, with the university students as the big brothers and big sisters. The mentorship program will continue to take place every summer at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, Tsinghua University in Beijing, Fudan University in Shanghai, and possibly others in the future. Together with the Chinese university students, I spent my summer playing and interacting with several dozen children. Although shy, they really enjoyed pairing up with their mentors, and many were inspired to pursue university educations. We are thinking of ways to make the mentorship program more helpful for the children when they return home, for example, by having mentors visit the children’s home villages during winter break. Wrapping up the mentorship program in Shanghai, one night, I found myself walking with the children along the Bund, a stretch of swanky, touristy waterfront that has come to symbolize Chinese modernization and prosperity. Admiring the colorful lights of the skyline across the river, one girl asked me, “Sister Bella, don’t you think that is a waste of a lot of energy?” This little question has come to represent so many other questions I have about China in the context of my project work. How will China, with the world’s largest population, be able to deal with its population- and resourcerelated problems, includThe memory books were printed ing an AIDS epidemic? And “activity booklets” with guiding how will China, with the prompts focusing on the chilworld’s fourth-largest econ- dren’s future, not just their past. omy, be able to deal with such an unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity? Whatever the future brings, I hope at least that the children I’ve been working with will not be left behind. For more information on the Memory Book Project, visit www.swarthmore.edu/x10097.xml. ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS NEW LEADERSHIP FOR LANG CENTER Joy Charlton, professor of sociology and associate dean for academic affairs, will become executive director of the College’s Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility in the fall. The Lang Center was founded in 2001 to provide a home base for social action on campus. Charlton will replace founding director Jennie Keith, who is retiring (see page 13). Charlton has taught courses on urban sociology, social inequality, and work and organizations—all interests that she says will serve her well at the Lang Center. Although she expects to be busy at the center, Charlton thinks it’s important to continue to teach. “Next year, I may offer a senior version of the course Everyday Life for those who took it as a first-year seminar; after that, we’ll see what happens.” Asked whether there is a connection between the disciplines of sociology and anthropology and the Lang Center’s commitment to social responsibility, Charlton says, “Jennie and I are both fieldworkers—our research is based on observation and interviews, which is to say direct contact with people and communities. Our interest in better understanding and interacting with the social world make us a good fit for the Lang Center.” Charlton has been engaged in social responsibility programs since she came to Swarthmore in 1981. She has been active on the Ad-Hoc Committee on Service Learning; the Swarthmore Foundation Committee (and its precursor the SwarthmoreChester Internship Committee); the Lang Center Advisory Committee; the Community-based Learning Faculty Discussion Group; the Lang Opportunity Scholars Program (and its precursor the Lang Scholarship Committee); and in teaching community-based learning courses. All of these activities are now gathered under the Lang Center umbrella. Charlton hopes to use her new position at the Center “to find ever better ways to integrate student interest in social responsibility with the curriculum and faculty involvement; to productively bridge the boundaries between the College and local and global communities; and to represent and focus the College’s long-standing commitment to contextualizing students’ intellectual growth with what President [Alfred H. Bloom] calls ‘ethical intelligence.’” The Lang Center will soon have a change of location as well as leadership, moving from cramped quarters at the Swarthmore train station to a new campus home at 3-5 Whittier Place. Charlton describes herself as “especially eager” about the move, since it will be “closer to the center of campus while still remaining an easy linking point for local communities. I think students, staff, faculty, and community members will find it a welcoming and energizing space.” The new location will also offer more space for student activities, including a resource room for tutoring and a space designed for student use that will be available in the evening. —Lauren Stokes ’09 june 2007 : 9 collection ELENA RETFALVI “Densely Beautiful, Disarmingly Rich” Poet Nathalie Anderson (left) is professor of English literature and director of the College’s Creative Writing Program. Her second published collection of poems, Crawlers (Ashland Poetry Press, 2006), won the 2005 McGovern Prize. Award-winning poet Denise Duhamel writes: “The poems in Nathalie Anderson’s Crawlers explore family, in its traditional sense and as a metaphor for the relationships of the world at large, mining dark and complicated truths. Anderson’s imagery is densely beautiful, disarmingly rich. Hers is an expansive and generous poetry—desperately moving, meticulously crafted.” Anderson was a 1993 Pew Fellow and serves as poet in residence at the Rosenbach Museum and Library. In addition to her poetry, Anderson is the author of libretti for three operas written in collaboration with Associate Professor of Music Thomas Whitman ’82. Crawlers may be purchased from Ashland Poetry Press (www.ashland.edu/aupoetry) or from the Swarthmore College Bookstore (http://bookstore.swarthmore.edu). The Slaking There is one story I can hear again and again, the story where the shoe fits, where the tempered steel snagged in the cleft rock eases itself into the proper hand, where the stranger flings back his hood and Robin kneels in that verdant heart, where the mourner complains to the gardener, where the man with the child on his back stands open-mouthed half-way across the river as his old name flows away, where the one who beds the hag wakes in the morning to the young queen. Put your hand in my side, he said: yes, yes, now I see. Not discovery—you knew it already; not disguise stripped bare; but re- in the cave where the wheat-sheaf lights the dead to life, I stood in the ball court and watched the blood fly, I stood in the cathedral where even the glass is stained, and I am no believer. Yes, I have seen the victor run triumphant into darkness, the vanquished giddy, drunk with free-flowing rain. Who was that masked man? And mama, why did he leave us, hi-yo Silver away? On the fourth day without sleep, edges began to shimmer, one action bled into another, the molecules the atoms veering off into space: what goes when you choose noon over midnight. As a planet turns first one cheek and then the other cognition, the train leaping the synaptic track, the ship slipping its galactic tether, the perfect stone skipping its way across the cloudy nebulae. He promised me a thing that is not easy: boots of the skin of a fish. I have worn those boots, I have worn them down, the leather carp-rosy, the old scales petaling the sides, a vellum so sheer my pulse blushed salmon-ruddy through that suppleness, that tenderness so shocking to the heel. In those boots I have walked for seven leagues, I have walked for seven years, the moon bounding before me, wringing out its white loins every twenty-eight dreams. In those boots I stood to best advantage, as a planet slowly turns its ravaged face to the light, we come round at last. The moon swells, the moon empties. Some nights, I swim sleeved in darkness, a fish flowing into itself, flowering out of its own elements; some days, I walk the earth flayed of my skin, and every breeze salts the wound, my eyes seared, my tongue scalded—coals of fire. If the skin fits, wear it, fling back the hood, ease your worn heart from your side, wake in the morning as the new queen. Re-cognition. This is what you are, and this is where: so much light spilling over the lip of the world, it slakes, it dazzles, it splashes profligate into the trees. 10 : swarthmore college bulletin designs and develops technology for use in the rehabilitation, education, military, entertainment, and space fields. Then, they split into groups for 50-minute-long workshops, participating in hands-on projects with the enticing titles “Chemistry is Colorful” by Virginia Indivero, a lecturer in the Chemistry Department; “Solar System” by Mary Ann Klassen, a lecturer in the Physics and Astronomy Department; “Cooperation, Competition, and Chocolate” by Bree BangJensen ’07; and “Bully Behaviors of Fighting Fish” by McCord. Speaking of her own EYH experience years earlier at the University of Texas as a Girl Scout, McCord recalls the excitement she felt seeing a female doctor in charge of an experiment. “I just remember thinking that college women were so cool and knowledgeable,” she says. This year’s girls were similarly enthusiastic about their conference experiences. Penns Grove [N.J.] School 8th-grader Maria Lombardi says: “I’d never really contemplated a profession in the sciences because I’ve always wanted to be an attorney, but maybe now I’ll consider other options.” Planned by Swarthmore students who ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS How many middle school girls does it take to fill the Science Center’s Eldridge Commons? Try 150—the number of adolescent females who gathered there one Saturday in April to participate in the Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) Conference. This 8-hour event gave girls the opportunity to delve into math and science and to spend time with female role models in two fields that have historically been male-dominated. “There is an established gender gap within [math and science] Ph.D.s and M.S.s,” says Lauren Yoshizawa ’09, one of the conference coordinators. “Many girls just stop pursuing these subjects in high school.” Biology Department Laboratory Instructor Aleia McCord, a workshop leader and EYH alumna herself, explains: “Before puberty, androgyny protects you from ideas of male and female gender roles, but after puberty you become more aware. And if you don’t see positive role models when you’re forming these gendered identities, that’s when you lose these girls.” The girls’ motivations to attend the event were varied: “My mom made me,” says Sydney Mitchell, an 8thgrader from Cedarbrook Middle School. But Mandy Collar from Oxford Middle School says, “I absolutely love math and CSI crime-scene stuff.” Yoshizawa was impressed by the enthusiasm Juliana Macri ’09 (center), a psychobiology special major, helps expressed in the two aspiring scientists conduct an experiment during “Expanding girls’ applications Your Horizons,” a program to encourage girls to become scientists. to attend the conference. “You have to hope that continues,” she says. run a campus chapter of a national organiThe conference planners went out of zation of the same name, this year the EYH their way to ensure that it did. conference was funded through a grant First, the girls listened to keynote speak- from the Swarthmore Foundation. Next ers Delores Wright, a Chester High School year, funds for the conference must be science teacher, and Corinna Lathan ’88, sought from other sources. who founded AnthroTronix, a company that —Lena Wong ’10 WITH GRACE AND A READY SMILE: PATRICIA BOYER Patricia Wityk Boyer’s passion for dance and vision for the future of Swarthmore’s dance program are in large part responsible for the rich and vibrant dance environment that exists on campus today. She died on April 10. “Pat’s tireless work on behalf of dance at Swarthmore College paved the way for the creation of the current program,” says Stephen Lang Professor of Performing Arts Sharon Friedler. Joining the faculty in 1968, Boyer became the College’s first director of the program. Teaching courses in modern dance and ballet technique, dance composition, and dance history, she directed the Swarthmore College Dancers and choreographed for them, often in collaboration with members of the Music Department. In 1982, she and Professor Emeritus of Music James Freeman co-founded the Swarthmore Music and Dance Festival. “Pat was a wonderful friend,” Freeman says. “How well I remember working with her on an all-student production of Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale—the event that led directly to dance moving from the Physical Education to the Music Department. “Shortly thereafter, in June 1982, we put together the first Music and Dance Festival, a weekend of performances that included legendary pianist Lili Kraus playing her last public concert and the Alvin Ailey Dance Company in a nearly filled Clothier Hall. “The aneurysm that struck her down occurred as we were planning the 1983 Festival. Even after that, Pat’s courage and her love for life and dance never failed. She was a remarkable woman whom I’ll miss forever.” Boyer retired as a full professor in 1983. The Patricia Wityk Boyer Studio and Dance Lab in the Lang Performing Arts Center was named for her, and the 2007 Spring Dance Concert was dedicated to her memory. —Carol Brévart-Demm 1983 HALCYON MAKE ROOM IN THE LAB FOR THE GIRLS june 2007 : 11 collection ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS HOPKINS: “WHEN IN DOUBT, DO IT!” Leading scholars of international politics convened in March for a symposium on “Challenges in Contemporary International Politics” to honor retiring Ritcher Professor of Political Science Raymond Hopkins—a prolific and internationally influential scholar and pioneer in the study of world food policy. Hopkins, who leaves a 40-year legacy of dedication to his students, was “thrilled to see such a splendid mix of the best academic and policy people in the field at the event.” Hopkins, a 68-year-old Swarthmore resident, teaches international politics, African politics, and food policy and is an authority on global food issues and political economy. He has dedicated a lifetime of research to understanding how international organizations develop. In a letter announcing the Hopkins International Public-Policy Internship, Professor Emeritus of Political Science Charles Gilbert describes his colleague as “a caring and stimulating teacher whose intellectual energy, personal modesty, good humor, and community concern have figured signally in the fabric of the College for nearly four decades.” “He is deeply committed to bringing about a more humane world with less hunger and more social justice,” says Professor of Political Science Carol Nackenoff. “This is not only an academic concern for him; he lives this commitment in all his activities.” And his students live it with him. When asked what he would miss most at Swarthmore, Hopkins’ response comes quickly: “The students. I’ll miss the interaction with them, especially the seminar experience where I really get to know them.” 12 : swarthmore college bulletin Over the years, Hopkins has embraced collaborative teaching and experiential learning and that is, perhaps, where he has made the biggest difference for his students. Using his connections with the World Bank, United Nations, United States government, World Food Programme, and the International Food Policy Research Institute as well as his research in various countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, including Bhutan, Tanzania, and Italy, he has helped more than 100 students obtain internships in Washington, D.C., the United Nations, and countries throughout the world. In addition to teaching and research, Hopkins’ life is filled with a network of friends, community activities, politics, and church activities—he’s been an elder at the Swarthmore Presbyterian Church three times. In June, the father of two grown children will be even busier. There are four conferences to attend, an addition to complete on the family log cabin in Maine, and son Mark’s wedding in Italy to attend with his wife, Carol, their daughter, Kathryn, and her family. During the next two to three years, he hopes to sail the Atlantic and make his nonprofit organization, the International Service Community—which takes professionals to foreign countries to do volunteer work—self-sustaining. Reflecting on the sailing photos, ID tags, and other mementos tacked to the large, simple bulletin board over his desk, Hopkins remarks, “I’ve lived a wonderful life.” His life advice? “When in doubt, do it.” —Susan Cousins Breen Jennie Keith, Centennial Professor of Anthropology, Swarthmore’s first female provost, and founding director of the College’s Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, retires this month after 39 years on the faculty. Keith became an academic at a time when opportunities for women were expanding in higher education. As a member of the Class of 1964 at Pomona College and a graduate of Northwestern University—where she received a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1968— Keith says she “came along with a cohort of women who were always in the minority in the profession, but there were major shifts in our view of what was possible.” As a result, Keith says, she was often “invited” into leadership positions. A leading authority on aging, Keith co-authored, among several dozen other books and articles, The Aging Experience: Diversity and Commonality Across Cultures (Sage Publications, 1994), a decadelong, cross-cultural study of growing old in the United States and other countries. Keith served as the College’s provost from 1992 until 2001 and became director of the Lang Center in 2002. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Joy Charlton will succeed her at the Lang Center (see p. 9). As provost under President Alfred H. Bloom, Keith concentrated on building faculty morale and increasing faculty diversity. “Al wanted a provost who would help him engage the faculty in the leadership of the College—and that’s very challenging,” she says. “We wanted to get to where people with different points of view would work together in solving problems.” Through aggressive recruitment of top female and minority scholars, Keith oversaw a steady increase in the numbers of both on the faculty. Because of tenure and the small number of retirements ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS KEITH: CO-LEARNING FOR 39 YEARS each year, changing the composition of the faculty can be a very slow process, Keith explains. Tenured and tenure-track women on the faculty have risen from 29 to 39 percent since 1990; minority faculty members have gone from 11 percent to 17 percent in the same period. As provost, Keith, who is a Quaker, saw herself as “a princess of process.” She presided (with Professor of English Literature Craig Williamson) over the 1996 reform of the Honors Program; helped lead the two-year planning process for The Meaning of Swarthmore, the recently concluded capital campaign; and chaired the Athletics Review Committee, which recommended in December 2000 that Swarthmore end its football and wrestling programs as a part of an effort to strengthen the remaining intercollegiate sports. “Now that was a very complex problem,” Keith says of the athletics decision. “We tried our best to do this in a respectful and fair way, but whatever we did, there was going to be loss and pain.” In May, a campus event in her honor featured an introduction by President Bloom and three speakers who talked of Keith’s influence on their lives and careers: Marc Freedman ’80, co-founder of the social-capital think tank and incubator Civic Ventures and of The Experience Corps, the United States’ largest national service program for Americans 50 and above; Cynthia Jetter ’74, a longtime public-housing activist and administrator, now director of community partnerships and planning at the Lang Center; and Professor Miguel Díaz-Barriga, chair of sociology and anthropology. Keith is considering a research project on the historical relationship between the College and the nearby community of Chester, Pa. “This hasn’t been a one-way relationship,” she says. “I’m particularly interested in the times when Chester has been the actor, the motivator, the giver. We need to know more about the complexities of the relationship between people in an elite higher-education institution and a city that faces tremendous challenges—particularly in education.” Asked about lessons in her research on aging that she might apply to her own retirement, she says that staying in a community you know—and that knows you—is vital: “Your personal identity and history are not ‘vested’ in you as an individual—you can’t take them with you like your pension.” Although she and her husband, psychiatrist Roy Fitzgerald, will live in Lewes, Del., Keith plans to keep an office at the Lang Center and will remain engaged with the campus community. “Sharing the learning experience with the students I’ve known at Swarthmore has been a privilege,” Keith says. “Teaching is colearning, using my skills to support the process. I love to learn alongside people with such quality minds—and who are genuinely good and want to do good in the world. I’ve learned so much about giving up control over the process—trusting my fellow learners and going with them.” —Jeffrey Lott ARCADIA IN THE AMPHITHEATER The weather was fine on April 21 and 22 for a student production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in the Scott Amphitheater. The play, set in an English country house, juxtaposes the views of love, literature, and science of residents of the house in 1809 and 1989—becoming a commentary on history itself. “The amphitheater proved the perfect location—a beautiful setting for a play in which landscape is a critical concern,” wrote Daily Gazette reviewer Daisy Yuhas '09. Directors Micaela Baranello '07 and Nora Nussbaum '08 prepared a cast of five for the play, which Yuhas called “ideal entertainment for Swatties on a hot spring day.” Actors pictured are (left to right) Fletcher Wortmann ’09, Katie Bates '08, and Mikio Akagi '08. PHOTOGRAPH BY MILES SKORPEN 0ʼ 9 june 2007 : 13 collection Women’s Tennis (13-7, 9–1 Centennial Conference (CC)) Swarthmore, ranked 15th in NCAA Division III, made its fifth consecutive appearance in the national team championships, advancing to the second round. Seniors Sonya Reynolds and Sara Sargent won the Wilson ITA Southeast Regional doubles’ title, becoming the first Garnet duo to earn All-America honors. Reynolds and sophomore Jennie Park were named All-Centennial for singles play, and Reynolds and Sargent were selected for doubles. Reynolds went to the NCAA Division III Individual Championships for the third consecutive season, advancing to the second round. Men’s Tennis (7–10) The Garnet advanced to the Division III Tournament for the 30th time in 31 years, hosting the first three rounds of action at the Edwin Faulkner Tennis Courts. Swarthmore defeated the College of New Jersey, 5-0, in the second round before falling to 2006 National Champion Emory University, 5-0, in the regional finals. Senior Jon Reiss was selected to compete in the singles competition of the Division III Individual Championships, advancing as far as the second round. Baseball (4–25, 2–16 CC) Swarthmore catcher Andy Bender ’08 and infielder Conor Casey ’09 posted career-high batting averages, and freshman outfielder Jimmy Gill led the team with 22 RBIs. Junior centerfielder Scott Dalane had four hits, including his first career home run, to lead the Garnet to a thrilling 14-8 win at Haverford on April 20, spoiling the Fords’ chance to the make the CC playoffs. Senior captain Sammy Faeder became the sixth Garnet baseball player to sign a professional contract. He will be catching for the Netyana Tigers in the Israel Baseball League this summer. Golf (tied for second at CC Championship) Swarthmore’s golf team enjoyed its best season ever, shooting a 306 (third-lowest in school history) as a team on the final day of the CC Championships at Pilgrim’s Oak Golf Course in Peach Bottom, Pa. The Garnet posted a three-day total of 933, tying McDaniel for second KYLE LEACH Strong Spring Seasons for Tennis and Softball Kathryn Riley ’10 posted an 11–4 record with a 1.15 ERA. She also led the team in batting with a .363 average and 37 hits. behind champions Franklin & Marshall (924). Seniors Eric Zwick (74-78-78=230) and Zach Moody (81-75-74=230) tied for fifth among individual golfers to earn All-CC status. Zwick was also honored as 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Men’s Golf Performer of the Year. Men’s Lacrosse (5-7, 2-6 CC) Garnet defender Dan Sartori ’08 was the fifth Swarthmore defender tabbed as All-CC, earning an honorable mention selection after leading the team with 44 ground balls and anchoring a Garnet defense that allowed 7.8 goals per game, good enough for sixth in the Conference. Junior goaltender Frank Mazzucco also played a key role in the stingy Swarthmore defense, finishing second in the CC in saves per game (12.6) and third in Sonya Reynolds ’07 concludes her collegiate career as one of the best ever to swing a tennis racquet on campus. She posted a 63–21 overall singles’ record over four years, leading the Garnet women’s team to three Centennial Conference (CC) championships (including a streak of 31 straight Conference wins) and four consecutive invitations to the NCAA Division III Tournament. In each of the past three seasons, she has been selected to participate in the NCAA Division III Individual Tennis Championships, advancing into the second round this past season. Reynolds is the first player in Swarthmore history to be named All-America in singles (2005) and doubles (2007) and is one of the most decorated athletes in Centennial Conference history, having received seven All-CC selections (four for doubles, three for singles). Reynolds received the Gladys Irish Award at the annual Swarthmore Department of Athletics Banquet, given to the senior or junior female athlete who, through her commitment, dedication, and the pure enjoyment of her sport, has achieved the highest degree of excellence. —Kyle Leach 14 : swarthmore college bulletin KYLE LEACH TOPS IN TENNIS save percentage (.635). Mazzucco was also named 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Men’s Lacrosse Performer of the Year. Women’s Lacrosse (11-7, 4-5 CC) Three Swarthmore women were named All-CC in 2007: sophomore defender Melissa Grigsby, senior midfielder Lindsay Roth, and junior midfielder Megan Sanborn. Sanborn was selected for the second team after tying for second in the CC for assists (1.02 per game, 31 total) and leading the Garnet in five categories—draw controls (50), ground balls (47), caused turnovers (31), assists and game-winning goals (five). Roth, a team captain, won an honorable mention (her third All-CC selection) after scoring 27 goals to conclude her eighth career all-time at Swarthmore in goals (127) and ninth in points (153). Grigsby also won an honorable mention after leading the Swarthmore defensive unit. She was second on the team with 46 ground balls and 34 draw controls as well as adding three assists. Softball (22-13, 11-5 CC) The Garnet set a school record for CC wins in a season to earn a second consecutive trip to the conference playoffs. Kathryn Riley ’10 made an immediate impact, becoming just the fifth Swarthmore first-year to make First-Team All-CC (as a pitcher) and All-Region (as utility player). Riley posted a record of 11-4 in 2007 with a 1.15 ERA in 97.0 innings, tallying three shutouts and striking out 74 batters. She also made a significant impact at the plate, leading the team in seven offensive categories: batting average (.363), hits (37), doubles (8), home runs (3), total bases (54), walks (12), and on-base percentage (.458). Second baseman Christine Sendelsky ’09 became the first Swarthmore player to make First-Team All-CC twice, making the 2007 team after hitting .306 in conference play and finishing tied for the team lead in runs scored (23). Junior shortstop Katherine Gold received an All-CC honorable mention after leading the team in triples (three) and slugging percentage (.535). Head coach Renee Clarke recorded her 300th career win on March 25 in a sweep of Penn State–Berks. Men’s track and field (ninth at CC Championship) The 4 x 800meter relay team—consisting of Matt Schiller ’07, Dillon McGrew ’07, Connor Darby ’09, and Vernon Chaplin ’07—broke the College PHOTOGRAPHS BY KYLE LEACH At the CC Championships, Ross Weller ’08 (left) earned a silver medal in the steeplechase with the fastest Swarthmore time in 16 years.Seniors Eric Zwick (above) and Zach Moody each shot a 230 to bring Swarthmore a second-place finish in the golf finals. And Lindsay Roth ’07 (right) was among three Swarthmore women named All-Conference in lacrosse. record (7:49.50) and captured a bronze medal at the CC Championships. Freshman Matt Turner collected a silver medal in the long jump, and junior Ross Weller also earned a silver medal in the 3,000 steeplechase, running the fifth-fastest time (9:34.82) in school history and the best in 16 years. Women’s track and field (10th at CC Championship) Sophomore Caitlin Mullarkey broke the College record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (11:42) on April 15 and later took home the bronze medal in both the steeplechase and the 800-meter race at the CC Championships. She just missed an NCAA provisional qualifying time in the 800 at the Last Chance Meet hosted at Clothier Stadium, running the fourth-fastest time in school history (2:15.16). —Kyle Leach LAST CHANCE = FAST CHANCE Two Villanova University speedsters ran sub–four-minute miles as 20 track-and-field records fell at Clothier Stadium during the annual Last Chance Meet, hosted by Swarthmore on May 21. Athletes from 46 schools, representing Divisions I, II, and III, competed on the College’s four-year-old Versaturf track. Much of the crowd stuck around to watch the rare mile-long race. A lofty and rare goal in sport, the sub–four-minute mile was first achieved by England’s Roger Bannister in 1954. Swarthmore head coach Peter Carroll, a Villanova alumnus, restructured the meet order to give Villanova’s Robert Curtis a chance to accomplish the sub– four-minute mile. A pair of Wildcats served as rabbits for the first couple of laps, forcing Curtis and teammate Michael Kerrigan to keep up a blistering pace. Curtis hit the line at 3:57 with his arms raised and Kerrigan tumbled across two seconds later as the crowd roared. —Kyle Leach june 2007 : 15 WHEN THE GROUND SHAKE∂ SWARTHMORE’S TAIKO PROGRAM DANCES AND DRUMS ON. By Elizabeth Redden ’05 Photographs by Eleftherios Kostans 16 : swarthmore college bulletin Talking about taiko means talking in rhythms—in patient pulsations, rolling crescendos, quickening heartbeats, and sudden, sudden stops. june 2007 : 17 “So many times I’ve heard the perfect sound with the perfect movement at the right time, and the result is that perfect moment hanging there—boom! And then, if that perfect feeling continues for the entire piece, I am nearly without any breath,” says Joseph Small ’05, now in Japan as the only nonJapanese apprentice with Kodo, the world’s most prestigious taiko group. “It’s that beautiful.” Swarthmore is one of a handful of colleges on the East Coast offering instruction and performance opportunities in taiko, a post–World War II Japanese art form defined by Kim Arrow, an associate professor of dance, as “the perfect marriage of music and drumming, of theater and dance.” In moving around and among oversized, two- to three-foot–wide drums on a stage, players dance in choreographed rhythms—the role of dance being to expand all that goes into the motion of striking the drum and recoiling from the hit, then striking again, and so forth. “In order to move correctly, you have to hit the drum correctly,” says Arrow, who teaches Swarthmore’s repertory class in taiko and directs the performance-oriented Swarthmore taiko group. “In order to hit the drum correctly, you have to move correctly.” “And all of a sudden, you’re dancing.” Joseph Small ’05 (above, right) performs at Swarthmore’s Fall Dance Concert in December 2006. Small is currently in Japan, serving an apprenticeship with Kodo, the world’s most prestigious taiko group. Taiko is a relatively modern Japanese art form that was developed in the 1950s. The Swarthmore taiko ensemble was launched seven years ago by Associate Professor of Dance Kim Arrow. 18 : swarthmore college bulletin Arrow started Swarthmore’s taiko program in 2000, having discovered the form during a stop-over with a community taiko group in Napa. Upon coming home, he arranged for Swarthmore to purchase four taiko drums before beginning the long process of building most of the program’s 14 drums himself. “Traditionally, they’re made of a single, old-growth tree,” Arrow says of taiko drums, which cost $10,000 to $30,000 when produced traditionally and $1,000 to $1,500 when produced commercially. Building the drums himself out of wine barrels costs about $300 and 30 hours of his labor. Hard labor: Just pulling the cowhide over the barrel requires four carjacks and the exertion of 6,000 pounds of pressure. Today, with the Lang Performing Arts Center storing as many drums as there’s space for, Swarthmore’s taiko program exists in three main manifestations: a 10- to 14person repertory class open to students at all levels; a performance ensemble that trav- els to different Philadelphia-area venues (including, in 2006, Citizens Bank Park for a Phillies game); and more informal, student-led initiatives. The program, although young, already boasts some accomplished alumni. Small, for one, received a Fulbright Grant to study and research taiko in Japan before beginning his apprenticeship this spring on Sado Island—once an island for exiles, now a rich cultural arts destination boasting cherry blossoms, mountains, bamboo forests, and the translucent Sea of Japan (not to mention “prodigious amounts” of rice, “It’s huge, it’s loud, it’s strong. It’s like the energy comes from within the drums, within the group.” seafood, and sake). In early 2006, Small’s classmate and former roommate Alex Hudson ’05 began his own apprenticeship with the San Jose taiko group—where he and Small had interned together one summer— while making a home for himself in the city’s Japantown. “One of the facts of life with a collegiate group, especially when it’s just getting off the ground like Swarthmore’s was when I was [on campus], is that there’s a dearth of expertise. You take classes one year; then the next year you have to start leading,” says Hudson, an English major and Japanese minor. Hudson and Small complemented their tutelage in taiko at Swarthmore through a summer at Honolulu’s Taiko Center of the Pacific (their studies, along with their internships in San Jose, supported by Eugene M. Lang Summer Initiative Grants) and a semester-abroad program at Tokyo’s Tamagawa University—Swarthmore’s sister school in all things taiko. Within just two weeks of arriving abroad, Hudson found himself performing in front of a crowd of 22,000. He now regularly travels and performs with San Jose Taiko between working as an office temp to pay the bills. “It was one of those things where you had to step up right away,” Hudson says— of taiko at Swarthmore, at Tamagawa, and at San Jose today. “Taiko—it’s huge, it’s loud, it’s strong,” says Yusha Hu ’08. “A lot if it is about energy. It’s exhausting. We’ll be playing and playing, and then you get a second wind; it’s like the energy comes from within the drums, within the group.” Ensemble taiko grows out of this idea of expansion, even explosion, says Arrow. Although taiko itself simply means “fat drum” and, historically, refers to a variety of different types of traditional Japanese drumming, ensemble taiko, or kumi-daiko, is a modern and, given its jazzy origins, necessarily globalized art form whose practitioners reach internationally to expand their own possibilities, Arrow says. Developed in the 1950s by Daihachi Oguchi, a Japanese jazz drummer who encountered an ancient taiko score and imagined a new way of interpreting it, Oguchi not only initiated the ensemble form but also literally expanded the size of jazz drums, expanding the bass, for instance, to a width of six to eight feet. Some forms of taiko are more grounded in dance than others, and some, says Arrow, feature incredibly intricate arm movements as the only deliberate motion. As a modern dancer by training, much of Arrow’s interest in bringing taiko to Swarthmore lies in incorporating a diversity of cultural influences to complement the dance program’s overall world dance emphasis. But so too is taiko indelibly grounded in modern Japanese history and a post-World War movement to celebrate distinctively Japanese art and culture. Many Swarthmore taiko students and alumni, including Hudson, who is halfFilipino, come to taiko in part to find an avenue to express and celebrate their own Asian or Asian-American roots. Swarthmore’s Japanese program has likewise benefited from the program’s deep connections to Tokyo and the city’s Tamagawa University. The director of the Tamagawa Taiko and Dance Group, Isaburoh Hanayagi, came to campus to offer his expertise when Swarthmore’s taiko program first began, and he has come back every year since. Students in Swarthmore’s Japanese program maintain pen-pal relationships with Tamagawa performers, getting the chance to meet them on the dancers’ annual performance tours to the Northeast. Hanayagi will split duties between Swarthmore’s dance and Japanese departments as a Cornell visiting professor in 2008–2009. Meanwhile, over at Sado Island’s communal Apprentice Center, Small is growing accustomed to a cultural exchange of the most intense kind, waking up at 4:40 a.m. each day only to sink to his knees to clean the floor before a 5:25 a.m. speedwalk switching partway through into an uphill run by the sea. After breakfast (eaten by apprentices with chopsticks held in the non-dominant hand), Small and his peers tighten the drums before morning, afternoon, and evening practices, with some vegetable-tending, craftwork, and, yes, meals thrown in. (Once, Small says, he served up buffalo wings for lunch: “They were declared both delicious and way too spicy”). “After a day of rehearsing, I feel worn out—I definitely have had no trouble falling asleep at night,” Small says. “Long after I’m ready to collapse, I can still hear the melody of the shinobue (horizontal bamboo flute) through the thin walls. “I can feel the floor vibrate from the taiko.” T Elizabeth Redden is a reporter for InsideHigherEd.com in Washington, D.C. june 2007 : 19 ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS JIM GRAHAM For one week in February, students representing all the major religious traditions opened their worship services to the public and shared their customs and rituals. This week of religion, reflecting a swelling interest in spirituality on campuses nationwide, was the first of its kind ever held at the College. ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS DURING A WEEK OF EVENTS FOCUSED ON RELIGION, FAITH BECOMES AN UNUSUALLY HOT CAMPUS TOPIC. Winter sunlight slants through leaded windows, falling on eight heads bowed in prayer. Three rows of worshippers—a man in front, three more behind, and four women at the rear—stand barefoot on brightly colored prayer mats. A snowy hijab completely covers one woman; the other women wear shorter shawls over their heads and shoulders. Two of the men—one in a striped, knit hat, the other with a white crocheted kufi—lead the service. The group looks into a corner of the room, the one that points to the East. The mood is reminiscent of a mosque, but this service is taking place on the first floor of Swarthmore College’s Bond Hall and is led by senior Nabil Khan and freshman Ruhullah Khapalwak. Five guests sit in chairs along the walls. “Allah-u-akbar!” Khapalwak exclaims, calling the worshippers to prayer. He begins to chant and sing, softly and melodically. Minutes later, Khan, assuming the role of imam, takes over. “Praise is due to Allah, who has guided us to the righteous path,” he says in Arabic. Switching to English, he By Carol Brévart-Demm welcomes the guests. Then, he delivers a sermon, in which he compares the Muslim holy book, the Qur’an, to an unwritten Qur’an whose message is evident in the natural, living world and to which the religious text directs those who are wise. “Every time we cast our eyes on the changing colors of the trees in autumn and we praise Allah for the stunning beauty around us, we are actually reading another verse from the Living Qur’an. Every time a geologist studies a sample of rock or soil … or a marine biologist examines the diseases on edible fish in the oceans, he or she is really reading another verse in the Living Qur’an,” Khan says. He ends the sermon: “Let us pray to Allah that … we should be among those who read, understand, and appreciate the signs of Allah that are written boldly in everything around us….” Khapalwak leads the group in prayer. At various times they stand, kneel, or touch the ground with their foreheads. Hands move from sides to knees to faces, covering eyes or ears, eliminating intrusions. Chanting alternates with periods when lips move silently in prayer. The service is informal, yet solemn and moving. When the worship ends, the Muslim students answer their guests’ questions about Islam. This Muslim prayer session was one of the first events of Religion and Spirituality on Campus Week, held in early February, during which worship services in all the major religious traditions as well as a Taizé chant and meditation session were open to the community. Other events included a “Women in Religion” panel; a talk on “Quaker Influences on Campus”; a student panel titled “Practicing Faith on Campus: the Transition to College Life”; a faculty panel called “Balancing Faith in Academic Life”; a “Veritas Forum on Science and Religion”; and an “Interfaith Text Study with Faculty Scholars.” The week of religion—the first of its kind ever held at the College—was the brainchild of the Rev. Joyce Tompkins, the College’s Protestant adviser and unofficial interfaith “go-to” person. She’s known by june 2007 : 21 the campus community for her kindness and willingness to listen—not to mention her supply of snacks. The goal of the weeklong event was to enable student religious groups to raise the profile of both organized the College. Thanks to support from the recently completed campaign, The Meaning of Swarthmore, Tompkins became full-time in the fall. Windhaus, also a full-time employee serving Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford colleges, receives funding from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia through the Newman Community. The part-time position held by Berkman, a graduate rabbinical student, is supported by Hillel and also by endowment funding managed by the College. Swarthmore Muslim Association members have no official adviser, although Assistant Professor of Religion Tariq al-Jamil says he is their de facto religious mentor. “It’s a role I’ve come to be comfortable with,” he says. The College’s Interfaith Center is located on the edge of campus in Bond Memorial Hall, a dignified and beautiful yet drafty old building, whose heating system is noisy and ineffective. (In winter, Tompkins, petite and slender, is often found shivering in her office, which, despite its bright and inviting decorative touches, is invaded by cold air penetrating its old, uninsulated windows.) The religious advisers joke good-naturedly about their location. Windhaus says: “I’m Struck by similarities she observed in the Muslim prayers and the Shabbat texts, Tompkins wondered, “How can we not get along?” religions and those groups of students practicing other types of spirituality—such as meditation—and to promote dialogue and understanding between them. The idea evolved from discussions among the deans of the College and the three campus religious advisers—Tompkins, Catholic Adviser Father Ed Windhaus, and Jewish adviser Jethro Berkman—about the current and future roles of religion at Swarthmore and on other free-thinking, secular campuses. Tompkin’s position is supported by Partners in Ministry, a nonprofit Protestant organization, with additional funding provided by an endowment that is managed by 22 : swarthmore college bulletin ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS JIM GRAHAM Three campus religious advisers (right)—Father Ed Windhaus, rabbinical graduate student Jethro Berkman, and the Reverend Joyce Tompkins (left to right)—nurture students’ spiritual needs and contribute to their ethical and moral maturation. Tompkins estimates that about half the student body practices some form of religious expression. grateful to have an office—with a bathroom. Joyce has the microwave, and Jethro has the copier. We all use each other’s spaces.” Under the supervision of Dean of Multicultural Affairs Darryl Smaw, Tompkins, Berkman, and Windhaus nurture students’ spiritual needs and also play a role in their ethical and moral maturation. They help organize weekly programs such as Pizza and Parable, Thursday-evening Bible study, and communion and Shabbat services, plus lectures on religious topics, excursions, retreats, and interfaith events. When incoming students’ orientation packages are mailed, Tompkins includes a message listing the many campus religious groups and their activities. About a third of first-year students fill out and return the short form indicating a religious affiliation. Tompkins estimates that up to half of the current student population practices some form of religious expression, including those who explore spirituality in nontraditional ways such as through meditation. Smaw, an ordained American Baptist minister who holds master’s degrees in divinity and theology from Crozer Theological Seminary and master’s and doctoral degrees in education from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, says that liberal arts campuses, long reputed to deride or ignore religion as irrational or nonintellectual, are experiencing a new interest in religious and spiritual expression. “Many students no longer want to divorce their religious or spiritual commitment from their intellectual pursuits. I think it’s part of the global climate. Given the way many of the major religions are influencing the way we view ourselves and the world, we need to learn and understand the differences among them,” he says. PERSONAL SPIRITUALITY Confirming the swelling interest in spirituality among students, Tompkins contrasts religious practice today with that of the 1950s and 1960s. “Back then, pretty much everyone was associated with a religion. It was like an identity. Today, it seems to be heading more toward developing your own sense of spirituality, shopping around, finding something that works for you,” she says. “Some act that out publicly; some don’t. Many students meditate on their own or have their own private prayer way. Religion week is not just to remind people that we have religious groups on campus but also to let them know that spirituality is much larger than that. There’s a lot going on here.” Furthermore, Tompkins is eager to encourage understanding between those who are religious and those who are not. “By promoting dialogue between those for whom religious faith is important and those who think it’s a crock, we can learn to understand one another and work toward common solutions to problems,” she says. Now in his second and final year at Swarthmore (he graduates from rabbinical college this spring), Berkman senses a secular inclination within the campus community, “It’s not that I feel discriminated against in any way. In fact, everyone has been nothing but supportive of what I’ve been trying to do here. However, it is a very intellectual place, and that’s great, but, whereas in much of the United States being a person of faith is self-evident, here it’s something that needs to be explained.” One of Berkman’s goals is to provide all Jewish students—not only those who practice religion—with an opportunity to connect with their heritage. “Judaism is so much more than a religion. It’s a civilization, it’s a people, and there are ways for students to connect to Jewish culture even if they’re atheists or they don’t like religion,” he says. “I’ve experienced a connection to my roots as a healthy thing in my own life. I used to be much more disconnected from my Jewish identity. When I was in college, I don’t think I would have come to any of the programs or events I help put on here.” As for Windhaus, he is delighted by the approximately 100 Catholic students who subscribe to his listserv and their enthusiasm for his programs, which have included trips to the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery exhibit of biblical manuscripts, excursions to look at religious architecture, and an annual one-day retreat. “They are genuinely interested and interesting,” he says. “You know what the demands are here, and yet they find the time.” Windhaus also enjoys “lovely, friendly chats” with faculty but says nonetheless: “There’s really no letting the students know that faith is important from the College’s perspective, although they do let them know that I’m here for them.” He too believes that religion is gaining greater acceptance on campuses, but he notices that students of faith “tend to walk on eggshells so as not to appear to be evangelically proselytizing, telling people they’re going to hell if they don’t do this or that. That ilk of right-wing Christianity has not done anybody any favors,” he says. remain anonymous says, “It seems as if religion is important to those who don’t practice it, not as something they want to do but as something they want to complain about.” Then, there are those who simply do not need it. As Hoa Pham ’10 said in a Feb. 2 Phoenix article: “To be perfectly honest, I don’t hear many people casually talking about religion. As Swatties, most of us are socially conscious and are interested in the “Many students no longer want to divorce their religious or spiritual commitment from their intellectual pursuits.” ANTAGONISTIC ATMOSPHERE As discussions about religion week progressed, Dean of Students Jim Larimore was concerned about the tendency of intellectually hypercharged campus communities like Swarthmore to approach the notion of religion with varying degrees of indifference or antagonism. Religious students verify Larimore’s concern. Although many say that those with no religious affiliation are simply uninterested in the topic, others claim to have experienced hostility or criticism. Meena Elanchenny ’10, a Hindu, says: “There are atheists on campus who are hostile toward believers, and some secular students say things like, ‘Islam is a militaristic religion, but Christianity is a peaceful religion.’ We should seek commonalities and concentrate on those.” Another student who wished to religions of the world, but I don’t see many of us being personally outward with our thoughts. I like to think of Swatties as very driven people, motivated and logical enough to be their own support, [instead of relying on] some invisible entity.” So, faced with the challenge of allaying antagonism, criticism, and indifference, a committee that included 23 students representing the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions—and some who wished simply to explore spirituality— planned an extraordinarily diverse program of 15 events as well as daily lunchtime discussion groups, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 11. “I encouraged people to think about how we could create a ‘safe space,’ an environment that would allow people to explore religion in a more personal way and stimulate interfaith dialogue both between those of different faiths and those who have doubts, questions, or deep reservations about faith.” Larimore says. “I was incredibly proud of the students for the way they dove right into it. The way they approached it was uniquely Swarthmorean. They looked for a wide range of opportunities for people to get together as human beings and recognize—in the Quaker spirit of this place— the Light within each other. At the same time, they ensured that there was intellectual discourse to lead to better understanding rather than simply abstract perceptions.” Smaw welcomed the opportunity to investigate the “partnership” between faith and reason and sees a similar desire in the june 2007 : 23 students of faith whom he mentors. In a community where the life of the mind is central, he says: “I’ve had conversations with students who are deeply committed to a faith tradition that nurtured and sustained them before they came to Swarthmore. They recognize that, for some in our community, to be a person of faith is to be seen as anti-intellectual—that’s not the way they see themselves. Nor do I see them that way.” Almost all of the religiously affiliated students interviewed for this article said that their faith has become stronger during their time at the College. Many find that it helps them face the rigors of academic life. Some find release in prayer. “Maybe because this campus is so liberal, people see religion as confining, but actually, even if you do it for only a very short time, it’s very freeing,” says Ailya Vajid ’09. Tabla player Deoroop Matapersad ’09 agrees: “When I play music, I get into my mode, a place where I can connect with God. It relaxes me, takes me away from the stress of Swarthmore.” And Mark Wallace, professor of religion, says, “I tell students that, ironically, they will be academically more productive if they have a healthy, productive, spiritual inner life.” Smaw believes that practicing a religious tradition may serve as a guide in ethical and moral decision-making without interfering with the ability to question, investigate, and perform research. “There’s much reconciliation between religion and intellectuality,” he says. “God wants us to discuss and question our faith. It’s not supposed to be easy. Challenge God! She wants you to!” ‘Here’s your chance,” she says. “You hear about this all the time in the news, the controversy about Muslim identity. Here’s an opportunity to ask questions—find out who is Sunni, who is Shi’ite, whether it matters, and whether they can worship together?’ I was really surprised and would like to understand why more students didn’t go to each other’s sessions.” Struck by similarities she observed in the Muslim prayers and the Shabbat texts, Tompkins wondered, “How can we not get along? Although there were differences, the similarities in the text were much stronger. When Jethro explained that when they say the sh’ma (part of morning and evening worship), they cover their eyes to shut out distractions—well, the Muslims do the exact same thing. I got chills when he said that,” she says. “Interfaith dialogue and unity is really my passion.” Tompkins was able to indulge that passion during the 90 minutes of Interfaith Text Study featuring Wallace; Helen Plotkin, an instructor in religion and director of Beit Midrash; and al-Jamil. At this event, attended by about 30, the three scholars analyzed Creation stories in the Bible, Torah, and Qur’an, concluding with a lively questionand-answer session. “It was incredible that we could have this really intense dialogue about a specific text and make these connections between religious traditions that would not have been obvious to us without our individual areas of expertise,” al-Jamil says. Plotkin and Tompkins are excited that faculty members and students want further opportunities for this kind of dialogue. A group of students now meets regularly for interfaith conversations and is seeking to arrange another text study. “It’s wonderful,” says Wallace, “because that models for us how religious traditions that some people want to pit against each other can actually be friendly interlocuters.” “Science was born in a theological womb,” Alexander asserted, explaining that many of the founders of modern science, such as Boyle, Descartes, and Newton, were men of faith. SHARING FAITH TRADITIONS Hours after the Muslim worship, an Open Shabbat, hosted by Ruach, the campus Jewish organization, took place in Bond Hall’s Common Worship Room—an intimate space on the second floor, almost like a living room, furnished with an old table, a buffet, chairs for about 25 people and a couple of musty couches and armchairs. Radiators provided clanking accompaniment as Berkman—curly dark hair topped by a yarmulke and his friendly, boyish face radiating 24 : swarthmore college bulletin youthful enthusiasm—led a service of psalms, songs, and prayers. During one song, all present turned to face the open door to welcome the Shabbat, which, Berkman explained, is compared to a bride. He spoke of the liberating aspect of Shabbat, which strict observers perceive as a time for “taking hands off the world, allowing it to speak to us in a way it cannot when we are interfering with it,” and reflecting on life in the coming week. A discussion arose around two texts containing scholarly interpretations of Shabbat, which were read aloud by students. Standing to sing, many worshippers closed their eyes and swayed, transported by the moment. After the service, all gathered to eat a communal dinner prepared by the students. Freshman Eric Holzhauer has been a regular celebrant since the fall, after being invited by two friends. Coming from a Unitarian Universalist background, he says: “I find the rituals comforting, and at the dinner afterwards, there’s a strong sense of community.” Khan and Khapalwak also attended the Jewish Shabbat, where they enjoyed the communal meal. “It was interesting to learn how important things like grapes, fruit, and dried fruit are for the Jewish religion. I’m interested in learning about Christians and Jews and how they pray,” Khapalwak says. “Although we can read books about it, it’s good to hear it from real people and understand it.” Khan recognized a similarity in the importance of the foods and his sermon about looking into nature for signs of God. Tompkins, present at many of the week’s events, was disappointed by the lack of participation of students from different religious groups at each other’s events—especially at the Muslim service. “I thought, MIND AND SPIRIT Plotkin sees a connection between the intellectually demanding interfaith study session and the discussion of religion’s relevance in ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS Many students say that their faith has become stronger since coming to college. Some say it helps them face the rigors of academic life. Others find release in prayer. “Even if you do it for only a very short time, it’s very freeing,” says Ailya Vajid ’09. an academic setting. “My work at the Beit Midrash, teaching the Hebrew Bible and Jewish interpretive tradition, offers access to a literary and historical tradition that, by its nature, is meant to be practiced by the whole person—not just the mind abstracted from the spirit,” she says. “This tradition shows how intellectual rigor can be used in the service of religious, cultural, and national identities.” She adds that a significant proportion of the people attracted to the Beit Midrash are non-Jews. “Teaching, learning, and studying become much richer if you’re pursuing them with people who take other interpretive stances. And it strengthens all of our identities. Christian kids who have studied here have gone on to divinity school, bringing with them knowledge of the Jewish interpretive tradition, and they feel that it strengthens their Christian work.” Later in the week, during an evening session in the Science Center that drew an audience of about 50 faculty, staff, and students, Denis Alexander, a biochemist and professor of science and religion at Cambridge University, England, held a lecture called “Beyond the Conflict: Similarities Between Science and Faith.” “Science was born in a theological womb,” Alexander asserted, explaining that many of the founders of modern science, such as Boyle, Descartes, and Newton, were men of faith. He cited from a survey of notable natural scientists active between 1543 and 1680, performed by Rodney Stark, University Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University; it showed that 61 percent were devout; 35 percent were conventionally religious; and only 4 percent were skeptics. Thus, he said, the historical conflict model lacks plausibility; in fact, far from being diametrically opposed, the two fields seem to need each other. Arguing from a Christian perspective, Alexander laid out four reasons for the complementary existence of science and religious faith, investigating the cognitive similarities between a life of science and a life of faith. He spoke of the quest for coherence, which requires a comprehensive system of ideas that does not contradict itself, such as isolated biological data being unified to form a whole or biblical data being compiled to form a continuum. The ideas should be refutable—evolution and Christ’s resurrection are refutable but have not been refuted. Using a similar parallel, he compared the prediction of religious and scientific phenomena, asking whether religious belief makes predictions analogous to those made by science. Finally, he noted the level of commitment required to sustain the pur- suit of both religion and science. Distressed at the ignorance of science among the religious community and that of religion among the scientific community, Alexander concluded by suggesting that both be more curious about the other’s field. Windhaus cannot conceive of any major aspect of learning and culture without a religious basis, citing the Venerable John Cardinal Henry Newman’s Idea of a University and “Students of faith tend to walk on eggshells so as not to appear to be evangelically proselytizing—telling people they’re going to hell if they don’t do this or that.” his tenet, “If perchance God does exist, then the study of the things of God forms the basis of all other disciplines.” Pursuing this idea, he recommends Thomas Woods’ 2005 book How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. “It traces science, art, philosophy, law, and so on, back to the only religious phenomenon that existed at that time—the Catholic Church. These things are all pre-Reformation. Did you know that june 2007 : 25 ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS “They recognize that, for some in our community, to be a person of faith is to be seen as anti-intellectual, and that’s not the way they see themselves. Nor do I see them that way.” the field of seismology was created by the Jesuits? Or that there are 35 craters on the moon named after the Catholic priests who discovered them?” he asks, his bright blue eyes twinkling mischievously, as he adds, “It’s an audacious title, but it’s supportable.” Not only is faith at the source of scientific history, Windhaus asserts, but it also will need to serve as a support for human beings as they are increasingly caught up in the current of scientific progress. “Hearing people talk about the tremendous strides that will be made in science, all I can think of is the need to emphasize humanity with the students. It’s becoming increasingly important to ask ourselves, ‘What’s good for human beings?’” CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM By the end of Religion and Spirituality on Campus Week, the mood among religious students and advisers on campus was one of cautious optimism. Wallace described the week as a milestone in the College’s evolution toward a healthier and more robust 26 : swarthmore college bulletin exchange of religious ideas, saying that the energy and vitality displayed by the participants in the events indicated that religion is a topic worthy of further discussion. The week surpassed her expectations, Tompkins says, despite low attendance at some sessions: “The breadth and depth of the programs and the level of the conversation were very satisfying.” In the weeks before and after the events, The Phoenix published several thought-provoking and controversial articles such as “Religion Week Irrational”; Religion, Science not so Disjoint”; “Recognize Boundaries of Science, Religion” as well as pieces on a controversial antiIslam advertisement that had appeared in the Feb. 8 issue. Adam Koontz ’08, an Episcopalian who plays a leadership role in many of the campus’s Protestant activities and worship sessions, says: “We talk about class and sexuality and that kind of stuff all the time—but this is not something I’ve seen before on such a large scale.” Tompkins believes that both interfaith The final event of Religion and Spirituality on Campus Week was a Taizé chant service— also attended by members of the congregation of Swarthmore’s Trinity Episcopal Church. The service was followed by a communal dinner. In 1940, Frère Roger de Taizé founded an ecumenical monastic community whose members focus their lives around prayer and Christian meditation in the belief that chanting and singing prayers repetitively leads to contemplation. dialogue and individual groups benefited from the week. Members of the Muslim Students Association, who had previously had no fixed location to meet for worship, requested permission to use Bond’s Common Worship Room and now meet there regularly on Fridays to pray together. “Also, two students came, independently of each other, to talk to me about Buddhism,” Tompkins says. “There’s no Buddhist group on campus, although there is a regular meditation group that has some Buddhists in it. The Hindu group has also started to meet more regularly. I think it gave them a bit of a kick.” At the end of March, the Hindu community celebrated the Holi holiday, during which they performed a ritual to welcome “Hearing people talk about the tremendous strides that will be made in science, all I can think of is the need to emphasize humanity with the students.” spring called The Throwing of the Colors. After attending an information session, exuberant students showered each other with colored powders mixed with water. “The colors are symbolic of spring, and the powders are also supposed to have healing, cleansing properties. It’s a cathartic process,” says Elanchenny. “Students of all faiths came together and really enjoyed it.” T AS [YOU] ARE Swarthmore students today Photographs by Eleftherios Kostans Text by Jeffrey Lott AS [YOU] ARE Inspired by the “American West” photographs of Richard Avedon, College Photographer Eleftherios Kostans set up a white background outside Parrish Hall and Sharples Dining Hall last fall, inviting a random selection of students to step into the frame. We asked each student three things: Tell us a little about what you are wearing today. Tell us something that’s been on your mind today. Is there anything interesting or unusual about you? The result, shown here, is a portrait of a lively, diverse student body—Swarthmore students today. 1 Previous Page: Naima Taaj Ajmal Brown ’08 St. Paul, Minn. Wearing: “My Genocide Intervention Fund green bracelet and ‘halfro’” 2 1 Revan Williams '09 Maywood Park, Ore. On his mind: Papers! Says: “I've an anachronistic song in my heart.” 2 Taleah Kennedy '10 (left) New Castle, Del. Thinking about: “My brother's birthday” Talent: Sings Cory Benjamin '10 (center) Monmouth Junction, N.J. Thinking about: “Ice cream” Plays: Four instruments 28 : swarthmore college bulletin Sunny Cowell '10 Upper Marlboro, Md. Thinking about: “The reading and paper I have to do” Plays: Viola 4 5 3 3 Jonathan Harris '08 East Hampton, N.Y. Lydia Thé '08 Fort Lee, N.J. Lydia: “My shirt's from Amsterdam. Jonathan is in his typical attire.” Thinking about: The sociology and anthropology class they are taking together 6 4 Danielle Borgaily '07 El Paso, Tex. Major: Studio art Says she’s: Half Filipino, half Lebanese Thinking about: A trip home to see friends and family 5 Sebastian DuncanPortuondo '08 Miami, Fla. Wearing: Quilted jacket from Goodwill. (“I sewed on the red buttons.”) On his mind: “How tightening the [Cuban] embargo is an affront to myself as a Cuban immigrant and to Cuban sovereignty, while failing to effect meaningful change in Cuba” 6 Lauren Walker '09 Fallston, Md. Wearing: A cast (fractured finger during soccer practice) Unusual: Can solve a Rubik's Cube in 3 minutes Says: “That's not too unusual around here.” june 2007 : 29 AS [YOU] ARE 9 7 8 7 Emily Firetog '07 Brooklyn, N.Y. Wearing: “Dad's old sweater” Thinking about: Today's honors seminar on Shakespeare Interesting: “My sister is a freshman here. We're building legacy.” 30 : swarthmore college bulletin 8 Emily Lowing '08 Willow, N.Y. On her mind: Making a play list for her WSRN program tonight Wearing: Her favorite shirt (that she stole from her sister) Unusual: “I can wiggle my ears.” 9 Etan Cohen '07 From: Fairlawn, N.J., and Israel Today: Had an exam. “I hope I did well. And I can't wait for lunch!” Values: “Friends above work and sleep” 10 11 10 Jackie Avitabile '09 Delmar, N.Y. Holding: “My first greentea-blended creme from the coffee bar” Wondering: “How am I going to take the 50-some classes I'm interested in over the next two-and-a-half years?” 11 Athena Samaras '07 Annapolis, Md. Elizabeth Richey '07 (right) Hopkinton, N.H. Wearing: “Fabulous boots” Why? “We were taking soil samples in the Crum Woods for our ecology class and had to cross the creek.” 12 12 Kofi Anguah '09 Tema, Ghana Wearing: All black. “A friend of mine in high school just passed away, and I'm mourning her death.” On his mind: “I've been thinking a lot about life….” june 2007 : 31 14 13 13 Eric Christiansen '08 Carlsbad, Calif. Major: Mathematics Minor: Computer Science Passion: “African dance. The pose is from the Hun-Gway.” 32 : swarthmore college bulletin 15 14 Sally O'Brien '07 Orange, Conn. Major: Greek and Latin On her mind: “Been editing a villanelle in my head” Anything unusual about you? “Uh, I mean, lots. The bike's name is Bucephalus.” AS [YOU] ARE 17 16 15 Camila HarriganLabarca '08 (left) Silver Spring, Md. Cristina Alva '07 Whittier, Calif. On their minds: Differences between American TV series and those from Latin America. Their secret: “We are undercover superhero ethnographers (in training).” 16 Chloe Noonan '10 Austin, Texas Plan: Majoring in sociology Wearing: “The necklace I bought in the College bookstore. It's environmentally friendly.” 17 Benjamin Thuronyi '07 (left) Silver Spring, Md. Worrying: “Whether the iodination reaction I'm running right now is finally going to work” Ahmmad Brown '07 (right) Sacramento, Calif. Looking forward to: Graduating and leaving Swarthmore june 2007 : 33 19 18 20 18 Jessica Barajas '10 Ontario, Calif. Wearing: Green sweater, a birthday present Thinking about: “Writing a paper on Machiavelli” 34 : swarthmore college bulletin 19 Xiaoxia Zhuang '10 Auburn, Ala. Wearing: Warm clothes. “I'm starting to get sick. It started with a sore throat yesterday.” Before college: Was an avid unicyclist 20 Greg Albright '10 Treichlers, Pa. Says: “Despite the fact that Paige and I look like fast friends, we met when we walked into this photo shoot. That kind of thing happens a lot at Swarthmore.” AS [YOU] ARE 22 21 21 Paige Gentry '07 Cheshire, Conn. Says: “It was a beautiful day, so I decided to dress up and wear the giant earrings my mother gave me.” 22 Kendra McDow '07 Washington, D.C. Thinking about: “Understanding today's mathematics” Unusual: Born with 12 fingers 23 23 Matt Thurm '10 Bronxville, N.Y. Thinking about: “Eating” june 2007 : 35 The Floating Pool Lady DECADES OF PERSISTENCE PAY OFF IN A UNIQUE PUBLIC POOL THAT BRINGS BACK A HISTORIC NEW YORK TRADITION. B y Pa u l Wa c h t e r ’ 97 NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK/JACOB RIIS COLLECTION “The Floating Pool Lady” has two meanings. It refers to an innovative public swimming facility—one that floats on a barge along the New York waterfront—and to the Swarthmore-educated woman whose vision and persistence made that possible. The pool opens this summer. The lady, Ann Lubin Buttenwieser ’57, will take a welldeserved bow, then keep on working for swimmers in a city that, a century ago, sported more than a dozen floating pools. Almost 30 years ago, researching her doctoral dissertation on the history of New York City’s waterfront, Buttenwieser came upon several references to floating swimming pools. “Fewer than 10 blocks from today’s South Street Seaport, the delighted shrieks of several hundred wet New Yorkers echoed from the Grand Street Floating Bath, one of almost two dozen seasonally moveable pools berthed in the middle of the economic life of the city,” she later wrote in a New York Archives magazine article. The image of these floating pools, by then long gone from the city’s shores, struck a chord with Buttenwieser. She was a passionate swimmer who had spent childhood summers in Annapolis, Md., the home of the U.S. Naval Academy. She swam for Manhattan’s Dalton High School and also for Swarthmore, where she competed in the breast stroke and diving. After college, Buttenwieser spent two decades raising her family in New York, but she never forgot the water. Enrolling in an urban planning graduate program in the 1970s, Buttenwieser was less interested in New York’s steel and concrete jungle than its 578 miles of waterfront. In a city whose swimmers are underserved—New York had the lowest number of public pools per capita of 25 major U.S. cities surveyed in a 2000 study—wouldn’t it make sense to reintroduce floating pools, Buttenwieser asked in a 1980 op-ed in The New York Times. “I got a lot of great feedback from that article, and I figured if the Times liked the idea, then it was probably worth doing,” Buttenwieser says. It took another 27 years for Buttenwieser’s idea to come to fruition. But now, the finishing touches are being put on The Floating Pool Lady, a $5 million barge docked in the shadows of the Brooklynjune 2007 : 37 Top: The floating pool under construction in a New Orleans shipyard Center: The pool deck nears completion. 38 : swarthmore college bulletin GARY SMITH New York’s earliest floating pools—known as floating baths—were private. But after the Civil War, as concerns about public hygiene grew, pools came to be viewed as indispensable for the health of all the city’s residents. William Marcy “Boss” Tweed opened the first public pools in 1870— wooden structures floating on pontoons, in which the swimming area drew its water from the river. By 1895, 15 such public baths were operating on Manhattan’s shores, serving more than 4 million people during the June-to-October season. But the notion of the floating pools as a boon for public health began to change with the increasing pollution of New York’s rivers. In the early 1900s, city officials mandated several precautions: Floating pools were not allowed near sewer outflows, lime was added to the pool water, and fresh water was piped in from the Catskill aqueduct. Ultimately, it wasn’t health reasons that brought an end to the city’s floating pools. Rather, they were supplanted by the construction of many conventional private and public pools in the 1930s and 1940s. Floating pools fell into disrepair. Even Robert Moses, the city’s formidable parks commissioner, couldn’t secure the funds necessary to sustain the last floating-pool complex, Buttenwieser reported in New York Archives. “The City did not fund them … the barges fell apart, and there was no money to repair them,” Moses acknowledged. (Although some existed in Boston, the pools had been TYLER HICKS/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX Queens Expressway at Brooklyn’s Pier 2. If all goes according to plan, “the delighted shrieks” of a new generation of wet New Yorkers will be heard from the floating pool by this summer. KENT MERRILL Bottom: Arrival in New York Harbor, October 2006 Buttenwieser found a barge docked near New Orleans. The brunt of the work was done when Hurricane Katrina hit. The barge was fine, but all the laborers were hired away by FEMA. largely a New York phenomenon. None remain in the United States, although there are many in Europe.) After obtaining a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Buttenwieser joined the City Planning Department, the first of several city jobs in which she worked on waterfront improvement and lobbied for the reintroduction of floating pools. Mayor John Lindsay commissioned a study, and Mayor Ed Koch made a surplus garbage scow available from the Department of Sanitation. “City Planning is an operational agency, so we had to look elsewhere for money,” Buttenwieser says. She would have needed about $1 million to transform the scow into a floating pool. But before she could raise the money, the Department of Sanitation called. “They said it was at the bottom of the Hudson,” Buttenwieser says. “There had been a leak, and that was that.” If she couldn’t bring floating pools back to New York as a public employee, maybe she could do it as a private citizen. In 2001, Buttenwieser established the Neptune Foundation, a not-for-profit organization to “commission the design and construction of a new generation of moveable waterfront pools for recreationally underserved communities,” according to its Web site (www.floatingpool.org). Through private donors and grants, she raised enough money to begin the search for a barge. Meanwhile, the city, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, was becoming more receptive to the idea of operating and maintaining a floating pool. New York has 63 public pools (51 outdoor), but it hadn’t built a new pool in 30 years. Although it is about to open a new swimming and skating facility in Queens, the cost of such projects—$70 million in this case—have grown prohibi- tively high. Even restoring existing pools is expensive. “We’re restoring a pool in Greenpoint that’s been closed for 30 years, and that’s going to cost about $40 million,” says Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. Buttenwieser’s pool could be built for $5 million, potentially a huge savings. “Floating pools also fit into Mayor Bloomberg’s vision to recapture New York’s abandoned industrial waterfront for recreational and environmental purposes,” Benape says. Buttenwieser found a barge docked near New Orleans that suited her purposes. The foundation purchased it for $450,000 and hired architect Jonathan Kirschenfeld, who had once designed a floating theater. “It was hugely challenging,” Kirschenfeld says. “Was it a building or a vessel? We took on a pool consultant, a marine architect consultant, lighting and electrical experts— and I was the orchestra leader.” The brunt of the work on the barge— cutting out the floor for the pool, building the dressing facilities—was done in a Louisiana shipyard to save costs. But then Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. “The barge was fine, but our laborers all were hired by FEMA for cleanup work,” Buttenwieser says. “Understandably, we were pretty low on the list of work that needed to be done after the hurricane.” After six months, work on The Floating Pool Lady resumed, and in October 2006 she left for New York, where the final touches—gutters, lights, floor tiles—would be added. Buttenwieser is hoping that The Floating Pool Lady will open to the public on July 4, most likely at the fledgling Brooklyn Bridge Park, not far from its current location in Pier 2. “Most of the park hasn’t been built yet, so the pool will be the first time the public comes to the site,” says Marianna Koval, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Con- servancy, a nonprofit advocacy group for the park. “And the great thing about the pool is that it can dock here for a month and then go somewhere else.” Sites being considered are in the South Bronx and Greenpoint, Buttenwieser says. “We’re less flexible than we’d like because a lot of the waterfront lacks the infrastructure—electricity, sewage, and water connections—needed to operate the pool.” Another bureaucratic hurdle for pool backers is to allay the concerns of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation that the pool’s shadow might alter the riverbed’s marine environment. “Since we’ll be in one spot for only a month or two, I think we can show that the shading issues won’t be significant,” Buttenwieser says. This summer, Asphalt Green, a not-forprofit organization that operates Manhattan’s only Olympic-standard swimming pool, most likely will operate The Floating Pool Lady. But eventually the Parks Department will oversee operations. “We hope to have the pool open for free this summer, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” Buttenwieser says. “We’re still working on the fees and program for the hours from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.” When The Floating Pool Lady opens, Buttenwieser’s involvement will not end. The Neptune Foundation has said it will build three prototypes. “A lot depends on financing and environmental permits,” Buttenwieser says. “My long-term goal is that the city will clean up the rivers so that we can build pools with open bottoms that make use of the river water. But that might be the work of another lifetime.” T Paul Wachter is writing a novel set in Beirut, Lebanon, where he lived for four years. He currently lives in New York. june 2007 : 39 connections Austin/San Antonio The Austin/San Antonio book group, organized by America Rodriguez ’78 and Susan Morrison ’81, recently met in Austin to discuss Elif Shafak’s book The Bastard of Istanbul. PAMELA ST. JOHN ZURER ʼ71 Swarthmore Connection chairs from eight cities met on campus in April for a “Connection Summit.” They shared their ideas and experiences of running events in their areas and discussed how to use technology to organize events and distribute information. They also made plans for simultaneous alumni get-togethers across the country. Called “Welcome to the City,” these events will enable each region’s established alumni groups to meet each other as well as welcome recent Swarthmore graduates and older alumni who have recently moved to that area. —Jim Moskowitz ’88 National Connections Chair In May, Sue Willis Ruff '60 (center)— flanked by Lolette Sudaka Guthrie '60 (left) and Cathy Good Abbott ’72—was honored at a reception for her tireless efforts as founder and leader of the Washington, D.C., book group for the last 10 years. Ruff has arranged countless meetings, worked with faculty mentors, and developed a robust community of dedicated alumni, parents, and friends. The College is extremely grateful to her for her service and inspiration. The celebration was hosted by Abbott and her husband, Ernie ’72. Guthrie, a friend of Ruff’s since their freshman year, came from North Carolina to be there. 40 : swarthmore college bulletin New York On April 15, Jeffrey Murer, associate professor of political science, gave a lecture titled “Is All Terrorism Local? Analyzing Communal Violence within Segway riders (left to right) Julia Stein ’87, John Goldsborough ’88, Paula Goulden-Naitove ’79, and Glen Moramarco the Context of the navigated around the Philadelphia Art Museum and nearby Global War on TerrorBoat House Row at a Philly Connection event. ism.” And although that was the day when almost eight inches of NOMINATIONS SOUGHT rain was recorded in Central Park, making it FOR HONORARY DEGREES the second wettest day in the history of the Do you know a classmate who should be city, more than three dozen alumni sloshed considered for an honorary degree? The to the Goddard Community Center. Many Honorary Degree Committee encourages thanks go to Erika Teutsch ’42, who directs you to submit nominations, c/o Maurice the Center’s program for seniors and who Eldridge ’61, Vice President’s Office, Swarthbraved the elements that day to be on hand more College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthto extend her hospitality. more PA 19081-1390, or by e-mail to The Swarthmore community also came meldrid1@swarthmore.edu. Please enclose out in force on April 22 to see and support complete background information including Kendall Cornell ’86 and her Soon-to-beyour own reasons for choosing the individWorld-Famous Women’s Clown Troupe, ual you nominate, and submit by noon on which performed “Not Just For Shock Value: Monday, Oct. 1. Please note that all nominaA Femmes Clowns Assemblage” on the tions will be kept confidential, and it is not Upper West Side. After the show, Kendall good practice to inform the nominee. The and her troupe answered questions from the Committee will forward its recommendaSwarthmore group. tions for faculty approval in mid-November. Criteria used by the Honorary Degree Philadelphia The Philadelphia Connection Committee include: distinction, leadership, recently had a young alumni happy hour in or originality in a significant field of human the city hosted by Amber Adamson ’01. In addition, Connections Chair Jim Moskowitz endeavor; someone in the ascent or at the organized two events: One was a “Chocolate peak of distinction, with preference to the less honored over those with multiple Fest” held on campus in Bond Hall. The degrees; ability to serve as a role model for “fest” featured a demonstration by a local graduating seniors, as Commencement master chocolatier, a chocolate potluck where guests brought along homemade con- speaker, on a major occasion in their lives; preference for (but not required) individuals coctions (providing they contained chocowho have an existing affiliation with or late), and a presentation by Swarthmore some connection to the College community. Professor of Biology Colin Purrington on, The Committee seeks to balance choices among other things, the natural history of over the years from a variety of categories the cocoa tree. And in May, more than 90 such as careers, gender, academic discipline, area alumni visited the wonderful art at the race, ethnicity, and public service. Barnes Foundation in Merion. JIM MOSKOWITZ ʼ88 Connections Planning Ahead: Swarthmore 2020 ALUMNI COUNCIL PLAYING A ROLE IN COLLEGE’S LONG-TERM PLANNING With the successful completion of The Meaning of pany specializing in innovative approaches to idenSwarthmore and the upcoming accreditation tifying and implementing business strategies. As a review by the Middle States Association, the time management consultant, Awuah brings experience is right for the College to embark on a strategic and a special set of skills to this effort as well as planning process for the fulfillment of our educalong-standing commitment to the College. He tional and institutional mission in the decades served as College Advisory Support Working Group ahead. (See page 4.) One of the Alumni Council’s co-chair and was instrumental in the Council’s long-standing objectives has been to play a conefforts to engage in research and provide construcstructive role in that process. tive suggestions regarding the College’s long-term During the past few years, the Alumni Council planning process. has worked closely with the Board of Managers Participation in this planning process presents and the administration to learn more about the an unprecedented opportunity for the Council to College’s planning process and identify ways that play an active role in helping shape the vision for alumni could be helpful. To this end, Council the College. During the weeks and months ahead, Kevin Quigley ’74 members met with Board member Frederick Kyle alumni with relevant skills and experience will be ’54 during our spring 2006 Council meeting and, invited to join working groups whose goal will be to during the fall 2006 Council Weekend, with advance this long-term planning process. During Board members Barbara Mather ’65 (chair), Lawrence Shane ’56, the next few years, the Council will have the opportunity to help and Kyle as well as Maurice Eldridge ’61, vice president for College develop a vibrant and resilient long-term plan that will enable the and community relations and executive assistant to President Alfred College to build on its strengths for the future. H. Bloom. As members of the Alumni Council and the College community, In January 2007, a College Planning Steering Committee was crewe greatly appreciate the alumni response so far and welcome your ated, co-chaired by Barbara Mather and President Bloom and continued input into this process. Without you, it cannot succeed. including faculty and staff members and students. President Bloom Kevin Quigley ’74 asked the Council to nominate a representative, and it appointed Incoming President, Alumni Association Samuel Awuah ’94, principal partner of Acynonix Associates, a comChair, College Advisory and Support Working Group Lifelong Learning OFFERED IN NEW YORK CITY Tolkien’s Fiction and Its Roots Craig Williamson, Professor of English Literature Wednesdays, 7 to 9:30 p.m. 305 Seventh Avenue (near 27th Street) (Support Center for Nonprofit Management) James Kurth America and Islam James Kurth, Claude C. Smith Professor of Political Science Mondays, 7 to 9:30 p.m. Fascism in Europe Pieter Judson ’78, Professor of History Mondays, 6:45 to 9:15 p.m. Homer to Virgil Gil Rose, Susan Lippincott Pieter Judson Professor Emeritus of Modern and Classical Languages, Tuesdays, 6:45 to 9:15 p.m. ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS OFFERED AT SWARTHMORE COLLEGE ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS Now in its sixth year, Lifelong Learning at Swarthmore offers small, seminar-style classes taught by senior or emeriti faculty members of the College. There are no grades or academic credit—just learning for learning's sake. Eight-week courses, which are offered on campus and in New York City, are open to alumni, their adult family members, and friends. The on-campus program also welcomes residents of the greater Philadelphia area. Fall 2007 courses will begin the week of Sept. 17. Tuition for the Swarthmore courses is $430 and for the New York courses $530. For more information, go to www.swarthmore.edu/lifelonglearning.xml NEW COURSES FOR FALL 2007 june 2007 : 41 class notes Postcards The simple act of always having a camera at hand has changed Miles Skorpen, a rising junior and Daily Gazette photographer. “It has forced me to slow down and to appreciate—the play of light on railings and the graceful water droplets on a leaf,” Skorpen says. “Swarthmore has an incredibly beautiful campus and is bursting with student life.” He has captured the essence of it in photographs that portray the motion and drama, nature and color of the College. 42 : swarthmore college bulletin profile When Malaria Is a Fact of Life JOHN ROBERT WILLIAMS TERRIE TAYLOR ’77 DEVOTES HER LIFE TO SAVING CHILDREN FROM THE DEADLY DISEASE. Terrie Taylor '77 cuddles one of her Malawian patients in the overcrowded malaria ward in Blantyre, where she does research on the effects of the disease for six months each year. I t’s 6 p.m. Blantyre, Malawi time. Terrie Taylor settles into a rocking chair in her bedroom after 12 hours of caring for children in a hospital malaria ward. When asked how her day was, Taylor offers a startling response via cell phone: “The ward is overflowing, one of my best nurses died yesterday, and we have no electricity,” she says. “It was a real African day.” In Malawi, malaria is a fact of everyday life. Most adults get the disease several times a year, but they have developed immunity so their symptoms are treatable. Children, on the other hand, are at great risk of more severe forms of the disease, such as cerebral malaria. The young patients may fall into comas, often leading to brain damage and death. Taylor, a research physician in tropical medicine, spends six months out of every year in Malawi, working to better understand cerebral malaria and its severe effects on children. Myron Magen, dean of the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSU-COM), says, “Terrie is the top malaria expert in the world. Her work has sparked a tremendous interest in tropical medicine.” Taylor remembers the thrill of doing research during a fruit fly experiment in Professor John Jenkins’ Biology I class. Jenkins remembers, too. “Late one afternoon, I heard wild screaming in the hallway; Terrie was leaping up and down screaming, ‘I got it! I fig- ured it out!’ That love of discovery and enthusiasm for learning was a clear indicator of a brilliant future.” A Michigan native, Taylor divides her time between university teaching in East Lansing and Malawi, where she leads an international team studying the effects of malaria. Despite the overcrowded children’s ward and “the gaping black holes of need that I can never fully meet,” Taylor is pleased with her career choice. Her African adventure began in 1982, when Magen offered the recent medical school graduate a job on a parasitology research project in the Sudan. She recalls: “Dr. Magen was interested in grooming osteopathic clinicians for careers in tropical disease research, but I didn’t want to jump into anything prematurely. I thought I’d see the world and have an adventure.” A few months later, while watching some children kicking around a soccer ball made of twine and discarded plastic bags, Taylor recognized that research might be a way of stemming the never-ending stream of people needing care and decided to take Magen up on his offer. In 1985, Taylor met Malcolm Molyneux, the infectious disease expert who would become her longtime collaborator, at the “trop shop” in Malawi. She was there doing master’s research for the Liverpool [England] School of Tropical Medicine. By 1986, the two had begun the Malaria Research Project, which was based in Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi’s largest city. Sadly, nearly two decades of work have not improved the survival rate for Malawian children, but the research continues. In addition to determining treatment schedules and uses for newer medicines, she and Molyneux developed the Blantyre Coma Score, allowing clinicians to grade the depth of the coma—a crucial sign in malaria— and patient progress. Because tissue samples are crucial to more progress, Taylor and Molyneux launched an autopsy study 10 years ago that should give scientists their greatest insights yet into how malaria affects the body. Early results reveal that a quarter of the children diagnosed with pediatric malaria have another disease. And newly discovered physical findings in the back of the eye seem to indicate whether malaria is present. The next step is the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during and after the illness to determine what disease the children have. Last month, Taylor learned that new grants and corporate funding would bring an MRI machine to the Blantyre hospital. A year ago, Taylor took some rare time for herself when she married John Williams, a friend since eighth grade, who is now a professional photographer. He knew all about her work, “so he came into the relationship with his eyes wide open.” Taylor’s enthusiasm for the Malawi Research Project has never waned. “I feel privileged to be doing this work. It’s exhausting, but it’s a job with so many interesting facets,” she says. “I must be having the most fun of anyone in my medical school class.” —Susan Cousins Breen june 2007: 61 in my life To Venture Out Fearless I CAN SEE ANOTHER LIFE BUT CANNOT BELIEVE— DEEP IN MY BONES—THAT I WILL EVER GET TO LIVE IT. By Susanne Monahan ’86 64 : swarthmore college bulletin where he met my mother in 1961. Mom had a journalism degree from Syracuse and a list of awards from college and local papers. She was—and still is—beautiful. They met on an elevator as they covered, for different newspapers, the opening of a power plant at Niagara Falls. They knew each other’s work, and before they got off the elevator, Mom had agreed to a date. Three weeks later, having heard that a sportswriter in Buffalo was also interested in her, Dad proposed, and she said yes. (He insists the sportswriter had nothing to do with it.) As for why she married my dad, Mom explained: “I knew if I married that sportswriter in Buffalo, I would spend the rest of my life in upstate New York, but if I married your father, I would go somewhere and do something with my life.” Years later, faced with a choice between vocation and security, Dad lived up to the promise my mother had seen. Together they jumped. Dad worked sporadically while Mom COURTESY OF THE MONAHAN FAMILY Two summers ago, days before a grant proposal was due, I learned that another proposal had been rejected. Awash in budgets and paperwork, I frantically alternated between rereading reviews and writing the upcoming grant, all the while sobbing, “I can’t do this. But no one else will hire me.” An image of my father surfaced: In his mid-40s, he wore his best blue suit and a forced cheerfulness as he embarked on another day of job hunting. The power of this memory reveals how much it has shaped my life. When I was 14, my mother quit her job to go to seminary. Raised Catholic but disappointed by the Vatican II reforms, she became Episcopalian in the late 1960s and served as vestry member, usher, and lay reader. She even delivered sermons. When Episcopalians began ordaining women in the mid-1970s, she left her job as an aide to a New York senator and entered the Virginia Theological Seminary. Weeks later, Dad—a public information officer for the federal government—was laid off. There was a brief reprieve—when Mom was offered another Capitol Hill job. But at Dad’s urging, she turned it down. It was not her calling, and Dad knew things would work out. “Even if it’s not enough,” they said, “it will be enough.” So my mom started seminary and my family began a fouryear journey through unemployment. A few years ago, I asked Mom why she had married my father. His Aunt Rose once told me he was lost as a young man. He parted ways with college after one semester. He joined the Navy, but, one night, he dozed off on patrol in San Diego and walked off the end of a pier. The Navy spent thousands of dollars to retrieve his gun, but his naval career ended prematurely. He returned to New York to work as a reporter, went to seminary. I remember he sold longdistance phone plans to businesses in the early days of deregulation. Once, he called on the law firm where I was a receptionist— this was the day he wore his good blue suit and smiled, but I knew he was miserable. He hated sales. He also worked temporarily for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) helping Puerto Rico recover from two hurricanes. He liked this better. Later, he sat in FEMA’s emergency control room waiting for the “red” phone to ring. Someone has to be there 24 hours a day, so he worked odd shifts. Eventually, he worked his way into regular hours, and then into the IRS, and then into retirement. Today, he works as a Santa in December and spends Wednesday mornings with friends at a local coffee house. Mom is also retired, after 20 years as a parish priest. During the unemployed years, my parents spent their retirement savings and our college funds and maxed out Mom’s student loans. I don’t recall feeling financially insecure, but I know we were. In the first year of his unemployment, Dad sold their 1968 Chevy truck for $900. The buyer paid cash and was short $20, but Dad did not care. We took the money to the bank and made the mortgage payment. During those years, we ate every Wednesday night at the seminary because, if you sang in the choir after dinner, the meal was free. We all sang, although only Mom can carry a tune. In the second year of Dad’s unemployment, my parents learned that we qualified for free “Until recently, I thought I had emerged unscathed from our family’s era of unemployment,” says Monahan ( top right ), whose parents ( left ) thought that doing the wrong kind of work was even worse than being jobless. COURTESY OF SUSANNE MONAHAN I have lived my parents’ mantra, “If it’s not enough, it’s enough.” school lunches. My sisters and I demurred and got jobs—babysitter, store clerk, receptionist—to pay for our own lunches. I have no memory of actually believing that we were poor. I don’t remember my parents being anxious about money or fighting or blaming each other for our situation. They seemed unruffled, confident in their choices. In the third year of Dad’s unemployment, I applied to the University of Michigan and Swarthmore. Neither I nor my parents brought up how to pay for college, and I was lucky that Swarthmore picked up the tab. Until recently, I thought I had emerged unscathed from our family’s era of unemployment. With small grad school stipends and modest college professor’s pay, I have lived my parents’ mantra, “If it’s not enough, it’s enough.” I survived years in California with just a bike—and today fantasize about putting 200,000 miles on my car before replacing it. Mortgage aside, I live debt-free and can buy anything—although not everything—I want. With tenure, my life is stable and comfortable; I have held a job longer than anyone in my family. But the voice inside that says, “No one will hire you,” persists. I admit I don’t like job hunting. When I was looking for an academic job, I only half-jokingly said I no longer feared death because if I died I would not have to look for a job anymore. After three years, I finally found a tenure-track position, although I know I was not their first choice. So, yes, I am skittish, but the truth is, I no longer want to be a sociology professor. As much as I love universities, I lack a passion for research and just don’t fit. Some people are surprised to learn that tenure can feel like prison. They wonder, who would not want a job for life? But what if it is not the job for you and “not enough” now has nothing to do with money? Suddenly, “not enough” really isn’t enough. Last spring, I spent a perfect day on an Oregon beach. The sun was bright, the air cool, and the sand hot and dry. I dozed on a beach blanket and, for the first time, began to imagine a different life. I could do other work, live other places, be someone else. Perfect days might come more often. I practiced new words: I quit. I quit. I quit. It was liberating. Over time, I accumulated escape fantasies: Nanny to teenagers? Obituary writer? Clerk at Borders Books? But I am also terrified: I can see another life but cannot believe—deep in my bones —that I will get to live it. No one will hire me. I envy those who venture out fearless, and I admire entrepreneurs, but I cannot forget my father’s struggle. Nor can I reconcile that this smart, articulate, creative, hardworking man could not find a job for four years. Whenever I imagine quitting, I see him in his blue suit, a forced smile on his face, reduced to summoning enthusiasm for selling long-distance phone plans. What I saw for my father became my fear—not poverty, but unemployability. And when I contemplate change, I hear a relentless voice: “What would you do if you had to look for work again? No one will hire you.” My heart flutters. I cannot breathe. When I tell people about my family, it always comes out as the story of my mother. But now, in the 29th year after his unemployment, I know that my father’s struggle defines my world more. He would protest that I absorbed the wrong part of their story. Being unemployed is not the worst thing that can happen. Worse yet, my parents concluded, was doing the wrong kind of work. That’s why, in 1978, they jumped off a cliff together and landed softly four long years later. I, on the other hand, am still falling. Tenure and a comfortable life do not protect me from vertigo; security has not made my work meaningful. Terrifying as it is, if I am to apply the right lesson from my parents’ lives, I will have to step into the void. T Susanne Monahan lives in Bozeman, Mont., where her avocational pursuits include fantasy baseball, hiking, and bear and wolf watching. june 2007 : 65 profile In Search of Solitude TIM LYDON KEVIN HOOD ’91 MONITORS—AND SEEKS TO PRESERVE—THE ALASKAN WILDERNESS. “A lot of people don’t know complete peace and quiet, a place where you can sit for a day or a week and hear nothing but the sounds of nature,” says Hood of his search for solitude. K evin Hood is in search of solitude. “It’s more rare than fresh air, water, gold, or wild salmon,” Hood says. “It’s possibly one of the rarest resources we have. The Wilderness Act of 1964 defines wilderness, in part, as an area with outstanding opportunities for solitude. Not just solitude but outstanding opportunities. So when you think, where can you go such that the horizon around you holds no reminder of humanity … those places are all but gone. There are always jets overhead or light pollution.” According to the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center (www.wilderness.net) in Montana, there are only 702 wilderness areas in the United States that preserve less than 5 percent of the land. On that list is the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska; Pelican Island in Florida; Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey; and Death Valley in California. “Solitude is something we’re losing that people aren’t appreciating. New generations being born and immigrants coming to our country are more and more removed from nature. To be able to walk in any direction and to find old growth forest, to paddle quietly amongst icebergs, or to see the Northern Lights is amazing.” Since Swarthmore, Hood has spent two years in Latvia as a teacher for the Peace Corps and 13 years as a wilderness ranger with the U.S. Forest Service, including the last nine in Juneau, Alaska, where he has taken on the responsibility of searching for solitude. Aside from 40 miles of road around the city, Juneau is off the road system. People must travel to and from the state capital by plane or ferry. “I live here because there is no road,” says Hood, a native Californian, who remembers the state’s congested traffic. “If a connecting road is built here it would mean paving through the largest unblemished fjord in North America. It’s an incredible ferry trip to see these mountains shooting up out of the water.” As a steward for the wilderness, Hood’s primary responsibilities are to educate people about public land, the value of wilderness, and to be in the wilderness observing both scientific and anecdotal changes to the environment. “We monitor the watershed, habitats, campgrounds, seal and amphibian populations, and glacier conditions. We check air quality by collecting lichens, and we trail cruise ships to monitor their visible stack emissions,” Hood says. One of those monitored areas is the Tracy Arm–Ford’s Terror Wilderness, 50 miles southeast of Juneau, in the Tongass National Forest. Global warming, he says, driven by human agriculture and industry—and especially by the burning of fossil fuels—is contributing to the rapid deglaciation of this wilderness. He wants people to know that global warming is real. “Naysayers should show scientific documentation that global warming is caused by something else and should not just be representing some well-financed interest that has an economic stake in the status quo,” he says. “The glaciers in our area are the fastest melting in southeast Alaska. We take photos and measurements. But even that can be problematic. The main glacier we were studying receded so fast it went out of the frame of our photos. So we’re chasing it,” Hood says. The seal population is also at risk. Each May, the tidewater glaciers at the end of the fjords in Tracy Arm–Ford’s Terror Wilderness serve as a pupping ground for harbor seals. “They’ve been going there for centuries. All these pregnant seals are spread out on the ice near the glaciers. But it’s also tourist season, so there’s an increase in boats that want to push through the ice to see the glaciers up close,” says Hood. While populations in other parts of the state are in decline, for now, the seal population in the Tracy Arm–Ford’s Terror Wilderness is stable. “The question that’s continuously debated here and in the rest of the United States is whether there is greater value in preserving the sanctity of nature and our land—having biodiversity, fresh water, fresh air, vast tracts of old growth forest—or a greater value in extracting the resources we can from these areas. Often it’s a question of balance, but I’m impressed with how many people are so passionate about the need to preserve more land.” —Audree Penner june 2007: 69 books + arts BIG COURTESY DC JACKSON/DAMHISTORY.COM DAMS THE CONFLUENCE OF ENGINEERING AND POLITICS David Billington and Donald Jackson ’75, Big Dams of the New Era: A Confluence of Engineering and Politics (University of Oklahoma Press, 2006) The history, engineering, design, and construction of the big multipurpose dams built west of the Mississippi during the Roosevelt era are described in rich detail in this comprehensive book by Donald Jackson, an associate professor of history at Lafayette College, and David Billington, Gordon Wu Professor of Engineering at Princeton and a National Academy of Engineering fellow. It is Jackson’s third book about dams in the United States. A pioneering study of the nexus of technology, culture, and politics of that era, the book further provides a fascinating look at the interaction between the two principal agencies of the federal government—the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers—that were responsible for the design and construction of these massive public works. The roles of the key personalities—politicians, engineers, bureaucrats, and beneficiaries of these projects—are woven into the narrative in a way that will appeal to historians, engineers, and general readers alike. The two authors have a wealth of experiences that makes them perfectly suited to write about this complex topic. Billington’s notable book The Tower and the Bridge introduces the concept of the “structural artist— the structural engineer whose work through its function and expression is aesthetically pleasing and meaningful enough to be viewed as a legitimate work of great art.” It clarifies the criteria for such distinction by citing notable examples such as the Eiffel Tower, the reinforced concrete bridges of 74 : swarthmore college bulletin In October 1937, President Roosevelt visited the site of the Grand Coulee Dam to witness firsthand the progress in construction. From the east abutment, visitors were able to enjoy a grand view of the upstream face of the dam. Robert Maillart, the shell structures of Felix Candela and Pierre Nervi, and the skyscrapers of Fazlur Khan. Jackson, much younger than Billington (and an engineer by training), also has devoted his career to the history of technology and industry, concentrating on the significant developments in that field in the American West. The senior author’s influence on Jackson is evident in the latter’s 1995 book Building the Ultimate Dam: John Eastwood and the Control of Water in the West, in which he views Eastwood as a structural artist, using the criteria posited by Billington but applied to dams. Following a short introduction in which the authors provide their reasons for writing Big Dams as well as its subsequent structure and arrangement, a third of the book’s pages are devoted to a fairly exhaustive but concise study of the origins and development of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers into their almost modern form. Discussing not only the internal politics and the major personalities of these organizations, using a study of earlier dams as a framework, the authors explain the theory behind the engineering design of these dams. In a simple and elegant way (much like their previous explicatory science-based books), this one presents the mathematical principles of the two types of masonry/concrete dams—the gravity dam and the thin arch dam—“in terms used by the dam designers of the era.” Data gleaned from historical engineering records of several actual dams illustrates the development of two traditions in dam design that the authors identify as the Massive Tradition and the Structural Tradition, characterizing the gravity and thin-arch forms, respectively. In the perennial engineers’ argument between solidity with its associated perception of safety and the innovative and structurally minimal—but proven safe mathematically—thin arch-form, perception usually wins. This was the case with the final design choice of these dams. Not until decades after the massive dams were built, such as the Grand Coulee Dam, did the latter form achieve its rightful place in the Glen Canyon Dam. It is also fascinating to read about how, through a gradual melding of the separate objectives of flood control, navigation, irrigation, and power generation, determined individuals both in and out of these federal agencies succeeded in persuading the federal government to become involved in building power generation plants associated with some of these dams, thus accelerating the development of the West and Northwest. In separate chapters, the remainder of the book describes the design, construction, and history of the dams on the Colorado and Columbia rivers; the earth dams on the Missouri River; and two most significant dams of that era in California’s Central Valley Project. Filled with many technical details, including the construction sequences and procedures, these chapters might appeal more to the engineering community, although there is enough nontechnical material to appeal to the general reader as well. Located in remote regions often with a harsh and unforgiving climate, these projects were gargantuan, and the logistics of providing housing and support for the builders were daunting. The authors describe the heroic efforts of the dam builders to overcome these obstacles—some natural, others man-made—using a narrative style that enables the reader to appreciate fully the vast undertaking that each of these projects represented. At the same time, they skillfully depict the interplay and maneuverings among each project’s supporters and opponents—and President Franklin Roosevelt’s extraordinary political skills for keeping both sides happy while achieving his objectives. This book, with its successful combination of the engineering and political histories of the big dams, is both instructional and a pleasure to read. —Faruq M. A. Siddiqui, Professor of Engineering ing their emotions and perspectives on a season of life where time is plentiful, and yet, limited. Jessica Fisher ’98, Frail-Craft, Yale University Press, 2007. This collection of poems won the 2007 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. Former poet laureate and judge of the competition Louise Glück writes in the Foreword that Fisher’s poetry is “haunting, elusive, luminous, its greatest mystery how plain-spoken it is. Sensory impressions, which usually serve as emblems of or connections to emotion, seem suddenly in this work a language of mind, their function neither metonymic nor dramatic.” Richard Goodkin ’75 (editor), In Memory of Elaine Marks: Life Writing, Writing Death, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2007. This moving and insightful celebration of the life of Marks, a widely recognized authority on French literature, feminist theory, and Jewish studies, also offers a valuable contribution to multiple academic disciplines. In 11 essays, some of the intellectual domains that were central to Mark’s work—pedagogy, feminism, lesbianism, women’s auto/biography, Jewish identity, community, memory, mourning, isolation, and death—are brought together. BOOKS, ETC Robin (Smith) Chapman ’64, The Dreamer Who Counted the Dead, WordTech Editions, 2007. In this collection of poems with titles such as “The Goodyear Blimp Goes By,” “Georgia O’Keeffe, Napping at Ninety-Six,” and “Hiking Out of the Picture near Muir Beach,” the political is intimately personal, and family and national history converge in startling ways. Robin Chapman ’64 and Judith Strasser (editors), 75 Poems on Retirement, University of Iowa Press, 2007. This collection includes poems by men and women between the ages of 50 and 80 from around the world, shar- Scott Kugle ’91, Sufis and Saints’ Bodies: Mysticism, Corporeality, and Sacred Power in Islam, The University of North Carolina Press, 2007. In the first full study of Islamic mysticism as it relates to the human body, the author examines Sufi conceptions of the body in religious writings from the late 15th through the 19th centuries, thereby refuting the assertion that Islam is abstract, ascetic, and disengaged from the human body. Sasha Issenberg ’02, The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy, Gotham Books, 2007. Exploring the history and allure of sushi from a global perspective, the author offers an up-close look at the dish that is now enjoyed by more than 30 million Americans. David Jenemann ’93, Adorno in America, University of Minnesota Press, 2007. In the first in-depth account of 20th-century German social philosopher Theodor Adorno’s 15-year exile in America, the author examines Adorno’s confrontation with the expanding American “culture industry” and casts new light on his writings about the mass media. Jenemann reveals that, far from being disconnected from America and disdainful of its culture, Adorno was actively engaged in American cultural and intellectual life during his stay in the country. Joan (Moffitt) Larkin ’60, My Body: New and Selected Poems, Hanging Loose Press, 2007. This book by a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for poetry comprises june 2007 : 75 books + arts selections from previous collections Cold River, A Long Sound, and Housework as well as a section of new material titled “The Offering.” Fellow poet Marie Ponsot says, “Joan Larkin’s high-wire poetic acts unite both electric tension and steadfast balance.” Alexander Nehamas ’67, Only a Promise of Happiness: The Place of Beauty in a World of Art, Princeton University Press, 2007. The author reclaims beauty from the disdain of 20-century critics, seeking to restore its place in art, re-establish the connections among art, beauty, and desire, and show that the values of art—independently of their moral worth—are equally crucial to the rest of life. Eleanor Lincoln Morse ’68, An Unexpected Forest, Down East Books, 2007. This novel, which begins with the erroneous delivery of 1,000 spruce tree seedlings to a recently fired attorney, is about family and the search for a life that matters. Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland ’81, Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform, Columbia University Press, 2007. This work offers a comprehensive and penetrating account of one of the worst famines of the 20th century that killed as many as one million North Koreans in the mid1990s. It examines the famine’s origins and impact from the level of the individual household to the high politics of international diplomacy. Patriot, the winner of the 2003 American Watercolor Society Gold Medal of Honor, is one of the works by abstract watercolorist Helen Glenzing Dodd ’45 that are on display from May 5 to July 25 at the Beeville Art Museum in Beeville, Texas. Ted Preston ’55, Judging the Lawyers: A Jurybox View of the Case Against American Lawyers, iUniverse Inc., 2007. Using a trial format that balances both sides of the argument, this work provides a vehicle for exploring the case for and against American lawyers and their handling of the civil justic system and for examining the causes of the tensions between the bar and the public. Rishi Reddi ’88, Karma and Other Stories, Harper Perennial, 2007. In this collection of short stories, the award-winning author weaves a multigenerational tapestry of interconnected lives, depicting members of an Indian American community struggling to balance the demands of tradition with the allure of Western life. Tyler Wigg Stevenson ’99, Brand Jesus: Christianity in a Consumerist Age, Seabury Books, 2007. The author voices concern about the corruption of American Christianity by modernday consumerism. 76 : swarthmore college bulletin Natsu Taylor Saito ’77, From Chinese Exclusion to Guantànamo Bay: Plenary Power and the Prerogative State, University Press of Colorado, 2007. Writing for a wide audience, the author details the historic use of plenary power—the doctrine under which U.S. courts have allowed the exercise of U.S. jurisdiction without concomitant protection—putting contemporary policies in historical perspective. Ellen (Faber) Wright ’64, Pressing On: The Roni Stoneman Story, University of Illinois Press, 2007. The book tells the story of the youngest daughter of the pioneering country music family, from her “way-beyond poverty-stricken” Appalachian childhood to becoming a TV personality on Hee Haw and “The First Lady of Banjo.” Q+A Why is Sarah Willie so delightfully tired? B y E l i zabeth Redden ’05 Because she needs nine to 10 hours of sleep a night and never gets it. Because she’s associate provost, associate professor of sociology, and mother of a toddler named Jeremy “on the cusp of being potty-trained.” Because, a sociologist by nature and nurture, she seeks to expose underlying structures even in the paintings and poems she creates for her own satisfaction. Because her research focuses on such mind-bending issues as social inequalities and the construction of knowledge. Because she’s devoted her career to tackling head-on confrontational issues surrounding race, sex, and class. Because she understands confrontation—“understood as an exchange of values and perspectives that have as much possibility of leading to a consensual outcome as not”—at least in part thanks to her experiences with Haverford College’s honor code as an undergraduate there. Because her life is calling (and crying, and giggling, and knocking on the door during office hours). Your dad was a sociologist too. What road trips did your family take when you were a child? Our annual vacations were always to the American Sociological Association (ASA) annual conference. Wherever they were meeting, that’s where our family had our vacation. Will you be taking your family on vacations there too? I expect I will. Last year, I brought my husband and Jeremy with me to the ASA conference, which was in Montreal. 80 : swarthmore college bulletin Now that you’re associate provost, tell me—do faculty members bicker a lot? (Laughs) I guess my question back to you is, ‘Compared to who else?’ People interact with each other by virtue of their humanness, and conflict is just one of the outcomes of interaction. But so is humor and compassion and zaniness. I do think that college professors have stressful lives and that much of that stress is hidden from students. But in general, we’re not a petulant or bickering lot! You believe, though, that confrontation can be positive? It’s not necessarily negative, it’s just part of human social life, and most of the time confrontation and conflict are nonviolent. As the College becomes more and more diverse, we are going to have—at least momentarily—more conflict. And if we understand that conflict is the natural outcome of living in a diverse environment, then we can also be a little bit more at peace with the fact that conflict is a part of life. We just have to figure out how to do it better. As associate provost, you have helped to organize workshops for the faculty and lead discussions about diversity on campus. How can Swarthmore better prepare itself to embrace even greater diversity? We need to continue to think about ways to make our exchanges with each other healthier, more regular, and more transparent. Although doing things efficiently may mean having one person make decisions, there’s a trade-off. In an organization like ours— which attempts to include its members in governance and be clear about its various processes—making sure that we’ve heard from many voices may be more important than making decisions quickly. In your 2003 book Acting Black: College, Identity, and the Performance of Race, you write about subtle racism on college campuses. What kinds of subtle racism do you see even at a place like Swarthmore? It’s important to acknowledge that there’s no one who is free from having racist thoughts, any more than there are people who are free from having sexist and classist thoughts in our society. We’re all deluged by stereotypical images of groups of people, every day. As human beings, we’re serious and we’re funny and we’re uptight and we’re relaxed; anytime we find ourselves under stress, that’s going to be a time when cruel comments about groups can come out. How much do you sleep? Not nearly as much as I used to. I always identified with Langston Hughes both because I’m a poet—even though I’m an unpublished poet—and because he said he needed a minimum of nine to 10 hours of sleep a night. I always thought I needed nine to 10 hours of sleep a night—which I have not gotten in two years and eight months—Jeremy is two years and eight months old. You married a librarian. Does he help you with your research? Oh my gosh, all the time. Do you have a favorite spot on Swarthmore’s campus? It’s probably going to sound clichéd, but I love sitting in the amphitheater when there’s nobody else around. I just find that extremely calming even if it’s a rainy day. You sit in the amphitheater in the rain? Yeah (laughs). I like sitting in the amphitheater, just to become centered. ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS BOB KRIST EVERY STEP OF THE WAY The Annual Fund makes a difference in the educational experience of each student who crosses the threshold of Parrish Hall. For generations, students have benefited from the generosity of Swarthmore's community—alumni, parents, and friends alike. This philanthropic tradition allows students to work closely with faculty members as they explore new ideas, challenge existing assumptions, and develop lifelong friendships. give every year . help every day. Take your step today, and make a gift to the Annual Fund by calling (800) 660-9714 or by visiting http://gift.swarthmore.edu.