Swarthmore College Alumni Bulletin 1996-05-01

College Bulletin

Kohlberg
Hall
The Class
o f ’71
gels it
together

T IME A T E i

■

I mural was uncovered
Mwhen Trotter Hall was
I gutted this winter in
preparation for a i« M

ished in the fall of 1997.
The painting features a wiz­
ard, an Einstein-like character,
representations of an Asian
w ar, and the w ords of Presi­
dent Dwight D. Eisenhower:
“Every gun that is made,
every rocket fired signifies, in
the final sense, a theft from
those who hunger and are not
fed. those who are cold and
are not clothed. This world in
arm s is not spending money
alone, it is spending the sweat
of its laborers, the genius of

its scientists, the hopes of its
i hildren This is not a way at
Under th e cloud of threatening wai it is hum anity hang-

The mural had been cov­
ered by wallboard glued with
energetic squiggles over the
plaster w here it w as originally i
painted. Who created it?
When? The artists are

— The Editors
PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEPHEN GOLDBIATT ‘6 j

COLLEGE BULLETIN • MAY 1996

10 A rt Meets Intellect in Kohlberg Hall
With tons o f stone in walls and floors and steps, Kohlberg Hall
already looks venerable. Its ground floor reveals gardens and
lawns through glass walls, and its upper floors buzz with the
stuff o f education. Join the pictorial tour o f our newest space.
By Jeffrey Lott
Editor. Jeffrey Lott
Assistant Editor Nancy Lehman ’87
News Editor Kate Downing
Class Notes Editor Carol Brevart
Desktop Publishing: Audree Penner
Designer Bob Wood
Editor Emerita:
Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49
Associate Vice President
for External Affairs:
Barbara Haddad Ryan ’59
Cover This 1993 theater poster by
Polish artist Andrzej Majewski is
part of the collection exhibited this
winter by poster collector—and
assistant professor of theater—
Allen Kuharski. See page 22.
Changes of Address:
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©1996 Swarthmore College
Printed in U.S.A. on recycled paper.
The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN
0888-2126), of which this is volume XCIII,
number 5, is published in September,
November, January, February, May, and
August by Swarthmore College, 500 College
Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081-1397. Second and additional mailing offices. Permit No.
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changes to Swarthmore College Bulletin,
500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 190811397.

18 Black Magic
The study of magic, says Assistant Professor Yvonne Chireau,
reveals volumes about the black experience in America. From
its African roots, the black supernatural tradition has more than
survived the “conversion ”to the Western Christian church.
By Tom Krattenmaker

22 Plakat Polski
When Fulbright Scholar Allen Kuharski visited Warsaw in 1981,
he found the only art form safe from government censors—
theater posters. Now assistant professor o f theater, he exhibited
this semester some stunning samples o f the Polish “low art. ”
By Christopher J. Haines ’86

26 Getting it Together
If we are to reach a common ground to help solve America’s
problems, we must first look into our own mirrors, says Don
Mizell 71. Mizell and four classmates share their thoughts on the
emotional state o f the country as we approach the millenium.
By Members of the Class of 1971

72 On the Road with M olarsky’s Marionettes
In the late 1920s, the once-popular Swarthmore Chautauqua was
on the wane after nearly two decades o f entertaining rural
audiences. But a marionette show still provided employment
for adventurous students— along with mishaps and laughs.
By Osmond Molarsky ’34

Letters
Collection
Alumni Digest
Class Notes
Deaths
Recent Books by Alumni

n the late 1970s, my wife and I renovated a 19th-century millworker’s home. There were just six small rooms in our sim­
ple woodframe house, but as we peeled away layers of paint
and plaster, we found ourselves involved in the lives of our
forerunners. Real people had lived here—people who liked flow­
ered wallpaper, who stoked wood stoves, who carried water
from the common pump and hid whiskey bottles in the out­
house ceiling. They stuffed the cracks with newspapers to keep
warm, and, like us, they had bats in the attic. Once they had a
fire in the southeast corner of the kitchen. We found charred
beams under faded yellow wainscoting (itself found under panel­
ing), new wood put there as our long-departed housemates
made a fresh start after the fire.
Once in a while, it’s good to get down to the beams, to see
where the real structure lies. Yesterday I toured what’s left of old
Trotter Hall, now a hibernating hulk awaiting its latest incarna­
tion. Every living Swarthmorean knows this revered (and oftreviled) stone structure. First
built in 1882, and added onto in
1895 and 1920, it has no doubt
been “improved” countless
times in its lifetime. I happened
Once in a while its good to
upon hollow, gutted class­
get down to the beams, to see
rooms, where wordless black­
where the real structure lies.
boards clung to battered walls,
where built-in bookshelves held
rubble instead of Rabelais or Ramakrishna. I saw evidence of a
fire in Trotter as well—blackened walls and joists, a close call
long forgotten, quickly covered as the College moved on.
When all but the bearing walls are gone, you see the past, and
the ghosts come out to embrace you. Who’s been here? A hun­
dred years of students and teachers, ten thousand classes, a
hundred thousand hands raised to ask or answer. The building’s
namesake, Spencer Trotter, professor of biology and geology
from 1888 to 1927, is still here. Surely he knew President Frank
Aydelotte, who hired legendary Professor of Economics Clair
Wilcox, who taught economics major Jerome Kohlberg ’46, who
in his quiet way has helped us come full circle.
Today we have a magnificent new building on campus (see
page 10), just as they did in 1882. Kohlberg Hall is yet another
vote for Swarthmore’s future, a token of confidence that this
great educational enterprise will prosper and endure. I’m sure
that a hundred years from now, when it too needs a renovation,
the chain of teaching and learning will still be unbroken. I like
being a part of this kind of optimism, as the people of this Col­
lege make a history of their own.

I

PARLOR TALK

—J.L.

2

l e t1t
“Single-minded in his
pursuit of the truth”

Ca
eni

To the Editor:
(;a
Congratulations on your excellent
the
article on Tom Brown ’29 (“Dr.
of
Brown’s Remedy,” February 1996).
ote
Tom was one of my closest friends
Sw
at Swarthmore, and we kept in
ini
touch after college. He was always
No
single-minded in his pursuit of the
truth. When he explained to me his
approach to rheumatoid arthritis,
even I (a nonscientist) could under­
stand that there must be a cause. 1 ( No
was disgusted that Tom had trouTo
ble with many doctors and especialTh
ly with the pharmaceutical compame
nies. I am delighted that you have
the
told his story so well.
“Ti
M y e r C o h en ’29
vie
Newtown Square, Pa.
res
eff
Catholic Church “repeatedly
as
criticized capital punishment”
ba
To the Editor:
1 me
I am saddened, though by no means
me
surprised, that the Bulletin would
die
publish a letter containing the utter­
ly ridiculous assertion that “The
Roman Catholic Church ... claims a
consistent pro-life ethic, but it
belies its claim to that ethic by failSc
ing to condemn capital punish“h
ment.” (Letters, February 1996).
To
The author of the letter claims to be Ifc
a member of the Catholic Church
Ed
but appears to be totally unaware
Cb
of its most basic teachings.
ch
In reality the Catholic Church
lav
has repeatedly criticized capital
I tio
punishment as feeding into the “culan
ture of death” so prevalent in counco
tries like the United States. The
bo
1995 papal encyclical Euangelium
sic
Vitae states that situations that
ex
could morally warrant capital pundi<
ishment are extremely rare, if not
thi
nonexistent. There have also been i bit
countless denouncements of capital
er,
punishment by American Catholic
m<
bishops.
“N
The writer’s misconception is
as
fueled by the fact that the media
les
just doesn’t find Catholic opposiah
tion to the death penalty to be very
se
interesting. It’s much more sensaM
<
tional to bash Catholics for dissentan
ing from liberal orthodoxy on the
i gr<
issue of abortion.
m<
While I was at Swarthmore, I
te<
observed shocking ignorance about
SW ARTHM ORE COLLEGE BULLETIN

IV

rr

e

r s

Catholicism, which seem ed to
encourage the often vicious antiCatholic rhetoric that abounds on
that campus. Please, in the interest
of fairness, don’t buy into these bigoted attitudes that have made
Swarthmore into a veritable train­
ing ground for latter-day KnowNothings.

nt
6).

ds

ys

ie

M

his
s,
ieri

aura

V

olkm er

’9 3

New Haven, Conn,
maura.volkmer@yale.edu
| Nourishment and connections

ucial3are

’29
, Pa.

:ans
d
tter-

Tothe Editor:
Thanks for ever-consistent nourishment and connections provided by
the Bulletin. Last November’s
“Trapped Under Ice” not only provided a valuable perspective
regarding the often dehumanizing
effects of our penal system but also
agreat motivation for me to get
back in touch with my old class­
mate from high school and Swarthmore editor and publisher Julie Biddie Zimmerman,
S usan K n o tt e r W

ail-

abe
h
'e

culun- '

n

in>t
en i
)ital i
lic

»

l

i-

ery
aante i

alton

’6 8

Katonah, N.Y.
hawkmeadow@aol.com

sa

’IN

P O S T I N G S

Social welfare isn’t
“historical aberration”

Tothe Editor:
Ifound the essay by'Christopher
Edley Jr. 73 (“Are America’s Values
Changing?” February 1996) a very
challenging discussion. As a non­
lawyer I appreciated his explana­
tion of the tensions involved in balancing a concern for values with
constitutional rights, but I was
bothered by some of his conclusions and characterizations. For
example, Edley carefully makes a
distinction between the agenda of
the religious right, which is tolerable, and the rhetoric, which is intolerable. This is a judicious assessment, but to then generalize many
“NewDeal” social welfare policies
as “historical aberrations,” seems
less than judicial and decidedly
ahistorical. As a nation we are well
served by having such programs as
Medicare, unemployment insur­
ance, and Social Security. While the
growth and implementation of
Many programs can be faulted, new
technologies and market-oriented
Please turn to page 36
MAY 1996

Cheri G oetcheus, coaching th e
hey came from the South and the
East and the West and the North— women’s softball team on their Florida
from New Mexico, Maine, Missouri, thespring training, wrote that they hoped
Carolinas, California, even Paris! And to “hit the beaches” soon. Hey, what
Florida ... of course Florida. They were about the basest
Not all the traveling college teams
Spring Break postcards, coaxed from
fared quite as
vacationers by
well, as Kelly
th e friendly
W ilcox
’97
College Book­
wrote: “While
store staff with
improving our
an offer of free
lacrosse skills,
film and store
we have also
discounts.
lea rn ed how
Alm ost 80
to outrun alli­
students, fac­
gators. Don’t
ulty, and staff
worry, no one
members
was seriously
(who says that
h u rt in the
only the young
process.”
can have fun?)
First-year stu­
resp o n d ed
dent Channaly
from far and
Oum took the
wide. Most
opportunity to
sent commer­
re c o m m e n d
cially scenic
and geograph­
to th e book­
sto re a book
ically a p p ro ­
she saw while
p ria te card s,
on her break
but—never at
in W ashing­
a loss for cre­
ton, D.C.
ativity—other
And Kelli Tennent ’98 waxed poetic:
traveling Sw arthm oreans sent their
“‘Spring Breaker, Spring Breaker,
own photographs, a cardboard granola
box cut to size, and even a recycled
Where have you been?’
‘I’ve been to Boston to check out
review book request. Some cards had
the bare essentials—-name, address,
the scene!’
‘Spring Breaker, Spring Breaker,
and sta m p —and o th e rs sh a re d
What did you there?’
detailed itineraries.
‘I hung out at MFA and Harvard
“Having a blast in Boston,” wrote
Susan Hunt ’99. “Friends, films, and
Square?”
Faneuil Hall.”
Curiously, many of the cards didn’t
“So it’s not Florida,” lamented Jessi­ come from faraway places at all. They
ca Alwes Howington ’98 in Louisville, w ere m ailed rig h t h e re in 19081.
Ky. “What a lovely view.”
Zongqi Xia ’97 consoled himself that
“It’s really spring h e re ,” exulted even though he spent most of his wak­
engineering Professor Nelson Macken ing hours preparing for exams the fol­
from Colorado. “Skiing is great!”
lowing week, “At least I am able to get
Not so in New York City, apparently, eight hours of sleep every day.”
w here Rebecca Louie ’99 rep o rted ,
And Nina Santos ’97 wrote the fol­
“The weather is freezing.”
lowing: “Dear Sw arthm ore College
The gloating from warmer climes Bookstore, Greetings from Cornell....
included a postcard from North Caroli­ Cornell Library, that is. That’s right, I’m
na, where Lynda Yankaskas ’99 sent spending Spring Break here on cam­
greetings from “the Southern part of pus. And the scenery is beautiful, there
a re n ’t too m any to u ris ts , and th e
Heaven.”
Joshua Silver ’97 added from Disney accommodations are quite cozy. The
World, “Hope y’all are persevering weather is great, wish you were here.
through the cold while I bask in the Wait—you are!”
—Nancy Lehman ’87
sun.”

■

The weather is great,
wish you were here.
Wait—you are!

3

COLLECTION
SWARTHMORE

TODAY

Swarthmore Alumni Gospel Choir
celebrates its 25th anniversary
Kemal Nance ’92 adds an exuberant
• dance as Vaneese Thomas 74 directs
the Swarthmore College Alumni Gospel Choir
during its 25th-anniversary concert on Black
Alumni Weekend in March. Thirty-six mem­
bers returned to campus for the concert that
featured pieces from the choir’s new record­
ing, Hallelujah! Amen.

C

Guinier on affirmative action ... Best known for
her nomination—and withdrawal—for the post of
assistant U.S. attorney general, Lani Guinier gave a
spirited talk on “Reframing the Affirmative Action
Debate”on March 19. The professor at the University
of Pennsylvania Law School challenged the notion
that fairness necessarily means “treating everyone
the same. ” There is no one-size-fits-all way of judging
people, she said, so “how can we know in advance
whether someone is qualified?”Guinier’s talk was
one in a series on contemporary black political atti­
tudes sponsored by the Swarthmore African American
Student Society (SASS).

4

SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN

Librarian Michael Durban and
Biologist Barbara Stewart to retire
ollege Librarian Michael J. Durkan and Barbara Yost
Stewart ’54, professor of biology, will retire at the end
of the academic year.
Durkan came to the College in 1976 after working for 10
years in rare books and technical services at Wesleyan Uni­
versity. Prior to that he worked in various libraries in his
native Ireland, where he received a B.A. from St. Patrick’s
College in Maynooth and a graduate diploma in library
studies from the National University of Ireland, University
College, Dublin.
In alternate spring semesters, Durkan taught (and will
continue to teach) the course Introduction to Anglo-Irish
Literature. He nominated internationally renowned Irish
poet Seamus Heaney for an honorary degree, which the
College bestowed in 1994. In October 1995 Heaney was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
During his 20 years at the
College, Durkan oversaw the
building of the Cornell Sci­
ence Library, the establish­
ment of the support group
Associates of the Library,
the automation of the
Library catalog, and the sub­
sequent installation of Tri­
pod, a computerized catalog
that links library collections
at Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, “j
and Haverford.
§
Stewart, who taught |
courses and seminars in the °
molecular biology of memMichael J. Durkan
branes, came to Swarthmore
in 1967 as a half-time teach­
ing assistant. While working
at the College, she obtained
a master’s degree in molecu­
lar biology in 1972 and a
Ph.D. in lipid biochemistry
in 1975, both from Bryn
Mawr College.
For the past 12 years, she
has been the associate chair
of the Department of Biolo­
gy and the College’s health
science adviser. In these
roles she advised more than
500 biology majors and S
helped more than 330 preBarbara Yost Stewart ’54
medical students apply to
medical school.
Both Durkan and Stewart
have been granted emeritus
status by the Board of Man­
agers.

C

Along with teaching in the Linguistics Program this semester,
Navajo native Paul Platero is also leading seminars in
silkscreen printing through the Art Department.

Lang Professor works to save his
native tongue from extinction
xperts say that many languages, chiefly those of
Native Americans and forest people, are dying
tongues. Paul Platero is determined that Navajo
won’t be among them.
As this year’s Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor of
Social Change, Platero is spending the semester as a
member of the Linguistics Program, teaching the struc­
ture of Navajo to Swarthmore students, who are becom­
ing more proficient in the language than most preschool
Navajo children. Former director of an education pro­
gram administered by the Navajo nation, Platero is con­
cerned that the majority of Navajo children do not know
their own language.
“I did a recent study and found that about 55 percent
of these children have English as their only language,” he
said. “About 17 percent are growing up monolingual
speakers of Navajo, and roughly 24 percent are bilingual.
And my guess is that in the next 10 years the percentage
of English-only speakers will increase considerably if the
Navajo people do hot reverse the present trend.”
Platero’s study, he says, came as a “wake-up call” to
his tribal government. “I believe the Navajo government
is taking steps to require that preschool children be
taught in Navajo. If they are not Navajo speakers now,
they will have it introduced to them as a second lan­
guage so they can at least have some experience hearing
and speaking a few words.”
The loss of native speakers may mean a loss of the
history of the entire tribe. Although Navajo started to be
recorded phonetically by enthnographers more than 100
years ago, the tribe never developed its own written lan­
guage. Like many Native American nations, teachings are
passed orally from generation to generation.
A native of New Mexico, Platero lives with his wife and
14 children in Arizona, where the entire family is involved
in a commercial printing business. And although he
taught at the college level for five years after receiving a
doctorate in linguistics from MIT, this year has been his
first back in an academic setting since 1983.
“I was drawn away slowly from my area of training,”
he says, “and I didn’t realize how much I missed linguis­
tics until now. It’s exciting to see these young students
grasping the complex theoretical issues of a non-IndoEuropean language.”

E

o
Did they or didn’t they? The debate over
the Rosenberg case comes to campus
ore than 300 people filled the Lang Performing
Arts Center Cinema on April 13 to hear a
debate between Michael Meeropol ’64 and
Joyce Milton ’67 on the case of Julius and Ethel Rosen­
berg, who were executed in 1953 for conspiracy to
commit espionage.
Meeropol, a son of the Rosenbergs and co-author of
the autobiographical We Are Your Sons and editor of
The Rosenberg Letters: A Complete Edition of the Prison
Correspondence of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, main­
tains his parents’ innocence against the charge, saying
that his parents were part of a “politically motivated
frame-up” in the climate of the Cold War and McCarthyism. Milton, co-author of The Rosenberg File: A
Search for the Truth, believes the Rosenbergs received
a fair trial and that the guilty verdict was justified.
The debate also included Victor Navasky ’54, pub­
lisher and editorial director of The Nation, who served
as commentator, and Meta Mendel-Reyes, assistant
professor of political science, who moderated.
“The government used my mother as a lever
against my father when she and my father refused to
cooperate,” Meeropol said. “They held her as a hos­
tage in a life-and-death game of chicken, and when the
end came they killed her knowing she was not guilty.”
“I don’t think the Rosenbergs were heroes because
they didn’t name names,” Milton asserted. “Quite the
contrary.... This whole idea that it’s somehow heroic to
remain silent I find repugnant.”

M

Michael Meeropol ’64

Victor Navasky ’54

Joyce Milton ’67

Meta Mendel-Reyes

The greening ofSwarthm ore ...
Erika Krick ’98 (left) and Nancy
Koven ’98 tend to their award-winning
plant collection in their room in
Woolman House. The two were
among winners of the “Greenest
Room Contest”sponsored by the Scott
Arboretum in the category of “The
Wild, the Weird, and the Wonderful”
for growing the most exotic, out-ofthe-ordinary plants. The contest grew
out of plant clinic and potting-up days
the arboretum staff holds twice a
semester for students. Kris Benarcik,
arboretum education coordinator,
said, “We were seeing all of these
fantastic plants and wanted to see
where they lived. ”

SW ARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN

How I cam e to leave Swarthm ore after

18 years on the faculty

By Jacob Weiner, Professor of Biology

in which agriculture occurs. I would have much to learn.
The seminar was very successful in analyzing agriculture
arrived at Swarthmore in August 1978, literally the day
from many different perspectives. By the end of the semes­
after I handed in the final version of my doctoral thesis
ter, it became apparent to me that agricultural ecology is
at the University of Oregon. This summer, almost 18
the field I most want to study. It is not only interesting, but
years later, I will leave my tenured professorship here to
important, and I think I may have something special to con­
take a position in agroecology and sustainable agriculture
tribute. My interest was apparent to the students, and they
at the Royal Agricultural University in Copenhagen. I have
asked me: Why don’t you do agricultural research if you are
to credit my students for encouraging me to try something
so interested in it? It simply didn’t seem possible. While my
that I have always wanted to do.
research on plant population biology was conceptually and
In December 1993 I met with seven students to discuss
methodologically very close to crop research, I could not
possible topics for the first-ever Capstone Seminar in Envi­
pursue serious agricultural research at a liberal arts college
ronmental Studies. This was to be an advanced interdisci­
without an experimental farm. I had been at Swarthmore
plinary seminar within a major area of environmental stud­
for 18 years. In another 181would become professor emeri­
ies, involving work in at least two, and preferably within all
tus with a comfortable pension. So why should I become
three, of the College’s academic divisions. I saw the semi­
distracted by a fantasy to change fields? Swarthmore is an
nar as an opportunity for me to explore areas outside of
outstanding institution and has been good to me, but after
biology, to learn more than to teach. I had no idea how it
many years of teaching, research, and administration, it
would contribute to changing my
became clear to me that under­
life.
graduate liberal arts education
Several topics were discussed
had not become my calling. I have
during that meeting, but only one
great respect for this type of
emerged with both enthusiastic
career and can find little to criti­
and unanimous support: sustain­
cize at Swarthmore. I have done
able agriculture. At first it might
the best job I could, but it is not
seem surprising that seniors at a
what I most want to do for the
small liberal arts college would be
rest of my life. Botanical research,
so interested in agriculture, but
pure and applied, is.
upon reflection it’s not surprising
Several months after the Cap­
at all. Agriculture is the basis of
stone Seminar, I saw an advertise­
modern civilization, the ultimate
ment in Nature for a position at
example of conscious human alter­
the Danish Royal Agricultural Uni­
ation of the natural world. It is the
versity. The job description was
most fundamental technology. Fur­
straightforward: basic and strate­
thermore the environmental degra­ “After getting to know me, my students challenged me gic research in agricultural ecolo­
dation and resultant non-sustain­
to become an environmental scientist. If I did not try
gy with the goal of contributing to
ability of farming are among the
to meet this challenge, / would not feel worthy of
the development of more sustain­
most important environmental
them,”says Professor Jacob Weiner, who is leaving
able agricultural systems.
problems facing the world.
the College this summer after 18 years on the faculty.
Although my research is interna­
The decision to focus on sus­
tionally known within plant ecolo­
tainable agriculture could not have suited me more. My
gy, I didn’t think I would have a chance to get this position
interest in agriculture, specifically agricultural ecology,
because I have little direct experience in agricultural
goes back more than 20 years. I had considered going into
research. I spent an entire day writing my application letter,
agricultural botany when I entered graduate school in the
describing my interests and the type of research I would
1970s, but the worlds of “pure” biology (represented by the
like to do. I discussed my book chapter on agroecology and
research universities) and applied biology (at land grant
some ideas from the Capstone Seminar. Seven months later
universities) are historically very separate. I chose to enter
I was quite surprised to be offered the position.
the world of academic science because it offered a more
My decision to enter this new and quite unknown world
rigorous and broader training.
was difficult—not difficult to make but to accept. The
After coming to Swarthmore—which is about as differ­
change will be enormous: leaving friends and family behind
ent from an agricultural university as an institution can
to go off to a new country with a strange language, into a
be—my involvement in agriculture was limited to dis­
new field, working at a totally different type of institution
cussing it in my courses and seminars and writing a chap­
with a very different job description. While it could be a
ter on plant population biology and agriculture for a book
huge mistake, it was clear that if I didn’t go, I would always
on agroecology a few years ago. Now I would at least have
regret not having taken the chance. I realized that combin­
the opportunity to study agriculture in a serious way with
ing my scientific interests with my environmental and
uiy seminar students. And though I knew quite a bit about
social values to help make agriculture less destructive of
agricultural biology, the Capstone Seminar would also con­
the environment is probably the only real ambition I have
cern itself with the social, political, and economic context
ever had. This summer I leave for Copenhagen to try it.

I

MAY 1996
7

COLLECTION
obel laureate Derek Walcott
presented a selection of his
poems and plays during a
reading on campus April 19. Born on
St. Lucia in the West Indies, Walcott is
the acclaimed author of numerous
volumes of poetry, including The
Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory, for
which he won the Nobel Prize in Liter­
ature in 1992. Considered a poet of
immense power, skill, and intellectual
depth, he was called “the best poet
the English language has today” by
the late poet Joseph Brodsky. Walcott
teaches at Boston University.

N

College mourns Peter Gram Swing ...
eter Gram Swing, professor emeritus of
music, died Feb. 15 at his home of chronic
myeloid leukemia. He was 73.
He joined the Swarthmore faculty in 1955 as
the first full-time music professor and director
of the chorus. He headed the department from
1958 to 1974, remaining choral director
throughout his 34-year career. Prof. Swing was
the first recipient of the Daniel Underhill Chair
of Music.
The conductor and organizer of innumerable
music events, Prof. Swing annually directed the
community Christmas presentation of Handel’s Messiah. He also conducted
the Swarthmore College Chorus in works by P.D.Q. Bach, the alter ego of
Swing’s former student Peter Schickele ’57, and led the College Chorus in
performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Contributions in his memory may be made to the College’s Friends of
Music and Dance.

P

... and Barbara Brooks Smoyer *37
ormer Board of Managers member Barbara
Brooks Smoyer ’37 died March 19 of a cere­
F
bral hemorrhage.
Active in many civic organizations in Prince­
ton and statewide New Jersey government, she
also served as president, secretary, class agent,
reunion committee members, and class notes
secretary for her class. In addition she chaired
the Annual Funds Committee and served as an
admissions interviewer.
Mrs. Smoyer was a nationally ranked senior
woman amateur tennis player, and she, along
with her husband, Stanley, received the Chamber of Commerce Citizen of
the Year Award, the United Way Lambert Award, and the Humanitarian
Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

And the winner i s ... Nobody. The
votes are in on the final voting on
adopting a mascot for the College:
There will be none. Out of a total of
1,492 ballots cast among alumni, par­
ents, students, faculty, and staff, 858
(58 percent) voted for “no mascot.” Of
the remainder 361 voted for the Garnet
Fox (24 percent) and 273 for the Little
Quaker (18 percent). It’s interesting to
note that 77 percent of the current stu­
dent body voted “no.” Jen Philpott ’97,
sports editor of the Phoenix and one of
the students who originated the idea,
said wistfully: “All in all, although we
have no mascot to show for our effort,
the process was entertaining, and we
can conclusively say one thing that we
could not before: Swarthmore does not
have a mascot because it simply does
not want one.”
Applications blizzard... The College
has received 4,001 applications from
prospective members of the Class of
2000, a new record for Swarthmore and
an 18 percent increase over last year’s
figure. Of the total, 1,206 were offered
admission, and as of early May more
than 400 had accepted Swarthmore—
another record.
Jennie redux... Provost Jennie Keith
will continue on in the position
through the 2000-01 academic year.
President Alfred H. Bloom announced
the extension of her term “based on
enthusiastic faculty support” and the
recommendation of the Committee on
Faculty Procedures.
Phasing o u t... The concentration in
International Relations, part of the cur­
riculum since the 1950s, will no longer
be offered. James Kurth, professor of
political science and coordinator of the
concentration, said it has simply
become obsolete. “Concentrations,” he
said, “should represent visions that
haven’t yet been fully integrated into
academic disciplines. Now, however,
many of our academic fields have an
international approach imbedded with­
in them. It seems important that we
add new and necessary concentrations
and delete the ones that have become
redundant.” Students currently
enrolled—through the Class of 1999will be able to continue in the concen­
tration.

SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN

mark. However, the squad came on strong winning five of
he 1995-96 winter sports season provided out­
their final eight contests including a sweep of Haverford.
standing individual and team efforts. Two teams
On senior day it was fitting that Nancy Rosenbaum ’96 was
were undefeated, and several students earned
the star. Playing in her last game, she recorded her 1,000th
national recognition.
rebound and hit the game-winning basket with four sec­
The women’s swim team sent seven swimmers to the
onds remaining. Rosenbaum ends her career leading the
National Championships in Atlanta, and all returned AllGarnet with 1,003 rebounds and 281 steals. She also was
Americans. Skye Fulkerson ’96 earned honors with a sixthnamed to the Centennial Academic Honor Roll. Freshmen
place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke. Jill Belding ’99
Holly Barton and Erin Greeson made their mark on the Col­
also earned individual All-American status with a sixthlege record books. Barton connected on 27 three pointers
place finish in the 200-yard butterfly, while Jenny Harvey
to shatter the single-season mark and tie the career mark
’99 earned Honorable Mention All-American status with a
while Greeson set the season mark with 39 blocked shots.
15th-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. The 200-yard
The wrestling team battled to a 3-11-1 mark as injuries
medley relay team of Alanna Roazzi ’99, Fulkerson, Cathy
depleted the squad. The Garnet jumped out to a promising
Polinsky ’99, and Janine Gent ’99 earned an All-American
start, posting a 2-1 record, but lost six consecutive match­
bid with a seventh place finish. The 400-yard medley relay
es before a 24-24 tie with
team of Kristen Robertson ’98,
Fulkerson, Polinsky, and Har­
Swimmers earn All-American honors Johns Hopkins. At the Centen­
nial Conference Champion­
vey earned Honorable Mention
ships, Pete Balvanz ’98 came
status with a 12th-place finish
in second place at 142
in a school record time of
pounds. Alec Stall ’98 finished
4:03.86; and the 200-yard
in third at 150 pounds, and
freestyle relay team of Fulker­
Tirian Mink ’98 posted a
son, Polinsky, Gent, and Harvey
fourth-place finish at 134
finished in 16th place in a
pounds. The Garnet finished
school record time of 1:43.47 to
in fifth place, collecting 27
earn Honorable Mention status.
points. Chaz Teplin ’96 earned
The team finished with a 13-2
a spot on the Centennial Aca­
overall record, 6-1 in the Cen­
demic Honor Roll.
tennial Conference.
The badminton team post­
The men’s swim team fin­
ed a 5-3 record, winning its
ished the season with an over­
first four contests. Thanh
all record of 9-4 and went 5-1 in
Hoang ’97 earned a secondconference for a second- place
place finish at the Northeast­
Sublime swimmers ... Team members (rear; / to r) Cathy
finish. Andy Robbins ’98 and
Polinsky ’99, Jill Belding ’99, Jenny Harvey ’99, Kristen Robert­ ern Regional Collegiate Cham­
Kendrew Witt ’96 represented
pionships and the doubles
son ’98, Skye Fulkerson ’96, Alanna Roazzi ’99, and Janine
Swarthmore at the National
team
of Vanya Tepavcevic ’97
Gent
’
99;
(front,
l
to
r)
Kendrew
Witt
’
96
and
Andy
Robbins
’
98.
C h a m p io n sh ip s. R o b b in s
and Hoang finished in third
brought home Honorable Men­
place. The doubles team of Erika Johansen ’99 and Jennifer
tion All-American status finishing in 11th place in the 200Chen ’99 earned the first-place prize at the PAIAW Champi­
yard backstroke in a school record time of 1:54.44. Justin
onships.
Herring ’97 earned a spot on the GTE Academic All-Ameri­
The men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams
can All-District II at-large team. Herring also earned All-Con­
posted successful seasons. The women, with a 10-1 record,
ference honors along with Robbins, Witt, and Carl Sanders
ranked 24th in the final U.S. Track Coaches Association
’97 as a member of the Centennial Champion 200 and 400
Poll. The men, with a perfect 11-0 record, were ranked as
medley relay teams. Witt also was a double Centennial
high as 16th during the season but did not make the final
champ in the 100 and 200 breaststroke as was Robbins in
poll. Both teams finished in third place at the Centennial
the 100 and 200 backstroke. Mark Friedberg ’98, Alex Huk
Conference Championships. Mike Turner ’96 set school
’96, Fulkerson, Witt, and Herring were named to the Confer­
and conference records in the 200- and 400-meter dashes
ence Academic Honor Roll.
and was part of the 800- and 1,600-meter relay teams that
The men’s basketball team closed a frustrating season
broke school records. Senior Scott Reents established the
on a winning note. The Garnet edged division champion
school mark of 3:59.1 in the 1,500 meter. On the women’s
Haverford 56-55 on the strength of a Craig Rodner ’96 free
side, Danielle Duffy ’98 set the school and conference mark
throw in the game’s final seconds. Swarthmore finished the
in the 200-meter, and Jill Willdonger ’97 eclipsed the school
season with a 9-15 overall record and a 5-8 conference
and Centennial mark in the 400 meter. Also, Catherine
mark. Ben Schall ’97 led the squad in scoring, steals, and
Laine ’98 set the school mark in the 55-meter dash of 7.4
rebounding, posting 14.1 points, 38 steals, and eight
seconds, and Shoshannah Pearlman ’98 broke the school’s
rebounds per game. Colin Convey ’97 set a school mark
5,000 meter mark in a time of 18:21.58.
with 56 three-point baskets and the team set a conference
Hood Trophy Update: The Hood Trophy battle is tied at
mark with 94 three-pointers. Mark Pletcher ’96, A.J. Shan4.5 each. Swat earned a full point with the women’s basket­
ley ’97, Rodner, and Schall made the Academic Honor Roll.
ball sweep and a point from the wrestling victory while
The women’s basketball team also struggled this sea­
splitting a point in men’s basketball.
son, compiling a 7-17 overall record and a 4-11 conference

T

MAY 1996

9

ART

MEETS

INTELLTCT

IN THE
SPIRITED

SPACES

OF

KOHLBERG
LEFT AND OPPOSITE © PAUL WARCHOL / JEROME KOHLBERG BY STEPHEN GOLDBLATT '67

H A L L

By Jeffrey Lott

Blending cam pus tradition w ith a contem ­
porary sensibility, Swarthmore’s new
Kohlberg Hall delights visitors w ith its open
spaces, light-filled classrooms, and elegant
details. From its surprising asymmetrical
sem inar tables to its open and inviting pub­
lic spaces, this is a place for thinking, talk­
ing, and learning— a building that brings
architecture and intellect together in a way
that lifts the spirit.

Old and new—Clothier, Parrish,
and the stone tower ofKohlberg
Hall—seem to converge in the
view from the third-floor corri­
dor ofSwarthmore’s newest
building, which was dedicated
on May 3. The departments of
Modem Languages and Litera­
tures, Sociology/Anthropology,
and Economics moved into the
building in January. Named
for Jerome Kohlberg ’46
(above), it is the first half of a
$28 million project that will
also include the complete
renovation of Trotter Hall.

li

estled near Parrish and Trotter halls,

N

Kohlberg Hall is also built to last.
W ith tons of stone in walls and floors and

steps, it has the substance of Parrish, yet its
ground floor seems transparent. An archway
pierces the massive building’s center as out­
doors and indoors blur in the comfortable
Com m ons, w here a cup of cappuccino
reheats a classroom conversation. Through
walls of glass, a formal garden and spacious
lawns anticipate a sunny Swarthmore day

Above: Jeffrey Spritzer ’96 visits
with Marion Faber, professor of
German, outside her office.
Right: The busy Commons, with
a coffee bar, offers a view of the
Isabelle Bennett Cosby ’28
Courtyard and, in the opposite
direction, the lawn leading to
the Du Pont Science Building.
Far right: The end of the spa­
cious corridor on the third floor
looks out on the nearby Lang
Performing Arts Center.
Inset: Bruce Grant, assistant pro­
fessor of anthropology, meets
with Amanda Rocque ’97 in his
office, one of 68 faculty offices
in the new building.

12

SW ARTHM ORE COLLEGE BULLETIN

S p i»
ero «II*

Ws&ÆU

pstairs is a hive of teaching and technol­

U

ogy The language learning center crack­

les w ith connections, bringing words and
images from cultures around the w orld. And
in classrooms w here chalk and blackboard
still have m uch to say a video jum ps from a
ceiling-m ounted projector onto a hideaway
screen. Light-filled faculty offices line long
halls w here backpacks slouch on benches,
resting betw een trips to class and dorm . A
professor’s open door reveals a wall of books,
a favorite painting, an O riental rug. Come in,
sit dow n, please ask your questions.

Left: The Scheuer Room, named
to honor Marge Pearlman
Scheuer and Walter Scheuer
(both ’48), is used for lectures,
faculty meetings, and campus
gatherings. Kohlberg Hall also
sports a new faculty lounge.
Above: Students work together in
the state-of-the-art language learn­
ing center. The lab is equipped
with 36 networked Macintoshes
for classes and independent
study, plus audio and video tapes
and six laser disk players.
Right: NiYa Costley ’97 and
Upward Bound student Hameed
Abdur-Rahman take advantage of
an intimate seminar room in the
top of the building’s asymmetrical
“clock tower. ”

14

SW ARTHM ORE COLLEGE BULLETIN

Inset: The sundial on the tower
isbelieved to be the world’s
first with auxiliary markings for
daylight-saving time.
Left and below: Floors of flag­
stone and walls of glass bring the
outdoors in along the groundfloorhall and in the Commons.
All of the furniture forKohlberg
Hall—including coffee tables and
benches of solid granite—was
made specifically for the building.
Right: Professor of Economics
Larry Westphal leads a seminar
inthe Corddry Center, a secondfloorwing donated by Paul
Corddry ’58 and his wife, Char­
lotte. Another of the Center’s sem­
inarrooms was named to honor
Gilmore Stott, associate provost
emeritus and, at 82, still serving
asassociate dean of the College.

n late afternoon the bronze gnom on’s shadow

I

slips across the new sundial. It’s quiet in the

Cosby courtyard. A rt glass w inks its colors in a

window, and the texture of stone sharpens in the
slanting light.
A 4:30 lecture draws a sw arm of students to the
first-floor Scheuer Room, w hile across the way an
adm issions tour returns to Parrish portico. In the
nearby rose garden a couple pauses, laughing. You
rest a m om ent, thinking of the m eaning of this new
place, of future generations of Sw arthm oreans w ho
w ill study here. This Kohlberg Hall, ju st four
m onths old, seems venerable already. ■

MAY 1996

Supernatural traditions from African religion have
survived the "conversion" to African American Christianity,
blurring the line between religion and magic.
By Tom Krattenmaker
h e r e ’s relig io n , a n d th e n
th e re ’s magic. A ccording to
th e c o n v e n tio n a l view , th e
two are separate stream s with
no comm on water. But consider the
religious candle that Assistant Profes­
sor Yvonne Chireau found in a New
Jersey “botanica” (a shop where reli­
gious and m agical item s a re so ld )
while rese a rc h in g h e r forthcom ing
book: It b e a rs d e p ic tio n s of Jesus,
Mary, and the crucifixion, yet printed
above the familiar-looking biblical fig­
ures and scenes are nam es such as
“Ochum,” an African goddess of love,
and “O gum ,” a god of virility. T he
w ords “Seven African P o w ers” are
emblazoned across the top.
As illustrated by the candle and its
com bination of Christian and pagan
imagery, black supernatural tradition
has m ore than survived the “conver­
s io n ” of A frican A m ericans to th e
W e ste rn c h u rc h . T h e p r a c tic e of
magic in black culture—even, surpris­
ingly, in th e context of m ainstream
Christianity—is the subject of a book
Chireau is writing for the University of
California Press, Black Magic: Dimen­
sions o f the Supernatural in AfricanAmerican Religion. To the uninitiated
th e r e ’s an intriguing spookiness to
so m e of th e ro o ts , m ojos, v o o d o o
dolls, and magic recipes she’s collect­
ed, but Chireau finds in them the stuff
of worthwhile scholarship. The study
of magic, she says, reveals volumes
about the black experience in America

T

18

and may contribute to an understand­
ing of E uro-A m erican beliefs and
superstitions.
“I’m trying to pull apart this loaded
term ‘m agic,’” says Chireau, now in
her second year in the Department of
Religion. “At certain points in history,
magic was used to describe religious
p ra c tic e s th a t d id n ’t have a place
within official stru c tu re s like Chris­
tianity. But if you dig deep into the his­
tory of m ost religions, you find that
p e o p le in c o r p o r a te all kinds of
idiosyncrasies that don’t necessarily
fit in w ith th e official doctrine. I’m
interested in knowing w hat kinds of
alternative beliefs, c o n stru ed to be
magic, are just the way people believe
and practice their religion.
“This becomes especially interest­
ing w hen you look at black people.
They come from Africa, where religion
is oriented toward the magical, where
you don’t find the same doctrines and
rules that exist in W estern Christiani­
ty. So w h en A fricans com e to the
West, there’s a clash of perspectives.
C hristians are saying: ‘You Africans
are pagans. You’re magical. You’re the
other.’ The white people consign all
th e African beliefs and practices to
the category of magic. So one might
think that when Africans convert, they
Assistant Professor of Religion Yvonne
Chireau teaches courses in African Ameri­
can religion, folk traditions in religious
expression, and women and religion.
SW A RTH M O RE COLLEGE BULLETIN

discard all th o se magical ways. But
they d o n ’t. T hey ju st in c o rp o ra te
them into Christianity.”
Chireau, who has an undergraduate
degree from Mount Holyoke, a m as­
ter’s in theological studies from Har­
vard, and a Ph.D. from P rin c e to n ,
began exploring black supernatural
tradition about four years ago for her
dissertation. She discovered a rich lit­
erature in court records—magic prac­
tice w as illegal in th e A m erican
colonies an d th e fledgling U nited
States—as well as in novels, autobi­
ographies, and the journals and let­
ters of both African Am ericans and
the white m issionaries and teachers
who lived among them. The material
is especially abundant for the period
beginning in th e late 19th century,
when folklore becam e established as
an academ ic d isc ip lin e and m agic
began to capture the imaginations of a
growing cadre of collectors and ama­
teurs.
ne anecdote Chireau dug up
reveals how magic appealed
n o t on ly to rank-and-file
church m em b ers in th e ir tim es of
need, but even to the clergy. As the
story goes, a young preacher, circa
1890, o p en s a new c h u rc h in New
York City b u t c a n ’t get an y o n e to
come. One day a conjure man comes
to visit and offers to prepare a charm
that will fill the pews. D esperate by
this time, th e p reach er agrees. The
charm w orks w o n d e rs , a n d th e
church is full th e next Sunday. But
now the preacher is deeply conflicted.
Wracked w ith guilt, he th ro w s th e
charm away. Attendance, according to
the anonymous source of the story,
quickly declines. But to Chireau that’s
beside the point. “People use magic as
a last-ditch measure in desperate situ­
ations,” she says. “It meets that desire
for an additional power source when
you really need it. That’s where you
find m agic being p ra c tic e d w ithin
Christianity.”
Rural b lac k s from th e S outh,
according to Chireau, brought magic
with th em d u rin g th e n o rth w a rd
m igrations e a rlie r th is c e n tu ry .
Whereas a p e rso n in need of extra
power in the rural South in the 1800s
could visit the m edicine m an in his
shack at the edge of town or out in the
swamp, people nowadays can shop at

O

MAY 1996

Religious objects such as the
votive candle at left and the
charms below are both crafted
by hand and available in the
commercial market. The candle’s
“Seven African Powers, ”seen
combined with Christian symbols,
are “an ideal representation of
the cross between religion and
magic, ”says Chireau. Each object
on the necklace—a nut, a tooth,
a cowrie shell, a coin—represents
a different spiritual power. Also
shown are a voodoo doll that
gives power over a specific
individual and a “mojo bag”
containing other charmed objects.

Many religious charms are natural objects,
like the “black cat bone”in the jar above
or the unusual root sold as “so-called lucky
hand root. ” “Egyptian secrets”and dream
interpretation books are also part of
African American magical folklore.

the occult and magic stores that have
become common in American cities.
There one can find supposed reme­
dies for everything from an illness to a
lost lover to a tapped-out wallet or
b a n k a c c o u n t. To ro u n d o u t h e r
rese a rc h for th e book, Chireau has
visited num erous m agic sh o p s and
assem bled an alluring array of books
and artifacts. Along with the “Seven
African Powers” candle, she’s collect­
ed an assortm ent of conjure bags—lit­
tle red cloth sacks filled with shells or
roots. To “do roots” on someone, she
explains, is to concoct a charm that
will harm the person, or make him or
h er fall in love, or co u n teract som e
magic the target might be suspected
of practicing. While exotic roots like
“low-johns” and “John the Conqueror”
are believed to p o ssess th e power,
folk trad itio n ascribes even greater
potency to dust from a grave or parts
of som eone’s body, such as hair, nails,
or pieces of skin.
Also in C h ireau ’s collectio n is a
small cloth “voodoo” doll, known as a
“mojo hand” in the blues tradition or a
“lucky hand” in some places. Accord­
ing to popular misconception, people
stick pins in the doll to inflict injury on
th e p e rso n it re p re s e n ts . The real
idea, Chireau says, is to put inside the
doll som e p a rt of th e ta rg e t’s body
20

^ ^ a g i c 's

greatest appea
is among the
people most
deprived of
political and
social power.
and, thus, to make it an extension of
that person. Practitioners of this type
of magic treat the doll alm ost like a
p e rs o n , plying it w ith food and
whiskey to keep it “alive” while they
m anipulate it in ways aimed at pro­
ducing the desired result. Like roots,
the doll’s magic can be used to con­
jure love or harm.
U ses of m agic n e e d n o t alw ays
involve m atters of love, life, or death,
however. People also turn to it when
they want that extra boost finding the
apartm ent or job they need, according
to C hireau. M agic, in fact, can be
dow nright bottom-line. At one shop
she visited, Chireau found a yellow
a e ro s o l can c a lled “Mr. M oney
Maker.” Shake it and spray it, accord­

ing to the directions, and money will
come to you.
O ther wrinkles of the black super­
n a tu ra l tra d itio n are revealed in a
mysterious old book Chireau found at
a sh o p in H arlem . Its black paper
cover reads: Egyptian Secrets or White
and B lack A rt for Man and Beast:
Revealing the Forbidden Knowledge of
A n c ien t P hilosophers. Inside are a
homespun remedy for toothache and
a way to make a useful salve, as well
as a p ra y e r for p ro te c tio n against
“persons doing evil unto you, whom
you suspect of bearing malice.” The
p ra y e r c o n c lu d e s w ith a line that
sounds more like mainstream religion
than magic: “We have all drank in the
Saviour’s blood. God the Holy Spirit
be with us all.”
h ire a u b eliev es th a t magic’s
appeal is g reatest among seg­
m ents of the population most
deprived of political and social power.
It’s easy to un d erstan d why slaves,
who lived under the constant threat of
the whip and the auction block, might
keep magical roots in their pockets.
Creating demand for magic today are
the economic struggles, health prob­
lems, and o th er difficulties that are
characteristic of life in any time and
place, but are especially acute in the

C

SW ARTHM ORE COLLEGE BULLETIN

Broke? Try some Mr. Money Maker spray. Need
power? Use “High John the Conqueror”roots.
Playing the numbers? Don’t forget to consult Rev.
Doolittle for advice. Does magic work? It depends
on what you mean by “work, ’’says Chireau.

African American community. Where
there is less access to money, legal
means, and conventional m edicine,
Chireau says, people are m ore likely
to resort to the supernatural.
“1 explain th e sta y in g p o w er of
magic by looking at what it provides
for people,” says Chireau. “What does
it give th e m th a t th e ir relig io n
doesn’t? I find, for example, that magic
provides a very rich vocabulary for
dealing with the question of evil. Say
you’re a parent, and your daughter
becomes inexplicably sick. The doctor
says th e r e ’s n o th in g he can do. If
you’re a Christian, you pray. You ask
why is this happening to me, to my
daughter? But if you believe in magic,
it’s easy to identify the source of the
affliction—it’s h a p p e n in g b e c a u se
somebody put a fix or a mojo on her.
Thus, magic gives you a way of under­
standing something you cannot other­
wise explain. It also locates evil or
misfortune within the social body. It’s
much more satisfying to say, ‘You did
it,’than to say it’s God’s will.”
C hristianity, C hireau n o tes, has
always condemned magic practice as
dancing with the devil. But as Chireau
has gotten deeper into her research
over the last four years, she has found
MAY 1996

that supernatural practitioners see no
such conflict between their craft and
the stuff of churches. “What I found is
that even the language conjurers use
is from C h ris tia n ity ,” s h e sa y s.
“They’ll say, T h e Holy Spirit did this,’
or, ‘The Devil did th a t.’ It’s coming
straight from the Bible. They also use
item s th a t are norm ally asso ciated
with the church to work their spells,
including pages from the Bible.”
Although her research focuses on
s u p e rn a tu ra l p ra c tic e s of A frican
Americans, Chireau asserts that magic
has long had a role in white Christian
churches as well; it is, she acknowl­
edges, one of her more controversial
points. W itchcraft trials in colonial
Virginia and M assachusetts, Chireau
points out, demonstrate the extent to
which the early North American Chris­
tian s feared, and th u s believed in,
supernatural forces. And what about
d e v o u t C h ristia n s to d a y w ho a re
superstitious? For example, according
to one rural custom , a child’s nose­
bleed can be stanched by tying a red
string around his or her finger. A God­
fearing m o th e r w ho p ra c tic e s th e
technique would vehemently deny it’s
rela te d to th e occult, even though
analogous methods in the black com­

munity might well be labeled “magic.”
And here’s another intriguing ques­
tion: Does m agic work? That, says
Chireau, depends on what is meant by
“work.”
“When we go to church and pray,
do we think of religion as ‘working?’”
sh e asks. “We d o n ’t even ask th a t
question. Some people sw ear magic
works; just as many swear th at con­
ventional prayer works. One question
I deal with in the book is that if magic
d o e s n ’t w ork, th e n w hy do p eople
c o n tin u e to u s e it? T he sla v e s
believed th at if som ething didn’t go
according to plan, it w asn’t because
the magic did n ’t work, but because
you d id n ’t do it rig h t, o r b e c a u se
som eone else had a stronger charm.
So as a belief system, it sort of takes
care of itself.
“I d o n ’t know w h e th e r m agic
works. If you look at it scientifically,
no, it d o esn ’t work. But w hat if you
ask that same question about prayer
to people who pray to Jesus or the
s a in ts ? T h e y ’d say , s u re , p ra y e r
works. But if you ask them to prove it,
how could they?” ■
Tom Krattenmaker is director o f public
relations at the College.
21

\

Plakat

P

The Polish theater poster is “low art” with a high purpose.
by Christopher J. Haines ’86
hen Allen Kuharski arrived Kuharski awoke to a spotless city. The
R etu rn in g to th e U nited States,
in W arsaw in S e p te m b e r graffiti was gone. The p o sters w ere Kuharski e n te red th e doctoral pro­
1981, he e n c o u n te re d a gone. Telephone lines were dead. TV gram in th ea ter at the University of
drab, gray m etropolis, unkem and
pt and
radio were silent. Martial law had California at Berkeley. Ironically, he
crowded, a cement shadow of its pre­ b e e n d e c la re d , and th e re w ere no eventually m et at Berkeley several
war splendor. Despite its meticulously pedestrians in sight.
émigré lum inaries of Polish theater,
restored Old Town, it was a national
“My tim in g w as e x q u is ite and including experimental directors Jerzy
c a p ita l w ith e m p ty s u p e rm a rk e t awful,” recalls the 38-year-old Kuhar­ Grotowski and Kazimierz Braun and
shelves and restaurants like Depres­ ski. Soldiers axed the foreign phone Shakespeare scholar Jan Kott. As he
sion-era soup kitchens. From the win­ lines and travel betw een cities was w orked on his Ph.D., Kuharski was
dow of th e high-rise a p a rtm e n t he forbidden, so rumors abounded: that able to continue the personal explo­
sh ared with a working-class family, Germany had reunified and was pre­ ration of Polish culture that he had
the young Fulbright scholar could see pared to invade, that Russia was also begun as an undergraduate at the Uni­
a R u ssian a rm y b a s e . And as he about to invade, that the government versity of Wisconsin at Madison.
w alked th e bleak s tre e ts , th e only had stockpiled scarce food supplies in
“I was a typical Polish American
relief from the colorless communist- rural areas. Kuharski spent the ensu­ child raised in the wake of the Cold
era architecture came from the rows ing weeks trying to get an exit visa.
War, ignorant as can be about my her­
of vibrant th eater posters, plastered
In late D ecem ber, his F ulbright ita g e ,” K uharski say s. “Americans
o n to b u s s to p s a n d c o n s tr u c tio n plans in a sh am b les, K uharski left were not supposed to think of Poland
sites—and from the bright red politi­ Warsaw with the seeds of his poster as a good place.”
cal graffiti splashed on concrete walls.
collection rolled up in a tube—with
But while he was a student at Wis­
The posters publicized the theaters one exception. A poster for filmmaker consin, Polish culture suddenly reap­
whose dynamic work had brought the Andrzej Wajda’s Man o f Iron, a quasi­ peared on the world stage. Cardinal
22-year-old Kuharski, now assistan t d o c u m e n ta ry a b o u t th e S olidarity Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul
professor of theater studies at the Col­ strikes, featured a crucifix-like image II and Czeslaw Milosz won the Nobel
lege, to P oland. T he bold, grap h ic of a bloodied worker’s shirt. Kuharski prize for literatu re. In a Polish lan­
advertisem ents w ere considered art­ feared it might cause trouble with the guage course, Kuharski encountered
w ork by aficionados, and Kuharski border guards, so he folded and con­ th e p lay s of W itold Gombrowicz,
soon began to collect them . But the cealed it in his laundry. It remains the w hose work blended Shakespearean
graffiti spelled out a different m es­ only creased poster in his collection, a drama, theater of the absurd, existen­
sage, signified by the crimson Solidari­ fragile reminder of a troubled era.
tialist philosophy, and camp humor.
ty logo, p o rte n d in g th e eight-year
Gombrowicz became the lodestar for
death throes of the communist regime.
Kuharski’s academic career, the sub­
Even before he saw the w ords on
ject of his dissertation, and an ongo­
Warsaw’s walls, Kuharski had sensed
ing passion for him as a scholar, the­
tro u b le . P rio r to his d e p a rtu re for
ater artist, and translator. His aborted
Poland, w here he intended to spend
Fulbright was intended to allow him to
tw o y e a rs studying stage d irection
com bine th e stu d y of directing and
and scenic design, Polish authorities
stage design within the Polish tradi­
had delayed his visa until the last pos­
tion of teatr plastyki, or “image the­
sible moment. Soon after his arrival, a ¡±j
ater.”
student-faculty strike related to the i
“It was impossible to study in this
Solidarity strikes at the Gdansk ship- 3
way in the United States, and I was
yards closed down th e Academ y of I
discouraged by several graduate the­
Fine Arts where he was to study.
Poster collector—and assistant professor
ater programs from even proposing a
T h en , on D e c e m b e r 13, 1981,
of theater—Allen Kuharski
c o m b in e d s tu d y of d ire c tin g and

W

22

SW A RTH M O RE COLLEGE BULLETIN

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zy
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as
oid
liA prevalent theme in these Polish posters was child­
like imagery. Puppets, masks, clowns, and cartoons
portrayed politically inflammatory subjects with
deliberate naivete. Another facet of this strategy was
the almost sloppy handwritten lettering.

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design,” said Kuharski. But in Poland
rigid d is tin c tio n s b e tw e en sc en ic
design, stage direction, and graphic
design do not divide the disciplines as
they do in the West. Many Polish the­
ater directors had begun their careers
as visual artists, then moved to the
stage, where they eventually designed
posters for th eir own p ro d u ctio n s.
Jozef Szajna and Tadeusz Kantor are
the best-lmown practitioners of image
theater, a n d th e ir p o s te r d e sig n s
became extensions of th e ir experi­
mental stagecraft. For Kuharski the
Fulbright had offered an opportunity
to work with Szajna, and it exposed
him to a dram atic tradition th a t he
has passed on to students at Swarthmore, since joining the faculty in 1990.
“The approach to theater I learned
in Poland informs every aspect of my
teaching—how I organize sem inars,

IN

MAY 1996

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how I teach playwriting. I teach Polish
plays not in the context of a national
tradition, but as keys to larger issues
of performance theory, theater histo­
ry, an d d ra m a tic a r c h e ty p e s ,” he
explains.
“Hearing Allen speak so personally
and passionately about Polish theater
was a great inspiration for me,” says
Gail Lerner ’92, a Swarthmore theater
student who is now a freelance direc­
tor in New York City. “I learned from
him that the best way into intellectual
re se a rc h is th ro u g h th e blood and
sweat of personal passion.”
In January Lerner directed Witold
Gombrowicz’s Ivona, Princess o f Burgundia for h e r m a s te r ’s th e s is at
Columbia University. She first read
the play as a sophom ore in a course
taught by Kuharski. After selecting the
play for h e r th e sis p ro ject, L erner
23

HENRYK TOMASZEWSKI, TEATR NOWY, 1983

These posters reflect
the vibrant marriage
of visual and perform­
ing arts known as
“image theater. ’’Allen
Kuharski, who began
his theater career as a
designer and now
teaches directing, has
brought both the
posters and the ideas
behind them to the
Swarthmore theater
program.

24

GOMBRO'/ICZ

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FQ LS K i

Vy WQCHbäfrE

accompanied Kuharski to a Gombrowicz festival in Poland and later invit­
ed her former teacher to participate
in the Columbia production as dramaturg.
At Swarthmore Kuharski’s courses
focus on th eater history, directing,
and the collaborative process of play
making. But in the best tradition of
Polish th eater, the p o ster remains
for him an extention of the theatrical
art. His collection of Polish posters
has grown to nearly 200 pieces, and
he h a s c u ra te d fo u r exhibits of
posters from his collection, including
one at Swarthmore’s List Art Gallery.
Gallery director Andrea Packard ’85
helped Kuharski to select and hang
20 p o ste rs, including th e Andrzej
Wajda poster that had left Warsaw in
Kuharski’s laundry in early 1982.
In a g a lle ry ta lk in February,
Kuharski discussed the artistic, the­
atrical, and political context of the
posters. One remarkable aspect of the
posters is their high quality—especial­
ly as they were produced in a society
where ordinary items like toilet paper
were often in short supply. “After the
cultural genocide attem pted by the
Nazis during World War II, the post­
war communist government was des­
perate to gain legitimacy by identify­
ing itself with Polish national culture,”
s a id K u h arsk i. “Even when
tim es w ere tough and people
had to wait in long lines for the
barest necessities, the govern­
m en t p rin te d th o u sa n d s of
p o s te rs on v ery high quality
stock.”
Posters had first become pop­
ular in Poland at the turn of the
century as pedestrian-oriented
advertising images culled from
art nouveau book illustrations.
After World War II, most poster
art consisted of socialist realist
exhortations to follow the Party
line, either through good work
h a b its o r a b s te n tio n from
drink. As th e politics eddied
§ from Stalinism to the relatively
o' perm issive late 1950s, Polish
| th e a te r and film gained new
f independence, and the poster
h followed suit, freely drawing on
| various schools of modern art
? from photomontage to pop art
1 to surrealism.
g
Curiously, theater posters did
* n o t co m e u n d e r th e close
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scrutiny of the government’s censors,
If a play or film had received official
approval, th e accom panying p o ster
had carte blanche. The poster’s status
as “low art” helped it to survive—and
even to thrive—under a regime that
consistently censored most other art
forms. As a result the posters became
the locus for all kinds of symbolic subversion and supplied opportunities
for aesthetic innovation. A esthetics
that were deplored in high art, such
as the distortion of the human figure,
became common in the poster as Pol­
ish artists found a place w here they
could ex p ress w hat w as forbidden
elsewhere—and for a national audi­
ence. In 1968 th e governm ent even
founded a Polish poster museum, the
world’s only museum devoted exclu­
sively to poster art, which continues
to host a biennial international design
competition.
“The p o ste rs never m erely illustrate im ages from a p erfo rm a n c e,”
said Kuharski. “Rather, they respond
to the performance and create a dialogue.” One prevalent them e was the
use of childlike imagery, even when
dealing with the m ost adult them es,
Puppets, masks, clowns, and cartoons
portrayed politically inflam m atory
subjects w ith d e lib e ra te n a iv e te ,
Another facet of this stylistic strategy
was the intentionally sloppy handwritten lettering often used in place of
established fonts, a lingering reaction
against the kind of typographic rigidity p o p u la riz e d by th e G erm an
Bauhaus.
The future of the Polish poster is
I unclear. Although the saying goes that
the history of Poland is cyclical, many
feel that the arrived of W estern capitalism has sounded the death knell for
the poster. Hefty subsidies for the arts
disappeared along with the communist regime, and Western film distributors now im port po p u lar Am erican
images for advertising in Poland, saving money on design by simply translating film titles—and the Hollywoodstyle poster.
Ironically, one answ er for Polish
artists may lie in the West. Three exhibitions of Polish poster art have been
mounted in th e U nited S tates th is
year, and th e W arsaw Poster Museurn’s Biennale receives regular cover­
age in th e A m erican p r e s s . Wellknown a r tis t Rafal O lbinski now
designs posters for the New York City
MAY 1996

Opera and last year won the competi­
tion to design the poster celebrating
th e 50th an n iv ersary of th e United
Nations.
“When I curated my first exhibit in
1982, I had the same questions that I
have today about the future of the Pol­
ish poster,” said Kuharski, echoing the
theme of cyclical history. “All reason-

able expectation tells me th at it will
c e a se to evolve as a dynam ic and
politically provocative art form and
fade to a m useum artifact, b u t my
experience w ith Polish culture has
taught me not to be so pessimistic.”

he gallery is to an art class what the
library is to a seminar,” says Andrea
Packard ’85, who has directed Swarthmore’s List Gallery since September.
Located in the Eugene M. and There­
sa Lang Performing Arts Center, the
gallery displays selections from the Col­
lege’s permanent collection and pre­
sents seven major exhibitions each
year. Students use the facility as an art
laboratory where they meet and learn
from visiting artists and as an exhibition
space for senior thesis projects in the
spring.
“This space gives the art faculty a
chance to bring to campus artists and
works that specifically inform their
teaching,” Packard continued. “The Col­
lege’s permanent collection provides
opportunities for students to do close

analyses of individual works, and the
changing exhibitions highlight technical
strategies—such as photography—that
are being explored in the classroom.”
Packard was an English major who
“fell in love with art at Swarthmore and
then made it my career.” She continued
her studies at the Pennsylvania Acade­
my of the Fine Arts and at The American
University, where she received a master
of fine arts degree. She has combined
her work as a sculptor and painter with
teaching and art administration at
schools such as the University of the
Arts and the Fleisher Art Memorial. In
her opinion an art gallery is indispens­
able to a liberal arts college.
“Because they raise issues about his­
tory, society, and identity,” says
Packard, “many exhibits, like the Polish
poster show, are of interest not only to
art students but to the entire college
community.” This year’s shows have
included still life paintings by Ron Graff;
a show of Packard’s own sculpture;
landscape paintings by Julian Hatton;
the Wyatt Collection of African art;
Kuharski’s theater posters; hand-woven
works by the late Tokiko Kitao; “Boxes
of Ocum,” a mixed-media installation by
Martha Jackson-Jarvis; five week-long
senior thesis exhibitions; and an Alumni
Weekend show featuring works by Patricia Lykens Hankins ’66, Pamela Casper
’76, and Eb Froehlich ’86.
—C.J.H.

Christopher Haines ’8 6 is a freelance
writer living in New York.

T

y
S
«
“
Andrea Packard ’85

25

Getting It Together

Reflections at the Quarter
We have m et the enemy, and it is
each o f us—and all o f us.

By Don Mizell ’71
wenty-five years after th e Class of 1971 graduat­
ed from Sw arthm ore— a quarter-cen tu ry dow n
th e road from th o se tum ultuous tim es—there
are still uncom fortably w orrisom e, p erhaps intract­
able problem s facing our nation. Yet, as th ere w as in
our youth, th ere rem ains room for hope— if not for
absolute faith.
Am erica is m anaging to m uddle through, but we
ought to do b e tte r—and soon. One w ay to do b e tte r
m ight be to sto p looking at society’s problem s as p art
Don Mizell, former chairman o f the
Swarthmore African American Stu­
dents Society, received the NAACP
Image Award for Community Service
in 1982. A graduate o f Harvard Law
School, he is an entertainment attor­
ney in Los Angeles.
26

of som e “o th e r” but rath e r as a result of a separation
inside ourselves, a separation betw een our inner, private “I” and our public, image-ego “I.” O bdurate societal dilem m as m ay be view ed as difficulties with both
interpersonal and inner-personal relationships that
are writ large on A m erica’s broad m ulticultural can­
vas. If we are to reach a com m on higher ground, we
m ust first look into our own mirror. We need to focus
on th e dynam ic betw een our private and public
selves, betw een th e “I-axis” and th e “real w orld,”
w here our ap p aren t separation and differences cause
recurrent conflict.
We have m et th e enemy, and it is each of us and all
of us. They are Us. And until we can as individuals
reach a greater conscious aw areness of our need for
unity, our balkanized inner experiences will continue
to lead to bo th personal and social disequilibrium,
dysfunctionality, and w orse.
Recalibrating th e I-O ther dichotom y is not only a
p ath to personal happiness and healing, it places us
on a w holesom e continuum betw een inner-connectedness and th e relationship betw een us all th a t is our
society. Today’s protracted, divisive separation-difference w ars of race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, generaSW A RTH M O RE COLLEGE BULLETIN

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tion, class, and culture can only w ither away in the
{ace of such a powerfully focused qu est for our per­
sonal and social salvation.
Many of us have been on this quest for a long time.
In the following pages, four m em bers of th e Class of
1971 share som e of their thoughts on the em otional
state of th e co u n try as we approach th e millenium.
Each of th ese classm ates is, in his or her own way, a
healer. Som etim es their healing has been inwardfocused and personal, but th ese four Sw arthm oreans
have helped m any oth ers along th e way. I hope th at
their journeys and th eir insights will help all of us
understand th e essential fact of unity behind a world
of appearances—th e unity th a t we urgently need both
as individuals and as a society.

Only Human
The problems we face today, as
individuals and as a society, are a
direct consequence o f our evolutionary
predicament as a species.
By Mark

P roctor ’71

omo sapiens—“know ingm an”—can register in
thought his experience of th e world, store it in
memory, and draw upon it to anticipate future experi­
ence. This is our strong suit. Our ability to learn from
experience has enabled us to overrun th e planet and
to inhabit an astonishing variety of environm ents. We
have, however, paid a trem endous price for this
advantage.
A good deal of wiring (12 million million neurons)
is required to drive our cognitive capacities, making
the m ature hum an brain about th e size of a can­
taloupe—too big to trav erse th e female pelvis of our
species at birth. The evolutionary solution to this
mechanical problem w as dram atic and fateful: We
deliver our offspring into th e w orld in a small, imma­
ture, and helpless state. How th en can th e hum an
infant live long enough to be able to survive on its
own? The solution is to provide wiring and horm onal
systems th a t create interpersonal bonding betw een
parent and offspring. Thus, our being able to learn
from experience has entailed th e phenom ena of infan­
cy, childhood, and family structure.
It is not uncom m on for adults to yearn for the
“carefree” and “sunny” days of childhood, yet this ret­
rospective view is a profound cognitive distortion. For
the first decade or so of life, we are not rem otely capa­
ble of ensuring our own survival; we rely absolutely

H

MAY 1996

upon our parents for our v ery existence. As children
we are also psychologically dep en d en t upon our par­
ents. We do not acquire th e capacity for ab stract,
conceptual thinking until ab out th e age of 12. Until
th en we do not have th e cognitive w herew ithal to
organize th e daily flow of our thoughts, feelings, and
perceptions into any meaningful sen se of “m yself” or
“a p erso n .” At adolescence, w hatever sen se we have
of ourselves as a p erso n d ep en d s entirely upon how
accurately our p arents have experienced us as th e
people we are. A child w hose p arents did not experi­
ence him as a se p ara te p erso n in his own right m ay
em bark upon his adult life w ith no real sen se th a t he
is a perso n at all.
This is th e price w e pay for our cognitive
prow ess—absolute physical and psychological help­
lessness during th e first decade of life. As a practical
m atter, even th e m ost a stu te and devoted parent can­
not be aw are of a child’s every feeling, need, or
hunger pain. It follows th a t every child has known
w hat it feels like to be helpless, alone, petrified, and in
im m inent danger of dying. Differences in our exposure
to this dreadful predicam ent are differences only in
degree. With th e b e st of parenting, we m ay know this
ho rro r for m inutes at a time; w ith th e w orst of parent­
ing, we m ay know it for years.
While th e hum an brain does a su p e rb job of telling
us w hat is going on outside of ourselves, it d o esn ’t do
a very good job at all of telling us w hat is going on
inside of ourselves—w hat we are feeling, w hat we are
thinking, w hat we rem em ber, how we are behaving.
Carl Jung estim ated th a t fully 80 percent of our “m en­
tal co n ten t,” including our experience of childhood
and th e feelings associated w ith it, is outside of our
conscious aw areness. Self-awareness can be devel­
oped to a high degree, bu t seeing ourselves clearly
always requires som eone else’s having seen us accu­
rately—and th eir having show n us w hat th ey see.
W hen all goes well, it is a child’s p arents w ho see him
for w ho he is and reflect w hat th ey see. This sam e
task com prises m uch of th e p sy c h o th e rap ist’s work
with his patient—accurately em pathizing with the
patient and show ing th e patient to himself.
The seasoned clinician can see, in th e behaviors
and p attern s of adult life, th e extent to w hich we
unwittingly sh ap e our adult lives to th e p u rp o se of
rem aining unaw are of th e helplessness we faced in
childhood. By and large, m any of us m ake our way
through life w ith little o r no direct acquaintance w ith
our own hum an experience. Gaining self-aw areness
and self-knowledge is extrem ely arduous. It continues
throughout a p e rso n ’s lifetime. It usually occurs only
in th e context of a safe and reliable relationship within
27

w hich it is possible to to lerate th e th e anguished feel­
ings of childhood as th ey interm ittently em erge into
consciousness. This m ight o ccur in a psy ch o th erap eu ­
tic relationship, but it can occur in any relationship
w ith a caring and em pathic person.
In o rd er to know som eone else, w e m ust know our­
selves. W hat we cannot see in ourselves, we will not
see in others. W hat w e do not see in our children,
th ey will not see in them selves. Hard-won self-knowl­
edge is also th e basis of com passion. W hen we know
our own frailties, we u n d e rsta n d th e frailties of others.
As th e B uddhists point out, com passion and “right
action” follow as a m atter of course, w ithout any need
for m oral deliberation.
Scarcity of com passion and right action is one of
our society’s g reatest ills. In an environm ent of abun­
dant resources, we busy ourselves w ith activities of
self-aggrandizem ent and actively avoid aw areness of
our own frailty. Unaware of our own frailty, we are
oblivious to th a t of o th ers and so find ourselves inca­
pable of acting com passionately. The result is th e pro­
gressive isolation, th e disintegration of family and
comm unity, and th e h eed lessn ess to th e plight of oth­
ers th a t is so m uch a p a rt of A m erica today.
The Greek s to ry of Icarus is as fresh and apt today
as it w as th o u san d s of y ears ago. It tells us th a t if we
persist in trying to escap e th e frailty and th e limita­
tions of being hum an by taking action in th e external
world, d isa ster will ensue. And so it does. Evolution­
ary th eo rists say th a t our species w as designed for a
nom adic life on th e Eurasian steppes, traveling in
small groups in search of food. Com paring th at
lifestyle w ith th e lifestyle of con tem p o rary Am erica
m akes clear th e extent to w hich we have preoccupied
ourselves w ith building our own m any variations on
Icarus’ w ax-and-feather wings—th e extent to which
w e have looked to th e external w orld for contentm ent
and for a sen se of our own personal w orth.
As a species w e are beautifully equipped to know
th e external w orld, even as individuals. We are also
well equipped to know our own selves, but in order to
do that, we absolutely require th e social stru ctu res of
family and com m unity within w hich w e can be seen
for w ho we are, and so be able to see o th ers for w ho
th ey are.
A philosophy major at Swarthmore,
Mark Proctor, M.D., received his
medical education at the University
o f Califomia-San Francisco, Yale
University, and the University of
Rochester. He is a psychiatrist in
private practice in Brookline, Mass.
28

In Awe of Life
Take time, take space, and breathe
consciously : Laugh, sleep. Make
fewer rules. Let others be. Love when
you can. Love when you can ’t.

ByMarya Ursin 971
Once, not too long ago, in a Buddhist monastery,
there were two young novices wrangling about the
respective merits o f their masters. They argued
about techniques, about philosophy, about training,
about accomplishments. Finally one o f the young
monks, exasperated, made this claim: “My master
can transform him self into a flying elephant, belch
flames, uproot trees, and drink up an entire river.
He is indeed a fearsome sight to behold. ” The monk
waited anxiously for a comparative response
from his brother. After a pause the sec­
ond novice replied: “Ahh. My master
eats when he is hungry and
sleeps when he is tired. ”
have a wonderful, trou
bled, rich, frantic,
serene life. I have been
held at gunpoint, I’ve
had a ceiling fall in
on me, I’ve been
raped, I flipped a
car and broke
m y back, I’ve
been robbed,
I’ve m oved

I

41 tim es, I’v e s le p t w ith m an y m en a n d tw o w om en.

I’ve had an abortion. I was a shoplifter. I’ve been
anorexic, bulimic, alcoholic, addicted. I’ve been suc­
cessful. I’ve failed. I’ve lost m ore friends th an I can
count to AIDS. I danced in several com panies. I gave
birth to a healthy child. I had a midwife, I had a loving
husband. I w as divorced. I plant herbs and flowers. I
am loved.
I am grateful. I am so rry for myself. I am full of
grace. I am loved. I am extrem ely sensitive. I close up.
Iam in awe of life. I am petty. I am grand. I am effec­
tive. I am beginning to laugh at myself. I am able to
love.
My w ork consists of perform ing as a dancer/m im e
in mask, teaching yoga, working as a m assage th era­
pist, painting p o tte ry m asks, writing and directing our
plays. I have an extraordinary d aughter w ho is 15 and
an amazing gentle p a rtn e r of seven years.
My training in m assage th erap y has included vari­
ous techniques. In th e order of my use, th ese are
Swedish, Reiki, jin shin do, reflexology, Thai, polarity,
shiatsu. I have taken w orkshops on relationships,
anger, sham e, psychodram a, color therapy, stress
reduction, visualization, w iccan practices, Native
American practices, Vipassana, Zen, weeping, sexuali­
ty, femininity, dousing, circle dancing, Sufi spinning,
totem anim al seeking, tarot, astrology, pow er of gems,
handwriting, neurolinguistic program ming, therapeu­
tic touch, dance therapy, storytelling, toning, m usic
therapy, som atotonics.
What has this to do w ith any of your questions?
Nothing and everything, I suppose. Of course, psy­
chotherapy m ust be spiritually and ethically oriented.
So must th e governm ent, th e schools, th e grocery
stores, th e artists, th e grave diggers, th e road pavers,
the com puter com m unicators. Is this new?
I am m ore frightened and w orried about th e direc­
tion of th e political entities, th e spiritual quality of the
powerful—and of th e weak. I am frightened about the
seeming focus of humanity, th an I w as w hen I was
younger. But again, is this new?
I look at my daughter as she opens to this life with
a mix of tru s t and cynicism and w onder if I planted
both th o se seeds.
I read h isto ry and rem ark on th e vastness of cruel­
ty, on the am azing hum an resistance to learning and
change, on th e incredible sto re of beauty and open­
heartedness, and I know I am a m icrocosm of the
same cruelties and resistances and possibilities.
I feel th e w arm th of m y body and flow of my b reath
and know th a t eventually a particle of my skin, a cell
of my exhalation will to u ch you.
MAY 1996

I walk into a room and see th e “energies” of differ­
ent folks expanding and receding, reflecting illness,
ease, excitem ent. I w ork on bodies and listen and
w atch th e guides w ho ap p ear w ith th eir advice and
observations. I see th e skin change, feel th e m uscles,
w atch th e eyes, sen se th e aura, listen to th e quakings.
W hen I w ork on myself, th e interference is greater,
th e projections and m ental interjections m ore wily,
th e physical m essages clear b u t not always heard. In
m y yoga practice, I give myself th e tim e and sp ace to
listen. In my teaching I suggest th e sam e to others,
counseling a willful surrender, a soft belly, a quiet lis­
tening.
In my perform ance I reh earse and practice, and
th en have to release it, saying th e B uddhist prayer­
blessing, “May all beings be at peace, m ay all beings
be free,” over and over again. My perform ance
rem ains m y responsibility, bu t w hat effect it has is
w hat effect it has.
How do I su p p o rt myself? I am su rrounded by peo­
ple w ho are growing and loving, I do w ork th a t I value,
th a t o th ers value, and th a t I h ope causes little or no
harm (ahim sa). I try to eat and sleep with tenderness.
I am working on elim inating th e backlog of rules I have
th a t aren’t of use to me. I have my yoga/m editation
practice, I take dance classes, I am in a 12-step pro­
gram, I have a good therapist. I adore m y daughter
and my lover. I treasu re m y sister and m y father. I love
m any beings: two-legged, four-legged, earth-growing. I
let o th ers su p p o rt me.
So. Were I to m ake any specific recom m endations,
th ey would be simple:
Take tim e, take space, and breath e consciously,
and as a daily practice.
Notice w hat you eat, how you sit, how you move,
how you walk.
Laugh. Sleep. Make fewer rules. Let oth ers be.
Love w hen you can. Love w hen you can ’t. Accept
love. Accept.
In th e w ords of K rishna to th e w arrior Arjuna: “Be
not attach ed to th e fruits of th e action, be not
attach ed to th e actor.”
And yes, I am full of a so rt of shivery h ope for the
coming millennium.
Marya Ursin’s puppet theater troupe,
Mystic Paper Beasts, was the subject
of a feature in the August 1994 Bul­
letin. She lives in Stonington, Conn.,
and teaches dance, yoga, and stress
reduction at the Eugene O’Neill The­
ater Center in nearby Waterford.

29

You and Me and the W ild Beyond
H ow ever unified things m ay be
out there in the cosmos, the m ajor
work needed right here on Earth
is still unification.

By Frederic Wiedemann ’71
arely tw o y e a rs afte r g ra d u a tin g from Sw arthm ore, I s a t in th e m o u n ta in s of C o lo rad o an d
th o u g h t: “T h e u n iv e rse se e m s to d o a p re tty g ood job
of ru n n in g itself. S h o u ld n ’t w e h u m a n s learn so m e­
th in g from th is? ”
I knew en o u g h a b o u t E in stein ’s c o n c e p t of th e
unified field to call m y e m b ry o n ic m assag e /h e aling p ra c tic e Unifying Field. I p o etica lly a d d e d th e
line “We se e k th e h e a d w a te rs of th e R ainbow
Body.” Now, a lm o st 25 y e a rs later, m y life p artn e r,
C y n th ia B isso n n e tte , a n d I h a v e re tu rn e d to th e
C o lo rad o m o u n ta in s as founding d ire c to rs of th e
n o n p ro fit e d u c a tio n a l Unifying Fields F o unda­
tion, a n d to g e th e r w e think: “T h e u n iv e rse
se e m s to b e d o in g a p re tty g o o d jo b of ru n n in g
itself. S h o u ld n ’t w e h u m a n s learn so m e th in g
from th is? ”
R ecen t b re a k th ro u g h s in cosm ology, a stro ­
p h y sics, a n d q u a n tu m m e c h a n ic s su g g e st th a t
a “unified field” b u rs t fo rth from “th e v o id ”
eig h t to 20 billion y e a rs ago, a n d h a s co n tin ­
u e d to ev olve ev e r since. T his unified field
se e m s to p o s s e s s th e c reativ ity to su p p ly uni­
v erse-b u ild in g p a rtic le s, th e intelligence to
issu e m o re th a n 100 billion galaxies, th e
p o w e r to e x p a n d for eo n s, an d th e u n d erly ­
ing o rg an izatio n to s u p p o rt th e w h o le show.
N ot to m en tio n p ro v id in g P la n et E arth an d all
of u s in h a b ita n ts.
“Unified field” is o n e of th o s e d e lib e ra te ly
a m b ig u o u s te rm s, offering e n d le ss m e ta p h o r­
ical p o ssib ilities for in te rp re ta tio n an d p ro ­
jectio n . Is it an a c tu a l ev en t, a m a th em atica l
reality, o r a m y stical key? Is it God? O ur new
o rg a n iz atio n h a s e m b ra c e d th e te rm b e c a u s e it
s e e m s to h o ld all th e s e p o ssib ilities. We se e k to
a n sw e r th e q u estio n : W h at ca n w e h u m a n s
learn — a n d ap p ly — from th e unified field’s evere x p a n d in g w h o len e ss? B ecau se h o w e v e r unified
th in g s m ay b e o u t th e re in th e co sm o s, th e m ajo r
w o rk still n e e d e d rig h t h e re o n E arth is unification

B

30

SW ARTHM ORE COLLEGE BULLETIN

How we got to this Rocky M ountain w ilderness
outpost, b ath ed in th e unified field, an hour from th e
nearest town, w as a journey. Four years ago in Los
Angeles, at th e height of family, career, and social obli­
gations, w e w ere inspired to shift our consciousness
to a m uch bigger gam e th an we had ever known. We
gave up successful professional careers (J had a full­
time clinical practice, and Cynthia was a sem inar
leader), and we leaped off th e precipice. Sometimes,
late at night w hen fear w ould strike, we would com­
fort each o th er by w hispering our favorite saying:
“Leap, and th e net will appear.” It did.
The last four y ears have been a wild ride into th e
unknown. We have followed our vision of a transfor­
mational and research com m unity w here we can
practice a new connection to th e spirit, research the
unified field, and live and teach, b o th literally and fig­
uratively, on th e outerm ost edge of society.
Our goal is to provide a two-way gate, a shuttle
service betw een scientific and esoteric traditions,
between psychological and spiritual practice,
between im m anence and transcendence. We try to
ferry th o se w ho are too tightly identified w ith the
mainstream into th e wild, and we c arry back into
society th o se lost souls w andering aim lessly in
ungrounded dream s. We help people treasu re hunt in
the rich soil of th eir psyches and sim ultaneously
open to a new transpersonal, spiritual aw areness. In
short w e are u n ab ash ed Utopians, aching to bridge
the dualism s ram pant in our W estern thinking.
We notice a groundswell of positive changes occur­
ring in America. A recent nationw ide survey finds that
44 million Am ericans affirm values and lifestyles of
personal growth, spirituality, social responsibility,
racial harm ony, and ecological sustainability. The
world is literally moving into a new millennium w here
millions are yearning to u nderstand th e big picture,
and w hat we can consciously co-create with it.
This is th e glass half full we choose to see. The
grim news d o esn ’t concern us b ecau se we know th at
according to chaos theory, a com plex system m ust
break dow n before it can break through to a higher
level of integration. It provokes peace in us to accept
all that we see happening on th e planet as th e cries of
a new birth.
Ten Ways to Open to the Unified Field

We use th e image of a tree to reveal the nature of
wholeness. The higher a tree grows, the deeper or
broader it m ust sink its roots. The value of psycho­
spiritual practice is th a t it encourages us to expand
our personal identities in bo th directions—and

change the w orld in th e process. The following is a list
of w hat we use daily to advance healing and wellness.
1. Work on yourself first. This tu rn s activism on its
head. It is rem arkable how all things th a t activism pur­
sues—justice, peace, equality, a harm onious com m u­
nity—grow organically from this. Taking personal
responsibility always leads to enlightened social
responsibility.
2. Dig deep into yo u r own rich, subtle, and contra­
dictory psychology. We find within ourselves a riot of
subpersonalities, seething hatreds, childish expecta­
tions, and perv erse addictions. Owning and then
releasing them is hum anizing and liberating. Activists,
politicians, and executives trying to m acrom anage th e
w orld w ithout first doing this w ork are not only arro­
gant b u t doom ed to failure.
3. Explore your spiritual nature at th e sam e time.
Plumbing our psychological d ep th s w ithout a spiritual
counterbalance leaves us bereft. Exploring th e great
spiritual traditions gives us th e big picture, th e hope,
and th e strength to keep working for a U topian soci­
ety.
4. Find your path. W hether you call it a journey, a
life cycle, karm a, or growth, th ere is w hat m any spiri­
tual traditions sim ply call “th e p a th .” It is up to each
of us to find and walk our path, w hich always leads to
a bigger path, and ultim ately to th e unfolding of the
unified field.
5. Em brace paradoxes. No m atter how cosm ic our
dream , how old our soul, how lofty our vision, how
grand our gift, w e still have to deal w ith th e realities of
job, relationship, body, family, sex, and money. Dealing
with b o th th e cosm ic and concrete is th e paradox of
w holeness.
6. Prepare to be rew arded for your courage w ith
challenges. Taking th ese ste p s guarantees th a t your
life will becom e m ore intense and challenging. Maturi­
ty is learning to quiet th e inner, im m ature su b p erso n ­
ality th a t w hines, “We are doing all th e righteous
things—so w here’s th e rew ard?”
7. Notice th a t you still fragm ent, relapse, sh u t
down. T hese experiences are som e of th e h ard est
m om ents on th e path. Feeling betray ed we tu rn on
ourselves, convinced th a t w e have dedicated our lives
to an illusion. To learn w hat is tru e takes going into

Frederic Wiedemann received a
Ph.D. in psychology from Georgia
State University and is the author of
Between Two Worlds: The Riddle of
Wholeness. With Cynthia Bissonnette,

he directs the Diamond Joy Retreat
near Aspen, Colo.
31

may

1996

this fear and com ing out th e o th er side.
8. Open yourself to relationship and com ­
m unity playing an ever m ore significant role
in healing and w holeness. T here is a saying
th a t relationship is th e teacher. Out of hon­
est, revealing, and com m itted relation­
ship com es th e possibility of real com ­
munity.
9. Expand from self to relationship
to com m unity to com m unities to planet
to ... ? As we unify th e p a rts within our­
selves, join with an o th er in a holy rela­
tionship, take th e leap into intentional
community, and link com m unities, we
are participating in saving th e planet.
10. Rem ember: Both inner w ork and
“m agical” thinking. Both real life and vision.
Both im m anence and transcendence. Em brace
th e Riddle of W holeness. Unify fields.

As We Mature,
America Matures
By isolating us from one another, society
tends to foster a pathological narcissism
and self-indulgence a t the expense of
authentic maturity and relationship.

By Jim Colvin ’71
s an ordained m inister w ho is also a practicing
psychotherapist, I’ve thought a lot ab o u t th e
value of spirituality in psychotherapy. I have always
seen th e spiritual as our link to o th ers and to th at
w hich is greater th an ourselves, and upon w hich we
d epend for existence. I call this entity God. But w hat­
ever we call it, we fall into spiritual narcissism if we
fail to nam e and relate to som e larger-than-m e asp ect
of creation.
Individual and collective narcissism is challenged
by th e discovery of th e “other,” not only beyond us
b u t within. Som etim es we d o n ’t like w hat we find
inside us, b u t as we search our new found aw areness
helps us to be hum ble—and to discover new strength
there. I know th a t m y own spiritual journey floun­
dered until I faced all my fears ab out p sy ch o th erap y
and th e “enem y w ithin.”
The beginning of w holeness m ay develop out of
pain, b u t it can lead to a new relationship w ith oneself.
To quote M atthew 7:3, not to deal w ith our own nar­
cissism is to be aw are only of th e “speck in our neigh­

A

32

b o r’s eye,” not th e “log in our own eye.” By whatever
m eans—usually involving a crisis of som e kind—we
m ay undertake a journey of self-understanding and
becom e familiar with this “o th e r” within. It is an
amazing source of feelings, thoughts, and potentials
for both creativity and destruction. Thus th e begin­
ning of w holeness m ay develop out of pain but may
also lead to a new relationship with oneself.
If p a rt of th e journey requires m e to connect to an
inner other, th e next p a rt draw s m e to o th er persons
and to the ultim ate Mystery. Indeed, joining an ethical
com m unity is im portant for individual health. We
w ere created as th e result of a relationship betw een
our parents, born into relationship w ith m other, and
we thrive only if we stay in relationship with each
other. The process is lifelong and ever increasing in
scope. If we are to becom e m ature, we m ust like what
we find within and strive to com e into harm ony with
o th ers around us. Poets and m ystics of all th e ages
have known this simple, fundam ental truth, but by
isolating us from one another, our society ten d s to
foster a pathological narcissism and self-indulgence at

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A history major and chair of the
Christian Association at Swarthmore,
Jim Colvin is an ordained minister
in the United Church of Christ. He
practices psychotherapy in Westfield
and Montclair, N.J., and is pastor of
a church in Woodbridge.
SW A RTH M O RE COLLEGE BULLETIN

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the expense of authentic m aturity and relationship.
Wholeness is achieved for th e individual only w hen he
or she relates bo th to th e inner self and to th e larger
whole.
This isolation is one of th e great problem s we face
in America. My family and I discovered the value of
being co nnected to com m unity last year w hen my
wife was stricken with a severe attack of chronic
fatigue im m une disease. For several m onths, she was
unable to w ork or do m uch of anything, and we had to
figure how to care for our four children at hom e, ages
2,4,9, and 17. We w ere buoyed up in th e m idst of this
horror by m em bers of our form er church and the
church w here I now serve as pastor, 10 miles away.
Food was provided, tran sp o rtatio n offered, along with
cards, prayers, and expressions of love. We could not
do it alone. T hat is th e m essage learned by whole peopie.
If we can m ature as individuals, can we also m ature
as a nation? I am b o th hopeful and despairing w hen I
consider th e em otional sta te of America. I sh u d d er
when I see how quick we are to blam e and seek scape­
goats w hen we confront unsolvable problem s or inex­
plicable tragedies. W hen news first broke about the
Oklahoma City bom bing, m ost Am ericans assum ed
that a Middle E astern terro rist group m ust be respon­
sible. Perhaps m ore frightening, it was “one of u s”
gone awry. Yet th e tragedy of Oklahom a City is not
entirely shocking to anyone familiar w ith his or her
own potential to do violence, but it is baffling to any
MAY 1996

unfamiliar to th e “o th e r” within.
We’re in danger w hen we s ta rt blam ing others
and ignoring our inner selves, because w hat
we d o n ’t know about ourselves, we pro­
ject onto others. This is especially dan­
gerous w hen we engage in collective
blaming, an age-old sto ry in our centu­
ry. If th ere is hope, it lies in our adm it­
ting this to one another. One good
sign com ing out of suffering is th e
w idespread form ation of m utual sup­
p o rt groups for p erso n s suddenly
unem ployed. There is increasing
recognition th a t “we are all in this
together,” as th e Mayflower Com pact
rem inded th e early settlers. It m ay be nec­
e ssa ry to suffer further crises for th a t ethos
to sp read across racial and econom ic lines th at
seem increasingly rigid.
“T he distresses of choice are our chances to be
blessed,” w rote W.H. Auden. As individuals we m ust
face our choices to grow, and as com m unities and
groups we need to do th e sam e. All of us in th e heal­
ing and helping professions—and anyone in a posi­
tion to influence o th ers—have a responsibility at this
m om ent to urge th e generation in pow er (us baby
boom ers!) to consider w hat Erik Erikson called “generativity,” th e need to give back to th e com m unity so
th ere can be a future. In th e 1960s m any had this
ethos, w hich som e of us have m ore or less continued,
b u t as a generation we are now m ore known for driv­
ing m inivans th an for prom oting connection am ong
neighbors.
I w ish I had som e great new paradigm or move­
m ent to offer, b u t I do not. W hat excites m e is th a t
p erso n s of good will seem to be tired of letting things
get w orse. I tru s t th a t we have a critical m ass of indi­
viduals in th e society w ho recognize our continuing
need to value and aid one another.
My main bit of w isdom is th e quote from Benjamin
Franklin th a t we often used in th e antiw ar m ovem ent:
“If we fail to hang together, we shall all hang sep arate­
ly.” Never has th a t been m ore true.
It also seem s to be tru e th a t we are at th e end of
som e period and moving tow ard another. Recently a
m ental health colleague declared th a t th e end of th e
C artesian split betw een m atter and spirit is at hand.
A nother colleague tells m e th a t physics and mysti­
cism are overlapping in astonishing ways. If all this is
so, it is because we have com e to realize th a t while
scientific rationalism m ay have brought us joys, tech ­
nology is not our salvation. ■
33

fl

A L

U M

WARTHMORE HAPPENINGS
and Jean Toll (Smith College
Recent Events
’47) talked about their book
Boston: On April 25, Boston
Invisible Philadelphia at the
a re a alu m n i, p a re n ts , a n d
A tw a te r K ent. M useum on
frie n d s g o t to g e th e r for a
April
14. A re c e p tio n with
guided to u r of th e W inslow
M ildred and Jean followed
H o m er e x h ib itio n a t th e
the talk.
M useum of Fine Arts. Rishi
On April 27 the Connection
R eddi ’88 c o o rd in a te d th e
c
e le b r a te d s p rin g with a
to u r, a lo n g w ith a “d u tc h
g u id e d to u r of Longwood
t r e a t ” d in n e r a fte rw a rd at
Gardens. The afternoon tour
the Cactus Club.
w
as o r g a n iz e d by Mary
N ew York: T h e New Y ork
W oolson Cronin ’83.
Connection gathered for “An
And on May 28 Philadel­
E vening a t th e B asic T h e ­
phia alum ni joined a group
a tre ” on Feb. 21, which was
Unwinding... Rebecca Jackson ’91 and Ward Lopes ’92
of graduating seniors at Vet­
o rg an iz ed by J e a n e tte Hill joined other Chicago young alumni for a TGIF cocktail party
erans Stadium to watch the
P orter ’89 and Alice Hughey
at a local pub in January. The event was organized by Jennie
Phillies take on the Dodgers.
’79. A le c tu r e a n d p e r f o r ­ Romich ’94.
W a sh in g to n , D .C .: More
m ance, The Plow that Broke
than 60 Sw arthm oreans got
the Plains, to o k p la c e on
together
on April 27 to reno­
M arch 29 a t th e B ro o k ly n
vate a hom e in Washington,
A c a d e m y of M usic. D avid
D.C. The project was spon­
Wright ’69 and Joe Horowitz
sored by Christm as in April,
’70 planned the event.
a n o n p ro fit organization.
The following day, March
Jack
Riggs ’64 organized the
30, a lu m n i, p a r e n ts , a n d
afternoon of community ser­
friends enjoyed a screening
vice.
of fiddlefest, execu tiv e-p ro ­
D orita Sewell ’65 helped
d u c e d by W a lte r S c h e u e r
o
rg
a n iz e a d a n c e concert
’48, at th e MGM Studios. A
and reception at the Elling­
recep tio n w ith Sw arthm ore
to n S chool of th e A rts on
P re sid e n t A lfred H. Bloom
May 25. Hosting for the Col­
followed the film. Jim DiFallege w as M aurice Eldridge
co ’82 and Karen Ohland ’83
’61, associate vice president
o r g a n iz e d th e a f te r n o o n
Go team!... Jenny Rickard ’86 (third from left) hosted a post­ and ex ecu tiv e a ssista n t to
screening and reception.
President Bloom.
In A pril th e C o n n e c tio n game reception for the Swarthmore women’s basketball team
following
its
game
with
CalTech
on
Jan.
6.
Pictured
are
(from
e n jo y e d th e s c r e e n in g of
another film produced by an left) Leslie Hermsdorf ’97, Holly Barton ’99, Rickard, Pia
Upcoming Events
alum nus. Jim Stark ’71 w as Houseal ’97, Emily Walker ’96, and Michelle Walsh ’98.
A p e rfo rm an ce by Theatre
also on hand for a reception
by th e Blind is planned for
to talk a b o u t his film Cold
th e New York Connection in
Fever. (See page 58 for a profile of Elizabeth McCrary ’83 and Gretchen late May. Planned for early summer
Stark.) Julie Sacks ’82 organized the Mann Handwerger ’56.
is a wine tasting—Swarthmore Sym­
e v e n t. F in a lly , on M ay 15, a re a P h ila d e lp h ia : On A pril 13 th e posium X. The Connection continues
Sw arthm oreans got together for the P h ila d e lp h ia C onnection g a th e re d to schedule its Third Tuesday lunch
W aterline T heatre Com pany’s “Fish on cam pus for a debate on the 1950s at Annie M oore’s Pub & Restaurant.
R o d e o ,” w h ich in c lu d e d a p e rfo r­ espionage case of Julius and Ethel For m ore inform ation, contact Julia
m ance by Kendall Cornell ’86.
R osenberg w ith M ichael M eeropol S tock ’95 o r th e A lum ni Office at
Paris: On M arch 30, Paris S w arth­ ’64 (s o n of th e R o s e n b e rg s ) a n d (610) 328-8404.
m oreans w ent on a tour of Chartres Joyce Milton ’67. Victor Navasky ’54 The W ashington, D.C., Connection
C a th e d ra l, follow ed by lu n ch a t a served as com m entator.
w ill h o ld a w in e ta s tin g at la
local cafe. The event was planned by
Authors Mildred Webb Gillam ’47 M adeleine on Sunday, June 2.
34

SW A RTH M O RE COLLEGE BULLETIN

i

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e

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t

We’ve got your number, but
we don’t give it out to just anyone
?e
Dk
le
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th

id
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a

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ur

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le
s.

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Dt

he Alumni Relations Office gives high priority to helping

alumni stay in touch with each other, but it also
Trespects
the privacy of those who don’t wish to be con­

tacted.
Alumni and students may request an alum’s phone num­
ber, address, or e-mail by calling (610) 328-8402, faxing to
(610) 328-7796, or e-mailing alumni@swarthmore.edu. They
must give their Social Security or student ID number to
verify their identity. Alumni who do not want information
released should inform the Alumni Office.
Alumni addresses are provided for social purposes
only. Please alert the Alumni Office if you have been con­
tacted this way for other purposes.
Students seeking vocational advice or employment are
referred to the Career Planning and Placement Office,
which maintains lists of alumni in many occupations who
have volunteered to provide such help.
When nonalumni ask for an alum’s address, the Alumni
Office does not provide this, but offers to forward the com­
munication.

Career Connections... At its spring meeting in April, the Career
Planning and Student Life Committee of Alumni Council discussed
ways to enhance connections between alumni and students. From
left are Tom Francis, the College’s Career Planning and Placement
director; Colleen A. Kennedy ’72; committee chair Betty-Jo
Matzinger Lash ’87; Ngina Lythcott, dean of the College; Amy Bussian; and Charles L. Bennett ’77.

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it
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Creating an Electronic
Alumni Netw ork
The Alumni Council’s spring meeting
was very busy and exciting. Several of
our committees are engaged in projects
that I will share with you in the next
several issues of the Bulletin. The fol­
lowing article by Jean Kristeller ’74
describes Council’s initial efforts to in­
crease alumni communications through
the Internet.

•e

—Alan Symonette ’76
President, Alumni Association

)r
in

ir
n;s
:h
t.
ia
it

in
a

he Internet represents tremendous

for S w arthm oreans to
Tstaypotential
in touch with each other and the
College. More than 2,600 alumni, from
the Class of 1934 onward, have regis­
tered their electronic addresses with
the College, and you may have already
looked at the Swarthmore home page
on th e W orld W ide W eb ( h ttp ://
w w w .sw arth m o re.ed u ). Now th e

MAY 1996

ALUMNI COUNCIL
Alumni Council has been discussing
ways to make th e netw orking even
more interactive.
We would like to hear your sugges­
tions, concerns, etc., as we work with
the College to develop a system that is
creative, flexible, and inform ative.
Some possible formats are:
• “Listservs” or discussion groups, to
which individuals subscribe depend­
ing on their interests. Groups might
be organized by profession (e.g., law,
education, medicine) or by topics, like
public policy or international business
(or chess or ?).
• “Virtual sem inars” enabling a rela­
tively small group to form around a
single topic for a time-limited period,
with a designated faculty or alumni
facilitator.
• Live on-line discussions, sometimes
known as “chat rooms,” with the time
and electronic “location” announced
ahead of time, perhaps about m atters
on which the College desires alumni
input.

• An electronic resource th at would
enable s tu d e n ts to discuss various
g ra d u a te p ro g ra m s a n d p o s s ib le
career choices with alumni who wish
to help.
The College is supporting electron­
ic communications by providing com­
puter support and staff time for priori­
ty projects, so your input is needed.
What listservs might you like to see?
Can you contribute expertise in this
area so we can take advantage of the
best technology? Have you set up a
system elsewhere? Would you like to
help organize or manage a listserv?
You may respond directly to Astrid
Devaney at adevanel@ sw arthm ore.
edu or send your ideas to the Alumni
Council Electronic Connections SubCommittee chair, Jean Kristeller ’74, at
pykris@root.instate.edu. If you are not
on-line, please send your com m ents
to me at the address below.
—Jean Kristeller ’74
800 S. Center St.
Terre Haute IN 47807

35

L ET T ERS
experiments on the state and local level
may improve the government’s ability
to promote social welfare without trans­
gressing personal values.
C arlton H enry 75
University Park, Md.
chenry6502@pop.gnn.com
Technology exacerbates
social inequalities

To the Editor:
Your concerns about technology (“Par­
lor Talk,” February 1996, commenting
on “Virtuoso Computing” in the same
issue) are well placed. I’m also a tech­
nobuff, but the fact is that the march of
technology is anything but value-neu­
tral. It tends to exacerbate existing
social inequalities in most (but emphat­
ically not all) areas. Swarthmore’s stu­
dent body experienced a peculiar mani­
festation of this during the 1991 Parrish
Wall debate [over allegations of
racism], when a parallel debate took
place on the College’s VAX system, the
precursor to the current computer net­
work. People felt free to be far nastier
to each other on the VAX than they
were willing to be in person—even
though, in most cases, they knew each
other personally as well. That’s not a
“social choice,” in Neil Gershenfeld’s
terminology, because nobody made
that choice. It was made for the partici­
pants by the very presence and charac­
ter of the technology.
A ndrew P errin ’9 3

Berkeley, Calif.
aperrin@igc.apc.org
Trade policies don’t
help all Americans

To the Editor:
Professor Stephen Golub’s research
(“‘America-Firsters’ have it backward,”
Collection, February 1996) shows a
close but not perfect fit between wages
and productivity. No problem there.
But then come the politics in the last
paragraph: On balance, argues Golub,
free trade brings more wealth into the
country than it takes away, and there­
fore “it benefits the United States as a
whole.” This even though free trade
exacerbates the “grave problems of
income inequality and inadequate
skills.”
If you happen to think that income
36

Continued from page 3

inequality is a graver problem than our
inability to accumulate an even higher
percentage of the world’s assets, it’s
hard to see why an ideology that helps
those on the top of the heap at the
expense of those at the botton “benefits
the United States as a whole,” even
when those on top are winning a little
bit more than those on the bottom are
losing.
The “freedom” in arguments for free
trade is all one way. Our competitors
maintain tariffs to protect their lowwage workers, while we do not. Golub
provides the stock answer to these
questions: The problem of income
inequality should be “tackled directly,”
presumably by taxing free trade win­
ners and spending the money retraining
the losers. Trouble is, these answers
are never part of the alphabet soup of
free-trade laws that Golub nevertheless
endorses. Maybe next time. Maybe they
will amend those laws. At which time
my mind wanders back to Alice: “Jam
tomorrow, jam tomorrow, but never
jam today.” I know it’s too much to
expect a trade policy that helps “the
United States as a whole.” But can’t we
at least have one that does not hurt it?
M ark S chneider 77
Rockville, Md.
Battle of values is "bogus”—
it’s all materialism underneath

To the Editor:
Professor Meta Mendel-Reyes has a
point when she says, “The real question
is ... how to bring values into American
politics.” (“Are America’s Values Chang­
ing?” February 1996) So does Professor
Rob Hollister in his realistic assessment
of America’s problems. However, I feel
that setting up a supposed “battle”
between supposed right-wing Christian
values and supposed liberal values is
bogus—a replay of the media Battle of
Good and Evil.
America itself is founded on a histo­
ry of Europeans taking over a vast land,
enslaving Africans, killing native peo­
ples, cutting down forests, building fac­
tories—all in the name of its Manifest
Destiny. The “gangsta rap,” “cyber­
porn,” “skinheads,” and “swastikas”
decried by Christopher Edley 73 are
symptoms of a deadened materialist
society. The authoritarian, patriarchal

values of the religious right and the sec­
ular values of the humanist left both
mask and serve the underlying values
of competition, individualism, material­
ism, self-righteousness, pride, and
greed that are basic to our modern
technological society.
Truly radical religious values (like
the Upanishads, the teachings of Bud­
dha, Christ, and Mohammed, basic Jew­
ish ethics and mysticism, taoism—and
my Swarthmore favorite, Baruch
Spinoza) suggest that unity with the
divine makes material success unimpor­
tant. I prefer to be committed to values
that have to do with material success
(even intellectual success!) and power.
Oddly enough these values are not in
conflict with the old-fashioned Marxist
ideals of economic justice. I’m not a
Christian, but Jesus certainly puts
things well when he suggests giving to
the poor to get into heaven.
A n n Erickson ’65

Guerneville, Calif.
Remembering Frank Pierson

To the Editor:
I was sad to read in the February Bul­
letin of the death of Frank Pierson ’34.1
was also filled with gratitude that I had
been able to study under him. None of
my family had ever studied economics,
so I signed up for his introductory
course. He turned me on to it so much
that I ended up with a minor in eco­
nomics. While I have had a career as a
social worker, my whole life has been
enriched by a deep understanding and
appreciation of économics. All because
of Frank Pierson.
D avid A. Fisk ’53
Long Beach, Calif.

The Bulletin welcomes letters from
readers concerning the contents of
the magazine or issues relating to
the College. All letters must be
signed and may be edited for clarity
and space. Address your letters to
Editor, Swarthmore College Bulletin,
500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA
19081-1397, or send by electronic
mail to bulletin@swarthmore.edu.

SW ARTHM ORE COLLEGE BULLETIN

Low-budget film reaps high praise
Cold Fever b y Jim Stark 7 1 is h o t w ith critics a n d au dien ces a n d is a festiva l favorite.

Above: Atsushi (Masatoshi Nagase) considers buying a frozen car from Sara (Katrin Olafsdottir)
so that he may begin his journey in Jim Stark’s (right) new film, Cold Fever.
ope and Crosby never made a road
movie like this!
In Jim Stark’s newly released film,
Cold Fever, icebergs shatter from the
sound of a mysterious siren’s voice,
regional delicacies like ram’s testicles
and the intoxicating Black Death are
dined upon—and, oh yes, don’t forget
to steer around the Fairy Stones.
Cold Fever, the first film ever shot in
Iceland during its winter, highlights the
country’s harsh and barren beauty.
According to Stark, the frigid tempera­
tures, snow, and ice made it tough on
the cameras but the crew and actors
came through almost daily snowstorms
without a scratch. (Well, except for the
one time a couple of crew members and
their car went over a cliff. The people
survived. The car did not.)
Cold Fever, produced by Stark and
directed by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson,
with whom he shares the writing credit,
is as much a spiritual journey as a phys­
ical one for the lead character, a young
Tokyo fish company employee. Atsushi
Hirata (played by the popular Japanese
actor Masatoshi Nagase) is asked by his
grandfather to give up a golfing trip to
Hawaii to go to Iceland to perform a tra­
ditional memorial service by a remote
river to honor Atsushi’s parents, who
died there in an accident.
The film will make viewers laugh,
cry, drop their jaws in amazement, and

H

58

want to put on a parka. Throughout
Atsushi’s journey he encounters sociopathic American “tourists,” a woman
who photographs funerals as a hobby,
and a truckload of singing men. The
movie ultimately warms the soul if not
the setting as Atsushi pays final
respects to his parents and puts their
spirits to rest.
Cold Fever is the 11th feature for
Stark, a corporate lawyer turned inde­
pendent producer. Working on a
shoestring budget isn’t easy, he confess­
es, but it reaps rewards that others in
the film business wish they could have.
“Hollywood producers have big bud­
gets, but they’ve also said to me they
wish they could do the work I’m doing.
The actors and crews I work with are
doing this because they believe in the
project and they’re trying to create
something that has lasting artistic
value—something they can make their
contribution to and use to develop
themselves as artists, actors, or techni­
cians,” explains Stark, who spent $1.4
million on Cold Fever.
“In Hollywood you have to take a
lunch, schmooz the right people, party
with the right people. I don’t have to do
that here,” says Stark, who lives in a
New York City loft. “I don’t want to
spend five years trying to develop a big
picture that has 50 writers on it and
goes through three studio regimes. I

would rather find something I’d like to
do, like this, and figure out how to make
it happen.”
Cold Fever, currently being released
around the world, has been a critical
success. At its world premiere at the
Drambuie Edinburgh Film Festival in
Scotland last August, it came away with
the top prize. Cold Fever also won the
top prize at Italy’s Rimini Film Festival
and was selected from among hundreds
of films to be shown at the prestigious
Sundance Film Festival in Utah find the
Toronto Film Festival. In April it had a
very successful New York opening.
Stark says the two years he spent at
Swarthmore gave him the preparation
he needed for dealing with people in the
film world: “After surviving Swarthmore
I realized I would never be intimidated
by people again, at least from an intelli­
gence or creativity point of view,” says
Stark, who transferred in 1969 to the
then newly coed Vassar College because
he believed the ratio of men to women
would be an “interesting experience.”
“It’s a difficult decision (to go into
this business). You have to make sacri­
fices. I tell young people I’ve done
things for the money, and I’ve done
things because I love them, and they
should really find something they love
and pursue it fearlessly. Assume you’ll
be successful and you probably will.”
—Audree Penner
SW ARTHM ORE COLLEGE BULLETIN

two of our compatriots. He
saw Keele exchange student
Phil Davies in Leicester, Eng­
land, where he’s head of
American Studies at DeMontfort U. Phil lives with wife Ros
and kids Andrew and Carolyn,
who are Skip’s godchildren.
Skip also saw Steve Roens,
who “came east with his won­
derful wife, Cheryl, from Salt
Lake City, where Steve teach­
es music at the U. of Utah.”
Deborah Zubow Prindle has
some exciting news. She’s
moved to Poland for a fouryear Foreign Service assign­
ment. She’ll be program offi­
cer for the U.S. foreign aid pro­
gram in Poland. This will be
extended to the Baltics, Czech
Republic, and other countries
as U.S. presence is scaled
down. Still the same Debbie,
however, she’s decided to
learn to “tap dance, knit, go
camping in the wilderness,
and build additions to her
house (your typical midlife
crisis).”
Much of the rest of the
news is concerned with jobs
and kids. Barb Atkin is still an
appellate litigator for the
National Treasury Employees
Union in Washington, D.C. Her
husband, John Hornbeck, is
with the National Labor Rela­
tions Board—his boss is Fred
Feinstein ’69. Karen Simmons
Gillian enjoyed a visit with
Barb, scouting colleges with
her daughter. Geoff Selling
and his wife, Cecily (Roberts)
77, are both teachers at Quak­
er elementary schools. Daugh­
ters Kate, 14, and Becky, 11,
go to Germantown Friends,
where Geoff teaches third
grade. The intrepid Marya
Ursin is still performing,
teaching yoga, mothering 15year-old Ana, and learning
with Dan. She was even
“cavorting in the Halloween
parade in NYC.”
Our home-grown Swarthmoreans are increasing in
number. Brian Inouye ’91, son
of David and Bonnie (Grego­
ry) ’69, got married (gasp) in
May! Connie Fleming Strick­
land’s daughter Barbara is
now a freshman living in Willets. Connie writes, “In her
college search, she had tried
to find a better place than
Swarthmore....” Connie’s still

ment for abused children. He
married Kris Van Lee in 1994
and last August celebrated the
birth of their first child, Ella
Marie. After five years in the
sports trading card industry
as president and chief operat­
ing officer of Fleer Corp., Jef­
frey Massien resigned to take
a much-needed sabbatical.
Polly Simonds Saltet writes
that last summer she dropped
off her daughter, Elisa, 11, at
Debbie and Bob Shriver’s
[’72] home for Indian woods
skills camp. The Shrivers are
■ Matthew Rosen ’73 was
parents at the local Waldorf
included in New York Maga­
school, where Polly and her
zine's list of the best 100
husband, Jan, teach. Who
lawyers in New York, and the
arrives but Richard Schultz,
American Lawyer listed him in
who had come with his wife
a similar article called “45
under 45.” He is a partner with and two sons to help with the
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher first week of camp!
Deborah Kogan, her hus­
&Flom.
band, David Lee, and daughter
Rebecca have moved to
Soquel, Calif., next door to
of Eric Kraus’ daughter Whit­
Santa Cruz, after seven years
ney last November in Greens­
in the Central Valley in Sacra­
boro, N.C. Ann Lindsay and
mento. Debbie still does
Alan Glaseroff ’74 are enjoy­
social science evaluation
ing life in Northern California.
research for Social Policy
Ann is county health officer
and Alan the medical director Research Associates in Menlo
Park. Claude Geoffrey Davis
of a newly formed indepen­
and family are back in the Bay
dent practice association.
Area, where he is pursuing
______________ David Lyon reports that his
biotech, after three years in
planned move to Taipei in
Massachusetts. Jeff Schon
mid-1995 did not take place,
Jody Gaylin Heyward
recently bought a Victorian
but he will be moving to Bei­
73 Scenic Drive
Hastings-on-Hudson NY 10706 jing in July 1996, where he will house in San Francisco, where
he works for Living Books.
be the U.S. Embassy’s consul
They just released the first Dr.
general.
Thanks to my plaintive
Seuss CD-ROM, Dr. Seuss’s
Clay Perry is associate
plea in the November class
notes, I have received wonder­ professor and chief of the frac­ ABC.
Steve and Jan Rood-Ojalvo
ture service at Washington U.
ful letters from some of our
had their “fourth annual priin St. Louis. Francine Mason
classmates. Keep it up: I love
vate-but-open reunion picnic
hearing from you and not rely­ Fleegler has recently become
and 40-something birthday
a faculty member at the U. of
ing on the clips sent by the
party last June at their home
Pa.
School
of
Medicine
and
College.
in Haddonfield, N.J. Virginia
will be doing work with a
Ginny Mussari Bates is
“Shorty” Boucher and her
group studying breast cancer
traveling the country working
husband, Mark Reynolds,
susceptibility genetics as well
with insurance organizations.
moved in November 1994 to
as maintaining her hematoloShe also writes for trade jour­
the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa
gy/oncology practice in Bryn
nals.
Mawr. Dorothy Fryer (former­ Barbara County, Calif. They
Ann Benjamin married
are research biologists at UCly Dolly Stegenga) has been
Robert Ruff, a producer at
Santa Barbara and manage a
married for five years to
ABC. She splits her time
6,000-acre ranch in Santa Ynez
between directing World News Edwin S. Fryer. She has a
as a biological research site.
daughter and two sons and
Tonight with Peter Jennings
Richard Wilson continues
practices cardiac anesthesiol­
and the new Weekend News
shows, which originate in New ogy in St. Louis. Caroline Cur­ as part-time accountant for
severed subsidized apartment
tis Cope lives outside of Itha­
York. Congratulations to Lola
complexes and serves as a
ca, N.Y. She teaches and
Bogyo, who traveled to China
bicycle advocate on various
supervises special education
in February 1995 to adopt a
government committees
in a middle school.
baby girl, Mia, who is now
developing transportation
Michael Caplin is presi­
almost 2.
plans. Amanda Orr Harmeldent of the Childhelp Founda­
Steven Hansen writes that
ing is now teaching French
tion, which provides treat­
he attended the bat mitzvah

teaching English and reading
at Wesley College in Dover,
Del. Chief bragging rights,
however go to Rich and Marie
Witwicki Schall, who have
not one but two current
Swarthmoreans, Ben ’97 on
the basketball team and
Michael ’99 on both the soc­
cer and basketball teams.
Barb Hunter Chaffee’s son
Conrad, however, turned
down Swarthmore and Haverford to attend Oberlin. There’s
a rebel in every group!
Congrats are in order as
follows. Marc Walter and his
wife, Lee Spencer, are the
proud parents of a son, Mason
Chase Walter, born March 2,
1995. Marc asks, “Why did I
wait?” Terry Miller Mumford,
her husband, Lewis, and their
four children will celebrate
the couple’s 25th anniversary
with a trip to Alaska. And final­
ly, Susan Morrison Walcott
writes, “Only 24 years after
graduating, I finally got a Ph.D.
in geography—in time for the
silver reunion!”

73

and Spanish full time at an
independent school.
Shirley Hon Spencer left
Arctic Alaska after spending
three years as health educa­
tion manager for the Eskimo
Assn, and now lives in Seldovia, Alaska (population
300). Ken Klothen was elected
to the Swarthmore Borough
Council in November with the
largest number of votes of all
candidates running. He is
president of Family Explo­
rations Inc., an eco-tourism
company for families, as well
as TADD International, a con­
sulting firm practicing in the
area of international develop­
ment with an emphasis on
Southern Africa and Latin
American. Bill Yarrow writes
that he is working on a book
about Boswell. An article he
wrote on metaphor and the
life of Johnson has appeared
in a collection of essays called
B o s w e ll: C itiz e n o f th e W orld,
M a n o f L e tte rs. Andrea Hackel

Harris is now practicing geri­
atric medicine in Pensacola,
Fla. Hugh Cort is looking for­
ward to finishing his residen­
cy in psychiatry at the U. of
South Alabama in Mobile. He
and Debbie will move back to
Birmingham this summer,
where Hugh will work in a
group private practice. Alice
Levine Rubinstein and her
family recently moved to New­
port News, Va. Alice teaches
Latin at a private school.
Richard Orr, a litigation attor­
ney with CIGNA Corp., mar­
ried Margaret Perrone in July.
Randy Lawlace recently left
his law firm after almost 12
years and now is in-house
counsel for Founders Health
Care Inc., which owns and
manages physician practices.
Scott and Patricia McDon­
ald Walsh write that in spring
of 1995 Scott moved from
Kraft Foods Inc. to become
director of human resources
for KPMG Peat Marwick at the
firm’s headquarters in Montvale, N.J. Pat received a doc­
torate in social welfare from
City U. of New York Graduate
Center in June 1994. She is
project director of the
employee assistance program
at Hunter College. My only
news is that I have one child
going off to college in Septem­
60

ber, another the following
year, and, thank goodness,
one still at home for another
five years. My husband,
Andrew, was just named pres­
ident of CBS News.

75

______________

Ann Arbuthnot Huff
14 Rose Gate Drive
Atlanta GA 30342
Hi folks. I must have said
something to Barbara Busing
Wachs at reunion about my
recent retirement from paid
work life, because a few weeks
later she called and asked if
I’d be interested in taking over
the class notes. Of course I
said yes, since I have more
time on my hands (or so I
thought), and it was a way to
be in touch with more of my
classmates (or so I hoped). I
look forward to reporting your
news in the future find hope
many of you will be in touch
for our next issue. Meanwhile,
many thanks to you, Barbara,
for the great job you did over
the past few years, and don’t
forget to let us know what
you’re up to!
Julie Braun Orth sold her
handbag business two years
ago, because competition with
imports made it difficult to get
sales and remain profitable.
She is now working part time
at a Pennsylvania state park
teaching environmental edu­
cation and working in a green­
house. She writes that she
loves being outdoors most of
the time and enjoys spending
more time with her children,
Nick, 8, and Amanda, 7. Con­
gratulations to Mark Pattis
and his wife, Anne-Francoise,
on the birth of their first child,
Madeleine Annette, who was
born on Sept. 29 and, in
Mark’s words, “has complete­
ly transformed the Pattis
household.” Mark is publisher
and CEO of National Textbook
Co. Publishing Group and now
resides in Highland Park, 111.
Meanwhile, Robert Wachler
writes to us from Pleasant
Ridge, Mich., “Now that we
have a daughter in high
school, can the grandparent

drill be far away?” Making us
feel a little old there, Robby!
Ilene Nathan is still with the
Baltimore city state’s attor­
ney’s office prosecuting mur­
der cases and still living in
Baltimore with a menagerie of
two cats and two dogs. She
escapes on weekends to a
house her family built on
Maryland’s Eastern Shore out­
side Ocean City, and she says
it’s quite a different environ­
ment from the city. Susan
deVeer retired from directing
Shiloh Quaker Camp after nine
years in order to focus atten­
tion on stepson Elan Poteat, 6.
Susan is having a great time
being warehouse manager at
Frederick Non-Profit Building
Supply—recycling surplus
building materials to lowincome families, churches,
and nonprofits, helping peo­
ple fix up homes.
Maureen Cavanaugh and
Christopher Plum live on an
apple orchard in Buffalo,
Minn., and raise Newfound­
lands, with 10 homebred
champions to date. Chris is an
analyst for Northwest Airlines.
Maureen graduated from the
U. of Minnesota law school in
May 1995 and is now in the tax
department of Coopers &
Lybrand L.L.P. She reports
that she continues to make
slow but steady progress on
her revised dissertation, to be
published by the American
Philological Assn./Scholars
Press—with luck in 1996. For
Tony and Shellie Wilensky
Camp, life is more hectic than
ever. Shellie is still very busy
singing with the Philadelphia
Singers and is involved with
the Singers’ Union, including
contract negotiations with
singers and the opera compa­
ny. She’s also taking a ballet
class and a jazz dance class
and loving it. Tony’s five-doctor family practice is
swamped. He combats the
stress by playing racquetball
and, with Shellie, has recently
taken up skiing. They write,
“The three kids’ schedules
keep us hopping.”
And this from the press
release department: Ken
Andres, a civil trial attorney
with the firm of Segal &
Andres in Medford, N.J., has
been elected second vice

president of the Assn, of Trial
Lawyers, New Jersey chapter.
He is a charter member of the
American Board of Trial Advo­
cates, is certified by the Na­
tional Board of Trial Advoca­
cy, and is chairman of the
Burlington County Bar Assn.’s
civil practice committee. Cyn­
thia Turner Tolsma, who
manages Nationwide Insur­
ance’s Rhode Island/Massachusetts operations, has
been elected associate vice
president and has been given
additional management
responsibility for the state of
Connecticut.
On a sad note, our sympa­
thies go out to Patricia Ann
Price McHugh and her family
on the death of her sister Jill
Price Mason ’79 on Jan. 2.
For my part 1995 was an
eventful year, as I retired from
my position as senior VP, mar­
keting, for J. Baker and, the
week before Christmas,
moved to Atlanta with my
husband, Bill, and two young
daughters. Although Atlanta is
a big adjustment after Lincoln,
Mass., it’s better than having
Bill, who is with D & B Soft­
ware, commute every week as
he did all last year. By the way
we’re happy to have guests
here (anytime but during the
Olympics!). Keep those cards
and letters coming.

77

______________

Terri-Jean Pyer
RR 6 Box 234
Lewisburg PA 17837-9530
Cynthia Donovan is finish­
ing her doctoral dissertation
in agricultural economics at
Michigan State U. In February
she began a two-year Rocke­
feller Foundation Fellowship
to work in St. Louis, Senegal,
with the West African Rice
Development Assn.
Last October Stephen
Mink wrote: “Sitting in the
chill of our house—due to ren­
ovation that involved ripping
off the roof and adding a sec­
ond story—it is nice to recall
the warmth of this past April,
when my wife and 3-year-old,
Erica and Thea, joined me in
SW A RTH M O RE COLLEGE BULLETIN

Assessing health care with an economist’s eye
Charles Bennett 7 7 explores the boundary between medicine and public policy.
nvestigating economic and patient-

Ioriented aspects of health care deliv­
ery is the daily bread of health care
management research today. That
wasn’t the case when Charles L. Bennett
77, M.D., Ph.D., began exploring the
area a dozen years ago.
A senior research associate at Lake­
side Veterans Affairs Medical Center,
Chicago, and associate professor of
medicine at Northwestern University
Medical School, Bennett has forged a
multifaceted role for himself that incor­
porates early favorite subjects, math
and economics—his major and minor at
Swarthmore—with a career in
medicine. He seeks answers outside
the usual venues.
Bennett’s firsthand accounts of the
health care systems of Austria, Finland,
and the Czech Republic, for example,
have appeared in the Journal of the
American Medical Association. In Hong
Kong he learned that only four percent
of the gross national product is spent
on health care, yet people live secondlongest in the world. In the United
States, however, “We spend 14 percent
of the GNP on health care, and we don’t
have anything close to that length of
life,” he says.
Although other countries can teach
us a great deal, any attempt to import a
system from another country would
probably be futile, Bennett believes,
because medical systems are closely
attuned to the culture of their countries.
People in England, admired for their
national health program, don’t mind
waiting in line or visiting a shabby-looking hospital. Canadians, whose health
care system was often mentioned as a
fine model for the U.S., are far more
accustomed to the concept of allocating
care, such as for hip replacement
surgery. It would be more realistic, Ben­
nett says, to model our health care sys­
tem on a successful American service
industry, such as the telephone system.
Bennett observed “an amazing exam­
ple of how public policy and science
interface” while working in Taiwan with
Dr. Baruch Blumberg, who won the
Nobel Prize in 1976 for discovering the
hepatitis B virus. The hepatitis B pro­
gram in Taiwan constitutes the world’s
most successful vaccination effort to
date, Bennett believes. That program
reduced the proportion of the popula­
tion testing positive for hepatitis B anti­
gen from 14 percent to two percent in
seven years, and will ultimately reduce
MAY 1996

With both a medical degree and a Ph.D.
in public policy, Charles Bennett says
that “economic theory pushed me into
thinking about how / could use an eco­
nomic approach to medicine. ”
liver cancer, the most common cancer
in the world.
Public health policy in the United
States is often less fruitful. Among Ben­
nett’s principal findings is the revelation
that people treated for AIDS-related
pneumonia under Medicaid receive
poorer medical care than those who
have private insurance. The primary
reason is that they’re half as likely to
obtain medical care, especially diagnos­
tic tests, in the first place.
A board-certified oncologist who
received his medical degree from the
University of Pennsylvania School of
Medicine in 1981, Bennett became inter­
ested in AIDS through the back door.
While doing his fellowship training
through the University of Chicago
School of Medicine in 1984-85, he pro­
vided care to large groups of hemophili­
acs. “It became apparent that over 90
percent were HIV infected,” Bennett
says. They had received transfusions
before the blood supply was screened
to eliminate HIV.
An oncologic problem introduced to
Bennett through the AIDS epidemic was
Kaposi’s sarcoma, a previously rare
form of cancer that commonly afflicts

people with AIDS.
Clinical medicine alone, Bennett saw,
couldn’t resolve problems related to
AIDS. “It became quickly apparent that
the boundary between public policy
and HIV/AIDS was minimal,” he says. “I
wanted to be involved in the process.”
Accordingly, he obtained a doctorate in
public policy at the Rand Corporation/
UCLA Center for Health Policy Study in
Santa Monica, California. Bennett’s dis­
sertation, published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association in 1989,
showed that hospitals treating large
numbers of AIDS patients provide them
with better care and achieve significant­
ly lower mortality rates than hospitals
treating fewer people with AIDS. “Many
people responded by regionalizing AIDS
care into large centers of excellence,”
Bennett says. “That’s where the public
policy perspective comes in.”
Oncology itself has expanded to
encompass the study of viruses, Ben­
nett notes, as scientific data unexpect­
edly demonstrate that many viruses
cause tumors or spur them to grow.
Therefore, the boundary between
emerging viral diseases and cancer
“seems to be becoming blurred,” he
says. For example, Epstein-Barr virus is
now associated with lymphoma, and a
rare form of herpes, herpesvirus 8, is
associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma.
Government funding is shifting its
focus, Bennett notes. A concentration
on basic science is replacing broadbased research incorporating public
health and the social sciences. Tighter
funding will make it more difficult for
Bennett and like-minded researchers to
explore certain issues, he explains.
Bennett attributes the seeds of his
dual career to Bernard Saffran’s eco­
nomics courses at Swarthmore. “Eco­
nomic theory pushed me into thinking
about how I could use an economic
approach to medicine,” he says.
What most people remember about
Bennett from his Swarthmore days, he
says, is his skill at card tricks. He still
performs them, he states, because they
brought him luck when he was applying
to medical school. Noting this achieve­
ment on his application form, the inter­
viewer requested a demonstration,
which was promptly supplied. “The guy
liked the trick; I got into med school,”
says Bennett. “I always wonder whether
I would have gotten in if he had picked a
different card.”
—Marcia Ringel
61

On the road
with Molarsky’s
Marionettes
By Osmond Molarsky ’34

“Shortly before the First World War,
Swarthmore became active on the
Chautauqua circuit, which brought to
rural America tent shows combining
vaudeville, theater, lectures, and moral
uplift. At its height the Swarthmore
Chautauqua visited annually nearly a
thousand towns in fourteen eastern
states and three Canadian provinces. ”
—Richard J. W alton, Swarthmore
College, An Informal History
he 1929 Sw arthm ore C hautauqua,
four days of “culture and entertain­
m ent,” was only a vestige of th e origi­
nal 10-day C hautauquas th a t for tw o
g en e ra tio n s h ad uplifted ru ra l au d i­
en c e s w ith ev e ry th in g from W illiam
J e n n in g s B ry a n ’s “C ro s s of G o ld ”
speech to Swiss bell ringers and now
w as in c o m p e titio n w ith ra d io a n d
moving pictures th a t actually talked.
F o llow ing m y 1928-29 fre s h m a n
year, th e Sw arthm ore C hautauqua list­
ed am ong its attra ctio n s “M olarsky’s

T

M a rio n e tte s ,” a m a rio n e tte v a rie ty
show m y b ro th er and I had produced
while still in high school. T hat year I
had sh ared a suite of room s at th e top
of W oolman with th ree seniors, one of
whom, Jam es M ichener ’29, had a job
lined up for th e fall, but had no visible
m eans of su p p o rt until then. He had
se e n a 10-m inute seg m en t of M olar­
sk y ’s M ario n e tte s in th e 1928 Ham ­
burg show, and he conceived th e idea
of booking us on th e circuit, with him­
self as m y assistant.
Our co n tra ct for th e sum m er to u r
called for six afternoon perform ances
of th e m arionettes each week and our
ap p earan ce as actors in th e play th e
s a m e ev e n in g . T h re e w e e k s of r e ­
h earsal w ere enough to fit M ichener
into my b ro th e r’s p art in th e show —
p u p p e te e rin g , shifting sce n ery , an d
c ran k in g th e p o rta b le V ictro la th a t
provided incidental music.
Featured in th e show was a scene
from The Merchant of Venice, w hich
required som e abridgem ent to fit into
th e program . As an Honors stu d en t in
English, M ichener seem ed th e appro­
priate abridger, for w hich he required
an extra dollar a week above th e $40
we had agreed on as his pay. His liter­
ary contribution included also a pro­

logue, in Shakespearean meter, as fol­
lows:

In ancient Venice, where our
scene is laid
There dwelt two noble men, in
friendship bound.
The first had wooed and won a
lovely maid.
The second was the richest
merchant known
In all the city—rich alike in
gold and honor
But detested by a Jew, one Shylock, stooped
With avarice and old in hating
Christians.
Now we bring to you the story
of these men—
Antonio, the noble merchant,
Shylock, the crafty Jew
And I, the borrower, Bassanio.
The extra dollar a week I paid Mich­
ener for this contribution may be said
to m ark th e beginning of his profes­
sional literary career.
As to th e rest of th e program, to be
m an ag eab le by tw o p u p p eteers, my
b r o t h e r a n d I h a d k e p t it in a
v a u d e v ille fo rm a t. P o litic a lly not
unseem ly for 1929, alm ost every one
of a d o z e n a c ts w a s a demeaning

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Osmond Molarsky ’34 still has the marionettes that helped him work his way through Swarthmore.
72

SW A RTH M O RE COLLEGE BULLETIN

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stereotype of som e minority, all high­ fell asleep on stage during th e evening g ra b b ed th e wig. T he laugh th is got
ly enlightening to o ur rural audiences play.) Ted Fetter, riding w ith us th a t from th e audience tem p ted us to keep
from Somerset, Pa. to B rattleboro, Vt.
day, clim bed o u t of th e p a sse n g e r’s it in th e script, but th ere w ere limits.
The fin e p r i n t of o u r c o n t r a c t , s id e . I fo llo w e d . It w a s ra in in g . A
Follow ing th e C h a u ta u q u a to u r,
which I still have in my files, required crow d assem bled to gawk at our dis­ M olarsky’s M ario n e tte s b ec am e m y
us to d riv e b e tw e e n e n g a g e m e n ts. com fiture, a d am p th eatric al tro u p e m e a n s of w o rk in g m y w ay th ro u g h
The long h o p s w ere n eg o tiated in a a b o u t to m iss an en g a g em en t. T he college, m ainly booking to u rs of th e
broken-down 1922 Dodge panel truck spell w as b ro k e n by a la te c o m e r, a large re so rt hotels in th e Poconos, th e
provided b y th e co m p an y . Leaving m atro n ly w om an w ho sto p p e d , s u r­ New Jersey shore, th e coast of Maine,
after the play, driving all night,
th e B erkshires, and th e W hite
and exploiting a gravity sp eed
M o u n ta in s , w h e r e c a p tiv e
of 50 m ph on steep grades, we
audiences w ere eager to d ro p
were a b le to m a k e th e n e x t
m oney into th e collection for
afternoon’s m ario n ette perfor­
good en tertain m en t. My p a rt­
mance, catching w hat sleep we
n e r n o w o n c e ag ain w as m y
could on th e coffin-like box th at
younger b ro th er, a m usic stu ­
contained th e s h o w ’s e q u ip ­
dent and versatile perform er.
ment. On th e en tire five-week
Senior year m y farce “No! Not
tour, w e n e v e r s to p p e d a t a
th e R ussians!” p laced sec o n d
hotel, h a d a p ro p e r b a th , o r
to a p ro fo u n d d ra m a b y Bob
even got o u r m akeup off com ­
Cadigan ’34 in th e one-act play
pletely, and we alarm ed m ore
contest, but m y frivolous effort
than a few early-m orning breakc o n v in c e d m e th a t I w as th e
fasters at all-night d in ers w ith
n e x t N oel C ow ard. (M y p lay
our garish com plexions.
w as la te r p u b lis h e d in Stage
Our evening play w as Skidan d w idely p e rfo rm e d in th e
ding, a 1928 Broadw ay com edy
U n ite d S ta te s a n d C a n a d a .)
hit that becam e th e basis of th e
Noel Coward failed to m aterial­
Andy H a rd y s e r ie s s t a r r in g
ize in me, b u t a variety of w rit­
Mickey Rooney. M ichener was
in g a s s ig n m e n ts fo llo w e d ,
the rom antic lead, to B arbara
including a long-running chil­
Pearson (L a n g e G o d fr e y )’s
d re n ’s feature in Family Circle
[’31], lead in g lady. M o rtim er
an d a u th o rsh ip of m any chil­
Drake ’29 w as Judge Hardy. At
d re n ’s books, including a Book
age 19, w ith a g ra y w ig a n d
World “Best Book” for 1968. As
other d is g u is e s , I p la y e d an
a rad io talk show h o st in San
aging cam p aig n m an ag er. We
F rancisco, 1967-69, I w as th e
were billed on th e program as
target of m any poison pen let­
“a B roadw ay c a s t,” w ith T ed
Osmond Molarsky’s 14th juvenile book, A Sky Full of
te rs and d ea th th re a ts for m y
Fetter ’28, as Andy Hardy, th e
Kites, will be published this year by Tricycle Press, Berk­
early opposition to th e w ar in
only c e rtifia b le p ro fe s s io n a l
eley, Calif. The 1929 Chautauqua tour is recounted by
Vietnam. None of this m ade m e
actor in th e c o m p a n y . (T h e
James Michener in his 1949 autobiographical novel, Fires
either rich o r famous, but, with
previous winter, Ted had had a
of Spring. “Never one to spoil a good story with the facts, ” m y w ife, P eg g y , a p o e t a n d
part in The Garrick Gaieties, a
says Molarsky, “Michener depicts the puppetmaster as a
archeologist, I’m alive and well
Broadway m usical rev u e s ta r­
dwarf. The fact: I was and still am 6 feet tall. ”
in C alifornia, w riting, sailing,
ring Sterling Holloway and Imoand playing serious tennis.
gene Coca.)
veyed th e scene, and inquired eager­
I hope th e re are a few alumni who
Trooping w ith th e C hautauqua pro­ ly, “W ere th ey all killed?”
still recall th e 1928 H am burg Show,
duced so m e m e m o ra b le m o m e n ts,
In a n o th e r m is h a p , h u rr y in g in w hich in clu d ed n o t only M olarsky’s
both am using and harrow ing. C oast­ from th e pasture on hearing m y cue, I M arionettes but also a buck-and-wing
ing downhill into a small Pennsylvania trip p e d on a te n t guy ro p e , p ick ed dance by Alfonso Tom assetti ’32 and
town, I trie d to av o id a ta n k tru c k myself up, and dashed up th e step s to Russell Jones ’32 and a m oving anti­
backing out of a service station. Cen- th e elevated stage. On entering th e liv­ w ar p an to m im e by Jam es M ichener
trifugal force flipped us over. M ichen­ ing-room scene, I grabbed for m y hat, ’29, w ith piano accom panim ent im pro­
er, asleep on th e d is m a n tle d m a ri­ to doff it, and lifted my gray wig half a vised by Eddie Dawes ’32. Times have
onette stage, craw led out of th e back foot from m y h ead before I realized changed, but m arionettes, an ancient
°f the tr u c k , n o t y e t fu lly a w a k e . w h a t h a d h a p p e n e d . T h e h a t h a d a rt, will alw ays h av e a v e ry sp ec ia l
(Michener, it m ay be said here, once been knocked off by a guy rope. I had appeal. ■
MAY 1996

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Dan Wasserman ’71 is editorial
cartoonist at The Boston Globe.

SMQRE96