Phoenix 4/18 by The Phoenix

The Phoenix

The Official Campus Newspaper of Swarthmore College Since 1881 VOL. 137, ISSUE 12

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

Chopp Meeting Draws Hundreds As Administration Faces Student Ire

TODAY: Cloudy. Chance of rain: 20%. High 67, Low 60. TOMORROW: Cloudy with high winds. Chance of rain: 20%. High 74, Low 50.

SWARTHMOREPHOENIX.COM

Burn This Preview By AXEL KODAT Living & Arts Writer

NITHYA SWAMINATHAN / THE PHOENIX

President Chopp addressed students in the Eldridge Commons last night. Topics of conversation ranged from sexual assault to the climate of campus debate.

By AMANDA EPSTEIN News Editor Following weeks of heated debate, chalked messages, and controversial posters, President Rebecca Chopp sent out an e-mail last Thursday in an effort to remind the community “What Swarthmore Stands For.” In the “spring of our discontent,” as she termed it, administrators and students alike have been participants and spectators to polarizing confrontation over issues like Greek life, administrative handling of sexual assault policies and commencement speakers, leading many community members to question what it really is that Swarthmore stands for and how the college can move forward amidst differences so important and divisive. Last night, Chopp and Dean of Students Liz Braun held a meeting in Eldridge Commons to continue this “important conversation” about community, giving students an opportunity to voice their concerns about the various debates and the administration’s responses. The commons was filled to the brim — approximately 200 students, faculty and staff were in attendance. Chopp started with a minute of silence, in line with Quaker collection traditions. She then said that this meeting was more about listening, rather than speaking for the administration. The floor was opened to students. Joyce Tompkins, Interfaith Adviser, acted as moderator. Sexual assault and the college’s response to

such incidents were at the forefront of issues raised. Survivors of assault on and off campus shared their experiences with those in attendance, presenting concerns over the culture Swarthmore is building and perpetuating. Camille Robertson ’13, in light of a conversation with a friend, expressed the need for the college community to first and foremost create a culture that teaches and demands people “not to rape, rather than to not get raped” on this campus. Mike Hill, director of Public Safety, has indeed led “Rape Aggression Defense classes several times during the year,” according to the college’s website, in order to help students defend themselves in dangerous situations. The Acquaintance Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP) workshops, which freshmen are required to take part in during orientation, also focus “on issues concerning the nature of sexual assault, prevention of and safety from sexual assault, and related on-campus resources,” according to the college’s website. And while consent workshops, a series of which took place this past week, do address sexual assault and rape preven-

tion, students, StuCo co-President Gabby Cappone ’14 among them, agreed that there needs to be “increasing education” and that a one hour workshop once a year “won’t get the job done.” Concerns weren’t only raised about rape culture on campus, but also about the way in which administrators have dealt with sexual assault and the campus’s victims. One student, in fact, said that with the exception of Beth Kotarski, director of Worth Health Center and SMART Team advisor, she had heard horrifying stories about every single administrator in the room that had in some capacity or another dealt with victims, and that if they continued to put blame on victims, if they continued to make Swarthmore a hostile environment for its survivor community, allies, and the school at large, any change in policy would be meaningless. This meeting, however, was not the first time students revealed perturbation over administrators’ inadequate responses to stories of assault and rape. One student insisted that she had yet to hear the administration respond to victims who said their experiences had been invalidated time and time again.

One student insisted that she had yet to hear the administration respond to victims who said their experiences had been invalidated.

This weekend, “Burn This,” a 1987 play by Pulitzer Prize winner Lanford Wilson, will run in LPAC’s Frear Ensemble Theater. The production is senior Jeanette Leopold’s Honors Directing thesis. For Leopold, the performance is the culmination of a year’s work, which began last semester when she began looking over plays and casting. Even before that, she came to Swarthmore focused on this ultimate goal, transferring from Haverford her junior year in order to participate in the theater department’s Honors Thesis Program. The play is set in a loft apartment in New York City, and the action centers on four characters — Anna (Anita CastilloHalvorssen ’15), Burton (Daniel Cho ’15), Larry (Patrick Ross ’15), and Pale (Sasha Rojavin ’15) — coping with the death of their friend, Robbie, in a boating accident. While the death looms large, the play is sometimes most striking for its insistent forward momentum. Despite the fact that Robbie dies 3 days before the play begins, there are moments of sudden levity. Humor emerges as a counteracting agent to the permeating gloom. Mocking the tackiness of a funeral becomes an avenue for moving beyond the events that led to it. “It’s a play about grief and love, but it’s not about wallowing in grief,” Leopold said. “They’re trying to push past their grief, by finding humor and love in each other.” The play also explores themes of identity and narrative. Returning to Robbie’s hometown for his funeral, Anna realizes that his family is unaware both of his dancing career and his homosexuality. She is forced to play the role of grieving widow, to construct stories of a false life. Pale enters the stage a drugged mess, seemingly drifting aimlessly through life; the next morning his life as a restaurant manager becomes apparent. What it means to know someone, honestly and fully, is an open, recurring question. The set, designed by Marta Roncada ’14, resembles a cage, with black rafters jutting out diagonally over the stage and ending abruptly, suspended in air. The apartment is an isolated space but not impermeable: Robbie’s brother Pale bursts in uninvited, drunk, coked-out, a lurching, inertial force. An open window allows distant, almost imperceptible sounds of traffic to float in. Fragments of the quotidian — the harsh gurgle of a coffee pot, snatches of corny movie dialogue — break into even the oppressive silence of grief. Performances will take place Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center’s Frear Ensemble Theater.

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

NEWS

LIVING

OPINIONS

SPORTS

Students who paid for 21 individual meals a week in cash at Sharples would spend less than students on the 20 meal plan.

Alex Anderson discusses the importance of externality and the ephemeral nature of beauty ahead of his senior art show next week.

Nat considers the age-gap in party politics, arguing that conservatism and youth need not be opposed forever.

Led by strong pitching and solid defense, the Garnet improved their record to 1814 with wins against Widener and Arcadia.

Meal Plan More Costly Than Paying in Cash

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Impermanent Beauty: An Art Thesis

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Republicans: The Youth Party

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Softball Strikes Out the Competition

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THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

The Phoenix STEVEN HAZEL Editor-in-Chief KOBY LEVIN Managing Editor PARKER MURRAY Managing Editor The News Section AMANDA EPSTEIN Editor DANIEL BLOCK Assistant Editor ANNA GONZALES Assistant Editor SARAH COE-ODESS Writer COLE GRAHAM Writer AIDAN PANTOJA Writer TIFFANY KIM Writer TOBY LEVY Writer The Living & Arts Section ALLI SHULTES Editor TAYLOR HODGES Assistant Editor COURTNEY DICKENS Writer MIREILLE GUY Writer AXEL KODAT Writer JEANETTE LEOPOLD Writer MAYRA TENORIO Writer VIANCA MASUCCI Writer SERA JEONG Writer IZZY KORNBLATT Columnist DEBORAH KRIEGER Columnist CATHY PARK Columnist

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Campus events this weekend included performances at Olde Club, displays at Kitao Art Gallery, and an a cappella performance by Sixteen Feet.

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News

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

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The Phoenix

NITHYA SWAMINATHAN/THE PHOENIX Students packed into Eldridge Commons in the Science Center following an e-mail from Rebecca Chopp acknowledging the need to address the issues brought up by students in recent weeks regarding Greek life, the invitation of Robert Zoellick to campus as a commencement speaker, sexual assault and the administration’s policies regarding such incidents.

‘Chopp Meeting,’ continued from page 1 “If we can’t go to those in power, who can we go to?” she asked. Lisa Sendrow ’13, a SMART team and College Judiciary Committee (CJC) member, for this reason, wished to see the CJC enact changes “to make people feel more comfortable about how this campus deals with sexual assault.” Acknowledging that students have voiced serious concerns over the committee’s insensitive proceedings, like having to face perpetrators or members of the administration who delegitimized their experiences in the room, she encouraged the campus to share with her thoughts about changes that need to be made within the CJC. “I want to figure out how to lower barriers to pursue CJC action,” Braun added. The CJC process, which has been under amendment for the past few years, now starts in a confidential place and has trained investigators collect information about the incident, even before action is decidedly taken through the committee. Chopp also mentioned that the college launched a sexual misconduct resources website earlier yesterday and that it would be hiring an outside consultant to review the current policies and then educate an internal task force accordingly. She admitted that she and Braun had been waiting for the right moment to bring in such a consultant, or group of consultants, to campus. “Our community has decided that this is the right moment,” she said. The team, which Chopp hopes will be chosen this spring, will be composed of managers, faculty, students and staff. Policies will be reviewed over the summer and the external review will begin next year. Rebecca Ahmad ’13 also made clear on multiple occasions that Swat Survivors, which she runs, is and will continue to be an open resource students can and should take advantage of. The administration’s response to recent

debate on campus was also a contentious issue during the meeting. Anna Stitt ’13 specifically brought up the e-mails Chopp sent to the campus community both regarding Robert Zoellick’s rejection of his honorary degree and more recently, regarding “the spring of our discontent.” “In trying to support all communities, the administration has stayed neutral,” Stitt said. “But when there are uneven power distributions, neutrality is taking a stance. It’s not necessarily against any particular group of students to think about marginalized groups on campus.” Chopp apologized for the letter, saying that she had “conflated a lot of issues.” The administration’s neutrality, however, was not addressed by her response. Another student, echoing Stitt, said that as a queer man of color he had only felt comfortable and respected in spaces created by students. During his time at Swarthmore, there has been no “administrative, institutional support.” Dilcia Mercedes ’15 also felt that the administration’s lack of concern and action regarding the violation of the Intercultural Center (IC) a few weeks ago showed a lack of interest in protecting certain communities on campus. Talk regarding the definition of community and respect, how disrespect may be related to anger and its expression, accountability, transparency, spaces for victims to talk safely, and the way in which community members have engaged one another in conversation took up a large part of the 90 minute-long discussion. In the end, Chopp expressed her wish to proceed with similar conversations and smaller ones in different venues. “I think many of us, maybe all of us, learned that we need to do this more, that we need to do this in places where we can speak honestly,” she said. “I think we definitely have a lot to work on, a lot of issues

NITHYA SWAMINATHAN/THE PHOENIX Joyce Tompkins, Interfaith advisor, moderated and set the ground rules for the conversation. She set a limit of two minutes for people’s comments.

to address, a lot of opportunities to realize.” Braun agreed, adding that she “was really moved by how many community members took the time to be here.” Sam Sussman ’13, echoing Braun, said he was impressed by the “courage and devotion to building a better community by students who were able to share personal stories in a way that spoke to the problems we have to fix as a community.” “That Dean Braun and President Chopp were willing to listen for 90 minutes to a wide variety of students voicing their concerns I think shows at least the beginning of the sort of commitment we need from

the administration to build a better Swarthmore,” he said. Others did not leave the meeting equally as satisfied. “This is just another talk,” Mercedes said. “I have no idea how they’re going to proceed in addressing most of these issues. To make progress we need to stop talking and start acting.” Chopp and Braun encouraged students to e-mail the administration with further questions and concerns and continued to stress that last night was the first of many meetings to come.

News

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THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

The Phoenix

Workshops Aim to Bolster Consent Culture By ANNA GONZALES Assistant News Editor A diverse collection of student groups joined together this past weekend to promote consent culture and create a safer party environment. Parties hosted at Olde Club, Paces and both fraternities all required students to show proof of attendance in the form of a sticker from a consent workshop in order to gain entrance. The student groups involved, which included Deshi, Delta Upsilon, Phi Psi, Kappa Alpha Theta, the Party Associates (PAs), the Drug and Alcohol Resource Team (DART), the Sexual Misconduct Advisors and Resource Team (SMART), the Women's Resource Center (WRC), the Student Budgeting Committee (SBC), the Sexual Health Counselors (SHCs), and the Swarthmore Queen Union (SQU), as well as Nora Kerrich ’16, who spearheaded the Consent is Sexy Weekend initiative, all saw the project as a success. In the week leading up to the parties, over 250 students attended consent workshops, facilitated by Director of Worth Health Center Beth Kotarski and student members of SMART. David Hill ’13, who leads the PA program, found the workshops valuable for many students. “I think they sparked a dialogue across campus, and they provided information to attendees that many had never learned, or had forgotten since freshman year,” Hill said. While freshmen attend sexual assault workshops facilitated by members of Acquaintance Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP) during the orientation process, there is no similarly comprehensive program centered around consent during the remainder of a student's time at Swarthmore. Attendees often brought up the legality of consent while intoxicated, and Kerrich, who attended each of the workshops, said she was encouraged by the discussions that took place. Legally, an intoxicated person cannot consent to sexual activity, and the workshop facilitators reminded students of this law and then discussed how to manage consent in situations involving intoxication. Another positive result of the consent workshop for Kerrich were the discussions surrounding what many term “liquid courage,” or the inability to overcome fear or awkwardness without alcohol. “I heard students saying several times throughout the consent workshops

that if you wouldn't do it sober, you shouldn't do it intoxicated,” Kerrich said. Students repeatedly voiced the belief that students should not approach others in a sexual way unless they were comfortable doing so while sober, which Kerrich believes is a critical insight for students to share with one another. Some students noted that attendance at the parties seemed to be lower than usual, though Hill attributed this lack of attendance to students resting up for this weekend's Genderfuck. Many students also left campus on Saturday to attend the University of Pennsylvania's Spring Fling. Since the consent workshops provided attendees with one sticker for themselves and two to share with friends, resulting in a distribution of 750 stickers, or roughly half the student body and far greater than the number of students who usually attend weekend parties, accessibility does not seem to have been a problem. However, there were rumors of students purchasing stickers in order to gain entrance to parties without attending consent workshops. Regardless of relatively low attendance, Razi Shaban ’16, who was part of a group of students that organized a party at Olde Club, entitled Ten Inches, said that his party was a success. “The people who came to Ten Inches had a blast,” Shaban said. “People were coming up to us afterwards telling us that it was the best party they'd been to in a long time.” Shaban added that he was more invested in students attending the consent workshops than attending the parties. Kerrich and Hill also felt that the parties were a success organizationally. “Overall, the structure worked quite well,” Hill said. Kerrich echoed Hill's sentiments. “It was really encouraging to have all the party hosts on board,” she said, adding that party hosts had given her positive feedback and expressed a desire to continue the project in years to come. The PAs and party organizers also worked with members of Phi Psi, Delta Upsilon, Kappa Alpha Theta and the WRC to provide partygoers with safe escorts home. Looking forward, Kerrich hopes to make several changes as the project continues. This year, she hoped to have mandatory workshops in conjunction with both Genderfuck and the preceding weekend. While this turned out to be unfeasible, as Genderfuck organizers have struggled this year and did not want to add strain to an already difficult process, Kerrich hopes that in the future, the workshop atten-

RAISA REYES/THE PHOENIX

ABOVE, Lisa Sendrow ’13 speaks at one of the consent workshops held last week. Organizers hope to continue hosting them in years to come.

dance requirement can be tied into the year's two largest parties, Halloween in the fall and Genderfuck in the spring. To achieve this goal, Kerrich hopes to schedule more frequent workshops, which she also believes will improve the quality of discussion. “Maybe 20 to 25 students creates a space for more specific conversations, but also for students to feel comfortable not talking and just listening,” Kerrich explained. An average of 40 to 70 students attended each of this year's workshops. In terms of the content of the workshops, Kerrich hopes that SMART and possibly an outside workshop facilitator will collaborate to create a curriculum for different types of consent workshops. “I've heard support for different-themed workshops, creating a continuous process so that people aren't going through the

same thing every year,” Kerrich said. While the workshops would have the same basis, changing themes and major conversation points would add depth and interest. Kerrich also hopes that the Student Activities Committee will come on board with the project and provide funding. Finally, she hopes that the consent workshops will continue to address critical gaps in students’ understanding of consent. “There is still a culture of awkwardness around consent,” Kerrich explained. In the future, Kerrich wants to change this belief, and also hopes to dispel the belief in a gray area around consent and intoxication. Overall, Kerrich feels that this year's process served as a positive beginning. “What ended up happening was totally legitimate and a good introduction for consent workshops on campus,” she said.

News

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

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The Phoenix

Meal Plan Costs Exceed Cash Cost of Meals By SARAH COE-ODESS News Writer Going to Sharples is a routine part of most Swarthmore students’ days. While students on the meal plan have to decide which of the three meal plans — all priced at the same rate of $3,085 per semester — they want to be on, few people realize what goes into this college fee. The three meal plans for students living on campus are a 20-meal-per-week plan; a 17-meal-per-week plan with $100 of Declining Balance Points that can be used at the Kohlberg and Science Center coffee bars, as well as at Essie Mae’s; and a 14-meal-per-week plan with $175 Declining Balance Points. The 14-meal plan is the most common. “We have developed a diverse range of dining plan options to meet the needs of our students,” Vice President for Services and Facilities Stu Hain said. “The plans we offer have been informed by the historical number of meals eaten by the average student in each plan, and account for the additional purchases students tend to make within each plan.” For off-campus students, a five-lunch-perweek plan is available for $625 per semester; they can also be on any regular meal plan. According to Dining Services Director Linda McDougall, this year eight off-campus students are on either the 14- or 17-meal plans, and two other students are on the 5-lunch plan. “I’m not on a meal plan because I enjoy making my own food,” off-campus student Kate Smayda ’13 said. “I also found myself eating the same thing over and over again in Sharples and way too much of it.” A closer examination of the three regular meal plans shows that although students pay the same price for each plan, they do not get the same value for each. For example, the 14-meal plan offers 75 more points than the 17-meal plan does, but also has three fewer meals per week — a value that far exceeds the $75 extra, considering that the three extra meals per week span over the entire semester, for a total of 42 extra meals. “The plans have been refined over time in consultation with student input,” Hain said in response to this concern. “We are currently reviewing all of our pricing, along with many other aspects of our operation, with an outside consultant. We expect to receive a final report from that work in late summer.” Perhaps more surprising than this inequality in meal plan value is the discovery that paying for every meal at Sharples with cash is cheaper than being on a meal plan. Prices at the door are $4.75 for breakfast, $6.75 for lunch, and $10.00 for dinner. This means that if a student eats all three meals a day at Sharples and paid at the door, it would only cost $2257.50 a 15-week long semester — $827.50 fewer dollars than paying for a meal

plan. For the 20-meal plan, each meal averages to around $9.80 per meal. While McDougall acknowledged that this was true, she defended this fact by explaining that students on the meal plan are not just paying for the food they eat. “Meal pricing is determined by the historical number of meals eaten by the average student in each plan and the cost of ingredients and operating expenses,” Hain said. McDougall explained that students on the meal plan specifically contribute to the electricity, service, and maintenance costs of Sharples. While the need for a profit and the decision of price based on food costs may be evident, some students, including Smayda, feel that the meal equivalency prices at Essie Mae’s — $2.60 for breakfast, $3.75 for lunch, and $4.60 for dinner — do not allow them enough to spend. “I don’t think it’s fairly priced considering if you pay for meal at sharples for dinner it costs $10,” she said. “Also, you often have to double swipe to get a full meal at Tarble.” McDougall explained that, once again, the price difference concerns what students are paying for. “It costs a lot less for us to produce food at Sharples than it does at Essie Mae’s,” she said. “[Essie Mae’s] has a lot more packaged meals and foods that have to be pre-made, whereas Sharples has the facilities to make everything here.” This year, there are “dinner specials” at Essie Mae’s, which involve a main course, chips, and a drink. The specials change every day. What most students may not know is that points can be used at Sharples, in addition to Essie Mae’s and the coffee bars; people who are not on a meal plan but put enough points worth on their student I.D. to pay for Sharples meals and coffee bar prices could end up spending considerably less than those on a meal plan. Not only do some students feel that they do not get their money’s worth for on-campus eating, but some also feel that they do not know how many meals or points remain for the year or week. To resolve this, Amy Jin ’15 aspires to create an application in her software development class that informs students how many meals they have used. “[The idea] came to me during a Housing Committee meeting, when we were just throwing ideas out for potential apps,” she said. “I think it’s something that a lot of students can benefit from — I know I always find myself wondering if I have enough meals to double swipe at Tarble at the end of the week.” While she plans to talk to McDougall about this idea by the end of the semester, McDougall said she has already talked to Information Technology Services about implementing a way for students to keep track of how many meals and points remain.

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YENNY CHEUNG / THE PHOENIX Paying at the door of Sharples for every meal 21 meals a week is cheaper than buying any of the meal plans. Students can pay with points at Sharples.

Meal Plans vs. Paying for Meals

$3085 Full Meal Plan

$2258 Cash for 21 Meals

Above, the cost of a meal plan versus the cost of paying for every meal of the week at Sharples. Paying for every meal is $827.50 cheaper.

Living & Arts

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THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

The Phoenix

A Chat With Rebecca Chopp Sacred Centers and Valuing Community With graduation eerily close and along with the farewell to friends that it will bring, my departure from Swarthmore also translates to leaving behind the Religion Department and the ‘love affair’ of sorts I’ve had with the Religious Studies since sophomore year when spirituality moved beyond my Greek Orthodox household. Now, with hopes to return to graduate school to study feminist theology, it only seemed fitting to take an afternoon to sit with the college’s President Rebecca Chopp whose interest in women’s theology echoes my own. After her undergraduate studies, she received a Master of Divinity from St. Paul School of Theology and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Our conversation touches on her sacred time and rituals, her continued interest in women’s theology and also how the dynamic between individual practice and spirituality in communion with others, which informs what she believes to be the “Swat Religion’. Dina: Writing my thesis right now on Greek Orthodox and Buddhist nuns and the spirituality of women, it seems possible to identify one of my motivations as the frustration in the Orthodox Church with its limitations on women’s leadership. As a child, the iconostasis in the church (the large, usually intricately carved Beyond Belief wooden gate separating the altar from the nave - women cannot pass beyond the structure) was always a symbol for me of a sacred space off limits to women and spoke to the wider restrictions on women. It was a prominent symbol for me growing up and even though I do not want to necessarily declare it as an “a-ha” moment, it shows me that much of my academic motivation comes from those frustrations. For you, if we rewind all the way back for a moment, were you raised in a religious household? Did your motivation for Religious Studies originate similarly and when you were younger in particular faith? President Chopp: No, I was not raised in a religious household. I got interested in religion through the civil rights movement and the feminist movement in the 60’s. I grew up in a rural little place in Kansas so I was very interested in these issues but there weren’t many people. I didn’t have any friends who were interested and I didn’t know where to turn. So, some of the Christian churches had like associate pastors who were right out of seminary and they were very involved in civil rights movements and they were really trying to support the rights of movement, talking about contraception and rights of women. So in some ways, progressive religion was my route in but I look back and I realize that I had in high school read on my own read books

DINA ZINGARO

on Christianity and Buddhism and Judaism so clearly religion was just a topic that I was greatly interest in, that I got involved in the progressive movement. D: In my current studies, I am very interested in women’s and particularly mother’s role in instilling religion in their family’s household and often, how many women are deemed “priests of the home.” I read an article written by a DG writer last year and you discussed your “complex” relationship with your mother and never feeling like the quite acknowledge your achievements but also understanding her own frustrations at limitations on her own life. So, your mother did not have this sort of role in your religious life? PC: Not at all. D: So, then when you first entered religious studies, was there a religion or tradition that interested you personally or academically? I know for me, Buddhism - it’s interesting because at first I didn’t really see how Eastern Orthodoxy and Buddhism overlap and complement one another - but now as I am studying them together in more depth, I can see it. PC: Again, going to a small college in a rural Kansas environment, the only thing they knew about or had options in were Protestant theology. It wasn’t on the liberal side, but I didn’t grow up in an urban area where I would walk by a number of options. There were Catholics, Christian scientists, but I didn’t really know about them because you have to know about them to know what they are. I saw the churches, but it was the fact that it was the college that gave me the financial aid that was Protestant. It really is a phenomenal movement, Quakers are Protestants. They were very, incredibly encouraging. There were very few women who taught religion in my college and they were incredibly encouraging of my interest in it. The professors would find books and feminist stuff being written and bring it to me. That was before there were any courses. D: A particular woman? PC: For the Midwest, women in the Protestant churches, women were just starting to be ordained and things like that - it was different on the coasts, so in terms of reading about women, when i went to get my PhD, I did one of my areas of speciality was in the suffragette movement. The woman who spoke to me the most was Lucretia Mott and one of the the reasons I was so incredibly thrilled to be here, I have her little pictures and I go over and read her journals. And why Lucretia Mott. I like the complexity of her analysis. I liked her willingness to, she just refused to separate the analyses of race and class and gender. She was able to find a way to hold them all together and for that reason, the other feminists sometimes dis Continued on Page 12

Illustration by RENU NADKARNI

OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE Philadelphia Book Festival: A Conversation With Cheryl Strayed Friday, April 19 Philadelphia Free Library

Cheryl Strayed is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir “Wild,” which chronicles her hike along the Pacific Crest Trail in the western U.S. following the death of her mother and the dissolution of her marriage. She is additionally the author of “Torch” and “Tiny Beautiful Things” — a collection featuring selections from her advice column “Dear Sugar.” Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Allure, and The Sun. She will be speaking from 7:30-9:00 p.m.

Manayunk Restaurant Week Now — April 26 Manayunk, Philadelphia Restaurant week isn’t just limited to Center City anymore. Enjoy three-course meals at either $10, $20, or $30 in one of Philadelphia’s historical districts. With a wide range of quisines and prices, you’re guaranteed to find something tasty. Menus from participating restaurants can be found at manayunk.com/signatureevents. Be sure to beat the crowds and reserve a table now.

CANstruction Now — April 21 Liberty Shops Canstruction, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating hunger in cities around the world. It encourages community members to donate canned food items for those in need. however, before they’re cracked open, local design teams construct unique sculptures to raise awareness for the organization and the issue of hunger. Stop by the Liberty Shops to see Philadelphia’s winners and support ending hunger in the City of Brotherly Love.

Living & Arts

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The Phoenix

Impermanent Beauty By TAYLOR HODGES Living & Arts Editor

Alex Anderson sits perfect postured on a stool, legs crossed so one knee sits over the other and his right foot bobs off the ground. His black leather shoe is clean of the red dust that covers the floor of his studio space. His hair in its trademark right triangle has been carefully teased and groomed into sharp diagonal slope. He purses his lips, then speaks. “Beauty is the first thing people see. It draws them into a subject.” Anderson’s manicured appearance hints at a preoccupation with externality evident in his ceramics. About two dozen of the artist’s vases, teapots, and abstract

sculptures will be displayed in his upcoming show as a part of the annual exhibition of works by studio arts majors. Though most of his works are based on the functional forms of vases and teapots, all are heavily ornamented or stylized to the extent that they would look out of place in most American homes. “When making my pieces, I don’t really think about function,” Anderson said. “The forms are just a medium I like to work with. Some people have described my pieces as nonfunctional,” he laughed. Rather than focus on functionality, Anderson uses ceramics as conceptual art. By depriving previously functional objects of their utility, Anderson creates forms that foreground their relationship to aesthetics, investigating the nature of

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beauty. Anderson’s exposure to ceramics came late, but his passion for the craft blossomed quickly. He took a ceramics class in his junior year of high school to fulfill a graduation requirement in the arts. He soon became enraptured by the process of shaping clay on the potter’s wheel and began investing his time in improving his technique. “I’d stay in the school’s studio till the security guard kicked me out,” he laughed. Anderson continued his study at Swarthmore, pursuing a studio arts major along with a major in Chinese. His language study came in handy when he went abroad to China in the fall of his junior year, studying in Jingdezhen, often referred to as the “city of porcelain” for its century-long history of ceramics production. “Being there I realized how little I knew,” Anderson said. “It was a humbling experience. I saw people making fifty pound bowls in five minutes, when I couldn’t even do that in ten times the time.” Anderson’s time in China also exposed him to many techniques that would find their way into his work. He learned how to hand roll clay flowers and expanded his knowledge of spinning techniques to create smoother, more elegant forms. Working around

so many other artists also pushed him to integrate more conceptual angles into his work. One of his most confrontational works, a jar with a recently dead bird splayed belly-up on its lid, points to the ephemeral beauty of living things. As shocking as the dead animal is, its body has yet to decay and the bird is still delicate, freshly feathered, and aesthetically pleasant. The bird, captured in this moment just after its death, evokes another theme important to Anderson’s recent oeuvre — that only the inanimate can be eternally sublime. On his artist blog, which Anderson sometimes utilizes as a venue for the thoughts that thematically guide his works, he posted the following: “Flowers wilt, trees rot, people wrinkle; yet throughout this process we strive to progress and present our most perfect selves to the world the way a rose continues to bud after it drops a blossom.” This insight is manifested throughout Anderson’s work. The flowers he hand sculpts all grow from inorganic vases and bases, pediments that the viewer realizes would long outlive their organic attachments. But these organic forms are themselves artificial. These blooms will last decades, but they lose the preciousness, the delicacy of their real-life counterparts. Only the inanimate beauty can last forever, but it’s not the same as the real thing.

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Living & Arts

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THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

The Phoenix

Reimagining the Sharples Experience

A Portrait of the Sharples Re-Designers

ILLUSTRATION BY CASEY SCHREINER

By COURTNEY DICKENS Living & Arts Writer

For Professor Min Kyung Lee of the Art History Department, architecture is “not strictly a technical practice,” but is rather about “being able to produce and come up with an idea ... [to] find an aesthetic and functional and socially and environmentally responsible way of addressing” any problem. Skilled architects, then, design their own buildings as much as they capture their clients’ and their own imaginations. Extending this mentality to her Contemporary Architecture course, which is “not meant to be a pre-professional class,” Professor Lee charged her students with constructing a vision of a place we are all too familiar with: Sharples Dining Hall. Lee, attracted by the idea of contextualizing her course in college discourse, structured it as “a pretty unique opportunity to involve the students” in the development and implementation of the campus master plan. What better project than to get students brainstorming a Sharples re-design, a project that would be the “most useful and the most relevant for student life,” according to Lee. Students thought so too, and over 40 applied for the 12 available spots in Contemporary Architecture. Overwhelmed by the interest, Lee interviewed all 40 “applicants” instead of conducting a random lottery. By asking the candidates questions like what skills they would bring to the course and why they wanted to enroll, Lee filtered out students who either did not fulfill the prerequisites or lacked “interest and an energy for the issue and architecture more generally.” Left with mostly art history majors and minors, she then created three groups with “gender parity and ...diversity in years.” Once her task force was assembled, Lee welcomed them to one of the most unconventional but enlightening courses of their Swarthmore career. She divided them into three groups, SharpMore, the Swarchitects and Collective Sol, and charged them with answering two questions: What is Sharples and

how can the space be improved? Their task was broken up into three phases: research and analysis, design, and exhibition. In the first phase, reflective of the theoretical reading and study done in the class, Lee’s students took on a “different kind of analytical perspective” each week, with the goal of broadening their preconceived notions about architecture. They identified materials used to build Sharples, investigated its social relations with its surroundings, and charted circulation patterns and conducted sound analyses within it. By doing so, the students became intimately familiar with Sharples and its staff as well as with the breadth of architecture as a discipline. Their research complete, the groups entered the design phase, generating ideas and plans for the space that addressed some of the issues they had identified in phase one. Once plans are drawn up drawn up, students enter the final and perhaps most dangerous phase of their projects, the exhibition phase, where they will curate their own exhibits for the general public and give a formal presentation to the administration, including the Vice President of Facilities and representatives from the Scott Arboretum. Seated on a panel, the administration will be “extremely receptive,” Lee predicts, eager to hear the suggestions of the “primary users of the space” — the students. What exactly did the groups come up with? Much like the tale of Harry Potter, the resulting projects featured at Kitao Gallery this past Friday, ranging from “the abstract to the digitally concrete,” as Lee puts it, are as distinct as the houses of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. SharpMORE: The Sketchers In their vision to take SharpLESS to SharpMORE, circulation, visibility and general feng shui take center stage. Rebecca Contreras ’13 recalls her group “huddled around a table sketching ... trying to mediate our ideas and play and bounce them off of one another in

a visual way.” Challenging themselves to come up with a new sketch every week, SharpMore focused on ways to improve the congestion in the serving area and the two narrow passageways leading into it, as well as fixing the building’s overall lack of natural lighting. These concerns were identified by sound and traffic pattern tests: blasting “No-Diggity” by Blackstreet at 3 p.m. on a weekday, sitting in the kitchen at closing time haunted by the low hum of machinery, and hustling around the narrow passageways recording their steps were integral parts of SharpMore’s research. SharpMORE’s exhibit blends three photographs of the front, back and main room of Sharples by sketching them over a large glass installation. In each sketch, they added glass lightboxes which would bring natural lighting into the kitchen and dining areas. Defending the public display of the sketches, Nicole Vanchieri ’13 explains that while SharpMore “did want to present a refined idea of our design but we also wanted to evoke this idea that ... this is still a sketch.” In the center of the main dining room, a large lightbox would be installed, enclosing a small tree or some other greenery. To give visitors a sense of the structure, SharpMore assembled a glass installation which was propped in the center of the exhibition. “We wanted something eye-catching,” Rebecca explained. “If we are going to be in the center, we are going to put something in the center.” The installation successfully captures the viewer and the essence of SharpMore’s vision. Swarchitects: The Philosophers The Swarchitects came up with a design that Lee described as “the most abstract.” Bringing to our attention that we “take for granted the auditory quality of the space,” Professor Lee said the Swarchitects wanted “to capture and engage in a more sensorial aesthetic experience.” Daniel Cho’ 13 confirmed that sentiment, sayingContinued on Page 10

SELECTIONS

When is the moment? Photography by DANIEL Y. CHO

SELECTIONS

How do we experience Sharples?

When I enter the building at the height of lunchtime, my senses turn-off. Auditorily, I am completely overwhelmed. The sound of cups dropping, students shouting, and the general cafeteria noise follow me wherever I am. Visually, it is no different. Swarms of students rush in and out of the servery, magnifying the feeling of busyness—my eyes focus on foot-traffic, not surroundings. Until recently, I

have not taken the time to try to understand Sharples’ architecture: a space that I have entered almost everyday here. These four photographs capture a specific experience and feeling of a space within Sharples. Through cropping, over-exposure, and saturation of color, the camera’s eye makes you consider if the current architecture of Sharples has more to offer us than what we suspect.

1 | Luxury The rich color in the large room is rarely appreciated. Different lighting, shadows, and recesses are revealed in this photograph. I wonder if others have visually experienced the large room this way. 2 | Perspective Sometimes, seeing community makes me feel like I am part of one. During meal hours, students can sight friends prepar-

ing for dinner from the top of the balcony; during festivities, students can sight friends hunting for their blind dates. Visual access to spaces beyond the immediate is exciting. 3 | Privacy A simple change in light has completely redefined the feel of this dining space. It is no longer an awkward table by the passageway, but a place for intimate conversations and exchange. While this table is set in one of the

most public spaces in Sharples, it emits a strong aura of privacy. 4 | Community People have their backs to one another, but they still feel connected: voices and chatter can still be heard, and independent pockets of diners are unified under the same roof elevation.

When I feel that I can make sense of a space within Sharples, I click

Living & Arts

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THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

The Phoenix “A Chat With Chopp,” continued From Page Six

ful is that it’s this vision that we have always been guided in wanting sheer excellence in our academics.

sometimes disagreed with her.She was a real activist. There were other activists around, but they were more on the political, national scene. She was very engaged both nationally, but also in terms of the local, Philadelphia context. I know that sounds odd because I am here in the school that she helped find, but I also had deep respect for all of the early feminists and their writing - Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Once I got to graduate school, women started writing feminist theory and feminist theology and women’s theology so they were about 10 years ahead of me. Another was Rosemary Radford Ruether. For any woman like me, they were a lifeline when you were drowning. We had never read these things I got to watch feminist theory and theology be created and then Emory hired me. They were starting a PhD program in Women’s Studies and so I taught feminist women’s theology and feminist women’s theory.

D: So, in Religious Studies we have these different concepts, one of them is Mircea Eliade’s “sacred time and sacred space.” You and I were both quoted in the most recent Swarthmore Bulletin in a piece about wellness across campus and I read that like me, you are a regular at the gym. Now, for me at least, that gym time is like a sacred time and a ritual. I’m interested in how this concept of rituals, whether religious in nature or not, pattern your own days and weeks? PC: I actually studied with him at Chicago University and then I taught there for four years so I was on the faculty with Mircae. Well, I work out an hour-long workout everyday and it’s a pretty hard workout, so that’s really important to me and then I usually, in the evenings, if I have time before evening meetings or dinners, my husband and I will spend some time together. That’s a very important time but other than that, my days are pretty gorgeous.

D: You mentioned Lucretia Mott - to what degree has she informed the way you approach your position as President of the College and how you approach your leadership role? PC: I wouldn’t want to focus just on Lucretia Mott. I really do believe and I think it’s the scholar of Religion within me, that institutions are living traditions and that the values and visions of the founders get recreated and time and time again. They probably wouldn’t recognize them because they probably wouldn’t recognize the world, but Martha Tyson was the woman along with Benjamin Hallowell who helped dream up Swarthmore. She was very committed to providing a quality education along with the Hicksite Quakers that was equal to “the best in the land” and I think about that small little sect. This wasn’t even the Beyond Belief big-time Quakers, but rather this is a small odd little sect of the Quakers who had this vision who were going to have this college and it was going to be as good as any in the country and I think - even though “As Good as any in the Country” is just a marker of sorts - but I think what’s power-

DINA ZINGARO

D: It’s interesting that there is a framing of your day, sort of like bookends because in the monasteries, along with services throughout the day, there is always a morning and also an evening service. And then, after the night service and before the morning one, the communities observed what Buddhism terms ‘The Great Silence,’ or the general demeanor of restricting conversations. Rituals begin and end our days. Though a broad question, religion is used and misused in a number of ways, but is there one way for your in particular in which you feel that religion is misused? P: Well, there are so many ways that religion is misused. First of all, from a scholar’s point of view, I don’t even know what religion is. We use it, like we use “family” but it’s really hard when you think about it carefully about religion. And religions are all so different and that’s what fascinated me so much as a mature scholar. Protestants construct this interiority of faith, but other religions such as Roman Catholicism is much more about practice and many forms of Judaism are about how you live your life. I am also very interested in Buddhism and am very active on a Buddhist formation. So we put all of these things under the same thing of “religion.” I am also interested in how individual’s experiences experience it differently

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and I think that my students taught me this, that one person reads a text and they see it in terms of moral or ethical issues, another person is enchanted with the beauty… D: So many avenues to the study… P: Yes, and with that complexity, I do not think religion is any one thing and therefore, it certainly opens itself to being used in awful ways. There are still certain types of religious communities where women do not have a voice and I still cannot imagine that women can’t have a full voice in their homes or in the church. You only have to read contemporary politics to see how religion is often used in really hateful and harmful ways. I’m not a good fundamentalist in religion or nonreligion if we look at it as the right, the left and everything in between, in which I mean someone thinking they have the pure truth is very bothersome to me. D: This diversity of approaches that you just mentioned reminds me of the Religion Cafe that is a requirement for all seniors this past fall. I come from a religious household, so I tend to get quite swept up in the beauty of rituals and the mysticism of traditions’ rituals, whereas a fellow major who is also in the neuroscience department lauded Pascal Boyer’s argument about the brain’s predisposition to the comforts of ritual and desire for community in “Religion Explained: Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought.” Religious Studies becomes such a rich intersection for those differing perspectives. So, then what is your “avenue” into the study? P: So most of my work focused on how religious communities reinterpret their traditions in order to change. My first work really looked at situations of massive suffering - Latin American, Germany after World War II for Christians and Jews. Then, I did a lot with women in various ways. I think that’s another thing that is really interesting about religion: some people find they have to abandon it in the midst of suffering and for other people, it’s the ability to reinterpret their religious symbols, doctrines or practices that give them energy and focus. Look at the Civil Rights movement in this country; certainly religion didn’t play a role for many, but it played a role for a number. Martin Luther King for example and I am still amazed by so many people who can use his sermons, but do not know what he was trying to do was use these two great texts - the American Constitution and the Protestant interpretation of the scriptures - to reinterpret them for a radical new vision. D: This type of “absolute truth” that you spoke of earlier, which is a source of frustration, there is “orthopraxis” which means “right practice.” But when I was in California this summer doing research at a Buddhist monastery, I met a man from Mexico who had been raised in a heavily Catholic household. However, he explained that it took him 30 years to dig out all of Catholicism to really then find it. Ss, again there is this sense of straying from something to generate an interpretation that feels right. P: And I think like everything else in our culture, religion’s boundaries are much fuzzier in these religious traditions. They used to be much more fixed and firm because people lived in more encapsulated communities and now I think people have more freedom about how they bring in Buddhism or Hinduism. It’s really very interesting. D: In one of my earlier installment for this column, I wrote about the contemporary usage of “spiritual” vs. “religious,” people’s preference for using one over the other and each’s respective connotations. To use the word “spiritual,” with or without the influence of a particular tradition, have you ever experienced moments that you may deem “spiritual?” P: H. Richard Niebuhr (a religious historian) once defined as the center of value for a person or that people’s center. Or Paul Tillich who is really one of my favorite hiksophes of religion who talked about religion as what concerns you ultimately - you know, passionately, what grasps you and in turn, what you grasp. If I use that kind of defi-

nition for spiritual and these two used the term religion in the 1950’s, it is now how we use the term spiritual. So, these terms change and shift. So, yes, I’ve absolutely had those types of spiritual experiences. I’ve had it climbing in the Rockies and much of mine invoke outside environments, but I can have a phenomenal spiritual experience in front of Marc Roscoe’s painting. I think there are those moments where I have had a kind of feeling, experience of value, of intense value. With a lot of my work with communities, I have experienced those same feelings of intense value. Though I felt skeptical at first, it took me awhile to realize the church is this sort of women’s space. It is where the women of the community gathered; it is where they support each other. I had a lot if prejudgments about it and negativity about it before - you know, “Why aren’t women running the church?” But then you get to see it and you see and there is much more going on. D: For me over the summer and this spring, going to these different monasteries for women has kind of forced me beyond that same resistance to exploring beyond that initial negative reaction to not seeing women in more obvious leadership roles. What I’ve discovered is the way, specifically in Greek Orthodoxy, how laywoman serve as the motors of the church and perpetuate the rituals with communion, memorials after death and such. PC: Right, because even without those more obvious leadership roles, there are incredible places although I would just assume all the roles open to all people. But, I do think it’s important not to negate those women’s experiences. D: Those nuances of the lived experiences are so vital because there are these pockets of spiritual potential and expression. PC: And I think if people want to understand globalization, they have to understand why people believe and the way people believe. It’s really important that you cannot just understand politics in isolation; you have to understand theology and how people are believing. It’s important to understand that if you want to build bridges in a culture. D: That’s so nice to hear as a graduating Religious Studies major because I’ve had those experiences when I’ve returned home and when telling someone that I am studying religious they respond, “Oh, so you want to become a priest?” I’ve always believed in the importance of understanding different religions and spiritual values and practices to approach social and political issues - you cannot just charge right on through and ignore all the nuances. If we return to one of the ways religion may be defined - as what centers a community - how would you define ‘Swat Religion’? PC: Well it’s very hard because we are a community and it’s tough to look at it as a “whole” persay, but I would say on a whole that the Swarthmore community, I think of us affectionately as humanist Quakers. That is not that far from the Hicksite Quakers who focused on these ethical values that we all like - simplicity, justice, respect for the other and such - and what I find so amazing about this place goes back the founders. The Hicksite tradition had a very peculiar emphasis on the individual conscience and the support of the individual, but also that individual and truth could not be found without the context of the community. So, it was neither a communitarian tradition or a highly individual one - so I find that very “swattie.” This continuing conflict and desire and affirmation about both the rights of the individual and the importance of living together. D: This reminds me of the two Buddhist monasteries where I stayed over the summer and where the nuns spoke about monastics as jagged rocks placed in a bag that over time is jumbled around, and in the end (hopefully) come out more polished. Thus, there is this continuing dynamic between the emphasis on the individual and communal, which intersect in fascinating ways in the Religious Studies.

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

Living & Arts

PAGE 11

The Phoenix

To Wear Your Art on Your Sleeve

Isaiah Zagar’s Intimate Mosaics at Philadelphia Magic Gardens Earlier in the year, I fancied the idea of reviewing the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA)’s latest exhibition, “Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection.” Outsider art is the label given to artwork made by artists who aren’t formally trained and whose work isn’t shown in museums or galleries. But the moment that I stepped into its gallery space, my interest in it immediately disappeared, and the art I saw looked so horrid that it wasn’t even worth writing about. Everything looked not only amateur, but also seemed to lack expression or anything meaningful or important to tell. The art in my Foundation Drawing class here at Swarthmore would make for a much more interesting exhibition than this garbage. It was so unpleasant to view that I couldn’t bring myself to walk through the entire exhibition. As quickly as I had entered the show I exited it, dashing through the gift shop filled with trinkets that, surprisingly, appeared even more trite than the outsider art that inspired them. At that moment I felt convinced that there’s a reason museums don’t show outsider art: it’s not worth seeing at all, an eyesore and a complete waste ZOE of time. WRAY And thus I was Aesthetic shocked to discover that Isaiah Zagar, the Apperceptions man responsible for over 120 mosaic murals on the walls of Philadelphia, is “typically dismissed by critics as an outsider artist,” according to a 2009 New York Times article. Although I walked past his work before in my numerous trips to the city, today was the first day I thoroughly examined it at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (PMG), the nonprofit 3,000 squarefoot museum that is one monolithic artwork in itself. The space is a verdant Eden of mosaic, a project that Zagar astoundingly completed literally by himself. The only part of the fourteen-year endeavor with which the artist received assistance was in the pouring of the wet plaster into which he would place pieces of broken mirror, tile, crockery and an assortment of random objects. All of them come together to chronicle the life of the 74 year-old artist, creating a labyrinthine artwork that dazzles the viewer in both its beauty and the personal quality of it; it feels as if we strangers are sharing an intimate glimpse into the most private moments of Zagar’s story. But while this story is not incredibly atypical or special in its own right, its beauty and interest is revealed in Zagar’s unique expression of it rather than in the story itself. The fact that Zagar placed each and every fragment of the mosaic himself grants even more integrity to the artwork. The artist who gets credit for it is the one who actually made it as well makes it more honest as a consequence. It also makes it feel as if we are really connected to the artist, for we are stepping over, admiring and touching all these slices of a whole that Zagar himself had a similar relationship with. As we walk past the arrangements of mirror bits, their crookedness causes our reflected form to shift and change in its composition, like a cubist painting in motion. Thus we become a part of the art: since this artwork took fourteen years of Zagar’s life, it not only serves as his autobiography but lives as a part of his personal narrative. And since we as viewers go there and experience it, we play roles in this story as well. Indeed, Zagar has commented that “I use art as a spider web, to trap people and change how they look, feel, dream.” This truthfulness and intimacy that

ZOE WRAY / THE PHOENIX

ensues from attending the PMG causes me to appreciate it infinitely more than the art created in “factories” by much more famous contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst. Both artists employ a legion of assistants who actually make the sculptures and paintings for which these individuals get sole credit. Although each man is, of course, responsible for the idea of the artwork and they is closely involved in its creation, they themselves do not actually make it. This means they are no more than designers. To be an artist one actually has to build it. As a result, the consequential estrangement from the art they claim to author prevents viewers from forming a connection with the artists. Instead “their” art feels coldly intellectual since its only attachment to the credited artist is its idea. And the intangible nature of ideas and the

fact that they only come into being once they are shared causes them to feel truly unbounded to anyone. Thus the art that manifests them also feels frigid and nonhuman, so we view them with nonempathic detachment. I think this effect occurs even when viewers aren’t aware that the “artist” actually made the art. I’ve experienced it myself in the presence of Koons’ sculptures. Whenever a person works with a medium which will eventually become art, the hand that manipulates that medium will have some one-of-a-kind effect that is different, however minutely so, from the effect that other hands would have caused. The sculptures that Koons claims to have made would have ultimately been different if Koons had literally made them himself. Since we never learn the names of the people who actually did make them, we

are forever barred from connecting to the art on a human level. While you can still have a worthwhile experience without this type of connection, it will be a fundamentally different experience from the one that you will have in PMG. Zagar is technically no longer an outsider artist, since a miniscule but legitimate percentage of his work belongs to the PMA and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts among other museums. But the raw, unrefined nature of his work and the lack of commerciality still breathe through it. This museum/artwork is a unique experience, for there is nothing exactly like it anywhere else in the world. A painted phrase on one wall of the PMG explains everything you need to know about what I can say concerning Zagar’s art: “The complex task of describing an artist’s work.”

Living & Arts

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THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

The Phoenix “A Chat With Chopp,” Continued From Page Six

ful is that it’s this vision that we have always been guided in wanting sheer excellence in our academics.

DINA ZINGARO

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Opinions

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

PAGE 13

The Phoenix

Reasonable Debate

with the sense that a vague, angry spirit is haunting Swarthmore, without any person or group attached to it. Constructive conversations about diIn light of the results of the recent Greek life referendum, where “No” votes visive issues are incredibly difficult to beat “Yes” on every issue except “Do you start, in general, but even harder out of support admitting students of all gen- these tirades. The most conversations ders to sororities and fraternities,” we as that they end up starting are meta-disa college should seriously reflect on the cussions about life at Swarthmore, about ridiculous campaigning that led up to the how we have become jaded to this sort of vote. I am strongly of the opinion that the “awareness-raising,” about how bad we chalkings did nothing to further the cause feel for the tour guides, and about how of the referendum, and actually alienated much it sucks to be a student who hasn’t moderate voters as been here long enough to learn the vowell as mobilized the cabulary to deconstruct and talk about these issues. Seniors, especially, are sadGreek support. I voted “Yes” on ev- dened that these controversies mar their ery item on the refer- last weeks here. Swat Vote Yes, a group unaffiliated endum, but I can’t respect the chalkings, no matter how much I care about the is- with the chalkings, posted less graphic, sues they expressed. I felt like a line was but similarly sensational messages on crossed in appealing directly to prospec- flyers around campus. For example, one tive students with lines like “Welcome to reads: “The ‘solutions’ to these problems Swarthmore, home of my RAPIST,” writ- proposed by DU, Phi Psi, and Theta will ten right next to “Host 4 Ride the Tide” be ineffective. They will only multiply on Parrish circle. There are times when bureaucracy, decrease transparency, and appealing to the public is a good idea, but give greek organizations more special treatment.” How is that the case? Are you this was not one of them. The threat of this brand of sensational sure rejecting a compromise attempt is tour-focused chalking becoming used the right course of action? I’m not disas an avenue for campus discussion is agreeing, I just have no idea what the auunpleasant to me. I see all the chalking, thor is referring to, and I’m not sure that scrubbing, and re-chalking being done on these posters were the result of a wellthe path to Trotter and it looks silly. It is meditated political strategy so much as an even more uncivil than the Daily Gazette impulsive late-night in McCabe. I’m not comment boards, since there at least you about to vote just because a poster said are guaranteed that your comment won’t something to me in loud red and black text, and I’m not pleased that a random be erased or scribbled over. I don’t mean that there should be a rule coterie of students branded this referenagainst chalking for the sake of prospec- dum with their custom designed logo and tive students — in fact, I think present- names. I visited the SwatVoteYes Twitter, ing prospective students with ongoing is- which is linked to on the posters, and it sues on campus is the best way to engage presented no additional information. If anything, them and convey the chalkings ralan accurate view of lied up the supSwarthmore life. I porters of Greek also think that used life, since the effectively, chalkThese chalkings had none referendum is ing can be a subversuddenly allied sive and serious (or of the content, power, or with an image of even hilarious) way to raise awareness discipline necessary to be an Swarthmore as a bully who is willabout an issue. But effective media campaign. ing to go beyond these chalkings had the limits of civil none of the content, conversation, power, or discipline and use peer and necessary to be an public pressure to effective media campaign. They must be owned and followed squeeze them out of existence. I heard from one person who was up with more substantial content if they are to sum up to anything. Right now somewhat in support of the chalkings that they are a lazy excuse for “conversation- they served to bring viewpoints typically quarantined to the Daily Gazette comstarting.” For example, one chalking said, “At ment boards to real life. She had heard a Swat you have to hide the bad stuff from group of thirty students standing in front tour groups.” And another: “Women are of the chalkings in front of McCabe, talknot welcome here.” How are women “not ing about the issues they discussed. This welcome” here? These are insanely seri- is the ideal, of course, and I do a little heel ous accusations that the campus should, click whenever I see it happen. But we must, and even want to take seriously, have to curate these spaces to make that but there is no one to contact. One is left happen.

By Sam Zhang

OP-ED

Is Swat Exclusionary?

erals are the ones with localized cultural and institutional power behind us. So if our concern is the suppression of minorSwarthmore’s frequent social justice ity views and the oppression of their abilcampaigns — pro-divestment, pro-child- ity to speak and act freely, then we need care, anti-fraternity, anti-Zoellick, and so to do some serious self-reflection and on — make us a hotspot for controversy question whether Swarthmore is a place and, yes, and decidedly leftist socio-polit- where conservatives (or even people who ical culture. I appreciate that culture. I ap- would be considered mere moderates in proach it as someone sympathetic to the broader society) can feel welcome. If not, cause. Yet I am strangely dissatisfied with then we’re failing at our mission of social the way that Swarthmore’s social justice justice because we’ve merely replicated movements manifest within our campus oppressive power dynamics along nonconventional lines. discourse. Presumably a social justice advocate I want to be clear: I am not criticizing dislikes oppressive structures as such. those who, frustrated While the size, scope, or duration of those and in private conver- structures may make them more or less sation, lash out at oppressive social groups pernicious — e.g., misogyny is more comor structures, nor am I criticizing those mon and more broadly entrenched than who engage in a spirited debate about Swarthmore’s anti-conservatism — that contentious issues. I do want to speak to is insufficient justification for supporting those who go to online comments sections a newer, smaller, or narrower oppressive and anonymously post hateful insults; to structure. Consider: a dictatorship that the people who find an inoffensive In- denies some people their political rights ternet post merely questioning the most is not good merely because it prevents the rise of some potential dictatorship extreme version of that would deny an argument, and everyone their repost it on Facepolitical rights. book with a quesEven though it is Social justice advocates tioner’s intelligence the lesser of two or humanity; and owe it to their targets to evils, we would particularly to the still say that we people who would treat them with the same should support, defend such attacks empathy we demand as far as poson the ground that sible, a governthey come from a for the oppressed. ment that grants position that is uneveryone basic derprivileged and rights protecoppose a status quo tions. Likewise, position that wields even if Swarthmore’s anti-conservatism institutional power. Our opposition to institutional op- helps to crowd out a more pernicious set pression does not entitle us to be mean- of oppressive norms, we should still insist spirited towards those who disagree. that our rival system be as good as we can Remember that many people expressing possibly make it. Insofar as the culture we doubts are not consciously oppressing inculcate is a product of our individual anyone. They — we — often cannot fully decisions, each of us is in a position not appreciate the harmfulness of oppressive just to demand, but also to help create a structures until we are confronted with more open and welcoming environment. We don’t have to adopt conservative their effects. Dissenters are not guilty of some gross offense merely because the views to have a civil discourse with conconditions of their birth have hitherto servative students, and we don’t have to blinded them to their positions of privi- give up the cause of social justice to stop lege. Their moral culpability in oppres- launching ad hominem attacks against sive structures is limited to their response those who disagree with us. Engageupon discovering them. Social justice ment is important — whether we will it advocates owe it to their targets to treat or not, conventional oppressors are not them with the same empathy we demand going away. It’s better to convert than to for the oppressed. On a practical level, op- alienate them, not only because that wins ponents’ initial recalcitrance against criti- more allies, but also because radical aliencisms can often be overcome by appeals ation from one another is exactly what we to empathy, but it will only be entrenched are trying to avoid. While we should be and embittered by personal derision and carefully attuned to the vestiges of longstanding oppressive regimes, we ought belittlement. But let us suppose that social activists not lose sight of the importance of being are entitled to publicly insult their oppo- decent, civil human beings – towards evnents, so long as they do so in opposition eryone. I think that’s an attitude that even to institutional power. Then we still have the most ardent social justice advocate a major problem: at Swarthmore, we lib- could support.

By Griffin Olmstead

OP-ED

A NOTE CONCERNING EDITORIAL POLICY During the recent discussions about the nature of debate and conversation on campus, the Phoenix has faced numerous allegations and attacks pertaining to our part in the debates over Greek Life and Robert Zoellick. Thus, we think it appropriate to clarify the editorial policies of the Phoenix. The News and Opinions sections of the Phoenix are independent of one another, their content unconnected. It is the duty of the News section to report the news as they see fit, free of bias and personal interest. The Opinions section exists as a forum for all avenues of discussion, for the publication of opinions, not news. It would be wrong for the News section to publish opinions, as it would be wrong to construe what is published by Opinions as news. Staff editorials are the purview of the Opinions section, wherein they are printed. They represent the ma-

jority opinion of the members of the Phoenix Editorial Board, which includes the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editors, Section Editors, and Assistant Section Editors. Prior to this semester, editorial topics were chosen by consensus of the three-person Opinions Board, which no longer exists. The change in policy from consensus to majority made the process more representative, as the Opinions Board included 3 editors, while the current Editorial Board has 12 members. Achieving consensus with this larger group would be infeasible, and so it was decided that editorials would represent the majority; there was no intention of silencing any opinion. Such editorial policies are, moreover, the norm amongst college newspapers, including the Harvard Crimson and the Yale Daily News. Discussions within the Editorial Board are confi-

dential, as editors must feel free to express themselves honestly without fear of any personal consequence. The nature of the Editorial Board relies on trust, which the Phoenix takes very seriously. Editorials do not and cannot represent the view of any editor or subset of editors, they represent the Phoenix, and so internal discussions of the Editorial Board must remain confidential. In order to clear up any other questions that there might be for the Phoenix, we will be accepting questions on our Facebook page and by email at opinions@ swarthmorephoenix.com. We will print answers to questions that we receive by email or by Facebook message; any reasonable question posted publicly to our Facebook page will receive a public answer. We will not accept anonymous submissions, we find public debate to be more productive. We aim to be completely open, to be as transparent as possible.

Opinions

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THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

The Phoenix

A Questionable Firing The Role of the Ph.D. By Scoop Ruxin Swarthmore prides itself on being a tolerant community that encourages the free flow of ideas and the opportunity for all voices to be heard. Throughout the recent controversy surrounding Robert Zoellick, The Phoenix, in its April 4 edition, portrayed the issue as if it were an evenhanded debate on campus, writing that, “an equal number of comments defending [and calling for the removal of] Zoellick exist online”, while failing to mention that the Daily Gazette comments calling for Zoellick’s removal received significantly more “thumbs down” than “thumbs up” in a clear demonstration of support for Zoellick by the campus community. The decision to lend legitimacy to the extremist viewpoint of the Zoellick protesters proved to be a mistake that culminated in the embarrassing result of Zoellick declining his honorary degree and cancelling his speech. In his op-ed in the Daily Gazette on April 10, Dan Duncan, an editor at The Phoenix, described the consequences of the newspaper’s recent journalistic decisions and was promptly fired. The fact that Duncan was fired was hardly surprising: he openly questioned the integrity of a newspaper that he worked for in another campus publication. What was questionable was then not that Duncan was fired but why Duncan was fired, according to The Phoenix. The Phoenix’s stated reason behind Duncan’s firing was that Duncan was fired “for breaching the confidentiality of editorial board meetings” and not “for his opinions,” as the editors wrote in the comments section below Duncan’s article. This response is deeply troubling, for it appears to be disingenuous, serving to degrade the journalistic integrity of The Phoenix. After all, Duncan hardly compromised confidentiality in his piece. The closest he appears to come to “breaching the confidentiality of the editorial board”, is his statement that, “the reasons for this [coverage], as explained to me, were that students had posted a Facebook event to further discuss Zoellick’s position at commencement.” It is difficult to understand why this oblique reference to a conversation Duncan had with some editors would constitute a fireable offense. Though it is impossible to determine for certain, it seems probable that, were the editorial board policy breached as part of an op-ed that was not openly critical of The Phoenix, the editorial board would have

OP-ED

responded differently. As such, regardless of their stated reasoning for firing Duncan, the decision to fire him immediately after he wrote a comment criticizing the newspaper brings up suspicions of censorship. Furthermore, the reasoning behind the decision is hypocritical. Duncan was fired after he stated an opinion that was contrary to that of a majority of the editors — the same editors who legitimized the minority opinions of the Zoellick protesters. By firing Duncan, the editors have demonstrated that they fully support the ability of people to voice minority opinions — so long as those opinions are in accordance with their own. Firing Duncan was not the only instance this year in which The Phoenix has appeared to systematically silence the opinions of minorities on their own editorial board while simultaneously calling for a diversity of opinion on campus. At the beginning of this semester, editorial board changed its policy requiring a unanimous opinion of a 3 member Opinions Board to requiring just a majority of the 10-12 person Editorial Board. While this policy has made the editorial policy more inclusive, it has had a perverse side effect: the change has allowed the editorial board to silence those within its own ranks who disagree. Consequently, it has shortcircuited the ability of the editorial board to reflect a diversity of opinions and left the official opinions of the editorial board vulnerable to being commandeered by a handful of like-minded editors. The vulnerability of this new policy was quickly taken advantage of when the leaders of what would become the Swat Vote Yes campaign, several of whom are Phoenix editors, turned The Phoenix’s February 14 editorial calling for a referendum on Greek life into a sounding board for their agenda. While it is impossible to determine whether the opinions board would have approved the piece, it is difficult to discount the correlation of the divisive and controversial piece with The Phoenix’s new editorial policy. I worked this year as a sports reporter for the Phoenix under Duncan. He was professional, well-informed, and helped make my first experience with journalism a positive one. I hope to continue writing for The Phoenix in the next two years, but I would like to take this opportunity to agree with Duncan that, “I hope we can learn from this recent embarrassment.” I do not mean to suggest the editors of The Phoenix had malicious intent behind any of these decisions. I would, however, like to express my sincere hope that the editors can learn and work to continue improving upon the legacy of our 132-year-old campus newspaper.

LETTER, OP-ED & COMMENT POLICY Letters, opinion pieces and online comments represent the views of their writers and not those of The Phoenix staff or Editorial Board. The Phoenix reserves the right to edit all pieces submitted for print publication for content, length and clarity. The Phoenix also reserves the right to withhold any letters, op-eds or comments from publication. All comments posted online and all opeds and letters must be signed and should include the writer’s full name. Letters are a minimum of 250 words and may not exceed 500 words. Op-eds are a minimum of 500 words and may not exceed 750. Letters and op-eds must be submitted by 10 p.m. on Monday, and The Phoenix reserves the right to withhold letters and op-eds received after that time from publication. Letters may be signed by a maximum of five individuals. Op-eds may be signed by a maximum of two individuals. The Phoenix will not accept pieces exclusively attributed to groups, although individual

writers may request that their group affiliation be included. While The Phoenix does not accept anonymous submissions, letters and opeds may be published without the writer’s name in exceptional circumstances and at the sole discretion of the Editorial Board. An editorial represents the views of a plurality of members of the Editorial Board. Please submit letters to: letters@swarthmorephoenix.com or The Phoenix Swarthmore College 500 College Avenue Swarthmore, PA 19081 Please report corrections to: corrections@swarthmorephoenix.com Letters, corrections and news tips may also be submitted online to the paper by clicking “Contact” on the Phoenix website.

If you are planning to attend a PhD equivalent rates. In reality, most departprogram at a university after you gradu- ments have tenured professors whose ate from college, perhaps you should re- spots are not open for hiring. Then, consider your decision. As the number there are positions that are already takof PhD graduates grows at rate far faster en by visiting professors and thus, are than the growth of professorships, and also not a part of the job market. For doctoral studies over-specify private the at most 20 percent of professorship sector qualifications, there seems to be vacancies that exist within most univera disbalance between the supply and de- sities, these opportunities are extremely competitive. Visiting professors that mand of post-doctorate scholars. The doctorate degree used to be con- are finishing their terms at other insidered the pinnacle of intellectual ex- stitutions usually take first pick, while cellence, and another reminder of what post-docs that have been researching a human mind, put for a couple years after their dissertato work, is capable of tion take second, and PhD graduates HARSHIL doing. Acceptance take whatever is left. Conversely, on the private side, into PhD programs SAHAI usually demands a firms feel that doctorate students seem Conservatively near 4.0 GPA and to focus too heavily on their research Liberal Economics top percentiles on and have introverted personalities that the GRE. After ad- are not conducive to their operations. mission, students spend a good portion More so, only a handful of private-secof their lives engrossed in courses, read- tor jobs require a high technical knowlings, and research. “Grueling”, “mind- edge as advanced as terminal degree numbing” and “rigorous” are common candidates. More often than not, recent elements of a doctoral student’s daily bachelor’s or master’s graduates can vernacular. By the time these students perform tasks as well as PhDs, but are graduate, they will have created an often younger and thus more attractive original piece of research adding new to firms looking to acquire young, longthoughts, ideas or interpretations to the term talent. ever-growing intellectual landscape. On one hand we have a remarkUnfortunately, when it comes time able revolution in education, fostering to land a post-doc, a professorship or new understandings of the world and employment in the non-academic job powering more intellect into the humarket, these determined, hard-work- man existence. On the other, we have a ing geniuses are left in the dust. The clear misalignment between the supply word “doctor” used to imply a pres- of these hardworking researchers and tigious, high paythe demand for ing, secure medical them to produce profession, but has more. Average now transformed salaries for postinto the depressHow could PhD doctorate reing image of an searchers are on graduates, who are over-qualified PhD average similar graduate in search to those earned some of the smartest of a job. by recent college minds of our time, be How could PhD grads, implygraduates, who are ing a marginal in search of jobs? some of the smartpremium for est minds of our doctorate canditime, be in search dates. Add this of jobs? The reason to the lost inis twofold: 1. The job openings for new come accrued from four or more years full-time professors are not increasing of graduate study and these PhDs seem as fast as the production of new PhDs to be behind bachelor’s graduates in and 2. Doctorates seem to be too spe- nominal wealth. cialized for the private sector market. Economically, more than a simple To explain the first reason, we must market failure, there seems to be a waste look at both the supply of and demand of top-shelf human capital. These bright for PhD graduates. On the supply side, the U.S. has seen an overwhelming rise minds have the potential to change the in education over the past few years, in- world, but many are left pursuing mecluding the founding of new universi- nial research tasks assisting advisors ties and adding new doctoral programs with the political campaign of publishto current institutions. Even further, ing papers that is high academia. The conservative approach would the rise in online schooling has created graduate opportunities for those that be to let the market solve the issue. Stupreviously could not attend, due to a dents will recognize the cost-benefit variety of circumstances. Even abroad, tradeoff between pursuing a PhD and many Latin American, Asian and Euro- directly entering the work force, and pean nations have been increasing PhD over time, choose the latter. This would production a remarkable rates each bring the supply of PhD students back year. The end result is a constantly ex- down to equilibrium. Alternatively, it may be interesting panding pool of aspiring PhD students. to shift focuses of academia from genOn the demand side, however, the rates are simply not as high. Even if eral intellectual pursuit to more practithere is a 20 to 1 student to faculty ra- cal, private-sector issues. Instilling softtio, with 10 percent enrollment in PhD er skills and catering research to more programs, we have a PhD student to relevant topics may initiate industry faculty ratio of 2 to 1. Hence, for every professionals to hire PhD students, 2 PhD students preparing for their dis- bringing demand back up. Regardsertation, there is only a demand for 1 less of the active or passive approach, I professor to advise this student. If such have high hopes that PhD students will a trend continues, only half of all PhD regain employment in both academic graduates can be professors. This rate is and non-academic environments. Ultieven more marginalized if the percent mately, it is about whether one values enrollment of PhD students increases. the intellectual exploration as a be-all However, we are also assuming that and end-all, or simply icing on the (pernew professors are hired every year at haps diminishing) cake.

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

Opinions

PAGE 15

The Phoenix

Bipartisan Group Presents Immigration Overhaul Rubio Support Increases Chances of Comprehensive Reform Bill Passage

On Tuesday, the bipartisan group of Senators known as the “Gang of Eight” released a blueprint for a dramatic overhaul of the way America deals with both legal and illegal immigrants seeking citizenship. Considered long overdue, immigration reform strikes us here at home more than most political issues. At Swarthmore, many of us personally know someone PRESTON who isn’t a citizen COOPER or permanent resiInside dent but is seeking Capitol Hill to become one. Not to mention, there is general agreement across most ideological stripes that immigration, if done right, is good for the economy, as legal immigrants bring their skills to the American workforce. Legal immigration also increases tax revenue and thereby reduces government deficits. While most agree that something needs to be done, we all know that’s where the agreement stops in Washington. The Gang of Eight plan, though, includes many elements that both sides have pushed for. These include the Republican goal of increased border security, the Democratic goal of a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants, and the common objective of reform of the immigration system for legal immigrants. The pathway to citizenship is one of the central points of the plan. It involves a thirteen-year waiting period, as well as a requirement that unauthorized immigrants pay a $2000 fine and back taxes before obtaining a green card. In a victory for DREAM-ers, though, the plan provides an expedited, five-year path to citizenship for those who came here illegally as children. On the legal immigration side, the bill would set up a new, merit-based system for awarding green cards to legal immigrants seeking to become permanent residents. Applicants with higher levels of education, longer amounts of time spent in the United States, and family ties would go to the front of the line for green cards. Many in the business world, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, have been pushing for immigration re-

form in order to bring high-skilled im- wait times, as the Gang of Eight plan migrants into the workforce. The bill in- does. cludes a victory for them, too, by nearly Some oppose the pathway to citizendoubling the number of visas issued an- ship on the grounds that a sudden burst nually to high-skilled immigrants. How- of immigration may take away Ameriever, the bill also requires employers to can jobs. There is legitimacy to this arverify that their employees have legal gument, particularly at a time when status through a photo-matching identi- unemployment is so high. There is also fication system, to be set up within five resistance on the other side of the aisle. years. Businesses will no longer be able Some liberal Democrats, especially in the to evade social security taxes and health- House, may resist the bill on the grounds care regulations by hiring unauthorized that the pathway to citizenship in the immigrants. Gang of Eight bill is too rocky. The bill also allocates billions of dolWho’s in the Gang of Eight? The lars to the U.S.-Mexico border in order group includes four Democrats and four to beef up security. This is arguably the Republicans, including former presidenlinchpin of the plan - a system that pro- tial candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). vides a pathway to citizenship for unau- McCain represents a border state where thorized immigrants cannot function if immigration is a big issue and tough laws it does not stem the flow of illegal im- cracking down on illegal immigrants migration by effectively sealing the holes have met federal challenges. A wellin the border. Additionally, without this respected longtime Senator, McCain’s provision the bill’s support is critical for chances of passing the passage of the bill. Congress are close to However, all eyes A pathway to nil. are on Senator Marco The Gang of Eight Rubio (R-FL), who citizenship for plan is a compromise has become the Reunauthorized plan, but one that publican Party’s de should have appeal facto point person immigrants cannot to both sides. Propoon immigration. A nents note that only function without sealing C u b a n - A m e r i c a n , 14% of immigrants himself a son the holes in the border. and seeking green cards of immigrants, Mr. are successful; with Rubio is also seen the plan, they estias key to improvmate that number ing the Republican will rise to nearly 50%. Furthermore, Party’s image among Hispanics. Recent there is general recognition that immi- electoral history shows that he has the gration reform will help the economy. capacity to do so. In the 2010 Senate Even Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), a Tea Election in Florida, Mr. Rubio won the Party hero, has expressed support for Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade (though has stopped short of endorsing) County, which hosts the largest populaa pathway to citizenship, arguing that tion of Cuban-Americans in the counit is important for unauthorized immi- try. By contrast, the Republican Senate grants to work and pay taxes, rather than candidate in 2012, Connie Mack, lost the simply using government resources and county by a whopping 28 points. not giving back. Despite some speculation that Mr. Conservatives are divided, though. Rubio would not endorse the Gang of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), a newly-elect- Eight plan, the Senator took to the aired ally of Mr. Paul’s, opposes the plan waves over the weekend to promote on the grounds that it grants “amnesty” the legislation, which he claimed would to those here illegally. The government be “a net positive for the country, now should not reward lawbreaking, he ar- and in the future.” He also pushed back gues. The country is divided on the against the amnesty charge, arguing that pathway to citizenship, but the number the bill was nothing of the kind. “There of poll respondents in approval goes up will be consequences for having violated when that pathway includes fines and the law,” he said.

Mr. Rubio won some praise from across the aisle for his efforts in the Senate chambers. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a senior Democrat and member of the Gang of Eight, called him a “tremendous asset.” The bipartisan makeup of the Gang of Eight, though, is no guarantee of the bill’s success. As was the case with the Democratic budget and gun control legislation, many Democrats facing reelection in 2014 may be leery about supporting the plan. However, the bill has robust, if not stellar, Republican support in the Senate, making its passage there likely. Furthermore, the endorsements of Mr. Rubio, Mr. McCain, and potentially Mr. Paul may bring a majority of the Republican caucus into the yes column. The House of Representatives is a different story. Given that the ideological inclinations of House members are more extreme, passage in the Senate, even by a wide margin, is no guarantee that the House will follow suit. Ultra-conservative House members may not like the pathway to citizenship, while very liberal ones may find that path too rocky, and choose not to support the package. There’s also the question of whether the bill will be passed as a whole or in pieces, as some have suggested. In pieces, most of the original provisions will not survive Congress. Republicans all along the ideological spectrum are certain to oppose the pathway to citizenship if not tied to increased border security. Border security is truly the keystone of the plan - both for practical purposes and political ones. The bill stands a good chance of passage, assuming the Gang of Eight continues to push it and does not fold. Neither party, obviously, will be happy with everything in it, but the reform is comprehensive, and in theory the system it sets up will function by encouraging legal immigration, discouraging illegal, and dealing with the millions of unauthorized immigrants already in the country. We’ll discover the fate of the immigration bill over the next few weeks, but we’ll also rediscover how dysfunctional the current immigration system is. “What we have in place today, the status quo, is horrible for America,” said Marco Rubio on Sunday. That’s something, at least, the parties can agree on.

Could the Republican Party Ever Be the Party of Youth? A few weeks ago I wrote a column arguing that marriage equality was a fundamentally conservative value. I argued that the issue of gay marriage was an issue that the Republican party should embrace. In this same vein I want to put forth a new question — could the Republican party ever attract a significant chunk of the youth vote? The answer is a resounding yes. It will not be easy, it will require a tremendous of work by NATHANIEL amount young members and FRUM changes in ideology but it is certainly feaConservative View sible. Furthermore, the fundamental ideas of conservatism are not incompatible with the liberalism that seems to come with youth. A very popular response to my question seems to be to respond with the often-misattributed quote: “If you are young, and not liberal, then you don’t have a heart. If you are old, and not conservative, then you don’t have a brain.” However, this does not have to be the

case. issues. It is not conservative for ChristiRight now, due to reasons that Re- anity to dictate lawmaking, however, the publicans only have themselves to blame, government staying out of many social isthe grand old party is linked with being sues is. The party needs to revert to what on the wrong side of many social issues. it really means to be socially conservative: For the past few years the radical right has supporting small but productive changdefined the GOP. The party has catered es that slowly better the country while to the elderly avoiding too (if for no other much federal reason than this government Why should the idea that the group is the intervention. most likely to We should government should vote) and mememphasize bers of the parthat social isdo less and cost ty with less than sues are not less alienate everyone under 30? the business noble political motives. In the of the federal eyes of many, government the Republican party is closed-minded but the business of the people in each inand only invested in the needs of the rich. dividual state. This is social conservatism. Sadly, this is the path my party has choThe Republican party can attract the sen and it is heartbreaking. The Republi- youth if we distance ourselves from the can party should tout conservative ideas image of the part that wants to help the that could genuinely improve the country rich and screw the poor. This is not conand benefit everybody. servatism; it is just the image being perI think the most obvious first step for petuated by certain members of a party. the party is to distance itself from social Conservatism is thinking that agencies

run by the government are inherently less effective than privately-run agencies. It is thinking that people should be encouraged to take risks with their money and that the government’s true role is supporting the idea that anyone can succeed. Why should the idea that the government should do less and cost less alienate everyone under 30? Maybe it’s that we don’t pay as much in taxes and so this idea is much more theoretical than practical. However, this is the age argument that I want to avoid. The Republican party could become the party of individual hope. It could be the party that defines the American dream; the dream that if I work hard I will be rewarded. A party that fights to keep the government out of your daily life could attract people of all ages. However, it’s become clear that the party is too hung up on alienating arguments. This is no ones fault except the current prominent members of the GOP who have allowed the party to become a symbol of outdated ideas. This does not have to be the case and can be changed.

Sports

PAGE 16

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013

The Phoenix

Softball Out Pitches Widener, Arcadia By SCOOP RUXIN Sports Writer Led by strong pitching and good defense, the Swarthmore softball team has had an exciting season, playing in multiple one-run games and experiencing significant success, as demonstrated by their 18-14 record. The pitching staff has posted an impressive 2.82 ERA thus far this season, led by Melissa O’Connor ’14, who has a 10-5 record and a 2.31 ERA. O’Connor has posted 117 strikeouts in 112.0 innings pitched, for an impressive ratio of 7.31 K’s per 7 innings. O’Connor played a crucial part in Swarthmore’s most recent win, a 3-0 victory over Arcadia University. The righty went the distance, giving up just four hits while striking out five. Third baseman Rose Pitkin ’14 provided all the offense Swarthmore would need in the third inning, driving in first baseman Erin Curtis ’13 and centerfielder Kate Smayda ’13 with a double. Right fielder Chelsea Matzko ’15 tacked on an insurance run with an infield single in the fifth inning, scoring catcher Danielle Seltzer ’13. The win versus Arcadia showcased many of the keys to success that Seltzer identified. “When we come out fired up, play tough defense, get solid pitching and string together hit after hit on offense, we are most successful as a team,” said the senior backstop. Offensively, the team has been led this season by Seltzer, Pitkin, Smayda and Nicole Aaron ’14. Seltzer has provided the most pop for the Garnet, leading the team in almost every offensive category, hitting .413 with 3 home runs and 29 RBI. Smayda has been a consistent sparkplug at the top of the lineup, batting .360 with a team-leading 13 stolen bases against just one caught stealing. One highlight of Swarthmore’s season thus far was the team’s hard-fought 4-3 victory against Franklin & Marshall on April 6. The game was especially significant because it came during the team’s annual Strike Out Cancer game. Seltzer credited the win to the team’s performance in all facets of the game, saying that, “our defense and pitching really pulled through, along with our clutch offense that has been pounding out hits throughout the season”. The team, thanks to strong pitching, managed to strike out enough batters to raise over

$3,000 to be donated to the American Cancer Society. Swarthmore’s most convincing win in Centennial Conference play came April 2, when the team defeated McDaniel 7-0. The win was particularly impressive because McDaniel qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season. The Garnet scored their most recent Conference victory on Tuesday, earning a doubleheader split over the Washington College Shorewomen. After falling narrowly in game one, the Garnet bounced back in game two, striking first with three first inning runs and riding a complete game five hitter from Sarina Lowe ’14 to a 4-3 victory. The usual suspects paced the Swarthmore offense. Pitkin pounded out three hits in three at bats, including a double. She drove in two of the Garnet’s four runs and scored another. Seltzer did her part as well, going 2-3 with an RBI, a run scored and a stolen base. Designated hitter Samantha Bennett ’13 broke the 3-3 tie in the with a fourth inning single up the middle, scoring Pitkin. The win exhibited Swarthmore’s tried and true formula for victory: good pitching, strong defense and timely hitting. By throwing strikes consistently, Lowe give Swarthmore’s defense a chance to make plays, and they were strong behind her, playing error-free softball. In contrast, Swarthmore’s offense took advantage of Washington’s four errors, scoring three unearned runs. The win was undoubtedly one of the most impressive of Swarthmore’s season, as it came on the road against a good team: after the loss, Washington’s Centennial Conference record now stands at 9-5. Looking ahead, the Garnet have eight remaining games, including four against Centennial Conference foes. Their next tilt will be a home doubleheader against archrival Haverford, with first pitch slated for 1:00 p.m. These will be Swarthmore’s final home games of the season, and the team will be honoring the strong careers of seniors Bennett, Curtis, Seltzer and Smayda. Seltzer said that the team’s goal for the remainder of the season is to “make some noise in the conference.” She added, “we also still have a shot at the ECAC tournament, in which we would love to advance.” Look for Swarthmore’s squad to continue playing tough, competitive softball as it strives to finish its season strong and advance to postseason play.

Fascism & Football: How Politics Plays the Game The appointment of Paolo Di Canio as Sunderland manager two weeks ago led to controversy due to his admission of being a fascist. In fact, Di Canio’s appointment led to the resignation of former Foreign Minister David Miliband from his position as vice-Chairman of the club which I don’t think anybody cares about at all but it shows the effect that controversial appointments have. This is one of those moments where politics and football begin to mingle and the spectator simply has no choice but to watch as the game is brought into disrepute. I mention the Di Canio incident because it is the most recent in a long line of tempestuous conflicts between politics and football. Politics and football merge from time to time, but for the most part, tend to keep apart due to their incompatibility. There is the famous incident in England where the national team decided that it was politically sensible to use the Nazi salute to greet Hitler at the Olympiastadion in Berlin during a friendly in 1938. Then there was the incident last month where a Greek player by the name of Giorgos Katidis decided to give a JAMES Nazi salute at the end of a game between AEK and Veria. In Spain, under IVEY Franco, certain teams were linked to fascist groups and others to radical communist groups. It seems that fascism and football really do have a Out of Left Field history together–though it is not a peaceful one, and that is what makes this a difficult issue for FIFA to deal with. The game and politics should be divided but politics keeps getting involved in the game. I’m not saying that all political interventions are due to either fascist or communist radicals taking a stand. Katidis later said he had no idea what the salute meant at the time, and, upon learning of the significance of the salute from his German coach, Ewald Lienen, called his actions “totally unacceptable” and honored his season-long punishment after apologising. So either Katidis is an incredibly stupid young man or the education system in Greece (and the Western world) is not teaching about the rise of fascism and the horrors of WWII. The problem for FIFA is that sometimes they have to intervene when there is a political issue in one of the nations that competes in its tournaments. FIFA has a total of 209 countries in its organization that play professional games against one another, that is 209 different organizations to police and to make sure play by the same rules. There was an incident after the 2010 World Cup where the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathon, told the Nigerian national team that they were banned from playing for two years due to their poor performance. FIFA had to intervene and make sure that the Nigerian FA would not be overrun by the wishes of the President. The Indonesian government and FA are currently being told how to behave by FIFA. In Brazil, Sepp Blatter’s deputy has been told never to come back to the country after voicing concerns over the readiness of the country for the 2014 World Cup. Politics and football are unfortunately linked together. But surely they shouldn’t be? Football is a sport and should not be beholden to government. But it is and that is the saddest thing about it. While FIFA is an international organization run from Switzerland it still has to deal with petty feuds with local governments. Similar to how the UN struggles because it has to negotiate between so many different opinions from so many different viewpoints, (not unlike the Swarthmore campus), FIFA struggles to maintain its values in the face of opposition. What FIFA represents is an international organization that elects a leader to make decisions as to how the game should be played and the spirit that the game should embody. For the most part FIFA does this successfully: it tries to stamp out racism, to halt international conflicts and to give anybody the chance to play football whether they are gay or straight, male or female etc. However, there is one problem: much like Ban Ki Moon, Sepp Blatter has no real power to make a difference. Blatter and his assistant can’t make the builders in Brazil work any faster; they have no power to enforce change. The game itself has to be powerful enough and influential enough that people will listen to their opinion on whatever issue there is. The threat of being removed from the game has to matter enough to people that it is an effective punishment. Football is only successful as long people think it’s important. And if people think highly of football then the message that it tries to embody–that a game can unite people rather than tear them apart–will have to be heard by governments and politicians. Politics should have no place in football but it does because both governments and FIFA try to preach to the fans and to define ‘societal values.’

JUSTIN TORAN-BURRELL/ THE PHOENIX Sarina Lowe ’14 pitched a complete game five hitter in Tuesday’s 4-3 victory over Washington College.

Sports in Pictures Women’s Rugby Tackles Muhlenberg College, Takes Home theWin

ANNA GONZALES/ THE PHOENIX

Last Saturday, women’s rugby defeated both Muhlenberg College (26-7) and Lehigh University (26-0).