The Phoenix March 15, 2012 by The Phoenix

MARCH 15, 2012 • THE CAMPUS NEWSPAPER OF SWARTHMORE COLLEGE SINCE 1881 • VOLUME 135, ISSUE 8

THE

PHOENIX

Inside: Mountain Justice protests college investments Former president addresses gender and Islam Softball sees best start to season in fiseveral years

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The Phoenix

Thursday, March 15, 2012 Volume 135, Issue 8

The independent campus newspaper of Swarthmore College since 1881. EDITORIAL BOARD Marcus Mello Editor in Chief Camila Ryder Managing Editor Adam Schlegel News Editor Koby Levin Assistant News Editor Brad Lenox Living & Arts Editor Steven Hazel Assistant Living & Arts Editor Reem Abdou Opinions Editor Tim Bernstein Sports Editor Allegra Pocinki Photo Editor Cindy Luu Social Media Coordinator Peter Akkies Webmaster Eric Sherman Webmaster

Cristina Matamoros The Phoenix

With a recent technical and aesthetic overhaul, WSRN will host an open house this Friday to generate more student interest in hosting radio shows.

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guage Film digs deeply into moral problems presented to everyday Iranians and refuses to leave viewers with clear cut, black and white answers. PAGE 8

Petition draws attention to WSRN expands, remodels, Swat’s investments The environmental student group Moun- re-evaluates radio tain Justice has been campainging for Swarthmore to divest from the 14 fossil fuel extraction companies that are included in the college’s investment portfolio. PAGE 3

Swarthmore’s radio station will hold an open house this Friday to encourage students to either contribute their own radio show or listen to the quirky programs on WSRN. PAGE 9

SPJP to boycott Sabra and Balancing size vs. subits ties to pro-Israel Strauss stance in Swat’s Strategic Group Students for Peace and Justice in Pales- Planning tine (SPJP) have recently begun an effort to create a campus-wide boycott of all Sabra hummus products, as the company is alleged to have ties to the Israeli Defense Forces. PAGE 4

The Strategic Plan indicates that Swarthmore might grow by as much as 200 students in the years to come. What does this mean for student life in terms of housing and academics? PAGE 12

College enters summer Knowledge is Power: Sourcconstruction planning es for learning about your process body A number of buildings on campus will receive a new look next fall as plans have been set in motion for construction and renovation over the summer. PAGE 5

Living & Arts

Often one of the biggest challenges for proponents of sexual health is the lack of information about sexual health practices. This week’s column includes links to information on everything you can imagine, from breast cancer to premature ejaculation. PAGE 12

Martindale’s Natural Market offers up many local Gustavo Esteva questions options locavore explores Martindale’s Natugovernment, power, and The ral Market, which offers high quality local good life foods, from milk from Pennsylvania to ba-

Gustavo Esteva’s lecture on Tuesday, titled “Beyond Development and Globalization,” engaged the audience with an exploration of civilizations, cultures, and what it means to live a good life. PAGE 7

‘A Separation’ explores religion, ethics of family drama The Oscar winner for Best Foreign Lan-

con from New Jersey, as well as specialty gluten-free snacks. PAGE 13

Former president explores gender and global Islam Swarthmore’s former president visited last Wednesday to speak on “Woman, Man, and God in Modern Islam,” his new book, which

attempts to challenge Western conceptions of Islamic cultures. PAGE 13

Opinions

Cost-benefiting the “Stop Kony” campaign’s moral panic The Phoenix examines the supporting and opposing sides of Invisible Children’s viral KONY2012 video, and offers its view on the ways in which true activism can be realized. PAGE 15

The conservative role in the contraception drama

Danielle explains why conservatives Santorum and Limbaugh have drowned out reasonable objections to the contraception mandate. PAGE 16

Sports Softball goes 5-3 on a trip for best start since 2007

The Swarthmore softball team looked miles ahead of the team that lost their first eight games of the 2011 season. Behind strong pitching and timely hitting, the Garnet returns from Myrtle Beach feeling like they can compete with anyone in their conference PAGE 17

Women’s lax beats Eastern, Marymount, starts 2-1

STAFF Amanda Epstein News Writer Charles Hepper News Writer Yi-Wei Liu News Writer Sera Jeong Living & Arts Writer Samme Sheikh Living & Arts Writer Allison Shultes Living & Arts Writer Chi Zhang Living & Arts Writer Nate Blum Living & Arts Columnist Gabriela Campoverde Living & Arts Columnist Amelia Dornbush Living & Arts Columnist Dylan Jensen Living & Arts Columnist Vianca Masucci Living & Arts Columnist Lanie Schlessinger Living & Arts Columnist Renu Nadkarni Living & Arts Artist Naia Poyer Living & Arts Artist Tyler Becker Opinions Columnist Danielle Charette Opinions Columnist Harshil Sahai Opinions Columnist Shiran Shen Opinions Columnist Emma Waitzman Political Cartoonist Roy Greim Sports Writer James Ivey Sports Columnist Axel Kodat Blogger Julia Carleton Photographer Cristina Matamoros Photographer Holly Smith Photographer Justin Toran-Burrell Photographer Sophie Diamond Copy Editor Taylor Hodges Copy Editor Jaimi Kim Copy Editor Axel Kodat Copy Editor Margaret Lawlace Copy Editor Vija Lietuvninkas Copy Editor BUSINESS STAFF Business Manager Paul Chung Circulation Manager Di Yan Circulation Manager Osazenoriuwa Ebose COVER DESIGN Amelia Kucic CONTRIBUTORS Victor Brady OPINIONS BOARD Reem Abdou, Marcus Mello and Camila Ryder EDITOR’S PICKS PHOTOS COURTESY OF: (clockwise from top left) http://hipposeintanks.net 123rf.com www.wondercostumes.com http://buzz.grungecake.com TO ADVERTISE: E-mail: advertising@swarthmorephoenix.com Advertising phone: (610) 328-7362 Address: The Phoenix, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081 Direct advertising requests to Amelia Possanza. The Phoenix reserves the right to refuse any advertising. Advertising rates subject to change. CONTACT INFORMATION Offices: Parrish Hall 470-472 E-mail: editor@swarthmorephoenix.com Newsroom phone: (610) 328-8172 Address: The Phoenix, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081 Web site: www.swarthmorephoenix.com Mail subscriptions are available for $60 a year or $35 a semester. Direct subscription requests to Marcus Mello. The Phoenix is printed at Bartash Printing, Inc. The Phoenix is a member of the Associated College Press and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. All contents copyright © 2012 The Phoenix. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission.

Behind an unrelenting attack headed by Annalise Penikis and Corinne Sommi, Swarthmore took two of its first three games to open 2012. PAGE 19

March 15, 2012

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Events Menu

Petition draws attention to Swat’s investments

Today Bernie Saffran Lecture Peter Temin ’59, Elisha Gray II Professor Emeritus of Economics, will be hosting a lecture comparing the causes, spread and recovery from the recent financial meltdown of 2008 to the Great Depression of the 1930’s in Sci 101 at 7:30 p.m. Sigma Xi Lecture Swat alum Bradley Gabe ’94, a senior technical animator at Withanar Consulting, will be hosting a lecture on the unconventional applications of a science education in the context of Hollywood special effects at 8 p.m. in Sci 199. Tomorrow Japanese Internment and Unlawful Detainment Join SAO in welcoming Floyd Mori, the executive director of the Japanese Americans Citizens League (JACL), along with Hiro Nishikawa, a JACL member, who will be presenting on the history of Japanese internment in the United States and its relevance to the politics of the present day at 3 p.m. in Kohlberg 115. Botany of Desire Screening Head over to the Wister Center (greenhouse behind Willets) at 7 p.m. for a screening of Michael Pollan’s film, The Botany of Desire, which explores the relationship between plants and human life from the plants’ point of view. Saturday, March 17th Green Roof Tour Ever wanted to know what plants were doing on the roof of DK? Well, now you have the opportunity to answer this burning question as there will be a tour of the college’s 3 green roofs that will begin at 3 p.m. from the Scott Arboretum offices. Sunday, March 18th Guatemala Service Trip Interest Meeting and Film Screening Safe Passage (“Camino Seguro”) is an organization that works to provide children living and working in the Guatemala City garbage dump with the tools to escape from the cycle of poverty. The meeting will be held at 5 p.m. in Sci 199 to gauge interest in a potential service trip either in the fall or next spring. Jonathan R. Lax ’71 Conference on Entrepreneurship The annual Lax Conference on Entrepreneurship will offer a variety of networking opportunities, workshops and panels in which students can engage with members of Swat’s alumni community on both personal and professional levels. The event will take place in the Science Center.

Submissions for the events menu may be sent to: news@swarthmorephoenix.com

Camila Ryder The Phoenix

In addition to the petition that Mountain Justice has been tabling at Sharples for the past few weeks, the group has attempted to increase awareness of Swarthmore’s investments in fossil fuel extraction companies through posters like the one above.

By charlie hepper chepper1@swarthmore.edu In the weeks before spring break, anyone paying a visit to Sharples would probably have been asked to sign Mountain Justice’s most recent petition at the main entrance. This petition calls on President Chopp to initiate discussions concerning the divestment of college money from 14 fossil fuel extraction companies. Companies the group seeks financial estrangement from include such industrial giants as ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation and Alpha Natural Resources, all of which the group have labeled on their website as among the “worst of the worst” of extractive corporations. The main purpose of the petition seems to be bringing the issue of divestment to the administration’s table and initiating planning for a future process of divestment. Mountain Justice member Hannah Jones ’12 described the ways in which Swarthmore’s endowment is invested in these companies. “Some of the College’s endowment is invested in various stocks, bonds and mutual funds. The returns on those investments then feed back into the endowment,” Jones said. Jones also indicated that the petition hopes to set a precedent for Swarthmore’s future investments. “We are not invested in all of the companies on our list, but a thorough divestment will also include provisions for not investing in other, equally destructive companies in the future,” Jones said.

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In an op-ed column published in the Daily Gazette last December, Vice President for Finance Suzanne P. Welsh elaborated on the college’s financial priorities, citing the college’s commitment to its donors and community members as paramount concerns. “The Investment Committee of the Board of Managers monitors investment responsibility for the endowment. Its charge is to ‘provide a sustainable level of distribution in support of the College’s annual operating budget while preserving the real purchasing power of the endowment.’ This policy ensures that the endowment can provide for future generations in the same way it provides for today’s students, faculty and staff,” Welsh said. Welsh went on to state that the Investment Committee is committed to being a pro-active shareholder in the companies it is involved with and that the college has a responsibility to hold companies accountable. “In the last decade, the College’s Committee on Investor Responsibility has demonstrated that effecting positive social change can come from exerting influence on a company by the very virtue of being a stockholder. In 2002, three days after Swarthmore informed Lockheed Martin of its intent to re-file a shareholder resolution urging the company to bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in its equal employment opportunity policy, the company announced its plan to add sexual orientation to the policy,” Welsh said. Swarthmore has previously been involved in similar divestment policies in response to socially unjust practices.

March 15, 2012

In 1986, the college joined a nationwide campaign of schools in divesting from companies supporting the practice of apartheid in South Africa, a campaign that was influential in working towards the end of this system. Mountain Justice is a student-led group at the college initially founded with the goal of ending environmentally unsound methods of mountaintop removal coal mining and is currently advocating for Swarthmore to divest from the fossil fuels industry. According to the group, the damaging effects of the fossil fuel industry’s operations are felt across the globe, adversely affecting environmental security, public health and contributing to social injustice. The group’s website states, “Swarthmore invests in companies that extract fossil fuels, affect climate change and in doing so cause devastating health impacts and perpetuate institutionalized racism and classism.” Thus, the College’s investment in these companies ensures the continuation of these detrimental practices, contradicting the school’s values of the common good and social responsibility. In urging institutional involvement in the protest against the fossil fuels industry, the group hopes to bring financial practices into the discussion of what it means to be an environmentally, politically and economically sustainable community. “Destructive practices will probably make the earth unlivable in the not-too-distant future. If we address every way in which we and the institutions we love are implicated in this, we can begin to collectively create a deeply sustainable future.”

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SPJP to boycott Sabra and its ties to pro-Israel Strauss Group

Week in pictures

Raisa Reyes The Phoenix

Former Swarthmore College President Theodore “Dorie” Friend discussed his recently published book “Woman, Man, and God in Modern Islam” in Kohlberg on Tuesday.

Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix

Renowned political scientist Norman Finklestein spoke on the future of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict yesterday afternoon in Sci 101.

Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix

Andrei Malaev-Babel, grandson of Russian-Jewish writer Isaac Babel, presented a lecture on the works and character of his grandfather yesterday in the Scheuer Room.

however, is what kind of constructive By amanda epstein dialogue becomes possible once an isaepstei1@swarthmore.edu sue is brought to light,” Hain said in Students for Peace and Justice in an e-mail. “We are most successful as Palestine (SPJP) is organizing a boy- an engaged, civil community, where cott against the hummus company Sa- students, faculty and staff can parbra, whose products are sold in both ticipate and discuss all aspects of an snack bars on campus. The Strauss issue in a well informed, civil way.” Group, partial owner of Sabra and IsHirschel-Burns, along with Sara rael’s second largest food and bever- Dwider ’13, also an SPJP member, age company, is an active supporter wrote an op-ed in the Daily Gazette of the Golani Brigade, a section of the outlining their mission and goals Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) known that received extensive commentary for its “atrocious” human rights re- and criticism on part of the student cord, according to SPJP member body. It even elicited a response in Danny Hirschel-Burns ’14. It was re- the form of another op-ed, which responsible for Operation Cast Lead, a ceived just as many comments. This three week bombing and invasion of has been seen as the beginning of a the Gaza Strip in 2008, and is current- “constructive dialogue” to be had on ly playing an active role in the Israeli the matter, according to Hain. occupation of the West Bank. “I’m really glad it was written,” “SPJP is a humanitarian group Hirschel-Burns said. “One thing and we see the we’re really comoccupation as mitted to is hava violation of ing constructive human rights [Swarthmore] cannot dialogue and figand even uring out what support companies that more obvieverybody is arguously a violasupport things like the ing for ... I think it tion of international law,” occupation of Palestinian was productive.” Although Hirschelterritories. SPJP’s intended Burns said. is not afDaniel Hirschel-Burns boycott “At least symfiliated with any bolically, for SPJP member other group or Swarthmore protest, it is someto follow its what modeled afcommitment ter the Boycott, to social justice, it cannot support companies that support things like Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) the occupation of Palestinian territo- international movement, which supports the Palestinian cause because ries.” Sabra’s website explicitly stated of Israel’s lack of compliance with that the Strauss Group has a special international law, and whose list of relationship with the Golani Brigade. targets include Sabra. “The point of our boycott is to While the statement was taken down, it was never retracted. Although it inspire other campuses around the talked explicitly about presenting the country, or even around the world, to soldiers with care packages and fund- do the same thing because although ing other welfare programs, there boycotting Sabra at our coffee bars is no proof that they do not finance won’t have a huge economic impact, their military training or supply the it will make a moral statement, showbrigade with weapons. Still, SPJP ing that as a community we will not maintains that regardless of the type tolerate human rights violations,” of aid the group is providing, Sabra’s Hirschel-Burns said. Ammous agrees. “We’re trying to indirect support of the Golani Brigade specifically — a group respon- spread the message to the campus sible for the violations SPJP stands that we are all playing a part in the ocagainst most fervently — is enough to cupation and that there’s something that we can do about it,” he said. boycott Sabra’s products. The boycott does not stand against “The ideological support is enough for us to believe that buying Sabra Israel. Instead, it is intended to stand products is morally wrong ... Their against the occupation, which can be money is an endorsement of what objectively seen as an impediment to peace. they do,” Hirschel-Burns said. In order to continue the conversaThe student group met with Vice President of Facilities and Services tion, SPJP plans to hold a panel for Stu Hain to discuss the boycott and, students and staff to discuss the issue according to SPJP president Ahmad and will also be hosting a “hummus Ammous, were told that the ban of parlor party” to teach students how Sabra products could not even be to make their own hummus early considered a feasible option unless next week. The group will also be starting a enough students expressed interest petition to show the administration in standing against the company. “We value and support our stu- that Swarthmore students are against dents’ right to boycott a product in the occupation and willing to give up order to bring attention to an issue. their Sabra hummus and pretzels for The most important consideration, the cause.

March 15, 2012

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College enters summer construction planning process By koby levin jlevin1@swarthmore.edu Jackhammers, nail guns and saws will fill the campus soundscape this summer. Swarthmore is planning a series of construction projects that will update Worth Health Center, Parrish Hall, the Lang performing Arts Center, Hicks Hall and Papazian Hall. The projects are part of the five-year plan, a short term part of the College’s Strategic Plan that is approved year to year by the Board of Managers. The plans for this summer, which have been delayed since the start of the Great Recession, were validated this February.

Worth Health Center Worth Health Center will receive the most extensive improvements, undergoing what contractors call a “gut renovation,” which will knock out all but the exterior walls and entirely reconfigure the inside of the building. Two additions will be also be attached to either end of the health complex, one for a patient bedroom and the other for additional space for the CAPS mental health program. Health Center Director Beth Kotarski said that the exigencies of modern college health made the reconfiguration necessary. “We do a lot of services that we didn’t do in the sixties,” she said. “It’s time for the update. The flow of care and the way we can staff will be improved — it’s going to change the way we do business.”

Courtesy of Nancy Nicely

Renovations to Worth Health Center, scheduled for this summer, will reconfigure the interior and affix additions to either end of the building. The changes are rendered in this illustration.

dates, including the addition of handicap-accessible bathrooms to the lower level, new seating in Pearson Hall Theater and a new projection system in the Cinema. Additionally, vestibules will be added to the doors of Pearson Hall to eliminate the pesky flash of light and Parrish Hall sound that occurs when stragglers enter the Theater. Many of the shingles on Parrish Hall’s iconic domes This design flaw has long bothered Stu Hain, VP for date back to a fire that gutted the structure in 1881. Facilities and Services. “We try to get things right the These, along with other worn parts including the met- first time,” he said, “and we usually do. But when we alwork and intemake a mistake, it feels good to rior woodwork, correct it.” will be replaced LPAC will also receive a new It’s time for the update. The flow “green this summer as roof”. It will become the the domes receive largest on campus, far outsizof care and the way we can staff their first repairs the roofs of Alice Paul and will be improved — it’s going to ing since 1982. David Kemp dormitories. AddThe air condia green roof, which involves change the way we do business. ing tioning system in placing soil and vegetation atop Beth Kotarski Parrish will also a building, reduces energy costs be revamped, with by adding insulation and purifies the current noisy Director of Worth Health Center the rainwater that falls on it. in-window units being replaced by Hicks Hall a central air system. The new system will eventually When ABET, an engineering education accreditabe put in place in the basement and on the first and tion organization, told Swarthmore’s engineering desecond floors, but it is not yet decided how much of partment last year that it would lose its accreditation the project beyond the first floor will be completed this if it failed to update its facilities, renovations to Hicks summer. Hall were vaulted up the list of construction priorities on campus. The renovations planned on Hicks for this Lang Performing Arts Center summer will bring the engineering department into The Lang Performing Arts Center (LPAC) will be compliance with ABET as well as improve psychology closed this summer to allow for several interior up- and biology facilities in the building.

In addition to upgrading the nuts and bolts of laboratory facilities in Hicks, a revamping of study spaces in the building is planned to accommodate student tendencies to work in groups. A new lounge space will be added alongside new robotics and computer labs. Papazian Hall Lab space will also be enhanced in Papazian Hall, where lab space will be added on the roof for the psychology department alongside a preexisting lab. The fourth floor of Papazian will also be made more accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Administrators say that these measures to update campus facilities will be paired with an extensive data collection project to identify long-term Strategic Planning goals with regard to facilities. The effort will eventually be turned into a master plan which will “cohesively define how the physical campus will best support the College’s future.” An administration press release discussing the summer construction projects and the early steps of compiling the master plan said the Swarthmore community would be involved in the process. “There will be numerous opportunities for the community to offer suggestions and feedback as the planning unfolds over the course of the next year,” the release said. “From this planing process, it is imagined that additional facilities projects will result in the creation of new academic and reconfigured community spaces.”

Around Higher education

Penn Law enters legal dispute with fashion house Louis Vuitton By jelani haynes www.thedp.com, Mar. 12, 2012

A Law School student group got itself into haute water with Louis Vuitton. Louis Vuitton’s attorney Michael Pantalony sent a cease and desist letter on Feb. 29 to Penn Law Dean Michael Fitts regarding a parody use of the company’s trademark design. The design was used by Penn Intellectual Property Group — a Penn Law student organization — on its invitations and poster advertising its fifth annual symposium on Mar. 20. The top portion of the poster features a parody of Louis Vuitton’s “toile monogram” pattern, which is comprised of “three distinctive design elements — a circle with a four-leafed flower inset; a curved beige diamond with a four-point star inset, and it’s negative,” according to Pantalony’s letter. PIPG replaced ‘LV’ with ‘TM’ and added the copyright symbol

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to its parody of the design. Despite the legal back and forths, PIPG will continue to use the parody design for their event. Ironically, the symposium is called “IP Issues in Fashion Law,” and will discuss trademarks and the fast fashion phenomenon and copyright for fashion design. Ashley Kwon, co-chair of the symposium and second-year law student, said, “we didn’t mean to offend [Louis Vuitton] in any way. The top portion of our poster is something we carefully considered before we began advertising for our symposium.” The group had consulted with faculty members before circulating the design, said Matt Corriel, co-chair of the symposium and second-year law student. He said the group did not think it was running any risk of offending Louis Vuitton. He added that the group “thought it would be a clever parody of an issue we were talking about in the symposium.”

Louis Vuitton did not find it clever. Pantalony instead claimed that PIPG “had misappropriated and modified the LV trademarks and Toile Monogram.” He added, “This egregious action is not only a serious willful infringement and knowingly dilutes the LV trademark, but also may mislead others into thinking that this type of unlawful activity is somehow ‘legal’ or constitutes ‘fair use’ because the Penn Intellectual Property Group is sponsoring a seminar on fashion law and ‘must be experts.’” Robert Firestone, Associate General Council of Penn Law’s Office of General Counsel, responded to Pantalony in a Mar. 2 letter. Firestone wrote that PIPG does not think their parody infringes or dilutes any of Louis Vuitton’s trademarks. He added that to “constitute trademark infringement under the Lanham Act, PIPG has to be using a trademark in interstate commerce…” He does not believe the symposium at-

March 15, 2012

tendees will think Louis Vuitton is organizing the event. “There is no likelihood of confusion possible here,” he wrote. Firestone also rejected Pantalony’s claim that PIPG diluted the Louis Vuitton trademark. Furthermore, there is a legal exception for non-commerical uses of trademarks. Law professor Shyam Balganesh, who is not involved in the case, said, “since everything the student group is [doing is] noncommercial, it is hard to see how Louis Vuitton has any claim.” Corriel points to the silver lining of the whole debate. “You never hope for controversy but there is a positive … more people heard about our symposium and hopefully more people will go,” he said. Kwon hopes attendees will not be too distracted by the drama surrounding the issue. “That is definitely going to be part of the conversation, but not the focus,” she said.

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Clothesline Project ushers in new changes, reaches out to community This year, the Clothesline Project — an annually held event that generates awareness of sexual assault — has undergone several changes that have striven to diversify the overall program and reach out to a larger portion of the Swarthmore community. Along with hosting a wider array of events than usual, this year’s Clothesline Project has enlisted the help of the SMARTeam, many of whose members have stepped forward in taking the lead role in organizing the event. Though not run by a specific campus group, the Clothesline Project is run largely by SMARTeam members, along with other campus members interested in the project. One underlying change affecting the project is the switch to the spring semester. According to Lisa Sendrow ’13, a SMARTeam member who has been participating in the Clothesline Project since freshman year and plans to continue with it in the future, this shift was made due to the general stress that came with holding it in the fall. “September was early, especially for

the first-years who just went through ASAP and were not as aware of sexual assault and survivors issues at the time,” said Sendrow. “[The planners of the event] all agreed that this was better because there was less stress and more time to really think about the meaning of the Clothesline Project and what can be done on campus as we begin to approach the end of one year and the beginning of another.” She also added that since this year’s event is held two weeks from Genderfuck, it can potentially raise more awareness about sexual assault. In addition to this change, the project will also include support from Phi Psi in running the Handprint Pledge Project, which allows members of the community to create a handprint on a sheet of cloth in a vow to not treat another in an abusive manner. Delta Upsilon brothers have always particpated in the handprint pledge, but this is the first year in which Phi Psi brothers will assist in the project. According to Sendrow, “the presidents of both fraternities especially have been extremely supportive of our mission and have

really dedicated themselves to making Swarthmore a safter campus.” The Clothesline Project, which is a nationwide event, has always featured t-shirts of five colors representing various types of violence. As part of this year’s event, three shirt-making sessions (two of which have already been held) were scheduled. The shirts will be hung on Parrish Beach from March 19-22 from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Rebecca Ahmad, a sexual health counselor and member of the SMARTeam, assisted in last night’s closed t-shirt decorating session. “The t-shirt decoration with the closed survivor group was beautiful because it is just everyone trying to find the words and images to portray their stories in their own ways.” To cap off this year’s Clothesline Project, a reception will be held in the Friends Meetinghouse on March 23 from 1 - 2 p.m.

BY MARCUS MELLO

Around Higher Education

Penn interviewers question efficacy of interview process By lois lee March 14, 2012, www.thedp.com While 1999 Wharton graduate and alumni interviewer Andrew Ross has interviewed more than 50 prospective students over the past decade, he has faced a dilemma: none of the students he has spoken with have been accepted to Penn. Over the years, Ross has become increasingly frustrated with this lack of success. Ross is not alone in his concerns. Other alumni interviewers and students have called into question the importance of an alumni interview in Penn’s admissions process. According to the Office of Admissions, the alumni interview is completely optional and about 6,500 Penn alumni will interview only half of all applicants per year based largely on geographic location and the number of volunteer interviewers. Dean of Admissions Eric Furda said that since the alumni interviewers are tied to Penn — and not the applicant — they provide a “level of insight that’s not mediated in any way.”The interview write-up submitted by the alumni interviewer is the first document Furda reads during selection committee sessions in March, as it is the newest, most up-to-date document in the applicant’s file. The most effective interview report, according to Furda, is one that confirms the other aspects of a student’s application. An interview can either marginally help or hurt the applicant, he said. However, Furda said until all prospective students are offered interviews, the Office of Admissions cannot give the interview significant weight. “No one piece of an application, except the transcript or testing at far extremes, is going to completely make or break a student,” he said. Regional alumni interview coordinator and 1957 College graduate Marianne Henneman said her regional committee has had a problem with retention of alumni interviewers over the years. “It’s very discouraging because we all get attached and invested in the people we interview,” she said. “We know that not everyone is going to get in, but if you interview for five years and none get in, you get discouraged.” Henneman, though, said her commitment to interviewing applicants does not hinge solely on the number of interviewees accepted. She said interviewing is her way of giving back to the institution.“I believe that when someone gives you help, you should extend a hand back if you can. It’s respect and gratitude,” she said. “Here’s my way of giving back to Penn.” Furda added that “if an alum is going into this to have the track record of having kids get in, they shouldn’t do this. Even if they’re batting the average, we’re not going to admit 88 percent of the kids they interview.” Though Ross continues to interview for Penn, he believes the system needs improvement.“Alumni interviewing would be more useful if we interviewed after there was some weeding down of applicants,” he wrote in an email. “Then, we could spend more time with those fewer ‘qualified candidates’ to give Penn more value. For a school that teaches how to operate efficient, state-of-the-art organizations, it should hold itself to the same standards.” Furda said that while this is an option, he prefers not to screen applicants largely based on numbers. This, he explained, is largely due to the fact that Office of Admissions is more comfortable with the “randomness” of interviews. College freshman Fiona Glisson said she felt that her interview helped her in the application process. “I was nervous for the interview, but I think it was 40 percent evaluative and 60 percent informative” she said. “I found the schools where I had positive interviews I got into, whereas the schools where my interviews didn’t go well, I got rejected.” Jeffrey Durso-Finley — director of college counseling at The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, N.J. — said he wishes colleges would not use alumni interviews as part of the admissions process. He said he advises his students to treat the interview as an opportunity for them to learn more about the college, and not as an evaluation. “Colleges essentially do

alumni interviews to keep alumni connected to the college and make them feel like they’re part of the admissions process. When it’s all said and done, the write-ups make almost no difference,” he said. “It’s an awful lot of time and awful lot of effort and it gets the kids all worked up if they don’t get one.”

March 15, 2012

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Living & Arts

Gustavo Esteva questions government, power, good life

Julia Carleton The Phoenix

Mexican activist Gustavo Esteva spoke to a large audience in his lecture “Beyond Development and Globlization” on Tuesday. by Allison Shultes

ashulte1@swarthmore.edu

On Tuesday evening, Mexican activist Gustavo Esteva told the audience packed into Science Center 101 for his lecture “Beyond Development and Globalization” that it is impossible to change the world. For a man who has served as an advisor to the Zapatistas since 1996, won Mexico’s National Prize for Political Economy, and served as president for the 5th World Rural Sociology Conference and the Mexican Society of Planning, this outlook seems especially bleak. However, after an hour and a half long exploration of grassroots movements, the nature of anarchy and the concept of “buen vivir,” or living well, he offered the Swarthmore community an alternate solution: to build from the bottom up and create new worlds in a time when frustration with governemnt and institutions is at an historic high. Esteva, whose political ideology has evolved across a wide continuum throughout his lifetime, advocated a turning away from traditional power structures within society, suggesting a turn instead to the collective power of smaller-scale communities in an increasingly globalized era. “Power is usually perceived as a thing which some people have and some people don’t,” Esteva said on Tuesday. “That’s why you’re talking about empowerment … we cannot cheat power that way. It is not a thing … power is always a relation and what you can do is change that specific relation.” As an example, he pointed to recent marches in Greece, where students have turned their faces away from the authorities to salute the people instead. The concept of creating new societies where reform has proven ineffective is one Esteva first encountered in 1996, at a Zapatista rally with some 6,000 activists from 70 countries. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, or EZLN, is a primarily nonviolent, leftist group based in Southern Mexico. It is composed of mostly rural indigenous people seeking autonomy from the state and to reclaim natural resources seized by the government. “[The Zapatistas said] we are not here to change the world. [That is] something that is very difficult and impossible. We are here to create a whole new world … and we discovered that they are right, it is impossible to change the world,” Esteva said. Esteva refers to reorganizing from the ground up as radical democracy, which operates not as a struggle for representation within the given political system but instead subverts traditional power structures and creates new ones. This kind of reorganization goes against 200 years of political ideology built on the premise that people cannot govern themselves, and must therefore be subject to an elite ruling few, according to Esteva. “Buen Vivir,” or “living well,” appears to manifest many of the ideals of radical democracy in South America by emphasizing the process of recreating a society instead of attempting reform. People embodying “buen vivir” attempt to implement change directly into their own lives, instead of waiting for an institution to bring change to them. An aspect of this lifestyle is reclaiming language, and using verbs which transfer agency from an outside force to the people. Instead of referring to “education,” for example, Esteva suggests thinking of “learning,” which we ultimately direct in our own lives. “We have been too busy critiquing this world, which is falling apart, to imagine the alternatives,”Esteva said. With suggestions ranging from a reclaiming of the language of agency to creating a self-sustaining food source to investing in composting toilets, Esteva illustrated the ways in which people can take their lives and organize them on a more human scale. Citing La Via Campesina, an organization founded in 1993 and alternatively known as “The Peasant’s Voice,” he emphasized the ability of ordinary men and women to come together and make substantial changes in their lives. Now present in 140 different countries and grown to include some 800 million people, La Via Campesina’s

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conviction “that small farmers, including peasant fisher-folk, pastoralists and indigenous people, who make up almost half the world’s people, are capable of producing food for their communities and feeding the world in a sustainable and healthy way,” as stated on the organization’s website, illustrates the power of solidarity and localized reform in creating substantial change. This movement, which also focuses on issues of gender equality, is one which is beginning to carry over to urban settings in America, according to Esteva. So where does anarchy come into play? Although Esteva shied away from explicitly defining the word, the necessity of reconsidering it was apparent. For him, anarchy, long equated with chaos, disorder, and violence by the general public, instead provides an example of men and women coming together to create their own system of self-government – a concept very much rooted in the American dream and the spirit of friendship. This system of organization relates closely to grassroots movements, which embody the spirit of small-scale reform. Anarchy, then, can be seen not as throwing off all forms of order, but of shucking the oppression of institutionalized order and creating relationships and systems of living which reflect the autonomy of a group of individuals. Swarthmore Spanish Professor Aurora Camacho de Schmidt, who is a citizen of Mexico, found Esteva to be “right on the money” in his conviction that the necessary way to move forward is through localized rebuilding. “As a Mexican citizen living in the United States, and looking at Mexico from afar, I ask ‘where is the hope?’” Schmidt said following the lecture. “And I think the most important issue is coming to where [Esteva] is … that there is hope in the mobilization of their own tools, and creating a life the size of their own bodies … I think grassroots mobilization is the only way Mexicans can protect themselves.” Naomi Glassman ’12 found Esteva’s focus on “Buen Vivir” to be especially engaging, as that was one of the focuses on her semester abroad in Ecuador during her junior year at Swarthmore. “I was interested by the treatment of indigenous populations as a last frontier alternative to capitalism, while still accepting the framework of a globalized world, [in particular] the focus on food sovereignty as a critical form of self sufficiency,” Glassman said. Although she liked “a lot of his ideas and the way he thinks outside the dominant framework,” Glassman thought his discussion lacked a coherent thesis. While Esteva certainly fit a lot of content into a single lecture session, his passion for his topic and his solutions to the more negative aspects of an increasingly globalized era were refreshing and poignant. “The world is falling apart before our eyes,” he said. “We need a change. But people don’t jump blindly into the unknown unless they have hope. What we need to do is nourish their hope.”

March 15, 2012

cartoon by renu nadkarni

Living & Arts

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‘A Separation’ explores religion, ethics of family drama From its very first sec- have been more sympathetic to Razieh, even after she onds, “A Separation,” a put his father’s life in immediate danger? Is it fair to 2011 Iranian film directed ask a child to choose between her mother or her faby Asghar Farhadi and ther? The film begins slowly, and at first feels overly winner of the 2012 Acad- deliberate. However, each deliberate move becomes emy Award for Best For- important in weaving an even more ethically ambigeign Language Film, con- uous web, until every solution is unfair from some fronts its audience with character’s perspective. difficult ethical choices. Most of the direct debate plays out in Iran’s ShariaSimin (Leila Hatami) based court system. Defendant and plaintiff both perwants to capitalize on the sonally plead their cases in front of a judge and each visas she worked months other without any lawyers or other representatives. Nate Blum to get granted and leave The trial becomes a personal argument between the Iran for the sake of her two parties, and all emotions are on the table for evMovies Now! 11-year-old daughter, Ter- eryone to see. This makes the trial even more personmeh (Sarina Farhadi). al and even harder to disentangle from personal prejNader (Peyman Moadi), udices. Paradoxically, what makes “A Separation” so Simin’s husband and Termeh’s father, wants to stay satisfying as a film is that it refuses to give satisfying in Iran to care for his father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi), answers as an ethical piece. Nothing works out in the who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. The film opens end and no one is happy. Things do not even get betin an Iranian divorce court, where Nader is granted ter in the end. The problems keep getting more and legal custody of Termeh, and this marks the begin- more entangled until all we are left with is an ethical ning of one of the most ethically challenging films of Gordian Knot so large that no moral sword could cut the past decade and perhaps of all time. through it. This is why “A Separation” will last as an After Nader is granted custody by the courts, Simin amazing film: it is a film that finally presents ethical moves out of their Tehran apartment to live with her problems that no amount of Hollywood magic can fix. mother for a time. Nader, now a single parent, hires Complimenting the ethical ambiguity of the plot Razieh (Sareh Bayat), the sister of is stark and claustrophobic phoan acquaintance of Simin, to take tography. The entire movie takes care of his father while he works place in small urban apartments, [‘A Separation’ is] during the day. Razieh, a devout the crowded streets of Tehran, one of the most Muslim, pregnant and mother of a and the overcrowded hallways of small girl, finds out too late that hospitals and courthouses. Charethically challenging the job conflicts with her religious films of the past decade acters are seen through doorways convictions (she must dress and windows, cornered by furniand perhaps of all time. and undress a man) and her prenatal ture, walls and other characters. care. Conflicts are played out in uncomFurthermore, her husband fortable proximity, and enemies Hodjat (Shahab Hosseini), an unemployed cobbler routinely transgress personal space. who is dangerously in debt, does not approve of her The crowded composition and nearly constant urworking outside the home. Nader comes home one ban din of cars and chatter combine to give “A Sepaday to find his father tied to his bed, some money ration” a Kafka-esque paranoia, that strongly recalls misplaced and Razieh nowhere to be found. She had moments from “The Trial.” No character wants to gone to get a sonogram. When she returns, Nader flies violate the space of another, but these violations are into a rage and fires her. When she tries to plead her necessitated by circumstance. Razieh did not want to innocence, at least with respect to the money, Nader violate (according to her religious views) Nader’s faroughly pushes her out of his apartment. Nader soon ther by undressing him, but she must make money finds out that Hodjat and Razieh are suing him for to keep her husband out of debtor’s prison. Likewise, the miscarriage of their child. Of course, Simin, Ter- Nader did not want to shove Razieh, but he felt the meh and even Hodjat’s creditors get caught up in the need to protect his father and daughter from a potenwhole affair. tially dangerous (or at least irresponsible) stranger. At no point is it clear who exactly is ethically right The camera seems to breed these conflicts by or who is wrong, nor does the film want that. Every squeezing the characters together into tight spaces ethical choice in “A Separation” is a complex puzzle and into an even tighter frame. Furthermore, with all of personal morality, law, religion, bureaucracy, and the action in claustrophobic spaces, no character can rational and selfish self-interest. How can you choose be ignorant of the immediate or long-term effects of between your wife and your father? Should Nader his or her actions. Other characters are right there to

Courtesy of stateofmind13.files.wordpress.com

“A Separation” won Best Foreign Language Film at the 2012 Academy Awards.

show the flaws in every single choice. Thus, the film captures the moral complexities of urban modernity, where complete strangers with potentially radically different world-views are forced to live on top of each other, and the seemingly unsolvable conflicts that arise therefrom. “A Separation” is a film that will haunt you for days after leaving the theater. You will wrack your brain trying to find a satisfying solution to the ethical dilemmas presented in the film. Frankly, this film should be required viewing for any class on ethics. The dilemmas it proposes, the distinct and stark photography, and the superb acting, all make “A Separation” one of the best films to come out so far in this century. Nate is a junior. You can reach him at nblum1@ swarthmore.edu.

living in brief

Graphic design group offers collective learning opportunities

The new Graphic Design Group on campus held its debut meeting last Wednesday after receiving an enthusiastic virtual response from the campus community. The group was founded as a collaboration center for students interested in learning the basics of graphic design software, a skill set not explicitly addressed in any course offered at Swarthmore. Sola Park ’14, founder of the new group, said she received many e-mails both expressing interest and offering technical support following her post on the Reserved Students Digest a couple weeks ago. As an informal club, the group has no official tutor or advisor, and so students rely on the background work of the four organizers who commit themselves to learning aspects of a given program before instructional meetings are held. Additionally, Justin Crowell of the ITS department has agreed to provide help and guidance as needed. Meeting times and places are determined on a weekly basis. Park, who started the group with a desire to learn the basics of graphic design software, admits that she is one of the least knowledgeable members thus far. “We are dealing with people coming from very different levels,” Park said. However, the structure of the group seems to promise successful accommodation of students with all different skill sets. Each meeting will begin with a video tutorial, followed by working through examples of different software functions as a group. Students will be set loose on their own projects after having a grasp on the lesson of the day, and will work with a weekly theme to help unify and inspire their creative efforts. Those with more experience will be encouraged to proceed directly to their projects. Members are starting with the basics – layering on Photoshop is this week’s lesson – and progressing from there. Park hopes to eventually cover Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Once the group becomes more advanced in its collective skill level, it may look for formal funding from the college to purchase more high-tech software. For more information on the group, email Sola at spark1@swarthmore.edu or swing by the computer lab on the third floor of McCabe at 8:00 p.m. this Saturday. BY ALLISON SHULTES

March 15, 2012

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Living & Arts

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WSRN expands, remodels and re-evaluates radio By chi zhang czhang1@swarthmore.edu For those who are crazy about hip hop or classical music, curious about environmental issues or interested in campus life, WSRN, Swarthmore’s radio station, offers up a wide array of music and talk for students to tune into. WSRN, founded in the 1940s, is a completely student-run FM station that aims to provide its listeners with greater access to unique and up-and-coming music and discussions that cover a wide range of topics. “I want people to get involved with the station to make what they want to happen happen,” Hilary Traut ’13, the station manager, said. With the motto of “fiercely independent radio,” WSRN is a collection of creative ideas and new attempts. Dan Spagnolo ’13, one of the Rock Directors of the station, added, “we try to play music that would not otherwise be played on a commercial station.” WSRN believes that it brings to Swarthmore a sense of freedom because of its emphasis on self-determination, which many other college radio stations are not given. This sense of mission allows students to embrace a sense of responsibility over their own shows. Traut believes, “I think WSRN brings to the campus beyond just a music community, beyond just a community of thinkers in our talking shows, but a community of very free and responsible individuals.” Joan Huang ’15, a member of the station, recalled that before she joined WSRN, she sometimes went with one of her friends to events and was impressed by “a very clear sense of autonomy and free expression in the running of the station.” Huang said, “I joined the station here for that same sense of ‘bastion of free speech.’” The shows at the station are very different from each other. The Noise, a music and talk show previously known as Chester Noise, is a program that has been going on for at least three years, according to Traut. Playing mostly hip hop tracks, the Noise broadcasts from 2 to 6 p.m on Saturdays. It provides a platform for Swarthmore students and Chester High School students to communicate through and enrich their knowledge about music. For Chester students, Traut added that joining WSRN offers “a positive extracurricular activity” where they learn skills like using studio equipment as well as being exposed to different kinds of music, some of which may not be normally heard. Sometimes playing electronic music and R&B, the Noise speaks to the breadth of music as a whole, beyond the constraints of genre. is really amazWSRN, beyond just a “It ing to let other people hear the song that only 10 other people might have heard music community, ... and to share it,” said. is a community of very Traut In addition to shows for hip hop free and responsible fans, the radio station has a classical music department that broadcasts symphoindividuals. nies, concertos, masses, chamber music Hilary Traut ’13 and solo instrumental pieces. Alex Ahn ’14, the director of the classical music department, added that vinyl and CDs from composers ranging from Schumann, Mozart, Bach, Mahler, Dvorak and Vivaldi to Rachmaninov, are available in the station’s collection. Ahn considers listening to Bach as important as reading Shakespeare or gazing at the artwork of Michelangelo. He states that though people tend to be more responsive to visual images, “that shouldn’t limit us from appreciating other incarnations of beauty, complexity and emotion.” A trained listener, in his mind, is able to hear how a composer weaves sound, to understand the structure he uses and to feel the emotion and meaning embedded in sound. Ahn believes “it would be an awful waste if you live your life without having experienced it at least once.” Playing music from Communist countries past and present, primarily Russian music and occasionally Chinese music, Eugenia Sokolskaya ’13, a member of the station, broadcasted a show named “Beyond Iron Curtains” last year. She wanted to use her show to emphasize her Russian heritage in its many aspects and to share the diversity of Russian music. She also learned greatly when she was trying to categorize the musical history of Russia and the Soviet Union and when she was communicating with the listeners. Once, she received a call from a resident of the Ville who always listens to the shows of WSRN while she was on air, and the listener told her about several Russian films like “The Cranes are Flying” --- “an incredibly famous and innovative Soviet movie which we then discussed in my Soviet Film class last semester,” she said. While WSRN has a number of music shows, it is not a music-only station. “Think Climate,” a talk show on current issues in climate change, is hosted by Ahn and Hayden Dahmm ’15. Ahn, who has been involved with environmental advocacy on the global warming front and is especially interested in seeing how the mainstream media deals with the subject matter, regards the radio station as a means to “get out there and experiment” with discussions on climate-change. The radio station is constantly updating equipment in order to create a better environment for people to enjoy the resources WSRN has. The radio station experienced a serious technical and aesthetic overhaul recently. Spagnolo added that in the past the station “was running on equipment that was decades old. We decided to use our capital replacement fund to acquire more modern and reliable equipment.” WSRN members also benefit from a great number of resources it has. Axel Kodat ‘15 mentioned that one of the wonderful things about WSRN is its massive record collection, which has been accumulating for decades, and where much weird, mostly unknown, fascinating music can be found. He said, “now my show is just me playing all sorts of strange stuff, a lot of which I’ve never heard before.” Not just sharing music he likes, he mentioned, “with WSRN an equal part of the fun is simultaneously discovering and broadcasting music.” However, the high-quality equipment and abundant resources are totally underutilized according to Traut. Though these recent upgrades in addition to the existing numerous boxes of music, WSRN has a huge amount of space to develop. She believes that at the moment the radio station is at a crucial point of its existence — people can either continue to under-utilize the space and resources and just being very passively

Cristina Matamoros The Phoenix

The inside of Studio A, WSRN Offices, Fourth Floor Parrish, and its broadcast equipment.

Cristina Matamoros The Phoenix

WSRN has a large collection of CDs, 12” and 7” vinyl in a large variety of genres.

involved or get more involved with the station actively. Traut further added that she feels listening to the radio is an extremely self-motivated choice. “I think radio culture has died a lot with the advent of MP3s,” she mentioned. Radio is such an active experience that is easily to be abandoned by people. Students need to actively take out their computers and go to certain websites to sit down and listen. “When listening to WSRN, you are giving up some control of what you are listening to, and you actively choose to give up that control, just listen to what’s on the radio.” For people who want to have a try on radio broadcasting experience or who are willing to actively join WSRN, they have a chance this Friday, March 16, from 8 to 11 p.m at the radio station office on Parrish 4th floor. WSRN will be holding an open house and Traut is eager to meet people with ideas and plans to make those ideas happen. The ideas can be for new and interesting shows, for organizing and expanding the music library in the office or for having bands to do live shows at the station. Traut hopes that “every student on campus will know that we have a radio station and people feel passionate about what’s happening in WSRN and have debates and conversations, like what they do with the Phoenix’s articles.”

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Living & Arts

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Swat Style Snapshot Name: Christina Obiajulu Major and Year: Linguistics, 2012 From: Westfield, New Jersey Current Residence: Parrish Her Current Outfit:

Obiajulu has sourced every component of her outfit from different thrift stores. Her cream colored, lace blouse is from Goodwill on South Chester Road. Because the shirt is cropped, she has tucked it into a pair of high-waisted shorts. “I’m not a fan of the stomach-out type of look,” she said. She recently purchased the peach shorts during spring break, which she spent in Miami. Gold accessories, which are a staple for Obiajulu, feature heavily in her current outfit. The gold-plated watch is from Paris, whereas her statement earrings, a gift from her mother, come from a thrift store in their hometown. Purchases from Europe round out her outfit, such as her Oxford-style brogues from Barcelona and woven belt from Scotland. For Obiajulu, make-up is an integral part of an outfit and she displays bright nail and lip color. The mint green nail polish, which she had manicured in Miami, is a long-standing favorite shade of hers. Obiajulu’s bright, opaque pink shade is by M.A.C, her favorite lipstick brand. “This one reminds me of Barbie at the beach,” she said.

On Thrifting:

Obiajulu is a fan of thrifting and shopping at consignment stores due to the ability to purchase unusual items that are not obviously in trend. Other than the individuality that thrifting allows, she finds hunting for purchases rewarding. “I like when I find something good because I feel like I really had to work for it,” she said. Consignment shopping is a pastime that she indulges in wherever she travels. According to Obiajulu, Google search have allowed her to locate consignment stores easily wherever she travels.

International Fashion Influences:

Obiajulu’s wardrobe reflects her travel experiences, especially those in Europe. In keeping with her love of thrifting, Obiajulu expanded her wardrobe with vintage and consignment purchases made abroad. “I love thrift stores in other countries because you get such good stuff [that is] high quality and always so unique.” The summer after her sophomore year she studied French in Paris. The simple elegance of the typical Parisian style left an impact on Obiajulu who describes the way Parisians dress as “an art form.” As a junior, Obiajulu studied in Barcelona during the spring semester. According to the linguistics major, she noticed a composite of clothes worn by the locals, ranging from very trendy to dated garments from the ’90s. However, Obiajulu noticed distinct styles such as color blocking — strategically juxtaposing contrasting colors — which left a lasting impression on her. “I think the vibrant feel of the culture influenced me to wear more colors and be bolder,” she said.

Trends Style:

and

’12 u l u j a bi O a n i Christ

Personal

“Kind of girly, kind of alternative,” is how Obiajulu describes her personal style. She enjoys displaying a blend of trends, prints and colors, making it difficult to neatly categorize her style. Regardless of the trends she displays, for Obiajulu, well fitting clothes is paramount. She favors Levi’s Curve ID, the iconic denim brand’s recently launched fit system. Obiajulu wears Bold Curve Levi jeans, that are not only durable but also fit her “perfectly.” Her penchant for well-fitting clothes deters Obiajulu from shopping online due to the disadvantage of purchasing clothes without being able to try them first. Obiajulu has begun embracing the warmer weather by wearing bright colors in time for the spring season. Her favorite trend of the moment is color blocking, “I like it because it’s not the norm. You have to have a bold essence about you to pull it off well,” she said.

Do you think you (or a professor) have great style? Then submit a photo of you in your best outfit to sjeong1@ swarthmore.edu. Please include your name and contact information. PHOTOS & TEXT BY SERA JEONG

March 15, 2012

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Living & Arts Living in Photos: Emmet Gowin at the List Gallery swarthmorephoenix.com

Cristina Matamoros The Phoenix

American photographer Emmet Gowin’s photographs, currently displayed in the List Gallery, evoke a dual sense of intimacy and distance. The retrospecitve exhibit features Gowin’s work, starting with his portraits of his wife, Edith, and his family from the 1960s and progressing to his interest in landscape, nature and aerial shots. Gowin, born in 1941, garnered much attention for his early photographs depicting his wife. Working with mainly a large format camera, Gowin’s black-and-white images feature an intimate look at his personal life. In the 80s-90s, though, Gowin’s focus turned more towards the human effect on the natural landscape, as he took towards more aerial shots. His interest in nature can also be seen in the exhibit’s featuring of his more recent works with moths and butterflies. His work is currently on display in the List Gallery. THE PHOENIX

March 15, 2012

Living & Arts

swarthmorephoenix.com

Balancing size vs. substance in Swat’s Strategic Planning One of the most interesting, and potentially controversial, aspects of the Strategic Plan is the suggestion that Swarthmore slowly increase its student population by about 200 students over a span of many years. The increased revenue from students would allow for increased course offerSteven Hazel ings because more professors could be hired and Swat in Sync provide for more student services and amenities as well. Today, size is one of the defining characteristics of Swarthmore. When strangers ask where we go to school, Swatties are apt to answer the confusion of their interlocutors with a reference connecting Swarthmore’s small size to its lack of name recognition. Swarthmore’s size underlies our sense of community and determines our notion of good academics (small classes and interaction with professors). Swarthmore’s small size also probably underpinned your college search, as in “instead of going to an Ivy, I’d like to go to somewhere small like Swarthmore.” This raises the question: if size is in some respect at the core of Swarthmore’s community, how much of an increase would dramatically change campus culture? One factor to consider in this question is past growth. Although it may come as a surprise to some, Swarth-

more has been growing. No, I don’t mean the endowment — though Swarthmore’s massive endowment growth will be the focus of another column piece. Instead, Swarthmore’s student population has crept up through the past 40 years, from a little over 1,100 students in 1970 to about 1,500 students today. Much of this slow growth took place before 2000, explaining why most students today are unaware of this change. Despite the relatively gradual nature of this change, students were still affected, especially in terms of housing, according to a 1996 Phoenix article that complained of “lotteried classes, scarce silverware, and Grade D housing.” (From: http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/98/ elizw/Swat.history/overcrowding.html). In fact, Swarthmore has gone through several cycles of expansion, including the years after World War II where GI’s returning from conflict led to a sustained bump in the student population. Many campus dorms were built during these years of expansion. Mary Lyons was purchased in part to accommodate the surge in students in the wake of World War II, while plans for Willets began during this time, although the building itself was completed a little late, in 1958. The pattern of overcrowding that is eventually brought under control by a new dorm continued in the 1980’s, which prompted the building of Mertz, while the latest crowding wave, in 1996, led to the construction of Alice Paul and David Kemp. In light of new plans for further growth, the persistence of this trend of an expanding student body which is only later followed by an expansion in housing options is disturbing. At a school as expensive as Swarthmore,

students deserve not to be packed into dorms. This means that instead of expanding first and breaking ground on a new dorm later, new housing areas should be secured before extra students are admitted for the freshman class. Although this means that a new dorm might have to be financed a few years before Swarthmore receives the tuition benefits of those extra students, Swarthmore’s record endowment or an alumni giving campaign could and should handle this essential preparation for growth. Of course, expansion in the student body affects more than just housing options. Aside from the obvious — more people in Sharples at lunch won’t only be a disaster, but it won’t be very fun either — the main benefit to expansion must be the increase in professors and course options. To maintain our prized student to faculty ratio (and our rankings among liberal arts colleges) an increase of 200 students would indicate that about 25 additional professors to be hired. Obviously, 25 new professors would lead to many new and exciting courses. Fascinatingly, as pointed out in Strategic Directions, Swarthmore is actually one of the smallest of our peer institutions, a group that includes Amherst, Middlebury, Wesleyan and Williams. The opportunity for growth, done right, could create a Swarthmore with new options for classes and for housing. What is not likely is for Swarthmore to grow too much — for the community to be unrecognizable to former students. This would probably require growth over 2,000 students — not something likely to happen any time soon. What is possible is for Swarthmore to grow before it has prepared for that growth. Steven is a sophomore. You can reach him at shazel1@ swarthmore.edu.

Knowledge is Power: Sources for learning about your body T h i s weekend, I attended a groovy workshop in New Delhi that focused on what else but sex. Well, sexual health, but we all Vianca Masucci know why Missing Parts everyone (or at least why I) showed up. There was one NGO based in the south-

ern Indian state of Karnataka called Prakarti that specifically focused on spreading accurate information on sexuality and sexual health to Indian youth. Through their infant project known as “Links for Love”, they provided youth with extensive categories of internet HTML links with reliable information pertaining to different aspects of sexual health. The motivation behind this project was to take advantage of use the preference of the internet search option for more taboo topics. Most youth had access to the internet but often found misleading, inaccurate, or incorrect information online. The genius behind their project was its efficiency and its ability to service a broad range of confused, unsure, and misguided youth.

I admired Prakarti’s work and, this week, I’ve been inspired to make a little links project of my own. I call it “Links Lovin’: healthy and sexy”:I hope that those links can help you link some of your problems, concerns, or just general curiosity to solid answers. But, typing those links up may seem like a 78 second loss of your life that you cannot spare due to surmounting piles of homework. No worries — you can save yourself a whole 54 seconds by visiting the Phoenix website and exploiting the glorious copy/ paste option that the online columns affords. Also, while you’re there, you can leave me a question. About what, you may ask? Anything sex-related. Any specific questions on the sexual health topics above, your gnarly penile mold, what to

say to the boy who sits next to you in English, your cousin’s sister’s friend’s weird sexual obsession with spicy cheetos. Anything. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten any questions and I’m starting to feel a little lonely here in India… For those of you who prefer to seek information in the world that exists beyond a lit screen, do not fear! Unlike the youth in most areas of Karnataka, we Swarthmore students have great on campus resources for information on sexual health. Worth health center, ASAP, and the Sexual Health Counselors, amongst other resources, are a great place to seek non-judgmental and queer friendly sexual health advice and support. Vianca is a junior. You can reach her at vmasucc1@swarthmore.edu.

Links lovin’: healthy & sexy Vaginas Keepin’ it clean: fightagainstbv.com/18-steps-healthy-vaginal-hygiene/ Keepin’ it pelvic examed: plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/womens-health/pelvicexam-4306.htm Exploring healthy menstruation alternatives: www.divacup.com Any women’s health topic under the sun: www.womenshealth.gov Penises Stayin’ fresh: faqs.org/health/Healthy-Living-V1/Personal-Care-and-Hygiene-Genitalcare-for-males.html Fan-testic information on testicular cancer and managing self-examinations: carpetestes.org nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/testicularcancer.html cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/testicular sexualhealth.com/mens-sexual-health/ aasect.org/ (locate a sex-positive therapist) mayoclinic.com/health/mens-health/MY00394 Gayhealth.com

Booties

Broad booty problems: www.fpwa.org.au/resources/Anal%20Health.pdf www.emedicinehealth.com/anal_itching/article_em.htm www.healthcommunities.com/anal-health/index.shtml Booty hygiene in the context of booty lovin’: www.pridealive.org/Queer_Health/analhealth.htm

Queer Health and LGTBQ health advocacy

LGTBQ friendly healthcare references and medical information: www.glma.org/ www.lgbthealth.net/ lgbthealth.webolutionary.com/

LGTBQ emotional support and advocacy

community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=194&srcid=-2 www.advocatesforyouth.org/ Transgendered Health: www.ftmi.org/ www.isna.org/ www.trans-health.com/ transhealth.vch.ca/

Boobies Keeping abreast of information on breast cancer and managing self-examinations: www.nationalbreastcancer.org/edp/ www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/sites-types/ibc www.cancer.org/Cancer/BreastCancer/DetailedGuide/breast-cancer-what-is-breast-cancer Information on sexual assault Titrrific guide for managing home self-examinations: http://www.rainn.org/ http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/edp/ http://www.911rape.org/ Breast sensitivity (there’s just no sexy pun for that): http://www.avp.org/ http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000912.htm http://tnlr.org/

March 15, 2012

THE PHOENIX

Living & Arts

swarthmorephoenix.com

Former president explores gender and global Islam

By Samme sheikh ssheikh2@swarthmore.edu

This past Wednesday, Swarthmore welcomed back its former president, Theodore Friend, to speak about his new book Woman, Man, and God in Modern Islam. Published in November of last year, the book recounts Friend’s extensive travels in the Muslim world, pointedly distinguishing between what he calls the “many Islams,” and most American’s constrained understandings of the religion and its cultures. Before attempting to introduce a level of complexity to common perceptions of Islam, Friend had already established himself as an author and historian who investigated significant global issues that are often unbeknownst, not only to regular citizens but to the academic and political institutions to whom these issues are pertinent. Friend’s first book, “The Ordeal of the Philippines, 1929-1946,” was commended by the Kirkus Review for his ability to combine a “primarily historical” approach with “insights from the social sciences” to enlighten readers on a “period in the development of the Philippines about which most readers probably know the least.” Friend continued to employ this inter-disciplinary method in his subsequent endeavors. His more recent works have incorporated an element of personal memoir into his writing to great critical acclaim. The Washington Times said that his “blending of scholarship and hands-on direct experience” in his 2003 book on post-colonial Indonesia made for “an outstanding general history” and an “insightful guide to the dynamics of current Indonesian politics.” Judging from his talk in the Scheur Room of Kohlberg last Wednesday afternoon, the uniquely personal approach that Theodore Friend honed over the course of his authorial career might have hindered his goals to, as he said in his talk, “convey an accurate image of the diversity in Muslim cultures.” Even if he were able to do so in his new book, Friend was unable to substantially penetrate and challenge prevailingly superficial conceptions of the Islamic cultures in his talk Wednesday.

Friend started out his talk by explaining why he chose anecdotes and interactions with citizens of the various to document the cultures of Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, Muslim countries to forge a more direct and human unSaudi Arabia, and Turkey. “I spent a lot of time consider- derstanding of the cultures he examined. As he moved on ing which countries would show the most diversity,” said to a discussion of women’s rights — a subject that comFriend, before listing the countries he covers in Woman, prised a substantial portion of his book’s focus- Friend Man, and God in Modern Islam. However as Friend of- combined this anecdotal sensibility and raw data to fered introductions to each country, convey an image of the condition of he engaged in a limiting exercise in women in these cultures. which he boiled down the Islamic After sharing a memory of his character of each nation into twofriendship with a female poet and word, adjective and noun aphorisms. photographer in Saudia Arabia who Saudi Arabia was summarized as faced reprisals from the government “tribally royal and hyper-Wahabbi”, for acting out against the country’s Turkey as post-Kemalist and Islamooppressive laws towards women, Capitalist, Iran as “theocratic and Friend stated that, “The underlyultra-Shiite,” and so on. While facing principle of my book regarding tually true, these facile and obvious women is as follows: Women and condensations seemed to stand conmen are equal in the eyes of God and trary to Friend’s goal of educating should be in the laws of humanity.” the non-Muslim public on the deeper Friend identified Indonesia and variances that exist within the culTurkey as the Muslim nations with tures of Islam. But as Friend moved the most egalitarian positions on to talk about his experiences among women’s rights. This part of the these cultures, the talk became more talk was perhaps his most detailed engaging. uncovering of how historical and While talking about Turkey’s sociological factors contribute to quest for EU membership, Friend a culture’s social norms. In the spoke about the discussions he had case of Turkey, Friend delved into Courtesy of calendar.swarthmore.edu with Turkish citizens. “Turkey is Ataturk’s secularizing influence on still trying to meet the EU’s stan- Former President Theodore Friend his nation, and for Indonesia, Friend dards. What are its standards? Why introduced the idea of pre-Islamic won’t they let Turkey join?” Friend social ordering system based around asked rhetorically. Citing a discussion with a Turkish a bilateral family unit. man, Friend suggested a sense of “otherness” that colors These intriguing insights along with Friend’s concludEurope’s perception of Turkey. “My friend said ‘perhaps ing slideshow, which featured photos from his trips and it was because we are shorter, perhaps because we are experiences in all five Muslim nations, together served swarthier, or perhaps it is simply because we are Mus- to counteract the somewhat disappointingly surfacelim.’ I remember being only able to shrug and smile in a level analysis of the development and divergence of Isway that hurt.” lam along cultural lines — an aspect that was absent in Theodore Friend exhibited in this instance and oth- the lecture but which I hope will be present in Theodore er times through the talk, his capacity to use personal Friend’s new book.

Martindale’s Natural Market offers up many local options I had a very exciting moment over spring break. I was sitting in a Waffle H o u s e s o m e where in the South, Amelia Dornbush on the way back to Swarthmore Locavore Swarthmore from South Carolina. I was not especially hungry, and therefore not planning on eating, when I happened to notice this odd blue symbol next to the chicken dishes on the

menu. This symbol indicated that their chicken came from Springer Mountain Farms. I was absolutely stunned. Springer Mountain, located in Mt. Airy, GA, is the place from which many of the upscale restaurants in Atlanta get their chicken. I can say, without exaggeration, that this was the best fast-food venture of my life. For three dollars, I had a wonderful grilled local chicken breast on a biscuit. I was in shock then, and am still in shock now. A friend from Florida with whom I shared this information is still convinced that it is fiction. So, after that preface about fast food in the Southeast, I am going to move on to grocery stories by Swarthmore. As promised in the previous column, the subject is going to be Martindale’s Natural Market. Martindale’s is a grocery store at 1172

Courtesy of martindalesnutrition.com

Martindale’s offers a variety of raw cheese, both local and from other states.

Baltimore Pike, which is just a 20-minute walk — and a five minute drive for those with access to a car — away from campus. While it may seem silly to go on such a voyage when the Co-Op is nearby, Martindale’s has a larger selection of local dairy products, such as my undying favorite: cheese. The Martindale’s website also offers coupons on some of their products as well as recipe suggestions. When I arrived at Martindale’s, I decided to deviate from my usual pattern of perusing the store on my own and searching for interesting products. Instead, I asked whether someone could show me all of the local products for sale. A wonderful woman named Debbie, who works for their marketing department, gave me a tour of many of the local products available for purchase. I was quite impressed by the wide selection of food. Not only did the store have a plethora of local dairy options, including raw milk from Pennsylvania which Debbie said people from all over the tri-state area came to purchase, but they also had more unique local products. For instance, they sell locally made gluten-free snacks and pet treats. In addition to these more unusual local products, Martindale’s also has many locally sourced basics that one would need to cook a meal, such as eggs and meat. For instance, one can buy bacon from New Jersey for $5.39. Another item on sale was 100% organic local sauerkraut. The sauerkraut specifically stuck out to me, not because I am incredibly enthusiastic about pickled cabbage (which is also not to say that I dislike it) but because the providers of the food, Will’s Valley, had given a workshop at Martindale’s about how to make their product. In the end, after much personal re-

THE PHOENIX March 15, 2012

straint, I decided against buying cheese and went for a pint of the local organic raw milk from The Family Cow. I have long believed that I am mildly lactose intolerant based off a series of stomach aches caused by milk when I was a child. However, I have grown suspicious of this diagnosis considering that I think the copious amounts of cheese I consume amounts to more than half a cup a day — my supposed limit. Debbie said that sometimes, though there is no guarantee, people who are lactose intolerant can have raw milk because the pasteurization process can remove some of the enzymes that help your stomach process the milk, and that when the milk is raw this problem goes away. In any event, I decided it was worth a shot. I also purchased peanut butter macaroons that are gluten-free vegan snacks. My roommate decided to be vegan for Lent, so I thought she might appreciate a delicious treat that she could actually eat. Despite my skepticism of vegan and gluten free food, I found these snacks from The Greenwood Kitchen, located in Landsdowne, to be quite tasty. Martindale’s was very much worth the walk. I have only touched on a portion of the local products they have available at their store. There was also, among other things, yogurt, fresh salads, hummus, and, though they did not have any when I was there, apparently sometimes there are even duck eggs. Furthermore, as we move on in the semester, I suspect that the amount of local products available for purchase will only increase as the weather gets warmer and more food get harvested. Next time: the carnivorous column. Ameila is a first-year. She can be reached at adornb1@swarthmore.edu.

Living & Arts

swarthmorephoenix.com

Laurel Halo Ft. ital Saturday, March 17 Olde club 10:00 pm

Saturday, March 17 10:00 PM at Paces

Entrepreneurship Club Presents: SUIT UP!

editor’s picks

By Brad Lenox

JUSTICE

SATURDAY MARCH 17TH All day St. Patrick’s Day! 14

March 15, 2012

Tuesday, March 20 at 8 PM Electric Factory THE PHOENIX

Opinions

swarthmorephoenix.com

Staff Editorial

Cost-benefiting the “Stop Kony” campaign’s moral panic If you didn’t know who Joseph Kony was about a week ago, you most likely do now. The Ugandan warlord has come to be the most wanted man in the world thanks to a recent documentary exposing the vile acts he’s committed. The documentary, “Kony 2012,” was created by the U.S.-based NGO Invisible Children and went viral within 24 hours of its debut, prompting international outrage and an upwelling of support for Kony’s capture (the rebel leader had indeed been on the International Criminal Court’s “most wanted” list since 2005). Receiving more than 78 million views (and counting) on YouTube since its release early last week, it has also proved itself to be the vessel of a divisive issue across several spheres. In his video, Invisible Children’s co-founder and filmmaker Jason Russells details atrocities not unfamiliar to those who are well-acquainted with Uganda’s social and political climate: the armed Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and its leader, Joseph Kony, are engaged in a 26-year long campaign of brutality in a failed bid to overthrow the Ugandan government, its leader, Yoweri Museveni, and his National Resistance Army (NRA). With a potent mix of mythical claims, charisma and unconscionable violence, Kony, the short film alleges, forcibly recruits child soldiers and has taken on the sex trafficking of young girls. So irreconcilably spectacular, the videos juxtaposes horrific tales of slaughter and mutilation alongside interviews with Ugandan politicians and an imposing soundtrack. It even sees Russell’s repeated use of his own young son, Gavin, an affected theatrical device all its own. It concludes with a plea to join the campaign to “make Kony famous,” to “raise support for his arrest.” And while it’s ostensibly drummed up the whole of the cyberverse in ardent conversation (Twitter, Facebook and a myriad other blogs and social media websites), that conversation has been lacerated time and time again in the face of equally ardent criticism. Accusations of Invisible Children’s financial opaqueness, commercializing of a decades-old conflict, ignorance of the larger, deep-seated problems facing Uganda and other African countries and cashing in on a wave of social justice not justified by any realistic conception of a solution have all surfaced in light of the “Stop Kony” fervor. To these criticisms, Invisible Children has responded thoroughly, insisting that this isn’t just a “slacktivist” campaign, that it wants to invest “one, in local leadership, [and] two, in a long-term development program.” Critics retort that those things aren’t accomplished by watching a thirty-minute propaganda video, subsequently posting it to Facebook accompanied by a pithy echo of moral indignation and wearing a bracelet engraved with “KONY 2012.” This sort of passive participation by “spreading the word” and lobbying influential figures, it’s claimed, does nothing to reverse the systematic terrorism inflicted by both the LRA and the NRA, or to enact a comprehensive humanitarian mission in Uganda. Supporters maintain, though, that this isn’t just another bandwagon to hop on. That awareness of what’s going on is a crucial first step. That the shock and anger incited by the film is both necessary and useful in taking down Kony and eventually setting a precedent for international justice. Those who are skeptical of these nascent pseudo-activists still contend that Kony 2012 is just another ephemeral PR campaign, colorful and appealing, but ultimately unable to influence US foreign policy in a positive direction. Such skeptics further argue that any such American-led intervention would be due to strategic gains (particularly the establishment of more military basis in Africa to rival China’s presence in the region), and not purely humanitarian in nature. It would be akin to Bush’s Iraq War — ladled in the thick rhetoric of Western liberalism but carried out in the unfaltering spirit of American imperialism. It would be misplaced moralism at its finest. “Our goal is to change the conversation of our culture and get people to ask ‘who is Joseph Kony?’” Russell narrates near the end of the video. Invisible Children’s certainly accomplished that goal with the pulsing grit of Kony 2012. What remains to be seen, though, is whether asking that one simple question — ‘who is Joseph Kony?’ — is enough to seriously alter the entrenched dynamics of both American foreign policy and Africa’s enduring war — a war, it should be remembered, not started nor led by just one man. A war attributable just as much to corrupt politics as it is to the modern plight of the developing world. Yet the potential for change is there. When one shoves the video and the whole of the campaign at large under the cost-benefit microscope, the fledgling interest in African conflict by way of appeal to our standard affront to child combatants and sex slavery might be an effective catalyst for a mass movement. That movement however, must go beyond merely swelling the “white man’s burden.” Its true aim should be the obligation of all humanity to be involved, to be activists in the most active way possible. Such an obligation reaches far beyond the complacency of moral panic. It stretches to effort, real and realistic effort that puts into action the inactivity of digitized words. It begins with a genuinely conscientious understanding and progressive learning about the conflict in northern Uganda and central Africa, and develops into our recognition of how we, as part of a generally privileged society, may be contributing to these ravaged regions — our place in the world as consumers and supporters of military intervention in the name of humanity. “Kony 2012” is only the modest spark for such a considerable project. To learn more and voice your own opinion, attend Swat STAND’s campus-wide discussion on the KONY2012 campaign today in Kohlberg 115 from 4:30-6:00 p.m. THE PHOENIX

Emma Waitzman The Phoenix

Letter, op-ed and 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, opeds or comments from publication. All comments posted online and all op-eds 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. Opeds 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 individ-

March 15, 2012

ual writers may request that their group affiliation be included. While The Phoenix does not accept anonymous submissions, letters and op-eds may be published without the writer’s name in exceptional circumstances and at the sole discretion of the Editorial Board. An editorial represents the opinions of the members of the Opinions Board: Marcus Mello, Camila Ryder and Reem Abdou

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.

Opinions The conservative role in the contraception drama swarthmorephoenix.com

R u s h Limbaugh must be responsible for countless American hearing losses — such is the offputboom of Danielle Charette ing his voice. The Nascent Neoliberal M e a n w h i l e , Rick Santorum expects the sky to come crashing down any moment now — such is God’s wrath. Yes, I’m a conservative; and yes, I can’t stand these guys. They have every Constitutional right to moan about gays, whores and whatever else keeps them up late at night, but these unsavory male characters distract from what ought to be a clean, clear conservative message on the contraception mandate. For that, I’m angry. The spin on this story has been outrageous, and I, for one, am feeling pretty dizzy. When the Department for Health and Human Services announced that all insurance plans — even plans sponsored by religious employers — cover employees’ birth-control, conservatives had a Constitutional right to be livid. Countless libertarians, Republicans, Catholics and atheists of all stripes were outraged that the federal government was effectively demanding that church organizations fund contraception-coverage at no further cost to the employee, even in the face of moral objection.

Back then, we were all on the same page. The new insurance rule clearly ran roughshod over the First Amendment’s Free Exercise clause. Coercing religious employers to privately pay for a product that potentially ties moral knots violated the Bill of Rights, plain and simple. Unfortunately, Santorum and Limbaugh were just a little too giddy when it came to the sex specifics. Santorum, who has uncomfortably kept a lid on his social-issues zeal for most of the campaign, was beyond thrilled to rail against reproductive health. Thinking he was on a roll, he let it slip that JFK’s famous speech on Catholicism and free religious practice made him want to “throw up.” Yes, there are are some legitimate inner-Catholic debates surrounding JFK’s speech on religion in the public sphere, but Santorum wasn’t guiding the American people through a nuanced lecture on theological politics. He jumped straight to talking about vomit. Not to be outdone by Santorum’s poetics, Rush twisted a legitimate conversation into crude misogyny. Regarding Sandra Fluke’s congressional testimony about her access to contraception at Georgetown, a principled conservative might have asked what we’ve come to as a nation when a 30-year-old student at one of America’s more elite and expensive law schools is confessing her sexual escapades to Congress. A conservative radio host looking for a little verbal flair might have said this whole contraception crusade sounds more like a schoolgirl fessing up the head-nun than a grown woman shap-

ing policy on Capital Hill. A conservative genuinely worried about class inequities might have pointed out that hyper-educated people like Fluke are in a far better position to pay for their pharmacy-tab than many working class or impoverished citizens who work without any heath-care benefits at all. A fiscal conservative might have asked why the brokest nation in the history of the world is quibbling about the price of contraception at private Jesuit universities. Instead, Rush opted to smear her as a “slut,” after asking, “What does it say about the college coed . . . who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex?” I found it petty that President Obama entered the fray and telephoned Fluke. After all, conservative students don’t get confidence-boosters from the POTUS when they embarrass themselves in the news. I also found it petty that Rush didn’t apologize faster. No, he didn’t have to say he was sorry. But conservatives, in the spirit of Edmund Burke’s chivalry and a respect for classical order, are supposed to uphold a little thing called virtue. National calls for civility are obnoxious. The White House starts sounding like the good-manners police, not to mention it sets up the Left for all sorts of hypocrisy when the President’s PAC accepts a million bucks from the seasonally-chauvinist Bill Maher. Civility doesn’t happen because President Obama or Rachel Maddow or your kindergarten teacher tell you to apologize. It happens because most people still be-

lieve in morals and human decency. Realistically, birth control — through the beauty of supply and demand — isn’t all that expensive. Just a few weeks ago, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Heath and Human Services, was all over cable news to announce that contraception costs just $600 a year and is, therefore, no big deal for insurers. Now, mysteriously, Fluke and her supporters are reporting that prices are over $3,000 and, hence, unmanageably pricey for college students. You can’t have it both ways. It’s time to stop the phony, press-conference theatrics. As Rome burned, Nero offered bread and circuses. Today, as the economy fails to recuperate and gas prices overwhelm the average family, we’ve been handed this circus of birth control. Based on the coverage, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that there are Duane Reades on every corner in New York City or that America’s suburbs are saturated in CVS pharmacies. Reproductive activists have had a lot of fun accusing Washington’s lapeled old guys of subjugating their female employee. Yet many employers and insurers are women themselves. It’s not all that feminist to demand the other gals fund your contraception. Sadly, Rush and Rick have overlooked virtually all of these talking points. In short, this insurance story has gone bananas. The mainstream media is having a grand old time. But the Grand Old Party set this thing in motion. Danielle is a sophomore. You can reach her at dcharet1@swarthmore.edu.

The Swat Business Network BY LEONHARD DEIBEL ldeibel1@swarthmore.edu

On Thursday, March 1 Julian Harper ’08 organized the semiannual alumni meeting of the LinkedIn group “Swarthmore Business Network” in five different US cities. The event run by alumni in the individual cities was first hosted by Rob Steelman ’92 in 2010 in New York City. It quickly became a popular event and by this year’s March 1 meeting, it has spread across the US with events in Washington D.C., Boston, San Francisco and Houston in addition to New York City. I had found out about the event through the LinkedIn group and, while I had a paper due the next day, I decided to take the two and a half hour trip up to New York to meet the alumni. As it was my first time going I wasn’t sure what to expect, but after having met several alumni during the summer last year, I was mostly just excited to see some familiar faces and meet some other Swatties. The event itself turned out to be a sort of meet and greet in Hofbräu Bierhaus and when I arrived there was a large group of alumni already there. Though advertised in the Swarthmore Business Network group, it was not only visited by business and finance alums (although these represented the majority), but also a diverse collection of alumni with various backgrounds. As I came in, I was immediately welcomed by the host; a large German beer was put in my free hand and I was pulled into conversations that included exchanging stories about old classmates, analyzing the financial market, discussing the joys of the beer we were all having and comparing academia to the business world. It really was a Swattie event, filled with diverse, highly engaging, intelligent and friendly people. If it hadn’t been for the age difference and location, this could’ve been just another lengthy discussion at lunch in Sharples. It was wonderful to feel so at home with what were initially strangers and to feel that sense of community that Swarthmore gave us and that brought us all together. Seeing so many alumni take time off work and travel to the city to see old friends and meet fellow Swatties made me proud to be a member of that group. Last but not least, it was encouraging to see so many alums excited that a student came out to New York to meet them and interested in the current ongoings at Swarthmore. Overall, the whole event was enriching and I recommend that anyone, even those not interested in finance or business at this point, go to one of the upcoming ones. Chances are that there will be one in Philly next time for those who don’t want to travel to DC or New York. For those that do come — I, as well as the rest of the alumni, will look forward to seeing you!

OP-ED

Leo Deibel for The Phoenix

Leo Deibel ’12 (second from the left) networked with fellow Swatties at a Swarthmore Business Network event hosted by Julian Harper ’08 (far right).

March 15, 2012

THE PHOENIX

Sports Softball goes 5-3 on trip for best start since 2007 swarthmorephoenix.com

the Monarchs came back against O’Connor and Matzko to take a 5-2 lead. Swarthmore was nearly able to come back in the bottom of the seventh; in a two-run inning, they put the tying runner in scoring position for third baseman Rose Pitkin ’13, who flied out to deep right to end the game. Swarthmore split two games on Mar. 7, defeating Blue-

inning, the Golden Eagles finally broke through, scoring three runs to take a 4-1 lead and ice the game. “I think all of the work that I put in during the offThe Swarthmore softball team came to Myrtle Beach season really helped me with this past week’s pitching,” hoping to start the season on the right note. They left O’Connor said in an email. “All of the pitchers also put in with their best eight-game start in over a decade. In the a lot of early morning hours during the preseason which 2012 Snowbird Tournament, the team went 5-3 over four were very beneficial; we were prepared to wake up early days. during break and didn’t have trouble playing On Monday, Mar. 5, the Garnet opened their games in the morning.” season with back-to-back victories over SUNY IT On Thursday, Mar. 8, Swarthmore began its and Immaculata. In the first game, Swarthmore final day on the trip by losing to the Eastern Eadefeated the SUNY IT Wildcats 6-2, then beat Imgles 4-0. Eastern gave its pitching all the run supmaculata 9-5 in the second game. Highlights of port it would need in the first inning, jumping the first day included outfielder Kate Smayda’s out to a 3-0 lead on three hits against Lowe. Ea’13 first career home run, which she hit in the gles starter Janelle Fair was brilliant in a combottom of the first inning against SUNY IT. The plete-game shutout. The Garnet atoned for their home run was just the beginning to Smayda’s performance against Eastern with a 10-0 thrashfantastic performance over the course of the ing of the Southern Vermont Mountaineers in week. the Snowbird Tournament finale. The Moun“As the lead-off hitter, I worked on swinging taineers could do nothing against O’Connor, at the first strike and not taking many pitches,” who struck out ten batters in her second shutSmayda said. “Generally, that strategy allowed out of the year. Keyed by a two-run single from me to get on base and put myself in scoring posiSmayda, the Garnet led 5-0 going into the late intion.” nings. In the seventh, the Garnet broke the game Sophomore starter Sarina Lowe had a career open with a five-run rally in which nine of the performance, striking out 12 Wildcat hitters in a first ten batters reached base. complete-game victory. “My curveball was workThe 5-3 start is the team’s best through eight ing really well,” Lowe said of her 12-strikeout games since the 2007 season, when they also outing, “and it was really windy too, so I didn’t started 5-3. In 2011, the Garnet lost their first even know how the ball was going to move.” eight games of the season and didn’t earn their Against Immaculata, first-year pitcher Chelfifth win of the year until April 7. If nothing else, sea Matzko struggled behind shaky defense, but the strong beginning has shown other teams Courtesy of Jeanette Spagnuolo was bailed out by a strong offensive effort and what the Garnet already knew: that they can four shutout innings from Melissa O’Connor ’14 The team, at dinner, finds a moment in the grueling schedule to relax. play with anyone. in relief. “It was nice to come out of spring break with On Mar. 6, Swarthmore had its first shutfive wins,” Smayda said, “and knowing that we out victory of the season, blanking Penn College 9-0 in a field College 8-0 and falling to St. Joseph’s 4-1. Against can compete with good teams.” five-inning contest. Lowe and Matzko combined for five Bluefield, Smayda added two more RBIs to her torrid The team is currently enjoying a long rest after playscoreless innings on five hits, while Danielle Seltzer ’13 start to the season, Pitkin drove in her eighth run of the ing eight games in four days. They will resume their seadrove in two of the Garnet’s runs. That night, however, season, and O’Connor allowed only one baserunner past son next Tuesday, with a doubleheader at Philadelphia the team suffered their first loss of the year, falling to second in a complete game shutout. In the second game of Biblical University. Their home opener comes a week King’s College 5-4. Although the Garnet drew first blood the day, Smayda hit her second home run of the trip and later with an afternoon doubleheader against conference by jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, Matzko worked out of trouble over and over. In the fifth rival Muhlenberg. BY TIMOTHY BERNSTEIN tbernst1@swarthmore.edu

Outfielder Samantha Bennett at the plate for the Garnet.

Courtesy of Jeanette Spagnuolo

Garnet catcher Emma Madarasz plays some small ball.

Courtesy of Jeanette Spagnuolo

GARNET IN ACTION THURSDAY, MAR. 15

SUNDAY, MAR. 18

Women’s lacrosse vs. Widener, 5:30 p.m.

Baseball vs. Bates, 12:30 and 3:30 p.m.

SATURDAY, MAR. 17

Women’s tennis vs. McDaniel, 1:00 p.m.

Men’s lacrosse at Ursinus, 12:00 p.m.

TUESDAY, MAR. 20

Men’s tennis vs. TCNJ @ TBA, 1:00 p.m.

Softball at Philadelphia Bible, 3:00 p.m.

Women’s lacrosse at Ursinus, 3:00 p.m.

THE PHOENIX

March 15, 2012

Sports

swarthmorephoenix.com

The Bundesliga: the best football league in Europe

I know that a lot has happened over spring break in the soccer world, and lots of it will be worth debating and talking about. Andre Villas Boas was fired by Chelsea and has now become just another statistic that adds to the conclusion that Chelsea is the worst place to be manager outside of Brazil. Inter Milan is still languishing below the Champions League places in Serie A and looks set to bow out to Marseille unless they manage to start playing like they did under Jose Mourinho. Fulham was incapable of getting four wins in a row at Aston Villa and so has only equalled its record in the top division of three wins out of three. James Ivey Messi gave an interview where he reaffirmed why he Out of Left Field is such a fan favorite by claiming that manager Pep Guardiola was the most important cog in the Barcelona team and not himself (quite unlike a Mr CR7). However, this article is not going to be about my frustrations with Fulham’s away form, which is dreadful and possibly the worst ever in the Premier League. Instead, I want to just write down officially why the Bundesliga, a league that I haven’t touched very much in this column, is probably, in the next few years at least, going to be the best league in Europe to watch. Firstly, one boring point to get off my chest: the Bundesliga will be in existence producing top-quality players and contenders for European prizes much longer than all the other leagues in Europe if the financial state of soccer remains as is. The Bundesliga has financially stable clubs that compete based on the money that they earn each year and no more than that. It is just worth pointing out — and I know I made a fuss about it before — that the Bundesliga is financially healthy and has consistently the highest average attendance of games in Europe. Ten of the top 25 highest average attendances for soccer games are for clubs in Germany. The fan base and fiscal responsibility will maintain high-level soccer for a very long time. Now that I have the financial responsibility lecture out of the way, I can go for the more soccer-related points. Germany’s national team is one of the best in the world and plays a very fast attacking style that is great fun to watch. There are great players in that team like Mesut Özil, Lukas Podolski, Mario Götze and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Each of those players was on the German national team at a very young age and each proved himself to be invaluable because of the advantages of playing the Bundesliga. Due to financial constraints, teams are willing to play talented young players and give them a chance because they are cheaper. The clubs that produce these players also know that they will either get to keep hold of some of them, like Lewis Holtbyat Schalke, or they know that they can get some money for a good talent. For example, Podolski was sold to Bayern in 2006 for 10 million Euros. The German youth system produces so many talented players at a phenomenal rate. While Barcelona and Real Madrid produce a lot of players that will end up in La Liga, the German clubs each produce their own youth players of a high stan-

dard. Bayern Munich, Schalke, and Borussia Dortmund may be the largest producers of quality youth players but smaller teams like Kaiserslauten, Cologne and Hertha Berlin also consistently produce a few players for their own teams. The players that are really good are recognized early and given match experience. Unlike in England or Spain, where new players have to compete with mercenaries from foreign clubs, they are given priority. Nuri Sahin made his debut at 16 and scored his first goal at 17. Sahin is just one example of many to emerge through the German system. German football is full of young talented players pushing hard with energy and enthusiasm to get into the first team of their clubs. German youth products have recently come back into fashion with the big clubs in Europe as more clubs try to get their own young German. Whether that is Real Madrid getting hold of the German-Turkish contingent or most clubs in the world wondering just how much they will have to pay for Götze or Toni Kroos. There is a good reason why rich clubs want these players and that is because the Bundesliga nurtures young talent like no other league.

sports IN BRIEF

Garnet athlete of the week

James is a sophomore. You can reach him at jivey1@swarthmore.edu.

Courtesy of talksport.co.uk

Lukas Podolski (left) and Mario Götze sharpened their games by playing the Bundesliga.

Men’s lacrosse routs St. Joseph’s Swarthmore’s offense showed up once more on Tuesday afternoon, as the Garnet defeated the St. Joseph’s Monks 16-5 in front of a home crowd. Through five games, Swarthmore has now scored 48 goals for an average of 9.6 per game. Junior midfielder Wes Marcik ’13 and sophomore attackers Jonathan Molloy ’14 and Dan Kowalyshyn ’14 all recorded hat tricks in the game. Senior midfielders Max Hubbard ’12 and John Bukawyn ’12 along with first-year attacker Ian Lukaszewicz ’15 each added a pair of goals, while sophomore Brendan Conway ’14 rounded out the scoring with one score. Marcik got the scoring going with an unassisted score in the first period, and by the end of the quarter the Garnet led 2-1. In the second period, Swarthmore blew the game open with a six-goal period and lead 8-3 at the midway point. Swarthmore scored six more goals in the third period, including Molloy’s third of the game, and extended their lead to 14-5 by period’s end. The final period, by comparison, was relatively low scoring as Marcik and Kowalyshyn each added another score to close it out.

Michael Brockway ’12, Jonathan Cohen ’14 and Callen Rain ’15 all saw time at goalkeeper, with Cohen in for the majority of the game. Cohen tallied three saves, while Rain added a fourth. For the Monks, Jonathan Horgan scored four of the team’s five goals. At goalkeeper, Ethan Rettew played the entire game for St. Joseph’s, totaling 16 saves on 32 shots. On Tuesday, Swarthmore dominated St. Joseph’s in virtually every category on both sides of the ball. The Garnet took 52 shots to St. Joseph’s 18, picked up 41 ground balls to the Monks’ 24, and forced twice as many turnovers (26) as their opponent. With the win, the Garnet moves to 3-2 on the year. Prior to Tuesday, Swarthmore had opened the season with consecutive wins over Eastern and Widener. Following that, the team then suffered back-to-back losses at the hands of Washington and Lee and Cabrini. On Saturday, the Garnet opens conference play on the road against Ursinus. The game is scheduled to begin at noon.

BY TIMOTHY BERNSTEIN March 15, 2012

Nicko Burnett

SOPH., BASEBALL, ANAHEIM, CA.

WHAT HE’S DONE: Burnett hit the go-ahead home run in Swarthmore’s dramatic victory over Pitt-Bradford at Seton Catholic on Friday. FAVORITE CAREER MOMENT: “The Miracle at Seton Catholic. It was just an awesome time for the team. We got great pitching, and every position player got in the game and helped the team win in some way. No one that went to the batters box was willing to give up.”

WHAT HE WANTS TO DO: “We want to win the Centennial Conference Championship. That is our first and only goal right now.”

Jakob Mrozewski The Phoenix

WHAT HE LIKES TO HIT: “I’m really strange in that I really like hitting curveballs. I don’t know where it came from, but it probably has something to do with my dad throwing them to me in the front yard.”

THE PHOENIX

Sports Women’s lax beats Eastern, Marymount, starts 2-1

swarthmorephoenix.com

by victor brady vbrady1@swarthmore.edu

How do you stop Annalise Penikis ’13 and Corinne Sommi ’14? The focal points of the Swarthmore women’s lacrosse attack are hardly secret in 2012. But the Garnet opponents still do not have a good answer. After combining for 100 goals and 60 assists in their first year on the Swarthmore women’s lacrosse team in 2011, the dynamic duo have faced double teams through the first three games of the season nearly every time they touch the ball in the attacking third. And still, after Tuesday’s victory over Eastern, Penikis has 11 goals and eight assists and Sommi has 13 goals and one assist as the centerpieces of a diversified offensive juggernaut have helped the Garnet to a 2-1 start. Facing the highest internal expectations in the last five years, the Garnet believes itself capable of not just a playoff berth but of competing with the Centennial Conference’s best. If the first three games of the year are a harbinger of the next six weeks, the team has

Courtesy of Henry Ainley

Nicole Vanchieri had a goal and an assist against Eastern.

much to look forward to and the expectations to stay with perennial national-title contenders Gettysburg and Franklin & Marshall are not unfounded. Swarthmore opened the year in Clearwater, Florida with a pair of contests against Marymount (VA) and Elizabethtown. Against Marymount, the Garnet jumped out to a 10-3 halftime lead before cruising to a 16-12 victory. Penikis and Sommi combined for seven of the team’s first-half goals and Sara Lentricchia ’15 added a hat-trick in her first collegiate game. Elizabethtown entered its showdown with the Garnet ranked No. 20 in Division III, but it was Swarth-

more that jumped out to a 5-1 lead 23 minutes into the first half on five consecutive goals. But the resilient Blue Jays answered, cutting the deficit to 6-5 entering halftime. The second half was a back-and-forth affair as neither team scored two consecutive goals until the Blue Jays put up three in the span of 1:30 in the final 10 minutesof the half to open up a 13-11 lead that they would never relinquish in a 14-12 win over the Garnet. In addition to Penikis and Sommi (five of the 12 Swarthmore goals), Lucy Whitacre ’14 had the hot stick with four goals in the game after scoring just two in her freshman season. “The team was very focused and worked extremely hard in Florida,” Head Coach Karen Borbee said. “We played well against Marymount and even better against Elizabethtown. If we keep improving each game we will be very competitive this season.” “We played well against Elizabethtown but we can definitely improve. Being in a competitive game against a strong opponent so early in the season will only help us to see what we need to work on to keep improving and be ready for the Centennial Conference,” Borbee added. Goaltender Michelle Ammerman is excited that the Garnet was able to stay with a quality Elizabethtown side. “When we get a lead, we have to put our foot on the opponent’s throat and not let up. We have to keep going at them and that we stayed within two of a top-25 team is a solid early showing. Two goals in a women’s lacrosse game is a close game.” It was with energy and the desire to improve that the Garnet took the field in the home opener on Tuesday against the Eastern Eagles. After Swarthmore surrendered the opening goal just 50 seconds into the game, the well-oiled Garnet attack began rolling. Lentricchia and Sommi scored to give Swarthmore its first lead at 2-1 and after Eastern equalized, the Garnet scored 11 of the next 12 goals to take a commanding 13-3 lead into the half. In a pair of two-minute explosions, Swarthmore scored three and four goals respectively. Seven different players scored for the Garnet on Tuesday, led by, yes, Penikis and Sommi who combined for nine goals and six assists. Marie ,Mutryn ’12 and Annalise Mowry ’12 each scored their first goals of the season (Mutryn’s first was the 100th of her Swarthmore career), and Elizabeth Bachman ’15 scored her first collegiate goal. The victory was Borbee’s 181 at Swarthmore leaving her as the winningest lacrosse coach in Swarthmore history as she broke a tie with legendary men’s coach Avery Blake. Tuesday also saw the collegiate debut of Hillary Santana ’12, the ambitious senior who decided to try her hand as a lacrosse goalie this winter, having never played the sport before, after completing her storied volleyball career. After subbing in with 17 minutes to play, Santana announced her arrival with a spec-

Courtesy of Henry Ainley

Annalise Penikis scored four goals in Swarthmore’s 16-7 win over Eastern.

Courtesy of Henry Ainley

Corinne Sommi has 13 goals in the first three games.

tacular diving save, coming from nowhere to block an empty net after a turnover. Ammerman and Santana each recorded three saves in the 16-7 win. The keepers have benefited from the tutelage of new assistant coach Kathy Krannebitter, highly decorated as both player and coach for field hockey and lacrosse at West Chester University. “We have been doing a lot of fine-tuning, making sure my step and my stick are where I want them to be,” Ammerman said. “We’ve been reassessing what my role is with the entire defense and we’re really feeling that out from game to game. Coach K is great and really knows her stuff.” The Garnet has one more non-conference tune-up, a Thursday 320-Challenge match with Widener, before starting Centennial Conference play on Saturday at Ursinus. “We look at every game as an opportunity to improve. It’s good to have a couple games to keep improving before we play Ursinus on Saturday,” Borbee said. Though Penikis and Sommi may be the faces of the Swarthmore offense, the attack is anything but one or two dimensional. Ten different players have scored for the Garnet already in 2012 after twelve players scored goals for Swarthmore in all of 2011. “We really have to open things up and keep our spacing,” Whitacre said. “If we can relieve some of the pressure on Annalise and Corinne, with other players cutting into space and becoming dangerous, not only are we a well-rounded and solid offense but we give them more opportunities too.” The Garnet hosts the Widener Pride at 5:30 this evening before traveling to Collegeville on Saturday for a 3:00 match.

Defender Sara Lentricchia added a goal of her own against Eastern.

THE PHOENIX March 15, 2012

Courtesy of Henry Ainley

Sports

swarthmorephoenix.com

Down to final out, baseball rallies in instant classic

ted in on two hits. The next day, the Garnet swept Bethany Lutheran with 6-5 and 13-4 wins. In the second game of the doubleheader, the Garnet Trailing by six runs with the bases empty and down trailed early and was down four after the first inning, to the last strike, it seemed unlikely that the Swarthbut evened the score by the fifth. In the final inning, the more baseball team would have its first undefeated team completely blew away Bethany Lutheran with a spring break under head coach Stan Exeter. Going into nine run outburst. In total, Montalbano had four hits, the seventh and final inning, the Garnet had amassed Kwilos had four RBI, and McMahon drove in two runonly two runs on four hits, left eight runners on base ners. and were down 8-2 to Pitt-Bradford in the second game In five innings, starter Grant Johnson ’14 earned of a doubleheader. Then, the improbable happened. four runs, all of which came in the first period of the “The rally was definitely the most surreal baseball game. After that initial setback, Johnson performed moment I have ever been a part of,” pitcher Kyle Crawwell, allowing only three hits in the remaining four inford ’12 said. “Even after the game, we were all stunned nings. Hardy allowed just one hit in relief and Dylan at what had happened.” Jeffers ’15 closed the game easily, striking out all three “During the whole rally all I could think was how of the batters he faced in the final inning. unbelievable the whole inning was,” right fielder Tim After a three-day rest, the Garnet returned to acKwilos ’13 said. tion on Mar. 8 With its against Saint back against John’s Unithe wall, the versity and team staged Presentation one of the College (South most remarkDakota), winable comening 12-9 and backs in 6-1, respecSwarthmore tively. history, scorIn the first ing 11 runs game, the on eight hits, team received which includmajor contried four home butions from runs and a the front half two-RBI douof its batting ble. order, which Prospects consisted of were grim afMontalbano, ter the inning Burnett, Wabegan with terhouse and strikeouts by Kwilos. The first baseman Justin Toran-Burrell The Phoenix Justin Toran-Burrell The Phoenix foursome acNicko BurStarter Zach Weiner won his third game of the year on Tuesday. counted for nett ’14 and Rory McTear is hitting .300 with nine RBI in 2012. seven of the Scoop Ruxin team’s nine ’15, but the Garnet’s life was extended after right fielder Mike Cam- on the day and Waterhouse drew two walks. Spencer runs and eight RBIs, three of which came from Kwilos eron ’12 took a full-count walk from opposing pitcher Ross ’12 led the team in RBI, driving in three runners in the cleanup spot. The offense continued its strong play against Preoff of three hits. Kwilos had the lone home run for the Zac Roller. Pinch hitter Sam Menzin ’12 drew another walk and Garnet, a two-RBI drive in the bottom of the fourth in- sentation, scoring six runs off 11 hits. Also impressive was the start from Jeffers, who picked up the win afboth runners moved into scoring position after a wild ning. Equally impressive was the outing by starting pitch- ter pitching six innings with only three hits and one pitch by Roller. They were driven in by a double from center fielder Rory McTear ’13, who was a Second Team er Ignacio Rodriguez ’12, who struck out 11 batters and earned run. Off the field, the team was able to relax and grow allowed only one run on five hits. Adam Hardy ’12 was All-Centennial Conference selection last season. closer during break. One particularly memorable expeStill down 4-8 at that point, the offense went on a tear strong in relief, striking out two in two innings. In the second game of the series, Swarthmore won rience for the players was the yearly tradition of eating with multiple-RBI home runs accounting for four of its next seven hits. For Sean Bryant ’13, there was no bet- 10-7 behind another strong offensive showing. Burnett at Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse. “Going to Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse was definitely ter time for his first career homer, a monster shot that had two hits and two RBI and Kwilos hit yet another cleared the scoreboard, drove in McTear and lessened homer, another two-RBI shot, this time in the top of the one of the highlights off the field,” Montalbano said. fifth inning. He finished the game with three runs bat- “It was special for me and all the other seniors because the deficit to two. we’ve gone there every time we’ve been in Following Bryant, shortstop Danny McArizona, and we all knew this was our last Mahon ’15 continued a strong first-year time going there together with the team.” campaign with a double to centerfield. DrivAlthough the team had a successful ing him in was catcher Miles Santo ’12, who break, it realizes that there is no time for tied the game with a home run on a twocomplacency with the conference season strike count. Although the score was even at ahead. that point, the momentum was irreversibly “Even though we didn’t lose a game on turned in favor of the Garnet. spring break, none of those games really Second baseman Cody Ruben ’14 continmean much once we get into conference ued the incredible rally with a single, after play.” McTear said. “We’re happy we’re winwhich Roller was replaced and put in right ning games, but the only games that matter field. The pitching change made little difare the 18 played against conference foes.” ference as Swarthmore’s offensive success On Tuesday, the team built off its spring continued with an unlikely homer from Burbreak success with an 8-0 shutout win over nett. Initially, his hit appeared to be a catchPenn-State Abington. Weiner picked up his able fly ball, but given the improbability of third win of the season, striking out seven the rally, it was no surprise when it sailed and allowing only three hits in eight inover the outfield wall, clearing it by a mere nings. The next day, the Garnet fell to 11-3 foot. with a 12-1 loss at Widener. Ahead by two, the Garnet added insurThe Garnet return to action on Sunday, ance with a home run from Menzin, the Mar. 18 with a home doubleheader against first of his career, which drove in Ruxin and Bates College. The first game is slated to bepinch runner Gregory Cox ’15. The top of the Courtesy of Swarthmore Athletics gin at 12:30 p.m. inning finally ended after Bryant flied out to The Garnet celebrates following its incredible victory over Pitt-Bradford.

BY ROY GREIM rgreim1@swarthmore.edu

left field. In the bottom of the inning, relief pitcher Zach Weiner ’12 made short work of Pitt-Bradford, retiring the side with two strikeouts and no baserunners. After an 11 run outing in the seventh inning, the Garnet won the game 13-8 in the most dramatic fashion possible. The win was the perfect ending to a perfect spring break, in which the team finished 8-0 and improved to 10-2 overall, its best start since 1985. The games, which took place in Chandler and Tucson, AZ, saw impressive performances from Swarthmore in all aspects of the game. The team kicked off its break on Mar. 3 with an absolutely dominant 16-2 victory over Pitt-Bradford. Leadoff hitter Anthony Montalbano ’12, who leads the team with an impressive .478 batting average, scored four runs off of three hits in the game. Burnett and Mike Waterhouse ’12 went a perfect three-for-three

March 15, 2012

THE PHOENIX