The Phoenix by The Phoenix

APRIL 28, 2011 • THE CAMPUS NEWSPAPER OF SWARTHMORE COLLEGE SINCE 1881 • VOLUME 133, ISSUE 27

PHOENIX

Inside: Crum sewer line construction destroying trees College Dems to lobby in D.C. for Pell grants Senior honors thesis reinterprets ‘Lysistrata’

Strategic Planning in talks to change to 2-2 professor course load, which could increase class size, tuition p. 4, 14

The Phoenix

Thursday, April 28, 2011 Volume 133, Issue 27

The independent campus newspaper of Swarthmore College since 1881.

Page

22 Justin Toran-Burrell for The Phoenix

Garnet infielders, along with pitcher Ramsey Walker, catcher Mike Waterhouse and head coach Stan Exeter, meet at the mound during Swarthmore’s 15-0 loss against Ursinus on Senior Day.

News

their time, interact with friends and use R&D efforts to think of creative ways to maximize their potential. PAGE 9

the Birther movement. PAGE 16

Sports

Dems to advocate Pell Film considers abortion grants in D.C. Dodger ‘royalty’ inflames The College Democrats have planned a trip from pro-choice perspecMcCourt’s shady tenure to Washington, D.C. on May 2 to engage tive Tim offers a glimpse into the somewhat several congressmen in a dialogue concerning federal funding for Pell grants and to advocate for the continued funding of the program well into the future. PAGE 3

Today, the Swarthmore Feminists will be screening the pro-choice documentary “The Coat Hanger Project,” a film that takes an in-depth look at the issues of abortion from both a historical and social perspective. PAGE 10

mysterious owner of the Los Angeles Doders — Frank McCourt — and discusses his negative image. PAGE 19

Exploring the security of Faculty may have to teach impossibility in sports, fewer courses The Strategic Planning Committee on As classes end, nostalgia romance Knowledge, Teaching and Learning has makes Swatties speech- Citing the NBA playoff scuffle between the recently discussed changing the annual Atlanta Hawks and the Orlando Magic, course load of the college’s professors from less along with his romantic encounter in five to four, similar to many other liberal arts colleges around the country. PAGE 4

Aging sewer line to be replaced in Crum Woods The Central Delaware County Authority has been working in the Crum Woods for the past month, repairing an old sewer line. But, a significant amount of trees have been bulldozed, prompting concern from the Crum Woods Sustainability Committee. PAGE 5

As the school year comes to a close and exams loom perilously, nostalgia and sleep deprivation induce confusion, memory loss, conviction that one is a squirrel, headaches, reduced cognitive functioning and death. PAGE 12

Aim higher and stop playing misery poker Instead of squandering social life for studies, students should stop neglecting themselves and instead acknowledge that they, like any good business, need to organize

STAFF Patrick Ammerman News Writer Sera Jeong Living & Arts Writer Steven Hazel Living & Arts Writer Steve Dean Living & Arts Columnist Alex Israel Living & Arts Columnist Maki Sakuma Living & Arts Columnist Ariel Swyer Living & Arts Columnist Aliya Padamsee Living & Arts Columnist Timothy Bernstein Film Critic Renu Nadkarni Artist Naia Poyer Artist Ben Schneiderman Crossword Writer Holly Smith Crossword Writer Tyler Becker Opinions Columnist Danielle Charette Opinions Columnist Eva McKend Opinions Columnist Jon Erwin-Frank Opinions Columnist Emma Waitzman Artist Ana Apostoleris Sports Writer Daniel Duncan Sports Writer Renee Flores Sports Writer Timothy Bernstein Sports Columnist Hannah Purkey Sports Columnist Andrew Greenblatt Sports Columnist Renee Flores Copy Editor Lauren Kim Copy Editor Susanna Pretzer Copy Editor Jakob Mrozewski Photographer Eric Verhasselt Photographer BUSINESS STAFF Ian Anderson Director of Business Development Patricia Zarate Circulation Manager GRAPHICS Julia Karpati Cover Design Parker Murray Layout Assistant CONTRIBUTORS Henry Kietzman, Rachel Killackey, Aaron Kramer, Anna Rothschild, Eli Siegel, Justin Toran-Burrell OPINIONS BOARD Camila Ryder, Marcus Mello, Olivia Natan EDITORS’ PICKS PHOTOS COURTESY OF: (clockwise from top left): http://tiny.cc/4gsls http://tiny.cc/75h1v http://tiny.cc/sfu84 http://tiny.cc/taxg0

Athletic department debuts Hall of Fame Directing thesis discusses Garnet The athletics department recently announced the creation of a Garnet Hall of battles of the sexes

TO ADVERTISE: E-mail: advertising@swarthmorephoenix.com Advertising phone: (610) 328-7362 Address: The Phoenix, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081

This weekend, 12 Swarthmore students will perform Aristophanes’ classic play “Lysistrata” under the direction of honors theater major Eva Amessè. PAGE 12

Fame to recognize and celebrate the achievements of Swarthmore College’s athletes and coaches. PAGE 22

Direct advertising requests to Camila Ryder. The Phoenix reserves the right to refuse any advertising. Advertising rates subject to change.

Baseball falls short of Conference playoffs with two losses

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

Living & Arts Opinions Worthstock welcomes wealth of musical styles

Barcelona, Andrew suggests that the security of impossibility can prompt bold behavior. PAGE 20

EDITORIAL BOARD Camila Ryder Editor in Chief Marcus Mello Managing Editor Menghan Jin News Editor Adam Schlegel Assistant News Editor Susana Medeiros Living & Arts Editor Dina Zingaro Living & Arts Editor Olivia Natan Opinions Editor Paul Chung Photo Editor Allegra Pocinki Photo Editor Julia Karpati Graphics Editor Peter Akkies Director of Web Development Eric Sherman Director of Web Development Jeffrey Davidson Editor Emeritus

Four course plan betrays student interests Strategic Planning’s 2-2 plan is detrimental to the student academic experience and the college community as a whole. PAGE 14

Despite strong playing throughout the season, the baseball team’s season has to come to an end. Despite falling just short of reaching the Centennial Conference playoffs, the 2012 season should be exciting for the Garnet. PAGE 23

Jon’s reflections on the Fencing sees individual and team success at conSwarthmore experience In his last column, Jon thinks on all the ference, national champiways Swarthmore has been a formative onships

four years. PAGE 15

Birther issue shouldn’t have reached this point After the President released his birth certificate, Tyler reflects on the nonsense of

Mail subscriptions are available for $60 a year or $35 a semester. Direct subscription requests to Camila Ryder. 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 © 2011 The Phoenix. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission.

The fencing team, which competed at the Southern Atlantic Conference Championships and the United States Association of Collegiate Fencing Clubs National Championship, saw great success with individual fencers and squads winning many medals. PAGE 24

April 28, 2011

THE PHOENIX

News

swarthmorephoenix.com

events menu Today Astrobio guest lecture Aaron Goldman ’03, postdoc at Princeton, will be addressing the question, “What is life and how did it begin?” in a lecture at 8:30 a.m. in Sci 199.

Rotaract parlor party Looking for a refreshingly delicious treat? Come to Shane Lounge at 8 p.m. for fresh smoothies made by members of the Rotaract club and learn about their accomplishments. Tomorrow Haiti Charity Ball Come, dressed in your semi-formal attire, to the second annual Haiti Charity Ball at 6 p.m. in Upper Tarble to support Haiti relief efforts. The evening will be filled with Caribbean snacks and performances by Essence of Soul and spoken word by students.

Student dance concert Support student, faculty and guest performing artists at 8 p.m. (and Saturday at 7 p.m.) in the Pearson-Hall Theater in LPAC as they showcase works from a variety of dance styles. ‘Lysistrata’ It’s opening night of Eva Amesse’s Honors Directing Thesis, “Lysistrata,” Aristophane’s famous Greek comedy about women on a sex strike trying to get their husbands to stop fighting in a seemingly never-ending war. Performances will be at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m. in LPAC’s Frear Ensemble Theater. Saturday, April 30th Worthstock 2011 Classes are finally over, so why not relax in Worth Courtyard for the entire afternoon with great company and excellent music? This year’s Worthstock line-up includes Someone Still Loves you Boris Yeltsin, Koo Koo Kanga Roo, J*Davey, Drink Up Buttercup and the Golden Ages. The fun starts at 12 p.m. Sunday, May 1st Swarthmore Charity Fun Fair What better way to celebrate community than at a carnival? Stop by the Ville from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Ville’s annual Charity Fun Fair to enjoy an afternoon full of booths featuring student and nonprofit groups, carnival food, an obstacle course and live music.

StuCo Movie Night: Hakuna Matata Unwind under the stars on Parrish Beach with the screenings of The Lion King and Madagascar starting at 8:30 p.m. It truly is a problem-free philosophy. E-mail submissions for the events menu to news@swarthmorephoenix.com

tHe PHOenIX

Dems to advocate Pell grants in D.C. BY ELI SIEGEL esiegel2@swarthmore.edu About 10 members of the College Democrats will travel to Washington D.C. on May 2 to speak with several congressmen about the issue of federal funding for Pell grants. As this semester saw no major elections, the College Dems felt that this trip would be a productive culmination to the year. “[The trip to D.C.] is something we’ve done in the past,” Peter Gross ’13, president of College Dems, said. “It’s a great way to get experience in the political sector.” The goal of the trip is to advocate the federal Pell Grant program, which provides need-based non-loan aid to lowincome undergraduates. In 2009-2010, almost eight million students nationwide received Pell Grants. Within the past month, Congress has voted to support the program through 2011. However, the College Dems would like to see Congress support the system in 2012 and many years into the future. The Dems chose to represent this issue because it is relevant to many students at Swarthmore. Currently, about 10 percent of Swarthmore students receive Pell Grants. “We wanted something we could represent as students,” College Dems secretary Paul Shortell ’13 said. “[Pell Grants] are something that is important to our campus.” Vice president of the College Democrats Julio Alicea ’13 proposed the idea at a recent meeting in April. “Given our statuses as students from a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds, I felt that we would be able to craft a genuine narrative articulating not just why Pell Grants were essential in order to maintain a certain quality of education on campuses across the country,” Alicea said, “but also how imperative it was that Congress not cut Pell grants at a time when the United States was falling behind in international achievement rankings regarding math and science.” The Dems have already confirmed a meeting with Democratic Senator Carl Levin from Michigan and plan to meet with Representative Chris Van Hollen from Maryland’s eighth district. To prepare for the trip, the group has been researching the statistics behind Pell grants and has come up with a statement outlining how they believe Pell Grants are beneficial for the United States. They will present this paper to the congressmen they meet. In this letter, the College Democrats emphasize that Pell Grants help students with the highest need, are a smart investment that generates results for both students and the government and are important for the nation’s education system and national security. In addition to preparing this sheet, the Dems are conducting mock interviews to simulate their discussions with the congressmen during their time at the Capitol. Although the trip is mainly headed by the College Democrats, it is also supported by various student groups on campus, such as the Swarthmore Feminists and the Swarthmore Labor Action Project (SLAP). “We feel that it is best to represent as much of the campus as possible,” Shortell said. “If Pell Grants are cut it will be bad for everyone on campus.”

Allegra Pocinki Phoenix Staff

College Dems secretary Paul Shortell and president Peter Gross direct group discussion in Tuesday night’s meeting. This is the College Dems’ second trip to D.C. in three years with the goal of advocating an issue of importance to the Swarthmore community. In 2009, the Dems went to Washington D.C. to speak about birth control issues and funding for family planning.

Overall, the Democrats hope to represent the local view of the Pell Grant discussion. “There is a shrinking pie for education funding,” Gross said. “We are in some ways falling behind to the rest of the world. We don’t want to fall behind in education.”

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April 28, 2011

News

swarthmorephoenix.com

Faculty may have to teach fewer courses

Week in pictures

BY PATRICK AMMERMAN pammerm1@swarthmore.edu

Paul Chung Phoenix Staff

Members of the Mariachi Band perform during A Night For Senegal on Friday night in an effort to raise funds for a student-run soccer camp in a northern Senegal village.

Eric Verhasselt Phoenix Staff

Julian Leland showcases his talent as a shopping cart chauffeur for Gregory Taschuk during the Village Education Project’s annual Talent Auction on Saturday night.

Justin Toran-Burrell for The Phoenix

As per tradition, the women’s rugby team played a game dressed in their prom dresses against Ursinus on Saturday.

April 28, 2011

The course load for Swarthmore professors may be increased in the near future to keep up with the policies already in place at our peer institutions. While such a shift has not been officially proposed, it is likely that the school will pursue something similar to that in years to come. Strategic Planning’s Knowledge, Teaching and Learning Committee is currently discussing the prospect of transitioning from a 3-2 course load to a 2-2 course load over the next few years, which would require professors to teach only four courses a year, rather than the current five courses. The Knowledge Committee will likely issue a formal recommendation for strategic planning regarding professor course loads in the fall. Swarthmore professors shifted to a 3-2 course load system in the 1980s, which meant that a professor would teach three courses one semester, and two the other, for a total of five courses over one academic year. However, professors at similar liberal arts colleges, such as Williams College, Pomona College, Bowdoin and Wellesley, currently teach only two courses per semester. “It looked like it was going to happen before the economy tanked in 2008 … It’s looked like it’s going to happen for years,” said Professor Peter Schmidt, department head of English Literature, about a change in course load. Many see no other alternative than to change course loads for professors in order to make the school attractive for young professors. “I think it’s inevitable that we’re going to [change to a 4 course load] ... we’re near the higher end of teaching load for a school like us, and it’s going to get harder and harder to attract young faculty members if your teaching load is much higher than some of your competitors,” Mark Kuperberg, professor of economics, said. Such a disparity may make professorship at Swarthmore with its current 3-2 system less desirable than at one of these other institutions. “I interview finalists for tenure track jobs and the two things they are more aware of are what the salary comparison is and what the teaching load is,” Provost Constance Hungerford said. Transitioning from five courses to four courses is also a way to recognize the increasing workloads that professors take on outside the classroom. “One of the reasons for [changing the course load] is that the faculty workload has shifted over time and we’re doing a lot more teaching outside the classroom than used to be the case ... so you can argue that we’re assigning the fifth

credit to the informal kinds of teaching we do: advising theses and research and working intensively on people’s writing and things like that,” Hungerford said. Professors will be able to spend more time working on innovating and revamping courses if they teach fewer classes. Under the current system, the professor has more or less an increase of a third in his or her workload during the three-course semester. Under the 2-2 system, professors won’t have the same drastic fluctuations of time commitments as they do under the current system. H o w e v e r, there are a number of potential problems that could arrive under the new system as well. The most worrisome issues are the potential increase in class size and the decrease in number of courses offered. Kuperberg draws a comparison between reducing the course load for professors and reducing the number of the school’s professors by a fifth. Such a change would, of course be drastic and nearly inconceivable. “I would expect that some departments would argue that they need more faculty assigned to them,” Hungerford said. One source, who wishes to remain anonymous, worried about what reducing the course load means for Swarthmore academically. “We could do other new things instead with the same faculty and the same money, and be able to keep classes as small as they are right now,” the source said. The source also worries about the effect the change would have in departments that already have faculty shortages. “There are already some departments that need more faculty that don’t have them and ... even if you add 20 percent more [professors across the board], they would be no better off,” the source said. The change could also be hard when professors are already limited in the number of courses they could offer because of other commitments, such as chairing a department, that are the equivalent of teaching a course. Schmidt, for examples, raised the point that many English professors are called upon to chair other, interdisciplinary departments. “If we have several people that year being asked to lead interdisciplinary programs, that could have an even bigger effect on the curriculum and the courses we offer,” Schmidt said. “The benefits are clear, the problems are sort of speculative,” Schmidt added. Hungerford was unsure how gradually the school was going to go about the process of changing course loads. “I could imagine discussions about how to implement taking place next year and, depending on how costly they are, it may be possible to start implementing ... I think there’s a pretty strong interest in doing it as soon as possible,” she said. However, as Schmidt reminds us, “change is very gradual here.”

“It looked like it was going to happen before the economy tanked in 2008 … It’s looked like it’s going to happen for years.” Peter Schmidt Department Chair, English Literature

tHe pHOeniX

News

swarthmorephoenix.com

Aging sewer line to be replaced in Crum Woods BY MENGHAN JIN mjin1@swarthmore.edu

For the past month, construction workers have been working in the Crum Woods to replace an aging concrete sewer line in order to accommodate its use by three additional townships. Unfortunately, this has required notable destruction to the Crum landscape. “What we worry about is ... the interior forest, kind of the center of the woods, that is really important for habitat,” Stu Hain, Vice President for Facilities and Services, said. Many trees — some almost 80years-old — in a 25-foot-wide strip of land running along Crum Creek have already been bulldozed by a contractor hired by the Central Delaware County Authority (CDCA), an agency that assists in the installation and operation of water and sewer services. “In order to do the work that needs to be done, the trees really have to go. It’s sad, but there really isn’t a choice,” Hain said. In 1938, the college granted a rightof-way to the CDCA for the construction of a sewer line. Since then, trees have grown on top of the strip of land,

some of which have already been removed in order to replace the line. Hain maintains that the college is working hard to ensure that minimal damages will be made to the Crum’s landscape. “We have limited say in what they can do in their right-of-way,” Hain said, “[but] we can ask them to restore it in a certain way. We’ve asked them to provide us some replacement trees ... we’ve asked them to do some stream bank restoration.” Silk fences to control erosion have been installed on the edges of Crum Creek in order to keep mud from washing into the stream when it rains. The CDCA has also given the college the means to plant trees along the sides of the right-of-way once construction is complete, though no trees will be allowed to grow on top of the line again. The college has also requested that the CDCA plant a blend of natural grasses instead of turf on the restored land and also find a way to control the invasive species that will unavoidably explode onto the land once restoration is complete.

Colin Purrington for The Phoenix

See CRUM, p. 6

Many trees have already been bulldozed by the contractor hired by the Central Delaware County Authority, despite protestation by the Crum Woods Stewardship Committee.

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Do you think you’re ready? THE PHOENIX

April 28, 2011

News Ecosystem of Crum will be in disarray after project

swarthmorephoenix.com

Continued from p. 5

When the Crum Woods Stewardship Committee, a group that is devoted to recommending policies on the uses of the Crum to the community, heard about the project last month, most members were upset by this news. “Pretty much the whole committee went up in arms over what was happening,” Sarah Scheub ’12, a member of the committee, said. “Everyone was really upset [and] wanted … to know if this was the best plan possible for dealing with the need to replace the sewer line.” Scheub has worked with professor of biology JoseLuis Machado in an ecology course, collecting data and doing research on trees and floodplains that have already been demolished. Some of this research has been going on since 2002. “Biologically and in terms of the ecosystem, what’s happening is really horrible,” she said. However, Scheub and other members of the committee have come to terms with the inevitability of it all, and have also been requesting money and the means to ensure that the land will be restored properly. “Work has obviously been started and there’s nothing that we can do,” Scheub said. “At this point, we’re just trying to work with them as best as we can.” Construction at the site is expected to be complete sometime during the Fall 2011 semester. “Positive things will come out of it,” Scheub said, “but will these positives outweigh the negatives, I don’t know.”

Colin Purrington for The Phoenix

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April 28, 2011

THE PHOENIX

FALL 2011

APPLICATIONS DUE

HIRING

APRIL 29 @ 5 P.M. Please see our website for additional information and to obtain an application. Go to swarthmorephoenix.com/apply to submit an application.

WRITING, BUSINESS, EDITORIAL & GRAPHICS POSITIONS JOB DESCRIPTIONS

These job descriptions are intended to inform applicants of what would be expected of them if hired. All applications must be submitted online at swarthmorephoenix.com/apply Questions? Want more information? Contact us at editor@swarthmorephoenix.com

EDITORIAL POSITIONS

STAFF POSITIONS

Section editors are responsible for ensuring the completion of their section, reading and editing all copy submitted for publication in the section, coordinating their staff of writers, writing items for publication and laying out pages in QuarkXPress. The section editors must be present in the office for their respective deadlines until the Editor in Chief is satisfied with their completed section. Additionally, the section editors must attend all weekly editorial board meetings on Monday and Thursday evenings, and they must communicate regularly with the writers of their sections to assess their progress and to develop story ideas. The responsibilities of a section editor may be divided between two individuals.

Reporters / staff writers (8 news, 6 living, 5 sports) Reporters write at least one story a week for their section. Writers must attend weekly meetings. Approximate hours per week: 6–8. Columnists / Bloggers (6 opinions, sports, 8 living & arts) A columnist receives a biweekly column. The columnists are expected to work closely with their respective section editors in developing topics and improving their writing styles. Approximate hours per week: 3—4. Copy editors Copy editors check facts, style and grammar and proof pages. Approximate hours per week: 3—5. Photographers Photographers are expected to fulfill weekly assignments. This includes taking photos at the assigned time and uploading the photos onto the Phoenix server in a timely fashion. Approximate hours per week: varies. Staff artists (3) Staff artists are required to submit at least one illustration per issue, for various sections of the paper. Approximate hours per week: varies. Cartoonists (4) Cartoonists may apply to work as either an op-artist or a living & arts artist, and will be required to submit pieces biweekly. Approximate hours per week: 2.

Managing editor (2) The managing editor(s) are responsible for the completion of the newspaper and for delegating tasks to other editors and staff members, to support the role of the editor in chief. The managing editor(s) have significant involvement in the editorial, design and layout processes, and must be present in the office during production on Tuesday nights and Wednesday. Approximate hours per week: 25. News editor The news editor must have a current and comprehensive knowledge of events, people and issues on campus. Job duties include reading and editing all news copy, leading a staff meeting on Monday nights to work with reporters and develop future story ideas, working with other editors to select news content and directing reporters. Frequent communication with reporters, photographers and senior editors is essential. Applicants should be competent reporters, willing to write last-minute news stories and take photos. Approximate hours per week: 18. Living & Arts editor The Living & Arts editor must be able to develop creative feature and art ideas for the section each week; maintain familiarity with the art, music and theater scene, both on campus and in the Philadelphia area; and select events to feature as editor’s picks. The living section allows for more creativity in design than do other sections in the paper. Approximate hours per week: 16. Chief copy editor The chief copy editor of The Phoenix is responsible for the factual and grammatical aspects of all copy in the newspaper. Responsibilities include reading all copy, reading proofs of all pages, coordinating the schedules of a staff of copy editors, maintaining and updating The Phoenix stylebook and providing editorial feedback to the writers and editors. Approximate hours per week: 12. Graphics editor Responsibilities include working with the editors and staff artist(s) to conceptualize and create cover art and graphics within page designs. The graphic designer should coordinate art and is responsible for ensuring completion of graphics or photo-intensive pages. The graphic designer will also attend editorial board meetings. Previous work with Photoshop is required. Approximate hours per week: 8. Photo editor Responsibilities include taking, uploading and editing photos; maintaining a staff of photographers; coordinating the use of the paper’s digital cameras; and communicating with editors at editorial board meetings and throughout the week. Approximate hours per week: 10

Opinions editor The opinions editor’s primary job is to ensure that a diverse range of views relevant to the campus are represented on the editorial pages. Responsibilities include soliciting op-ed pieces, working with staff columnists and cartoonists to develop and carry out ideas and ensuring completion of the staff editorial each week. The opinions editor must also keep abreast of relevant campus and world events. Approximate hours per week: 12. Sports editor The sports editor should maintain a comprehensive knowledge of all varsity and club teams on campus. Duties include reading and editing all sports copy and assigning sports photos. Applicants must be competent sportswriters who are willing to write and take photos as needed. Approximate hours per week: 12. Assistant section editors Assistant editors in news, living and arts, sports and opinions may be added as training positions. Assistant section editors are responsible for helping the section editor in all duties and learning all aspects of production essential to the section, including layout design and editing. Assistant section editors are also responsible for writing for their sections as necessary. Approximate hours per week: 8–10.

BUSINESS POSITIONS Advertising manager (2) The advertising manager(s) work to recruit local and national ads. Responsibilities include keeping up-todate advertising records, sending out invoices and tearsheets to the advertisers, documenting paid invoices; providing up-to-date advertising income figures and attending weekly business staff meetings. Approximate hours per week: 6. Circulation manager (2) The circulation manager(s) must distribute copies of The Phoenix to areas across campus early Thursday mornings, stuff faculty and administration mailboxes, maintain subscriber lists and ensure that subscriptions are mailed out each Thursday on a weekly basis, deliver extra copies to The Phoenix office and answer subscription requests as they are received. Approximate hours per week: 3. Advertisers (3) Advertisers sell ads for The Phoenix website and print edition to local businesses. This position pays a commission for ads sold. Having access to a car is preferable but not required. Approximate hours per week: varies.

WEB STAFF (NEW!) Web Editor (2) The Web Editor(s) edits all stories that appear only on the web, moderates comments, posts to and moderates the forums, and coordinates the newly created Phoenix Web Staff. The Web Editor will hold a weekly or twice-weekly meeting with the Web Staff to ensure there is plenty of fresh content to keep the website as lively as possible. Approximate hours per week: 5-7. Web Staff (4) Web staffers are in charge of keeping The Phoenix website up-to-date throughout the week. Staffers will write stories, post blogs and/or take additional photos for the website. Staffers are required to attend weekly meetings to discuss the content to be placed on the website and will be required to post several items every week. WIth much less time commitment, it’s a great way to get started on The Phoenix. Approximate hours per week: 3-4. Assistant Webmaster / Ruby on Rails Web Developer The webmaster is responsible both for maintaining the website and for improving it in ways that engage our readers. Expect to post content, tweak styles, optimize the server configuration and maybe even build entirely new sections of the website. A wemaster must have experience with Rails or an avid interest in learning Rails as an extension of some existing web development background. Knowlege of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is required.

FOR HIRING RULES, FULL JOB DESCRIPTIONS AND TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR FALL 2011:

h t t p : / / w w w. s w a r t h m o r e p h o e n i x . c o m / h i r i n g

THE PHOENIX

April 28, 2011

Living & Arts

swarthmorephoenix.com

Worthstock welcomes wealth of musical styles BY HENRY KIETZMAN hkietzm1@swarthmore.edu

This Saturday at noon, the Large-Scale Events Committee (LSE) will host Worthstock 2011, featuring Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (SSLYBY), Koo Koo Kanga Roo, J*DaVeY, Golden Ages, Drink Up Buttercup and Swarthmore’s The Lineup, winner of the Battle of the Bands competition. Led by coordinator Ashley Vogel ’13, LSE Committee began planning Worthstock after the Mayer Hawthorne/St. Vincent concert in January. The committee members contacted bands they believed would be a good fit for the event. “We try to get [bands] from a whole spectrum of genres,” Vogel said. Then, the committee met and voted on the choices, picking artists with the hopes of satisfying a variety of music styles. A member of the LSE committee, Brennan Klein ’13 was very active in organizing the event. “The lineup is sick … I think it’s much better than last year,” Klein said. This year he believes the bands are more popular than previous Worthstocks. One of the committee’s biggest hopes is that Worthstock will feature a variety of musical styles. “We’ll be changing up the type of sound that happens throughout the day,” Vogel said. The concert will move from rock to hip-hop, pop and much more. Working with a smaller budget this year, the committee is pleased with the popular artists that will perform. “I was actually really surprised … I think that we got a similar deal [to that of last year],” Vogel said. Battle of the Bands winner The Lineup will kick off the concert. Members include Trevor Rizzolo ’11 (guitar), Andrew Zimmerman ’11 (drums), Josh Lipman ’11 (vocals), Kenny Flanagan ’12 (guitar) and Julian Leland ’12 (bass). The group has been preparing and organizing for the past year and a half, first

performing many covers of the Beatles and The Who before transitioning into writing their own songs. “Our sound grew out of [our initial covers],” Zimmerman said. On Saturday, The Lineup will play all originals. Although each member in the band has different musical influences, they all work collaboratively when writing their songs. “I’m really pumped … Worth Courtyard is a beautiful place to be,” Rizzolo said. “We’re going to get up and hopefully be really really energetic … We’re going to play a lot of good music!” Both Rizzolo and Zimmerman hope that their music will get everyone pumped up for the rest of the day. The other professional bands performing will cover a large variety of musical genres, from the hilarious techno charged beats of Koo Koo Kanga Roo to the catchy pop hooks of SSLYBY, finishing with the new wave hip hop of J*DaVeY. All of the bands performing Saturday have released new albums in the past year, most of which have been well-reviewed. “We look for bands that maybe will get bigger in the next couple years,” Klein said. SSLYBY, the most popular of the group as of yet, is an indie pop band hailing from Springfield, Missouri. Their third album, “Let It Sway” (2010), was co-produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie. In January and February, SSLYBY toured with Tokyo Police Club and Two Door Cinema Club. Band member Jonathan James also recently recorded and mixed several songs for the soundtrack for the Academy Award-nominated film “Winter’s Bone.” Touring with SSLYBY is Koo Koo Kanga Roo, a comedic disco/hip-hop/pop duo self-described as Beastie Boys meets children’s TV Show Sesame Street. The band’s website reads, “The live show is really where the music comes to life and what the band is most passionate about.” Both Vogel and Klein expressed their excitement about booking both acts together. “They should have

Courtesy of http://tiny.cc/2zri5

The Lineup (above), Swarthmore’s own Trevor Rizzolo, Andrew Zimmerman, Josh Lipman, Kenny Flanagan and Julian Leland, will perform original songs, after winning Battle of the Bands in early April.

April 28, 2011

Courtesy of http://tiny.cc/7xdou and http://tiny.cc/0b2d0

SSLYBY (above), currently on tour with Koo Koo Kanga Roo (below), released their latest album in August 2010, which was produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie.

been 10 times the price we got them for ... They could have been the LSE … We have several headliners in one concert,” Klein said. Adding to the mix is Philadelphia-based Golden Ages, a psychedelic electro-pop band. Likened to Washed Out and Toro Y Moi, Golden Ages has received rave reviews across the board for its remixes and recently released cover of Toto’s Africa. Last January, Neu magazine raved, “Set like a jewel into an increasingly familiar glitz and shine of tearaway loops and found sounds, they’re a bold step back to the time when big acoustics mattered but [they] still keep it very 2010.” Also based in Philadelphia is psychedelic quartet Drink Up Buttercup. Drink Up Buttercup’s debut album, “Born and Thrown On A Hook,” was released on recording label Yep Roc. NPR’s “All Songs Considered” raved, “Psychedelic without being cheesy, this band sounds like a sinister carnival.” A twisted combination of indie pop and the golden oldies, Drink Up Buttercup’s music has wowed numerous reviewers from the New York Times to Pitchfork.com. Klein believes that J*DaVeY, the hip-hop/new wave/fusion duo from Los Angeles, will be the largest crowd-pleaser on Saturday. They will be wrapping up the concert on Saturday. In 2006, J*DaVeY opened for Prince at his 3121 Club in Las Vegas. The band’s sound has been revered as a mix of Radiohead and Erykah Badu. Their sophomore album, “New Designer Drug” (2011), was released on the rock division of Warner Bros. Records. The lineup will begin promptly at noon, and LSE members encourage people to attend Worthstock not only for the great performances but the relaxed atmosphere. “Some bands are really chill and other bands are kind of upbeat, and there’s a very wide array of music and events,” Klein said. THE PHOENIX

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Aim higher and stop playing misery poker Every game of misery poker you play at Swarthmore belies a sinister takeover of your proletariat self by the bourgeois Swarthmorean academic system. By reducing your immediate future to a mere number of hours/days during which you plan to do nothing but work, you haplessly effectuate the transformation and degradation Steve Dean of your personhood. You become an oppressed stuLife Tips from a Dean dent laborer who is so entrenched in the superstructure of sadomasochistic academia that you eventually find it justifiable to forego countless necessities like food, friends, relationships, sleep, personal development and personal hygiene — sometimes all at once — merely for the sake of accomplishing finite amounts of homework that will invariably remain at untenable levels all the way from first collection to graduation. The mere fact that we Swatties get pleasure from winning at misery poker epitomizes the absurd façade of the “well-rounded education” that we have so ardently sought and yet so naively foregone. Misery poker is the game that ensures our implicit acceptance of our degraded status as academic laborers. Yet where is the overthrow? If virtually all Swatties can count themselves among the academically masochistic proletariat, why hasn’t the system been overthrown in a violent revolution? I purport that Mr. Marx was wrong, and not just about the time frame. If playing misery poker makes us laborers of the establishment, then perhaps we should strive to become the establishment itself. For too long, we have been treating our individual selves as the oppressed workforce, fully neglecting our innate potential to serve as the entire business enterprise. We have routinely failed to acknowledge the importance of our roles as CEOs, HR departments, R&D and Strategic Planning commissions. As CEOs, we can manage our time and money effectively and ensure that our entire selfenterprise functions optimally. In our capacity as HR, we can facilitate our interactions with our acquaintances, friends and lovers. Through R&D we can invent new and creative ways of maximizing productivity and happiness each and every day. Finally, as strategic planners, we can acknowledge our short- and long-term goals and map out exactly how we can achieve them over time. Instead of misery poker, let’s play PerfectionF. In the traditional game of Perfection, you have oneminute to fit as many diversely shaped game pieces as possible into their corresponding places on the game board. For us, let’s assume that we have four years to fit all of our college goals and aspirations into their corresponding sectors of our college lives. Misery must no longer dominate us. As your in-

house consultant, I will now explain how to optimally run tractions. Secondly, you forcibly prevent yourself from your self-enterprise. experiencing moments of “flow” because a friend could As CEO, you must make things happen. You are the walk up to you at any moment and distract your whole executive authority in your college life. This means that operation. If you want a successful personal R&D departwhen you observe that your workforce (your body) has ment, you need to develop your entire self, not just your been working 16-hour days without even the weekends for academic labor force. This means routinely finding ways respite, you should naturally want to put an end to these to increase your happiness and well-being. For this, I recbrutal conditions and ensure that your workforce is kept ommend tethering. Make a list of your daily activities, healthy and productive. Unhappy workers lose productivand try to associate a happy thought or a self-affirmity (procrastination) and suffer from a high ing action with each one. The association will keep aff turnover rate (short attention spans). you in the habit of feeling good and ix St n e o h Too many Swatties lay off their doing good, whether for rni P a k d Na entire HR departments, thinking yourself or for others. Renu that they can just re-hire them after Your strategic planning they graduate. Thus, when we greet a fellow commission is arguably Swattie with, “Hi, what are you up to?” the most important one the response we can routinely expect for you to hone, and is the oh-so-painfully-familiar, “So … its failure could much … work.” We originally intendwell be the source ed to interact with this person’s HR of the majority of department, anticipating some producyour post-graduation tive interpersonal interaction, yet all regrets. It’s this comwe receive is a blunt, conversamission that tells you tion-ending “Sorry, we are to start job hunting and closed” sign. Our HR alumni networking durdepartments are in charge ing your junior year or of how we interact with earlier, a feat that can only our acquaintances, prevail if you actively friends and lovers, choose to play PerfectionF and and our collective not misery poker. This comlack of personal HR mission plans out how to is only further approach that cutie at the referevinced by the ence desk whom you’ll inevitably ubiquity of social adore for all four years here. And as awkwardness and evidence of the collective failure of Swatties’ stratethe utter absence of a dating gic planning, we have Green Bottle, an event mere days scene on campus. My advice? Give your HR employbefore graduation during which seniors frantically come ees billable hours. Spending an hour at Paces on the week- together and awkwardly try to hook up with individuals end does not constitute a social life. If you are willing to that they never had the bravery/forethought to approach spend 40+ hours a week on homework, yet under four before. My advice: take at least one day at the beginning hours a week on developing your social life, then clearly and end of each semester to sit out on the Big Chair with your inner CEO should be fired, because he has no idea a close friend and discuss all of your aspirations, career how to run a successful business. Friendship, dating and plans, personal proclivities and, of course, love interests. love, just like everything else in your life, take time. Do Plan out all the things you want to accomplish in your not deny them that time, no matter how nicely you think time that remains and create your own Swat Bucket List. your problem set could fit into your free 6-hour block on Compare it with your friends’ lists to make sure you didFriday evening. n’t forget anything important. Swatties are immensely creative individuals, but I nevWe currently exist as the unsuspecting victims of a culertheless find myself questioning the direction of their ture of academic masochism. Swatties love to complain R&D efforts time and time again. For example, many and misery poker perfectly exemplifies our perpetual race Swatties engage in seemingly brilliant “Sharples to the bottom, to the dregs of workload-induced despair Saturdays” in which they wake up early on Saturday, with the odds never in our favor. However, if we choose to pack up all of their work and spend the whole day in stop gambling with our selfhoods and instead play a game Sharples, thereby saving two extra meals and gaining an of PerfectionF, of total self-realization, we can leave entire day’s worth of productivity. Of course, the down- Swarthmore not as victims of the institution, but as fully sides to this are as insidious as the upsides were insight- functioning enterprises of our own. Steve is a senior. You can reach him at ful. For one, you squander an entire day of your weekend, cooped up without direct sunlight in a cafeteria full of dis- sdean1@swarthmore.edu.

Philly EvENts Fly School Circus

Eiffel Tower Light Show

For anyone who ever dreamed of being a daring young man or woman on the flying trapeze, the moment is now. At the Fly School Circus on 319 South Broad Street, professional instructors will provide hands-on lessons for adults and children, outdoors on a grand full-scale flying trapeze. During lessons, students of various ages and abilities will soar through the air on a full-scale flying rig. Students will learn all the techniques of this art form including take-off from the platform, the swing, the transfer to the catcher and the drop to the net. Classes are open to students six years old and up. The weight limit is 250 lbs. From April 7 - May 1 at 9:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., all participants will be fully harnessed in the air for the price of $55

For the price of free you too can attend the twice nightly spectacle where, in honor of PIFA, the Philadelphia Festival of the Arts, you can watch 6,000 light bulbs bring an 81-foot Eiffel Tower replica to life in a dazzling light and sound show every night at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. at the Kimmel Cennter Commonwealth Plaza until May 1st. For more information, check out http://PIFA.org

thE PhOENiX

Pop Cinema Pop Cinema is a three-night program of films made in the context of Pop Art in England and the US, from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Thursday at 7 p.m. will feature UK pop, Friday at 7 p.m. will feature US pop and a panel discussion on cinema

will be held on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. Student tickets are $6 for individual programs and $15 for all three events, held at The Ibrahim Theater at International House. More information can be found on their website, http://ihousephilly.org. “Hell,” the play Written in 1908, “Hell,” written by Henri Barbusse, shocked the world and changed the face of modern literature. This world premier theatrical adaptation of France’s most scandalous novel will be the first exposure for American audiences. “Hell” tells the story of a man who looks through a hole in the wall of his boarding house room to uncover the secrets of life. What he discovers you can only find out until May 1st at the German Society of PA for the price of $30.

April 28, 2011

PIFA Street Fair Think Worthstock looks a little drab? Try attending the PIFA street fair on Saturday, April 30th from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Held on Broad Street from Chestnut to Lombard, the street will be taken over by a Parisianinspired street festival, complete with a giant Ferris Wheel, where street performers, over 100 vendors, craftsmen and exhibitors will provide entertainment. There will also be two stages set up for live music, including performances from Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and the Watcha Clan. The Broad Street Fair will come to a close with a breathtaking show from France’s La Compagnie Transe Express, who will perform suspended 100-feet above the crowd. More information can be found at the PIFA website, http://pifa.org.

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Film considers abortion from pro-choice perspective BY STEVEN HAZEL shazel1@swarthmore.edu

This year, Congress has zoned in on the government funding of Planned Parenthood, a sexual and reproductive health care provider, as the latest battleground in the conflict between pro-choice and prolife views on abortion. With a presidential election approaching, abortion policy is becoming an even more heated issue, along with the economy, foreign policy and the budget deficit. The Swarthmore Feminists have chosen to illuminate this issue for the Swarthmore community with their screening of the documentary “The Coat Hanger Project” today at 7 p.m. This film is an in-depth look at the issues of abortion from both a historical and social perspective, and will be followed by a talk and discussion of the film by Angie Young, the filmmaker. “We chose this film because it was shown at the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference that we attended in March, but most of us who wanted to go missed the screening. [But] it seemed like an important film, especially now when there are many bills that have been introduced in Congress that are hurting women’s health,” Lisa Sendrow ’13, president of the Swarthmore Feminists, said. Young is a business manager for “Feminist Studies,” a journal hosted by the University of Maryland that publishes articles relating to women’s issues thrice-yearly. “After I graduated from college, I moved to Washington D.C. and worked as a hotline operator for the National Abortion Federation’s toll-free hotline,” Young said. “Through that experience, I got to connect with many women and men faced with the task of needing to obtain an abortion for themselves or their partners, and the difficulties they had to overcome.” In 2006 in South Dakota, when the legislature of that state banned all abortions without exceptions, she became more directly involved with the pro-choice movement. Young became part of an effort that successfully repealed the ban on abortions. In the process, she videotaped aspects of the anti-abortion movement, which later encouraged her to create a documentary of abortion from a pro-choice perspective. “The Coat Hanger Project,” produced in 2008, has been shown across the country and the globe, as Young has toured Europe, Canada and the United States. Although the film displays a pro-choice slant — as it highlights the terrors and often-mortal consequences of illegal abortion and the need for women to control their own bodies — it has been reviewed favorably by a variety of journals, including Buzz Magazine and the Yale Herald, and was also an official selection of the Rosebud Film Festival in 2009. “It's so important to see the way that abortion rights intersect with other basic human rights: environmental rights, civil rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, economic justice, the right to control one’s destiny, the right to one’s own bodily integrity. If we can see the ways we are connected, we can be stronger and have a better chance of defending a right we have all been taking for granted for the last 38 years,” Young said. The film gets its title from the coat hanger — a symbol of the desperate, back-alley abortions that women were forced to perform before the 1973 Supreme Court Decision Roe v. Wade, affirming women’s right to abortion — which represents the fact that between 60,000 and 80,000 women still die each year from unsafe abortions. In particular, the film emphasizes the disparity between the generation born before Roe v. Wade and after the landmark decision, and explains that those born after 1973 have no experience of the horror of having to chose a dangerous, illegal abortion, and therefore may not take the necessity of abortion rights as seriously as those of the pre-1973 generation. “I hope the audience can take away the simple maxim that abortion is a personal decision and it should not be a decision made by our politicians who are generally older, white men,” Sendrow said. “I want people to believe that women will make the right choice for themselves, whatever it is.”

The Project combines interviews with important feminists, stories from women about their personal struggles with abortion and reproductive rights and statistics about abortion that add depth to the anecdotal evidence presented. Some of the women Young interviews include Loretta Ross, the Co-founder of SisterSong and the Women of Color Reproductive Health Alliance and Dr. Bonnie Morris, Professor of Women’s Studies at George Washington University. To add an intimacy to the film, Young incorporated the story of an Iraq War veteran who performed a self-induced abortion. “I connected to other feminist women working on the issue of choice, found counter-protesters [through MySpace], even found the woman from the military that I interviewed. The power of social networking and our new media revolution is not to be underestimated and was essential to the making of this documentary,” Young said. Regardless of one’s perspective on abortion, the film serve as a valuable source of personal commentary and statistical information about one of the central political issues of American government today. “Whatever your opinion on [abortion rights] — prolife, pro-choice, somewhere in the middle — a closer look [like in the film] can only help shed light and

Courtesy of http://tinyurl.com/3qjpp35

The coat hanger, which has become the universal symbol of the pro-choice movement, refers to the danger of illegal abortions.

help us make better informed decisions,” Riana Shah ’14 said, who has already seen the film. Young is currently working on a documentary called “The Incest Machine” which examines the role of incest and sexual abuse in patriarchal society.

Crossword ACROSS 1. The Rock 9. Yellowstone grazer 14. Shell hunter’s terrain 15. Iran-_____ affair (1980’s political scandal) 16. Fills up (on food) 17. AM/FM devices 18. Huffer’s need 19. Seizes without authority 20. Prefix with graphic or metric 21. Item in Santa’s bag 22. Not mono 23. Justice dept. branch responsible for homeland protection 24. Housebroken animal 25. Pick up the pace 26. Sharply inclined 28. George Thorogood stutter “B-B-B-B-_____” 29. Tax org. 30. Seemingly without end 34. No _____, ands, or buts 36. Finish 37. Enterprise and Avis rival 41. Call for help on a plane, perhaps 43. Commonly injured knee ligament 45. Mine find 46. Faucet 47. N.Y.S.E. debut 48. Outdo 49. All ____ (everything or nothing) 50. End of a courtroom oath 53. Calamine, for example 54. Product security that may last a lifetime 55. Time line things 56. Mid-size Isuzu model 57. Marsh plant 58. Respond to a haymaker

5. Schwarzenegger’s Austrian birthplace 6. What wheels do on an axis 7. Childish retort to “Am, too!” 8. Appealingly piquant 9. Toots one’s horn 10. What a 27-down person might say 11. Swizzle stick 12. A door either closes _____ 13. Steven Seagal movie producer Julius 15. Indiana Jones and the Last _____ 24. Rainy day abbreviation (to sports fans) 25. Possesses 27. Happy-go-lucky 28. MLB commissioner Selig 31. Tidies up

32. Unspecified number 33. NHL feeder system 34. Make better 35. Passed out 38. U.S. Capitol building feature 39. Where to find the Writing Center on campus 40. Gentle breezes 42. Words used to point out special features 43. “Don’t worry, it’s just _____” (“he’ll grow out of it”) 44. Compel by force 46. Shoe bottoms 47. “_____ a dark and stormy night…” 51. Uno + dos 52. _____ and rave BY BEN SCHNEIDERMAN

DOWN 1. Gives out, as homework 2. Like the most expensive hamburger meat 3. Ferdinand Braun’s ____ ray tube 4. It’s east of Europe

April 28, 2011

For the solution to this week’s puzzle, see The Phoenix’s online edition at www.swarthmorephoenix.com.

THE PHoENIX

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s u p p o r t

s u r r e n d e r

HAITI CHARITY BALL

The Chakra System: Learning to Transmute Energy

Friday, April 29 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Upper Tarble

Come enjoy music and delicious Carribean food, and learn more about relief efforts since the earthquake in 2010.

$5 Suggested Donation All proceeds go to Partners in Health

Focusing inward to explore ourselves as energy beings contained within this physical body. Be sure to register!

editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s P I CK S

Tuesday, May 3 12 p.m. - 1 p.m. Trotter 215

By Dina Zingaro

STUDENT DANCE CONCERT Friday, April 29 Saturday, April 30 8 p.m. LPAC

HAPPY? A staged reading of a new play by Joshua Lipman '12 Monday, May 2 7 p.m. Frear Ensemble Theater

s e a r c h

s w a y THE PHOENIX

April 28, 2011

Living & Arts

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As classes end, nostalgia makes Swatties speechless We’re feeling quite nostalgic here at Swarthmore. Classes are ending, the mice that have weathered a school year with us have finally moved out and we’re beginning to imagine a time when our dorm rooms, which are messier now than ever, will no longer be covered in Ariel Swyer the weird piles of loose Let’s Be Serious leaf tea, pine needles and chaotically strewn astronomy notes that make them ours. The year is, in short, coming very definitely to a close. That is why we’re feeling nostalgic. “How are you feeling?” you may ask, turning to whoever is nearest you, “Nostalgic?” “Agghh!!!!!” the person will inevitably reply, addressing the lamp post to your left, “Eighteen final papers! I haven’t slept in two weeks and every thing looks sort of blurry and purple.” Here she will sway slightly, adding, “Where’s my shoe, what time is it?! I want to go home!!! Bleuuch…” On that note, she will collapse completely and lie motionless with her tongue hanging out. Nostalgia can be pretty intense. Its effects may include confusion, memory loss, hand tremors, yawning, increased blood pressure, depression, hallucinations, black-outs, conviction that one is a squirrel, bloodshot eyes, headaches, reduced cognitive functioning and death. You’ve got to be care-

ful with nostalgia. Many of us are so sleep deprived — I mean nostalgic — we can hardly speak. I’m quite sure (though not sure enough to actually inquire and risk undermining my point with facts) that Worth is absolutely overwhelmed right now with cases of extreme nostalgia. I personally am so laden with nostalgia I can’t really see my keyboard and may, for all I know, be crafting a column made up entirely of the letter “L” repeated a lot. If this is the case, we must assume that my editors will promptly and rightfully hurl me into the Crum. If this were to happen, you would in fact be reading my last column, which would be occasion for a great deal of panic, sentimentality and nostalgia. To be prepared for this possibility we must reminisce and become so nostalgic we have to be carried on stretchers to Worth where we can reminisce more and then, maybe, get some sleep. Sleep is one thing we’ve talked about a lot this year. According to these columns as well as the universe’s store of objective truth (concepts which may be used interchangeably for our purposes and any other purposes you can think of), we at Swarthmore do not ever sleep. According to the same source, we similarly do not know how to do anything and experience an inexplicably high incidence of rhinoceroses showing up under our beds (the college ranked second in rhinocerosshowing-up-under-bed rate — the University of Vermont — is not even close in numbers). We also have a great deal of trouble with doorways, astrological motion and very peculiar squirrels. We started off the year under the heading, “disorientation continues beyond weekend par-

ties,” which was a fortuitous rant about the elusiveness of the music building and the particular incompetence of freshmen. Seven months later, we have finally figured out how to find the music building and well ... yes, that may be about the only thing that’s changed. Hmm, that’s enough reminiscing! Dear readers, to you, I say, if we do meet again, why, we shall smile; if not, then this parting was well made. By great coincidence this is exactly what Brutus says to Cassius in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” during the scene in which Cassius is at risk of being flung into the woods by his editors due to having submitted an article made up entirely of the letter “L” to his college paper. It happens to the best of us, particularly when one has not slept — when one is feeling so nostalgic about everything. For the sake of playing into your nostalgia, I will now ask various students to briefly describe their sentiments surrounding the bittersweet time that is the end of another school year. Here are some sentiments: “I’m tired,” “I’m tired,” “I’m really tired,” “Is that a rhinoceros?” “I’m tired.” Yes, I would say this effectively expresses the feelings that most of us at Swarthmore are experiencing right now — what a sappy lot we are. There’s nothing like the almost ridiculous beauty of a lot of blooming cherry trees and the prancing about of rabbits to wrench the poetry from even the most jaded among us. I would say more about this but I’m far too nostalgic. All the best, fare thee well, auf wiedersein and good luck with those rhinoceroses! Ariel is a first-year. You can reach her at aswyer1@swarthmore.edu.

Directing thesis discusses battle of the sexes ceed in ending the Peloponnesian War after uniting for a sex strike, Greek society remains patriarchal, with women Aristophanes’ classic play confined to traditional roles. “We decid“Lysistrata” begs the question: if ed to make the message to be about the women united for a sex strike, would women using their voices and using men finally set down their weapons and reason to get their message across to the bring about an era of peace? Today at 9 men,” Amessè said. “It’s not about sex, p.m. (for a dress rehearsal to which all it’s more about we women deciding to are invited), Friday at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. put aside our differences and have a and Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Frear reasonable conversation about how to Ensemble Theater, twelve end the war.” Amessè felt it Swarthmore students was important to will strive to answer emphasize that the this question women’s goals were under the direcnot only to tion of honors achieve peace, theater major but also to Eva Amessè reassert their ’11. role in society. Amessè, “‘Lysistrata who plans to is a ridiculous pursue acting show,” Sara after she Lipschutz ’11, graduates, who plays chose to direct Myrhinne, “Lysistrata” known for for her honors seducing and directing thesis refusing her husbecause of its large band, said. “Eva has cast and succeeded in transformits strong female roles ing an ancient play that is for actresses to work sexist and Courtesy of http://www.gutenberg.org incredibly with. “The text is raunchy into an improkind of problematic and misogynistic so vised musical comedy about female we tried to put our own spin on it,” she empowerment.” said in a phone interview. Despite the Actress Vianca Masucci ’13, who promise of the play’s premise, the text’s plays Kleonike, Lysistrata’s next-door ending suggests that nothing changes, neighbor, noted that the comedic porand though the women of Greece suc- trayal of a battle of the sexes in BY SUSANA MEDEIROS smedeir1@swarthmore.edu

“Lysistrata,” while outdated, still relates to contemporary times. “It is quite humorous to discover all these unresolved issues between the sexes have been applicable since the time of Aristophanes,” she said. In traditional classical Greek form, “Lysistrata” features dialogue in addition to choral passages, a feature which, considering her work with voice and singing since a young age, excited Amessè. The cast employed the Roy Hart Voice method — which Amessè described as a “sort of modern dance for the voice” — in “Lysistrata” to express in sound things the text does not. Amessè explained that where the text falls flat, soundscapes fill the space. “We are making sounds that are not traditionally ‘pretty’ or ‘pleasant’ and trying to access things beyond what the story provides,” she wrote in an e-mail. The cast improved their knowledge of this method through a series of voice workshops with Adrianne Mackey ’04, a director in Philadelphia. The workshops emphasized learning how to improvise music and song. “All the things you’re going to see is planned, so to speak, but a lot of it is improvisational. We impose the structure … but what happens in between is going to be slightly different every night,” Amessè said. In reflection, Amessè feels that her Swarthmore experience greatly influenced her production, and cited her directing style as a product of her work in last semester’s Senior Company. This year, when the Company performed

April 28, 2011

Mary Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses,” the senior cast included a large number of actors, very few of whom wanted primarily to direct. Therefore, all of the actors were directors at the same time, and collectively built a vision of the play. “Walking away from the production, everyone felt such a deep ownership over the piece. This was something we made together,” Amessè said. It was with this idea in mind that Amessè wanted to ensure she was not a director who imposed her vision on the production, but rather made the active decision to make “Lysistrata” an actor-driven piece. “The actors are responsible for more than just providing characters and emotion — we create the set, the soundscape, and set the mood with our bodies and our voices. It’s totally awesome,” Masucci said. Amessè hopes that audience members walk away from the performance acknowledging “the power of the voice in terms of raising your voice and singing and appealing to people through art … One person has the power to make a difference.” Lipschutz equally urged the Swarthmore community to prepare themselves for chorus songs, outlandish costumes and props, a tango and a sex deprivation scene. Most importantly, however, Amessè hopes to attract a diverse group of students. “I think it’s a perfect show for someone who doesn’t identify as a theater-goer because I think it’s very accessible and very fun.”

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Living & Arts

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S watStyleSnapsho t Name: Jia Kim Year: 2011 Current Residence: Wharton From: New York, New York Her current outfit: Kim is wearing a floral crop top over a fitted highwaisted skirt. To accessorize, she carries a gray woven bag by Steve Madden and sports white and tan Oxfords from Urban Outfitters. The top evokes a sense of effortless casualness but in fact, Kim made the cropped tank herself since she wanted a change from her usual preference for longer tops. She designed this top with a layered effect. “I recently learned a fabric cut in circular shape flows better and falls naturally,” she said. Making her own garments: Looking back, Kim remembers her aunts making quilts and shirts throughout her childhood, and believes garment-making runs in the family. “Growing up I was surrounded by people who had sewing machines. But I started to sew during my sophomore year when I took costume design here [which is] taught by the theatre department,” Kim said. Since then, Kim has completed two internships during her sophomore and junior years, at Adidas. She has also worked as a seamstress for the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s production of “Romeo and Juliet.” As Kim’s commitments take place mainly outside campus, according to her, “I rarely stay in Swarthmore … I’m always in Philly.” In fact, Kim has her own Singer sewing machine in her dorm room. The Singer comes in handy for Kim when she designs and sews blazers, which are her signature wardrobe staple. “I make all of my blazers,” she said. She currently owns four, which she wears in rotation. However, her practice in garment-making is still new. “I’ve never learned formally how to make [garments],” she said. “Whenever I see in a store something I can make, I never buy it. I look at how it’s made.” She then tries to recreate the garment herself, starting by making her patterns from scratch. Her interest in fashion design: A biology and studio arts double major, Kim is pas-

sionate about fashion design and will be hosting her senior art thesis exhibition at the List Gallery next week, which will feature dresses she made with architectural elements. Architecture, which is another passion for Kim, inspired this collection. Next fall, she plans to study architecture at The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design (PennDesign) and to eventually launch her own fashion line. Growing up, Kim admits that she was a tomboy and an unlikely candidate for fashion design because she was surrounded by males. “I always had an interest in fashion, it just came really late,” she said. When Kim watched a televised fashion show of Haider Ackermann, an avant-garde inspired womenswear designer, her interest in fashion was piqued. “I was fascinated by his stuff. That was the starting point that pushed me into [fashion design],” Kim said. Her fashion inspirations: From day to day, Kim is mostly influenced by the weather in selecting her ensembles. “I look outside the window and just decide what to wear,” she said. But in terms of inspiration for creating garments, she studies and appreciates Haider Ackermann’s work, and ignores the rest of the fashion industry. “I’m not into any fashion designers ... Fashion week fashion shows are not interesting but Haider Ackermann is a source of inspiration,” she said. In particular, Kim is drawn to Ackermann since the designer incorporates architectural elements and a semi-formal flair in his garments, which parallels Kim’s own design aesthetic.

Do you think you (or a professor) have great style? Then submit a photo of you in your best outfit to phoenixlaed@gmail.com. Please include your name and contact information. TEXT AND PHOTO BY SERA JEONG

In Hungary, mathematics is well-taught and respected T h i s may not be w e l l known but Hungary has a longtime reputation for its excellence in mathematics and computer Maki Sakuma science. Quest for the When I mentioned Hungarian Identity to an old American chemical physicist that I was studying abroad in Hungary, he told me, “There used to be a funny story circulating among scientists and mathematicians that Hungarians come from Mars, in part because their language is so peculiar (to Europeans) and partly because the country produced so many brilliant scholars.” Indeed, there are many famous Hungarian mathematicians. To name a few: Paul Erdos, an incredibly prolific mathematician comparable only to Leonhard Euler; John von Neumann, who made major contributions in a vast range of fields and is considered the father of the modern computer; and, Laszlo Lovasz, one of the best living mathematicians today

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and who has won numerous prizes, including the Wolf, the Knuth and the Kyoto prize. I am a math major and wanted to go to Hungary, but since this Hungarian excellence of mathematics was unknown to my parents, I had to ask Professor Maurer, chair of Swarthmore math department, to write me a letter so that my parents would be convinced that I didn’t go crazy. As I recall from the letter, he offered three reasons for their excellence. First, there is a general respect for the study of mathematics in the country. Also, there are a number of excellent mathematics competitions for secondary students, going back over 100 years. And lastly, there is a tradition of good teaching and research. Spending almost four months in this country, I have confirmed these three reasons and they all seem to be related to each other. There is a great respect for mathematics because it seems that the secondary level mathematics education in Hungary is of very high quality. Most people who graduated high school, the general population, either see the beauty of math or come to believe that math is something very hard, and passively respect it. It seems to be the good teaching, in fact, is possible because Hungarians tolerate the fact that there will be people who are left out. The reason that I related the three explanations to each other is the follow-

ing. I was at a Japanese cultural center talking in Japanese with Japanese beginners, and as it often happens, we talk about what subject you like and what you don’t. There were five of them, and they all said their least favorite subject is math because it’s too hard. At another time I was having tea with an art history major, and when I commented that I heard Hungary has a very good math education, she didn’t quite agree and explained to me that in her high school, only about 10 out of 40 students in her class understood the lectures in math, while she and the rest of the class were often left out. However it is not that they don’t like math. It is just that they do not want to do math themselves. I remember one of them, an English literature major, telling me that, even so, she respects math. She wouldn’t have got that feeling if her math classes hadn’t taught her good math. Hungary further offers the math competitions to young motivated students so that they refine their mathematical sense and enjoy math, which I think is a good thing. There is perhaps a shortcoming in Hungarian math education in some sense, but as I think of my math experience so far, it has been excellent. It is definitely not easy, but the material is really interesting and challenging and I have had the most fun out of math ever. The professors assign us only a few problems but they are very well chosen. Moreover,

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I have good amount of time to work on them without having to think about my philosophy and history papers. Some problems are really hard, but the professors give us hints in a way that makes them doable, and after having done them I am left with satisfaction. It’s absolutely great. These shortcomings can also be interpreted positively. There is a technical university that I heard that sends new students a welcome package that says, “50 % of you will not be engineers, for sure,” and in fact one of my friends who goes there had a class of 400 at first, which dropped to 250 by the time he was a junior. This university is one of the most prestigious universities in Hungary, but still the dropout rate is extraordinary. However, dropping out could prevent you from pursuing a life that you may end up not liking. I met a dropout from the technical university who was now, surprisingly, attending a Buddhist university studying Buddhism and Japanese, and it looks like it suits him better that way. It’s hard to say what is good and what is bad, because it all depends. I definitely benefited from American liberal arts education, but this semester has taught me how other systems could work, as well as how much fun math could be. Maki is a junior. You can reach her at msakuma1@swarthmore.edu.

Opinions

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Staff Editorial

Four course plan betrays key student interests Many students are concerned that is best enjoyed in small classes. To take tuition rises every year. This year was away the basic tenets of a Swarthmore no different, but not only did tuition education significantly reduces the increase, class sizes also rose. Mid- value of that education. As a small college, Swarthmore level class sizes grew and many students faced lotteries in required cours- already offers fewer classes and disciplines than other larger schools. To es for their majors. Apart from rising class sizes, the increase this disparity would drive distribution of tenure-track faculty away potential students, which is too does not always match the student high a cost to be made up for by attractenrollment in the department. Many ing better hires and easing the workdepartments, such as political science load of professors. The drop in course offerings and the and biology, are in need of several rise in class sizes is too high a price for more tenure-track professors. Professors in these already the community to pay. Furthermore, stretched-thin departments face the this would likely cause tuition go up, since new facadditional ulty would work of teachneed to be ing larger hired to teach classes, while The drop in course offerings even 90 perstudents who and the rise in class sizes is cent of curcame here for rent offerings. the College’s too high a price for the There are small class community to pay. other options sizes are disfor increasing appointed as faculty comtheir courses grow in size or they are lotteried out of pensation, such as changing the leave cycle to allow one year off on full pay the courses. Despite these alarming issues, (as opposed to the current options of a Strategic Planning is putting forth a semester on full pay or a two semesters vision of Swarthmore professors who on half pay). This would still have the same teach fewer courses each year. Currently faculty teach five courses in adverse effects on students — rising an academic year, which is referred to tuition and class size and falling range of class offerings — but the repercusas a 3-2 load. If the Knowledge Committee goes sions could be of a smaller magnitude. Alternatively, the college could through with their discussions, professors could teach only four courses a draw at a higher rate from the endowyear, a 2-2 load. Schools compared with ment to finance the hiring of new facSwarthmore — Wellesley, Williams and ulty to restore class offerings and the the Ivy League — run on a 2-2 load. The student-professor ratio without raising goal of the change would be to attract tuition. Though the costs of implementing better new hires and to ease the burden the plan are high indeed, they are not shouldered by current professors. While we understand the benefits of as troubling as the secrecy with which changing to a 2-2 load, we feel this this discussion has been conducted. reduction in courses taught by each Professors may have been aware of this professor would have numerous potential change for years, but the adverse effects on students and the turnover of students has resulted in a lack of awareness surrounding this campus community as a whole. issue among A 2-2 load this the curwould exacerrent student bate problems More student input on the body. in currently Even if stuunderstaffed transition to the four course dents have no departments load should be considered. say in this and create decision, they new problems should be in departments that don’t need new tenure-track made aware of future changes. There is faculty right now. The diversity of class no mention of this plan on the Strategic offerings would undoubtedly decrease Planning website save a “History of the Future: An Imaginative Essay on if fewer courses were taught. As class offerings diminished, class Swarthmore’s Future,” written from sizes would rocket in the remaining the perspective of 2030, which notes classes, especially mid-level classes, that the four course load wasn’t realsince first year seminars and honors ized. Such opacity reflects poorly on the Strategic Planning process. seminars have capped enrollment. If the college wishes to move forThese changes would be extremely detrimental to students. Small class ward with the four course load, more sizes attract many students — one of student input on the transition should College’s key admissions statistics is be considered. A vision of Swarthmore with faculty the 8:1 student-faculty ratio, which is advertised in much of the Admissions who teach fewer courses each year is not a problem, but the adjustments to materials. A defining feature of the this new teaching norm require seriSwarthmore experience is working ous discussion by the whole campus closely with professors — a feature that community.

Emma Waitzman Phoenix Staff

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Opinions Jon’s reﬂections on the Swarthmore experience swarthmorephoenix.com

As I sat in my room, staring at my four fat seminar binders and six separate stacks of books, pondering what to write about, it occurred to me that in my final column I might stray from the usual political tract to reflect on my four years at Swarthmore. I still remember the Jon Erwin-Frank first time I saw Swarthmore. I got in off Sensible Socialist the waitlist, just in time to visit for last collection. Retiring Dean of Students Bob Gross gave an inspiring speech that involved the near ceaseless repetition of “no matter what you say or do to me, I am still a worthwhile person.” It didn’t make as much sense as it does now, but I appreciated the blunt gesture of affirmation. It was the kind of thing I needed to tell myself more often. In the better part of a day I fell in love with Swarthmore and made the decision to come here for four years. Countless papers, more books, six elections, too much Paces, lots of friends, one boyfriend, three trips abroad, four honors seminars, one Crunkfest and zero discussions of Nietzsche over Cheerios later and it’s almost time for me to graduate. My first three years were a roller coaster, lots of highs and lows and no discernible pattern. What I can say unequivocally is that my senior year has been better. That’s true for a lot of different reasons, but most importantly it’s because I made a conscious decision to change the way I did Swat. In my first two and a half years I did what felt most natural, most com-

fortable. I put all my eggs in the academic basket, If I had to pick the single most redeeming quality made a very small group of close friends and pur- about Swarthmore it would not be its academic sued my lofty career ambitions. While abroad I rigor or endearing quirkiness, but rather its openstarted to have serious doubts. ness: its capacity to let people experiment with who That summer I pledged to make some changes. In they are. my fall semester I took three classes, abandoned — Yes, we have our insular cliques and yes, there at least temporarily — my aspiration to get an are some of us who whisper or even write columns extremely competitive scholarship to study in the about those terrible “swawkward” losers among us, UK, took guitar lessons, ran to be a senior class offi- but they are in the minority. cer and vowed to go to every Pub Nite of the year. I think most of us recognize that being socially In the spring I was back to two honors seminars, awkward, just like being shy in class, is the product but went out often, took up juggling and enjoyed Pub of a learned lack of confidence, just in a different Nite, Genderfuck and Crunkfest. I never abandoned context. At its best, Swarthmore is a place to my passion for reading, writing and politics but I unlearn that kind of crippling self-consciousness decided I needed to better balance those familiar wherever it afflicts us. pleasures with endeavors that felt more transformaFor me at least, the brilliant, interesting and tive and more empowaccepting people I’ve ering. met here have made it I’m not suggesting exponentially easier for At its best, Swarthmore is a that the key to happime to break out of my ness at Swarthmore is comfort zone. place to unlearn that kind of lessening academic That’s why I like to ambition and partying think of Swat not just as crippling self-consciousness harder, although for a haven for awkward wherever it afflicts us. many of us that might nerds, but a place be true. I only mean to where prudes can get say that for me it took a crunk and bros can fairly radical change in priorities and outlook to be write a thesis; where nerds can work out and mean happy here. girls can discuss philosophy. In a lot of ways I got to where I am because I’m If I could offer one piece of advice to underclasslucky. I’ve had a supportive family who always told men it would be this: don’t be intimidated by other me being happy was more important than any tan- Swatties — those who seem more brilliant or socialgible indicator of success. They provided a lot of ly capable or athletic or musically inclined than you comfort but not a lot of incentive to change my are. introverted habits. I had a boyfriend who always Do what feels most transformative, most liberattold me I could become whomever I wanted. He pro- ing, most constructive for you. Take advantage of vided less comfort but was always there for a nudge the time and resources and people you have here to when I needed one. And I’m fairly certain there was change yourself for yourself. something about Swarthmore that helped me figure Jon is a senior. He can be reached at out how to be happy. jerwinf1@swarthmore.edu.

Administration needs to commit to faculty diversity BY HANNA KING AND JAMES MAO hking1@swarthmore.edu, jmao4@swarthmore.edu

On February 6, 1998, the Swarthmore College faculty met, discussed, and passed — unanimously — a resolution to “increase the number of faculty of color.” Over a decade later, Swarthmore College is stagnating in this endeavor. While there has been incremental movement towards the fulfillment of this resolution, it is clear that efforts to do so have not reached their full potential. Consequently, we, the IC/BCC Coalition, seek an active, renewed commitment to the goal of increasing faculty diversity at this College. We have engaged in multiple conversations with various channels in the administration with a view to revive that commitment, but have found the response less than satisfying. We believe that still more “dialogue” prevents actual engagement with the issue when there are so many concrete, immediate options to work with. Faculty diversity was universally endorsed as a necessary goal by the College faculty over 13 years ago; now is the time for the administration to explicitly express sustained commitment to that goal, as well as develop a realistic strategic plan to realize that goal. Faculty diversity was an issue of high importance in 1998, and it

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remains just as relevant today. In the original resolution that was passed, Swarthmore College faculty affirmed: “For the sake of furthering Swarthmore College’s community and educational values, the faculty endorses that all Departments and Programs in the College, with the help of the Administration, take necesary [sic] and appropriate steps so that within a decade we may see a significant increase in the racial and ethnic diversity of faculty hired in tenure-track positions well distributed in all three Divisions of the College.” Attached to the 1998 resolution was a background document (not voted on by the faculty) outlining the motivations for increasing the number of faculty of color. This included emphasis on the fact that “we do not mean to imply that hiring more Asian/Pacific/Asian American faculty (for instance) is important only to the Asian/Pacific/Asian American students enrolled... [rather,] community and educational values will be strengthened for all of us.” This is a timeless contention. Increased faculty diversity provides benefits for both underrepresented students as well as the community overall. Swarthmore College cannot proudly claim that 40 percent of the Class of 2014 are domestic students of color, as the College did in the October 2010 edition of the Swarthmore College Bulletin, without making congruous changes to the composition of its faculty.

Unfortunately, while the absolute number of minority faculty members went up 8.5 percent between 1999 and 2009, as a percentage of total faculty, minority faculty declined from 20.5 percent to 17.3 percent, according to the Equal Opportunity Office (EOO). This is an unacceptable trend judging by the College’s own mission of “mak[ing] its students more valuable human beings and more useful members of society.” Students cannot reach their “full intellectual and personal potential” (also from the mission statement) without an understanding of the diversifying and globalizing world around them. Thus, there are two simple, concrete steps that we propose to the College administration at this point in time: First, consultation of the EOO must be institutionalized in the hiring process. This is an easy and logical first step towards increasing faculty diversity. Currently, its involvement is not mandatory. Though the College obviously cannot make hires based on, for example, race, the EOO’s input needs to be heard if the College is serious about faculty diversity. Second, structural changes are needed to improve understanding and communication between the faculty, administration and students. Though we are grateful for the open doors that professors and department offices have always offered us, simply walking through these doors on a studentby-student basis does not provide a measurable system to gauge student

April 28, 2011

interest in curriculum offerings. Even the involvement of students in visiting professor hires becomes distorted if students are not able to make it to lectures and meet-and-greets. Thus, we suggest institutionalizing forums where students can express their interests and faculty members can respond. Candidate professors’ lectures could be posted online. Basically, formal avenues must be provided to students to solve our collective action problems. Furthermore, departments would be held accountable if dialogue becomes formalized and transparent. We are not asking for more diversity for diversity’s sake. Our mission is to create the most enlightening and supportive environment for the students on this campus. Faculty of color are simply one aspect of this mission; we also desire faculty who have a demonstrated interest to being active members of this College community and engaging thoughtfully with students and administration alike. By the raw numbers our faculty diversity falls short of the 18 percent minority figure at other leading coed liberal arts colleges such as Williams and Amherst. But increasing faculty diversity also requires a culture of accountability and transparency. The ethos of social concern and community building sets Swarthmore College apart from comparable institutions. It is time for the administration to affirm that commitment. This op-ed was written on behalf of the IC/BCC coalition.

Opinions Birther issue shouldn’t have reached this point

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The International Monetary Fund is forecasting that China will surpass America as the world’s largest economy in 2016. America has almost hit its debt ceiling. Energy prices are on the rise and show no signs of declining. It is disheartening that with all of these problems, President Obama’s birth certificate Tyler Becker started to become a defining issue in the 2012 GOP priThe Swarthmore mary. Conservative On Wednesday, the White House released President Obama’s long-form birth certificate in an attempt to end discussion of the issue. There is no doubt that some groups will question the authenticity of the document, but the debate is really over. President Obama was born in Hawaii. The question of Obama’s ability to be president has been answered and we can now move on to more important issues. Republicans need to stay away from petty issues like this one and talk about real change in 2012. How did we get to the point that Obama felt the need to finally release his birth certificate? Last week, the Drudge Report announced that Jerome Corsi, Ph.D., is coming out with a new book titled, “Where’s the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President.” The book quickly rose to number one on Amazon the first day it was available for pre-order (it will actually hit store shelves May 17). A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that 45 percent of Republicans believe that President Obama was not born in the United States. In a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP) in the important first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, 42 percent of likely primary voters say that they do not believe Obama was born in America, and therefore is ineligible to be president. PPP also found that 48 percent of Iowa Republicans do not believe that President Obama was born in the United States. Last year, the New York Times/CBS News poll found that the majority of Republicans thought that President Obama was born in America. Birthers seemed to be a fringe group that nobody took seriously. Now, the same poll shows that only one-third of Republicans think that the president was born in the United States. Donald Trump, the fiery real estate tycoon and possible 2012 GOP presidential contender, brought up the

issue of Obama’s birth certificate during his numerous headed in the “wrong direction.” President Obama is media interviews. Trump told Meredith Vieira on often blamed for this, particularly by Republicans. I am not defending people who choose to believe that NBC’s “Today Show” that he has investigators in Hawaii looking for Obama’s birth certificate and trying Obama was not born in the United States. Americans to gain access to records to show that Obama is not eli- do not have a positive view of where the country is gible to be president. He said that “they cannot believe headed, and there are people who blame this on the president. We must understand that since many what they’re finding.” The strategy was working for The Donald. In many Americans are rightfully angry at what is going on in recent national GOP presidential primary polls, Trump this country at the moment, the view that maybe is now the second only to former Governor Mitt Obama is not even qualified to be president starts to Romney (R-MA). Also, the PPP poll found Trump the stick. Now that the birth certificate has been released, second choice of potential GOP primary voters in New Hampshire, capturing 21 percent of the electorate. Republicans need to focus on the numerous issues that Romney garners 27 percent of the vote in the poll, but the American public has with President Obama, and build a campaign from there. Donald Trump is not loses to Trump by one point among birthers. Rather than talking about issues that are going to helping this process with his bombastic comments and matter in the election, Trump is pushing an issue that large ego that is bent on getting the most media attenE.J. Dionne, author of “Why Americans Hate Politics,” tion possible. Trump is already asking for more of would classify as a “false choice.” Trump is saying that Obama’s records to be released, including his college either there is a birth certificate or there is not a birth transcripts. He wants to make the case that Obama has certificate, with the implication that Obama is not degrees from Columbia Univeristy and Harvard American. And, this is the reason the issue was salient. because of affirmative action, not for being a good stuThere is a portion of the American populace that sees dent. This is yet another distraction from the problems Obama as un-American. This view of the president is a result of both his poli- facing America today. Trump must take a back seat and enjoy the fact that he cies and some of the was responsible for statements he has the birth cermade. A good portion It is disheartening that with all of these getting tificate released. Now, of the legislation let the credible candiObama has champiproblems, President Obama’s birth fight it out to oned mark fundamencertificate started to become a defining dates take on Obama. tal changes to the Thank you for country. Obama’s issue in the 2012 GOP primary. reading my column healthcare reform legthis semester. islation, which a majority of the country now wants repealed, is an Whether you have agreed or disagreed with me, I hope example. In the eyes of some, Obama also has not dis- that this column has once again brought a different played the same love of country that was exhibited by perspective to our campus. Thank you to those of you presidents such as Ronald Reagan. While traveling in who reached out to me by e-mail or in person to offer Strasbourg, France, Obama said that America has your comments. I chose to write about the birther issue for my last “failed to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the column this semester not because I wanted you to leave world.” Other subtle evidence of a shortage of pro-American this semester agreeing with me, but because it has been sentiment includes Obama’s choice to not wear a flag bothering me for a while. When it was finally released pin on his lapel during the presidential campaign and Wednesday, I felt a sigh of relief. It is one of those times Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and where I feel that in academic settings, we have trouble his blistering critiques of America. Many people point understanding why so many Americans think that our to these facts and suggest that despite being president, president was not born in this country when there are so many other issues at hand. It is all really connected, Obama is not patriotic. Another issue for Obama is that the vast majority of but Republicans need to be smart and not inflame the the country sees that Americans do not have positive passions of the public by bringing up issues such as attitudes about America’s future. Last week, New York this one. Tyler is a first-year. He can be reached at Times and CBS News released a poll that has 70 percent of Americans answering that they think the country is tbecker1@swarthmore.edu.

Resolve pets on campus matter with open discussion BY MELANIE YOUNG myoung1@swarthmore.edu

The topic of pets on campus is a complex one. I’ve heard from students about how a few moments petting one of the campus dogs has relieved the stress they were feeling and reminded them of the comforts of home. I’ve heard from staff that have been bitten by a dog in the past and when turning a corner to find a dog off their leash growling at them has caused their blood pressure to skyrocket and their nightmares to return. I’ve heard from faculty who maintain that their ability to bring their pet to work is a cherished part of their experience at the College. I’ve heard from people who have had to maneuver around excrement left in the hallways of our buildings. And I’ve heard from community members of all types that it can be

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uncomfortable to raise issues about pets on campus because they worry that their views are those of the “minority” on a campus that mostly self-identifies as a haven for animals and animal lovers. It’s clear that when it comes to a pet “policy,” people feel strongly no matter what their life’s experiences have been. It’s also clear that we can empathize with those with fears or allergies, just as we can embrace those who count on our animal friends to comfort and nurture their experience. Dogs on campus provide benefits and dogs on campus create liabilities — both of these truths co-exist. So how does one go about bridging what seems to be a daunting divide between perspectives and emotions? Our current policy, which does not permit animals in public spaces or to be off the leash when walking through campus, provides a good starting point and attempts to balance the needs of all. And yet, issues arise for which the

current policy provides insufficient solutions. For example, some community members are uncomfortable with asking pet owners to remove their pets or put them on a leash, because occasionally their request is met with disdain or because they are not confident that they have the right to make such a request. And there are property damage issues and liability issues as well by pets who are not well supervised by their owners. On the other hand, other community members are concerned about restricting the presence of pets further than we already have, some because they enjoy having pets around and some because they worry our workplace is becoming overly regulated. While these differences may appear irreconcilable, we owe it to ourselves to try to work together in common cause, respecting both individual opinions and rights, and our collective commitment to one another.

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The meeting scheduled for May 3rd at 12:30 in Scheuer gives us an opportunity to engage in constructive problem solving and create a space where consensus surrounding a way forward that serves all of the members of the Swarthmore community can emerge. We cannot ignore the issues that exist; we have to do our best to understand them and find solutions. I believe all of these issues are resolvable, as long as we listen to one another with respect and concern and stay focused on the well being of our community as a whole. It’s not simply a matter of whether people enjoy the pets on campus, but rather a question of how we respond to the issues that their presence creates. To do that, we need to move beyond dichotomous thinking and use this moment to creatively strengthen our community. I’m confident that we can do so. Melanie Young is the Vice President of Human Resources. THE PHOENIX

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Student Council Platforms

MEETthe candidates

Below are the platforms for the Fall 2011 Student Council elections. The open positions are: president, campus life representative, educational policy representative, financial policy representative and student groups advisor. All platforms are also available on www.swarthmorephoenix.com. Voting will take place Thursday, April 28 through Saturday, April 30th.

For president: Ben Hattem ’12 Friends, I’m Ben Hattem, and I want to be your next Student Council President. As StuCo Financial Policy Representative this year, I have gained substantial understanding of the workings of the College and the administrative decision making process. But most of all, I have learned how much work there is left to be done to ensure a vigorous student presence in the management of the College. Even after years of students voicing concerns over insufficient student power and oversight, major decisions are often made without student consent or input — our only real role in the process is to validate decisions after they are made. This was especially apparent to me in my work on the College Budget Committee. This committee is ostensibly tasked with reviewing and providing input and recommendations for the budgeting process, but in practice its function is merely to receive a cursory glance at budgets that have already been created. Much of the problem here is the way that decision-making processes are institutionalized. Something I discovered as I worked on the Rollover Initiative this year is that students have extraordinary leeway over the management of our own funds and institutional structure. That is, we have immense freedom to spend the Student Activities Account as we like and design the student-led committee structure as we see fit. It took me longer to realize, however, that this freedom granted to students is partly a way of separating almost entirely student institutions from administrative ones. We have total control over our budget; in exchange, we have no control over the College’s. As Student Council President, I will act to redefine and reinvigorate the committee structure by pushing administrative committees like the College Budget Committee, Committee for Investor Responsibility and Student Advisory Committee to the Dean of Admissions to meet more frequently and allow for a greater student role in setting the agenda of the committees. In addition, I will pursue the formation of a Financial Practices Advisory Committee to review and publicize financial decisions made by the College and to respond to student concerns about these decisions. This would be an extension both of the Employment Practices Advisory THE PHOENIX

Committee recommended by the Living Wage Committee in 2004 and of the recommendations of the currently active Committee for Purchaser Responsibility. The committee structure could be a great space for student involvement and increased transparency in the creation of College policies and budgets, but it needs serious reworking. Furthermore, students must be more involved in the Strategic Planning process. Implementation of the strategic plan begins next spring, so students have little time left to significantly influence the near future of our school. The Strategic Planning process has been distressingly opaque to most if not all students; apart from the handful of student representatives selected by administrators to sit on the various working groups, almost all the conversation and information generated through the process has been kept from the student body. The Strategic Planning blog is a frustratingly inadequate way of supporting student participation. As President, I will press those involved in Strategic Planning to open up the process by critically evaluating what information needs to be confidential and what can be disseminated to the student body. With more specific details about the decisions being made, students will be able to give precise feedback on the process. In addition, I will push for more communication between the working groups and the student body so that students can see the direct results of their contributions. This is an ambitious agenda, and it’s worth asking whether these reforms are achievable, especially given the inability of Student Council to significantly impact the functioning of the College in the past. I believe that much of what has hampered StuCo up until now is that its members generally see the council purely as a mediator and liaison between students and administrators. StuCo members feel that they have to advocate to students on behalf of the administration as much as they advocate to the administration on behalf of students. What we forget in doing so is that we are simply students ourselves, and that positions on Student Council are only titles that allow access to broader communication mechanisms and give StuCo members face time with administrators. The responsibility of Student Council is to the student body and student concerns, and it does its con-

stituents a disservice by striving at all times to maintain positive, concordant relationships with administrators — relationships often built by moderating and diffusing student concerns. Student Council should be willing to engage in broad campus organization and action around initiatives of importance to the student body. We come to the negotiating table in a much stronger position if we are comfortable backing up our requests with a cohesive, organized student response. This doesn’t mean that we should burn bridges, but it is possible for us to have a working relationship with the administration while maintaining the understanding that we are willing to exert uncomfortable pressure on the College if our concerns are dismissed or trivialized. That StuCo has not been able to function in that way this year is something I regret about my tenure as Financial Policy Rep. Moving forward, I will continue to work with administrators to make the changes seen as necessary by the student body. I understand the importance of cooperation and compromise, even if I believe we must sometimes eschew the bureaucratic methods of achieving our goals. To that end, I have been heavily involved this year in the creation of two pieces of long-term policy: the Rollover Initiative and the Responsible Purchasing Guidelines. The Rollover Initiative, spearheaded primarily by me and current President Simon Zhu, is designed to make funding through SBC easier to get, less arcane and more efficient,

and to open up a self-renewing $100,000 fund to be allocated by a student committee for the development of student projects. The Responsible Purchasing Guidelines, written by the Committee for Purchaser Responsibility on which I’ve served since its foundation last spring, reiterate Swarthmore’s commitment to spending its money in a socially responsible manner through the establishment of new College policy defining acceptable and unacceptable purchases. Each of these pieces of policy was created in coordination and conjunction with Swarthmore’s staff and administration, and helped to build the strong working relationship I enjoy with many of the College’s administrators. In short, I believe that Student Council has extraordinary potential to be an aggressive force pursuing student initiatives. But we have a tendency to hamstring ourselves by assuming that our only role is to mediate discussions. At times, StuCo has to be just another student group advocating student concerns — concerns which can be at odds with the interests of the administration. Frankly, that kind of conflict is a healthy part of the development of an institution like Swarthmore. Administrators will push one way; students, often, another. When our interests align with the administration, cooperation works well. However, Student Council renders itself pretty ineffective and incapable of successful negotiation when it forgets whose side it’s really on.

For campus life representative: Matt Lamb ‘12 For three years I have been fortunate enough to be a part of this incredible student body. As I reflect on my time at Swat, I have come to the conclusion that it’s time for me to give back to the Swarthmore community, specifically the great student body. As a member of the Swarthmore community, I’ve been incredibly lucky to be a part of the baseball team, DARTeam, Delta Upsilon fraternity, SAC and an RA. My experience with different campus organizations has given me a deep understanding of what students love about Swarthmore and what they want to change. Essentially, my job as your Campus Life Representative would be to act as the liaison between the student body and the administration. As your

April 28, 2011

Campus Life Representative, I would actively seek out student body suggestions and complaints and ensure that they are heard by the administration. The Student Council can improve communications with the student body by creating surveys with questions better suited to get at the needs and desires of students. The student body deserves an active voice working to make your experience here as enjoyable as possible. Once we identify your concerns on campus, we can work with the administration to instill positive change on this campus that would create a more enjoyable experience for us and for future generations of Swatties. So let’s work together and better this already great campus. I’d appreciate your vote for Campus Life Representative. Thanks!

Student Council Platforms

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For campus life representative, continued: Sinan Kazaklar ’14 Hi Swatties! My name is Sinan Kazaklar and I would like to serve on the StuCo as one of your Campus Life Representatives. After my hometown, Istanbul, Turkey, I feel like Swarthmore is my second home. I would love to serve this unique community to ensure its welfare by acting as an intermediary link between the students and the administration. To achieve that I am hoping to interact with more of you in a personal level to hear what you have to say about the current events and your opinions about the different operations of the College. We have a very well-bonded community that is a rich mosaic of different backgrounds and stories. I would like to sustain this strong bond by keeping the conversation channels open and urge a fruitful environment for every positive idea and opinion to flourish. In my opinion, mutual understanding and empa-

thy are the keys elements for that. As the Campus Life Representative, I would do my best to keep the positive and friendly atmosphere active by presenting the different opinions and reactions to the Council. We have good conditions at our dorms, but I think we can make them better by some improvements. One could be adding useful appliances to the lounges. A microwave and a fridge are two examples that every resident could benefit from. Also the school pays a substantial amount of money for cable, but only a few locations around the campus have access to cable TV. Every lounge should have access to cable TV that is already being paid for. Another improvement that I want to suggest is the “wellness centers” in every dorm that would have some fitness equipment and mats. This is a harder task to achieve but I would work hard to bring these opinions and many more from the student body to the StuCo and try to make these suggestions come true. As the Campus Life Representative, another one of my responsibilities would be to pursue the improvement of dining services through the inputs from the student body. Rollover meal points have been a topic of interest on the StuCo for a while now, but no resolv-

ing conclusion has been reached. I would urge a solution to this important matter on the StuCo and hopefully get the rollover meal points system going in near future. In addition to that, implementing new and delicious specialty bars to the Sharples menu and introducing healthy food choices to Essie Mae's would be my other priorities. While trying to make this campus a better place than it already is, I also would like to encourage the efforts to make Swarthmore a green campus. Although composting is achieved at a reasonable level, it could be further enhanced and combined with other conservation efforts such as energy-efficient light bulbs or implementing lights with movement sensors that only turn on when there is someone in the room. Swarthmore is a beautiful place and I really want to take part in efforts to make it better than it already is. I am always open to hear what you have to say and really appreciate your input. I would love to be the bridge between you and the StuCo. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Thanks! Sinan

For educational policy representative: Panchompoo (Fai) Wisittanawat ’13 Hi everyone! My name is Panchompoo Wisittanawat. (I go by Fai.) I would like to be your next Educational Policy Representative. I am running for the position because I am deeply interested in education and educational policy. My academic experience at Swarthmore has been a formative and challenging one. I am truly appreciative of the rich academic resources that the college provides, but I believe that there is more work to be done to make sure that all students succeed in what they aim for at Swarthmore. As the Educational Policy Representative, I will work closely with students and the administration to make the existing resources accessible and look for areas where the college can still do better. I am a physics major in the Class of 2013, with chemistry and education minors. In the past two years, I have been involved in many activities related to the college’s educational policies and beyond. I served as a student representative on the Curriculum Committee. I have been investing a lot of time and energy to provide student inputs in the Strategic Planning process, especially on issues regarding academic support and students’ educational experiences. In addition to educational policy-related work, I served as a co-president of I-20 (The International Club), which gave me the opportunity to be engaged with the campus community through various events that I-20 organized. As the Educational Policy Representative, in addition to attending the Curriculum Committee and the Council on Educational Policy regularly, I will continue and initiate conversations around the following student concerns and push for changes that students want to see. Department-Specific Academic Support: In the past two years, academic support has been a widely discussed topic among students and faculty. While the sciences have been praised for their support systems, namely SAs and tutors, it is time we reevaluated the existing programs as the introductory science classes have become significantly larger. In addition, we should look for a possibility to expand the support systems to departments in other disciplines. Writing Courses and Writing Requirement: At present, there are many continuing student concerns regarding writing courses and the writing requirement. To be specific, some students are concerned with the inconsistency in terms of expectation and quality of writing courses, and the lack of upper-level writing courses. Sometimes students find that their writing improves more in a non-writing course. I believe there should be a reassessment of the rubric for writing courses, and possibly a student end-of-the-term, writing-specific evaluation for every writing course. Course Diversity: For a college of our size, Swarthmore already offers a wide variety of classes, but as the world is changing rapidly and there is always something new to learn, it is not easy to keep up. However, visiting professors can be great resources for emerging fields of study or ones that are in high demands among students, and we should have more say in who the college recruits to be visiting professors and which field of study they represent. These are a few concerns that I have heard discussed among students in the past years. However, when I am the Educational Policy Representative, I will make a serious effort to listen to students’ opinions, foster conversations and communicate students’ ideas to the administration. I am committed to and excited for this position. I will make it a top priority. With your help, we can create a formative and supportive academic atmosphere. Thank you and good luck with the rest of the semester! Fai

Lisa Bao ’14 Hello! My name is Lisa Bao and I am interested in becoming your Educational Policy Representative for 2011-12. I’m a prospective linguistics major in the Class of 2014, and I work at the McCabe reference desk — come ask me a question about library research or printer malfunctions! Since arriving at Swarthmore, I’ve been increasingly fascinated by the administrative decisions that shape our academic experiences. I had the opportunity to read the College’s 2009 re-accreditation self-study*, which was surprisingly transparent, spurring me to participate in College governance. In the process, I discovered a new affinity for the intricate balance of priorities between Swarthmore’s expansive curriculum and the diverse individual community members that make it happen. As a student representative on Working Group 2 (WG2): “Knowledge, Teaching, and Learning,” of Strategic Planning, I’ve gathered feedback from my fellow students — you! — in both formal and informal ways. The committee is charged to design an academic program addressing knowledge in the 21st century, preparing citizens to contribute to a global society and teaching students who span a range of diverse experiences and identities. Many times I have met with students individually to discuss specific concerns, and either directed them to the appropriate working group or addressed the issue during my own weekly committee meeting. I’ve represented the student body in this capacity by: Participating on the panel of WG2’s two Fireside Chats, Q&A-style meetings open to the entire College community. After both discussions, I stayed behind to answer individual questions, and continued the conversation with interested students in my dorm. Meeting with the IC/BCC communities as an informal liaison with regard to course and faculty diversity. I am also a member of Swarthmore Asian Organization (SAO), presently as a First-Year Intern. Contributing research on peer institutions to WG2, such as different structural models to support interdisciplinary programs, honors and independent research. In the Pedagogy subgroup, I was responsible for writing the interdisciplinarity section of our report to the whole committee. Forming a new subgroup of WG2, on “mapping the curriculum,” at the behest of Will Treece ’11 and myself, both of us student representatives on the committee. The subgroup will discuss long-term needs in scaffolding of curricular knowledge and integrate existing improvements already underway on a “Course Catalog 2.0” by the Registrar’s office. However, I also wish to serve immediate student needs through concrete measures that will not conflict with the Strategic Planning process. My specific goals as Educational Policy Representative include: Presenting existing information in an organized format to students, such as a list of courses offered without prerequisite in the natural sciences division, or courses with content relating to Ethnic Studies. Centralizing faculty course syllabi. This idea had been discussed and tabled a few years ago, due to concerns about copyright, but I remain hopeful that a mutually beneficial compromise can be reached between students and faculty. Restructuring the Tri-Co Summer Institute for Diversity, which has been disbanded (without student input) into a Swarthmore-only program for Fall 2011. I attended Tri-Co myself last summer and found it an empowering space for all interested first-year students, regardless of their college or cultural identity, to come together in educational dialogue. Through Strategic Planning, I have gained invaluable experience with the inner workings of Swarthmore-specific educational policies. I am ready to take one step down from visionary planning to the long-term but concrete decisions made through consensus by the Council on Educational Policy and the Curriculum Committee — two important College administrative committees which include the Educational Policy Representative — as well as, of course, to full participation in the resolutions and goals of Student Council as an independent body. Thank you for your time in reading this (lengthy) platform! I am always open to new ideas and feedback on current, emerging, or continuing initiatives. Please contact me with any questions, thoughts or concerns at lbao1@swarthmore.edu. I hope to have your vote for Educational Policy Representative! *http://www.swarthmore.edu/middlestates/final.php

April 28, 2011

THE PHOENIX

Sports

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Dodger ‘royalty’ inﬂames McCourt’s shady tenure “Have just read back-toback columns trying to stand up for Frank McCourt. That seems to me an excellent final journalism exam.” —Sports Illustrated columnist Joe Posnanski (@jposnanski) on Twitter For many people, whether they want to admit or not, strike one against Frank McCourt was how he Timothy Bernstein made his money. Something about the job Bullet Points title “parking lot owner” makes it disturbingly easy to dismiss the man who holds it, and there’s no good reason why. In nearly every case, the people doing the dismissing would have zeropoint-zero percent idea how one even becomes a parking lot owner, how much work it might take, or what kind of net worth could come from owning parking lots. They just know how it sounds off the tongue, and unfortunately for the man in question, there is something unmistakably second-rate in the sound of “parking lot owner,” something that has no place anywhere near the ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Own enough buildings, and you become a titan of industry; your right to purchase a piece of baseball royalty is beyond question. Own enough parking lots, and five percent of the Padres seems like more your speed. All this might make it that much easier to see why, when McCourt got unanimously approved by Bud Selig and the owners in 2004, people wrote it off as baseball’s quick fix to keep FOX, who owned the Dodgers and were desperate to unload them, in the mood to negotiate a fair TV deal going forward. It could also explain a little better why McCourt’s first executive decision — to hire “Moneyball” star Paul DePodesta to be his new GM — wasn’t hailed as a cutting-edge embrace of new analysis but

rather a commitment to cheapness. After all, who else would the parking lot owner pick to run his team but the man whose guiding principle would be to not spend money on free agents? This is not to say — and I cannot stress “not to say” strongly enough — that McCourt has not achieved this negative image with his extreme generosity, and cue the obligatory roll call of indiscretions. This was, you might remember, the man whose bid to buy the Red Sox fell apart because he wanted to move the team from Fenway Park to a new stadium constructed … on his parking lots. The man who needed FOX to loan him $145 million to buy the Dodgers in the first place (the collateral he offered in return: parking lots). The man who pledged to renovate Dodger Stadium by 2012 and never got started. The man who has almost certainly paid salaries out of the team’s official charity. The man who has tied the fate of baseball royalty to his divorce. The man who has put the Dodgers at half a billion dollars in debt. The man who forced Vin Scully at gunpoint to give him a urine sample so Manny Ramirez would pass his drug test. That last one was a lie. Most likely. So no, in many ways, this is not a defense of Frank McCourt, who has made indefensible mistakes with baseball royalty. Think of it instead as a suggestion that perhaps the reaction to McCourt’s tenure would not have been so strong if he had owned a franchise that didn’t have hyperbole like “sacred” and “royalty” attached to it in so many places. In his statement following the MLB’s takeover of the team last week, Selig wrote, “The Dodgers have been one of the most prestigious franchises in all of sports, and we owe it to their legion of loyal fans to ensure that this club is being operated properly.” Would Selig and baseball have been as quick on the trigger if the legacy of, say, the Arizona Diamondbacks was in danger? The situation McCourt has placed the Dodgers in is abysmal, but unfortunately not unprecedented. For all of the uncertainty surrounding one of the most prestigious franchises in all of sports, the Dodgers still managed to grow in value last

year by about ten percent. At $800 million, Forbes listed them as baseball’s third-most valuable team. When McCourt took over, they were ranked fourth and valued at half of what they are today, a pattern of growth few teams can claim to have emulated. For his sins, McCourt’s Dodgers have not ceased to be a valuable entity. To deny that there was a massive double standard at play here, to say that this thing wasn’t always steeped in an ugly sort of elitism, would be to ignore just how steeply the deck was stacked against Frank McCourt when he took over the Dodgers. To those same people who tossed off the phrase “parking lot owner” like it was nothing, the idea of handing over one of baseball’s most beloved franchises — the one that comes with names like Robinson and Campanella, Koufax and Valenzuela, Gibson, Hershiser and Lasorda — to this man was like selling the “Mona Lisa” to someone who wanted to hang it in a McDonald’s window. To the fans, and media alike, McCourt was unworthy of the Dodgers from day one, and the fault was (not entirely) his. I can’t say, in good conscience, that I’ve passed Posnanski’s test; McCourt made things far too hard on himself for anyone to really do that. I can only offer a word of encouragement, after watching the city of Los Angeles tear this man a new one for seven straight years, to fans of the New York Mets. This is, as if you didn’t know already, the team that sits in last place in their division. That got swindled by Bernie Madoff. That lost thirteen percent of its net worth last year alone. That currently resembles a black hole from which no matter (just Oliver Perez) can escape. Now that the MLB has shown McCourt the door, many fear that Fred Wilpon will be next, and he very well may be. But my encouragement for those who fear Selig’s impending wrath comes in the form of a salient reminder that the Mets, while they have had their moments, are not the Dodgers, and that your dad would never be as angry with you for crashing the Jetta as he would if you totaled the Porsche. Tim is a sophomore. You can reach him at tbernst1@swarthmore.edu.

sports in brief

Women’s, men’s lacrosse finish tough season Men’s Lacrosse Record on the Week (April 2127): 0-1 Overall record: 4-11 (2-6 CC) Conference standing: 9th The Swarthmore men’s lacrosse team finished out the season with a loss on Saturday, falling 10-6 to the Haverford Fords despite a hat-trick from midfielder Max Hubbard ’12. The Garnet finished the season 4-11, with a 26 Conference record. Swarthmore showed fight in its final game, as it has for much of the season; falling behind 5-1 in the first period, the Garnet went on a 4-0 run in the second quarter to tie the game at 5. Although the Fords eventually put up five more goals to seal the victory, Swarthmore finished the game with significant edges in shots, faceoffs and ground balls. Despite the Garnet’s record, good only for ninth place in the Conference,

Women’s Lacrosse Record on the Week (April 2127): 1-2 Overall record: 9-7 (3-6 CC) Conference standing: 7th

tHe pHoeniX

the team showed a good deal of promise throughout the year in games against formidable competitors. Midfielder Annalise Penikis ’13 carried the Swarthmore women’s lacrosse team through the last week of the season, almost single-handedly carrying the Garnet to a victory over the Washington Shorewomen last Thursday. Her eight-goal performance in the 1312 win, plus seven more goals in the Garnet’s two losses and six assists over the three games, earned her the Centennial Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week honor. Down 9-6 at the half on Thursday, Penikis, Marie Mutryn ’12, Corinne Sommi ’14 and Nicole Vanchieri ’13 scored five unanswered goals to give the Garnet a lead. The Shorewomen battled back, but, with the game tied at 12, Penikis netted the game-winner with just 16 seconds left in regulation. The win was sandwiched between two close losses, 13-9 at Dickinson last Wednesday and 9-8 against Haverford on Saturday. Saturday’s contest was Swarthmore’s Senior Day, as Jean Dahlquist and Emily Evans played the final home games of their collegiate careers. BY ANA APOSTOLERIS

Eric Verhasselt Phoenix Staff

Midfielder Beth Martin charges ahead against the Haverford Fords on Saturday. The Garnet lost 9-8 in the Senior Day game. The loss came after a successful 13-12 win over Washington College’s Shorewomen on Thursday. The Haverford game was Senior Day. Jean Dahlquist and Emily Evans played their final home games of their careers.

April 28, 2011

Sports

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Exploring the security of impossibility in sports, romance The headline read life on hold to go to Europe, I couldn’t because she was “Zaza Pachulia locked down. Now, with the world at my fingertips, Headbutts Jason possibility loomed over me as I came to realize how Richardson – Richardson lofty the claims I made actually were. It’s not that I all smacks Pachulia.” of a sudden don’t want to sweep Marta off her feet, it’s Obviously I clicked on just that I no longer have the luxury of an excuse. I think a lot of athletes feel this way when they get the article, but it wasn’t a headbutt or a smack that into fights during the game. It’s not that they don’t I saw once I saw the want to fight, it’s just that the expectation of being footage from the fourth held back gives you a false sense of bravado. Think quarter of Friday’s play- about it in terms of going out; you have a lot more off match-up. Here’s how confidence when you know you’re rolling with your Andrew Greenblatt it really went down: boys, right? Most sports fights are just scuffles with a lot of Pachulia hacks Howard The Life of Greeny (in my opinion it was an screaming and rage induced insults heightened by obvious hack but nothing that exact bravado. While there are exceptions unusual for the NBA (Charlie Villanueva for one) many athletes only playoffs). Howard flails his arms out excessively, muster up the courage to let the fists fly only with the elbowing Pachulia in the face. Pachulia, visibly upset, comfort of not having to really fight. So what do we do? First looks around venting his off, this is why hockey is anger. At this exact awesome; they took the permoment, Jason Richardson formative pageantry out of It’s not that athletes aren’t comes to Dwight Howard’s it. If you want to fight somerescue. I’m not really sure tough enough to fight ... it’s one you’ll have your shot, so what Richardson was thinking here: Howard is a sevenjust that being really angry and hockey players don’t bother all the trash talk foot-tall freak of nature who actually hitting somebody are with unless they’re serious about can’t fit through door throwing down. Secondly, frames, but Richardson two totally different things. don’t blame the athletes, enters. because in the moment I At this point Zaza begins truly believe that they want to talk a whole ton of smack moving his head violently from side to side. As his to fight, the anger is real and the aggression is evihead makes the slightest bit of contact with J-Rich, dent, but take away that safety blanket of impossibilRichardson pushes his hand in Zaza’s face in a way ity and see what happens. I really love Marta and still more disrespectful than malicious. The teams con- do, and still might go to Barcelona to sweep her off her verge on the disagreement, and a hellaciously mis- feet, but with the opportunity in my lap, I’m not runmatched referee plunges into the middle of the action, ning to book my flights as fast as I thought I would. somehow separating the two behemoths. The Hawks It’s not that athletes aren’t tough enough to fight, or hold their teammate Zaza back as Dwight Howard that they’re just trying to look cool, it’s just that being really angry and actually hitting somebody are two engulfs Richardson. A fairly typical sports scuffle, but notice one thing: totally different things. Does Zaza still halfway headZaza and J-Rich didn’t actually do anything. They butt J-Rich if there was nobody to interfere? Maybe made an awfully convincing scene of anger and not, but the security of impossibility certainly made it aggression but in the end, after a semi-incidental easier. Maybe that’s why people scream “Hold me back,” headbutt and a hand push to the face gentle enough to Courtesy of barbaratitus.wordpress.com and aol.sportsnews.com use to smear some schmutz off of your hand, two elite instead of, “Let me go.” Andrew is a junior. You can reach him at An elbow by Dwight Howard (above) spurred a scuffle athletes were separated by a middle-aged fairly out of between Jason Richardson and Zaza Pachulia (below). shape referee, and to top it all off, they were suspend- agreen3@swarthmore.edu. ed for a game. The mindless guy-at-the-end-of-the-bar sports fan in me wants to get up obnoxiously and say too loudly and presumptuously, “if you’re gonna get suspended, you might as well hit the guy! Am I right?” But wait. When I was abroad in Barcelona I met the second love of my life, a bubbly and infectious volleyball soPh., lAcrosse, swArthmore, PA. player from Ibiza named Marta who I’ve told half of Swat’s campus about already. Marta and I developed a whAt she’s done: tragically enchanting relationship that flowered out of my unconditional and undying love for her and her the sophomore was named the centennial conference endless amusement in my American antics. But, Player of the week for women’s lacrosse for the week according to Tania, Marta and her boyfriend were ending April 24. Penikis, a midfielder for the Garnet, deeply in love and potentially getting married. Little enjoyed a strong offensive week, netting 15 goals and did I realize it then, but as I was professing my love dishing out six assists in three conference games. she for Marta, sharing unabashedly my plans for our wedalso scored a career-high eight goals — which included the game winner — in the Garnet’s recent 13-12 victory over ding, I was 100 percent delusional. Under what I washington. Penikis is the fourth swarthmore plater and thought was an intensity of love I had never known, I ninth player in the centennial conference to reach 100 was blinded by what was actually the safety blanket of points in a season. she led the conference in goals, impossibility (both geographically and romantically). assists and points, and was named to the 2011 AllIt was the impossibility that let my imagination, and centennial conference women’s lacrosse team. mouth, run wild. Knowing that there was little time left, I was telling Marta that if she ever broke up with FAvorite cAreer moment: her boyfriend that I’d be on the next flight to Barcelona to sweep her off her feet. At the time I was “crushing the higher seeded team to make it to the finals proud of my honesty; at least she knew how I felt. of playoffs for the first time, my sophomore year of high Fast forward to Friday, shortly after Jason school.” Richardson and Zaza Pachulia kind of almost fought, a fascinating notification popped up on my Facebook best seAson moment: news feed. My eyes weren’t deceiving me. Marta, after “the feeling on the field during the [April 21] washington four years, was single. A moment of what could have game, even when we were down, that we were going to been elation (and was) turned out to be dominated by win.” the all too real realization that if I wanted to be on the next flight to Barcelona, I’d have to make some seriFAvorite summer vAcAtion sPot: ous sacrifices. In a weird way I missed the unavailable and impossible Marta, when she had a boyfriend, “Greenport, nY (and shelter island).” when I was in the Dwight Howard-death-grip-ofAllegra Pocinki Phoenix Staff impossibility. Even if I wanted to escape and put my

garnet athlete of the week

AnnAlise Penikis

April 28, 2011

the PhoenIX

Sports

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SportS in brief

Symposium explores women in sports during and after college On Friday, April 22, Hannah Purkey ’11 and Kira Kern ’11 hosted the second annual Women in Sports Symposium, which included a talk from Caitlin Barrett, the program coordinator for Coach Across America. The Women in Sports Symposium focuses on the challenges female athletes face at Swarthmore and other colleges, and how to encourage women to stay involved with sports after graduation. The symposium was first held on April 5, 2009 by Anna Baeth ’09, the former captain of the Garnet field hockey team, and Erin Heaney ’09, the former captain of the women’s Garnet volleyball team. Baeth and Heaney decided to hold the event after attending the 2009 Snell-Shillingford Coaching Symposium, which was held at Bryn Mawr and focused on creating a network between female athletes and coaches. Baeth and Heaney brought Jen Shillingford, a former field hockey coach and athletic director at Bryn Mawr, to discuss female athletes in college and the issues surrounding Title IX and athletes. Title IX, which was passed in 1972, states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” College athletics falls under these Title IX guidelines. Both Kern and Purkey attended the 2009 Women in Sports symposium, which inspired them to continue the tradition this year. “[The symposium] got female athletes together with coaches of female teams and administrators and it was such a great experience,” Purkey said. “I thought that was a good thing that we should continue doing.” Purkey and Kern modeled this year’s symposium after the 2009 Women in Sports symposium, but wanted to expand upon the theme of Title IX and focus more on how women can continue their involvement

with sports after college. “We decided to make it more how to stay involved with sports after college, or even during college, and how to help women in sports if you’re not going to become a professional athlete,” Purkey said. “I don’t think that many Swatties are [going] to go down that route.” Caitlin Barrett was the keynote speaker at this year’s event. Barrett works with Coach Across America, a program that incorporates sports, teamwork and coaching as a form of mentorship for youth in low-income, urban communities. Coach Across America also works towards ending childhood obesity through sports and physical activity and encouraging youth involvement in sports. Barrett was also the former director of the New York division of America SCORES, a program which incorporates soccer and learning for students from urban communities. Purkey felt that students could identify with the work Barrett does through Coach Across America because of the program’s work towards bettering the world and children’s lives through sports. “Her kind of way of combining inner city kids while doing sports is kind of [a] unique idea that I think Swat athletes, if they knew more about, would be excited about,” Purkey said. Barrett attended Pomona College and was also a Division III athlete. “She has a similar background to a lot of Swarthmore athletes, so I thought people would identify with her and feel comfortable talking to her about the challenges that come with being a female athlete and continuing into athletics after college,” Purkey said. The symposium began with Barrett’s discussion of her own personal story and her experience as an athlete. “She talked about her own experiences as being a female athlete and what that means and how it is kind of difficult to stay involved with sports after college,” Purkey said. During their time in college, female athletes are ensured equal opportunities under

Title IX provisions, but according to Purkey, it can be difficult for women to stay involved as professional sports is still a very male-dominated world. Barrett discussed how even in her non-profit work, which is typically heavily dominated by women, she still comes across the issue of whether women should continue to stay involved with sports. She then opened up the symposium to discussions about how to reach out to and incorporate more female athletes and coaches into sports, both during and after college. After Barrett spoke, the audience, which consisted of mainly female athletes as well as coaches, broke into small group discussions about their involvement with sports. Coaches and atheltic trainers, including Harleigh Chwastyck, head volleyball coach, Jeremy Toomis, head women’s tennis coach, rugby coach Laurie Focacci and Marie Mancini, the head athletic trainer, talked about their experience with coaching female athletics. Female athletes from both varsity and club teams attended the event. “Even if full teams didn’t come, I was glad that at least a couple people from a lot of different teams came so that maybe they can start a conversation with their teammates,” Purkey said. Purkey hopes that the symposium will become an annual tradition and that future events will expand upon the themes of female athletes in college and how women can stay involved after graduation. “[At Swarthmore, there are] these smart, amazing female athletes that I feel like their perspective on these issues is fascinating and I think if we can get discussions going I think that’s great,” Purkey said. “No matter what, [when] you get these amazing women in a room together, you’re going to get a productive discussion going about important issues facing women athletes.” Disclaimer: Hannah Purkey is a columnist for The Phoenix. She had no role in the production of this article.

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Quakers dismantle Big Green in final home game BY JOE SANFILLIPO dailypennsylvanian.com, April 25, 2011

Prior to his final home game at Penn, senior defenseman Brett Hughes told his teammates they had made a lot of memories at Franklin Field, but it was time to make one more. With a definitive 9-4 victory over Dartmouth (5-8, 1-4 Ivy), the Quakers (8-4, 4-2) did just that, closing out their most successful Ivy League season in five years and finishing their 2011 slate a perfect 6-0 at home. For the 10 graduating players, Saturday’s Senior Day made for an atmosphere that was “pretty emotional before the game,” according to senior midfielder Corey Winkoff. But Penn’s Ancient Eight finale was about more than just one class. “We took the view of not necessarily being Senior Day, but this team’s last time together on Franklin Field,” senior attack Al Kohart said. “We’ve had a family attitude all year. It was this family’s last time on the field together.” And on top of the festivities, the Red and Blue were competing for conference tournament prospects. By dominating the Big Green all afternoon, the phoeniX

Penn secured an Ivy tournament berth felt like we didn’t miss much of a beat defensively,” Murphy said. and the No. 2 seed behind Cornell. Keeping the ball out of their net Play was sloppy in the early going as both teams adjusted to the rain- allowed the Quakers time to find a rhythm offensively. soaked turf. The Red and Blue rattled off four Though Dartmouth struck first on a goal from Chris Costabile, it would be unanswered goals to close the half the Big Green’s only score in the first with a 4-1 lead. They then poured in three quarters. Penn’s defense, led by three more scores at the end of the third quarter, at which point Winkoff goalie Brian Feeney, set the tone. had already racked up four assists for “[Brian] the game. played probably “ W e the best game k n e w he’s played all “We’ve had a family attitude Corey was year,” coach going to be Mike Murphy all year. It was this family’s feeder said. “He had last time on the field together.” our and we some huge saves have a early that Al Kohart ’11 bunch of allowed us to Attackman, UPenn Quakers g r e a t keep it even.” shooters With seven on our saves in the first half, Feeney anchored the defensive team,” Kohart said. “Our offense realunit after losing defenseman Maxx ized [Dartmouth] couldn’t hang with Meyer to a leg injury midway through us if we spread it out and let Corey get his looks.” the second quarter. Just when it seemed the Quakers Freshmen Reid Tudor and Alex Blonsky stepped in to replace Meyer might coast to the final buzzer, the and helped keep Dartmouth scoreless skies opened up before the beginning of the fourth quarter, drenching the for over 45 minutes. “When we had those guys step up, I field and players yet again. April 28, 2011

Sensing the desperation, the Big Green took advantage of some fastbreaks and a man-up opportunity to net three shots in a row, closing the gap to 7-4 with under nine minutes to play. “They got a couple cheap ones,” Hughes said. “But we just kept sticking to the plan and we eventually stopped them again.” After catching the Dartmouth goalie wandering outside his crease, junior attack John Conneely dumped in a shot to make it 8-4. Kohart put the icing on the cake shortly after, scoring the final goal of the game. The Quakers visit Virginia next weekend for their final regular-season matchup, and travel to Ithaca, N.Y., the following week for tournament play. But as Murphy said, for now, the team will enjoy the Dartmouth victory and the guarantee of an extra week together as a team. “Earlier in the season, we were expected to go 2-11 on the season — I think it was Inside Lacrosse — and it was a slap in the face,” Kohart said. “To go undefeated on our home field where the sweat, blood and tears have poured out from us, it’s a great feeling.”

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Athletic department debuts Garnet Hall of Fame BY RENEE FLORES rflores1@swarthmore.edu

Swarthmore College announced April 8 that there will soon be a Garnet Hall of Fame. The Garnet Hall of Fame will be a way to honor past Swarthmore students for their athletic performances during their college years. Discussions to create a Hall of Fame have been in the works for several years, and a decision has finally been made that a hall of fame would be the best way for the college to celebrate athletes’ accomplishments. Other colleges and universities already have their own halls of fame, recognizing their athletes for accomplishments made during their college years, and Swarthmore is now following suit. Swarthmore has lately been trying to amp up the athletics department, and the Garnet Hall of Fame is one way of taking a step forward in doing that. The purpose of the Hall of Fame is to commemorate “teams and individuals associated with athletics at Swarthmore College,” according to the athletics website. For the past several years, members of the athletic department, including Marian Ware director of athletics Adam Hertz, have been in discussions about developing the Hall of Fame. Hertz said in an e-mail that the Hall of Fame would be the best way to “recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of our athletes, coaches and others associated with the program.” With this idea in mind, discussions have been aimed at determining the best way to accomplish the desired effect of athletic recognition, especially in a school where athletics are not in the forefront of decisions. The Garnet Hall of Fame will be physically represented in the Lamb-Miller Fieldhouse, as well as on the athletics website. “We are currently working with a design company to create a display area in the lobby of the Tarble Pavilion. There is also a page on the athletics website that will contain a list of all inductees, as well as nomination information, by-laws, induction dates, etc.,” Hertz said. Athletes will be eligible for nomination to the Hall of Fame if they are Swarthmore graduates of at least 10 years, and coaches become eligible at least five years after retirement. Nominations will be considered and inducted annual-

ly, and nominations can go as far back as there are viable candidates. Members of the Hall of Fame will be chosen by a committee of 11 people, five of whom will be part of the permanent Hall of Fame Board, which has yet to be determined. “They will appoint a group of six additional committee members who will serve term appointments. Those members will include coaches, alumni and current student-athletes,” Hertz said. It is unknown if the alumni on the committee will have to be former student-athletes, but the committee is a way to incorporate more alumni relations and involvement on campus. The inaugural group of nominations is currently being accepted and the recipients will be announced at the Awards Banquet in the 2011-12 academic year. According to the website, nominations will be accepted from the college faculty, staff, alumni, students and friends of the program. Nominations are submitted to the Director of Athletics in writing or on the athletics website. “Highest consideration will go to those who have brought distinction to themselves and to the College through their accomplishments in athletics and their contributions to their community and society,” Hertz said. As Swarthmore is a school that recognizes community outreach and service, it goes without saying that consideration would go into finding student-athletes who not only performed well in sports, but also personified Swattie ideals. As for the opinion of the student-athletes in regards to the Hall of Fame, the reaction seems positive. “Athletes practice every day, often during the regular season and during the off season. They miss classes and valuable study time because they are dedicated to their sports. I think it is important to recognize the products of this dedication,” Kelsey Johnson ’13, a member of the Swarthmore women’s tennis team, said. At Swarthmore, being a student-athlete means learning a complex balancing act between classes, sports and club affiliations. With all of the time they spend representing Swarthmore in sports endeavors, recognition of their feats is a must. “I think this is important to student-athletes because it shows that their commitment and dedication are worth noting. It shows that they will not just graduate Swarthmore with a degree, but with a team and a memory,” Johnson said.

sports in Brief

Baseball falls short of Conference playoffs with two losses Record on the Week (April 21-27): 3-2 (CC) Overall record: 20-13 (9-9 CC) Conference standing: T-4th After a season full of ups and downs, the Swarthmore baseball team’s postseason chances came down to the final day, as a three-win week was not enough to get the Garnet into the Centennial Conference playoffs. Two losses to the Ursinus Bears were the deciding factor, as the Bears tied the Garnet for fourth place in the Conference and went into the playoffs on the headto-head tiebreaker. Swarthmore celebrated Senior Day on Friday against Ursinus, as Andy Allen, James Beall, James Bernard, Isaac Han, Adam Koshkin, Neil Mejia, Thomas Nakamura and Ben Schneiderman played at Clothier Field for the last time in their careers. That was, perhaps, the only cause for celebration, as the Garnet fell 15-0. A Saturday double-header against F&M kept playoff hopes alive, as Swarthmore earned a 6-3, 45 split. Ignacio Rodriguez ’12 returned to form to lead the Garnet in Game One, and every member of the starting nine got at least one hit. However, a Game Two rally from 5-1 down in the fifth culminated with the tying run on third base in the ninth inning, ending Swarthmore’s Conference season with a 9-9 record. Two non-Conference games to finish the season allowed Swarthmore to end the year on a positive note, as the Garnet defeated Eastern (6-4) on Monday and then crushed Rutgers-Camden (8-0) on Tuesday. In Monday’s game, Allen won the final start of his Swarthmore tenure, and left fielder Rory McTear ’13 and designated hitter Nicko Burnett ’14 each drove in two runs. On Tuesday, the Garnet got a glimpse into the

justin Toran-Burrell for The Phoenix

Ben Schneiderman steps to the plate in Friday’s 15-0 loss to the Ursinus Bears.

future, as Grant Johnson ’14 shut down RutgersCamden in his first college start. The right-hander threw seven shutout innings, allowing only four hits and walking just one. Swarthmore received two hits apiece from McTear, Burnett, catcher Mike Waterhouse ’12, first baseman Mike Cameron ’12 and third baseman Spencer Ross ’12. Bernard and Mejia both finished their careers with scoreless innings.

April 28, 2011

Despite missing the playoffs, strong performances from returning players should make the 2012 season one to watch. Burnett (.384) and Waterhouse (.383) finished fourth and fifth in the Conference in batting average; Rodriguez was 12th in ERA (3.45); and Ramsey Walker ’13 led the Conference in saves with six. BY ANA APOSTOLERIS

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SportS in brief

Softball breaks losing streak, splits haverford doubleheader The Swarthmore College softball team snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over Haverford on Tuesday, part of a doubleheader split to finish the Centennial Conference season. Melissa O’Connor ’14 continued to dominate, holding the Fords to just two unearned runs over a complete game performance to pick up her fifth win of the year. Shortstop Liz Cushing ’12 drove in two runs to lead the offense. The Garnet dropped a 7-4 decision in Game Two despite t w o Record on the Week (April 21-27): 1-1 R B I s from Overall record: 7-23 (3-13 CC) first baseConference standing: 9th man Krista Scheirer ’11 and a pair of hits from pitcher Kate Smayda ’13, finishing the Conference season 3-13. Tuesday’s Senior Day honored Scheirer, infielder Zoe Hendrickson and designated player Kira Kern, as they played their final home games. The Garnet continues in non-Conference action on Thursday, as the team travels to Arcadia for a doubleheader. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. BY ANA APOSTOLERIS

Allegra Pocinki Phoenix Staff

Cleanup hitter Krista Scheirer waits for a pitch from the Haverford pitcher in the Garnet’s 7-4 loss. Scheirer drove in two runs on a hit to left field in her last time at bat.

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Pitt: Men, women’s soccer teams wrap up spring season BY GREG TRIETLEY pittnews.com, April 20, 2011

Injuries plagued both the Pitt men and women’s soccer team this spring season, but it gave both teams the opportunity to develop experience heading into next fall’s season. The men’s team tested players in different positions to see how they would play, while the women’s team was forced to start all 11 of its rostered players. Both head coaches for the teams said that while the injuries were unfortunate, now the teams know where they stand as they prepare for next season. The teams concluded spring play last Saturday, as they finished an exhibition schedule in their new stadium, the Petersen Sports Complex. While both teams experienced injuries, the women’s team seemed able to persevere past them more easily than the men. Although it played the majority of the spring with just 11 players — meaning, it had no substitutes — the women had a dominate record, at 4-0-1. “You’d like things to go one way, but you just got to do the best with what you have, and I think we did that this spring,” head coach SueMoy Chin said in an interview Monday. “We would have liked some different things. I would have liked to see some combinations — whether it’s at forward or in the midfield — but we didn’t have the players to do that.” Despite injuries, the women’s team still took positives away from the situation. “We got a couple of girls back from injury in the last game — but to play 90 minutes with 11 girls, our fitness was really good,” Chin said. “We had girls playing out of position in order to play.” The lack of depth gave younger players such as midfielder Danielle Benner, forward Morgan Masci and defender Alyssa Meier a chance to gain valuable on-field experience. “It helps in their development to get that experience,” Chin said. “It allows them to show us what they can bring to the program. The competition was good. It wasn’t Big East opponents, but it’s still important to get that experience.” the phoeniX

Perhaps the biggest change from last fall to this spring and beyond is in goal. Morie Kephart — the school’s all-time wins and shutouts leader — graduated, so the largely untested Kristina Rioux played most of this month’s exhibition games. “She’s been training behind Morie for the past three years, so it was good for her to get some action in the net and some playing time,” Chin said. “It helps build her confidence. It’s different from just training, to apply it to a game.” The Panthers shut out four of their five opponents this spring. Only Duquesne cracked their defense, but Pitt still won 5-2. “We definitely made some mistakes, but I think we’re a little bit more seasoned now,” Chin said. “Our understanding got a lot better in the attack with our possession, but our decision-making needs to be better. I think that’s youth — understanding different playing situations and different pressure.” But while the women finished undefeated despite the injuries, the men’s team had more trouble adjusting to the change. “We didn’t get done what we hoped in the spring mainly because of injuries,” men’s head coach Joe Luxbacher said. Luxbacher used the spring to try players at new positions. The Panthers had to replace departing defenders Connor Malone and Andy Kalas, and Luxbacher was creative in doing so. He shifted Robert Iledare — previously a forward — to the back line. “We wanted to get an idea going into the fall — a very good idea — of who our back line would be,” Luxbacher said in an interview Tuesday. “[Iledare] is a big, strong, skilled athlete, and I thought maybe he’d be a good fit to play in the back. He did a pretty solid job.” Goalkeepers Keegan Gunderson and Matt Aberegg missed time with concussions, which gave tryout player Mark Hast several starts. Luxbacher also considered Mike Whitaker at center back, shifted defender Alex Harrison up to midfield and tried Alex Fischetti at right back. Fischetti split time between the back line and midfield last season before a concussion cut it short. April 28, 2011

“We’re going to play a bit different system next fall,” Luxbacher said. “We’re looking at that this spring.” That system — which the team started to use toward the end of last year — is a 4-3-3, in which the Panthers will play three forwards instead of two. With the change, the men’s team finished spring play 2-2-2 and held the opposition to three goals in six games. Yet, like last year, the Panthers created chances but struggled to find the back of the net. “We need to put the ball in the goal,” midfielder Ryan Brode said in an interview Tuesday. “We’ve been pretty good defensively, but offensively, we really haven’t been able to find our rhythm.” Luxbacher was impressed with how the adjustments went even though it didn’t show on the scoreboard. Pitt played the Pittsburgh Riverhounds — a local professional team — to open the exhibition season and matched them chance-for-chance until the Riverhounds scored a late goal to win 1-0. “We played pretty well,” Luxbacher said. “We had chances. They’re definitely a Big East-caliber outfit. They’re a professional group.” The scores of the games mean little in the long run, as Pitt’s spring lineup won’t resemble the final fall team. The Panthers have eight recruits arriving for training camp in August. The men’s and women’s teams have already adjusted to the new synthetic turf at their new stadium, which allows for crisper passes than the grass at Founders Field. “I think it stood out the first game,” Chin said. “We moved the ball around really well. Our possession was probably the best I’ve seen it in a game, and I think that has a lot to do with the surface we’re playing on.” Both Chin and Luxbacher said that the move to campus helps them in every aspect of the program — from training to recruiting to playing. “It allows you to play better soccer,” Luxbacher said. “You can really use skill more. When you play on a field like Founders, especially late in the season, it’s muddy and heavy. You can’t play the same way you do when the surface is good.”

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Fencing sees individual sports in pictures and team success at Women’s rugby team plays conference, national Ursinus in prom dresses championships Buczkowski and Sulerzyski as two individual finalists. The men, led by Buczkowski, Over the semester, Swarthmore’s placed 13th. Buczkowski had the club fencing team has garnered a slew team’s top individual finish, winning of successes. The team continued the eighth place medal in sabre. The their winning streak recently at the men’s best showing, however, was in Southern Atlantic Conference foil, where they collectively placed Championships and the United States eighth. Association of Collegiate Fencing The women came in sixth overall, Clubs National Championship. led by individual finalist Sulerzyski. At the Conference Championships, She advanced out of the round-robin hosted by James Madison preliminaries in epee and led the University’s club on March 26-27, women to their best showing, a fifth Swarthmore place finish won the troin the catephy for the gory. combined Overall, “The majority of our team men’s and men’s and walked on as freshmen with women’s sixwomen’s weapon coms a b r e , no experience, this is a pretty petition for men’s foil incredible accomplishment.” the second a n d consecutive women’s Morgan Sulerzyski ’12 year. The epee all women’s made the chokehold team finals on the conference continued, as they to highlight a strong showing. Some took home the women’s title for the had a more difficult route than oththird consecutive year. The men con- ers. Men’s foil was down 4-2 in a best tinued to improve substantially, win- of nine match with the Arizona State ning second place, which is the the University club when they rallied to team’s highest win to date. win the last three points. Women’s While many fencers won individ- epee had a similarly long match to ual medals, Morgan Sulerzyski ’12 make finals, edging out the said Jing Ng ’11 had a tournament to University of Florida club 5-4. remember. “[Ng] got a concussion at The team’s performance evidently the end of the pool round, but didn't impressed a higher power, as Davis tell anyone how badly she was feeling was named the U.S. National Team and sloughed through to the end of head coach for the European Maccabi DEs, helping women’s epee come in Games, to be held this summer in second place,” Sulerzyski said. Davis won’t be alone though, as two of Other fencers performing particu- his fencers were also named to the larly well included Valentina Garcia national squad. Emily Eder ’12 and ’14, Kevin Zach Greenberg Buczkowski ’13 will both be ’13 and Jon competing in Hum ’11. foil. Davis said “Finishing sixth was Flushed he was astonishing, amazing and after with their sucnamed head cess at confercoach, he remarkable ... a great ences, the encouraged as memory.” team turned many of his their attention fencers to apply Marshal Davis to the United as possible. “It’s Head Coach S t a t e s an amazing Association of honor. They get Collegiate to wear the letFencing Clubs National ters USA on their backs and represent Championship, held in Chicago, the U.S. in Europe,” Davis said. Illinois on April 9-10. The team had “I don’t really care if I do brilliantone of their best performances in ly or go crashing to the ground recent memory, placing a combined because I know that I will learn so sixth in the nation. Sulerzyski point- much as an athlete and that being ed out that since “the majority of our involved with such a unique internateam walked on as freshmen with no tional community will be eye-openexperience, this is a pretty incredible ing,” Eder said of the opportunity. accomplishment.” While those three take their tal“Finishing sixth was astonishing, ents to foreign shores, the rest of the amazing and remarkable,” coach fencing team is done for the season. Marshal Davis said. He added that it They will resume tournament compe“was a great memory,” seeing tition in the 2011-2012 school year.

BY DANIEL DUNCAN dduncan1@swarthmore.edu

Justin Toran-Burrell for The Phoenix

Women’s rugby competed in their annual “Prom Dress Rugby” game on Saturday.

April 28, 2011

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