Swarthmore Phoenix, February 14, 2019

Today in OPINIONS: Sydney Covitz on Rep. Omar A5, CAMPUS JOURNAL: Emma Miller on Sharples Astrology A6, Eva Baron and Sage Rhys on $0 Points Challenge A7

PHOENIX

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Swarthmore opens a new indoor golf room

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How & Where to Thrift at Swarthmore

February 14, 2019

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The independent campus newspaper of Swarthmore College since 1881

Surprise Visit Disrupts SGO Vote on BDS Resolution Daijing Xu News Writer Two weeks ago, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) approached the Student Government Organization (SGO), proposing a SGO resolution in support of the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) campaign.

SJP launched the campaign in October 2018, which calls the Swarthmore College to divest from seven Israeli companies that actively participate in harming Palestinian lives. This

The week ahead Today Sex Toy Bingo 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Join Violence Prevention Educator Hillary Grumbine for an evening of traditional bingo with some nontraditional prizes!

Bond Memorial Hall Friday New Black Film Aesthetics: An Evening with RaMell Ross 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

A new generation of black artists is making their mark on media culture --from web series and experimental films to cutting-edge television and Marvel movies. The series continues February 15 with RaMell Ross presenting his lyrical Hale County, This Morning, This Evening, winner of the 2018 Gotham Award for Best Documentary and short-listed for an Academy Award.

LPAC Cinema Saturday Screw Your Roommate 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Find your match. Come participate in this annual Swarthmore tradition.

Sharples Dining Hall Sunday SBC Weekly Meeting 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m SBC Committee weekly meeting to discuss budget-related matters and consider supplemental funding requests for the week.

Sharples Room 209 Monday Swarthmore Swing Lesson and Social Dance 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Swarthmore Swing Dance Club has a lesson with professional teachers from 9pm-10pm and social dancing from 10pm11pm.

Upper Tarble Tuesday Violent Disagreements and Beyond: Religious and Secular Perspectives 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Using secular Jewish, Christian, and Muslim lenses a discussion of forms of violence (from physical to emotional to spiritual) that can result from disagreements and strategies for avoiding this violence.

Hormel/Nguyen Intercultural Center at Sproul Hall Room 107B Fireplace Wednesday O4S Open Meeting 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Organizing for Survivors’ biweekly open meeting.

IC Big Room WEATHER Cloudy with a slim chance of love :( CONTENTS News A1-A2 Arts A3-A4 Opinions A5 Campus Journal A6-A8 Sports A9-A10 Read more at swarthmorephoenix.com Copyright © 2019 The Phoenix

past Sunday, SGO voted to not pass the resolution; this, however, does not mark the end of SGO’s involvement with SJP regarding the BDS campaign.

According to Katherine Capossela ’21, vice president of SGO, throughout the two weeks before the vote, individual members of SGO were tasked with communicating with SJP to learn more about resolution and SGO’s role. Before the meeting, SGO asked SJP to not come to the meeting before the vote to prevent any external

influence on the outcome. Matthew Stein ’20, co-president of Swarthmore Students for Israel, however, unexpectedly attended the meeting and spoke to SGO regarding his disagreement with the BDS campaign before the vote. Capossela explained why a pro-Israel student was allowed to speak at the meeting despite the fact that SJP was told not to be at the meeting.

“When a student says to student government their voice wasn’t being heard, it would

be very wrong for student government to be like ‘actually, goodbye,’” Capossela said. “So we didn’t really have a choice.

It was definitely a surprise. But at the end of the day, we want to make sure everyone’s voices were being listened to.”

According to Capossela, she would have delayed the vote if she had thought about it longer. However, SGO voted because they felt responsible for their promise to SJP that they would come to a conclusion at that meeting.

OSE Relaunches Parties in Parrish Parlors “But at the end of the day, we want to make sure everyone’s voices were being listened to.

Now, I disagree with the closeness of the speech with the vote. I think, looking back on it, I wouldn’t have voted during that time. I would say, we should probably think about this a little longer,” Capossela said. “But we also promised SJP that we would come to a conclusion at that meeting so we were kind of at a tough spot.”

While meetings are welcomed continued on page A2

Sunrise Kicks off the Green New Deal

Emma Walker / With Permission

The Sunrise Movement has recently engaged in a variety of organizing and advocacy surrounding the Green New Deal. Members of the Swarthmore chapter of the movement have staged sit-ins, organized petitions, and hosted a watch party to prepare for the new bill in congress.

Gidon Kaminer News Writer The Parrish Parlors, home to impromptu piano concertos and napping students, will now also host student-run parties.

The initiative by the Office of Student Engagement (OSE) will endow students with a budget of around $200 to independently organize and host themed dry parties on Thursday and Saturday nights. “The goal [of the Parlor parties] is to allow students to put on their own events outside of the funding system of student organization affiliation,” said Office of Student Engagement graduate assistant Kinsey Hallinger.

In a building teeming with as much history as Parrish, even its Parlor parties have a storied past. In 2008 an anonymous alumni gave a donation to fund non-alcoholic programming at the college. The then-Office of Student Life (precursor to the OSE) used the fund to begin Parrish Parlor parties as a dry alternative. According to a 2008 Phoenix interview with thenAssociate Dean for Student Life Myrt Westphal, the Parrish parties were “a response to students’ desires” for more nonalcoholic event alternatives, desires which were expressed in meetings of a Social Scene Advisory Committee established by then Assistant Director of Student Life Kelly Wilcox ’97.

The parties were a success, and became an integral part of the social fabric at the college within just a semester of their introduction. Sally Chang ’11, who hosted a cookie and cake decorating party which was attended by 150 people, hailed it as “actually really fun” in a 2008 Daily Gazette article. Fanny Zhao ’12, then a first year, spoke highly of the less intense atmosphere at Parlor parties, saying in that same article, “For me it’s a good way of going to a ‘party’.” Zhao later went on to host a party herself, acting as a “barista” (a party host) for a Halloween party.

After an advertising push, the allure of hosting a party in Parrish caught on, and dates were booked quickly by students and campus organizations. “It’s doing what we wanted because it’s part of the social scene,” said Wilcox, adding that “we intend on it being a permanent fixcontinued on page A2

Sunrise Watch Party Previews Next Steps Towards Green New Deal Joshua Forde News Writer On February 6, 2019, over 40 students attended Sunrise’s watch party on Facebook in Trotter Hall, where Sunrise Movement members and Naomi Klein, climate change activist, outlined the movement’s next steps toward bringing the Green New Deal to Congress.

Swarthmore’s Sunrise chapter is part of a national organization focused on bringing climate change to the frontline of national politics. It garnered national attention when they participated in two sit-ins in November and December in front of Senate Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-MD) office to gain her support of the Green New Deal.

On February 7, 2019, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DNY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) launched a joint resolution to the Green New Deal in Congress, garnering 64 House cosponsors and 9 senate sponsors to date, according to the Sunrise Facebook Page. The Green New Deal consists of several proposed pieces of legislation that

aim to combat climate change while creating jobs for underrepresented people, which is continually being tweaked to achieve a result that is a reflection of the people that worked to get it there. From their initial spark, the movement grew to include chapters all across the United States.

From February 11-13, Sunrise activists, including Swatties, visited congressional district offices across the country to display their support of the Green New Deal. According to Emma Walker ’20, president of the Sunrise Movement at Swarthmore, Sunrise was founded two years ago by a group of people which included Swarthmore alums. “[The Sunrise Movement] was started by 12 young people who were terrified of climate change, and scared of what life would be like for our generation’s future,” said Walker.

According to CNN, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report in October 2018 that outlined how the planet’s temperature will increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius — speeding up the

likelihood of droughts, wildfires, and floods.

“The IPCC released a report that said we have 12 years until climate change will be irreversible and that we would need to radically transform our society and economy in order to ensure human survival,” said Hannah Pait ’22,Sunrise Chapter Leader. “The Green New Deal is a huge conversation that will change our society.“ A key component of the Green New Deal is to combat economic, racial, and gender injustice while tackling climate change in the process. This proposes the creation of green jobs, new careers that support the nation’s economy and preserves the state of the earth’s climate as well. The Green New Deal also proposes a shift from fossil fuel to a renewable-energy-based economy.

Klein believes that the Green New Deal attacks the complex issue of climate change with attention to how historically underrepresented people are impacted by current capitalist policies in an attempt to help them attain economic security.

“The thing to understand

about the Green New Deal framework, and we don’t have the full framework yet, is that it would be the first time we are presented with a plan for tackling the climate crisis that matches the scale of the crisis,” said Klein. “For so long we have been told that we have this apocalyptic problem, and that we are given these very minor things that are going to happen in the face of it and it just doesn’t add up and I think people realized that.”

Sunrise has come a long way over the course of two years, coming from 200 youths participating in sit-ins at Minority Leader Pelosi’s office to thousands of people across America pressuring their local representative to support their cause.

“I first heard of Sunrise about a month before it launched, right when I was finishing my freshman year in college,” said Arunima Shiney-Ajay ’20. “I remember hearing about this ambitious plan that a group of people three or four years older than me [had]. There was so much conviction in their voice that I found myself hoping be-

yond hope and thinking: ‘Okay, we are going to solve climate change and create millions of jobs in the process and I am going to be a part of this.’”

Sunrise’s chapter on campus aims to assist in the collective push for the Green New Deal by reaching out to Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), the representative for Swarthmore’s congressional district.

Many of the watch party attendees signed a letter urging Rep. Scanlon to co-sponsor the Green New Deal.

Sunrise members believe that the Green New Deal is a beginning, not an end. “[The Green New Deal] is something worth continuing working on, not [just] a policy that we are pushing for. It is a set of ideas and ideals that we are continuously shaping,” said Walker.

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THE PHOENIX NEWS

February 14, 2019

Parlor Parties, continued from A1 ture.”

Despite their popularity among students, the alumni donation was only enough to last through the end of that one year, causing concern to Wilcox and Westphal. After a few years, Parlor parties were no more.

This semester, the Office of Student Engagement has begun the work of bringing back the Parrish Parlor parties, attempting to solidify them once again as a staple of student life on campus.

“It’s really about making sure there is an option for everybody on this campus,” said Kinsey Hallinger of the Office of Student Engagement. “That’s something the original events were meant to capture and that’s something we want to do as well.”

The Office of Student Engagement emphasizes that the point of these events is that they are entirely organized by and for students. “We very much want

them to be student-run, in the spirit of the [previous] Parrish Parlor parties,” said Office of Student Engagement graduate assistant Ben Shalk. Hallinger echoed this sentiment, adding, “the original appeal was to put the power and the party planning potential in the hands of the students - and we’re sure that’s going to happen again.”

Hallinger and Shalk are optimistic that students will once again eagerly take up the mantle of the Parlor parties. “With the depth and creativity on this campus, students will create parties that no OSE staff would be able to think up,” said Shalk.

“If students take the initiative to create events that harness their own creativity, and spread their enthusiasm to the rest of the attendees, it will be a great success,” added Hallinger.

The parlor space is uniquely well-suited for these types of events, according to Hallinger and Shalk. “Geographically, the

parlors are central and open, which plays into our hope of welcoming as many students as possible,” said Hallinger. “You can really make the space your own. There’s massive potential, and the students have the creativity to make that happen.”

Hallinger and Shalk spoke of the simplicity of the process through which students can sign up to host parties, hoping this will motivate more people to sign up. “All you have to do is

fill out a form and get $200 for your event,” said Shalk.

Shalk is “hoping for a snowball effect, that some students will host parties early on and people will see how easy and fun it is and then it will catch on,” eventually recapturing the level of popularity that these events held ten years ago. “We have 12 weeks left in the semester, or 24 events,” explained Hallinger. “I think we can easily get 24-plus students who are

Atziri Marquez / The Phoenix

interested in holding events on this campus.”

On Thursday, February 7th, the Office of Student Engagement hosted the inaugural Parrish Parlor party, a 90s themed event featuring Capri-Suns, playground toys, fruit roll-ups, and rainbow slinkies. It was a “proof of concept event to let students know that these will be happening,” according to Kinsey.

“I was there briefly, I had a nice time,” said Jake Chanenson ’21 of the Parlor party. “I think it’s a really good thing the OSE is doing. I was just at a meeting of the Task Force on Student Social Events and Community Standards where we agreed it would be really good if there were a space that students know will have a dry event every Thursday and Saturday, just like you know there will be a party with alcohol every Thursday and Saturday,” Chanenson said.

Chanenson is optimistic about the platform. “They’re not dictating to students what is fun, they’re just giving students the platform and the resources to determine what is fun,” he added. “I appreciate the fact that they’re taking care of purchasing because you don’t have to go through the process of getting refunded.”

At press time, Hallinger said that there are already three upcoming student-run Parlor parties planned for February and March, the first taking place on Thursday, February 21st.

Chanenson concluded by adding, “I would like this to be a fixture of Swarthmore’s party scene. I was in a couple of conversations with OSE, they kept asking what they can do to provide dry spaces, but that’s been really hard to do, so I would love for this student-run initiative to be fun and successful.”

SGO, continued from A1 to have visitors, SGO votings are meant to be internal, without the presence of any external participants. In an initial interview, Capossela was under the impression that Stein was not present during the vote. However, on Wednesday evening, in a conversation with Capossela, Murtaza Ukani ’22, class senator, recalled that Stein had been present.

“To the best of my knowledge, he was present in the room during the voting process which was done anonymously through an online program,” Ukani said.

In addition to Stein’s unexpected appearance at the meeting, several SGO members were contacted by Joel Griffith — a right-wing journalist who has written for several publications including the Daily Signal, the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business News (television), National Interest, Investor’s Business Daily, Orange County Register, National Review, and The Hill.

The emails named the BDS resolution as anti-Israel and questioned the members’ personal opinions regarding the IsraelPalestine conflict. According to

Capossela, she also received a phone call from Griffith.

The call concerned her deeply. “I was the only member of SGO that got a phone call from him, which was kind of scary,” she said.

Although the resolution failed, there is still forward motion in terms of SGO’s involvement with SJP, according to Akshay Srinivasan ’21, chair of student organizations.

“It’s important to understand that obviously this could framed as an up-and-down vote on BDS, but it’s just very much

not that,” he said. “it was just a vote on this specific form on this specific resolution at this specific time.”

Capossela stated that SGO is not only in constant conversation with SJP, but also has extended their reach to a variety of new perspectives. This includes Swarthmore Students for Israel, Jewish Voice for Peace, Rabbi Michael Ramberg, and Chelsea Hicks ’14, Special Assistant for Presidential Initiatives, who is knowledgeable about divestment history at Swarthmore.

According to Capossela, SGO is also planning to send a letter to the Board of Managers. The letter would encourage conversations between the Board and the students regarding SJP and the fossil fuel divestment. It would suggest repealing the 1991 ban, which allows the Investment Committee to prioritize “best long-term financial results, rather than to pursue other social objectives.”

The Board, however, has reaffirmed the 1991 ban several times. Most recently, in spring 2018, the referendum banning

the ban passed by SGO was also voted down by the Board.

Despite the failed resolution, Srinivasan remains optimistic.

“We can still consider doing a variety of things,” he said, “and can still consider banning the ban, releasing a statement of support, like a referendum, like all those kinds of things, so this doesn’t end the discussion, it just starts one.”

The Phoenix is going to interview other groups and individuals in a follow-up article next week.

FROM OPINIONS Remember the NARPs: Swat Needs More Recreational Spaces EDITORIAL

While Swarthmore purports to values our physical health, the dearth of recreational facilities makes it difficult for exercise to be a part of our daily lives. Swarthmore students who are not athletes should be allowed greater access to spaces that are often dominated by sports teams. Significant amounts of space in Ware Pool, and the fieldhouse, the Matchbox are often reserved for teams or P.E. classes, as the college requires that its students all complete four P.E. credits before graduating.

Too often, students attempting to exercise outside of these structured classes are forced to modify or cancel their workouts due to a lack of space. For instance, the dozens of students

who play pick-up basketball nearly every day in the fieldhouse are often kicked off of the courts by varsity and club sports that have priority over the space. While other schools provide secondary gyms in order to avoid these conflicts, Swarthmore does not. Pick-up basketball players are often left with no option but to cease their exercise or to choose an alternative workout facility such as the Matchbox.

The Matchbox also suffers from overcrowding. It is not uncommon for the ground-level weight room to be at capacity on a Monday afternoon or for all of the treadmills to be taken on a Saturday morning, particularly since there are several treadmills that have been out of order for months. When var-

sity or club sports teams are at the Matchbox, space is in short supply.

Spaces for exercise and recreation are also valuable social spaces, as playing pick-up basketball or soccer games, running together, and other physical activities can be valuable ways to form bonds with other students outside of the stress and pressure of academics.

Given our $2.1 billion endowment and supposed commitment to students’ physical health and well-being, we shouldn’t be constrained by inadequate athletic spaces.

Unlike Swarthmore, our peer institutions are succeeding at providing exercise opportunities for non-varsity athletes.

Williams College has a second recreational gym for students,

while Middlebury College boasts recreational spaces for pick-up volleyball, basketball, and other cardio, as well as a state-of-the-art climbing wall.

Other liberal arts colleges are preparing to invest vast sums of money into providing more recreational athletic spaces. In December 2018, Pomona College, which already owns a pool and four grass fields for non-varsity athletes, announced plans for a $55 million expansion and renovation of the athletics and recreation center that it shares with Pitzer College. Although the design of the building has not yet been finalized, preliminary drawings show a larger recreational sports area. The initial plans include the doubling of studio space for fitness classes, the addition of a two-

court practice gym, and the creation of a second weight room exclusively for non-athletes.

Lesley Irvine, Pomona’s athletic director and chair of physical education, stated that with the expansion of both the college’s varsity and recreational athletic programming over the past few years, the athletic department had “outgrown” the old fitness center.

Like Pomona, we have exceeded the capacity of our athletics facilities. This should come as no surprise. When the field house first opened in 1935, the college supported ten intercollegiate varsity teams.

Since that time, we have more than doubled our varsity offerings and doubled our student body, yet we have only notably added athletic capacity through

the construction of Tarble Pavilion, the Mullan Center, and the Matchbox. These buildings combine to house only five of our 22 varsity teams.

Regular exercise is a part of a healthy lifestyle for many people, and we acknowledge that ability to exercise is not a privilege afforded to all. Since Swarthmore does claim to care about the physical activity of students, we must establish a system that fulfills the college’s commitment to non-varsity recreation. We, The Phoenix, like the college, believe that exercise is important — for both our mental and physical health.

But for students to be happy and healthy, we must supply ample recreational space for all — non-varsity and varsity athletes alike.

classic voting issues many politicians so regularly repurpose as their own. And given her large media presence, from late night talk show appearances to Twitter feuds publicized to her vast following, AOC isn’t just any member of Congress. She’s come to represent a new generation of activists, a beacon of hope for the future of the progressive movement, and she has to be held to a higher standard as a result, as pioneers often are.

One of AOC’s trademark talking points is the Green New Deal, a plan she promises to push through to fight the growing dangers of climate change.

In a statement to the press, AOC said, “There is no justice, and there is no combating climate change, without addressing what has happened to indigenous communities. That means that there is no fixing our economy without addressing the racial wealth gap. That means that we are not going to transition to renewable energies, without also transitioning front line communities, and coal communities, into economic opportunity as well. That is what [the Green New Deal] is about. It is comprehensive. It is thoughtful. It is compassionate, and it is extremely economically strategic as well.”

Linking issues so closely, claiming that one can’t be fixed without the other, is often counter-constructive in so po-

larized a political climate. The role of indigenous communities in the U.S. is a conversation that is long overdue, but linking it to climate change will only serve to inhibit either from progressing. There are only two real cases in which such an association is advantageous: when one issue directly derives from the solution to the other, or when one issue is compelling enough that it is likely to pass even with a rider attached.

It’s worth noting that a direct association like transitioning front-line and coal communities is in fact a relevant connection, since those communities’ economic viability will be directly put in jeopardy if fossil fuels are phased out. In almost all other instances, combining legislative goals either reduces any possible middle ground — with controversial problems like climate change and minority rights, those who may have voted in favor of one issue may be reluctant to lend their allegiance to both — or allows the opposition to distort the narrative, condemning the resulting package as “radical and unfeasible.”

If the passage of effective legislation is the goal, the Green New Deal would be far more effective as a straightforward referendum on our commitment to repairing the environment. Instead, it covers in 14 pages everything from systemic inequality to access to higher

education, and it ends up a symbolic resolution with so little chance of making it through the Senate that Mitch McConnell is actually trying to push it to a vote sooner. The benefit of such a sweeping, multifaceted proposal? AOC gets to claim the moral high ground on the otherwise somewhat ambiguous problem of climate change, which is much more a question of evidence and implementation than it is of right and wrong. Instead of talking about the means by which we transition to renewable energy, she turns the issue into a social one and offers the social answer.

As for economic strategy: any clever tactics on that front are yet to be revealed.

Social stances are the ones that win votes. They’re the ones that draw newspaper headlines and applause breaks, and chances are slim that we ever see politicians campaigning on the granular details of their economic policies. But we need to recognize what our politicians can deliver and what is simply wishful thinking. We need to know what it is we’re really voting for and recognize when we’re just being sold a pipe dream. And when we’re offered social rhetoric in the face of real problems requiring smart solutions, we need to be informed and prepared to hold our representatives accountable.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, continued from A5 cratic Socialist movement, which leans into the most progressive parts of the Democratic party and repurposes what had been considered an anti-American sentiment up until recently. The Democratic Socialist platform advocates for unionization, heavy taxes on the rich, tuition-free higher education, universal healthcare, and comprehensive social welfare programs. AOC has also supported massive overhauls of our infrastructure, as well as guaranteed housing. And while this all might seem like music to leftist ears, her plans to reach this socialized paradise are tenuous at best. AOC’s budgetary concerns are generally relegated to cutting military spending, and her numbers are highly suspect.

When appearing on “The Daily Show” last July, AOC made the following statement regarding the defense budget: “Just last year we gave the military a $700 billion budget increase, which they didn’t even ask for.”

The entire budget of the U.S. military was $612 billion last year, and $606 billion the year before. Even if a viewer agreed about her arguments on military budget cuts, such a blatantly false statistic erodes the entire foundation of her case.

And in supporting Medicare for All on Twitter, AOC again drew upon the military budget to make a point:

“$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions ‘could not be traced, documented, or explained.’ $21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T. That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon. And that’s before our premiums.”

Considering the U.S. military budget has totaled under $20 trillion cumulatively since 1940, it’s unlikely that an extra $21 trillion got away somewhere. And indeed, numerous news agencies and fact checkers have pointed out the misleading nature of AOC’s assertion; the article she cites is in reference to errors in documenting transactions, not some huge stockpile of missing cash. The author of that very article clarified, “[AOC] is wrong… It would be wrong to suggest that that is real money that could have been used to fund something else more useful to society.”

Politifact rated both of AOC’s above statements as false. In my research, I have not seen AOC make any form of retraction, or even delete the Pentagon funding tweet. In an offhanded reference, she calls the tweet as “confusing.”

On “60 Minutes,” AOC was asked about her tweet, and this was her response: “If people want to really blow up one figure here or one word there, I would argue that they’re missing the forest for the trees.

I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.”

The claim here appears to be that when you have the moral high ground, facts are not as important as the moral implication. The economic concerns are irrelevant in the face of social ones. But when an argument is based on finding a budget for Medicare, budget statistics can hardly be put down as “semantics” or pointless nitpicking. More significantly, it’s dangerous to claim that being correct is less of a concern when you’re morally in the right, and demonstrative of the entire dilemma plaguing AOC’s rhetoric. Few politicians operate with the understanding that they are morally wrong.

Congress is not made up of evil mustache-twirling villains secretly plotting to impoverish minorities or drive single mothers out of their homes. To make a compelling moral argument, to actually change minds and achieve her goals, she’s going to need far more than questionable numbers and a sense of righteousness on her side.

Of course, it’s hardly unusual for a member of Congress to casually misrepresent a statistic or issue a flat-out lie every once in a while. But AOC’s behavior is naturally highly noticeable.

Her ambitious agenda requires far more clarification than the

ARTS

February 14, 2019 PAGE A3

Swat Dance Hits Hubbard Street Emmie Wolf Arts Writer

T

he 2019 Cooper Series kicked off its season with the acclaimed contemporary dance company Hubbard Street and music group Third Coast Percussion. Company member Alicia Delagillo, who has danced with Hubbard Street for five seasons, taught two master classes on Thursday, February 7th. Delagillo embodies the unique methods, style, and technique of Hubbard Street from pinky to pinky toe, and her classes brought every dancer there to a new level.

Clad in my favorite burgundy leotard, I made sure to clear my schedule to be there.

Both Hubbard Street and Third Coast trekked to Pennsylvania from Chicago to perform for Swarthmore. As part of the Cooper Series, Hubbard Street offered ballet and repertory masterclasses to Swarthmore’s dancers in Boyer Dance Studio. The masterclasses were taught the day before Hubbard Street’s performance, giving dancers a taste of the style and mission of the company before seeing them in live performance. Classes were open to all Swarthmore and Tri-Co stu-

dents. Classes were scheduled during the time slots of Swarthmore’s Ballet II and Ballet Repertory, so they were mandatory for students enrolled in those courses.

Hubbard Street is known for its extraordinary combination of modern techniques and partnering, and the ballet masterclass revealed the foundation of its dancers’ intricate and powerful modern movements.

Ballet is the foundation of all modern dance, but it is often structured and rigid in a way that makes it hard to perform.

Ballet is built on strict positions and fundamentals. Although the choreography was complex and advanced, Delagillo did an amazing job incorporating and accommodating all dancers.

While she pushed and challenged more advanced dancers by making them use their upper body in different ways, she gave intermediate dancers combinations from which they could both learn and succeed. The ballet combinations showed how Hubbard Street dancers center their movements with a strong technical foundation.

Delagillo told dancers to break that mindset by using their heads and bodies and grounding themselves in a way that al-

lowed them to feel free in their movements.

In her first masterclass, which was ballet, Delagillo talked about the concept of “circles.” Circles push into the floor and extend the dancer’s base, and also regenerate energy. That continuous energy flow allows dancers to keep expanding and pushing through their movement. Continuing to restore vitality and power, dancers can complete long performances with ease and grace.

The concept of energy regenerating through a circle that passes through the dancer’s center keeps momentum pulsing even when the dancer is tired, and this use of circular bases and energy was visible in the Hubbard Street’s long performance.

Swarthmore’s inclusivity and community proved a good match for Hubbard Street dance programs, which also emphasize bringing individuals together harmoniously. Unlike many dance industry professionals who scrutinize dancers, Delagillo was inclusive and supportive. Delagillo was there to teach and spread knowledge.

After the ballet class, Delagillo held a Q & A session, and while sitting with students on the floor, she seemed like an ap-

proachable friend. We were, at that moment, all on the same level. Delagillo talked about her background and training and how she got to Hubbard Street, which was helpful to aspiring dancers in the Swarthmore dance department. She also detailed what her life as a professional dancer is like, including how she stays physically prepared for company work and what she does on her days off.

Toward the end of the session, dancers got an inside scoop about the upcoming show.

In the second class, Delagillo taught a piece of Hubbard Street’s repertory. The piece was choreographed by a ten-year resident choreographer and is classic and distinct to Hubbard Street, filled with movements and concepts for which the company is known.

Delagillo started with a warmup during which dancers had to lie on the floor and feel motion circulating to different parts of their body. This exercise connected the dancers to the ground and their instrument, allowing them to physically and mentally prepare for the choreography.

Katie Knox ’21 said, “The masterclass was transcendent.

Delagillo was very down to

earth and open, which made learning choreography in a short timeframe much more enjoyable.” Delagillo was encouraging. Indeed, her teaching style was focused on building up the dancers and making sure that they learned and benefitted from the class, instead of just asking them to memorize a piece of choreography. Emma Dulski ’22 said that she really enjoyed Delagillo’s class because it was “focused on movement and movement quality instead of just choreography.”

She felt as though the class environment was more supportive than that of many other professional classes and opportunities that she had attended outside of Swarthmore. Delagillo allowed dancers in the repertory masterclass to feel comfortable enough to explore the movement quality. As I can best explain: Hubbard Street’s Repertory masterclass was about learning about yourself and pushing your own movement in a new direction, as opposed to trying to impress a teacher or choreographer. It is a lesson which can be carried outside the studio to all classes.

After teaching the choreography, Delagillo let the dancers perform it in groups. This exer-

cise gave students more space and allowed them to explore the movement. After watching students perform in groups, Delagillo gave them notes and then let them perform the piece again. During the final round, Delagillo told students to dance together and enjoy being in each other’s company. More than any part of the day, this moment perfectly connected both the Swarthmore and Hubbard Street communities: the freedom to dance with each other and share the knowledge that has been learned in a masterclass is a unique experience.

If joy could be translated into movement, this would have been its moment.

When Delagillo spoke to student dancers after the show, it made them feel as if they had a voice. Knox said, “I think Delagillo summed it up when she said Hubbard Street style is really human.” The ability to both see an internationally-renowned company known for innovative power and creativity dance on Swarthmore’s stage, as well as dance with and learn from them before their performance, reminded us that Swarthmore’s arts programs are truly exceptional.

How & Where to Thrift at Swarthmore Colin Donahue Arts Writer

AIDS Thrift South Street, Philadelphia

Now is a better time than ever to thrift. With the increasing popularity of “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” a new Netflix original show that follows bestselling author and organization expert Marie Kondo, the United States has been in a decluttering craze. Thrift stores around the country, such as Goodwill, have been experiencing tremendous increases in the quantity of donations since the start of the new year. Not only is thrifting environmentally and economically friendly, the majority of proceeds are donated to charitable causes. As a student who grew up in Swarthmore and has explored the Philadelphia region for the last 15 years, I have compiled a list of the best thrift stores in the area for you to take advantage of the incoming donations in addition to recycling your old clothing.

If you’re looking for something more eclectic in Philly, AIDS Thrift is a must. AIDS Thrift is located on South Street, which is the most famous street in Philadelphia and known as a melting pot of various groups and cultures.

There are countless deals like $1 clothing on the first Saturday of every month, and the store is constantly opening its doors to new customers. One of the most compelling reasons to shop at AIDS Thrift is the organization’s compelling mission.

Almost all of the proceeds are passed on to AIDS agencies in the Philadelphia region that help research AIDS and provide the necessary resources for people to get tested for HIV. In addition, the store helps organize the Philadelphia AIDS walk, one of the biggest walks in Philly, every October

Plato’s Closet Broomall, PA (a short, tenminute drive away)

Punk Rock Flea Market Market Street, Philadelphia

Plato’s Closet is one of the few modern thrift stores near Swarthmore. Plato’s Closet is the Urban Outfitters of thrift stores, selling used clothing from brands like Abercrombie, Adidas, American Eagle, Charlotte Russe, H&M, and more.

Priced at a quarter of retail value, these clothes are relatively new and can replenish your wardrobe without costing you more than $50. Plato’s Closet is unique because unlike Goodwill, it is a thrift store that will bargain with you. In addition, you can exchange or sell your old clothes at the store. Plato’s Closet will pay you on the spot for whatever clothes you donate in store credit or cash.

The Punk Rock Flea Market is one of the biggest thrifting destinations in Philadelphia. his flea market occurs at the end of April every year and attracts thousands of people from all over the state who are interested in shopping for vintage punk clothing, records, and art. While there is a $3 admission fee at the door, there are over 200 street vendors who alternate between the two day events. In addition, the Punk Rock Flea Market has live music featuring local Philadelphia bands and was named one of is one of the most popular events in the Philadelphia region for thrifters and vintage collectors.

Heres2CoolStuff Clothing South Street, Philadelphia Heres2CoolStuff Clothing was voted one of Philly’s best thrift stores and is an awesome place to thrift if you are looking for more modern and unused clothing. With an entire downstairs dedicated to random t-shirts, Heres2CoolStuff Clothing is a place you don’t want to miss out on. This thrift store has awesome prints and countless tacky dad joke shirts that you can wear ironically to parties. Heres2CoolStuff Clothing is unique in that they host events that cater toward a specific clothing item and often have sales. This upcoming week, the store is having a sale on glasses and hats; ater this month, there will be a 50 percent sale on all thrifted items.

Goodwill Chester Road, Swarthmore (near Mary Lyons dorm / CVS pharmacy)

Whether you want beer shoes you can ruin at parties or cheap clothes for dress-up events, Goodwill is the OG place to buy used clothes and shoes. The inventory is updated weekly with new donations, and there are daily half-off clothing sales.

With every purchase, shoppers are contributing money that will go toward programs that provide education, skill training, and career development help to people nationwide in order to fill jobs throughout the United States. If you’re looking to get rid of a lot of old clothes, don’t throw them out! Donate them to Goodwill at the dropbox behind the store and add to their collection.

Ivy Sole, Bathe, and HUEY Attract Year’s Biggest Olde Club Turnout Bayliss Wagner & Dylan Clairmont Managing Editor & CJ Editor On Friday, Feb. 8, HUEY, Bathe, and Ivy Sole performed to a packed crowd at the first Olde Club concert of the semester. According to Shayla Smith ’20, who is employed by the Office of Student Engagement and organized the show with Gabe Meyer-Lee ’19 in coordination with Residential Communities Coordinator Asraa Jaber, the show was the most well-attended of the 201819 school year.

“It was the perfect mix of hype and chill energy,” Smith said.

All three were local artists with close connections to the college.

HUEY is a Haverford student

who identified his best friend as a Swarthmore student to the crowd. Ivy Sole is a queer black artist and Wharton grad who has become a rising star in the Philly music scene. And one member of the Bathe duo is the brother of Byron Smith ’19, who told Shayla Smith about the group.

“Mainly, we try to seek out local artists so that if students really like the show they can see the artists perform again in Philly,” Shayla said. “We’ve also seen that local artists really appreciate Olde Club as a venue because of its cozy and intimate vibe, they can easily interact with the crowd and meet students after the show.”

HUEY brought energy to the show early in the night as the

opener. He can only be found online on Instagram with the characteristic handle @yungfreedomdreamer. He encouraged the crowd to sing along with him and spoke with ease between “emo jazz-rap” songs that tackled topics such as police brutality and the importance of hip-hop.

Bathe, made up of college friends Corey Smith-West and Devin “Dev” Hobdy, performed next. Bathe aims to take on the issue of toxic masculinity, often using indie rock as a forum for black expression and personal life. This informs their style of music and what Smith-West calls “Surf R&B.” Bathe’s reminiscent beach music is “partly an attempt to redefine who gets to enjoy the sun and sand,” he says. The duo

plays with the line between real and make-believe, using vacation imagery that addresses structural racism.

Interestingly, Smith-West and Hobdy went to school with Taylor McLendon, better known as Ivy Sole. While at University of Pennsylvania together, the three shortly worked together in a musical trio that would later result in the creation of Bathe and Ivy Sole.

The night ended with an incredible performance from Ivy Sole. Ivy Sole is a Charlotte-born, Philly-based rapper. Ivy Sole has a slew of influences that come out in her music that include combining southern rap, indie rock, soul, spoken word, and gospel. Sole lists Anderson Paak as

a huge influence and traces her love of music to her childhood.

Her music addresses topics including inner spirituality and home.

“We decided to book Ivy Sole because she’s a queer black artist making dope music for the soul.

Her music is honest and relatable and we heard from other Swatties how they wanted her to come to Swat,” Smith said. “We’re trying to bring different sounds to campus and book artists whose music you probably wouldn’t hear at a Swat party. Olde Club is a diverse space so we’re trying to match that with diverse artists.”

A rainbow spotlight flickered on Ivy’s face as she performed.

R&B jam “Rollercoaster” showed off her vocals--smooth is an un-

derstatement--while the tempo of “All Mine” and “My Way” kept the crowd energetic. And it was clear that she connected with the crowd. She stopped her set often to talk, remarking that she had never had a crowd sing the lyrics of certain songs back to her before; she said she loved the energy, she loved Swarthmore. At one point, she said, “Where my West Africans at?” to some cheers.

The show was what Olde Club concerts can and always should be. Reflect if you want to reflect, get deep if you want to get deep, jump if you want to jump, sing if you want to sing. Do it together or alone, with your hips or with your head, and come away feeling like you’re part of something you weren’t before.

PAGE A4

THE PHOENIX ARTS

February 14, 2019

Russia in the 90’s: Poetry and Revolution Rachel Lapides Arts Writer

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s today’s media becomes increasingly politicized, polarized, and privatized, cultural journalism has taken a step back. The Trump-era news cycle has dichotomized the reading experience into an all-ornothing approach. Many either find themselves inundated with ever-increasing political entanglements or become so overwhelmed that they tune out altogether. With new headlines emerging every day, little space is left for music, museums, or movies. With so much else going on, writing for the arts section of, say, The Phoenix, can feel unnecessary, even counterproductive. Not so for Maria Stepanova, Russian cultural journalist and poet who came to talk to Swarthmore on Wednesday. Addressing us students, most of whom had never experienced censorship beyond the occasional swear word, she described slowly and earnestly the pathway of tightening media control in her home. Amidst these state-controlled propaganda mechanisms, Stepanova has been attempting to create a space for independent media. In a climate of division and oligarchy, she connects to the public through cultural journalism — a form of activism in itself.

“I don’t know how or what to start with,” Stepanova begins her talk. So too goes the story of Russia, a story with several beginnings, complicated enough to pause even Stepanova, a teenager at the fall of the Soviet Union.

Born in the 1970s, Stepanova is uniquely able to register the media changes under Putin’s tightening control. In her talk, she described the current state of journalism as informationless, “pleasant noise,” purely symbolic propaganda that signals democracy. She outlined two different ways that the state controls media. First, innumerable laws limit freedom of the press through the threat of jail or fines over a wide range of topics. The state wields labels like “propaganda” to describe simple reporting on the existence of minorities or gay communities and “foreign agent” for those who document

innovations in other countries.

By keeping these antagonistic labels loosely defined, anyone can be found guilty under the guide of democracy. Another way that the state is able to assert control is through business tactics. At their core, newspapers are businesses and, as such, require funding. At the turn of the twentieth century, many newspaper owners were wealthy entrepreneurs who controlled several enterprises. The suspicion placed on journalism for these accusations of “propaganda” discouraged businessmen from investing in media, including apolitical magazines. Newspapers were sold, mostly to powerful men known to be loyal to the state.

Stepanova and her fellow Russian journalists realized that in order for independent media to truly be independent, it couldn’t be centered around the person or the state. She has spent the last decade editing, founding, editing, and refounding different cultural media. First, she started an online site for independent journalism, aptly named Open Space, until the private funders decided to fire the editorial board to change direction. With the severance pay, she and her fellow editors founded Colta (colta.ru), a revolutionary breaking of the ubiquitous norm of politics and the state being the central structure. She realized that owners, investors, or institutions entailed censorship, and as a result, all of their funding comes from the public, and became an experiment in the unknown crowdfunding movement before the days of Kickstarter or GoFundMe. She described it as the first truly public media, a “horizontal standalone structure financed not by a single person, not a single institution.” Rather than thinking of her work as a job, Stepanova finds it to be more of a lifetime volunteer position, saying “media stops being a business, but becomes something else.” Beyond just journalism, Stepanova and her colleagues delved into another form of public media: festivals. Using donation funds, they put on several festivals dedicated to the Russian 1990s, Russia’s most important decade in cinema, music, art, literature, and hopefulness. During this decade,

says Stepanova, media was elevated to the level of art. In these festivals, over 25,000 people took part in the arts: watching movies, perusing old magazines, attending rock concerts, and poetry readings. Again, this was all funded by the public. Through the so-called apolitical arts, Stepanova and her colleagues could allude to political dilemmas, the culture of two decades prior creating a stark contrast to the current day and age.

Stepanova hasn’t always thought of herself as an activist.

The first time someone used the word to describe her, she was surprised. It didn’t occur to her that journalism entailed activism. She soon realized, however, that it was correct. In Russia, she told us, “any human activity, however basic, is becoming a form of activism.” In focusing on culture, Stepanova could create Russia’s first truly independent and public media — paid for by the public and aimed to the public. After all, culture is a universal interest. Even in a country with tightly controlled speech, arts media can hint at political issues without overt suspicion.

This has held true even for Stepanova’s widely-acclaimed poetry.

Many of her solemn, soulful, and anguished poems have multiple voices or interwoven narratives.

Both her content and form reflect Russia’s current state.

In her talk, Stepanova repeatedly used the word “bizarre” to describe the situation of both Russia and the globe. Years prior, she believed that the Russian experience was unique and came from specific circumstances, a “rare disease” that the world could dissect.

But recent years have proved that this “disease” is spreading. Considering the reasons for this global trend toward conservatism, Stepanova mused, “[it has] something to do with the ’90s. But that’s another story.” She described the familiar story of intellectuals, both liberal and conservative, as confined in their insular discourse. Perhaps a focus on cultural journalism isn’t counterproductive to the national political conversation after all. If anything, we should encourage writing on the arts even more in times of political division.

Shoplifters Review: A Family Drama That Will Steal Your Heart Ilana Epstein Arts Writer “Shoplifters” is the 2018 Palme d’Or-winning masterwork of celebrated Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda.

The film tells the story of a family which, while unconventional for their habitual shoplifting, is still familiar in its rhythms and relationships: a mother and father who go to work each morning, a grandmother who spoils the young ones, and a brother who feels displaced by the introduction of a younger sister. The story unspools slowly, foregrounding the small moments of joy that make the endless slog of daily life bearable while quietly, almost imperceptibly, hinting at the secrets that are buried just beneath the surface.

The Shibata family is treading water, just barely keeping their heads above the surface.

They live in the close quarters of a pensioner apartment belonging to the grandmother, Hatsue (played by the late and exceptional Kirin Kiki). The father, Osamu (Lily Franky), is a day laborer and the mother, Nobuyo (Sakura Ando), is a cleaner. They supplement their small incomes with Hatsue’s pension and the money made by Nobuyo’s “sister”, the lovely Aki (Mayu Matsuoka), who works at a peepshow in the evenings.

The rest of the income is theft, a skill shared among the adults and taught to Osamu and Nobuyo’s adopted son, Shota (Jyo Kairi). What little they have, they share, and not just amongst themselves: when Osamu and Shoyu see a little girl neglected outside in the cold, they bring her home and feed her. As signs of neglect give way to signs of more serious abuse, they make the decision to “adopt” her too.

Yuri (Miyu Sasaki) joins the family, and so begins a most consequential year in the lives of the Shibatas.

The script is a masterclass in reveals: revealing relationships, revealing histories, revealing

secrets. Throwaway comments are often the key to unlocking a mystery, and the small variations in the way characters speak to one another tell us everything we could hope to know about the various connections between them. The relationship that is granted the most screen time is the one shared between Shota and Osamu, and a more deeply excavated account of a father-son bond would be difficult to find. But no relationship is left unattended to, and even those pairings that receive only minutes of shared air space have distinctive and richly detailed dynamics. One such example is found in Shota and his adoptive mother, Nobuyo.

The two have only one scene together, but the time they share walking down the street, laughing together, commenting on the shops they pass by, is enough to communicate everything about what they mean to one another.

When it comes to actor performances, there is scarcely a false note. It’s hard to decide who shines the brightest — is it Sakura Ando, whose tender portrait of motherhood is so gentle and yet so filled with certainty?

Is it Jyo Kairi, deftly rendering a young boy who, like so many others, yearns for change while wishing that everything could stay the same? The best moments come when the actors work together to demonstrate just what family looks like, and nearly every scene sets forth a new example.

One scene that stands out is the very first: it is buoyant and stylish, wordlessly unveiling the skillful father-son team of thieves at work in a grocery store. Scored with cheerful, percussive music, the sequence is one that gives viewers the pleasure of watching excellence at work. Indeed, watching Shota nimbly drop boxes of ramen into his open knapsack, it’s easy to forget that there’s anything unsavory about his actions at all. Immediately, it is evident that shoplifting is something

that father and son do together; they have a complex system of hand gestures, and they know when to step in and help the other out of a tense moment.

This warm camaraderie is present everywhere in “Shoplifters”, always pointing to the little ways people tie themselves to one another.

In another scene that won’t soon be forgotten, Nobuyo cradles Yuri close to her chest.

It’s nighttime, and they sit in front of a fire where they have just burned the clothes of Yuri’s previous life. Nobuyo tells Yuri that she loves her. Yuri shrinks away — her past has taught her that love means pain and punishment. No, Nobuyo tells her. Love is not pain, love is a hug. She embraces the little girl with such aching compassion, it leaks off the screen and warms the skin in even the most air-conditioned of movie theatres. Here, Kore-eda — who wrote, directed, and edited the film — illustrates his phenomenal intuition for when to hold and when to cut: the moment stretches onwards, providing a solace that the audience will need to tap back into as the plot pushes them to consider moments when the definition of love is less clear-cut.

To watch “Shoplifters” is to be put in the position of its youngest subjects. You learn through observation, through watching the interactions between people. You grow to know and love those people. You figure out the rules of their world: what is good and what is bad, what is fun and what is harmful. Then the balance shifts, the glass shatters, and you’re left with the pieces to figure out what, if anything, is still true.

OPINIONS

February 14, 2019 PAGE A5

Sydney Covitz Op-Ed Contributor

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ongressional Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is currently facing large pushback for her recent Twitter posts, which many claim to be antisemitic. While I acknowledge there is a case to be made for linking her comments to certain classic, antisemitic tropes, I believe the accusations currently levied against Omar are largely unsubstantiated due to the fact that they do not differentiate between antisemitism and critiques of Israel. I also find myself quite frustrated with the binary fashion in which this narrative is currently being framed –– as one that essentializes American Jews by placing all of us in direct, uncompromising opposition to critics of America’s relationship with Israel and assuming we all stand firmly, unequivocally in support of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

This past Sunday, Omar retweeted a post from the Twitter page of Glen Greenwald, a lawyer and journalist who comes from a Jewish-American family. This post links to an article from Haaretz –– an Israeli newspaper –– underneath the words, “GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy threatens punishment for @IlhanMN and @ RashidaTlaib over their criticisms of Israel. It’s stunning how much time US political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans.” Omar captioned her retweet of this content, “It’s all about the Benjamins

baby .” When an editor at “The Forward,” a Jewish publication, asked Omar who she believes to be “paying American politicians to be pro-Israel,” she responded, “AIPAC!” The congresswoman was then immediately labeled by nearly every major news outlet, other representatives, and President Trump as antisemitic.

I would like to start by saying that antisemitism is unequivocally, incontrovertibly real. It is a force that exists in this country and around the globe; a force that has existed for centuries and one that will likely continue to exist for centuries to come. One commonly used antisemitic narrative is that Jews are constantly using money to manipulate political affairs on both local and global scales. It is for this reason that Omar’s remarks struck a nerve with some subset of the American Jewish population.

With regards to Omar’s Twitter captions, a discussion of the politics of language is in order.

The word “all” is what got her in trouble. Clearly, “all” was taken to mean “only,” causing her to consciously or unconsciously insinuate that the exclusive reason so many American politicians so strongly support Israel is monetary. Notwithstanding, I believe the claims that this statement is inherently antisemitic rely heavily on the conflation of Jews and Israel –– a foreign nation-state that in no way speaks for the American or international population of Jews. This is a conflation I have explicitly problematized in previous pieces. Criticizing Israel is not

Let’s Take A Break

Giorgia Piantanida Op-Ed Contributor

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

Lately, I’ve been turning this phrase over and over in my head, trying to make sense of it. I suppose it has always somewhat been a part of life, a harmless phrase repeated to us from a young age meant to push us a little harder every day. After all, it seems to describe the attitude of many students at Swat — sleep and rest is not as important as getting as much work done as possible.

Always being ‘on’, always doing some kind of work, and being available to friends, family, and professors has become the norm, especially with the widespread use of phones with which we can track each other within a couple of seconds. Falling off the grid for even a couple minutes can feel suffocating, as though being out of touch with the everything except for your immediate surroundings is actually a fear we have cultivated somewhere deep

down.

Even though many recognize constantly driven and passionate work ethic and availability is not sustainable, we keep encouraging it, and at this point, just expecting it from others. When people step back from work, they are seen as falling short of their full potential. Perhaps they miss out on advancements or perfect grades, but for the most part, at least those people have found happiness. At least the people who can tell the difference between pushing oneself and working their fingers to the bone tend to have a sense of self and stability that remains, for the most part, unshakeable.

The idea of stretching ourselves too thin or taking on more than we can handle is almost romanticized today. There always seems to be a million clubs to join, jobs to work, and classes to take. Plus there’s the social life aspect to individual’s lives — planning lunches, going out to get plastered, keeping up with

Class inequality is out of control in the U.S. Lax tax policies are responsible for maintaining this inequality and putting the tax burden on ordinary Americans. By increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans, and using that money to fund policies that benefit working-class and middle-class Americans, we can begin to address the problem.

Currently, there are seven federal marginal income tax brackets, starting at ten percent for the first $9,525 of earnings, 12 percent for earnings between $9,526 and $38,700, 22 percent for earnings between $38,701 and $82,500, 24 percent for earnings between $82,501 and $157,500, 32 percent for earnings between $157,501 and $200,000, 35 percent for earnings between $200,001 and $500,000, and 37 percent for earnings over $500,001. I propose that we modify the highest two marginal income tax brackets and add three more brackets on top of them. Rather than 35 percent for

earnings over $200,001, the rate should be 32 percent for earnings up to $250,000 and 50 percent for earnings between $250,001 and $500,000. For earnings between $500,001 and $2 million, the rate should be 70 percent. For earnings between $2 million and $10 million, the rate should be 90 percent. Earnings above $10 million should be taxed at 100 percent. These changes affect just 2.1 percent of the population. If we are to get serious about tackling the problem of class inequality, this is a good place to start.

Long-term capital gains are earnings from investments lasting longer than a year. They are taxed at 15 percent for earnings between $39,376 and $434,550, and at 20 percent for earnings above $434,550. I propose that we treat long-term capital gains exactly the same as we treat earnings from income. By simplifying the tax code in this way, we eliminate the preferential treatment of earnings generated through capital, which is disproportionately owned by the wealthy.

For estates larger than $11.18 million, the estate tax applies a

PHOENIX

Shreya Chattopadhyay, Editor-in-Chief Bayliss Wagner, Managing Editor Laura Wagner, Managing Editor

PHOTOGRAPHY Atziri Marquez, Editor

Part of this problem stems from the fact that Israel is a Jewish state that claims the practices and symbols of Jewish religion and culture as their own. However, it is crucial to keep in mind that although Israel claims Judaism, not all Jews around the world claim Israel; being Jewish is not synonymous to supporting a Jewish state.

Omar’s critics are correct to find fault with her insinuation that the only reason American politicians support Israel is money; however, I will argue that her point is less incorrect than it is incomplete.

Financial support is not the only reason representatives back Israel, but it is a critical factor. If financial incentives did not play such a huge role in the conversation of American support for Israel, and for other issues raised in the American political sphere, PAC money would not exist; according to the Center for Responsive Politics, AIPAC’s lobbying expenditures totaled to over three million dollars in 2018.

Concerning AIPAC, I believe Omar hit the nail on the head.

Although AIPAC is not the only group attempting to use funds to bolster government support for Israel, they are the biggest proIsrael lobbying group. Omar does not assert the exclusivity of AIPAC in protecting Israeli interests in American politics. Here, she simply cites the lobby as a counterexample to disprove “The Forward’s”

attempt at a rhetorical question.

According to their website, “the mission of AIPAC is to strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.” As one of the most powerful lobbies in this country, they do this quite effectively.

AIPAC is not a Jewish organization –– it is a pro-Israel organization that neither speaks for nor represents the American Jewish community. Critiquing the way in which AIPAC operates is a form of criticizing one of the reasons for and by which support for Israel arises in the United States.

What I find most shocking in this whole debate is the hypocrisy present in President Trump’s strong desire to insert himself as the supposed defender of American Jews. I simply cannot take seriously his aggressive condemnation of Omar and call for her resignation when these comments come from a man who has perpetuated discriminatory stereotypes against nearly every race, religion, and ethnicity in the country; he is also the man who infamously declared there “good people on both sides” at the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, VA where one of the featured chants was “Jews will not replace us.”

Often, our president laughs off accusations of his antisemitism with claims such as, “I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life,” along with promises of deep respect for and affiliation with the American Jewish population. Saying you love

Jews because your son-in-law is Jewish does not make you immune to antisemitism any more than a racist white person can cite their Black friend as a plea for absolvement from being called a bigot.

My final frustration with this discussion arises in the fact that many Jews and non-Jews alike are attempting to speak for an entire population. Even someone who claims the identity of a certain population has no right to speak for the entire group; doing so erases nuances present in that group from the public sphere and serves to essentialize. Attempting to speak for a group of which you have no personal affiliation is even more ridiculous.

Jewish Voice for Peace, a national organization comprised of Jews, has put out a statement of

support for Omar and her comments. Why, if a large group of Jews in this country agree with Omar that AIPAC is problematic, do some claim that Omar’s comments are offensive to the entire American Jewish population? No Jew can claim to speak for all of us, just as no American can confidently speak for the opinions of every person in this country.

The last thing I have to say is to Americans –– Jews and non-Jews alike –– currently in the process of vilifying Omar. Speak for yourself.

Don’t speak for me; I will never try to speak for you.

old friends while trying to meet new ones. And on top of all of that, there’s still our physical and mental health that you need to remember to take care of. So suddenly, it may feel like you’re juggling all these different aspects of your life, and yet, the pressure to take on more is unshakeable.

Emails announcing more events and clubs, Facebook, and Instagram reminding you of social obligations tend to crowd out the fundamental need we have to take care of ourselves, and so you might take on more. Eventually, you might be juggling so many things that you don’t even remember that you have your personal mental and physical health still sitting in your pile of ‘to-dos’. And however detrimental and damaging that may be, it is the culture we have cultivated today in America, and the one that always seems very apparent on Swat’s campus.

America prides itself in the idea that if you work hard enough, any dream you have can be achieved.

And while this may have been true at one time, today, achieving your dreams also certainly requires luck, winning the birth lottery, and knowing the right people. But because there is such a go-getter ideology implanted in Americans and visitors alike, the idea that working ourselves to the bone to reach our goals is seductive enough that we fall for it. Yet it is unsustainable. Juggling too many things and trying to keep up with the numerous responsibilities required from all your commitments can more often than not have a deeply negative impact on your own health, which then consequently causes everything else to come crashing down.

My first two years at Swat, I slowly but surely stacked up commitments until I reached the point that I could not even list what they were. I tried to juggle all these extracurriculars with a five-course load and a plethora of friends, and suddenly, I wound up alone in my room for

days at a time for the sheer fact that I could not move. The responsibilities I felt tied to were so overwhelming that they felt as though they were physically weighing me down. And the mere fact that I could not move and deal with all of them felt like a sure sign of personal failure.

I knew I had to make a change when I felt that I was not living my life anymore. I felt as though my daily actions and decisions were not made by me for me, but rather by me for a future self that would be happy once I found ‘success’. I didn’t want to live a life where I waited for peace of mind and feeling fulfilled. I could no longer go on living day to day, just trying to survive until all my hard work finally delivered ‘success’. I escaped this mindset only because it completely broke me down. It emptied me out and made me forget who I was - my personality, confidence and persona were all scrubbed away after being run to the ground with a work schedule that hardly gave

me room to breathe.

If I’ve learned anything in the time since, it’s that taking a break and giving myself space to do nothing can be the most vital and important thing in the world.

It has not only grounded me and my health, but also the people around me and my various responsibilities.

Being overwhelmed and having too much on your plate may feel like a rather normal and sane thing to do. At times, it may even feel like the only thing to do. But I strongly believe we need to rethink the old motto of sleeping when you’re dead. The beauty of living, right now, is that you can sleep and still experience the full joys of life if you can just strike the right balance. And striking that balance is what we should be aiming for, not working ourselves to nothingness.

antisemitic. Is criticizing America anti-American? In fact, I would posit that there are few actions more inherently American than criticizing America.

Why the US Needs a More Progressive Tax Code Billie Potts Op-Ed Contributor

THE

Omar’s Critics Do More Harm Than Good

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rate of 40 percent on the value of the estate that exceeds $11.18 million. I propose that the estate tax should apply to estates as small as $1 million. Rather than $11.18 million, an heir would be able to receive as much as $1 million without being taxed. The value of an estate between $1 million and $5 million should be taxed at 70 percent, and larger than $5 million should be taxed at 100 percent. The gift tax taxes gifts given to other people, not including one’s spouse or medical or educational expenses. For the gift tax, there is an exemption of $15,000 a year up to a lifetime allotment of $11.18 million (which it shares with the estate tax). I propose lowering that to $1 million and combining these changes with a generation-skipping tax, alongside much stricter limits on gifts made to trusts.

While these drastic changes to the tax code would do a lot to change the nature of class inequality in the U.S., complementary tax policies will be required continued online

NEWS Naomi Park, Editor Trina Paul, Editor ARTS Esther Couch, Editor Nicole Liu, Editor CAMPUS JOURNAL Dylan Clairmont, Editor OPINIONS Shelby Dolch, Editor Max Katz-Balmes, Editor SPORTS Jack Corkery, Editor Ping Promrat, Editor

LAYOUT Sarah Chang, Editor Catherine Zhao, Editor COPY Anatole Shukla, Chief Editor BUSINESS Robert Conner, Manager SOCIAL MEDIA Abby Diebold, Editor DIGITAL OPERATIONS Daniel Chaiken Navdeep Maini EMERITUS Keton Kakkar Ganesh Setty

On AOC and Social Answers to Complex Problems Andy Zhang Op-Ed Contributor

In the wake of shocking defeats in 2016, the Democratic Party rebounded in 2018 with a host of fresh faces and inspiring rhetoric to win a majority in the House. Even political contenders who lost their elections — including but not limited to Stacey Abrams, Andrew Gillum, and Beto O’Rourke — made powerful statements on the nature of our current political discourse, and they are likely to go on to prominent political careers in the future. But even as Democratic voters celebrate their success, we have to consider whether the new champions of the progressive movement are capable of enacting the change for which they’ve pledged to fight or if they might be a threat to that very cause.

While 2018 was surely a promising year for liberals, the problems facing our government have grown increasingly nuanced and complex. From foreign concerns such as Rus-

sian influence and ramping tensions with North Korea, to economic ones including the minimum wage and the surprisingly complicated (who knew!) healthcare system, to the science behind rising temperatures and the acidification of our oceans, there’s no questioning that both Congress and the President have a lot on their plates. But in the face of all these issues, we’ve largely received the same socially-driven non-answers.

Social problems, while definitely controversial, generally can be much more simply characterized and their solutions more vaguely offered than, say, those for balancing the federal budget or revitalizing American industry. Racism exists, and it’s a bad thing. There aren’t enough women in Congress, so let’s elect more. College is expensive, so let’s make it free.

The problem with these arguments isn’t that they’re incorrect or unimportant, but rather that they distract from the more pragmatic and immediate

obstacles we face in achieving real progress through meaningful legislation. In a time of political impasse, particularly without a supportive figure in the Oval Office, it’s highly unlikely that any dramatic, radical social reforms will make it through Congress, and even less likely that they will be signed into law. Realistically, issues like race and inequality do not lend themselves to the incremental progressions through which Congress tends to function. Arguing about the social aspects of complex problems is often the easiest, most superficial part of a problemsolving discussion, but consistently the most attentiongetting. And nobody does this better than Democratic rising star Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, whose entire campaign strategy was centered on social talking points rather than substance.

AOC is one of the most prominent members of the Democontinued on A2

PAGE A6 February 14, 2019

Campus Journal ARTS FASHION FOOD LIVING PHILLY PROFILES ST YLES

Quiet Room Energy: Your Sign as a Sharples Seating Area Emma Lee Miller CJ Writer Author’s note: This list applies to Sharples only during the day. At night when Sharples becomes the Crumb Cafe, the energy shifts into Aquarius and Gemini energy. I’ve left out the middle and right side tables in the main room because the energy shifts depending on the day and the crowd (though generally the right side would be earthier and the middle tables would be fire or water). I’ve also left out the athletes’ tables because as all astrological signs are valid and all men are not valid, it is impossible to pair the two — oil and water if you will (the men are the oil).

Occupy The Truth: Beginning the Journey R.L. B*rnard CJ Writer

It was a rainy week in December of 2016, definitely not good baseball weather. It was a normal day, nothing out of the ordinary.

The clock struck four and people shuffled out of their seminars and to their respective activities, maybe going home to take a nap or to stop by the Matchbox. Athletes descended upon the fieldhouse, like most days, ready to run around and practice their extremely important sport. But some baseball players opened the chamber where they keep their equipment and, to their shock, there was nothing there. Where was it?

The words “Occupy A1” ring in the ears of upperclassmen at Swarthmore. They send chills down spines, make people look over their shoulder as they walk home at night. At times when the wind rustles the leaves in just the right way you can hear the whisper, “Who did the bats...”

The events that took place on December 6, 2016 created a quake that shook the very ground students walked on, a chasm that still lies just beneath the surface. But first, let’s start with what we know.

In the Fall of 2016, emotions were running high. The enthusiastic buildup of a hopeful presidential election, followed by crestfallen mouths agape at a screen in Trotter as state after state turned red. Rumors of supposed showdowns at parties. Scandals plaguing campus journalism for months.

New conversations began to emerge during this time around our role in the college, our role

in the world. Groups met and lamented. People consistently stopped and asked “How are you?”

Hugs were had. Tears were shed.

Threads of connections between people emerged during this time as deep divides bubbled up to the surface. People were frustrated, people were helpless. As emotions stirred, a dynamic as old as time felt stark against this sociocultural backdrop: Why do all the athlete boys sit at A1?

One walk through Sharples at peak time and you’ll see it. The main room is best understood as a grid system: the row on the compost side is A, B, C, etc. as you read the room left to right. Look below.

Maybe things have changed (sticky tables, new chairs) or maybe they haven’t (hordes of male athletes). But in the Fall of 2016, A1 and A2 were emblematic of the male athlete dining experience. Why? Who knows. Maybe the air is better on that side of the room. Maybe they need quick access to milk and Powerade. But nevertheless, their claim to A1 and A2 seemed to arrive with the conception of the college itself.

Relentless, immoveable, the first sight when walking into the main room was athlete men practically feasting off of their lacrosse sticks.

Their voices carried throughout the mainroom — shaking it to its very core.

Then, an idea, or moreso a joke of an idea, emerged. In the post-election fog, rage, despair and perhaps naivete were brewing. Why do these guys get to sit at A1? Maybe other people want to sit near the trash. What if a bunch of women sat there? What would happen? Would the walls of

Sharples Dining Hall crumble before our very eyes? Only one way to find out.

A Facebook group, entitled “fuq the fratriarchy” blew up over night. An original 30 attendees became 200. Was it a joke? Would anything really happen Monday at 4:30 p.m.?

Yes. The tables were sat at. It was a sight to see: music playing, huge amounts of women all chatting over the dinner tables, so close to the garbage that they could simply lean back to toss their garbage out.

The male athletes, confused, angry, but ultimately unharmed, had a meal at B1. The change-up was significant, even if only for one day. A tide had shifted.

After the event, an article for the Phoenix was released, coining this soon to be historic meal as “Occupy A1.” With an obvious tinge of irony, it documented something funny that happened on a relatively uneventful campus. The hope was that nothing would be taken too seriously. But in a fashion true to Swarthmore, the overwhelming instinct to sweat the small stuff took over. Comments by alumni and students alike flooded the article’s online presence. I have chosen a few to reproduce here: “Why would one group of students intentionally pissing off another be bringing swatties together? Only like-minded swatties were brought together, and the laughs had were obviously at other swatties expense. Maybe one could speak of creating connections and community if the swatties in question had sat with the jocks rather than in spite of them.”

“Congrats, you sat at another table. Want a cookie?”

Yes, actually. Mind grabbing me one of the vegan ones?

Facebook exploded with comments. Most were comedic, all acknowledging the absurdity of the act. Although it held literally no correlation to the real world whatsoever (the act of explaining the A1 cafeteria dynamic felt too High School Musical to even take seriously), the act seemed to disrupt the normal ecosystem. And even if no one admitted to caring about it, it seemed to be the topic on everyone’s tongue.

This build up lead to the incident that brings us here today.

On a seemingly ordinary day, December 6, 2016, 22 baseball bats were taken from their crate and arranged to spell out the words “Occupy A1” on the baseball field, with 34 baseballs dotting a circle around the phrase in a remarkably creative touch.

The photo emerged on Facebook around 4:00 p.m. and, before anyone knew it, Facebook discourse erupted. Opinions were flying. Who was to blame? The actor of the deed or those who prompted it? Can we separate the act from the cause?

The act allegedly caused “thousands of dollars in damages,” claims the original poster of the photo. I don’t know much about baseball bats, but apparently mud can really fuck them up, especially when provocatively arranged.

The divisiveness alone of the seating arrangement in Sharples led to a High School Musical level of separation between groups. If we enjoyed life a little more, perhaps someone would’ve popped, locked and dropped it on top of A1.

But it seemed that the sentiment

truly was no, no, no, we stick to the stuff we know.

Now let me mention what we don’t know.

After the incident took place, a report was filed with Public Safety, and an investigation allegedly ensued. Michael Hill, head of public safety, was even quoted saying, “We will make every effort to identify the responsible individual(s).

If you or any of your readers have information that would aid in the investigation, please let me know.”

We do not know what came of this investigation or what details of the incident were discovered during the investigation. We do not know any suspects that emerged from this investigation.

We also don’t know the exact time in which the deed could’ve been done. How much time would it take to move 22 bats and 36 baseballs? How many people would it take? Who would even know where that much baseball equipment is kept?

We think, but cannot yet confirm, it was discovered around 4:00 p.m. on December 6, 2016.

Had anyone been by the field until then to see it? How long was it out there before it was discovered?

How much time passed between the discovery of the message and the posting of the photo? Were there cameras? Has anyone seen the footage?

I cannot graduate until I know the truth.

Almost three years later, as my time here comes to a close, I need to know what happened and who was responsible. To separate the myths, the legends, from reality — to find out if such a distinction is even possible. And I need

Graphic by Sarah Chang

your help, reader, as I examine the pieces, interview the suspects, and dig deep into the halls of our collective memory, with bravery and rigor.

And yes, in 2019, I am also left wondering, how could an event like this happen? And why did it happen?

Can we understand the bats as a symbol, a metaphor, even a battleground of campus politics and culture wars? A contested site of what is acceptable protest? A relic of the chaos and confusion of that horrible, horrible Fall?

Where were you on December 6, 2016, reader? Where are you now?

Can we only understand the present through this excruciating look at a past we all hoped to forget?

Or do the bats — and yes, even this column — point to an unsettling truth about Swarthmore and its inhabitants, something we all repress for the sake of survival?

Yes, the key question: Does this place have any f*cking chill?

I have every intention to offer you answers. I have the willpower and the skills to unveil the truth. I will explore conspiracies, conduct experiments of how the incident took place, interview those who remember the incident, and delve into who, or what, did the bats.

Join me on a bi monthly journey revisiting one of the most absurd mysteries this college has ever seen.

If you have any information, theories or opinions regarding the incident, please email Occupy the Truth at whodidthebats@gmail. com.

Follow our journey to the truth on Instagram: @whodidthebats

February 14, 2019

THE PHOENIX CAMPUS JOURNAL

PAGE A7

The $0 OneCard Challenge Eva Baron & Sage Rhys CJ Writers

I

t was November. Who was it?

Us. What was it? Entrapment.

A new game to assert one’s dominance: depleting every scarce category on our OneCards. While more frugal students might use their meal plans as a way to learn responsible financial skills, we figured this was the most optimal time to live life as privileged college students enabled by an ultrawealthy institution.

The race was on between Eva and Sage, and we did everything possible from eating Essie’s trail mix every night (Eva) to ordering migraine-inducing, ultra-sweet smoothies from the Science Center twice a week (Sage) to get closer to our goal. Spending excursions to Bamboo Bistro became commonplace and we competed for larger orders, begging others to let us order items for them.

When the check would come, an American Psycho-esque OneCard smackdown meant our stupidity lined the Asian fusion establishment’s pockets. We learned what you can and can’t use Swat Points

on; for example, you can use your points to get a Bamboo Bistro shirt but not a four-pack of AA batteries from the campus store.

By finals week, however, our manic race to zero points reached its climax. Eva, during a visit to the campus store, managed to deplete her Swat Points to a meager $0.03 with a purchase of fast-acting tylenol (she proudly kept her receipt).

Sage, on the other hand, straggled at $2.09 Swat Points after buying vegan almond milk whipped cream. He did manage to get down to $0.61 Dining Dollars with all the Essie’s spending.

During a visit to Essie’s one fateful night, Sage loyally vowed to get rid of all his points –– down to the last cent. With a combined purchasing power of $2.70, we fruitlessly scoured the store for items that would evenly exhaust Sage’s finances. We probably read each and every pricetag in Essie’s, hoping to find the item that would finally bring Sage over the edge. In the end, though, we decided to buy a coconut water (unsweetened) for $2.80. Ten cents short, Sage had to pay the rest with his debit card, but, as of December 13, 2018 at

9:05 p.m., Sage won our heated battle.

While celebrating in Essie’s, boasting about Sage’s newlyearned privilege of being pointless, we came to realize that we still had to waste our five dollars in Garnet Print cash. Immediately we dashed through the cold to the Media Center, only –– to our greatest disappointment –– to be told that printing posters is free. Yet again enabled by Swarthmore’s massive endowment, we resolved to printing a poster of people doing laughter yoga. Even as the poster slowly churned out of the printer, groaning at every dark tone, we still couldn’t believe that it’d been free. What immense power we had just unlocked!

The printing didn’t stop there.

After watching a sped-up, highpitched version of Party Monster, we craved more chaos. Neglecting to bring jackets, we sprinted up the hill from Willets to the Media Center, eager to abuse our new-found power. This time, however, we printed something that perfectly harnessed all our hysteria that had built up during our OneCard challenge. Giggling as

we ran back –– Sage in his neon monster slippers, Eva in her sandals and socks –– we, yet again, had another accomplishment to boast about. This time, rather than a weird bragging right (Sage with his zero points), it was the joy of free printing.

Our high didn’t last long. During a morning soirée at Vicky’s later that week, Eva couldn’t pay for the fried muffin she had ordered (against her better judgement). In the end she was glad she forced her friend on Garnet Plan to pay for it — she didn’t want her own money to go towards a muffin that kept her nauseous up until 5 p.m. Similarly, that Saturday, we both desperately craved Bamboo’s scallion pancakes. Luckily, we had friends on the Garnet Plan that were more than happy to pay for us. Except that eating on other people’s dime didn’t really give us the same rush as when we incessantly spent our own fake money.

At least we quickly discovered that meal passes from Sharples are free, and that Bryn Mawr always has better dinner.

We wish we’d been on the Garnet Plan.

Things I’ve Found in Willets Basement Eva Baron CJ Writer

When it was confirmed I was moving from ML into Willets, I was overjoyed. Even though I wrote an article earlier this year about living in ML, I couldn’t wait to leave the “Sunday school” (as a friend jokingly called it) for the turmoil and destruction of Willets. And then I heard I was moving into Willets basement. I was terrified. Despite infamous rumors of rats, a permanent stench, and mold, I was mostly concerned about the basement’s small windows. And maybe the rats, too.

Regardless of the culture shock, the first weekend in my new room was memorable, to say the least. Waltzing down the hall in a clown costume, I was surprisingly infatuated with the smells, the endless stains on the rugs, the pure chaos (in other words, I loved that we could play nightcore “Jolene” by Dolly Parton at full blast without getting complaints). While disgusting at times, I find Willets basement endearing in its lawless mayhem. I hope you will, too.

fig. 2

fig. 1 A remnant of a Thursday night. Neither emptied nor recycled, I had to sniff the cup to make sure this was indeed alcohol and not pee. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the latter, though.

Well into a night of drunken night terrors, I was drawn into the boys’ bathroom by a friend shrieking at 2:40 a.m. This cockroach, however, was the second of its kind. The other –– discovered during a different trip to the bathroom to shave someone’s head –– lay curled up by a chunky toilet plunger rather than in a puddle of soap. When I returned the next night, both still remained on the floor.

fig. 3 Created out of a finals week-induced mania at 1:30 a.m, the Basement Pride Flag was officially hung up after winter break. Righteously referred to as the “poster that started it all,” the Pride Flag proudly hangs next to Willets 005. It’s certainly a flag worth saluting.

fig. 4 On a Sunday night, I overhear, “The goal is just to have as much shit on the wall as possible.” ABCDEX didn’t stay long, though, despite adding flair to the vomit-stained carpeting of Willets basement. I don’t think pasting the board next to the “IT’S A FIRE HAZARD” sign helped much.

fig. 5 A massive piece of cardboard on the wall can easily be replaced with a small piece of cardboard on the ceiling. This Lemon Sparkling Water LaCroix poster is, like the cockroaches, not the only one of its kind. There’s another next to the humidifier that, allegedly, helps ease the smells of the basement. Even though I personally don’t mind the smell, I’ve yet to see it keep that promise.

Needless to say, I don’t think I would’ve found any of this in ML. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Thanks, Willets basement, for always being unpredictable!

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THE PHOENIX CAMPUS JOURNAL

February 14, 2019

Swat Ed: Level Pegging

BY P. AFDERSEX ’69 Swat Ed is The Phoenix’s biweekly sex education Q & A. We accept all questions and they are kept completely anonymous. If you’re looking for medical advice or a diagnosis for that weird thing on your genitals, get in touch with a medical professional! For everything else, email swatedquestions@gmail.com. Today’s subject matter is pegging.

My girlfriend told me last week that she wants to try having sex with me with a strapon. Apparently that’s something that people do.

I thought that she was joking for a while, but she was being serious. She even said that she did it with her ex boyfriend. I’ve heard of gay guys doing something like that and I’ve heard people joking about guys that are really whipped. I kind of yelled at my girlfriend when she told me and I said I was sorry later but she was upset that I thought it was really weird.

She said that a lot of people do it and that her ex really loved it and she got him to cum from it all the time. I looked online and a lot of people said that they liked it and had really good orgasms from it, so now I’m not sure what to think. My girlfriend thinks I hate the thought and hasn’t asked me about it again, so I don’t know how she’d react if I brought it up again. I’m not even sure if I want to bring it up. I’m still kind of grossed out by the thought and I don’t know if I like the idea. What should I do?

-Weirdly Intrigued Wildly Confused

butt

There’s a lot to unpack here, but don’t worry, I think we can get to the bottom of it. I understand that this topic was a bit of a shock and something that’s hard to navigate, since it’s not something that we talk about in the public sphere a lot. Penetration between a heterosexual couple with the man receiving is totally normal and common, and it’s called pegging.

It’s usually accomplished with the woman wearing a strapon, but you could do it fine with a handheld dildo appropriate for anal play — more on that later.

There seems to be a few problems here to overcome: there’s your confusion on the subject, communicating about it with your girlfriend, and actually doing the act itself. Let’s take the time to break those problems down one by one.

Our culture pushes a specific and harmful narrative about the ways we engage in sex. That narrative is contributing heavily to your confusion, so we’ll start there. The narrative states that the default partnership is a heterosexual one, and within this partnership, the woman is the one who receives penetration. It also equates the act of being penetrated to submission and the act of penetrating to dominance. Certain sex acts are also assigned to sexual orientations (in this example, anal with male receiving equals solely homosexual). In this model, masculinity is defined as never showing vulnerability or relenting control. An act as inherently trusting and vulnerable as being penetrated would therefore be repugnant to this idea of masculinity. The ultimate effect of all of this is that it implies that being penetrated would make you less of a man, call into question your heterosexual identity, and establish your girlfriend as the unquestioned boss in the relationship (this is where the word

“whipped” comes into play).

Dominance and submission, or any sort of power dynamic, isn’t at all tied to who receives during sex acts. In fact, the dynamics of sex acts are so dependent on the people doing them that what means one thing to one person might mean something entirely different to another. A person being pegged submissively might interpret it as a sign of the intense trust and comfort they experience in allowing their partner to do it, while a person being pegged dominantly might interpret it as an act of service, lying back and not having to do any of the work. Also, the way people act in the bedroom has nothing to do with their actual personalities outside of it. The idea of the control freak boss popularized by certain movies who is similarly controlling in his sex life and the corresponding submissive secretary is a moronic oversimplification that overlooks the diversity of human experience. After all, they’ve never tried to portray a switch that alternately coquettishly fetches bosses cups of coffee and dangles executives off the sides of buildings to move up the corporate ladder.

Sex acts are not sexual orientations. Straight men who go down on women are not called lesbians. By definition, sexual activity between a man and a woman cannot be gay. You might be using the word gay to mean feminine or submissive, which brings us back to the preceding paragraph. It’s also a homophobic thing to say since it implies that masculinity is only legitimate for straight men who penetrate women.

Having established that society pushes a narrative on us about men and sex, it’s up to you to decide whether your hangups about pegging stem from outward (society) or inward (if it’s something that you personally are genuinely not

into). I think it’s fair to say that many of your hangups do stem from society since you got upset at your girlfriend’s suggestion.

You wouldn’t have gotten upset if she had asked about something you really had no interest in, like seeing a boring movie or helping her aunt move. You would have just declined politely. If you really can’t figure out what’s societal and what’s personal, try it. There’s a pretty clear difference between “this doesn’t turn me on at all” and “I don’t feel like I should be turned on by this.”

As far as communicating with your girlfriend, explain in detail your various hangups. Emphasize that you are interested in the potential for an enjoyable sexual experience, but you feel overwhelmed and stranded without your normal script. She should respect your reservations and agree to move slowly and at your pace. She’s your partner in this, so you should feel comfortable telling her everything about it. It can be hard at first if you’re not used to that sort of vulnerability, but it’ll get easier.

Lastly, let’s talk about the mechanics of pegging. The reason that it’s so enjoyable for male-bodied people is because

the prostate, the extremely sensitive organ that creates seminal fluid, is easily stimulated through the walls of the rectum. Stimulating the prostate can lead to intense, full body convulsive orgasms that many men describe as more allconsuming than more localized orgasms from penis stimulation. Some people can orgasm from solely prostate stimulation without touching their penis at all. So you’re right: it’s a great source of pleasure that, due to stigma, is frequently underutilized.

You don’t need to jump right in with a strapon to stimulate your prostate. Pressing on the perineum (the strip of skin between testicles and anus) with enough pressure can provide stimulation, although this doesn’t work for everyone. I would recommend starting out on your own. You can use gloves or a condom over your fingers and do it in the shower if that makes you feel more comfortable. The prostate is one to two inches inside the rectum and towards the direction of the penis; it’s a hard walnut-sized organ you should be able to feel with your fingers. Use lubricant, ideally a good thick silicone lubricant that won’t dis-

sipate easily since anuses have no natural lubricant. It might take a little while to get past the new feeling that you’re not used to and start enjoying it.

Relaxation plays into this too.

Once you’ve gotten a feel for what you like in terms of anal stimulation, you can incorporate it into sex with your partner. A lot of people enjoy a finger stimulating their prostate during oral sex, so that might be a good stepping stone. Remember that there’s no pressure to escalate to using a strapon; do what you enjoy when you want to. If you do decide you want to use one, make sure that you can comfortably accommodate a similar number of fingers to the diameter of the toy. Start small and move up. Use a lot of lube and go slowly to begin with. A doggy style position doesn’t tend to be the best for anal starting out, since it keeps your muscles tense. Instead, try lying on your side in a spooning position and relaxing. The increased skin to skin contact will also retain the feeling of intimacy. Keep in mind the learning curve that comes with trying all new things, and remember that the goal is to have fun.

laying messages from administrators, or revealing our latest idea or conversation with a fellow member. Everyone had their respective strengths and responsibilities. It was only appropriate that I eventually assume a vital position on the crew thereafter. I was eventually tagged to be the treasurer for the group — to conduct my first Swat budget proposal on a wet, cloudy weekend evening later that semester — a Swarthmore rite in itself. They even seamlessly switched their established line of communications on Facebook to Slack because I was (and still am) “not on Facebook.”

That spring, I watched as they planned additional Prelude events where they collectively arranged and executed a panel discussion with faculty from separate disciplines gathering to discuss a single topic.

The custom at that point was to have a single person in the gang take charge of their own Prelude but receive help from the fellow members in carrying out the logistics. My chance wouldn’t come until the following Fall when I was appointed to organize the second Prelude of the semester. We had just grown our P.I.L.E. listserv— Peripeteia’s Interdisciplinary List of Events — a weekly digest of departmental events, and it was time to further expand our presence. This event, as per design, was supposed to draw attention and press to the upcoming 2nd Annual Peripeteia Weekend.

The timing of the event happened to fall the week of the 2016 Presidential election and the topic — even more timely — happened to be on the delicate topic of “Diversity.” I headed the effort that managed to secure the presence of Professors Allison Dorsey and Sa’ed Atshan and President Valerie Smith. Unfortunately, however, I had chipped my front tooth, scarred my chin, and locked my jaw from attempting to hang posters on rollerblades that week. And yet, I dressed up, introduced, and moderated the event as my colleagues watched from the sidelines. And to this day, I have felt only debt to the

group for guiding me and assisting me in coordinating an event of such scale.

I continue to feel gratitude for my elder counterparts in Peripeteia whose endeavors have left a mark on the campus and who have heavily contributed to my own personal growth. I write this anecdote as a commemoration to the earnest roots of Peripeteia. Its development stems from the collaboration of individuals seeking nothing more than to enrich their own, along with others’ liberal arts experiences. As I remember it, Peripeteia was founded on curiosity, cooperation, and magnanimity. The sincerity of the group’s mission fundamentally reflects the bonds between their founders. And its survival today hinges on those who have graduated’s demonstrated support and faith in me as their successor in maintaining Peripeteia’s identity, presence, and impact.

My experience as the subsequent torchbearer of Peripeteia could best be exemplified by this one moment my sophomore semester. Before the wheels really began turning that semester, the grand Activities Fair took place on Parrish Beach for all the campus to behold. I agreed to help table at Peripeteia’s post and watched as the group faced the entire community in presenting itself as the viable entity it had proved it was. And I tried to absorb all I could of their confidence in the enterprise. Not before long, however, did the arguable mastermind behind it all, turn to me and prompt me to brief the passersby on the background and intent of Peripeteia myself. We plan, finance, and execute a Weekend-long event where students, faculty, staff, or anyone can instruct their own course on anything they want. Also… Still, though I stumbled on my delivery, not finishing it the first time, this single act captured the sentiment of encouragement despite fear, persistence in the face of uncertainty, and risk for the sake of gain.

I have been very proud in having joined and most recently, directed the Peripeteia Plan-

ning Committee. I have learned so much from my former peers that I would not have otherwise.

To this day, although practically the most authoritative voice on the team, I refuse to call myself anything more than simply its most senior member. The Swarthmore-chartered group continues to possess and wield its original creative freedom, still with much support from the Dean’s Office and faculty all around. Joining Peripeteia, from the very beginning, however, was more than just participating in a campus activity; I felt akin from the very beginning. Everything from its flexible concept to its robust execution lends itself to the Swarthmore personality. Four years later, attending several courses, I was only reassured of the reliability for Swatties, when given the opportunity, to deliver on their purposeful passions and knowledge.

Peripeteia has offered an unprecedented model and venue for Swarthmore students to share and effectively expound upon their quirks and niches.

Though in the works for a couple of years amongst the elder members of the committee, their finally inaugurated festival weekend had only written so much in stone. Longevity and success only meant continued dedication, communication, and memory. As a solely student-run group, the organization must continue to foster the connection between class years and cohorts in bequeathing best practices and measures.

The same way they had invested in me like any offspring budding into a family, I hope my own successors, and beyond, follow with the same attitudes.

As I am sure my own mentors intended, I wish for Peripeteia to further sprout in this spirit as it courageously establishes itself on Swarthmore grounds.

A Love Letter to Peripeteia Jasmine Jimenez CJ Writer I first heard about the group Peripeteia soon after I arrived at Swarthmore. An email about it appeared in my freshly activated Zimbra inbox, whose announcement noted their first open office hours — I believe — ever, located in Shane Lounge.

I planned to drop by after one of my classes on a weekday afternoon. Upon arriving, I was immediately offered donuts. I had never met any of the members, but graciously approached them with a question about the opportunity. Amidst my excitement, I expressed my persistent passion for teaching. When asked about my ideas for classes, I shared my vision of doing one on the 2000s sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. The members of Peripeteia all welcomed my enthusiasm with a brief explanation of the program’s purpose and, of course, encouragement to officially participate.

In the following months, I was duly initiated into the process.

Throughout my first year, I privately anticipated teaching my course, gradually and independently forging the components to my instruction. I was assigned a specific contact within the committee scheduling my course, and met with them about designing and providing for my course.

They met with me individually, offered faculty assistance, and liberty in deciding any additional course designations.

Any friends I acquired in that time heard about my journey through my enlistment and excitement for its concept. Along the way, of course, I was already carrying its banner in explaining its meaning. By way of the group’s infectious hospitality, I would satisfy the occasional inquiry, telling those that “Peripeteia means a sudden ‘shift’ or ‘reversal in circumstance.’” (I would only find out later this was a riff off Reed College’s older tradition of Paideia.) And no wonder, I was steadily brainstorming and organizing the details of my course through and up until that second week of the Spring semester — the inaugural Peripeteia weekend.

I dedicated hours away from focus on my studies to plan my presentation.

Though still adjusting to the Swarthmore workload, I garnered the confidence to fully structure about an hour-long lecture, finally titled: Malcolm in the Middle & Wholesomeness: An analysis of character, consequence, and conferment.

Despite my minimal training in film or media theory, I planned to touch upon character development, plot arcs, and moral motifs identifiable within the series. The moments before commencing, one of the members checked in on my classroom to confirm everything continued as scheduled.

Through a bit of small talk, I brushed off the bit of anxiety creeping up. Not too long after, there began the gradual trickle and then a completely surprising stream of people entering the classroom. There may have been over a dozen attendees, very, very few of whom I knew personally, yet all of whom voluntarily sought to attend my talk that cloudy Saturday afternoon. Before turning off the lights, I realized these peers of mine expressed genuine interest in seeing my talk, and every single one of them intently watched as I swallowed my slight stage-fright and commenced my lecture. Despite my own doubts, I flipped through several diagrams, and analyzed and played clips during my allotted time-slot to my audience’s delight. It was the first time I had the chance to occupy that many people’s attention for so long on a subject of my total choosing. I retired right after, too tired from preparing and presenting, unfortunately missing the courses of my fellow instructors. I attended the Winter Formal later that night with my friends who I had urged not to come in my typical nervousness, despite their intended support.

Later that semester, after thinking I would not encounter Peripeteia for another year, I received a personalized message from a member of Peripeteia, inviting me to join their planning committee. News of this travelled across states as

I shared this ecstatically with everyone including my roommate at the time. I felt immense gratitude for having been recognized by such innovators. I replied the next day affirmatively to their request and, of course, confirmed my attendance to their next meeting. For the remainder of the semester, I attended and spectated at their almost perfectly-attended weekly meetings.

I was already a rather quiet freshman and was especially so amidst this group of people.

Every single Saturday, I trekked out from my Mary Lyons dorm room, up the hill, and onward to the complete opposite end of the campus.

The days got longer and the temperature rose steadily during my first rainy spring at Swat.

Soon enough, I had become one of them: unconsciously committed to our weekly 4 p.m. meeting in the lounge-kitchenette on the primary floor of the-now-extinct Papazian Hall.

One could hardly note the serious business conducted within those walls. I only remember seeing them slung over the couches, propped against the side of them, or seated attentively on the them as the high sun shone through the drapes on the windows. On those days, I considered it my privilege to be gradually acquainted with the juniors and couple of sophomores on the team. They were mostly S.T.E.M. and social science majors with a heavy interest in mathematics and linguistics.

Honored to have been tapped to join the club, I graciously listened and learned as the cohort threw ideas, names, places, etc. around at their weekly assembly. While there was no explicit leader or chain of command, they worked better than a well-oiled machine. You could barely tell they were a simple band of friends breathing life into a dream-turned-projectturned-campus-tradition.

They playfully and diligently compiled and shared proposals, brainstorming, task items, and meeting notes virtually every weekend that semester.

And every time, we would take turns announcing updates, re-

SPORTS

February 14, 2019 PAGE A9

Men’s Basketball Claims Sole Possession of First Place James Sutton Sports Writer

T

he latest chapter in the emerging rivalry between Swarthmore and Johns Hopkins was less of a 12-round epic than an early-round knockout. Just over a minute into the first half, Cam Wiley sank a pair of free throws to make the game 4-3 and Swarthmore never relinquished the lead, cruising to a 73-55 victory.

Centennial Conference fans eagerly anticipated the game as Swarthmore, Hopkins, and Ursinus began the day in a threeway tie atop the standings. A win by Swarthmore would grant the Garnet sole possession of first place and move the team into position to win the conference.

But the contest carried weight beyond the standings. The Garnet and the Blue Jays have split the last two conference cham-

pionships between them, and Hopkins beat Swarthmore 6157 on its own turf in last year’s title game On November 29, the Garnet failed to exact revenge, losing to a soul-crushing, lastsecond tip-in.

And even though Swarthmore’s mantra is to take the season one game at a time, players could not help but feel that this game was different than others.

“Hopkins is always a big game,” observed junior forward Zac O’Dell. “It’s always a lot of fun, we play them close… everyone is excited for it.”

That makes this blowout all the more satisfying for the Garnet faithful. “We’ve been the team [to beat] over the last couple years,” O’Dell remarked.

“Teams want to play us; we’re always gonna get their best shot.”

If this was Hopkins’ best shot, it fell woefully short. Swarthmore prevented Hopkins from

developing any rhythm offensively, consistently disrupting passing lanes and forcing 13 turnovers. The Garnet also stifled the Blue Jays’ enthusiastic if ineffective attacks on the rim, with O’Dell and Wiley recording three and two blocks respectively.

Swarthmore at times seemed to score at will, shooting 57 percent for the game. Freshman guard George Visconti scored off of nifty moves in the low post and O’Dell led the team in scoring, with a hyper-efficient 16 points on only 10 shots.

The season-long trend of productive offense continued for Swarthmore, thanks to a strong cast of mostly returning players studded with shooters such as Wiley, Connor Harkins, and Ryan Ingram.

Wiley stuffed the stat sheet as usual with 15 points, seven rebounds, two steals, and the aforementioned blocks, but un-

characteristically, he struggled to finish at the rim. He was visibly frustrated after one sequence in which he rebounded his own attempt, missed the put- back, and then grabbed another rebound and missed again (he drew a foul on the second effort, however).

Swarthmore won the rebounding battle handily, and leveraged its second-chanceopportunity advantage into a 42-24 halftime lead. Both teams scored 31 points in the second half, but the game never felt close. Despite a sevenminute field-goal drought in the second half, the Blue Jays never managed to pull within 13 points.

Forward Harry O’Neal led Hopkins in scoring with 15 points, 12 of which came from three-pointers. His impact was limited beyond scoring, however, as he spent most of the game floating on the perim-

eter and barely contributing on the boards. Hard-driving guard Joey Kern also scored 12 points, but by effectively hedging and stopping screeners like Daniel Avila from diving to the rim, Swarthmore never let him unlock Hopkins’ high ball-screenoriented offense.

The win puts Swarthmore atop the conference alone, and the team followed up with a win at Dickinson on Saturday, scoring a season-high 100 points.

Wiley and Visconti dropped 27 and 26 points respectively.

With the regular-season title seemingly locked up (though a potential trap game at Haverford looms), it would be natural for eyes to turn toward March Madness. O’Dell stressed, however, that assuming another deep run like last year would be dangerous.

“I think guys were thinking ahead last year, and that’s what cost us our game in the Elite

Eight,” he said.

But Swarthmore’s fans certainly are thinking ahead. The Garnet currently holds its highest-ever national ranking, seventh amongst Division III schools. With its deep roster, experience, and recent postseason pedigree, a national title certainly is within the team’s sights, and O’Dell confirmed that that was the goal set at the beginning of the season. “We set our goal early in the year that we want to win a national championship, and that’s every guy’s expectation, but you push that to the back of your head, and don’t think about it until you’re there.”

Photos courtesy of Swarthmore Athletics

Patriots Keep the Dynasty Alive

Jacob Brady Sports Writer

That’s it, another NFL season in the books. This was a season not without its fair share of controversy as Steelers star Le’Veon Bell refused a contract to play all year, and discussion of kneeling during the national anthem continued. But all that was forgotten two weekends ago as the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots faced on in Super Bowl LIII. This was the Patriots ninth Super Bowl appearance this century while the Rams were the new fresh faces in the NFL, thought to be in a position to knock the Patriots off their thrones. Head coach Sean McVay, the youngest head coach in NFL history when he was named Rams coach two years ago at age 30, and third year quarterback Jared Goff were leading the most potent Rams offense since Kurt Warner and the Greatest Show on Turf team of 1999-2001 that won one Super Bowl and played in another (against the Patriots) while playing in St. Louis.

But ultimately it was defense that won the game and secured the Patriots their sixth Super Bowl championship, now tied with the Steelers for the most championships in NFL history.

The name of the game this NFL season was offense. The Kansas City Chiefs and Rams played one of the greatest regular season games in NFL history in a 54-51 Los Angeles win, the first game ever in which both teams scored 50+ points, and the third highest point total in history. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, in his first

year starting in the NFL, threw for nearly 5100 yards and 50 touchdowns, the first quarterback since Peyton Manning to reach at least 5000 yards and 50 touchdowns in a season.

For many fans, entertainment value is at its highest in high scoring games, and teams did not disappoint this season. In a clear demonstration of the fact that offense still rules king, it was the four highest scoring offenses in the NFL this season that advanced to the conference championship games.

Even the first rounds of the playoffs followed this same vein. In the divisional round of the playoffs, both the Rams and Patriots scored at least 30 points in advancing to their respective conference championship. The Chiefs and Patriots played an instant classic in the AFC championship with the Patriots ultimately emerging with a 37-31 victory after marching down the field to start overtime. The Rams also advanced in overtime, but their victory was marred by a controversial no-call on a clear case of pass interference that likely would have given the New Orleans Saints the win and sent them to their second Super Bowl.

That set up a showdown between the evil empire of the New England Patriots, whose head coach quarterback tandem of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick had won five of the eight Super Bowls they played in since 2001, and the Los Angeles Rams, the new faces of the NFL in McVay and Goff. All anybody could talk about going into the game were the offenses of both these teams. The question that

many asked became how many offensive records would be set in this game?

As it turned out there were a number of records broken in the game. One of them was the longest punt in Super Bowl history (65 yards) off the leg of Rams punter Johnny Hekker.

As play-by-play man Jim Nantz put it, “That’s the highlight of the game!”

Perhaps the fact that the Patriots’ opening drive ended with an interception of Tom Brady should have been a sign of things to come. The teams combined to punt eight times in the first half, which also included a missed field goal by Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski. However, he would redeem himself later in the half to give the Patriots the 3-0 lead heading into halftime, the lowest Super Bowl halftime score since 1974, and an almost unheard of scoreline in the modern NFL. Instead of the offensive fireworks that everyone expected based on both teams recent performances, it was defense that proved to be the deciding factor. The Patriots held Goff to 52 yards through the air in the first half while the Rams forced an interception and a strip sack on Brady. Neither team saw a single down in their opponent’s red zone (the final 20 yards of the field).

Even the halftime show was heavily criticized for being rather dull and lacking in excitement, much like the game’s first half. Many fans were hoping that both teams would come out of the locker rooms for the second half with new energy.

The second half did bring some

more action to the game, although it still began with the four consecutive punts. Finally, the Rams were able to get on the board at the 2:11 mark of the third quarter as Greg Zuerlein converted a long field goal to knot the score at three. After two more punts, the Patriots finally decided they had had enough of being held without a touchdown.

Marching down the field in only five plays, Brady completed two passes to Rob Gronkowski and one each to Rex Burkhead and Julian Edelman to take the Patriots to the Rams’ two yard line. It was time for rookie phenom Sony Michel to go to work, and he ran the ball in to give the Patriots the 10-3 lead and the first touch-

down of the game. The Rams still had seven minutes on the clock, plenty of time to score, but a Stephon Gilmore interception in the red zone gave the Pats the ball back before the Rams could score. The Patriots went down the field with ease, scoring an insurance field goal, and a last minute-missed Rams field goal ultimately sealed the victory for the Patriots, their sixth Super Bowl this century.

A Patriots team that at times had been counted out this season proved that it was still relevant and that the dynasty that has defined the NFL since 2001 is still alive and well. The criticisms they had faced all season, that Tom Brady was too old, that they had no offensive weapons, didn’t matter in the

end. Wide receiver Julian Edelman ultimately walked away the MVP award after catching ten passes for 141 yards.

Most NFL fans have come to appreciate the offensive fireworks that most games bring, and as such, Super Bowl LIII was condemned by many as being excessively boring. With that being said, the game was a defensive chess match between two great head coaches and was just as entertaining in its own right as any shootout. Not every game can end with each team scoring 50+ points, but the beauty of football is watching two teams take the field and fight each other tooth and nail.

That is what this Super Bowl was.

PAGE A10

THE PHOENIX SPORTS

February 14, 2019

Swarthmore Opens Indoor Golf Room Ankur Malik Sports Writer A long time in the making, the Men’s Golf Team finally has an indoor golf room in which to practice. In the past, when outside weather has not permitted play, the team has had to rely on a mat and net to practice. This has inhibited the team from reaching its potential over the years. Therefore, the plan to improve these indoor facilities by constructing a new indoor golf room with a cutting edge simulator was formulated many years ago. The money needed to fund it was likewise pledged long ago by generous alumni and donors connected to the team. However, Swarthmore College has been undertaking the construction of new facilities and the renovation of existing facilities in recent years, so the golf room kept being pushed further and further back in the queue. The school finally pledged to construct the room during the break, but team coaches and members were still unsure of whether it would happen.

Now, the room is a reality.

It will be invaluable during the early spring months before the season commences at the end of March because golf courses and outdoor practice facilities are all closed due to the weather, rendering normal practice outside impossible.

Even after the weather warms and the team is able to return to outside play at their home course (Springhaven Country Club), the new room will remain incredibly useful thanks to its quality and convenience.

With the addition of the room, the long trips to the nearest driving range — thirty minutes away by team van — will become unnecessary. Swarthmore College now becomes one of only a few colleges in the Centennial Conference to have such a facility for their golf team.

Construction of the golf room was completed over the winter break, meaning it was ready for action as team members returned to campus. The room, located in the Mullan Tennis Center, features two parts: a short game area consisting of an artificial putting green as well as artificial rough and fairway surrounding it, and a long game area equipped with a TrackMan. TrackMan is a state-of-

the-art, yet extremely portable, golf radar system. The machine is about the size of a small laptop, and sits on a stand behind the hitting zone (where the player hits the ball). There are a multitude of sensors which track your club as you swing towards the ball and make impact. The TrackMan continues tracking the club as the swing completes, and tracks the path of the ball that has been hit. Based on measurements of the swing, the radar system predicts and shows the distance, direction, and trajectory of the shot, as well as offering up countless more statistics about the shot.

The TrackMan machine pairs with a computer application, in which the shot visualization and statistics are displayed against a backdrop of a driving range or course. This is then projected onto a large screen covering the entire back wall (where the player hits towards), giving the impression that the player is hitting outside as normal. Essentially, the TrackMan is the closest thing you can get to actually hitting a shot on a real golf course or driving range. This makes it infinitely superior to the golf team’s previous setup, which was just a mat and a net. In that scenario, there was no way to know where the ball was going, but with the TrackMan, you can see the shot right in front of you.

The room also has a dozen large lockers, each with enough space to store a golf bag and a change of clothes.

This way, team members can walk straight from the classroom to the golf room, without needing to stop by their dorms in between. Such convenience will allow the team to spend as much time in the room as possible over the coming months.

The TrackMan system — the centerpiece of the room — has three different modes: a range mode, course mode, and a combine mode. The range mode allows you to practice hitting shots, as if you were on a driving range. In course mode, you can pick a course from a selection of almost one hundred real-life courses, and play as many holes as you want to.

This mode is certainly the most fun, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the two courses I have tried so far. The TrackMan visualizations of courses are stunningly accurate — it truly feels like you are playing these

courses in real life! Combine mode is a testing mode where you hit to different sequences of targets on the range, aiming to get the highest score by hitting the ball as close to the targets as possible. This mode is particularly useful to use after you have been working on the technique of your swing, as it allows you to see if you are making tangible performance improvements.

Recently, three seniors on the team were interviewed by Brandon Hodnett, Director of Athletics Communications, on their thoughts of the new room and how they feel it can help improve the team’s performance this coming season.

Dan Altieri ’19, one of the captains, was thrilled about the addition of the room.

“It’s more than we ever could have expected. I think this time last year we were chipping on the floor of the fieldhouse. Thanks to the hard work of the Athletics Department and our alumni, it’s been really special to have this [room].”

Nick DiMaio ’19 was very excited about the opportunities the room will bring for personal skill development of the team.

“This is going to take our games to a whole new level.”

Vamsi Damerla ’19 gave insight into how the room will help the team be much more prepared come the start of the spring season.

“Usually during the spring semester we’re not able to get going until our spring break trip, so now we can get a headstart starting in January,” Damerla said. “We have the ability to work on all parts of our game in this room, so I think it’ll be very helpful once the season starts and we’ll be able to hit the ground running.”

Three weeks of the semester have come and gone, and the room has already seen extensive use. The team is determined to make the most out of the new facilities, in an effort to build early momentum towards a concerted challenge to win the Centennial Conference championships in late April.

The team has never achieved this feat before, but perhaps the new indoor room will provide the impetus needed to do so this year.

Photos courtesy of Atziri Marquez / The Phoenix

Athlete of the Week: Anna Lyn Jack Corkery Sports Editor Last Saturday, Swarthmore’s swim teams each wrapped up successful Centennial Conference seasons with senior day wins over Dickinson. The men completed yet another undefeated Conference regular season with a 162-95 victory, and the women capped off a stellar 6-1 season with a 148-109 win. The Garnet were led by a variety of strong swims. Key in the women’s victory was first-year Anna Lyn. Lyn, a freestyler from Fort Lauderdale, FL, placed first in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle. She wrapped up her schedule with a second place finish in the 50-yard freestyle. The Garnet will host the Swat Invite on February 16, and then will head to Gettysburg for the Conference Championship meet February 21-24.

Jack Corkery: What is your intended major, and what led you to choose it?

Anna Lyn: I’m still undecided, but I’m considering Peace and Conflict [Studies] and Political Science. It interesting for me to see how groups of people interact, diplomatically and through conflict.

JC: Why did you choose to attend Swarthmore?

AL: I wanted to come to Swarthmore because when I visited the campus I was absolutely hooked on the location and the people. I felt safe and happy here and I didn’t get that feeling anywhere else.

JC: What is the biggest difference for you between high school and cCollege?

Photo courtesy of Atziri Marquez / The Phoenix

AL: The biggest change for me has been having so much free time. It’s been fun having time during the day to do

things with friends, relax, and get homework done.

JC: What led you to start swimming?

AL: My dad and older brother were swimmers, and when I was in the third grade I decided I wanted to do it too. I think I just wanted to do everything that my brother did and didn’t want to be left behind.

JC: How was the training trip over winter break?

AL: It was hard and super tiring but it made me really confident about pushing through the idea of pain and just putting my head down and swimming as hard as I can. Plus it was warm, so I was very happy about that.

JC: What is your favorite spot on campus?

AL: Anywhere my friends are. But I like my room too because my nap schedule is important to me.

JC: If you could change one thing about Swarthmore, what would it be?

AL: Probably more food options. And if the climate could be more tropical, that’d be nice, unrealistic, but I would like that.

JC: Do you have any personal or team goals for the remainder of the season?

AL: Right now the goal is to just get ready for conference, and swim happy and fast!