Swarthmore Phoenix, October 10, 2019

Today in OPINIONS: Giorgia Piantanida on Halloween A7, CAMPUS JOURNAL: Lijia Liu on Defining the Relationship A8

PHOENIX

Sarah Weinshel

THE

Artist of the Week

VOL. 148, NO. 5

A5

October 10, 2019

The independent campus newspaper of Swarthmore College since 1881

Athlete of the Week Meet Sophia

Stills of women’s soccer

Crumb Café’s Future Directions: Reducing Waiting Time and Expanding Menu Best Chantanapongvanij News Writer he Crumb Café is now onto its second year and has established itself as Swarthmore students’ go-to spot on late nights.

As business has grown, the Crumb’s organizers continue to adjust and evolve its practices and menu in order to improve and streamline its services. This semester, they plan to implement a variety of new options for vegan students, as well as new kitchen roles to send food out more quickly to the growing

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CONTENTS News A1-A4 Arts A5-A7 Opinions A8-A10 Sports A11-12 Read more at swarthmorephoenix.com Copyright © 2019 The Phoenix

crowds.

The Crumb is aware of the long lines that form on busy nights like Thursdays or Fridays. To tackle this problem, the Crumb has introduced the role of ‘Kitchen Manager.’

“The kitchen manager is in charge of making sure that all the orders are going out correctly. And, if any of the other four [kitchen workers] need help, they’re getting them what they need, or if someone’s overwhelmed, they help them. It’s just making sure everything’s running smoothly,” described Dakota Li ’22, one of Crumb’s kitchen managers.

In addition, Crumb

has introduced new equipment to speed up the cooking process. “Now that [Crumb is] becoming more large scale, I think it’s improving in terms of efficiency. For example, we used to make grilled cheese sandwiches in a George Foreman kind of thing. But now we make it on the grill. So, it tastes better and it’s faster to make,” said Kennedy Hill ’23, a kitchen worker at Crumb.

Most of the new menu item ideas are spearheaded by Crumb employees themselves.

“Henry Han [’20, the Crumb’s former kitchen director] is a culinary genius and just makes things …

Accessibility

gram debates making a bid to become a department. If the number of majors and minors in a section is rising or is consistently healthy, if the section has two or more tenured members, or if a section has a very clearly defined departmental mission, it could be a sign that it is time to look into becoming an independent department. Willie-LeBreton said Spanish had all these factors.

The process of becoming an independent department led Spanish to rethink the way in which they offer classes and run their program. The challenge of forming a new department would be the need for more resources in the form of additional support staff, faculty, language instructors, and more. All of which require large amounts of funding. But the Spanish department took a different approach that allowed them to circumvent this issue.

“We had to go through external evaluations and do self evaluations to figure out how to reorganize our curriculum,” said Professor Guardiola. “Our evaluations showed that maybe we should change the language program that we offer, bring it up to date. So we updated, and we brought our language curriculum to national standards.”

“Language classes are now taught by people specifically trained to teach Spanish as a second language, which makes it more efficient,” said Guardiola.

“And it made it possible for the other professors to offer more classes that are within their specialty, to expand our curriculum with more diverse courses.”

This restructuring of teaching positions to allow for professors to teach more higher-level classes is reflective of a paradigm shift from Spanish being a foreign language, to Spanish being the second language of the United States.

“The creation of the department formalized something that for the students was already clear,” Martínez said. “Students always perceived Spanish as a standalone unit. It recontinued on page A3

continued on page A3

Gidon [Kaminer ’22] comes up with stuff … I am thinking of some plant-based sandwich options, like using vegan cheese to make vegan quesadillas or vegan grilled cheese,” notes Kali Blain ’22, the Crumb’s current kitchen director. So far this semester, the Crumb has introduced non-vegan grilled cheese sandwiches and is now moving on to renewing its drink menu. “We’re also working on some things in the drink department, like new toppings for shakes and stuff,” said Che Rodriguez ’22, a Crumb kitchen worker.

Furthermore, the Crumb Café has been making a larger profit this semester com-

narios for how to move forward.

“One of the main planks of [ML&L]’s argument was that Spanish really should be its own department,” said Professor Vollmer, a member of CEP. According to Martínez and Guardiola, Spanish education is diverse in terms of levels of study, areas of study, types of students, and student goals. Thus, a rigorous, quality Spanish program must offer many different modes of study in order to be as comprehensive as possible.

The department serves students of a wide litany of levels and backgrounds.

While some students enter with no prior Spanish knowledge, others have some experience with it as a second language, and some speak it from birth as a heritage language. As a result, the Spanish program’s curriculum consists of three tiers: language courses, introductory writing and literature courses, and advanced courses and seminars.

During the process of becoming an independent department, Spanish changed the way it teaches introductory courses in order to maximize efficiency and efficacy. They hired two new Spanish instructors, Eduardo Martín Macho and Beatriz Ramírez Canosa. The first four class levels of Spanish, now taught by Martín Macho and Ramírez Canosa, meet fewer times a week than under the previous system that required students to attend two classes and three drills a week.

Elementary Spanish and Spanish for Advanced Beginners now have two classes and two drills a week, while Intermediate Spanish and Advanced Spanish now have two classes and one drill a week.

When Provost Sarah Willie-LeBreton became provost in 2018, she inherited the complications of the Spanish program.

She had more conversations with ML&L and Spanish, and the Spanish section proposed their own solution — the split.

According to Willie-LeBreton, there are several factors that might go into consideration when a section or a pro-

For Disability Bastiaan Phair News Writer Construction on the ramp connecting Magill Walk to the tunnel under the SEPTA tracks has been completed for the time being. Additional work to replace broken sections of pavement is scheduled for this fall and is expected to be minimally disruptive.

College officials expect that the current maintenance work will end up being a temporary measure while funding for more substantial renovations is sorted out.

According to Jeff Jabco, Director of Grounds who has been the point person for the project, “[the schedule] has come along fine as we’ve had good weather.”

In addition to the work that has already been completed, repairs are being done on the steps that lead to the tunnel. Jabco expects those repairs should be done within a week to ten days. The ramp will be closed for another week later in the fall to replace broken concrete blocks.

Beyond this general maintenance, Jabco expects that there may be more substantial renovations in the future. “We’ve been talking to [SEPTA] for about the past year and a half. They’re trying to work it into their longrange plan and their funding for the future.” According to Jabco, SEPTA plans to make the tunnel under the tracks at the end of the Magill Walk compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act’s accessibility standards. The current ADA-compliant path from campus to the Philadelphia inbound platform runs through the tunnel south of Sharples Dining Hall and through the parking lot behind the Inn at Swarthmore.

In order to make the tunnel wheelchair accessible, the college would have to extend the length of the ramp. This would require a considerable amount of digging, and either adding curves to the ramp or starting the ramp further up Magill Walk. There would be additional work done on college property that falls within SEPTA’s right of way — the portion of the college’s property within SEPTA’s eminent domain. In total, Jabco expects that it “would probably be a five- to six-month

pared to last semester and has been investing it back into the business to improve the quality of ingredients and materials. “Whereas last semester we were making a profit, but it wasn’t very much, I think this semester, we’re doing better. And we have been able to buy some new stuff … nothing too crazy though. We’ve just gotten like new measuring cups and we have our own supply containers now,” Rodriguez said.

Crumb employees noted that recent shortages of ingredients are normal hiccups in the first few weeks of business. The job of ordering ingredients belongs to continued on page A3

Spanish Branches Off from MLL to Form Separate Department Gidon Kaminer News Writer On May 17, 2019, the college Council on Educational Policy put up to a faculty vote a proposition to turn Spanish into its own department, independent of the department of modern languages and literature. In a decision with 96% in favor, the resolution was approved and the department of Spanish was formally created. This moment was a culmination of an almost decade-long project that involved professors and administrators from what is now the Spanish Department, the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and all across the college.

“It was an organic transformation,” said Spanish Professor María-Luisa Guardiola, former chair of what was at the time the Spanish section of ML&L. According to Guardiola and Professor Luciano Martínez, current chair of the department, the motion to become an independent department was an initiative to make the structure of the department more true to how it operates, more representative of how it is commonly perceived, and more aligned with its core mission.

“The goal was always how to enhance our services to students, how to better serve students, how to adapt ourselves to the current needs of the changing student body,” said Martínez.

As the Spanish program grew in recent years, running the program involved increasingly more work for the faculty.

“Things started really accelerating in the last five or six years,” said Martínez.

“Spanish was becoming too big, the section head was almost doing the work of a department chair. So after a period of discussions and debate we decided splitting was the best path forward.”

In the initial stages, ML&L and the Spanish section approached the CEP seeking advice and assistance. Both the department and the CEP suggested some possible sce-

A12 Ramp Renovated

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Celebrating Black Excellence in the Many Forms it Takes In honor of the anniversaries on campus — the 50th anniversary of the BCC, 50th anniversary of the Black Studies Program, and 25th anniversary of Chester’s Children Chorus — the college is Celebrating Black Excellence through programming for this year. The Phoenix, in addition to event coverage, will be publishing features of students on campus who embody Black Excellence in the many forms it takes.

Tyler White ’22 Naomi Park Managing Editor Tyler White ’22 from Portland, Oregon has found his place on campus as an advocate and activist for social issues, environmental justice, and their intersections. On campus, White is involved with the Campus Coalition Concerning Chester, the President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship program, the Student Government Organization, and is the outreach coordinator for Swarthmore African-American Student Society.

Coming to Swarthmore, White began to think more about the connections between social justice and environmental justice and he found ways at the college to think more critically about race and environmental issues.

“I think that, for me, it’s really hard to convey to marginalized communities or even the most impacted by climate change

the urgency and importance of being involved in [issues like climate change advocacy] because you’re already so inundated with so many salient things.

But I think that Swarthmore has given me more language and knowledge on how to think about these things,” said White.

In the campus community, White has found people, classes, and experiences to further his engagement in activist spaces concerning social issues and the environment.

“There are so many different people that I have been in conversation with who’ve helped me think more critically and I’m super thankful for them,” said White. “I think just being in a community of people who are concerned about this [intersection], learning from it in classes, but also just having like realworld experiences, where you have to step back and be like what does that really mean?

And, how do I continue to think about it?”

The Black Excellence programming by the college this year has encouraged White to continue to think about campus engagement — especially for Black students and students from marginalized groups.

White, as co-president of the McCabe Scholars, was one of the people to introduce the Thomas B. McCabe Lecture

by Spelman College President Mary Schmidt Campbell ’69.

According to White, the lecture prompted him to think more about activism at Swarthmore — in the past and present — after hearing the experiences of Black students leading up to the creation of the Black Cultural Center 50 years ago.

“I think that after hearing the stories of what [Campbell] went through, it’s hard for me to reconcile why more Black people and more people of color are not constantly in a struggle for more. I know that the point a lot of time in America is to constantly bring

Beluchi Okoronkwo ’22

yourself closer to the middle so you feel more distance from the ways you’re being oppressed,” said White. “And I think that’s not everyone’s agenda for going to Swarthmore; you’re here for your education and there’s nothing selfish about wanting to do that. But I’m really interested in how do we across the board — not just as Black people — engage in more deep, intentional, goal-oriented activism.”

In White’s experience on campus, he has also found a strong sense of community amongst Black students and has felt comfortable expressing his identity.

“I think that my Blackness has never been questioned and I’ve never felt uncomfortable in the way that I decide to show or perform my Blackness. And I’ve never felt like that from other Black people or people who are non-Black,” White said.

While White enjoys the sense of community amongst Black students on campus, he Continued on A3

Naomi Park Managing Editor

Photo courtesy of Tyler White

Photo courtesy of Beluchi Okoronkwo

Beluchi Okoronkwo ’22 is a sophomore invested in creating an inclusive, diverse campus. He is the manager of the women’s basketball team, co-president of the Swarthmore African Student Association, and a Diversity Peer Advisor.

As a first year, Okoronkwo quickly found SASA and its community to be a welcoming space for him.

“SASA has been my decompression space. Last year, meetings were on Saturdays and we just talked about what we’ve been through, how the week was going, and

how we were feeling. I liked that energy and the laughs, jokes, and music that we all vibed together with,” said Okoronkwo. “I wanted to continue that as co-president for SASA because it was a community space for me and a place I could call home. So, I wanted to make that space for other people.”

Okoronkwo also frequented the Black Cultural Center, partially due to living in Mary Lyon, but it also became a comfortable, integral part of his life at the college.

“As a freshman, I lived in Mary Lyon, so I took almost all of my naps in the BCC because it was my home base and where I operated because

professor in the physics department, Professor Cawehcey Bester. And there’s a couple handful of us running about, but I do think the department, and colleges in general, could do more to recruit young Black physics/just general STEM majors,” said Rensing.

With being one of the few people in her major that looks like her, Rensing feels as though there is a certain level of pressure to be outstanding in these spaces.

“You kind of feel that sometimes, like you have to prove yourself because you’re one of the few people representing your group, so you want to be outstanding. There can be pressure and a lot of imposter syndrome that comes with that especially when you’re not doing great and you think, ‘do I really belong here?’” said

Rensing.

In realizing that, Rensing has wanted to take the initiative to make Black physicists and other STEM majors feel welcomed in their departments. However, with not many Black students in these departments, it has proven difficult for her.

“For me, it’d be really cool if there was like, a Black physics or like computer science group. But obviously it’s really hard to make these groups when there’s just not enough people. You have to find five people in the group and I can’t find five,” said Rensing. “I can make these groups, and I can establish them for maybe someone in the future. Maybe there could be more Black physicists if there was a Black group in general. When you’re Continued on A12

Tiara Tillis/The Phoenix

I couldn’t always go back to my room without having a long trip,” said Okoronkwo.

“So, I adopted the BCC into my life schedule, essentially.

I was there a lot and even though I wasn’t an intern, I got treated as one because I was there all the time.”

In Okoronkwo’s experience, the BCC has been a community space that extends beyond the groups in which they are officially housed. In the fall of last year, he helped with the BCC’s altar that was a part of the larger Diasporic Communal Remembrance Altars project.

“We created one in the BCC that spoke to Black Continued on A12

Alexandria Rensing ’21 Tiara Tillis News Writer Alexandria Rensing ’21 is a Physics major and Computer Science minor interested in expanding and diversifying the field of STEM and the campus as a whole. In her time at Swarthmore, she has been involved in activities and jobs geared toward this interest, such as being a Physics grader, a math coach for the Chester Children’s Chorus, a research assistant in Professor Hilary Smith’s lab, and a Multicultural Recruitment Intern for the Admissions Office.

Since Rensing has been at Swarthmore, she has noticed the lack of diversity on the campus. She uses her platform as an MRI to make steps towards rectifying it.

“I chose to work as a mul-

ticultural recruitment intern, because I just think it’d be nice if Swarthmore could get more diversity on this campus,” said Rensing. “The main thing I’m concerned with is diversity in STEM. It is one of the more lacking subjects in diversity, not just for Black students, but everyone because it’s pretty much the same type of people everywhere. I don’t just focus on STEM, I focus on all grounds.”

Rensing’s attention to diversifying the STEM field comes from being one of the few Black, female students in her major, which she believes that colleges could do more to help.

“So as a physics major, who is a Black woman, it’s pretty uncommon in the physics world. For instance, Swarthmore, just got a Black female

Phoenix Archive

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Heating Up Discussions on the Climate Jacinta Fernandes-Brough News Writer “Our current way of life is dying, and we are not going to survive in this mode … we need to start learning how to have that conversation.” said Betsy Bolton, English Professor and Department Chair at a discussion about climate change.

Recently the campus has seen a wave of climate crisis action, from the Sunrise strike outside Parish Hall, to the Philadelphia strike in coordination with a global effort, and President Valerie Smith’s signing of the Sustainable Development Goals’ Climate Emergency Letter.

On the heels of such activities Bolton was inspired to organise a talk to further facilitate conversation about the issues. Last week a collection of roughly 40 stu-

dents and staff met to discuss the climate crisis, both its current and future effects.

After a brief presentation on global average temperatures and safety caps, carbon neutrality aims, and intensifying feedback looks, small group discussions traversed various pertinent questions: What is your current understanding of where we are in terms of climate breakdown? What are your fears or worries for the future?

What are your goals and priorities? What outcomes are unacceptable to you?

What are you willing to sacrifice and what are you not?

Conversation ranged from scientific facts to personal fears. Some gave voice to their mixed emotions of hope and apprehension.

Fearful about possible future climate refugees, but hopeful about the compassion of people. Others compared humanity to flying millennium falcon style through the closing doors of climate change, worried that we may not be able to mobilise ourselves in time.

Others discussed the need to enact meaningful change as soon as possible, with talk of a mass reconfiguration of political and economic systems from the ground up. For many claimed it was becoming increasingly impossible to keep plodding along with daily life, saying that what mattered most was doing the right thing no matter the outcome.

Sacha Lin ’20, aided in the preparation for the talk.

LinA current senior, she is heavily involved in climate issues on campus from Friday protests outside Parrish, to posters aimed at raising awareness, among other activities. Sacha described how she first became involved in the struggle: “I don’t think I thought about it at all in high school, then I took this class here, and was like this is a big problem, after that it was like, well, how can I not try to do something about this? .. We just keep going on with our lives as if climate change doesn’t exist, and so I was thinking about how can we get people to talk about this?”

Given the hour long time slot The objective of the talk was tonot to produce tangible results, or future

plans, but rather to play a role in expanding the range of public discourse on climate change. Many deeply invested in addressing these issues, such as Bolton, recognizse the need to shift peoples’ conversations, beyond contemplation of recycling plans, towards more concrete routes of change that recognizse the true magnitude of the current climate crisis.

As a leading liberal arts college, Bolton believes it falls to institutions such as Swarthmore to talk about the immediacy of climate change: “We need to say this is crisis number on, and if the liberal arts cannot engage this extinction threat we should just close the doors and go home because we’re not helping ... When

I asked to change it. It is an easy night, but you can’t do anything Saturdays for the whole semester. Plus, sometimes you feel a lot of pressure because some people can’t come because they caught the Swat Plague, or they have homework. And you have to try a cover and finding a cover is difficult,” commented Rodriguez.

To solve this issue, Crumb management is planning a rotational schedule. “We were thinking of piloting a rotation schedule where like, people on Saturdays can trade places,” said Rodriguez, “I really hope we can get this

worked out, find a solution, and I want to make sure that every shift has enough people.”

In light of all of this, Li makes it clear that the Crumb Café is continuing to work hard to improve, “I think people should know that we’re trying really hard to make it the best experience possible,” she said. “And if it’s a little messy right now, we’re definitely like super sorry for that. But we’re working on it. And yeah, there’s new stuff to come! Be excited!”

the situation feels so overwhelming, and it’s so clear that we need a societal level response to something it can feel like, well, there’s nothing I can do so I’ll just wait for somebody else to solve this problem. I don’t think that’s true, I think in order to get there we all have to be working, we have to see our own agency and responsibility in the midst of everything else.”

While turnout to the event was promising, Bolton hopes to organise future climate crisis talks that draw greater participation from Swarthmore faculty and students alike.

Crumb Cafe, continued from A1 Blain. “We are just getting into the swing of things. I am also new to doing inventory, so I’m still trying to figure out how much we go through and I try to get the numbers right. It’s sort of like growing pains and also adjusting to the flow of how much people order, and what days are very, very heavy, and what days don’t use as many,” Blain said.

Blain also mentions how she is trying to further streamline the kitchen by making sure that new menu items share the same key ingredients as dishes already on the menu. “We are trying

to focus menu items, using ingredients that we already have. By using as few extra ingredients as possible, the budgeting and cooking process will be much easier” Crumb Café is also looking for more students to sign up as employees.

“Right now, we are looking for new workers, specifically kitchen workers and baristas.

Right now, we have one or three open spots for weekly shifts. But we also hire reserves, so people who don’t work a regular shift but can pick up shifts if someone is sick or has a test,” said Blain.

The shortage of

employees has caused longer wait times, and it has also made the Crumb’s staff’s shifts all the more stressful.

“It does get really packed.

Usually, like Tuesday, for example, our Tuesday and Thursdays. It’s kind of slow in the beginning. And then suddenly a bunch of orders just come in at 11 or some time really late. And so we get kind of backed up,” said Hill. Weekend shifts have also been understaffed. “The Friday and Saturday shifts, those positions are hard to fill, because it’s not like a super desirable. I worked Saturday last semester, but

Spanish Department, continued from A1 something that for the students was already clear,” Martínez said. “Students always perceived Spanish as a standalone unit. It really formalized something that was already cemented in the minds of the students in the college,” he said.

Armed with their new curriculum proposal, Spanish brought it back to the CEP. “The proposal took into ac-

count everything CEP could have hoped for,” said Willie-LeBreton. “So CEP brought this recommendation to the entire faculty, the entire faculty voted on it and it passed overwhelmingly.”

Professor Vollmer, along with the rest of the CEP, was supportive of the solution that the Spanish department had proposed.

“They saw their problem and they solved it themselves,

in a way that was innovative, forward thinking and studentcentered,” she Professor Vollmer.

“Spanish always had the momentum, and they finally ended up settling on a plan that was brilliant. It wasn’t just a bandaid fix. It was thoughtful, it was student-centered, and sensitive to board of managers.”

Willie-LeBretton sees this change as symbolically im-

portant in the context of the broader culture of the college and the country as a whole.

“It signifies something different to have a Spanish department rather than a Spanish program, something weightier,” she said. “This is not to say that the programs and sections we have are not important. But it is a bit of a reckoning with our present. The United States has

been so slow to recognize the centrality of Hispanic and Latinx culture within its borders, to recognize the fact that Spanish is the second language of this country, and to recognize the fact that our economies and our relationships with Mexico and Spanish-speaking Carribean and Latin American peoples are central to our identity, so it’s really nice when in our little

project.”

This kind of project would be in line with renovations that SEPTA has done at other stations to increase accessibility. However, SEPTA has recently faced threats to their funding. According to Jabco, this has directly

caused the Swarthmore project to be delayed.

In 2007, SEPTA began receiving $450 million a year from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. On March 15th, 2018 a group comprising of teamsters unions and driving advocates sued

the Turnpike Commission over these payments.

Their suit alleged that it was illegal to use tolls to pay for public transportation. Judge Yvette Kane of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania dismissed the case on April

4th, 2019. The plaintiffs appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit where the previous dismissal was upheld on August 13th, 2019.

Despite the dismissal of the suit, Jabco doesn’t expect action in the near future. “We would love if

it we’re in the next two to three years, but I’m not holding my breath … It’s all dependent on state and federal funding.”

also wants that camaraderie to extend into advocacy for those who want to participate.

“I love seeing other Black folks and talking to them, even if it’s for a couple seconds. There’s just nothing like having that little reprieve from constantly being a student and existing in a white supremacist society,” said White. “Even just in a quick interaction — a head nod, a dap, or a cool conversation — that’s so amazing to me. But how do we extend that more into politi-

cal advocacy and stuff for folks who want to do that?”

This intentionally engaged activism that acknowledges a history of struggle at Swarthmore is what White hopes to encourage more of on campus as the outreach coordinator for SASS. “I’m hoping to more directly bring in that element of organizing and political advocacy that I know is very makes a lot of people very vulnerable, uncomfortable, and can trigger

them. But I think we owe that to the people who 50 years ago decided to sit in the president’s office and then create the BCC for even just 6 percent of us,” said White.

White believes that this acknowledgment of the past needs to be more present in the Black Excellence programming by the college.

“There is a feeling that we’re just celebrating all the cool stuff that’s happening now, but we’re not really talking about the his-

tory of what happened,” White said.

According to White, the celebration of Black Excellence could also include more student involvement in leading events.

“I would love to see more thoughtful conversations that are student-led and not filtered by the administration that allows us to have a conversation about not only what the past has been, but what can the future look like?” said White. “I’m not entirely content with just

celebrating. I love celebrating as long as we are being completely true about the history of what we’re celebrating and how we got to this point.”

White is involved on campus in a variety of ways and appreciates the shared willingness to engage.

“I love Swarthmore in so many ways, and I think in the same ways that I love it I have problems with it. The idea that we are here to be socially engaged is so profound to me,”

SEPTA, continued from A1

White, continued from A2

corner of the world we can say we have elevated the Spanish program to a Spanish department — because our heads are not in the ground, and we appreciate 21st century culture.”

said White. “I like that we’re in a space where we’re engaging to engage and taking that to actualize it into some kind of direct action, regardless of how much the administration doesn’t like it or how loud we sound, that’s so beautiful to me. And I just want more people to step into that in whatever capacity they feel comfortable.”

ARTS

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Towards High Fashion in FamilyMart: A Visual Essay Chili Shi Arts Writer ccessorization is ideology. Rather than being what we eat, we are what we wear, regardless of whether one’s wardrobe is full of carefully-curated intent or blasé could-not-care-less inclinations. Ask me what my favorite piece is right now and I’d easily pick my kitschiest accessories: a silver ring embellished with a fake jewel-studded cross with wings, huge earrings repurposing religiosity with half a dozen dangly gothic symbols, or lime green socks featuring a glitzy Aphrodite posing on an oyster shell à la Botticelli. The kitschier an accessory is, the more fun I’m having.

Kitsch consists of art, objects, or design generally thought of as tacky or garish yet purposefully embraced or appreciated in an ironic way. Like camp, it has always appealed to marginalized communities as a way of repurposing and reclaiming objects, styles, and attitudes once discarded for their lack of “good taste” by the dominant bourgeois class. In our contemporary visual culture, however, the internet and digital media has allowed the flow of capital, attitudes, and ideas to rapidly redefine their own shape and characteristics, so much so that dress, being one of the many forms of visual coding, is no longer a top-down trickle process (yuck!). While celebrities and style icons continue to influence the majority of media consumers, unpopular and avant-garde fashions proliferate each within their own community of practitioners and followers — thus emerged our incredibly rich and transgressive visual subcultures.

That’s not to say that “high” and “low” visual culture are mutually exclusive. They now exist on a bilateral spectrum,. What’s most visually compelling to me is the not the successful mastery of “high/classy/bourgeois” aesthetics versus “low/kitsch/proletariat” ones but rather a surprising and, at times, messy blend of the two. This summer, I met up with friends old and new in various cities in Japan, Korea, and China, and proceeded to document colorful and insanely contradictory cityscapes on both film and my trusty iPhone camera roll. Through these images, I meditated on kitsch, convenience, and the exuberant joy in self-expression.

A

Joy plus Freitag satchel on the steps of Tianjin Station, Tianjin, China

Joy in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo, donning dark glasses, white rain boots, dyed hair

Joy in the streets of Shimokitazawa, Tokyo

Andrew and Debby at a crossing near Julu Road, Shanghai

At The Bund, Shanghai, in the wee hours of the morning

Joy at FamilyMart in Tokyo

Joy receiving side-eye on the subway, Tokyo

Andrew looking pensive in a pink Fred Perry polo on Line 10 in Shanghai

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Artist of the Week: Sarah Weinshel ’22 on Balancing Science and Art Rachel Lapides Arts Editor You have probably seen Sarah Weinshel ’22 marching to the Science Center with her signature pompom earrings and big red boots on her way for a long study session in Cornell Library. But what may surprise you about the biology major is that when she isn’t studying for her STEM classes or doing research, she spends her free time making art and building a campus artist community through Kitao.

According to Weinshel, her interests in the sciences and in the arts are not mutually exclusive or opposed. As she says, “You can’t compartmentalize two different aspects of yourself. They overlap.”

Weinshel’s favorite medium is photography, but she also works with pen, watercolor, embroidery, and even clothing.

“Yeah, I may have made some jeans,” she revealed bashfully, gesturing to a leg in two-toned denim.

“The ones I’m wearing right now, basically I took some old jeans that were in my basement that used to be my mom’s and put together dark jeans and light jeans, to add an interesting shape.”

Weinshel’s craftsmanship doesn’t stop with jeans.

“I bought a flannel from

Urban Outfitters that was Urban Renewal that was two types of flannel done down the middle. And I thought that was really cool and I’m like, why would I buy this when I can make it? So I took some trips to Goodwill and have made a variety of bicolored flannels.”

To complete the handmade look, Weinshel has also constructed many earrings from a variety of materials, such as tassels or wire. Last Friday, Weinshel put her jewelrymaking skills to good use in leading Kitao’s earring workshop as part of the Kitao board. Last Friday, Oct. 4, in a cozy room packed with students playing with glue and beads, Weinshel was in her element. She walked around the room, armed with wire and advice, and the firm, expansive knowledge she takes to all her activities.

Weinshel’s love for art is not just about making her own, but helping others to create as well.

“Kitao is really that place where I can not only make art but also organize other artists on campus to give other people that space to make art. With studio hours, [people can] just come and enjoy art. I helped put together the instructions in the spring and then we decided we should definitely bring it back this fall, since it was

very popular. And you always see people around with their pom-pom earrings.” Crafts are a completely different world. It’s just following instructions but you can still instill your own creativity into that and I think that’s really important as a break from the academic world and for those who can’t fit Foundations into their schedules.”

Surprisingly, Weinshel has never taken any art classes at Swarthmore.

As a biology major on the pre-med track, she’s found that the timing of art classes is impossible to fit in with labs and other requirements. Still, she makes time for art outside of class.

“Kitao is my main entry point into art at Swarthmore because I haven’t been able to fit Foundation Drawing into my schedule.

Especially as someone who is studying sciences and has a lot of labs, it’s just not feasible to do it.”

With her busy schedule, she utilizes school breaks as prime creative time.

This past summer, Weinshel worked on campus as part of a research project on plant biology, but spent much of her free time making art.

“I definitely had more time to do drawing. I was doing research during the day but then every eve-

ning I was available. Another thing I love about college is having access to all of the art supplies and resources. This summer I was able to go in to Kitao and use the cyanotype [a type of photographic printing] materials, so I made a ton of cyanotypes.”

Weinshel’s work researching biology during the day may seem at odds with her artistic endeavors in the evening.

“People don’t think of the sciences as being something that’s visual,” she observed. “I’m in cell biology right now — and looking at the textbooks, it’s all diagrams and visual representations of things, and then organic chemistry is hexagons and lines.

I enjoy thinking about the people who designed the textbooks that were drawing those figures and trying to find that balance between visual representations of things but also something scientifically significant.”

Even though Weinshel works with plants on a molecular level, she finds that being surrounded with nature inspires her art.

“I love just looking at plants and having access to the greenhouse. I think that has made me more focused on the details when I’m drawing plants and taking photographs and looking at these small miniscule things that are

Martin Tomlinson / The Phoenix

what makes something visually different.”

Weinshel has created her own personal galleries in her dorm room and the rooms of her friends, many of whom have a treasured Weinshel piece pinned up on the wall.

“I find that surrounding myself with art, going in and seeing the wall with my art and other people’s and posters and all that makes me very happy,” Weinshel remarked. That’s

my main place of display. I give a lot, whenever I give birthday cards or anything.

I enjoy having that outlet.

It’s a release — it makes me feel calm and creative.

When you’re making a drawing it’s something that’s never existed before.

That’s the way it is.”

Photos courtesy of Sarah Weinshel

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THE PHOENIX ARTS

Exploring New Asian Futurisms Alongside Pastries and the Past Esther Couch Arts Writer Despite having been in the area numerous times for Reading Terminal Market, I’d never seen the gallery before. It’s a short, unassuming building next to a highway and an alleyway.

The only branding is on its green awning, and it’s in plain, white sans-serif font: Asian Arts Initiative.

It’s one of the most unpretentious art spaces I’ve ever seen. And as someone who often conflates quality with pretension, I probably I wouldn’t have entered if I wasn’t on a class trip.

We were there for the opening reception of the New Asian Futurisms exhibit, featuring works by Saks Afridi, Melissa Chen, Amir-Behan Jahanbin, JiSoo Lee, Firoz Mahmud, Leeroy New, Eva Wǒ and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (in collaboration with CounterPulse Theater). Its mission, according to the Asian Arts Initiative website, is to “inspire us to look forward to looking forward” as well as utilizing “a new futurism to create

a narrative of hope.” As a cynic and an Asian American woman, I recoiled: I had to emerge from this experience not only having seen myself in the art, but also having felt hopeful about the future.

With the highest expectations, I went inside the building. Asian Arts Initiative is an accessible venue: the floor is level throughout the space, and there are non-gendered and individually isolating restrooms. Despite the place’s open-plan design, I’m equally embarrassed and proud that the first display that I decided to access was the long table of pastries next to the exhibition’s entrance. It had been such a long time since I had that kind of bread — paper-lined sponge cake found in every Chinese bakery — and so I immediately gravitated towards the food. Peeling the sponge away from the wrapper and walking through a congested aisle reminded me of the way I used to walk through Asian supermarkets as a child.

Instead of Lotte snacks and Yakult, however, I was browsing video projections, latex aprons, and brass artifacts. Looking at futuristic artwork while eating familiar pastries was an inexplicably healing experience, as if it was my way of reconciling my childhood with a future. I decided I could look forward to looking forward.

I still wasn’t feeling that hopeful though.

Just as I started to descend into a pit of pessimism, I discovered JiSoo Lee’s “Origin.” I lingered the longest here, staring at the traditional painting made with acrylic paint. The woman in the foreground has a high ponytail that wraps around her torso, and there’s a moon-like shadow stalking her. Korean scripture downpours over her like torrential rain. Though I couldn’t understand the scripture, I could read the Korean lettering, and it felt like a private message for only me. The woman’s gaze kept pulling me back to that spot. I stopped eating my bread as a result of my fas-

cination. As I took a picture of her, I could see my reflection in the black canvas, and I became hyper-aware of my own body. I’m Korean American — did I look like that? Could I ever look like that?

Inspired by her performativity, I announced to my classmates that I saw something gory and I needed to see it. That gory spectacle was the collaborative, multimedia project of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and CounterPulse Theater: “Tomorrow We Inherit The Earth: The Queer Intifada.”

It was chilling in the most satisfying way, like standing as close to the edge of the train platform as possible and feeling the train barrel away. Brown and Black performers inherited their power in this Muslimcentered tomorrow. With eyeliner that stretched past the actors’ temples, clothing that read “TERRORIST MONSTER,” and white overalls and horse masks sets, the spectacle was exceedingly queer, subversive, and charged. As I stood

watching the performance, my initial discomfort dissipated into admiration for its bravery, and I felt hopeful for my own fearlessness.

The gallery started to get more crowded as more people trickled in. I think I studied the attendees as intently as I studied the artwork. I was sporadically glancing at the person next to me as we watched a screen side-by-side. I loved seeing the bartender wearing a leaf hat on her head like the Japanese animated character Totoro, as well as the myriad of women with shaved sides and eyebrow piercings. I felt like a child again, staring unabashedly at strangers. Looking at these individuals, I realized that at its core, New Asian Futurisms allows visitors to be hopeful in their own personal futures, not the upcoming entirety of existence.

Asians and Asian Americans are at the base of this exhibit, but it is not about ethnicity. Visitors take what they can from it. The show does not perform

going to battle, having the French Dauphin killed, and ultimately claims France as his own. In a brief conversation with Catherine of Valois (Lily-Rose Depp) — Hal’s soon to be trophy wife — we are told of the purpose of this entire film.

Catherine of Valois tells Henry V that he was swept away by the power, blinded by war, and ultimately lost who he was. Now that is all good and dramatic, but the two hours that lead up to this moment simply don’t express this notion (at least not very well).

There was potential for Michôd to comment on a whole range of things, from tyranny to personal growth and how a young man can break under the enormous pressure of an empire.

There’s palace politics, decapitation, confrontations, prolonged eye-contact, random slow-motion scenes and misplaced dissolves.

So yes, there was potential, but instead of feeling like something was accomplished, or that something new had emerged within the nuances of facial expression, I cringed at the lack of subtlety in Lily-Rose Depp’s delivery. In the end, The King has the right actors, the right mood and editing, but the dialogue fell short, and the careful construction of tension was

nowhere to be seen.

The King: Netflix Tried Gabriella Trevino Arts Writer As the screen went black, my neck cracked in a few places, and a light timorous applause arose, all I could immediately recall was Robert Pattinson’s awful French accent.

In 2013, Warner Bros. announced that director David Michôd (Animal Kingdom, multiple awards, critically acclaimed) and actor/filmmaker Joel Edgerton (Zero Dark Thirty and a host of others) were working on a script for a gritty medieval drama loosely based off Shakespeare’s Henry V. The trailer promised love and war, internal conflicts, and fight scenes choreographed to perfection. Casting was periodically announced throughout the beginning of 2018, and with such names as Timothée Chalamet, Lily-Rose Depp, Sean Harris, and Robert Pattinson, The King appeared to be set in the performance department. All that Michôd had to do was pull all the pieces together, deliver a riveting script, keep the mood consistent and simply interpret this age-old Boy Becomes a King adage into something new.

The film opens with an establishing shot of the rolling English countryside, pastoral and well-lit, where all seems calm. Times New

Roman letters tell us this is the fifteenth century, and a pan to bodies strewn across a field immediately sets the mood — this story will be gruesome and dark power struggle. After the introduction of some corpses, we meet Hal (Timothée Chalamet), a boy of absolutely no significance, seen only refusing to get out of bed, getting drunk, and sleeping with peasant girls. His rack thin frame and sunken stare had me wondering how he could possibly hold up under the title “Henry V.” It is then revealed that the current King is deathly ill, and predictably Hal must rise to the occasion, complete with a confusing bowl-cut and montage of royal rituals. The conflict now comes to the question of France: to invade, or not to invade. In a quick decision that leaves no room for building tension or internal conflict for the newly crowned Hal, we follow Chalamet on a crusade to Northern France. Even in its lack of pace or tension, The King succeeds in its fight scenes. If you yearn for the clashing of swords and chainmail and huffing bodies, the few fights do their job, and really end up being the only scenes that ground the movie to its setting. The dialogue still lacks authenticity, a strange mixture of

silly diction and modern intonation, as if the writers couldn’t decide if they wanted to adopt a Shakespearean style or not. Chalamet delivers on acting, but the destruction of his morality inherent in his eyes means nothing if the dialogue is so clunky as to be somehow anachronistic in a period-piece.The cinematography makes up for this, and with constant shallow focus, we are told to ignore the ornate background of medieval England, and instead focus on the characters, their eyes and their interactions.

During King Henry V’s campaign we meet the Dauphin of France (Robert Pattinson). Complete with a shaggy blonde wig and vampire-esque sallowness, Pattinson mocks Chalamet with something along the lines of “I will bury your body under a tiny French tree, just like your tiny cock.’ Because the insult was such a sharp break from the seriousness of war and death I had to actually laugh. Hal/Henry V asks for compromise, for Pattinson to fight him one on one in hopes of preventing the massacre of either of their forces. Hal has the best intentions, he mirrors the intentions of the film itself, and so similarly they don’t measure up. Hal ends up

race: it would be remiss to try to say that these pieces define Asian American art or vice versa. I took a piece of bread, and with it, a trip back to my past that allowed me to see my Asianness being represented in my future.

Riding the SEPTA back to Swarthmore felt symbolic — I was sitting in one of the seats that faced the back of the train. I was looking at an old landscape, but I knew I was moving forward.

The exhibition is open now until December 6, 2019, Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

OPINIONS

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Tobias Philip Op-Ed Contributor

T

he cast of Queer Eye dug into Bernie Sanders in what was ostensibly a critique of style in a 2018 video that has recently gone viral amid the Democratic primary. The cast members extolled Hillary and Bill Clinton, while denying to have ever “felt the Bern.” A more bald defense of class interests under the thin veneer (or light concealer) of aesthetic criticism is hardly imaginable, but the video does raise important questions as to the real meaning and material impact of Queer Eye and the capital-controlled culture industry it manifests.

Queer Eye is first and foremost a show about style.

Style is what each “hero” (what the show dubs the subject of each episode) lacks and, in the most positive assessment, style can transform the subject interiorly by putting on at the same time a new dress and a renewed self-confidence.

Style is, nonetheless, the most supremely superficial plane of sensory experience, referring solely to idiomatic aesthetic patterns. The substance of style can be found only in its propagation, which it achieves by mimetic instances of consumption. In

October has descended upon us, and we all know what that means — pumpkin spice, sweater weather, and general spookiness. To cap off this long month, America has adopted an old Celtic celebration, now known as Halloween. However, this celebration is merely an excuse for people to dress up as something they’re not. Costumes are sometimes used as an excuse to take on a different identity, but they can often be offensive or culturally appropriative. Halloween is a waste of time and money and acts as the worst possible prologue to the actual holiday season. I simply cannot understand why anyone would spend all of October looking forward to it.

In 2019, Halloween is celebrated only because it is a tradition deeply steeped in consumerism and capitalism.

Although consumerism and capitalism may be fundamental to American society, it’s also important to note that they are huge detriments to our society and cause massive amounts of harm to peoples and environments around the world. Then there is the strange ritualistic act of get-

PHOENIX

this respect, Queer Eye is no different from similar iterations of the style television genre, from “What Not to Wear” to “Property Brothers” to “Salt Fat Acid Heat” to “Dr. Phil” (indeed, this too is but an aestheticized reduction of psychotherapy, racing to achieve katharsis within its forty minute runtime). If anything, I grant Queer Eye the achievement of combining these elements into one program, and thus sparing the ever busy cultural critic the tedium of enduring that host of specialized style programming.

What is it that the contentless idiom of style, whose quality may be assessed in its reproducibility alone, reveals besides “an obedience to the social hierarchy,” as the Frankfurt School realized over seventy years ago? It is this numbing mechanism of aesthetic intoxication that transfigures into that yet more seductive rationale for consumption that the Fab Five valorizes as “self-care.”

Once a reservation of bourgeois decadence, self-care is now available at your nearest retailer (provided you’re visited by an intercessory group of queer guardian angels and their gracious bestowal of funds)! At first glance, the contemporary notion of selfcare appears an orientation towards self-consciousness

and well-being that liberates from servile market labor. Such it would appear to Jacobin writer Meghan Day, for whom Queer Eye prefigures the “makeover for the masses” that only Socialism shall fully accomplish.

Let the scales of a regressive comprehension of political economy fall from your eyes, however, and you will see the protean shape of capital rear its multiformed head.

Following a shift in mid century left critical theory, Marxists began to realize that under monopolistic capitalism competitionbased supply and demand disappears and consumption takes in its place. Subjects consume based on perceived need, which the unilateral control of signs (via ubiquitous advertisement through the culture industry) can induce. This in mind, we must cautiously approach the exhortations towards “self-care” emanating from wealthy personnes célèbres that almost invariably involve changed patterns of consumption. Even if a particular recommendation avoids suggesting a certain commodity, the language of self-care reinforces itself by its repetition, and in its echo resounds with a motif suggestive of passive consumption.

Finally and perhaps most

deceptively, Queer Eye cloaks its fundamentally conservative praxis (conservative because it serves to maintain the political economy) with the flamboyant mantle of progressive social thought.

At the very beginning of the first episode, Tan France girds the series in the arms of the perpetual war for civil rights, asserting “our fight is for acceptance.” Antoni Porowski, however, comes in handy to deescalate his colleague’s overly militaristic language with the conciliatory consolation “my goal is to find out how we’re similar, as opposed to how different we are.”

Fear not, fellow Americans! Queer Eye comes bearing no sword, but the balm of reconciliation. The Fab Five can assure you that they, in fact, are different from their revolutionary forebears. This is not the disruptive queer movement of the Stonewall riots, but a secure celebration of incrementalism à la Capital One sponsored Pride Parade. And yet, how are we to demand otherwise from a “Netflix Original Production”? Should a grossly profitable entertainment endeavor be expected to undermine the structure under which it yields its gains?

To explain how the simulacrum of liberation itself works to re-enchant and

reinforce the political economy is a task too broad for my scope, but suffice it to say in my entirely unoriginal observation that the amoral institution of capital subsists by the appropriation of morality. The entirely laudable goal of uplifting marginalized groups becomes, under capital, a commodification of those identities and their integration into the bourgeoisie, the class identity that trumps all others.

All this is to say that Queer Eye’s political message is engrained in the very concept of the program. Entertaining

though it may be, and even uplifting at times, we must remember Henri Lefebevre’s admonition that the illusionment of capitalist ideology proves no cure for human immiseration and no substitute for concrete transformation of the world.

Absent a revolution, I suppose we must applaud our most diverse ruling class, welcome our sensitive technocratic overlords, and celebrate a more humane capitalism! All in all, the Fab Five prove lustrous campaigners for Elizabeth Warren.

ting dressed up as someone else, getting tons of candy, and, as you get older, going to parties that are never as fun as you think they might be.

Halloween exists, just like many other American holidays, because there is a need for American people to escape and create a nationwide excuse to party. There’s no longer a religious tie to it, it’s not about one of America’s ‘victories’, and it’s not the start of a new chapter. Instead, it is a day that American businesses have commercialized in order to increase their profit margins while trying to convince the American public into believing it’s a necessary American tradition.

We should not be falling into the trap of overly commercialized holidays like Halloween or Valentine’s Day, but rather focus our energies on meaningful celebrations that revolve around love for each other and ourselves. The only thing that is traditionally American about Halloween is that it’s a capitalist opportunity for businesses that know how to churn profit only too well, just like other American holidays like Valentine’s Day or Black Friday weekend. And that profit comes from every aspect of properly celebrating the holiday, such as candy,

costumes, decorations, and annoying fake spider webs.

Companies have advertising schemes that are so successful that the average American spent almost $90 for Halloween in 2018.

People are excited to dress up and become someone they’re not on Halloween. This type of dress up is limited to Halloween, even though we can dress up at any point in the year. When I was young, I dressed up as a princess, mainly because I wanted a prince and I did not live in a castle, and unfortunately, Disney princesses were the only female role models I saw on TV. But now, I am older. I have the capacity, will, and opportunity to be whoever I want, any day of the year.

We all do. We can all wake up tomorrow morning and decide we actually want to be comfortable, and wear animal onesies to class. The worst that can happen is you might get weird looks.

Yet sometimes, costumes end up being sexed-up versions of regular people, characters, or things. Why do we have to hide behind Halloween in order to do that? We are all old enough to dress ourselves every single day as what we want to be, not who we are right now, and do not

need to wait for Halloween to roll around to wear what we’ve been itching to wear.

Wearing costumes only on Halloween can lead to a road of disrespect and harm towards cultures other than your own, and this is not something we should be willing to tolerate any longer.

Offensive and culturally appropriative costumes harm progress towards an inclusive society. Most recently, we’ve seen a massive unmasking of various politicians’ past incidents of black or brown face.

Whilst this is, unfortunately, not surprising, it is distressing that these individuals, who are highly educated, made a decision to follow through with an immensely insulting costume just because it was college and Halloween time.

Halloween provides a day every year in America in which there is an unspoken expectation for people to have the boldest, most daring, and most attention-drawing costume, and this can push individuals to engage in extremely offensive costuming that may very well include black or brown face.

Obviously, black or brown face is not the only way a costume can be offensive. There are a myriad of ways that costumes can appropriate a

culture. What comes to mind first is a couples costume many couples in my high school gravitated towards, Indians and cowboys. The women who gravitated towards the Indian side of this costume were varying degrees of insulting, but again, justified themselves by explaining it was Halloween and they were just pretending. But just pretending is absolutely not acceptable when it is deeply hurtful and insulting to another group of people.

At the end of the day, Halloween is also the absolute worst prologue to the proper holiday season, which starts in November and ends with the celebrations of New Year’s Eve. November and December bring plenty of traditional religious holidays, but those are not the only things that make November and December the real holiday season. The controversial Thanksgiving celebrations happen at the end of November, where America traditionally sits around a table and avoids talking about its history of violence, while families have the awkward opportunity to talk politics with each other. The weekend after Thanksgiving, we fuel our capitalist system by buying things we don’t need not only for ourselves, but also for

the kind of people we have to be fake-nice to during holiday parties.

College students have the wonderful gift of finishing fall semester in December, and get to celebrate with finals that cost them hours of study time, but then, for a couple of wonderful days, the world is quiet. Once finals are over, people take time off work, shops close, and we’re able to properly celebrate the holiday season by being largely spared from responsibilities and briefly restoring our sleeping schedules. To start off this wondrous holiday season with Halloween is like going to a pregame and realizing everyone there is problematic and isn’t even your friend, and the only alcohol they’re serving is Pabst Blue Ribbon. And let’s be honest — that is not a pregame you should be attending because of the wasted time, effort and money it will require.

Say Boo To Halloween Giorgia Piantanida Op-Ed Contributor

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THE

Queer Eye for Hegemonic Capital

Laura Wagner, Editor-in-Chief Katie Pruitt, Managing Editor Naomi Park, Managing Editor NEWS Bess Markel, Editor Trina Paul, Editor ARTS Nicole Liu, Editor Rachel Lapides, Editor CAMPUS JOURNAL Clio Hamilton, Editor Dylan Clairmont, Editor OPINIONS Laura Wilcox, Editor SPORTS Joe Barile, Editor Neel Gupta, Editor

PHOTOGRAPHY Isabelle Titcomb, Editor LAYOUT Catherine Zhao, Chief Editor COPY Anatole Shukla, Chief Editor BUSINESS Emma Chiao, Manager SOCIAL MEDIA Abby Diebold, Editor DIGITAL OPERATIONS Bayliss Wagner Daniel Chaiken EMERITUS Shreya Chattopadhyay

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Campus Journal ARTS FASHION FOOD LIVING PHILLY PROFILES ST YLES

Tea Time: Defining the Relationship Lijia Liu Campus Journal Writer

B

esides the Swat plague, something else seems to spread around Fall Break: the love bug. After one and a half months of getting to know fellow Swatties, some of us may find ourselves head over heels in the Quaker Matchbox. But is it love, lust, or merely a figment of your imagination? This week, I try to decode Swat’s dating scene to help you make sense of your emotions and relationships.

Swat comprises a small community of mostly young adults trying to establish their identity and social circles among their peers.

Because we are always so close to other Swatties and interact with them in various contexts, there is a good chance that we will run into someone who catches our eye. Maybe you met a cute person during orientation and found yourself walking back to ML together. Maybe you kept seeing the person of your dreams in class, but could not work up the courage to talk to them.

Whatever the case, we often feel compelled to become romantically involved in college because it seems like an essential part of “growing up.” So many coming-ofage movies feature romance magically blossoming between two conventionally attractive, heterosexual college students, perhaps with a dash of PG-13 bedroom scenes. College appears like the perfect setup for satis-

fying romantic desire as we emerge into adulthood and attempt to define who we are, especially in relation to others.

Although Swat seems like the ideal campus for building intimate relationships, the road to romance is paved with uncertainty. We may not know how to approach the person that we are interested in, or find ourselves tonguetied when we are actually face-to-face with them. We may gossip with our friends about whether our crush really reciprocates our feelings.

More frequently, uncertainty stems from our own insecurities. “What if I’m not good enough? What if I’m too unattractive? What if I don’t share the other person’s sexual orientation or preferences?” These are all common questions floating around our heads when we find ourselves falling in love.

RuPaul, one of my favorite people ever, always says, “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell can you love somebody else?” Navigating relationships is deeply intertwined with reflecting upon our values, identity, and self-esteem. That process is never easy as we leave the familiarity of high school and home in search of our role in broader society.

Building a strong sense of self, as well as psychological resilience, will help you to understand what exactly you are feeling. Are you attracted to this person because of who they are, or because you are afraid of being lonely? Do you feel socially pressured to find a significant other when

so many of your friends are in romantic relationships?

These are some questions that I unfortunately cannot answer on your behalf, since they depend on what you hope to achieve in college.

You might want to think about them in your free time or talk to others.

There are Swatties who are trained to guide you through your most pressing issues when you are confounded by potentially complicated relationships, whether romantic or platonic. Diversity Peer Advisors are available in every dorm if you are grappling with your identity as you strengthen your relationships with your peers. The Women’s Resource Center is also a great place to learn more about gender identity and mingle with Swatties from different backgrounds.

For more specific questions on sexuality, sexual health, and contraception, you can contact any of the Sexual Health Advocates in the residence halls.

Now, after much consideration, perhaps you have decided to pursue somebody.

The best thing is to take a genuine interest in what they do, according to Dale Carnegie who wrote the bestseller “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” However, romance is not necessarily a game of strategy, where doing all the so-called right steps will eventually get you a partner. Luck and opportunity are crucial, and sadly they are often out of our control.

Being open-minded and curious about what oth-

Lijia Liu / The Phoenix

ers do, however, can open a path to friendship or something more. Most people love sharing their activities, hobbies, and passions in life.

If you listen and respond attentively to what they enjoy — not just because you want to date or befriend them, but because you genuinely like learning about people — then that is a major stepping stone towards building stronger relationships.

Consider inviting them to a concert, museum exhibition, sports game, fitness class, or anything that you both can have fun at. These are also great opportunities to know someone better in a nonacademic setting.

But keep in mind that relationships are not supposed to be transactional. Just because one person does favors for another does not mean that they are entitled to anything in return. It is toxic to assume that spending time, energy, or money on some-

body means that they are obliged to befriend or date you. Most people can sense if someone is hanging out with them because of some ulterior motives, so only be around someone if you enjoy their company.

When you are interacting with anyone, but especially romantic interests, always prioritize clear and honest communication. Social pressure built around archaic, heteronormative notions of gender can sequester us into harmful roles and expectations. Be wary of assuming that you should act in a particular way because movies, television shows, or books tell you to do so. For example, not every relationship begins with a game of catand-mouse with one party in serious pursuit and the other acting coy until they fall into each other’s loving arms.

Shying away from communication will only further muddy the waters and in-

crease the stress of dealing with uncertainty. If you are looking for something casual, or searching for a longterm partner, make sure to discuss that upfront with the other person. If you are unsure about committing to anything, or are struggling with some aspects of your identity, tell them gently but directly. Keeping quiet will most likely result in further confusion, or worse, issues of contention may fester in the long run and affect your relationship in future.

Relationships are tough but rewarding if both parties invest sufficient time and energy into them. Everybody leads a different life and it is perfectly okay if you go at your own pace to figure out the kinds of relationships you want in your life. Remember to prioritize self-love above all and take charge of your own journey.

Party Shoes Revisited: Cross Country Fancy Party Cat Crochunis-Brown Campus Journal Writer Truth can be found in the most unassuming places.

As a disoriented first year, I wanted to learn more about the Swarthmore party scene, and maybe do a freshman perspective piece about it. Thinking about riffing on it — all alone with my opinions — for a couple pages, though, made me more sweaty and nervous than confronting a Sharples pasta bar line that extends back to the staircase.

But one fateful Tuesday night, as I was staring at the ink-stained shoelaces of my Converse High Tops, one of our very own Campus Journal editors mentioned a series of articles about people’s party shoes published a few years back.

Immediately I was excited, but also terrified.

What kind of legacy would I be scrambling to uphold? Would I be worthy of this delicate field of shoe-journalism?

After reading one of the articles by Giorgia Piantanida ’20, I realized the true elegance of the concept.

While unassuming at first glance, “Party Shoes” was interlaced with explorations of identity, self-presentation, and the essence and elusiveness of humanity.

Party shoes are a fascinating object of study because we often choose them for very different reasons than we do ordinary shoes. While many people have a go-to pair that make them feel physically and mentally comfortable, party shoes can

also transcend the banality of the everyday. They are often deeply consciously or subconsciously aware of the statement they are making in the social spaces they traverse. As a result, they create a tension between questions of fashion and function — questions which each party-goer must settle individually and uniquely.

To lace up or slide on a pair of party shoes is to immerse oneself in a weaving-together of parties past, present, and future.

Because party shoes rest in the interactive, creative space between the inner self and society, analyzing them can also lead to profound insights about both entities.

I hope that my search for footwear truth will shed light on the Swarthmore

party scene, and on the many complex factors and people that encompass it.

Perhaps it could even illuminate something about the essence of Swarthmore at large. This is certainly a tall order, but I immediately knew I had to try.

So on a blustering Saturday night I make the trek to the Mary Lyon breakfast room for the cross country team’s annual “fancy party.” Allison Shan ’23 is the first person to take mercy on my vaguely ominous interview request, and follows me out into the deserted hallway.

She recalls buying her white and navy Hogans, fashionable tennis shoes that at first glance look like Adidas but on closer examination are embellished with a blue glitter ‘H,’ in London.

“I didn’t bring any formal shoes with me to Swarthmore, but also these are really good for walking around and dancing,” she explains. (Allison hails from Vancouver, so she can’t exactly drop back home on a weekend to get formal shoes whenever she wants. Her face lights up with excitement when she talks about flying home over fall break to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with her family.)

Allison seeking comfort in her footwear is no surprise. She’s constantly on the go, running from cross country to squash practice, all while keeping up with her potential pre-med curriculum. While doing two sports at once seems hard enough, I often hear her talk fondly about high school, where she balanced

figure skating, tennis and gymnastics practices as well, and often didn’t get home until late at night.

Looking down at her Hogans, Allison reflects on how they are meaningful to her: “They’re pretty simple, but they have this little sequin part. I’m pretty basic in terms of fashion but I like to have little pops of things.”

A passing friend leans in to say Allison is “so smart and beautiful” before taking her hand and pulling her back onto the dance floor. Just like that, she’s gone in a twirl of curly hair and shining sneakers.

The next pair of shoes I find myself facing belongs to Jamail Khan ’21, a religion major from Jenkintown, a suburb of Philacontinued on page A9

PAGE A9 A9 PAGE

THE PHOENIX CAMPUS JOURNAL



Investigating the Cunningham Fire: Part 2 of 3 (In which I go full conspiracy theorist) Ash Shukla Chief Copy Editor It has been three weeks now since the Cunningham Fire.

It has been three weeks since we all woke up to the smell of smoke in our otherwise-beautiful borough and to the fire moose going off as if its life depended on the Cunningham Fire being extinguished. Every time that I walk past the ashy and burned plot, I have a renewed surge of motivation for investigating the terrible blaze that has now affected the lives of so many.

Since my last investigation update, I have experi-

enced many setbacks — too many for me to believe that their rapid succession was mere coincidence. I returned from the brink of death after the Swat Plague left me sickly and bedridden for days. I fought tooth and nail to survive a Micro midterm. I waved at someone in Sharples who turned out to not be the person I thought they were. I tried to catch a 900 CP Oddish on Pokémon Go, but it ran away from me after it escaped my first Pokeball. After I finished going through the five stages of grief for my Oddish that got away, I wondered: were these adversities just normal human experiences? Or was

someone actively trying to sabotage my investigation?

But the adversities don’t stop there. On top of it all, it has been difficult to find new information implicating the frisbee team in this heinous arson. After my first round of interrogations that have since been called “overlyintrusive” and “why are you doing this,” I was banned from interacting with most of my former suspects and calling the Swarthmore College Whistleblower Hotline.

But I’m not a weenie (most of the time). When the world turns its back on me, I fight back.

I had to rethink my investigation strategy. This

time, instead of prodding into people’s personal lives in the dead of the night, I decided to go undercover as a frisbee player. To perfect my disguise, I spent hours camped out in Mertz second kitchen, watching over Mertz Field with a pair of binoculars. (Since the fire, the frisbee team has had to relocate their practices to Mertz Field.) I carefully studied the attire and the rapport of the Earthworms, perfecting my costume and mannerisms before eventually mustering up the courage to attend one of their practices. To make sure that nobody knew my real identity, I adopted the pseudonym of “Eggs” as a

frisbee nickname.And during the practice, as I carefully eavesdropped on every conversation I could overhear, a thought occurred to me. In these past three weeks, I had only been observing the team as an outsider. Even now, disguised as one of their own, I knew that I wasn’t really “in” on any of the team’s friendships or their culture. In fact, given my legal requirement to leave most of the frisbee team alone, I was most certainly was not “in.” But despite my ridiculous disguise and moniker of “Eggs,” I had never even made an effort to truly behave as one of their own. And to behave as a true frisbee player, I had to think

Pittenger Door Handle Scandal Powell Sheagren Campus Journal Writer Imagine this likely scenario. After a long day working you return to your dorm room, ready to crash onto your bed and relax after twelve consecutive hours of classes, quizzes, and homework. You walk up to the door and reach into that one pouch of your bag that you always put your keys in. That spot has never failed you, until now. You drive your hand into the pocket, scrounging for the key to your salvation, the very lynchpin in the great mechanism which will bring you to the one sweet hope you have left in this harsh cruel world — your room.

You feel nothing. You grope around in panic but your key is nowhere to be seen, and you fall into a deep despair.

I am certain that many of you have faced such an experience. Sure, you can call your roommate or Pub Safe, but it inevitably becomes a hassle, and even when you finally get the door unlocked, the act of going home has

just become yet another task in your long list. Tragically, from the third day of classes to the current moment, the fine students of two whole dorms have been facing this perilous predicament every day. The lowly members of the PPR dorms, Pittenger and Palmer are tucked away across the baseball fields and are only accessible through a loooong walk or the shuttle.

Like a student who has lost their keys, residents of these dorms have been unable to even enter their own homes in a timely fashion, and instead, must suffer.

The twin dorms are connected at the hip by a single passageway through which all residents pass through during the day, and students wishing to enter into this flow from the outside have but one choice. The door of the connector that leads to the outside, the veritable gate to the free world, has been missing a handle. The door that was once a pathway to the outside world has become a monument of futility. It’s become a sheer wall

of wood and glass and its weight is more than enough to stop wanderers from trying to pry the door open at the seams. Because of all this, those wishing to enter into this glorious interconnected pathway cannot have the satisfaction of breathing the stale air of Pittenger into Palmer that is home for so many.

Students however, have learned to adapt. The great majority simply push a button and wait on their technological overlords to activate the door opening system for them, which by all accounts works, but this merely ignores the problem rather than dealing with it. Some students, in an act of denial and defiance, have stuffed a plastic bag through the hole where the handle was. One can assume they hope to fill the hole in their heart, but alas, it cannot be done. They are sorry souls indeed. But the true spirits, the people of virtue, chose the only real option in defiance to the handle and walk around the dorm to the front where

like a frisbee player first.Suddenly, it came to me. Everything made sense.

A frisbee was a plastic disc.

An anagram of plastic disc is “last disc pic.” I asked a member of the team to show me their most recent team photo, and there, in the center, was a player wearing an “Earthworms Frisbee” shirt.

After a little more of rubbing my brain cells together and trying to come up with a solution, I cracked the code.

“Earthworms Frisbee,” (and naturally “Warmothers Frisbee”) in turn, are anagrams of “Swarthmore Be Fires.”

Of course! The frisbee team was an elaborate front continued on page A10

there are handles aplenty. It seems that this is the only path for those with true pride in their Swarthmore ways.

More than that, students walking to their dorms will find that their exit from the college’s main campus has, too, been blocked off. The ramp leading to the pathway beneath the trainway has been blocked off for apparent reconstruction efforts.

One can feel a student’s pain and despair as they are forced to walk past the ramp, which many have named as the funnest place on campus, and to the stairs near the rails that lead down to the same spot they would have been at 30 seconds ago if they had taken the ramp.

This spot of declining seems to be closed for no apparent reason, as no one has been seen working on it, and no one looking into it can see a problem.

Many students believe that pathway cursed, and although recently the blockade is said to have been cleared, many really only consider this wide open passage a

trap and walk around to the stairs instead. Students feel the stress and pressure of the “lack of ramp” on their mental health, and it is making an already bad Swarthmore season into an existential drama. (In the time since this article was written the ramp has been “opened” up again, but we can’t really trust that, can we?) And most disturbingly, the stress a student must feel from having to walk around the ramp, fearing being transported to the twilight zone, and then not being able to open the door to their dorm must be almost too much to bear. I ask that we offer a moment of silence for all of these students who suffer among us.

The students of Palmer and Pittenger have braved this storm in the hope of the eventual fixing of the door; many have reached out to Jeremy Koepf, the residential communities coordinator, in hopes of that very action. On Sept. 18, a full three weeks after the origin of the affliction, Mr. Koepf sent a message claiming that “the re-

placement Pull Plate for the damaged Door Pull is slated to ship from the factory by early next week and will be installed when it arrives.” It has been a full three weeks now since that message was released with little to no further action. Students have no choice now but to accept their lot and the sadness that comes from it. One Palmer resident, Kanto Pendor, comments, “I can’t believe the school has lied to us this way.” Handell Ouver says, “I haven’t seen my room in four weeks, I forgot where the front door is.”

The pain and suffering of these students is unimaginable, and it seems that only the strongest will make it out alive. The Phoenix reached out to Koepf for his comments but was denied because apparently it was “too late at night” to visit his home. We can only hope that the crisis for these students will be over soon, and that they will one day be relieved of their burden, and can live their lives on their own terms.

match are already iconic features of many of their chic black outfits. The last few days had been busy and their feet were hurting. When asked what they did during their stop by the 70s party, Jules said: “a small amount of dancing … I went in to make an appearance, meet someone and stay for a little bit, and I did just that. It was lovely.”

Thinking about their favorite part about the shoes, Jules says “I like the purple, I like the pride flags on them.” Thinking about how the Converse are self-representative, Jules reflects: “I am also queer. I am also vaguely purple. Purple is a color that resonates with me for

a lot of reasons.”

Friends jump in to describe them, from Marie Inniss ’23’s free-associations “Jules is pants, Jules is purple” to Ann Sinclair ’23’s reflections that “Jules is a very beautiful person...They have an energy that gets other people excited, too… like when I’m around Jules, I feel more excited about things.”

Throughout this first night on the search for party-shoe truth, I was overwhelmed by the helpful openness of everyone I interviewed, and by the genuine love and appreciation with which their friends eagerly described them. Learning about the motivations behind

my interviewees’ shoe choices revealed thoughtful and expressive people who were bringing such positive energy into the respective social spaces they chose to be part of Saturday night. These three pairs of shoes and their owners make me look forward to my next weekend at Swat, and hopefully to a multitude of further adventures and insights.

(And if you have a favorite pair of party shoes you’d be okay with talking about excessively, email ccrochu1@swarthmore. edu - you could be featured in the next issue!) in the next issue!)

Party Shoes, continued from A8 delphia. They’re stylish brown leather sneakers that complement his blue trousers perfectly. “They’re my favorite pair,” Jamail says, looking proudly down at them, “and it was a fancy party, so these are nicer shoes. I wanted to do some dancing… I don’t wear them all the time because then my foot starts to hurt, but they look nice.”

Allison sees us interviewing and runs over to stick her leg out, her sneaker next to his. He makes a grab for her shoe, but she’s too fast. They laugh together.

Jamail’s loved on the cross country team for how easy he is to talk to.

His friends describe him as “charming and fun to

be around.” A passerby announces during the course of our interview, “That’s a cool guy. Best guy ever,” without any solicitation.

I ask a few more questions and then figure I’ll stop bombarding him, but Jamail says he wants to keep going, and that he really likes talking about his shoes. He feels passionately about tying his shoelaces one loop at a time, though he only started double-knotting them a few years ago.

Perhaps this decision ushered in a new era of selfpresentation — Jamail says that he really started developing his personal style roughly a year and a half ago. He reflects:

“Before that I didn’t care about clothes as much.

When I got into academia, started being more learned and more aware…

I think it came out of the awareness part”.

A few hours later, I’m sitting in the DK third lounge, hearing a recap of the 70s party at Olde Club I ended up missing out on. Across from me sit the crossed-at-the-ankle purple and white Converse of Jules Lee-Zacheis ’23. A prospective theater and neuroscience double-major from Chicago, Jules is already a member of countless music and theater groups and productions on campus. The purple Converse and a scrunchie on the wrist to

THE PHOENIX CAMPUS JOURNAL

PAGE A10

Where Should You Go to Study? The Ultimate Swarthmore Library Quiz Ann Sinclair Campus Journal Writer The looming weight of this decision haunts you wherever you go; night and day you feel it nagging, worrying you, hovering over you with seemingly life-altering consequences. The choice you must make again and again, every new day, sometimes multiple times a day. It’s there waiting for you when you get out of class, when you leave Sharples with a takeout container in hand, when it’s 10:30 p.m. and that paper is due by midnight.

Every Swat student must answer the constant, all-important question: “Where should I go to study?”

Yes, it may at first glance sound trivial, but the location you choose for doing your work will drastically affect your productivity, likelihood of mental breakdown, and/or quality of nap. College students are notoriously bad decision makers, so how are you to know which choice is the best? Gone are the days of walking aimlessly around McCabe second floor looking for a good spot, circling so many times that the other students wonder if they’ve fallen into a time loop.

Now, all you need to do is take this quiz and find out where you should go to study.

1. A generous Swarthmore alum offers you one of their three fine houses for you to live in (tax-free!) because you helped to save their favorite tree on campus from a terrible disease.

Which do you choose? a. A beautiful, stone cottage in the woods. It’s spacious but still cozy. There are bees and flowers. If the animals started singing cute songs, no one would question it. It’s almost always sunny. b. A huge castle that stands on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The stone walls and turrets make you feel like you’re royalty.

There are big fireplaces and grand staircases. You can hear the sound of the waves from your cham-

bers. c. An extravagant city apartment. It has huge floor to ceiling windows, sleek, modern decor, and men who operate the elevators for you and wear cool uniforms. It even comes with the largest wine fridge you have ever seen.

2. You run into your last lecture of the week exactly four minutes and 26 seconds late, and slide into your seat, thankful that the professor is so busy trying to set up the projector that they have not even noticed. Why were you late? a. You kept stopping to take pictures of plants. It’s not your fault: the plants are there and who are you to not take pictures of them? That would just be rude. b. The weight of the world and your backpack just got too heavy. c. You had to get coffee before you came to class.

You needed it. But you definitely were not going to get up early to get it. A sacrifice had to be made: it was tardiness or lack of caffeine, and the latter was not an option.

3. What is your favorite liminal space on campus? a. The Crum Woods at dawn. There are definitely fairies and the path changes where it goes based on how it feels on that day. If you stay there long enough you’ll probably start reciting medieval poetry, but that’s just how it is sometimes. b. Sharples patio anytime between sunset and 2 a.m. You can see nothing beyond the circle of eerie light that emanates from the lamps. Groups of people randomly appear and walk into Crumb as if they had not just materialized from non-existence.

The stones on the ground contain secret messages. c. Parrish basement, all the time. The corridor never ends, but simply repeats again and again. Every time you go down and return you are in a slightly different version of reality. The vending machine hums benevolently, but you are not sure if the

snacks exist or not.

You’re almost there! If you answered A two or more times, go to question 4. If you answered B two or more times, skip on down to question 5. If you got C for two or more, please proceed to question 6. And, for those of you who were chaotic and got three different answers, go to question 7.

4. A tricky goblin offers you a trade: your phone will never run out of charge, but you have to sacrifice one of the Sharples desserts. You have read many fairy tales, so you know making deals with goblins is probably not the best life decision, but this opportunity is too good to pass up. Which sweet treat will you choose to murder? a. Make your own ice cream sundae: it’s basic and you’re vegan. b. Marble cake. It isn’t chocolate but it’s also not vanilla, and overall it’s just not that good. c. You don’t really care, you have three pints of Ben & Jerry’s in your dorm room.

Now that you’ve answered, go to the bottom to find out your result!

5. You decide to go to a wild party, which, legend has it, is happening at a magical and mysterious location known as “Olde Club.” You do not know what to expect but you venture across the land to find out. You show up and it’s just as crazy as you had heard. At what point during the party are you having the best time? a. When everyone is dancing and singing to “Don’t Stop Believing” at the top of their lungs! b. When you finally find a quiet space for you and your fearless friends who accompanied you to talk to each other, eat snacks, and laugh at the partiers’ dancing. c. When you leave. It was so loud and sweaty in there.

Now that you’ve an-

swered, go to the bottom to find your result!

6. You are doing a really stressful lab when the fire alarm in the building goes off. Apparently, someone did something wrong (but fun) with chemicals and now the whole floor is evacuated and closed down for the week. You go outside and wonder what you should do now that you are free from the chaos of lab for the day. What do you decide? a. You go find your friends! You know they do not have class and you guys can do something fun for the rest of the day. b. You try to sneak back into the building. First of all, you are really curious about what happened, and second of all, you left your lab notebook in there. c. You go back to your dorm and start on your next paper - you have so much to do that you cannot possibly waste this extra time that has been given to you by your guardian angel working through the stupidity of teenagers with dangerous chemicals.

Now that you’ve answered, go to the bottom to find your result!

7. You work hard for years and years and finally achieve everyone’s ultimate childhood goal: you become an astronaut.

Through some trickery, the details of which are vague and mysterious, NASA has rewritten the laws of physics so now it is possible for you to travel all around the galaxy in a big and comfortable ship!

As you’re packing your bags, you realize you don’t have much room left, and you have to leave one of the following three things behind. Which do you abandon (keeping in mind you get to bring the other two)? a. Your extensive stuffed animal collection. You don’t really want to leave them but you don’t know what high-speed velocity and strange altered physics might do to them, and you are not willing to take that chance.

b. Your shoes. It’s space!

Who needs shoes? Socks are so much more comfortable and zero gravity does wonders for your arches. c. All of your notes and textbooks from astronaut training. They would definitely be useful out there in space, but it will probably be fine, and besides, no one is grading you on preparation … hopefully.

Now that you’ve answered, go to the bottom to find your result!

Question 4: If you answered…

A: You should go to Underhill upper floor in one of the comfy chairs. You can try to get work done, but chances are you will end up asleep. Naps are necessary too.

B: Underhill upper floor at the round tables is the place for you. Not only can you sit with a friend if you want, you can also monitor who comes in and out of the building. Not that you need to do that, but sometimes you are desperate and anything is better than homework.

C: You should go to Underhill basement. This is a place that some are not convinced exists, so if you do go, be aware that you may never return. These are the chances you take.

Question 5: If you answered…

A: McCabe second floor is the perfect spot for you!

Maybe you want to be able to talk to friends, maybe you like sitting in weird pod chairs, maybe you just want some good lighting for a change.

B: You should head up the endless stairs to McCabe third floor. It might be a trek, but when you get there you’ll be able to hear yourself think (if you have thoughts). Plus, you can enjoy watching the tiny, tiny, people on the paths below.

C: It seems that you are in need of McCabe basement: The Bunker™. You have work to be done and it needs to get done. The chances are that you will end up here at some point

after midnight and the stacks may or may not swallow you whole. Good luck.

Question 6: If you answered…

A: You should go to Cornell first floor. You can work through problems with friends and classmates. Or, even better, you can eat muffins from the Science Center Café and bond over your confusion with friends and classmates.

B: You are in need of Cornell Lower Level. Only slightly haunted, this is the least spooky of the library basements. You get the comfort of some stacks but you are not so surrounded that you will get lost and wander into another dimension. It’s a win-win.

C: Cornell Upper Level is where you need to be. The studious energy radiating from the books and the other incredibly stressed students will aid you in your work. However, if you dare speak a word, the library will mercilessly teleport you to an unknown location. You have been warned.

Question 7: If you answered…

A: You should head back to your dorm. Your home away from home. It’s definitely not healthy to shut yourself up in a tiny space and work for hours without seeing another soul, but you need to get the work done sometimes. Besides, you have snacks, and you can wear pajamas.

B: You have been inside in classes all day, it is time to study outside. Find a bench or a wall or a table.

The campus is beautiful.

You might even befriend a local squirrel or chipmunk!

C: Realistically, you have no intention of studying right now. Work is not currently in your immediate future (even if it should be). Go eat something, have fun, watch a movie, call your parents.

When you are ready to be productive, the decision of where to go will still be there, waiting for you.

Cunningham Fire, continued from A9 for Swarthmore’s secret, elusive, and exclusive arson club, and Cunningham Field was only their latest target.

I pieced together all of the evidence I had, and the more I randomly jumped to conclusions, the more my new theory made sense.

Barring the infamous Willets and AP fires of Spring 2019, the last well-known

Swarthmore fires happened in 1982 and 1983, when two of the former Mary Lyon buildings and Carnegie Library burned down, respectively. After such notorious projects that must have taken years of planning and scheming to execute, the Arson Club must have been afraid of getting found out.

They needed a cover, an ex-

cuse to exist, a way to avoid suspicions for their heinous crimes.

Coincidentally (or NONcoincidentally), the ultimate frisbee team also emerged in the early 1980s. Although it is difficult to pinpoint its exact date of founding, it must have been around the same time as these massive, building-consuming fires demol-

ished buildings of brick and stone. The Arson Club didn’t go underground — it came back up, in the form of a group dedicated to throwing around the old plasticskin around Cunningham Field.

As to why Earthworms and Warmothers, AKA “Swarthmore Be Fires” decided to set alight their own home turf, one can only guess. I sus-

pect that perhaps they did it to avoid suspicion — after all, who would so sorely inconvenience themselves on purpose?

Every day that passes, I can taste the inevitability of my next breakthrough. I can hardly sleep at night with the anticipation of not knowing where the following day’s investigation will bring me.

Two weeks from now, in the final installment of my harrowing tale, I expect to bring you the definitive answers to the mystery of the Cunningham Fire.

SPORTS

PAGE A11

Men’s Golf Concludes Successful Fall Season Grace Dignazio Sports Writer This weekend the Swarthmore men’s golf team competed in their final tournament to close out what has been a successful fall season.

The tournament took place from Saturday, October 5 to Sunday, October 6 at Concord Country Club.

The men’s team placed fifth overall out of twelve teams, with two golfers, Ankur Malik ’21 and Michael Brown ’21, placing in the top ten.

Brown is a team captain and is thrilled with the team’s performance this weekend on a difficult course. “It was a new course, so it was tough because usually when we go to a tournament, upperclassmen will tell underclassmen about scores, different shots to hit,” said Brown.

“We didn’t have that this week, but it was a new experience and it was a really good weekend.”

New courses present a challenge for the team since they lack knowledge of the geography of the course and the layout of the holes. It is helpful to have experienced upperclassmen impart their knowledge to first years and sophomores who may not have had the chance to practice some courses prior to competing in tournaments.

Brown notes that last year the men’s golf team lost five valuable seniors. “It’s a really young team; six [first years], we lost five seniors.

Just being with each other, helping each other out with

our games, has pushed us, and we’ve had a little spark towards the end of the fall season.”

The fall competition season fostered a sense of comradery between team members and strengthened relationships between the incoming first years and upper-classmen. With six new first years on the team, this newfound sense of comradery has allowed for the team’s successful performance towards the end of the fall season.

Max Katz-Balmes ’20 also notes that the first-years have been enthusiastic to contribute to the team atmosphere. “We have six [first years]this year, who all have brought positive, new energy to the team. Gyan Bains [’23] has shot our team’s lowest round, Leonard Park has consistently performed well in the starting lineup, and our other four [first years]have shown their potential with solid results.”

Gyan Bains shot a round of under-par and finished in second-place overall at the Mason-Dixon Invitational at the Bridges Golf Club on Sunday, Sept. 29. 96 golfers competed in this tournament and he was a mere three strokes away from finishing in first. The result is indicative of the high level of potential that the firstyear class brings with them to hone for the spring season.

The team has been implementing new methods to practice in order to improve their results. During the fall season, the team generally

practices at Springhaven Country Club. Katz-Balmes notes that the team has been utilizing the new facilities at Swarthmore. “[We supplement] our on-course work with sessions on the Trackman simulator in the golf room. We also have, for the first time since I got to campus, team lifts to help us with our flexibility, strength, and motor speed.”

Brown also referenced the importance of the addition of the indoor golf space. The indoor golf facility provides technology that can accurately identify the player’s swing speed and angle which provides a detailed analysis of the player’s performance. The indoor facility also provides a space to practice over the end of the fall season and through the winter.

“Having the new golf facility has really helped us outside of outdoor practices. Typically during the week, each of us will go there and help each other look at our swings on video, especially look at our numbers in our swings. Like our swing speed, our face angle of the club, and that’s helped us just become more consistent with our swings.”

The indoor facility is a new addition to the team’s resources that the players will be able to benefit from this year. Brown notes that the installation of the indoor facility last year occurred just before their spring season began.

“Now we can use it the rest of the semester, and we’ll probably have prac-

tices there twice a week at least. People can obviously use it whenever they want, but we’ll have organized competitions, [and] play some simulated courses,” said Brown.

In addition to the indoor facility, the golf team will also be working in the gym two to three times a week in order to maintain their strength and swing patterns. Team lifts will also serve to foster a stronger sense of comradery during the off-season.

Brown also attributes the team’s success to head coach Jim Heller and assistant coach John Dukes.

“When we’re out there on the course they’re always helping us with our shots, helping us with our decision making, and that’s always helpful to lower our scores,” Brown said.

As the fall season has progressed, the team’s results have also made headway.

“We shot our team low on Saturday this week. “It was about 300, our team score.

We finished fourth place at McDaniel [College]’s tournament, we were there last week, and we finished fifth place this weekend, out of twelve teams. So that’s a step in the right direction,” Brown said.

Katz-Balmes agrees.

“We started off with a rough result, but as our freshmen have adapted to college life, our scores have improved,” he said.

The acclimation of the first-years to the team as well as a sense of team com-

radery is important to the improved results that the team is now beginning to see. In addition, returning upper-classmen have also made a lasting impression during the fall season.

“Ankur [Malik] has shot the team’s two-day low score,” said Brown “71-75… this weekend, he finished tied for third.”

When looking towards the spring season, KatzBalmes is hopeful that the team will have another chance to win conferences.

“It would be amazing to win conferences this year, especially after last year’s final day heartbreak and a close second place finish my freshman year,” KatzBalmes said.

He has hopes that the strong showing during the past two tournaments this fall season will translate into the spring. “From a team perspective, the past two tournaments have been very strong, with most individual scores in the 70s,” he said.

The team hopes this level will carry on into the Spring season, when the team will have an opportunity to compete in conferences.

If you are anywhere near Tarble gym on Monday or Saturday night and hear the sound of muffled music and rhythmic pounding from below, it is likely that you are hearing the practice of the newly founded Swarthmore Boxing Club practice.

Started by Robert Zigmund ’21 early this year, the Swarthmore Boxing Club has received interest from 78 students. A majority of these students, around 50 of them, signed up during the annual club fair, while the remaining have accumulated over the weeks as word of the club as spread Zigmund became interested in boxing during last year’s spring semester when a friend asked if he wanted to spar. Since then, he began to learn more about the sport of boxing and reached out to a few Swatties to see if anyone was interested in starting a club. Zigmund hopes that people give it a chance, and recognize its

value as a form of exercise and as a community.

The co-ed club is for anyone who is interested, regardless of class year or experience. In fact, many of the students who attend are new to boxing. The reasons for joining are varied, but some are looking for exercise while others want to learn how to box.

Junior Sydney Klabnick is one of the newcomers to boxing who has taken up the sport this year.

“It was a unique opportunity to improve my fitness in an environment that is safe and welcoming, as well as non-judgmental,” said Klabnick. “The people are very helpful and have greatly enhanced my boxing knowhow.”

Klabnik notes how accommodating Zigmund is with working around student’s times and scheduling saying that he recently sent out a survey to all the members to see what day/ time people could meet for a third practice day; they decided on Wednesday eve-

nings at 7 p.m.

Ian McDiarmid-Sterling ’23 echoed similar reasons for joining, but emphasized the experience of learning how to box.

“I joined the boxing club to learn how to box — I had never tried before. It has been a good workout and lots of fun because the group is really passionate about learning and there is a good mix of people with different experiences,” said McDiarmid-Sterling.

Zigmund recognizes the multitude of reasons for joining and has separated the club into three categories based on preferences.

The first category is for those who just want a good cardio workout. The second category is dedicated to those who are interested in sparring with other club members. The last category is for those who want to compete in the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association. The plurality of students is interested in sparring, while there is equal interest among those

who are there for the exercise and those interested in intercollegiate boxing.

A majority of the students interested in joining the USIBA have had some boxing experience, and while it might take several weeks before Swarthmore has the means and numbers to officially compete in the USIBA, Zigmund hopes this part of the club can grow.

Moving forward the clubs next steps are to secure necessary funding from SBC which will allow them to accommodate everyone who is interested and their respective interests. For example, the club does not currently have proper headgear so people are unable to spar. Right now, with boxing gloves and mitts they are only able to work on combination work or punching patterns.

Practices are currently held in the wrestling room in Tarble gym twice a week and are roughly an hour and a half long with the time divided between cardio work, boxing technique and part-

October 4th: Men’s Tennis: John Nichols-Daly ’22 and Weiyi Zhu ’22 won the B1 and B2 draws respectively at the ITA Southeast Regional in Fredericksburg, VA October 5th: Men’s Cross Country: 30th place at Paul Short Invite Women’s Cross Country: 18th place at Paul Short Invite Men’s Golf: 5th place at Montgomery Cup Men’s Tennis: 9-0 vs Messiah College Women’s Volleyball: L 1-3 vs Franklin and Marshall College Women’s Volleyball: L 1-3 vs Stockton University Men’s Soccer: L 0-1 vs Franklin and Marshall College Women’s Soccer vs Franklin and Marshall College Field Hockey: L 1-3 vs Franklin and Marshall College October 7th: Men’s Golf: 9th place at Muhlenberg Fall Invitational October 8th: Field Hockey: L 0-2 at Washington College

Club Boxing Team Attracts Wide Interest Ally Scheve Sports Writer

Week in Review

ner combination work. Students of all class years are welcome to come and as the club emphasizes that no experience is required.

Zigmund is excited about the new practices and new members, but recognizes that a sport like boxing occasionally requires individual attention and that he cannot be there for every member. To address this, the club decided to hire a boxing coach to help out newcomers and advanced boxing alike.

However, given initial interest, the future of the club is bright as it continues to balance member experience and interests.

Zigmund hopes to keep this up and continue to build on the community the club has built in these first few weeks. history — both present and past — which was a really fun project. I loved working on it with people and creating a different, sacred space within the BCC library which was really cool.” Okoronkwo said.

Week Ahead October 11th: Women’s Volleyball vs Marymount University October 12th: Women’s Volleyball vs Messiah College Women’s Volleyball vs University of Scranton Men’s Soccer at Johns Hopkins University October 14th: Women’s Soccer vs Farmingdale State College Women’s Soccer vs Bryn Mawr College Women’s Volleyball vs Bryn Mawr College Field Hockey vs Bryn Mawr College

THE PHOENIX SPORTS

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Okoronkwo, continued from A2 history — both present and past — which was a really fun project. I loved working on it with people and creating a different, sacred space within the BCC library which was really cool.” Okoronkwo said.

Okoronkwo is also an active participant in the larger community at Swarthmore as a DPA. “I definitely hear a lot of things that I then go to try to work on as a DPA to encourage inclusivity and to encourage people to drop some of their ignorance about certain subjects,” said Okoronkwo.

According to Okoronkwo, his positions in SASA and in dorm life allows him to positively help two commu-

nities. “[At SASA], we would talk about how some people have been addressed or the comments or jokes they heard that may have offended some people.

And as a DPA I can then address those types of things outside of SASA,” said Okoronkwo. “So, I feel like I’m helping two communities: I’m helping one community grow and then helping another feel more welcome.”

Okoronkwo expressed wanting to be more involved in the process of planning the Black Excellence programming occurring this year. While he was invited to join the committee meetings as leadership

of one of the BCC groups, he had a conflict that prevented him from joining the conversation.

“I love that we’re celebrating Black Excellence.

However, they made it very difficult for me to join in on the conversations about the planning of Black Excellence because they meet when I have class,” said Okoronkwo. “I think allowing for more students to actually be able to access those meetings so [the committee] can hear those voices from different perspectives is something they can work on for the future.”

While Okoronkwo thinks the events and programming on campus are overall positive, he believes there

should be more intentional incorporation of things representing the Black experience. Specifically, he found that the Black Excellence Celebration Kick Off could have included more music that highlighted Black culture. “[The music at the event] wasn’t necessarily forthcoming to the Black experience and I feel that there could’ve been better music [selection] for a Black Excellence lunch,” Okoronkwo said. “More Black artists and more on the history of Black music like blues and jazz, could have made the experience a lot more enriching in terms of the Black experience.”

According to Okoronk-

wo, the biggest improvement the Black Excellence programming could make is making the celebration more visible and present on campus through more promotion.

“I want to see more promotions for these different events. I feel as if there are some times where I could forget that we’re celebrating Black Excellence and I don’t want to have that feeling,” Okoronkwo said.

“I want to constantly notice that the driving force behind what’s happening this year on campus is the celebration of Black Excellence.”

For Okoronkwo, the increased visibility of the Black Excellence theme for

the year should go beyond promoting certain events but incorporating the celebration throughout campus in many forms.

“There should be banners, music, and chill spaces where you could hear Black Excellence. There should be poetry from Black poets, music from Black artists, and art from Black people, just posted up everywhere,” said Okoronkwo.

“That would be amazing and very enriching for the Black community and their experience — and not just the Black American experience.”

to it,” said Rensing. “There are classrooms and study rooms, and all kinds of stuff. It’s a really unique space. And I do think that by having that, a dean [Dean Dion Lewis], and that setup, is so that it’ll last.

That’s a really good thing they’ve done to support Black excellence.”

For Rensing, Black excellence takes many forms and is rooted in the steps the Black community is making toward a better future.

“Our community is a supportive community on all fronts. Black excellence is just like succeeding as a Black per-

son in all types of ways: emotionally, academically, mentally, or, you know, just being okay,” said Rensing. “Black people face a lot of problems with a lot of things. It can be hard being the only one in the class and that’s not just going to affect you academically, it’s going to affect you emotionally. So, I mean, I guess Black excellence, would be overcoming these things, and then trying to make a better future.”

In Rensing’s experience, steps towards furthering Black excellence on Swarthmore’s campus are on a micro or community level, not so much

at the college or administration level.

“Students try to help improve things in their situation, most of the time in whatever they’re doing for the people that come after them. I mean, when you see most changes, you see it on a smaller level.

Like, oh, a new female Black professor just got hired by the department, or you see somebody trying to tutor in Chester and get more Black people involved in community and charity work,” said Rensing.

For Rensing, the lack of Black students in STEM is a wide problem in the education

system, but she believes that Swarthmore is taking steps to diversify more in the future.

“I have some qualms and complaints. But I think I more so have qualms and complaints about the world we live in than Swarthmore. Like, it’s not a lot of Black STEM majors, and it’s not necessarily Swarthmore’s fault,” said Rensing. “There’s not a lot just in general. That’s, I think, more, in terms of education, and more of a primary education problem but Swarthmore does try.”

Rensing, continued from A2 in these situations like mine, it kind of sucks.”

While it is challenging for Rensing at times being a Physics major, some of Swarthmore’s professors have proven to be supportive and helpful of her academic endeavors.

“Here at Swarthmore, most of the professors I’ve had I haven’t had a problem with.

Most of them are pretty encouraging and help me. They are helping me now, so I can go to a National Black Physicists Conference in November, and there was no one questioning, ‘should I be there or not?’ They’re all saying go and

present my poster that I did with my research this summer,” said Rensing.

Aside from providing Rensing with academic help, Swarthmore’s Black Cultural Center is a unique and welcoming space that she believes is making a lasting impression on the campus in supporting Black excellence.

“The BCC is always a good place to go. I mean, I’m really happy that Swarthmore has something like that because I know a lot of places don’t really have a Black culture center — a whole space, a whole house, just dedicated

Athlete of the Week: Sophia Stills ’21 Joe Barile Sports Editor Sophia Stills ’21 is a forward on the women’s soccer team from Los Angeles, California. After coming back from an injury that sidelined her for two weeks, Stills has scored two conference game-winning goals in two weeks. Her first came against Ursinus on 9/25/19 when she scored in the 50th minute, lifting Swarthmore to a 1-0 victory. The second came against Franklin and Marshall this past Saturday, this time in the 69th minute. Stills’ goal gave Swarthmore a 1-0 lead, which they held onto for the rest of the game.

Joe Barile: How did you pick out Swarthmore and get recruited?

Sophia Stills: I was already interested in Swarthmore when I met Coach Todd at [a recruiting] clinic in Los Angeles. I was really drawn to Swat’s culture of campus activism and social justice. As I learned more about the school and visited campus I ultimately decided it was where I wanted to spend the next four years!

JB: What was the process like working back from long injury stint in the middle of the season?

SS: My injury was kind of this weird freak accident where I strained one of my lower oblique muscles on my right side. So for me, the recovery process was a lot of rest and trying not to move the muscle at all. But when I was eventually able to run and kick the ball again it felt so good and I felt even more motivated to work extra hard and really take full advantage of being healthy and back on the field.

JB: How does it feel to be the goal-scorer of two conference game-winners this year?

SS: Oh it feels great. I think it really just feels good because our entire team is working so hard and taking so many shots and

putting so much effort in, so when any of us is able to put the ball in the back of the net it just feels gratifying because the hard work of the whole team is finally paying off. No goal really gets scored in a vacuum. It’s definitely a result of the aggregate team effort we’re making as a unit.

JB: Although you guys have had two tough OT losses this season, your team has managed to bounce back each time with 1-0 wins. How have you seen your team respond to the tough situations it has faced this year?

SS: I think we have a really great team attitude that allows us to respond positively after those kinds of setbacks. We have really strong leadership in the captains, and I think that our goals don’t really change even when we don’t necessarily succeed initially. I think our response to losses like that is to focus on fixing the problems we see, and really working even harder towards the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season.

JB: What improvements have you made to your game since last season?

SS: I think it’s really helpful to have an extra year of experience under my belt, and an increased understanding of how our team plays and what we are able to accomplish together. I think this year we’ve also been working on communication between the forwards, and I think you can really see that on the field. I’ve also been working on getting up in the air on corner kicks, so hopefully, there will be some more header goals this season!

Nara Enkhtaivan / The Phoenix

Nara Enkhtaivan/The Phoenix