Swarthmore Phoenix, November 2, 2018

Today in OPINIONS: Robert Zigmund on Beto O’Rourke’s run for Senate A5, Brittni Teresi on the importance of voting A5, Giorgia Piantanida on climate change A5

PHOENIX

THE

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VOL. 146, NO. 7

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West of the Old World

November 2, 2018

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The independent campus newspaper of Swarthmore College since 1881

Alcohol-Related Referrals Up 272%

Annual Fire Safety and Security Report data shows largest increase of referrals in recent years Laura Wagner Managing Editor

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eferrals for alcohol-related policy violations rose 272 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to the 2018 Annual Fire Safety and Security Report released on September 28. This is the largest jump in the last four years by both percentage and volume.

In the four years prior to 2017, the number of annual violations ranged from 19 to 35 violations.

Between 2016 and 2017, violations rose from 33 to 90.

Some students have perceived

The week ahead

an increased presence of Public Safety in social spaces centered around partying, according to Alcohol and Other Drugs Counselor and Educator Josh Ellow. Ellow noted that the way Public Safety referred students seemed to change since he began at Swarthmore.

“Last year for the first time ever, I saw unregistered parties really getting shut down, and so therefore in a single report, in a single public safety contact, there’s 11 plus people on that,” said Ellow, who was hired in 2013.

College policy specifies that a group of 10 or more students with

alcohol and without a permit is considered an unauthorized party, meaning that the reports are showing that Public Safety officers began including more attendees of unregistered parties on incident reports.

The Swatter, The Daily Gazette’s transcript of the Weekly Clery Crime and Fire log, shows that Public Safety shut down more unregistered parties in the fall of 2017 than in the preceding spring. The number rose from two instances reported in the spring to seven in the fall, according to available Swatter reports.

Swat team director Monie Deb

’19 attributed the shift in enforcement of the alcohol policy in 2017 to new officers being unfamiliar with campus norms.

“Pub Safe has been much more active. I think it has to do with the shift in officers, there have been newer officers,” Deb said.

An email sent out by Michael Hill on September 4, 2017 said that Public Safety had hired several new officers over the summer.

Of the officers who joined Public Safety in 2017, one has a background in law enforcement, another in military policing, a third in corrections, and the fourth in

corporate, campus, private, and contract security, according to the Public Safety website.

Deb continued, “At first [they] did not understand how Swarthmore as a college is. Some of the issues we have are not as extreme as in other campuses or the real world.”

When asked if officers hired in 2017 referred more students for disciplinary action than officers hired before 2017, Hill focused on student safety.

“Every officer, regardless of their background, is expected to continued on page A2

Annual Queer Chalkings Mark The End of Pride Month

Friday Alok Vaid-Menon Performance, IC Room 201, 6-7pm Watch ALOK (they/them), a gender non-conforming performance artist, writer, and educator at this week’s Sager Series Event. Their eclectic style and poetic challenge to the gender binary have been internationally renowned.

Saturday Pterodactyl Hunt, Kohlberg/Sci Center, 7-9pm Usually occurring in early October, The Pterodactyl Hunt is a Swarthmore tradition unlike any other.

Students come together to wear trash bags, fight monsters, and generally make fools of themselves—all while having the time of their lives.

Sunday i20 FallFest, Upper Tarble, 5-7pm Monday Lunch Hour Concert Series, Parrish Parlors, 12:30-1pm Watch Shira Samuels-Shragg and Herbie Rand perform at this week’s lunch hour concert Tuesday VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE WEATHER Have we mentioned that you should vote??

CONTENTS Campus news A1-A2 Arts news A3-A4 Opinions A5-A6 Campus Journal A7-A8 Sports A9-A10 Read more at swarthmorephoenix.com Copyright © 2016 The Phoenix

Emma Ricci-De Lucca / The Phoenix

Last week, the Pride Month Committee commenced its annual tradition of placing queer chalkings all around campus. The chalkings ranged from witty, empowering messages to those discussing the more painful struggles of the queer community.

Proposed SBC Independence Ignites Debate Within SGO Katie Pruitt News Editor On September 27, Student Budget Committee Chair Yin Xiao ’20 submitted a series of proposed amendments to the Student Government Organization’s constitution to SGO members. What started as a debate about logistical changes to SBC’s procedures evolved into a debate about whether SBC ought to be independent from SGO. This debate has occupied nearly all of SGO’s Senate-wide meetings since September and as of publication, no resolution has been reached.

These amendments would, among other things, change the way that SBC chairs are selected, raise the spending limit requiring SGO review, revoke the SGO Chair of Student Organization’s SBC voting rights, and form a Projects Advisory Committee. In a letter to SGO members, Xiao declared that SBC would now be independent from SGO; he justified this decision as a means to remove political considerations from SBC: “The main issue regarding the relationship between SBC and SGO is that SBC is a non-political student institution while SGO is a political one. SBC can’t take a stance in campus politics, and it becomes very problematic when the parent organization SGO often does,” he wrote.

Under the current SGO constitution, SBC operates essentially as a subsidiary of SGO. Unlike other SGO committees, though, members of SBC are appointed rather than elected by the student body. They hear proposals from student groups and allocate funds pooled from the student activities fee to these groups. SBC handles upwards of $600,000 on a yearly basis.

Xiao announced to SBC on September 24th that he intended to pursue independence. The continued on page A2

What’s on your Ballot? 161st District Edition Bayliss Wagner News Editor

This midterm election, the town of Swarthmore is well-represented in the polls. Three out of five positions on the ballot include candidates who are residents of the town and its immediate surroundings. Swarthmore was also recently moved into the 5th congressional district, which includes Delaware County and a portion of South Philadelphia, due to an order from the State Supreme Court that the Assembly redraw its congressional map.

Here’s a guide to each race and how to vote.

Voting in Swarthmore Students who wish to vote locally this election rather than by absentee ballot in their home states must register with their dorm addresses. This is because students who live north of the train tracks vote at the Rutledge School while the polling place for students who live in dorms such Mary Lyons and NPPR Apartments is CADES. Residents cannot vote early or by mail. It should also be noted that if you registered while living in one dorm, you will vote at that same polling place the next year, regardless of where you live, unless you re-register.

State House Wallingford resident Leanne Krueger-Braneky’s seat as the State House representative for the 161st legislative district is an interesting example of the tight margins that make local political participation critical for students

of the college. She won by a margin of 597 votes when she was elected in a 2015 special election; 90 percent of the 615 students of the college who voted in the election voted for Krueger-Braneky.

She was also the first woman to fill the seat and this year, she has pushed for a bill that would define sexual harassment under state law. Prior to her election, she worked on a committee that advocates for bringing green jobs to Philadelphia.

Patti Rodgers-Morrisette, Krueger-Braneky’s Republican challenger this midterm, is a resident of the nearby Swarthmorewood neighborhood of Ridley Township. She is a realtor and former Republican committee member and election machine inspector. She also ran against Krueger-Braneky in the 2016 elections, but has not held major political office before.

State Senate Swarthmore mayor Tim Kearney is challenging incumbent Republican Tom McGarrigle for the State Senate seat. McGarrigle, a Springfield business owner, was elected to the State Senate in 2014, before which he served on the Delaware County Council for 7 years. He was also endorsed by the Philadelphia AFL-CIO. Kearney owns an architecture firm with his wife. He previously served as chair of the Swarthmore Borough Planning Commission.

House of Representatives Mary Gay Scanlon (D), who has a campaign office across from PPR, is a candidate for the

U.S. House of Representatives in two elections. She is running in both the special election for the 7th district, which Governor Tom Wolf scheduled to coincide with the midterm general elections and in the general race for the new 5th district. Residents of Swarthmore were previously cut out of the 7th district, so they will only vote in the 5th district general race.

Scanlon is an attorney who has been the national Pro Bono Counsel of law firm Ballard Spahr LLP since 2003. She has defended immigrants affected by Trump’s travel ban, She was also formerly president of the WallingfordSwarthmore School Board.

Her opponent, Pearl Kim (R), is a South Korean immigrant and former special victims prosecutor of domestic violence and human trafficking charges. Kim has also spoken about the #MeToo movement as a sexual assault survivor.

In part thanks to the redistricting, Scanlon is nearly guaranteed the House seat for the 5th district; Five Thirty Eight reported a 99.9% chance that she will win.

However, the 7th district is majority Republican. This makes the race to fill former incumbent Pat Meehan’s seat much more competitive. The 7th district is voting for a new House representative to be sworn in in January, after Meehan’s term would have ended.

Scanlon, Kim, KruegerBraneky and Rodgers-Morrisette are part of a large spike in female candidates running for state and national offices in Pennsylvania this fall — a record 126 will be on the ballot. The race for the House

seat for the 5th district is historic because a woman has never represented Delaware County in Congress before, and after this race, it is guaranteed that one will.

Senate Up the ballot, the Senate seat occupied by incumbent Democrat Bob Casey Jr. is being challenged by three opponents, one of whom is Republican Congressman Lou Barletta. Barletta has served as the congressional representative of the 11th district since 2011. Casey has served as senator since 2007 and prior to that was Pennsylvania state treasurer and auditor general. Casey has a roughly 15-point lead on Barletta, making it unlikely that the seat will change hands. However, Politico named Barletta a candidate to watch early this year because of his endorsement from Trump; Barletta also served on Trump’s presidential transition team. The other two challengers, Dale Kerns and Neal Green, are running for the Libertarian and Green parties, respectively.

Governor Governor Tom Wolf, who has held the position since 2015, has a comfortable, roughly 20-point lead in preliminary polls. Previously a member of the Peace Corps in India and a business owner, Wolf oversaw the redrawing of the Congressional map that the Republican-led State Assembly was ordered to complete this Jan. He was the subject of recent controversy over his stance on resettlement of Syrian refugees in Pennsylvania. His running-

mate, Democrat John Fetterman, defeated incumbent Lt. Governor Democrat Mike Stack in the primaries, a historic first for the state of Pennsylvania. He is the mayor of a small town, Braddock, that is mostly working-class.

On Oct. 12, Wolf’s Republican opponent, Scott Wagner, remarked in a Facebook video on his campaign page that he would “stomp all over... [Wolf’s] face with golf spikes.” Wagner is a former state senator who was elected in a special election in 2014, then resigned in 2016 to focus on campaigning. He was endorsed by President Trump. Wagner’s running-mate is Jeff Bartos (R), who has no prior political experience. He has worked for a law firm and now owns a luxury home construction company and an energy firm.

There are also two more pairs of candidates running against Wolf: Libertarians Ken Krawchuk and Kathleen Smith and Green Party candidates Paul Glover and Jocolyn Bowser-Bostick.

Voting in Swarthmore Students who wish to vote locally this election rather than by absentee ballot in their home states must register with their dorm addresses.

This is because students who live north of the train tracks vote at the Rutledge School while the polling place for students who live in dorms such Mary Lyons and NPPR Apartments is CADES. Residents cannot vote early or by mail. It should also be noted that if you registered while living in one dorm, you will vote at that same polling place the next year, regardless of where you live, unless you re-register.

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THE PHOENIX NEWS

November 2, 2018

SBC, continued from A1 committee unanimously approved a new constitution, which would replace SBC’s old bylaws.

Xiao also consulted administrators from the Office of Student Engagement about SBC’s independence.

Xiao thoroughly explained each proposed amendment to new SGO members on Sept. 30.

SGO President Gilbert Orbea ’19 described the response from senators as strained.

“SGO members were blindsided by the whole thing because they had less than 48 hours to digest everything,” Orbea said.

“Also many of them don’t have a perfect understanding of SBC, as most students don’t, because of the fact that SBC is a very reclusive organization.”

Soon after this first meeting, interactions between SGO executive board and Xiao disintegrated. They have not met in person in several weeks.

“I asked him [to meet] multiple times … Yin just said ‘No, we’re not going to speak. There’s nothing to speak about,’ which is not a great policy, for a leader to deny speaking about his proposals,” SGO Vice President Kat Capossela ’21 said.

However, Senator Tommy Dell ’20 feels that Xiao’s anger on behalf of SBC is valid, citing SGO’s track record of interacting with other student groups. “I think the contentious nature of this is sort of part of a broader pattern of people being very frustrated with SGO, and rightfully so ... we’ve had a lot of dysfunction, we haven’t been very receptive,” he said.

Though Xiao has not attended recent SGO meetings, his proposals have still been a topic of much discussion, occupying a substantial portion of the agenda at each of the past two Senate meetings.

The biggest topic of debate has been whether SBC ought be independent from SGO. Orbea feels that separating SBC from SGO would reduce accountability. He also feels that Xiao’s argument that SGO exerts undue political influence over SBC is misleading.

“When I asked ‘give me an instance where SGO has ever influenced a decision by SBC, give me an SGO president or executive board member who has ever gone to an SBC meeting, and hovered over the decision-making process’ … There’s never been an instance, at least the four years that I’ve been here,” Orbea said.

Capossela, on the other hand, is more sympathetic to Xiao’s call for independence. She feels that the conversation has been misconstrued to represent a bigger ideological debate that extends too far beyond the scope of the actual proposals.

“I think it just boils down to an issue of semantics. I think what independence can be is two separate bodies that engage in a very tight system of checks and balances with one another,” she said.

It’s unclear whether independence would actually have any bearing on SBC’s operations. “I don’t really see how it could be a huge impact,” SBC member Jasmine Xie ’20 said. She also confessed that she did not know that SBC was affiliated with SGO until

recently.

The amendments themselves, with a few major exceptions, have been fairly non-controversial.

SGO members voted on responses to Xiao’s amendments at an Oct. 28 Senate meeting.

SGO members broadly supported an amendment proposed

by Xiao that would change the appointment process for future SBC chairs. Currently, the SBC chair is selected by the outgoing SGO copresidents and the previous SBC chair, while the SBC committee is selected by the appointments committee. Under the new rules, SBC chair will be selected by an ad hoc committee, consisting of the outgoing chair and all chairs emeriti, the SGO president, and two OSE officials. This new committee would, as Xiao wrote, “mitigate … any personal bias of individual students.”

“The appointment of voting members on SBC and the appointment of the chair of SBC was all directed through SGO, which gave a lot of power to someone like the appointments chair or the president, or the previous SBC chair ... There is no intense vetting process and it allows for some sketchy things to happen like friends appointing friends,” Chair of Student Organizations Akshay Srinivasan ’21 said.

In 2014, the selection committee for SBC chair was accused of nepotism when they selected a student who had no previous experience in SBC and who was also in a relationship with the SGO President. Controversy also cropped up when this summer, SBC approved a record-breaking

$60,000 funding request for a concert spearheaded almost entirely by former Appointments Committee Chair Henry Han ’20.

In his time on SGO, Han appointed all current members of SBC. Xiao also introduced an amendment that would change the budget threshold for SGO review, which proved to be more controversial. Under SBC’s current bylaws, any funding request above 1 percent of SBC’s budget (about $6,170) must be approved

by SGO. This bylaw was invoked for the first time in recent memory for Han’s concert funding request. Xiao proposed to raise that cap to 2 percent, or about $12,340.

Capossela put forward a proposal scrapping this new limit, which Orbea also supported. This proposal passed the Senate with majority support.

“Why he wanted to bump it up to 2 percent makes no sense to me, which is why I rejected it.

You’re saying you want checks and balances and yet you’re increasing the amount of money that you can decide by yourself,” Capossela said.

Still, some senators feel the current limit does not do enough to promote accountability. Murtaza Ukani ’22 proposed lowering the limit further, to 0.5 percent, or about $3,085.

“My overall understanding of the history of SBC is that there have been repeated violations of trust as a result of mishandling of funds and abuses of power,” he wrote in an email. “I feel that it is the responsibility of elected representatives to hold the SBC

accountable by providing more oversight over its functions. As of now, there seems to be a remarkable disconnect between the broader student body and the doings of the SBC. I believe that if SGO is able to build its relationship with students and receive the valuable insight students have to offer, then lowering the threshold to 0.5 percent, will be for the better. The process of handling of funds will become more [transparent] and more voices will be involved in the decision-making process that was previously restricted to a few.”

Ultimately, Ukani’s proposal was tabled to a future meeting, along with remaining amendments due to time constraints.

The Senate also approved a proposal to start meeting on a weekly basis, which executive board members hopes will allow SGO to move beyond this topic more quickly to focus on other matters.

Though SBC’s future is in

RAs and Swat Team, to make our process better and more collaborative.”

Residential Community Coordinators have become more involved in the process of enforcing the alcohol policy. Specifically, RCCs started checking in on registered events in spring 2018.

Rachel Head, assistant dean & director of student engagement, said that the purpose of RCCs is to keep students safe rather than search for policy violations from students.

“The primary focus of an RCC or other college official when responding to an incident in question is the health and well-being

of students and the overall campus community. … Our goal is not to try and ‘find’ policy violations.

Our goal is to authentically and robustly support a system that allows students agency in creating social events that are safe and inclusive.”

Head also noted that if an RCC witnesses an alcohol policy violation, they can take intermediate steps that do not involve a formal referral.

“If an RCC is made aware of a violation of College policy, we would expect that they have an active response. That response can range from something as informal as pointing out a poten-

Emma Chiao / The Phoenix

Alcohol referrals, continued from A1 ensure the safety of every community member, and to enforce college policies as well as local, state, and federal laws,” he said.

Deb noted that she has been seeing progress with Public Safety’s understanding of community norms.

“One of the new officers worked directly with Swat Team for a whole year, so there is definite understanding now.”

Deb also expressed that Swat Team wants students to stay safe when drinking alcohol, and that she feels students should come out to the parties where Swat Team can help.

“We recognize that these

drinking rules are much more enforced. It’s harder to drink at a party. But we would rather you drink at parties with the help of Swat team if need be, rather than pregaming so hard in dorms that you get so messed up that you never even make it out,” she said.

Regarding enforcement of the alcohol policy, Hill said that fewer students were arrested for liquor law violations in 2017 than in the previous year.

“While our referral numbers have gone up our arrests have gone down, which means less students are going to the hospital,” Hill said.

Clery Act data does not show

that a rise in referrals corresponds with a drop in arrests, however. From 2014 to 2015, the number of liquor law arrests rose by 23 arrests while the number of referrals also rose from 19 to 35.

The next year, from 2015 to 2016, the number of liquor law arrests fell by 13, and the number of referrals fell from 35 to 33.

Hill said that Public Safety has been working to improve the department’s practices around the alcohol policy by including more members of the Swarthmore community in enforcing the college’s alcohol policy.

“In recent years we have partnered with the RCCs, as well as

limbo, its day-to-day operations haven’t changed much, according to Xie. The only major difference is that, under the new amendments, Srinivasan no longer has a vote on SBC; one of the amendments rescinds the vote from the SGO Chair of Student Organizations.

On the SGO side, members hope that they will reach a resolution soon.

“I don’t want anyone taking away from this that it’s a ... dogfight or a shitshow,” Orbea said.

“This is a serious discussion about how money is allocated and how groups interact … I’m beyond excited to resolve this. I think it’s going to be fine.”

tial violation in the moment, to having a follow-up conversation with a student to a more formal response of a minor adjudication hearing.”

The most recent data shows a shift in the enforcement of the alcohol policy. Whether or not liquor law violations referred for disciplinary action will continue to rise is yet to be seen, as the data for 2018 will be available in the fall of 2019.

ARTS

November 2, 2018 PAGE A3

On Thursdays, a New Phonic Phenomenon in WSRN Nico Aldaco Arts Writer

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he resonant hum of a tenor saxophone underlies the fluctuations in rhythm and sound of a chorus of small drums, strings, and vocal expressions. Recited words trade meaning back and forth with a long-necked didgeridoo, as if emboldening each other to be themselves. Sound waves echo between multi-colored walls engulfed in artwork and gleeful shadows. Melodies achieve fluidity in their response to a stimulating and profound ensemble.

We are together in this.

Poetry Jam is emerging as a new phonic phenomenon on the Swarthmore campus. Founded two years ago by Moses Rubin ’19, this event now takes place on the first Thursday of every month on the 4th floor of Parrish Hall. Attendees may come with instruments, pre-prepared poetry, any manner of gushing inspiration, or as spectators.

They should be prepared for an unorthodox artistic creation forged by a combination of spoken word, musical accompaniment, and unrelenting positivity.

The music community on campus has slowly become more prevalent and integrated over the course of the last few years, as evidenced by more frequent joint performances from various student bands. But what about the individual artists who do not presently have the material or social connections to be a part of such a group? Every person deserves a platform to express their art, and Poetry Jam seeks to be a gateway into, as well as a crucial component of, the Swarthmore music scene.

Beginning with its first meeting of the year on September 13, Rubin welcomed approximately 15 other students into the WSRN big room to share a collaborative musical experience.

According to Rubin, as many as 30-40 students had attended some meetings last year, but the small-group atmosphere was very conducive to their musical project. By its nature, Poetry Jam invites any poet or musi-

cian, practiced or otherwise, to participate in a free-form compilation of recited words and accompanying rhythms and melodies. Interestingly, an original product is created every time.

As Rubin explains, “The goal is to get rid of performance anxiety by overcoming performativity.” His explanation expresses how the product of these meetings are not traditional “songs,” but rather poetry accompanied by music. Without a rubric for expression, these pieces provide the freedom for all to adapt to their surroundings and improvise in unconventional ways.

The atmosphere of Poetry Jam fits perfectly with this dynamic, as Ariana Hoshino ’20, one of the attendees, explained that the event was an “inclusive and open space for creativity.” At this first meeting, Rubin began by reciting a number of written stanzas and different musicians would supplement the meaning he conveyed with melody and rhythm, freely switching instruments as time progressed.

In fact, students may bring any sort of instrument, especially if its form or sound is unconventional by American musical standards; the weirder the

better. As Hoshino elaborated: “There was a natural harmony to it.”

The nature of formal performances can restrict artists to a pre-prepared musical form.

However, it can be particularly liberating to express one’s self with others through an ongoing medium. As one attendee, Josh Frier ‘20, explained, “I had fun.

People should come when they want to experience something artistic and new. It’s more participatory than presentational.”

It is this distinction that relieves the pressure of adherence to musicianship in favor of a more

casual and intimate process.

The next meeting will take place in the same location on November 1st from 8-11 p.m.

Rubin has indicated that he hopes the event will grow in attendance and frequency. His goal is to eventually broadcast audio from poetry jam events, seeking deeper diffusion of this particular medium into the greater campus culture. As of yet, these unique musical creations are made for the eyes and ears of attendees only.

Without any concrete expectations or pressure from participants, the expression

of freedom at last has room to bloom. Through an empathetic and accommodating approach to music, poetry jam nurtures a community; hopefully, this community will continue to grow and evolve to incorporate any who have the courage to creatively express themselves through music and/or spoken word. In the words of Rubin: “It will connect you to students in a rare way within Swarthmore culture that doesn’t happen in any other academic or social setting. You have a common creation.”

Emma Ricci-De Lucca / The Phoenix

“Mid90s” is a Poignant Bildungsroman with Little to Say Larkin White Arts Writer 7/10 stars Released on October 19, Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, “Mid90s,” presents a dark, meandering story about a young boy in Los Angeles who discovers skateboarding as an escape from his deeply troubled home life. The story is not heavily plot-driven, it instead, with mixed success, attempts to paint a dynamic, visceral picture of what the skating community gave to teenage boys at the time.

The movie follows 13-yearold Stevie (Sunny Suljic) as he seeks a home in the skating community away from his lone-

ly, abusive older brother, Ian (Lucas Hedges), and neglectful, single mother. Drawn in by the brazen, independent attitude of four older boys that he follows into a skate shop one day, Stevie soon becomes enamored with the excitement of skater life.

Used to being beaten at home, he can take the hits required of every skater, and he eagerly does, following the older boys as they engage in many illicit and dangerous activities to gain their acceptance. There is Ruben (Gio Galicia), the secondyoungest, Fourth Grade (Ryder McLaughlin), named after his IQ level, Ray (Na-kel Smith), the calm leader with pro-aspirations, and Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt), Ray’s longtime best friend whose love for drinking,

drugs, and girls has superseded his interest in skating. Stevie’s willingness to take risks gains him respect among the group and other skaters but he soon falls into self-destructive patterns of drinking and smoking.

Every character seems to have their own down-on-their-luck backstory resulting in a mix of interpersonal drama while serving as the foundation of their love for the skating community and group bond. Skating is not glorified as a good culture to fall into, especially for a child, but the escape and tight knit community it provides are well-realized and carefully portrayed.

Jonah Hill has talked in multiple interviews about his own childhood infatuation with

skating and hip-hop and he emphasizes the reverence with which he approached the making of this movie as a result.

Temporal and cultural accuracy was paramount. Three of of the five boys — McLaughlin, Smith, and Prenatt — are professional skateboarders, and Smith even works for Supreme, an enormously popular skateboarding shop and clothing brand. There are close to no epic trick shots, which Hill refers to as “skateporn” that undermines the importance of, to quote Fuckshit, “why [they] ride that piece of wood.” The aged style of filming ends up beautifully, cementing it as a period piece for those not aware of the brands and music carefully chosen from the time period. One of the most strik-

ing scenes in the movie occurs during a long shot when all the boys slowly skate in the middle of the road down a hill directly towards the camera, Stevie trailing behind, and all of the boys seeming to float along on boards they appear supremely comfortable on. The filmy quality of the image blurs the characters and makes the movie seem like it was shot long ago, adding to a memory-like quality of the movie in the best way.

In fact, the cinematography and soundtrack prove to be where the movie is strongest, fueled by Jonah Hill’s nostalgia and passion as well as cinematographer Chris Blauvelt’s talent. Filled with plenty of close-ups, the film is personal; the audience becomes attached to young Stevie even as they witness his tragic downward spiral. He carries an overserious expression on his face that constantly fills the screen during his interactions with people and, along with his nervous speaking, works wonders endearing him to the audience.

The score underlying the movie is chock-full of old hip-hop: Wu-Tang, Tribe, Pharcyde, and many, many more are expertly integrated to support the emotional arc of the story. In the beginning of the movie Stevie sneaks into his brothers room with a Street Fighter 2 t-shirt on and goes through his brother’s huge, treasured collection of hip-hop CDs in order to buy him an album he doesn’t have for his birthday. Though hiphop is by no means a significant part of the plot, the opening scene allows to see how much the movie is an ode to the parts of Hill’s childhood he most treasured.

Unfortunately, the quality of

the movie is undermined by its dialogue. Almost the entirety of the movie’s dialogue is carried out among the five boys, yet it is wasted on blatant exposition and uninspired, crude banter under the banner of authenticity that winds up being mostly boring and offensive. Hill attempts to use the dialogue to add dimension to the boys, individualizing all of them, but it is only with Stevie and Ray that truly compelling characters are created. Ray has to reconcile his own hopes of going pro against best friends who are becoming increasingly reckless and ambitionless, while Stevie grows up way too fast as a result of his situation at home in an at times heartbreaking manner. It is their interaction while dealing with their respective struggles that pushes the story to its best and most real: Ray taking on a tender, paternal role by trying and failing to lead Stevie away from the side of skate-life that he himself is wary of.

Disappointingly, the movie ends on an indecisive and arbitrary note with neither the story nor any of the characters’ issues resolved. It is unclear whether it would have benefited from more or less time and what lesson the viewer was supposed to have drawn, exactly.

Hill’s obsession and reverence for skateboarding is evident, yet the coarse, bummish, and dangerous life that seems to come with skating adds contrasting depth that the movie fails to take an opinion on by its lack of conclusion. It is the slice-oflife elements that best presents the story Hill wants to tell, but the plot elements, particularly dialogue, could have used more substantive thought and direction.

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THE PHOENIX ARTS

November 2, 2018

West of the Old World Ash Shukla Arts Writer

W

henever I pass by the Public Safety building, I always take a long moment to stop and watch the scenery around me. I look at the humble, grey stone house with the words “PUBLIC SAFETY, VISITOR INFORMATION,” proudly printed on its entryway.

I listen to the wind that sneaks through the remaining leaves on the surrounding magnolia trees, their unrestrained knots creeping through the humidity.

The grass and the mulch soften the sharpness of the stony edifice and the angular trees as the ground beneath gently slopes upward to Willets Hall.

I stop and read the black metal sign next to the house, which proclaims, “NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORICAL PLACES,” and goes on to describe the life of painter Benjamin West, who was born in that very house.

Every time I make my pilgrimage to the Public Safety building, I find myself in a deep state of peace with the world around me. I smile to myself as I gaze at my serene surroundings and think, “Wow. When Benjamin West lived here, he would have really fucking hated it.”

In 1738, Pennsylvania and the other twelve colonies were devoid of any man-made beauty. While self-taught American portraitists such as William Jennys and Joseph Badger certainly put oil to canvas, their twisted, disproportionate figures hardly induce any other emotion than confusion and disgust. Although unfortunate, given the predominantly Quaker and Puritan roots of the territory, there was no means for non-utilitarian art to have entered mainstream AngloAmerican culture in any capac-

ity. It was in this artistic (or unartistic) climate that Benjamin West had no choice but to live for the next twenty-two years, teaching himself to paint little by little.

West was twenty-two when William Smith, the first provost of the university now known as UPenn, discovered his artistic ability and decided to become his patron. During the same year, he travelled to Italy for a tour, and then to England three years later. He did intend, at some point, to return to the colonies; the artistic potential in England, however, was simply too great for West to willingly sacrifice his opportunity to lead a fruitful career in history painting. Needless to say, he never returned. The man born in the drab stone house in what was then Springfield, Pennsylvania went on to be known as the “American Raphael” and become a mentor to the next, significantly robust generation of American painters. West died in London in 1820, having twice served as the President of the Royal Academy.

Now, the house in which West gulped his first breath of air stands as Swarthmore’s Public Safety building. Although it is shrouded in thick drapes of foliage, I can make out the outline of the house from my dorm room on Willets-First, and every time that I glance out of my window, seeing the humble building always succeeds in adding radiance to my day-today life. Colonial American art has been a significant interest of mine for four years now because I believe that it embodies the spirit of creation and that of bettering one’s society in any way one can.

While Colonial American art is best-known for being drab and more often than not con-

Karin Nakano / The Phoenix

cerning wealthy white landowners as their subject matter, it does possess its relative merits. What differentiates Colonial American art from European art at the time is that as opposed to England’s Joshua Reynolds and France’s Jacques-Louis David, no such person exists as the archetypal Colonial artist. Every painter in the thirteen colonies had to find their own means to produce art in such an utterly bleak and artless society.

Although this lack of artistic uniformity resulted in a myriad of deeply-flawed paintings and portraits, to me, this inconsistency represents the merits of

the period. The flaws stand to show that artists in the thirteen colonies and in the United States upon independence were people who endeavored to introduce beauty into their lives and the lives of those around them, even if many of them did not have the opportunity to see any quality artwork until after they had already become recognized for their work.

It’s difficult for me to believe that Benjamin West, the forefather of an era-defining generation of painters in the United States and in England, was born only feet away from where I currently live. It’s difficult for

me to believe Native Americans taught him how to mix paint by combining grease and mud, and at an incredibly early age, he took that knowledge and hit the ground running. From being born in the boxy gray Public Safety building in Springfield, Pennsylvania, West became the personal historical painter for King George III by following his own initiative across the Atlantic Ocean.

Seeing the Public Safety building brings me joy every day because it serves to me as a symbol of self-empowerment and of the power that comes in creation. Sure, it’s the Pub-

In “Ballads 1,” Joji Makes a Tender Step Forward Max Gruber Arts Writer

How viable is the transition from YouTube stardom to mainstream music success?

While controversial stars such as the Paul brothers have expanded their vlogging brand into the musical sphere, Joji is unique among the masses of “content creators” turned performers. Formerly known under the Pink Guy or FilthyFrank moniker, the Joji musical project shares no similarities with its now dormant YouTube counterparts. Joji’s release of the “In Tongues” EP in 2017 and his signing to the up and coming 88rising label signalled his full commitment to this new project.

While his journey had been unique, Joji’s early musical output was not. Fusing contemporary strains of alternative R&B

and lo-fi Hip Hop, “In Tongues” was a relatively nondescript and low-key musical endeavor in which Joji failed to distinguish himself artistically. Despite the low impact of his music, Joji maintained and grew his audience, his exposure reaching a peak during the summer of 2018 with his appearance on the 88rising collaborative album alongside artists such as Rich Brian and even BlocBoy JB of “Look Alive” fame. Now, after a steady stream of singles and teasers, listeners are presented with Joji’s debut full length album, “Ballads 1.” While not engaging across its runtime, “Ballads 1” contains enough artistic progression and atmosphere to deliver a pleasant if forgettable experience.

The album begins with the somewhat ironically titled “Attention,” a song which seemingly works hard to discourage

any such engagement on the listener’s part. The plodding, dreamy instrumental makes the song immediately blend into the background. The vocals don’t do much to salvage the track either, as Joji’s faint, nondescript delivery seals the song’s status as sonic wallpaper. “TEST DRIVE,” one of the records several singles, is similarly bland and nondescript as Joji’s falsetto pairs with faint vocal mixing to particularly forgettable results. “I’LL SEE YOU IN 40” is yet another example of a song which is weak and meandering, doing nothing notable across an underwritten four minutes.

The album does, however, have a few high points. “SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK” is an engaging ballad which sees an emphatic and refreshingly prominent vocal performance from Joji. While “YEAH RIGHT”

and “NO FUN” retain some of the sleepier, reverb-soaked elements of the weaker songs, they succeed in having meatier production and earworm melodies.

“WHY AM I STILL IN LA” is a relatively quiet lullaby which transitions into a heavy guitar and percussion passage. Moments like these are refreshing and it’s good to see Joji pushing himself compositionally, especially when most of the songs clock in at a mere two minutes and change.

On the other end of the spectrum is “RIP” (featuring Trippie Redd), which is mostly Trippie Redd proclaiming “I will die for you” in his signature moaning cadence. While the song is as underwritten as possible, Trippie’s delivery and melodies are engaging enough to carry the track. “NO FUN” is a highlight on the album, with sunny chords and a catchy hook that

recall Joji’s “Peach Jam” off of the 88rising collaborative album. While this is a strong point in the tracklisting, the record as a whole suffers from a generic, distant feeling.

What the album might lack in impressionable moments it makes up for in vibe. The atmosphere of the album is moody and peaceful, but features enough percussion to make it a relatively inoffensive addition to a number of settings. This is an album best played off of a bluetooth speaker in a dorm room with three to five others, not pored over in solitude on the most advanced monitoring headphones money can buy.

Because of this, the album is decent to fair. It ultimately is not memorable enough from start to finish to be truly great, but the songs for the most part are a noticeable improvement from the tracks on “In

lic Safety building, but for me to live so close to the house in which one of my absolute favorite painters was born is incredibly meaningful and constantly reminds me to strive for excellence. After all, who, if not Benjamin West, continues to serve as a human manifestation of the merits of self-empowerment and accomplishment in this capacity? And who, if not Benjamin West, can make it any less unpleasant to live right next to Public Safety?

Tongues.” Songs like “SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK” also show a great deal of potential development for Joji if he delivers such impassioned performances on a consistent basis.

For those who have enjoyed Joji’s music up until this point, “Ballads 1” is the best he’s ever sounded. Those who disliked “In Tongues” or Joji’s sound in general may still find some enjoyable material on this album, especially on those tracks which deviate from his lo-fi, muddy sound. Ultimately, “Ballads 1” is a small but meaningful step in the right direction for Joji.

“Roma” Weaves Personal Memories Into a Great Epic

Carrie Jiang Arts Writer

The 27th Philadelphia Film Festival has come to an end.

The 10-day journey has given me great pleasure, and watching seven excellent films in a roll was undoubtedly one of the best experience I have had this year.

“Roma” (2018) by Alfonso Cuaron was the third movie on my to-watch list for the festival. I had heard several positive recognitions regarding this black-white film beforehand, and it turned out to be as beautiful and epic as I ex-

pected. Focusing on Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), who works as a maid for a middle-class family in the 1970s Mexico, “Roma” takes us through the important years of Cleo’s life and uses it as a lens to reflect the larger society and people’s living status in general. Since Mexico had undergone major political shifts and revolutionary movements around the year 1971, the film gives us a sneak peek into the holistic social life while telling Cleo’s story at the same time.

According to Cuaron, the story is mostly based on his childhood memories in Mexico City, and it

took him almost 10 years to finish this beautiful piece of work.

Every slice of emotion, therefore, was delicately developed and fermented before being shown to the world.

“Roma” depicts intimate and realistic family relations. Cleo always keeps a good relationship with every single family members she serves, and they consider her as part of the family. In most parts of the film depicting family life, the cinematography focuses on medium shots — the shots that feature characters’ bodies from knees up — accompanied by slow,

horizontal panning and deep focus, revealing the family’s daily life bit by bit. We can see Cleo walking in the hallway from one end to the other, with the camera showing the kids doing different things in their respective rooms.

In those scenes, Cleo, though located in the foreground, is not in focus, while her background is not blurred at all. Every movement in the background, therefore, is recorded clearly due to the deep focus by the camera. Such deep focus, honestly recording the trivial and daily talks between family members, effectively creates a realistic and sincere depiction of family life and remind the audience of their own homes.

“Roma” is about vivid and everlasting city memories. Seeing Cleo running through the streets of Mexico City, happily chattering with her friends, we are led to experience the lively city by ourselves: the peddlers selling accessories crowd together noisily in front of movie theaters; the naughty kids play with each other in the puddles after raining; the moviegoers of Mexico City talk about the film’s plot loudly in the theater, cheering when the protagonist wins. Every sound, every form of nature and beam of sunlight is closely intertwined with the deep memories of the city and the nation. They are permanently existing, something that is beyond the control of human forces;

even though the people who perform or participate in these activities would eventually change, these specific moments will always be transcendental, closely bonded with the city’s memories.

“Roma” is about how nature and life itself can be interwoven.

The film begins with the marble floor washed through with soap water, reflecting the clear sky until an airplane goes roaring across; it ends with the real sky above the family’s house, and again another airplane leaves its trace. According to Cuaron, he tried to create an effect of “heaven on earth,” meaning that the heaven (nature) is tightly connected to the earth (human), and these two will ultimately become one. Throughout “Roma,” we can see three occurrences of natural disaster — earthquake, fire, and ocean waves. They are parallels to Cleo’s life and part of Mexico’s national memories — one example of this simultaneity would be when people from Mexico City experience a moderate earthquake while Cleo is informed of her pregnancy in the hospital; in that moment, she smiles to the newborn babies in the nursing room while everyone else panics and hustles. We can observe how people cope with shared trauma, how they look for help, and eventually move on to another day. The natural disasters are not presented to be fatal at all — when a fire occurs, for instance,

Cleo, who is on holiday with the family she serves, calmly carries water barrels to put out the fire, and quickly forgets about the incident and returns to enjoying the break. As we can see, these disasters are merely symbols of how nature and human can interact, how heaven and earth can be closely related, and how nature itself can be related to any form of life, small or magnificent.

Conveying so many themes within 135 minutes, “Roma” had a fairly long production process.

The film was shot in a chronological order, and Cuaron purposely divided the story up in every single day, and told the cast how the story would develop in the day’s sequence. According to lead actress Yalitza Aparicio, the shooting process felt like “living Cleo’s life all over.” Perhaps that is what Cuaron tried to achieve, because life itself does not have any designed plot and develops without people knowing the entire “story.” Life is unpredictable, but the form of life per se will endure permanently.

If it is not for “Roma,” we the audience wouldn’t get to see such natural yet wonderful memories.

These memories are great epics that belong to the entire nation, and they are the most intimate past that belong only to Cuaron himself.

OPINIONS

November 2, 2018 PAGE A5

Voting to Uphold Justice

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s acts of violence and social injustice have become more prominent, I have taken pride in being a part of the Swarthmore community.

Often, I feel at a loss for how to address large-scale social issues. But I have gained strength in knowing Swarthmore is an institution that stresses knowledge about domestic and world issues while also thinking critically about enacting solutions.

I have been comforted in knowing that I am surrounded by a group of change makers who are actively working to achieve peace.

As I’ve had the opportunity to immerse myself in creating solutions through classes, guest lectures, and conversations with peers, I know Swarthmore is an institution that provides students like me with the tools for making a positive difference in the world.

Yet, while I take pride in Swarthmore and believe that most students are committed to being model citizens of the world, I question if we students realize our ability and responsibility to start implementing these tools for change-making now. Perhaps the most critical

tool that many of us possess to instill change is the power to vote. Unfortunately, many of us are failing to do so.

According to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement conducted by the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education, only 24.8 percent of registered student voters turned out at the polls.

Swatties, these rates for the 2014 midterm election are abysmal. They are an inaccurate representation of the passion and commitment we possess for furthering social justice.

Through participating in the 2018 election on November 6, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to exercise our voice and demonstrate our commitment to promoting our own beliefs for social good.

Exercising our voice and voting is necessary for practicing the very values we are learning as students on campus. Swarthmore’s mission is to help us develop into “responsible citizens” with a “deep sense of ethical and social concern.” As students who are still learning how to benefit society, voting is the best tool we have to practice being responsible citizens and to act on our concern for society. Voting is our opportunity

to begin furthering the same positive solutions we hope to build upon one day.

Of course, I know that many people question the value or purpose of voting. I’ve heard many Swatties attempt to justify not voting through a variety of excuses, and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t consider these excuses sometimes too.

‘I don’t know enough about politics,’ some have argued.

Voting does not require a political science degree or even in-depth engagement with every current event. It requires basic research about the candidates and ballot initiatives to know their values, goals, and potential impacts. It requires a willingness to consider how their priorities align with your own.

Others cling to the idea that ‘one voice doesn’t matter anyway.’

But the notion that ‘one voice doesn’t matter’ is counter-productive to societal change. It paralyzes action instead of furthering progress. Furthermore, one vote is one more voice that adds to a collective of people advocating for change, and voices joining together is the beginning of a social movement.

THE

BRITTNI TERESI OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

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Finally, others have made claims like, ’I don’t support either candidate, so I’m not voting to make a statement,’ or ‘I just don’t have the time,’ or even ‘It’s only the midterm election.’

All of these arguments also impede progress and lose sight of the importance of voting in the first place. It’s easy to believe we can’t do harm if we stay silent. It’s easy to downplay the immediacy and critical role of this election. Through silence and distance, our responsibility in serving as change agents becomes less apparent. We are able to justify continuing our daily lives and we are able to feel less invested if the results are disappointing.

By not voting, we are committing an injustice of our own. We are failing to uphold our values, failing to speak out against injustice, and failing to fight against the same social issues that we have committed ourselves against on campus.

And if I’ve learned anything from being apart of the Swarthmore community, it’s that Swarthmore students do not tolerate injustice. Swarthmore students do not accept inaction. Rather, we build movements. We push ourselves and

PHOENIX

Ganesh Setty, Editor-in-Chief Laura Wagner, Managing Editor Keton Kakkar, Managing Editor NEWS Bayliss Wagner, Editor Katie Pruitt, Editor ARTS Nicole Liu, Editor CAMPUS JOURNAL Naomi Park, Editor Dylan Clairmont, Editor OPINIONS Shelby Dolch, Editor

PHOTOGRAPHY Emma Ricci-De Lucca, Editor LAYOUT Trina Paul, Editor COPY Dan Siegelman, Chief Editor BUSINESS Peem Lerdputtipongporn SOCIAL MEDIA Abby Diebold, Editor DIGITAL OPERATIONS Navdeep Maini

SPORTS Jack Corkery, Editor Max Katz-Balmes, Editor

others to do everything in our power to achieve the greatest amount of good.

The election on November 6 is a reminder that we don’t have to wait until after graduation to further good.

So, vote, Swatties.

Vote for those who can’t vote.

Vote because silence isn’t complacency; it’s complicity.

Vote because, as members of

the Swarthmore community, we made a commitment to learning how to serve as model citizens who further social good and positive change. Our commitment is only effective if we live up to our values and accept our duty to share our voice on November 6 as a platform for change.

compared with their opponent who does have party backing.

Billboards have been placed on highways across Texas with screenshots of a Trump tweet from before the 2016 election, which asks why anyone would vote for Ted Cruz when he has done nothing for Texas. This is an attempt to drive a mental wedge between individuals who support both Trump and Cruz.

O’Rourke not only has party support, but he also polls extremely well with independents.

An O’Rourke victory, however unlikely, would galvanize voters in red states and blue states alike, as it would demonstrate

that progressive policies can and do work everywhere. Beto O’Rourke has a more significant chance of beating Ted Cruz than any average red state democrat, and his platform has ensured that the people of Texas remain mobilized.

Regardless of the outcome of this election, O’Rourke represents a growing trend of truly progressive candidates funded directly by the grassroots, and that is a hopeful thought.

What Beto O’Rourke Represents ROBERT ZIGMUND OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

“Only one of us has been to each county in Texas.” This was the reply from Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during the September 21 debate for the Texas 2018 Senate Race. Cruz’s remark had been that O’Rourke did not represent, nor did he understand, “Texas values.” This exchange demonstrates a thought-process dissonance between the PACfed, power-seeking elites like Cruz, and the grassroots-inspired, hopeful challengers like O’Rourke. The Texas senate race comes at a crucial time in American politics, with fundamental moral and ethical principles on the ballot — from climate change to racial justice.

It is in this context that we look back to Cruz’s original rise to power during the “Tea Party movement,” the 2011 push by the religious right to seize power in Congress. While the Tea Party movement itself has died down, Ted Cruz represents a personification of its driving forces: uncompromising ultraconservativism combined with a heavy opposition to the constitutional wall between church and state.

These values are also heavily associated with the deep south and Texas. It should be viewed as particularly striking, then, that the race between O’Rourke, a progressive modeled in much the same way as Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Cruz, the de-facto representative of the Christian Right, has been declared a tossup by the Cook Political Report.

Previously, the race had been declared “leans Republican.” We will explore why Beto O’Rourke has a significant chance of victory during this apparent shift of ideology, despite the aspects of Texas, and red states in general, that would suggest a major loss.

The first major point that conventional wisdom tells us should be sinking Beto O’Rourke in the polls, and ultimately on election day, is the historical context of the state of Texas. Texas has not elected a Democratic senator since 1976. O’Rourke also does not hold what could be considered the typical red state Democrat’s neo-liberal, centrist views, such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who backed Kavanaugh and opposes significant action on climate change. It has been assumed by the Democratic party since the Clinton-era that the only way to win in typically red states was to essentially act like a Republican.

The problem with this logic is that when presented with pseudo-Republican and actual Republican, most voters have demonstrated that they will choose the actual Republican. It makes sense, then, that O’Rourke’s progressive platform of Medicare-for-all single-payer healthcare, criminal justice and police reform, and gun control would galvanize and motivate voters in the state to support him.

A candidate with policies that offer a meaningful positive change from the status quo will always draw more excitement than a candidate who de-

fends the status-quo. Texas is undergoing a transformation of demographics, and while voter suppression efforts by the Republican party attempt to hinder the impact of this change, suppression only works if the tide can be mitigated.

Voter suppression is an egregious violation of basic rights, which especially targets marginalized and vulnerable groups, namely poor individuals of color. Texas has particularly harsh voter ID laws. Fighting these policies is necessary, and high amounts of turnout can overcome draconian voter suppression tactics to a degree. It is true that Ted Cruz would likely win against a standard red state Democrat. Beto O’Rourke is not a standard red state Democrat. If anyone has a significant chance of victory against Ted Cruz, it is Beto O’Rourke Money is viewed as an obvious centerpiece of any political campaign, and Senate campaigns are among the most expensive. With this understanding, O’Rourke’s refusal to take PAC money should, in theory, hinder his ability to match Cruz’s financial machine.

Without funds, it is nearly impossible to advertise effectively and mobilize people, and an unadvertised campaign will morelikely-than-not fail. It would be helpful to look at the actual fundraising numbers to see if this holds true. The expectation is that Cruz has far outraised O’Rourke. This expectation does not hold: O’Rourke raised $38.1 million in the last three months,

while Cruz has only raised $12 million. O’Rourke in his bid for senate has raised more money than Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential election. Grassroots funding can be ongoing and intense, while PAC funding typically is only a one-shot deal for the election season. On this point too, O’Rourke comes out ahead.

A final point in O’Rourke’s favor is that the Republican party itself does not seem to particularly like Cruz. Without party backing, even a conflicted and divided party like the Republican party, most candidates look substantially weaker when

Climate Change: It’s Too Late for Positivity GIORGIA PIANTANIDA SWAT GLOBAL

The World Wildlife Fund just published a new report on climate change, and they essentially said that if by 2020 we, as a global community, don’t make drastic commitments to limiting fossil fuel emissions, we could be living in a drastically different world. This, of course, comes off the back of a UN report on climate change, which stated that the changes we will see in our environment will be much worse than anything we’ve ever predicted. And yet, even with all this knowledge and science, it’s hard to wrap your head around it. After all, when we look out our window, the world looks the same — the trees and birds are still there, the sky’s still blue, and winter is still cold. When we observe the world like that, in small time frames like a human lifetime, it’s difficult to see climate change. So it makes it that

much easier for politicians and governments to argue against it, and instead choose the short term economic and technological benefits big industries can deliver. And since they’re in power, and will be for the foreseeable future, those of us who believe in climate change can no longer afford to be optimistic. We can no longer look at these reports and pray that these statistics and figures will change the ways of countless governments and industries around the world to create legislation that limits the effects of the emissions we have been steadily creating since the industrial revolution. We can’t afford this blatant positivity any more.

Most individuals who believe in climate change can pinpoint the first time they heard about the potential problem. Perhaps it was early in life by a treehugging parent, or perhaps later on, when a professor whose name they forget accidentally

rambled on about it. I remember when my sixth grade teacher first introduced my class to climate change and told us that even though her generation created the problem, our generation would have to go out and fix it. There was a certain sense of positivity and hope in her talk, and it made us feel invincible. We truly walked out that day and believed that one day, we would be the pioneers who would stop climate change from ruining our planet.

Nine years have passed since that day. And in those nine years, our collective global community has been able to further harness the power of the wind, sun and water, as well as further study and understand the ways in which we can prevent this problem from getting out of hand. And yet, we find ourselves in a global community in which half the participants find it easier to question the legitimacy of science and evidence than face the music and work

to stop the catastrophe they are arguing is likely to ensue.

Environmentalists tend to be the minority voice in legislative conversations. The changes they want pushed through government aren’t as “sexy” or lucrative as those of big business. Environmentalists can’t promise the creation of new jobs or of booming the economy, whereas their adversaries can. So the entire idea that we can still afford to be positive and hopeful about the future and the changes we can make in legislation is moot. Rather, we need to focus on being realistic, and learning to play with the same tactics that our adversaries employ. We need to rebrand and get the message across without being as positive and hopeful in hoping for “someday” when the climate will be fully protected.

In truth, the likelihood of us stopping our dependency on fossil fuels within the proper time frame is very low. It would

not only mean that most countries would no longer emit any fossil fuels within the next ten, fifteen years, but it would also mean that politicians and governments around the world who benefit from environmentally destructive industries would be willing to forfeit the monetary gains for the good of future populations. It would require greedy businessmen and women to learn the value of nature without linking it immediately to money. And it would also require shifts in beliefs in billions of people around the world, who would have to accept perhaps lower qualities of life than they are used to in order to even have a chance for future generations.

Clearly, it would require drastic changes, and if we know anything, it’s that humans are resistant to change. So the baseless positivity we project on our governments is fruitless.

Instead, we need to redirect that effort into funding realis-

tic hopes and beliefs into our governments and our future.

We need to learn to fight fire with water, and douse out the claims the climate change deniers have been spreading for years.

Climate change and environmental destruction are very real things that are going to very deeply affect us within our lifetimes. Not only that, but it will affect the morals we will one day attach to having a family with kids, because how can you morally raise a child in a world that is bound to die. So as of today, it is too late for positivity and hope. It’s time for real, drastic rebranding of environmentalism and to stop passively waiting for people in power to change their minds. It’s time to be realistic and accept their minds will not change, and find new, constructive ways to reach lasting solutions.

PAGE A6

THE PHOENIX OPINIONS

November 2, 2018

What We Talk About When We Talk About Shootings EDITORIAL Last Saturday, 11 members of the Jewish community of Pittsburgh were killed by gunfire and five more were injured during a Saturday morning prayer service.

Last Wednesday, an armed gunman attempted to enter a predominantly black church and, when denied entry, killed two African Americans in a Kroger grocery store outside Louisville, Kentucky.

At the time of this writing, there have been 297 mass shootings — a phrase defined by the Gun Violence Archive as a single incident in which four or more people, not including the shooter, are “shot

and/or killed” at “the same general time and location” — in 2018 alone. By the end of this year, 12,000 Americans will have been killed in targeted, intentional shootings — in addition to over 20,000 who will die by gun suicide.

Each time a shooting occurs, our wheels begin to spin in the same way. This week has been no different. Commentators and news analysts on networks across the political spectrum have sought to find the cause of the violence. It’s all that “Call of Duty,” right? No, we’re just a more polarized country than other places. Looks like Americans just do more crimes.

The one thing we’re not talking

about? Gun control.

Since the Pittsburgh shooting, and last week’s series of attempted pipe bomb attacks, the news cycle has been dominated by Trump’s role in the shooting — whether or not his rhetoric fueled the attacks, the Trump stickers found on the aggressors’ cars. But political discourse, even from the left, hasn’t focused on the most proximate cause of these shootings: the guns themselves.

In November 2017, The New York Times ran a comprehensive article considering a range of explanations on why the United States has such a high rate of gun deaths. In the piece, they debunked

Beggars Can Be Choosers LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Content Warning: Mention of Suicide Reading about Gil Kemp‘s latest ginormous gift, this time for the renovation of Sharples dining hall, adds fodder to my long-standing, love-hate relationship with Swarthmore.

Kemp made his considerable fortune as a result of selling and merging his business to The Home Depot. Clearly Home Depot, Walmart, and a number of other giants have transformed the American landscape. Whether that is good or not is debatable. Whether they embody Swarthmore’s professed values, however, is another matter.

During my campus visits I focus on the names of financial titans, from Clothier to Kohlberg, affixed to various buildings. Some were “enlightened” and others were less so.

They too transformed America, but not always for the better.

For example, if one wants to know why America’s middle class disappeared, it is in large part the result of the hostile takeover and leveraged buyout techniques which made Kohlberg billions. Of course, the college was invested in KKR partnerships, correspondingly enriching the college’s endowment.

There has always been a disconnect between the college’s values and its funding. At least Eugene Lang fessed up, reportedly saying something along the lines of “Not knowing what to do with myself after graduation from Swarthmore, I became a capitalist.”

My own experience with Home Depot has come from representing courageous whistleblowers who complained about fraudulent practices. The company has had a controversial history. However, I saw the

Swat Graphics

blood on its hands when in one case, I represented a distraught employee who simply wanted protection from the company’s law department as a result of his exposure to those fraudulent practices. When Home Depot refused, he hanged himself.

Now, thanks to Mr. Kemp and Home Depot, Swatties can “chow down” in comfort.

As the saying goes, “Beggars can’t be choosers.” Given the fact that Swarthmore has one of the largest, if not the largest, endowment per student, maybe it’s time for President Smith and her administration to get choosy in terms of whose money they accept and, in turn, what the college invests in.

Mark D. Schwartz, Esq. Class of 1975

notions that mental health treatment, use of violent video games, rates of social cohesion and immigration, or propensity for crime set the United States apart from other developed countries. Yet the United States has rates of gun violence significantly higher than other nations — anywhere from five times higher than Switzerland to 300 times higher than Japan. Why? Because we have more guns.

The United States has nearly 90 guns per 100 people. That means Americans currently own 270 million guns. The next leading country, Yemen, has just over 50 guns per 100 people — which amounts to a total of around 14 million

guns. No other country has more than 35 guns per 100 people.

This is what sets the United States apart. It’s not our polarization, our racial tensions, or our mental health care. It’s our guns.

And yet, the sheer frequency of gun deaths in our country seems to have desensitized us. A search on Google Trends shows no change in the number of searches for “gun control” and related terms following the Louisville or Pittsburgh shootings. We are talking about the attacks — the same search shows roughly a 20 percent increase in searches for “racism” and a 1000 percent increase in searches for antisemitism. But the

Crossword Solution

last rise in searches for gun control came after the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Since then, searches slowly decreased and have now flatlined.

We need common sense gun control measures, and we need them now. There are going to be racist Americans, antisemitic Americans, and Americans with improper mental healthcare for a long time. But we have allowed these prejudices to turn into deaths, injuries, crimes. While we work on healing our national divisions and removing systemic oppression, we also need to take weapons of war off our streets.

Campus Journal

PAGE A7 November 2, 2018

ARTS FASHION FOOD LIVING PHILLY PROFILES ST YLES

CA M P US CR AZ E S

The Swarthmore Twitter-Sphere: Artist Profiles Dylan Clairmont Campus Journal Writer

W

hen thinking of starting a series in which I would delve into the dark depths of the Swarthmore Twitter-Sphere and profile infamous Swarthmore Twitter users, I went back and forth as to whether or not it should happen.

As they say, “What happens on Twitter stays on Twitter,” so I felt like the very concept of this series was abandoning that vital rule and opening the floodgates to a stream of chaos. How would one tweet if they knew it was subject to scrutiny on /The/ Swarthmore Phoenix? The confidentiality existing among Swarthmore students and their Twitter mutuals is something of beauty, tact, and elegance. Ruining that sacred bond and opening up tweets to the general Swarthmore community at large is a very scary thought indeed…

That being said, I’ve become greatly interested in exploring the crevices of the Swarthmore Twitter-Sphere. To get an all encompassing view of what it means to be a part of this sphere.

To live and breathe it on a daily basis. Some say it doesn’t even exist, denouncing it as simply being an urban myth, while others say that it can’t exist even if we wanted it to due to lack of institutional memory or something (a classic Swattie excuse). I want to demystify this however, and take a dive into a place no one has dared to go. Going about this involves a multitude of things to take into consideration, but a very basic part is profiling the Twitter users who are part of this elusive sphere.

As I am aware of the intimate and very private nature of what it means to be a part of this elusive community, I have decided to act as a martyr in a sense. Some may claim that it is intellectually wrong, even dishonest to profile yourself. It is. That being said, I didn’t think it wise to put anyone else on the line like this. To strip someone of their very dignity just to have Swarthmore students from the year 3000 look in the Phoenix archives and cruelly chide them. Chide away Class of 3004s! Chide away!

With that out of the way, we will get into our very first guest, Twitter user @[redacted], me!

Nearly all of my Tweets are a reference to Swarthmore, hence the very true, “i don’t know why anyone who doesn’t go to swarthmore still follows me” (Tweeted September 6, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.).

I think the day that really solidified my status in the Swarthmore Twitter-Sphere was July 4, 2018 at 3:08 p.m. A national holiday, which was a very fitting background for such a monumental day. Almost as if it came in a fever dream, I tweeted out: “someone: where do u go to school? me: swarthmore them: … me: it’s a trade school in northern ireland i’m trying to get a degree in welding” Call it luck, chance, Liz Braun, or whatever other higher power rules over this campus, but the typing of these words marked the moment I was destined for greatness. As I clicked “Tweet,” I never thought that a tweet that said that Swarthmore is a trade school in Northern Ireland that gives degrees in welding would blow up in the fashion that it did.

But trust me, it did, and my life would never be the same.

2 Replies (both by me, but still).

10 Retweets. 79 Likes. 3,438 Impressions(!!!).

At one fell swoop, I would be formally inducted to the Swarthmore Twitter-Sphere. It’s different for everyone in terms of how it happens. An extraordinarily viraltweetsuch as my own certainly isn’t necessary, but it can help.

For some it comes easier than others. Some are even seemingly born into it.

So what is this so called sphere?

That is a loaded question, and one that will unravel throughout this multi-part all-encompassing series. All I can do now is attempt to give a snapshot of what the landscape is now.

That is to say that I’m about to show you all a shit ton of my Swarthmore related Tweets. Do you do anything except tweet about Swarthmore you ask? No! Through me doing this, you’ll hopefully be able to get a sense of what it means to be part of

the Swarthmore Twitter-Sphere.

Here, we are all connected, all seemingly one. I know that I can tweet about Sharples and get at least four or five favorites from devout fans who also are in awe of the majestic powers of the Powerade. The bond that we share, as I said above, is unexplainable.

Tweets come in multiple different fashions in the Swarthmore Twitter-Sphere. Some are about Swarthmore just generally kinda fucking us over: “not to sound like a broken record but swarthmore has truly ruined me… like how am i supposed to function in capitalist mccapitcal world now…. i think i might just die” (Tweeted June 5, 2018 at 5:47 p.m.) “yea so this whole “swarthmore” thing? ..i’m kinda over it” (Tweeted May 12, 2018 (finals season lol) at 6:25 p.m.) “oh my god i’m not ready to go home for the summer i just know swarthmore has broken me and made me the opposite of a constructive member of society i’m so ready to combust the moment

i leave the swat bubble” (Tweeted May 5, 2018 at 4:01 p.m.) “what has swat done to me……. why do i miss her so much……. what kind of sick dirty joke is this” (Tweeted May 25, 2018 at 7:23 p.m.)

Others can just turn out to be vague musings about Swat: “Swarthmore, It’s Been Fun! *starts flapping away*” (Tweeted September 15, 2018 at 10:25 p.m.) (“this was good” was tweeted in response to this, also by me, 19 days later on October 4, 2018 at 9:24 p.m.) “swarthmore? haven’t heard that name in years……….”

(Tweeted October 16, 2018 at 3:07 p.m.) “swarthmore is an animal crossing village: discuss” (Tweeted October 12, 2018 at 7:29 a.m. (yikes)) “swarthmore specific tweets will never not make me laugh. someone could tweet “swarthmore” and i’d b like RIGHT lol this guy gets it” (Tweeted August 14, 2018 at 1:21 p.m.)

“DONT say hi to me at swat if

If you would like to have your Twitter profiled, email dclairm1@swarthmore.edu. Or, alternatively, Tweet @[redacted].

it’s past 7 pm i have terrible night vision and will definitely ignore you” (Tweeted October 7, 2018 at 7:15 p.m.) “i’ve managed to avoid someone at swat for a whole three days. this is a record” (Tweeted April 11, 2018 at 8:49 p.m.)

The swim class that Swarthmore forced me to take upon failing the swim test of course was a topic of much discussion as well, of course: “if swarthmore thinks i’m gonna shower after swimming they’ve got another thing coming……. if they’re making me take this class they’re gonna deal with the consequences (me smelling like chlorine)” (Tweeted September 10, 2018 at 11:26 a.m.) “my swim class that i need to take because i failed the swim test starts this week and i don’t have a swim suit and there’s nowhere in the town of swarthmore that sells swim suits” (Tweeted September 1, 2018 at 10:00 a.m.) (Professor Timothy Burke replied with https://shopspringfieldmall.com/ directory/view/target on September 1, 2018 at 11:13 a.m. Thanks Tim!) “this swim class is so funny to me idk…. like swat is really forcing me to do this…..” (Tweeted September 5, 2018 at 11:29 a.m.)

Others (lots and lots and lots of others!!), obviously, involve Sharples: “just had my first swarthmore hotdog since coming back :O still tastes just as good..” (Tweeted August 20, 2018 at 10:16 a.m.) “i try to avoid making eye contact with people at sharples but somehow end up staring at everyone” (Tweeted October 8, 2018 at 3:25 p.m.) “the fact that sharples serves steamed brussel sprouts is an actual hate crime against us” (Tweeted October 3, 2018 at 3:19 p.m.) “like father like son (like sharples like crumb cafe)” (Tweeted September 28, 2018 at 8:20 p.m.) “the grill being out of order in sharples really is the school’s way of killing me off” (Tweeted September 23, 2018 at 2:35 p.m.) (to which @[redacted] replied on September 23, 2018 at 4:13 p.m. “natural selection” Ouch.) “people whose fb profile pics were taken in sharples can’t be

trusted 95% of the time” (Tweeted September 16, 2018 at 8:13 a.m.) “i love having my laptop out at sharples like i’m doing important work when it’s really just twitter… who’s gonna stop me?!??! ok maybe dessert lady will stop me” (Tweeted September 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.) “sitting in sharples, on twitter, eating salad with my green powerade: heaven” (Tweeted September 6, 2018 at 1:51 p.m.) “in sharples like 2 hours before i actually wanna eat bc i had so much anxiety about finding a table at 6:30…. this school has too much power over me” (Tweeted September 4, 2018 at 1:26 p.m.) “sharples put a light sprinkling of pepper on their fries today i think they’re stepping it up this year guys” (Tweeted September 3, 2018 at 9:22 a.m. Note: I was an optimistic fool…) “ok time to take another 6 months to work up the courage to ask for something from the grill at swat” (Tweeted August 21, 2018 at 9:34 a.m.)

And then I’ve got a whole subset of Tweets just directed at pot roast bar: “my trifecta of foods at swarthmore: gummy frogs from essies, wonton egg drop soup from sci, and pot roast bar from sharples” (Tweeted September 10, 2018 at 6:05 p.m.) “was having a bad day but they have pot roast at sharples so….. everything might just be ok” (Tweeted September 9, 2018 at 2:03 p.m.) (to which @[redacted] replied on September 9, 2018 at 7:01 p.m. “your twitter is just sharples yelp i love it) Accurate description!) “controversial opinion but the pot roast and smashed potatoes at sharples is the best meal” (Tweeted August 26, 2018 at 8:26 a.m.)

And with that, we reach our conclusion! A taste of the Swarthmore Twitter-Sphere. A self indulgent exploration at some of my finest work. An artist’s profile of some sort, in which all of my works are nude self portraits, exposing the deepest and most intimate parts of myself. Not sure what you gained from this, but I entertained myself! Until next time! *starts flapping away*

actual partners.

I’m going to reiterate that this is not a blame game and it is not your fault. Again, people cannot help the culture they’re born into and because we lack resources like good sex education, people end up having to rely on porn and the media to inform their sexual behavior. You are making a serious effort to work on your relationship, and you should absolutely be proud of that, because this is completely fixable, and here’s how we’re going to do it.

Let’s start by throwing away the standard sex playbook you learned from porn. There’s a lot of problems with it, but the big one is that it’s penetration-centric.

All other activities are relegated to “foreplay,” and female-centric activities like cunnilingus are frequently treated as just a mechanical switch used to create lubrication for intercourse. Penetration is one of many parts of sex, not the defining feature or the ultimate source of pleasure.

Think about which acts you’re going to focus on that prioritizes your partner’s pleasure.

The quickest and most straightforward way to figure out what stimulation your partner needs to orgasm is to ask them how they masturbate — after all, women alone aren’t spectatoring or thinking about aesthetics: they are entirely focused on sensation.

If you are struggling to communicate with them or feel completely uncomfortable asking that question, it’s impossible for me or any other educator to tell you what exact physical technique can work with your partner, because everyone is different. However, we can lay out some general principles that should steer you in the

right direction.

Think clitorally. Throw away the penetration-centric mindset and focus on external clitoral stimulation, which is how the majority of women masturbate.

This can be oral or with fingers, but keep in mind: Not too much. Porn emphasizes vigorous, at times aggressive movements and stimulation — slapping, biting, or rubbing like they’re trying to start a fire.

Some people might like that, but you should never, ever start out roughly, only gently. Your partner can always tell you they want more, but starting out too hard can be painful and upsetting.

Be enthusiastic. Your girlfriend might perceive this as you doing something out of obligation. It’s important that you emphasize that you enjoy when she enjoys things.

Communicate about what’s holding you back and think about logical ways to fix it. If you think she’s spectatoring, you can try turning out the lights so she doesn’t have to think about what she looks like. If you can’t quite figure out what’s she’s asking for during intercourse, get in a position that lets her control the pace. The same goes for clitoral stimulation — she can guide your fingers or provide the movement herself against your hand.

Focus on pleasure, not an end goal. If you tell her “I’m not resting until you have an orgasm,” she might just end up faking to make you happy. Focus on what makes her feel good (ask for feedback, communicate during!) and a relaxed, pressure-free environment will be much more conducive to an orgasm.

Swat Ed: Deep Dive

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

I read the column that talked about a couple where the girl was faking her orgasms. I feel like that might be a problem in my relationship. My girlfriend keeps saying she really likes sex, but it doesn’t feel like she’s that into it and she just doesn’t seem especially satisfied. I’ve heard her joke with her friends about how “guys don’t know what to do” and even though she tells me that she’s not talking about me, it kind of feels like she is. I don’t know what to do about this and it’s harder for me to enjoy sex because I’m worrying about whether she’s really enjoying it or not. Then she’s started picking up on my feelings because she’s asking me what’s wrong all the time during sex. I think she feels bad because she thinks I’m not having a good time. I’ve tried to talk to her about it but she gets really defensive and thinks I’m just calling her a liar. Help!!

-Burglarized Squirrel (Potentially Nutless)

This is a tough situation and I really respect your efforts to work through it with your partner. This is a problem that a lot of heterosexual couples experience because of our culture, but the good thing about it is that you’ve recognized it’s a problem and you’re trying to fix it. That’s the sign of a good partner.

I’ve heard from a lot of folks in similar situations, so I think it’s worthwhile to really break down this problem and try to go into the minutiae. We’re going to start on a wider, more cultural scale so we can understand how these problems begin. This response will be focused more specifically on the experiences of heterosexual couples, but since (of course) our sexual culture affects everyone, it affects people in every kind of relationship.

The basic problem here is that there is a gap between men and women’s perceptions of good sex.

Men tend to categorize their experiences as “good” based on their pleasure, whereas women tend to categorize their experiences based on their partner’s pleasure (McClelland 2010). This is a pattern that holds steady across sexual orientations, which might explain why the orgasm gap is so much smaller in lesbian relationships. Without going too deeply into the patriarchal origins of this pattern of behavior, it essentially stems from the idea that the only opinion that is relevant is a male one. I’m not making this point to make you feel bad or defensive no one blames you for being born into a culture. It’s just important to isolate the root in order to fix it.

So we’ve established that this problem begins as the belief that

male pleasure is what makes sex good. The problem manifests when women, during sexual activity, are not thinking about themselves at all. They are rating the entire experience on the opinions of their partner. Sometimes they feel as though there are active societal consequences outside the relationship (for example, if a guy doesn’t enjoy a hookup, he might tell his friends and people will think the woman is bad in bed).

Or they might just be concerned about what their partner thinks of them. This creates a phenomenon known as spectatoring. It means that instead of being inside their own bodies, enjoying the physical sensations, they are looking at themselves from a third person perspective and judging what their partner must be feeling.

That can mean twisting oneself into uncomfortable, porny positions or being preoccupied with sucking in your stomach or anything else that isn’t motivated by pleasure.

When we look at it from this framework, it makes absolute sense that there is such a pleasure/orgasm gap between men and women. Our culture sets up men for success — both they and their partners are extremely vested in their pleasure, and mainstream portrayals of sex (mainly porn, but also television and movies) primarily display techniques and sex acts designed for men. Conversely, since women are taught to maximize male pleasure, their own experience is left by the wayside. I think it’s fair to say that our culture denigrates men who don’t make their partners orgasm, but ironically that particular realization did not lead to an influx of orgasms, just a lot

of faked ones so that men could feel as though they were the ultimate lover.

Let’s take all of this and apply it specifically to your situation.

Your girlfriend says that she really likes sex, but in actual practice she doesn’t seem to be that into it. So she feels societal pressure to be a woman who likes sex, because that’s what men want.

When you began having sex, she was extremely focused on your perception that she was sexy and good at it — so everything she did was you-centric. Because of the media she’s seen, she knows what she can do to make you feel good, and because of the media you’ve seen, you probably don’t.

She didn’t want to tell you that, because she didn’t want you to feel like you were a bad lover. So, to spare your feelings, she spectatored and performed what she thought you wanted to see. For a while, your satisfaction was enough to make her happy with your sex life. Now, however, because she is consistently doing a lot of work to make you happy and not getting any satisfaction, she is increasingly apathetic. At this point, she probably feels too deep in pretending to admit that she’s been lying. Part of this is the fact that sex culture and porn portray women orgasming from male pleasure-centric activities (penetration, and bizarrely, fellatio). Women who cannot orgasm from solely penetration (about 70 percent of women, incidentally) can feel defective as a result. It’s important to always remember porn is not a depiction of real sex, any more than James Bond is a depiction of real government intelligence work. It’s a maleoriented fantasy with actors, not

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THE PHOENIX CAMPUS JOURNAL

November 2, 2018

Yeah That Wasn’t A Group of People Dressed Up For Halloween Last Week Pempho Moyo Campus Journal Writer

I

f you had the lucky timing of getting dinner last Saturday around 6ish, you witnessed some dude dressed in black shouting about being a knight and the word “ni” being shouted out a lot.

Then two monks began singing (in Latin I think) and each banged their heads against the books in their hands (by far the best use Beowulf I’ve seen). That demonstration was to gather attention about the Pterodactyl Hunt (that’s the event the people with the foam swords that you ignored for the last three weeks as you tried to get into Sharples). And just as quickly as the shouting and singing happened it stopped and the people left. Unfortunately for them the Dactyl Hunt was postponed because the weather just wasn’t feeling it. Nonetheless, the Dactyl Hunt is one of the many staples of Swarthmore (unlike appropriately sized signs for any of the buildings at Swat). Now because you’ve been ignoring the people with the foam swords for like three weeks, you probably have no idea what the Dactyl Hunt is or why it even exist. Luckily for you, I do and soon you will too.

In order to understand why Swatties participate in the Dactyl Hunt every year, you first need to understand the history of the Dactyl Hunt. And in order for you to understand the history of the

Dactyl Hunt, you need to understand the history of Psi Phi (Note: not Phi Psi. This will not be a history of Swarthmore’s frats). Yes, I know this is a bit much but what exactly about the notion of a Pterodactyl Hunt calls for a concise explanation? All you need to know is this: Defenders of the Ivory Tower changed to SWIL (Swarthmore Wardens of Imaginative Literature) changed to Psi Phi (yet again not the frat). The first Dactyl Hunt started off as a joke by the Folk Dancing Club but little did they know how much the Hunt would take off.

The Dactyl Hunt takes place every year, usually some time during the first weekend after fall break.

Think of the Dactyl Hunt in the words of Arthur Davis: “a video game come to life.” So like most video games, the Dactyl Hunt has both a theme and an overarching story to it. But like all good video games, there are plenty of side quests. This means that there are designated characters for each Dactyl Hunt, but those characters change year to year depending on the theme of the Dactyl Hunt that year. However, if people (who can sign up early or show up on the day of the hunt) do not want to be a specific character they can always just fight the pterodactyls. The ultimate objective of the hunt is to defeat the pterodactyls and keep Swarthmore safe for at least another year (yes that’s correct, the highest form of security

at Swarthmore is not Duo but a bunch of Swatties battling pterodactyls).

This year’s Dactyl Hunt theme was Ye Ole Renfaire. Translation: think “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” sprinkled with Merlin. What was supposed to happen was a bunch of characters (King Arthur, the shrubbery, the Knights Who Say Ni, Morgana and the like) would play their role in the hunt while other individuals battled a few monsters and the pterodactyls. But like I said, Mother Nature wasn’t having it and the Hunt was postponed.

But unlike Mother Nature, Swatties (aka random members of Psi Phi I asked) love the Dactyl Hunt, rain or shine, for various reasons.

Some told me that they loved the costumes, while others told me they liked the quest and how it was a nice break from their busy schedule. But my favorite answer was because it was fun to run around campus and bop people with foam swords. Essentially, all the answers I got boiled down to fun. The entire notion of the Dactyl Hunt is so wild that the only option for people to enjoy it. Psi Phi’s Pterodactyl Hunt is a treasured tradition at Swarthmore because it brings to life the some of the craziest ideas, throws in some pterodactyls, and gives the ever stressed out Swattie some room to breathe and enjoy themselves for a bit.

Nara En / The Phoenix

Swarth Her? I Hardly Know Her Clio Hamilton Campus Journal Writer

Now that I can confidently say that life at Swarthmore is not going terribly, it’s weird to imagine going back to a life outside of our little college. So two weeks ago, facing down all the homework and visiting and traveling and talking I had to fit into the ten days of fall break, I was less than pumped to head back home (sorry Mom). But break went better than I’d anticipated: Ithaca is small and rainy and painfully, wonderfully intellectual, like Swarthmore, and my parents were surprisingly chill about having me around (i.e. didn’t cancel my Greyhound ticket, try to lock me in the basement and hiss you’re never leaving us again).

Other than navigating the expected disjointed feeling of going back into joint custody and seeing old friends, there was only one thing that kept tripping me up: Swat slang. Because we’re essentially living on top of each other on a tiny island of trees and overly enthusiastic pop cul-

tural references, Swatties have developed our own little lexicon of terms that would be incomprehensible to the outside ear.

At home, I was met with dozens of blank looks after offhandedly referencing something that my friends here would’ve understood in a second. In an attempt to understand exactly how stupid I was sounding to my family and friends, I conducted a survey of my parents, my youngest sister, and a few friends using the first seven pieces of Swarthmore vocabulary which came to mind.

Here, for your entertainment, are the results; some ridiculous, others freakishly accurate, and a few which I’d argue we should adopt as alternate definitions immediately.

Swooping: when an upperclassman hooks up with a firstyear, (theoretically) prohibited before fall break.

Mom: Running very fast down the hill after deer late at night, with arms outstretched. Or maybe Swarthmore War Whooping (“Kill, Quakers, Kill!”).

Dad: The habit of only using sister school Haverford’s bathrooms in the morning because they’re so much more posh than the ones at Swat.

Step-mom: Studying in the bathroom, a common pastime.

Youngest sister: When all the vampires at Swarthmore have a party.

Friend: Taking something from someone. Taking food.

Friend: The act of sneaking into the dining hall without swiping your ID card.

The Crum/The Crumb: the mini-forest on Swarthmore’s campus/the overcrowded latenight student café.

Mom: The forest (sorry, I know that one). The Crumb is a mythical bakery located somewhere within the Crum, staffed by fairies.

Step-mom: A disorder, like “the clap,” but contracted asexually from cuddling with questionable motivations. The Crumb is identical but with further symptoms of numbness.

Youngest sister: A crumb that

is a thousand years old and can walk and is in glass.

Friend: The Crum refers to the crummier aspects of the Crumb, which is some sort of building that has qualities of a real crumb.

Swat swivel: to look all around you before disclosing information about another Swat student.

Dad: Actually proper Latin name Swaticus Swivelus: a cross between a sewer rat and a quad squirrel often spotted late in the tunnel to the railroad station.

Youngest sister: A secret hand shake that involves turning.

Mom: Spinning around very quickly on bar stools as a response to exam stress.

Step-mom: A turn of the head to check out an attractive classmate, followed by crippling anxiety about objectifying the other.

Friend: A complex dance routine requiring lots of chairs that swivel.

D’well: abbreviation of Danawell.

Friend: To dwell in the famous

Swat water well.

Mom: One of the combined dorm spaces between a dorm starting with D and another one with “well.”

Step-mom: Recovered from illness, only to find oneself stupider. Contraction of “Duh” and “Well.”

Primal scream: screaming in Sharples the midnight before exams.

Step-mom: A muttered complaint.

Mom: Another response to exam stress where everyone on campus screams as loudly as possible, preferably at midnight.

Youngest sister: Primal scream is a scream that is the loudest scream ever because it just is.

Swat seven: the seven minute grace period given before someone is declared late for an activity. Alternatively, having hooked up with all 7 class years by the time you graduate.

Youngest sister: Swat seven is a fly squisher.

Friend: Taking a seven minute

break, i.e. “I need to take a quick Swat seven.”

Friend: When the fire alarm gets set off for the seventh time in one night and the students stage a coup.

Step-mom: Heroic team of radicals who occupied the Dean’s office for twenty-seven hours in protest of mistreatment of yogurt-providing cows.

Misery poker: sharing your (academic, social, emotional, etc.) problems with others in order to make them feel worse about themselves.

Friend: Poker for people who suck.

Friend: A card game where you tell everyone about your miseries when you lose.

Mom: Poker played at the end of the semester when everyone is sick, or a depressing game of one-upmanship where each person tries to out-misery the last.

Step-mom: Name for a fellow student who asks you how many hours you studied for today’s test.

My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to Sharples Ash Shukla Campus Journal Writer One year ago, as every good prospective student tends to do, I did my research on Swarthmore. With the power of Google and US News and World Report on my side, I uncovered the names of famous alumni and Big Chair lore. As I prepared to attend to the overwhelmingly dorkily-nicknamed Smartmouth College, I read articles about its rankings and student life until the word “Sharples” remained permanently branded into my brain. I pored over letters and emails lovingly signed “Jim Bock ’90” on my new .edu email address and prayed to god that I wouldn’t have to live in the mysterious rat-ridden dungeon that is Willets Basement.

Despite my noble volume of research, however, there remained one notable aspect of Swarthmore’s student culture that remained shrouded to me until the third week of classes, when I began to barista for the Crumb(uh) Cafe. It was there in the Crumb Cafe room, amidst the nonstop whirring of the milkshake machine and the tender bubbling of our sole electric kettle, that I learned about an unspoken yet deeply-present campus craze: Swatties’ love for milkshakes.

I worked my first shift at the Crumb Cafe on September 20, and despite the reassuring tones of my manager and coworkers as they told me not to panic, I

couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of dread in the pit of my soul as I watched milkshake orders endlessly pile up next to the cash register.

Chocolate with whipped cream. Vanilla. Vanilla with Oreos. Chocolate with blackberry syrup. Chocolate and Vanilla with chocolate chips and whipped cream. Vanilla with soy and mango syrup.

The orders kept on coming on the devilish-green, little slips of paper, and I had no choice but to keep on rolling with the punches and scoop ice cream as fast as my admittedly underdeveloped hand muscles would let me.

There’s something truly, irrevocably magical about when people come up to the counter to tell you that they haven’t gotten the milkshake that they ordered an hour and a half ago, and their order isn’t even close to the top of the stack. When I applied to barista after having formerly worked at a smoothie place for two days before they fired me, I assumed that my job would require me to become a human milkshake generator, devoid of emotion, for three hours every Thursday night. I was, more or less, expecting a challenge. No one ever bothered, however, to warn me about the Stickiness.

At first, I could manage the Stickiness. The small smears of melted ice cream on my forearms were washable, and the drops of syrup that occasionally fell onto our steel countertops could be easily wiped up with

a dampened rag. Stickiness, however, comes in layers. The superficial Stickiness lasts for an hour or so, and then comes the profound Stickiness. This is the Stickiness that permeates into every layer of your being, every layer of your consciousness. This is the Stickiness that you stop noticing after a while because if everything is sticky, then is anything really sticky at all? This is the Stickiness that eventually comes to define you.

In working at the Crumb Cafe, I’ve learned that no matter how sticky you are, it’s always possible to be stickier. No matter how many milkshake orders you have backed up, it’s always possible to be more backed up on milkshake orders. With the utmost sincerity, I doubt there will ever be a happy medium between the godforsaken demand for milkshakes at Swat and the number of milkshakes that it is physically possible to produce with current Crumb Cafe resources. The limit to Swatties’ love for milkshakes as x approaches infinity simply doesn’t exist.

With this article, I by no means intend to discourage you from ordering what is likely your beverage of choice at the Crumb Cafe. But please, the next time you feel inclined to complain about the fact that it took over an hour to receive your milkshake, close your eyes, look deeply within yourself, and imagine what it’s like to be that sticky.

Nara En / The Phoenix

SPORTS

November 2, 2018 PAGE A9

Garnet Volleyball Sets Eyes on History Joseph Barile Sports Writer

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or the Swarthmore women’s volleyball team, topping last season’s accomplishments will be a tall order. The Garnet were crowned NCAA Regional champions, boasted a 24-8 record, and were Mid-Atlantic Regional Champions. Arguably, 2017 was the best season in the program’s history. Despite this, the Garnet failed to capture the elusive Centennial Conference Championship, falling to Johns Hopkins in the finals 3-1.

This year, the path to redemption in the conference playoffs starts Saturday. The Garnet, who finished the regular season 14-9 (7-3 in conference), are seeded No. 3 in the five team tournament. They play the No. 2 seed, Johns Hopkins, in Lancaster, PA, the hometown of host Franklin and Marshall. Swarthmore played Johns Hopkins earlier this season at Tarble Pavilion, losing 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 27-29, 24-26).

Hopkins is 19-7 on the season and only sustained conference losses to Dickinson and Franklin and Marshall.

The No. 4 and No. 5 seeds in the tournament are McDaniel and Muhlenberg, respectively.

McDaniel and Muhlenberg will play each other for a chance to take on No. 1 seed Franklin and Marshall in the semifinals, who finished conference play undefeated.

Swarthmore has had a tough path to the playoffs. They sustained several injuries throughout the season, and are 4-6 in their last 10 matches. The team, however, has a strong belief that this could be the year they win the championship. “Obviously

there’s immense pressure to do well in playoffs, but I think the team is feeling better about our chances than we have all season,” says libero Sarah Girard ’19.

Girard has had an extremely distinguished college volleyball career. In August, she broke the team’s all-time dig record by recording her 1772th dig. She is also a three time All-Centennial player, was the Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year in 2015 and has Academic All-Centennial nominations in 2016 and 2017. Going into the conference tournament, Girard is only 22 digs away from 2000.

Another member of the women’s team to reach a career milestone this season was outside hitter Mehra Den Braven ’20.

Den Braven became the seventh player in the program’s history to surpass 1000 kills during their career. Last season, she was on the All-Centennial first team and was voted the NCAA DIII Mid-Atlantic Region Tournament Most Valuable Player.

Many members of the team have stepped up this season to fill the void left by the departure of five seniors in 2017. The loss of Sarah Wallace, Alice Liu, Bridget Scott, Olivia Leventhal, and Malia Scott to graduation, and a small incoming class, have both contributed to a smaller roster size of 12 players this season. “[The roster size] has caused us to be both more cautious and more driven this season,” said Alyssa Nathan ’21, a setter from Wilmington, Delaware. “On one hand we have to be more cautious with respect to our bodies and general health because we have such a shallow bench, but on the other hand it has made ev-

eryone realize that at some point in a game every single one of us will play,” she continued.

General health has been hard to come by for the volleyball team. Lucy Fetterman ’22 and Guin Mesh ’19 have spent most of the season out with a concussion. Other players have picked up knocks as well, but haven’t missed the significant number of games Fetterman and Mesh have.

However, Girard is pleased with the way the team has dealt with the hand they’ve been dealt.

“Our team has been going through an unprecedented number of injuries this year, but things are finally starting to come together,” says Girard.

“Losing the seniors and some players to injury has forced our younger players to step up and assume leadership roles on and off the court.”

The Centennial Conference playoffs will be a test for these younger players, but they’re up for the challenge. “The thing about our younger players is that they’re extremely composed, emotionally mature, and competitive,” says Girard. “I’m sure they will have some nerves about playing in this atmosphere just like the rest of us, but I have no doubt they will end up thriving in the competitive playoff environment.”

The combination of upperclassmen experience, underclassmen enthusiasm, and all-around talent has the Swarthmore women’s volleyball team geared up for another successful playoff run. All eyes will be on the team as they play Hopkins this Saturday.

Photos courtesy of Emma Ricci-De Lucca / The Phoenix

Women’s Soccer Playoff Update Elizabeth Curcio Sports Writer Coming off of a successful season, the Swarthmore women’s soccer team looks to the Centennial Conference tournament this weekend, where they will hopefully win another conference championship. The team’s current record of 7-1-2 in conference play puts them in second place in the conference, trailing only Johns Hopkins. The 2018 season has been one of the strongest years in program history. They have

been ranked in the United Soccer Coaches DIII women’s soccer poll as one of the top 25 teams in the nation throughout the season, ranking as high as No.12 in early September. They currently are ranked No. 21 following the completion of their regular season play.

Women’s soccer’s overall record is 13-2-2 and their statistics from the season show just how well the players have fared.

They have scored more than four-and-a-half times as many goals than their opponents, scoring an average of two goals

per game. They have almost five times as many assists as their opponents this year and have had 101 corner kicks compared to their opponents’ 28. These statistics show just how offensively dominant this year’s team has been. Having a strong offense has always been a key part of their success and their ability to maintain possession of the ball throughout the entirety of the game has enabled soccer to continue having winning seasons, which they have achieved every year since 2006.

Last year, Swarthmore wom-

en’s soccer had a record in conference of 7-2-1, losing to both Johns Hopkins and McDaniel during regular season play. They made it to the conference championship and ultimately beat out Johns Hopkins in a shootout following a 2-2 tie. After winning the conference championship, the team headed into the NCAA tournament, where they won the first game against Susquehanna University in two overtimes and lost their next game to William Smith College, which was ranked No. 3 in the country at that time. Even after such a successful past year, Swarthmore women’s soccer team came out strong in the 2018 season, not losing a game for their first 11 matches. With a very similar record to last year, it looks like Swarthmore might face Johns Hopkins again in the championship this year, and could hopefully win another Centennial Conference Championship.

One of the senior captains, Yasmeen Namazie, gave some insight on how her team is preparing for their playoff run in the upcoming week.

“To prepare for playoffs, we are continuing to improve our progressions up the field tactically, and technically we are

managing our bodies both mentally and physically,” Namazie said.

The soccer team recently celebrated their five seniors last Saturday in their final game of the regular season against Haverford. These five players have had major impacts on the program for the last four years.

All five of them have started in at least 14 out of the team’s 17 games this season. Senior forward Marin McCoy holds five of the school’s career and singleseason records, including career points, career goals, career assists, single-season points, and goals. Goalie Amy Shmoys is currently ranked fifth in alltime career shutouts for any goalie at Swarthmore College.

Defender Melissa Curran has greatly contributed defensively, earning all-conference awards both her freshman and sophomore year. Caroline Coats, another defender, has also impacted Swarthmore defensive ability and earned an AllConference award her sophomore year. Defender Yasmeen Namazie has been an essential player all four years but last year she received five awards following the 2017 season including Centennial Academic Honor Roll, Academic All-Cen-

tennial, United Soccer Coaches All-Mid-Atlantic First Team, All-Centennial Conference First Team and Philadelphia Inquirer’s Academic All-Area Team.

Junior Maddy Carens shared her opinion on how these five seniors have shaped Swarthmore women’s soccer program.

“Our seniors have impacted our program in so many aspects. They have elevated the level of soccer to make us a nationally ranked team and have therefore raised the bar of excellence that we now strive for as a team. They have also lead by example, on and off the field, pushing each of us to work as hard as they do, which has had an immeasurable impact on our success of the field and our positive and supportive team culture,” Carens said.

Swarthmore women’s soccer, led by their five talented seniors, look to finish out their season just as strong as last year and get even further into the NCAA tournament. The Centennial Conference tournament begins this weekend at Johns Hopkins. Swarthmore plays McDaniel on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. If they win that game they move on to play in the Centennial Conference cham-

Photos courtesy of Miguel de Laveaga / The Phoenix

PAGE A10

THE PHOENIX SPORTS

November 2, 2018

Pay-for-Play Scandal Rocks College Basketball Arjun Madan Sports Writer

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rian Bowen Sr., the father of a top college basketball prospect, recently testified in court, revealing that his family was offered tens of thousands of dollars in cash for his son to play at several major college programs.

The father detailed that Christian Dawkins, an aspiring agent, had mentioned to him that Bowen’s family could pocket $150,000 if his son, Brian Bowen II, played for Oklahoma State, $50,000 if he played for the University of Arizona, or $100,000 at Creighton University.

The interesting detail here is that, despite such large sums of money being discussed, the Bowens never exactly knew where the promised money was coming from. The father testified that he assumed the money would be coming from assistant coaches on college teams, but he was not 100 percent sure. He claimed that he and his son never directly spoke to the schools on the topic of money.

Part of the reason for the am-

biguity surrounding the trial and correctly identifying the guilty parties is that the NCAA officially does not allow pay-for-play. That is, students are not allowed to be paid to play NCAA college athletics. At the same time, however, any potential workarounds to this rule would give colleges a significant advantage in recruiting students. They would have the tangible, added incentive of hard cash to indirectly offer students to play sports. As a result, the scandal regarding Bowen II is complicated, as the money did not come from schools directly.

Two main parties are likely responsible for offering the money to Bowen II’s family: sportswear manufactures, such as Adidas, Nike, and Under Armour, and the colleges themselves.

The incentive for the latter to offer money to prospective college athletes is quite obvious.

Large Division I schools make a lot of money when their sports teams do well. For example, Texas A&M’s athletic program brings in more than $190 million annually. If a coach pays a top student athlete to play a given university,

that school will presumably do better athletically, bringing in more money for the school. At the end of the day, the same coach who paid to recruit athletes gets a larger paycheck.

The reason for sportswear manufacturers to offer money is a little more subtle. Most college athletic programs, especially those at large Division I schools, have contracts with one sportswear manufacturer, which provides equipment for the entire athletic program. So, if a top recruit attends, say, a “Nike school,” it is likely that, after college, they will turn pro and officially sign with that same manufacturing company.

In the Brian Bowen II scandal, this was likely the case. When one of the top high-school basketball players announced in 2017 that he would be attending the University of Louisville to graduate in 2021, many were quite surprised. Louisville had never been a school on anybody’s radar for Bowen II, and sportswriters wrote that the decision “came out of nowhere.” The ongoing trial claims that the signing was not just luck,

but rather the result of a large payoff to Bowen Sr..

The University of Louisville is an “Adidas school,” and former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola is one of the defendants in court right now; he is alleged to have promised $100,000 to Bowen II, contingent on the young player attending Louisville. In court, Gassnola testified that Bowen II “had potential [and a] bright future.” He elaborated on his intent to pay Bowen II, admitting that he “concealed payments” to the families of student athletes and “kept them from universities.”

Furthermore, Gassnola revealed to the jury that Bowen II was not the only athlete to whose family he had provided payment.

When the prosecutors prompted him to provide more details, Gassnola reluctantly admitted, “Five.

Brian Bowen, Billy Preston, Silvio De Sousa, Dennis Smith and Deandre Ayton.”

From the trial so far, it seems likely that Adidas holds the brunt of the trial’s charges. Bowen Sr. stated under oath that former Louisville assistant coach Kenny

Johnson “was flabbergasted, he was shocked” that Bowen’s family expected money from the school.

Although the trial is still ongoing, Bowen II and his family, the University of Louisville, and several Adidas consultants have already suffered several consequences.

In wake of the initial allegations, former Louisville head coach Rick Pitino was fired. Former Adidas executive James Gatto has pleaded not guilty to the charges of fraud but no longer works for the company.

Regarding Bowen II himself, he was suspended from playing basketball at Louisville, and he subsequently transferred to South Carolina. However, after the NCAA ruled Bowen II ineligible for the 2018-2019 season, the young athlete decided to quit college basketball for good. Earlier this year, he signed a professional contract with the Sydney Kings as part of the NBL, a professional basketball league in Australia and New Zealand.

Bowen II was the first player signed in to the NBL’s “Next Stars program,” a pathway for

NBA prospects who are unable or chose not to play college basketball.

“I am honored to be the first player under the NBL’s Next Stars program and feel it will be the perfect next step as I continue the path toward fulfilling my dream of playing in the NBA,” Bowen II stated in an ESPN release.

“In joining the Sydney Kings, I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to start my professional career and look forward to learning from all the team’s veteran pros, like Andrew Bogut, Jerome Randle, and Brad Newley. I can’t wait to get out to Sydney and join the team.”

Despite the fact that Bowen II is now playing professional basketball, he and his family will nevertheless remain affected by the allegations and ongoing trial.

Before his testimony about the alleged cash offers, Bowen Sr. grew emotional when prompted to talk about his son. Mark Tracy of the New York Times recorded the following conversation between Bowen, Sr., and United States Attorney Edward Diskant.

game. The Rays’ strategy paid dividends as they turned their season into one of their most successful in years, far surpassing expectations of critics and fans alike. The strategies vary by team and mentality, but there is an indisputable rise in unconventional pitching strategies recently.

This increase may be derivative from the relative novel creation of the role of a closer.

Bruce Sutter, Rollie Fingers, and Dennis Eckersley are credited with first popularizing the role of the closer with the St. Louis Cardinals and the always unconventional Oakland Athletics, respectively, in the late 80’s. Later success from names like Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman fully cemented the role of the closer on every team. Closers are now generally the most skilled pitchers on the field with incredible athletic talent, like Aroldis Chapman.

However, these players are becoming more and more fallible (see Aroldis Chapman’s 2017 campaign while being paid $17 million), and now it seems that the tide is beginning to change again and closers may become archaic.

Looking beyond the failures of some closers, the successes of the new approaches do make for some good stories. For in-

stance, Blake Snell’s likely Cy Young award year has transpired while the rest of his team needed a closer to start the first inning of most games throughout the season. Snell himself was underrated, and he has done so in the fewest innings of a Cy Young winning pitcher in quite a while. Similarly, David Price, once a notorious playoff wreck, suddenly dominated in both the pennant and subsequent World Series. His unprecedented performance came after years of scrutiny for a large contract with relatively low productivity and a definite decline in his pitching talent.

Even the aforementioned Blake Treinen turned around an abysmal tenure with the Washington Nationals, capped off by a devastating playoff loss, into one of the best possible seasons for a reliever.

The hope for teams and fans alike is that these strategies continue to develop for more of these success stories of the individual player and the quality of the game as a whole. We may soon see a very different approach to the pitching game across the league or a broader emphasis on mental health awareness for all players.

The Winning Mentality of a (C)loser Adam Schauer Sports Writer Hall of Fame Yankees’ catcher Yogi Berra famously once said, “Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.” These words have never rung more true than with baseball pitchers’ changing roles, where they now pitch innings that they historically would not.

Especially visible in this recent postseason, it is more challenging for pitchers to succeed in the high pressure innings at the bookends of the game. This phenomenon has led teams to explore new strategies and approach must-win games differently. Although all of these changes are determined by immediate in-game scenarios, they have the potential to last for the rest of pitchers’ careers.

While the popularity and hierarchy between various metrics, physical attributes, and raw talent has been in debate for decades, the baseball community has generally neglected the mental or psychological aspect of the game. However, a small subset, the game’s greatest players, tend to agree on its importance.

“The more you play baseball, the less it depends on your athletic ability. It’s a mental war more than anything.” said an-

other Yankees’ great, Alex Rodriguez.

“Hitting a baseball is fifty percent from the neck up,” legendary hitter Ted Williams once claimed.

Sure, baseball does lend itself to cliché quotations, feel-good anecdotes, and that nostalgic, old-timey wisdom, but these concepts remain relevant to this day. Perhaps it is that very tradition, history, and Americana aura of the game that creates a certain reverence demanding perfection. In the game’s most critical, scrutinized innings, you just never know when the next great moment will occur.

Baseball, especially for pitchers, has been compared to golf as “the thinking man’s game.”

Between the tedious focus on the approach, the longer waits between physical activity, and the minutia of the anatomical mechanics which can change the outcome of a given play or action, both games certainly lend themselves to overthinking. Every second before the pitch or before the swing lends itself to analysis and internal anguish. It is soon easy to lose yourself out there. Thus, pitchers often report a feeling similar to blacking out on the mound without actually ever losing consciousness or physical adeptness.

The great H. A. Dorfman book, “The Mental Game of Baseball,” attempts to remedy this issue, highlighting numerous examples throughout the years of players at the highest highs and lowest lows of their careers in terms of performance and mental state. Countless baseball players at all levels of play rave about the book’s ability to completely alter the individual approach to the game. But most interestingly, Dorfman prefaces the solution with an admission that while not every ballplayer goes through such struggles, far more actually do than would ever admit it. In large part, stigma surrounds such mental shortcomings.

And many baseball players, especially at the highest level of play, certainly do struggle with the very real repercussions of a weakened mental state. Pitchers constantly face “the yips,” a now common term originally coined directly from pitcher’s inability to throw strikes in clutch situations. Some of the greatest pitchers in the game have simply not been able to perform in the playoffs. Drew Storen, Jake Peavy, and Clayton Kershaw all are modern examples of this very phenomenon.

The outcomes of these blown critical innings have defined entire playoff series, seasons,

and even careers. It explains why former MLB pitchers like Rick Ankiel have openly admitted to drinking before outings to calm their nerves, or even why Doc Ellis famously threw a no-hitter while allegedly on LSD. Position players also have their own struggles as visibly evident in plays like Billy Buckner’s famous error to lose the World Series in 1986, or Ian Kinsler’s egregious error in Game 3 of the World Series this year. Even legendary baseball movies like “Major League II” and “The Rookie” acknowledge the challenges that the mental game brings to the table.

Teams have finally come around and implemented real changes to set their pitchers and team in the best position to succeed. For instance, the Milwaukee Brewers relied on closer Josh Hader and their staunch bullpen in the National League Championship Series, setting the record for least innings pitched by starting pitchers in a seven game series. Likewise, the Tampa Bay Rays revolutionarily started a closer for the first inning of most of their games, respecting the higher pressure of the first frame, the generally more talented hitters at the top of the batting order, and the need for a solid start to set the tone for the rest of the

Athlete of the Week: Eléonore Moser Max Katz-Balmes: What is your major, and what led you to pursue that area of study?

Eléonore Moser: I’m a Peace and Conflict Studies and Economics double-major. I chose to major in Peace and Conflicts Studies because it’s such an interdisciplinary major and I love learning the different approaches of all the departments that I’ve taken classes in. I decided to add an economics major because it’s interesting to use models to explain and quantify some of what’s happening in the world.

MKB: Why did you decide to attend Swarthmore?

Emma Ricci-De Lucca / The Phoenix

Max Katz-Balmes Sports Editor Women’s soccer enters this weekend’s Centennial Conference championship looking to emulate last year’s tournament success. In 2017, the Garnet took down Johns Hopkins in a penalty shoot out to capture its second ever conference title. Crucial to the team’s impressive 13-2-2 record in 2018 has been its unwavering defense.

After conceding a respectable 1.19 goals per game in 2017, the Garnet have allowed a mere 0.47 goals per game this season. Anchoring the center of the defensive line, along with senior captain Yasmeen Namazie ’19, is Eléonore Moser ’20. After only appearing in 296 minutes last season, the Oakland, CA native has started every match in 2018, scoring two goals and serving as a stalwart on one of the best defensive lines in the nation.

EM: I knew I wanted to attend a liberal arts college with good academics, and I loved both the beautiful environment of the arboretum and the sense of community and acceptance that I felt when I visited.

MKB: Tell us a funny story from your experience as a Swarthmore soccer player.

EM: One of my favorite parts about our team is how much energy and fun we bring to all our games. We played Arcadia University earlier this season in the middle of a thunderstorm. The lightning and thunder were getting closer, so the referee paused the game for an hour until the storm had passed. It was pouring rain and dark, and we went into a room next to the field. One of our captains played all our favorite songs on her speaker, and we were all singing and dancing and screaming for an hour until the ref called us back out to the field. The other team walked past us as we were singing our last song, and were shocked at how happy and enthusiastic we were even though it was cold and wet and late at night. As we started warming up again to finish the game, our coach told us the game was actually over and we were

going back to Swat. We eventually learned that the referee ended the game because it was getting too late, but at the time we thought the opposing team had forfeited because they were intimidated by how much fun we were having and how energetic and excited we were as we went back onto the field after the break.

MKB: What is your favorite aspect about playing soccer at Swat?

EM: I love my team — I love spending time with such incredible people, both on and off the field, and I love how supportive everyone is. A lot of my best friends are on the team, and going down to the field house for practice or a game is one of the best parts of my day. I’m also really grateful to continue playing soccer at the collegiate level.

MKB: Speaking of improvement, the defense is giving up far fewer goals per game than it did last season. Can you attribute this success to anything in particular?

EM: We’re working really hard to communicate well and defend as a unit. Most of the starting back line are seniors, so they all have a lot of experience and have been working together for a long time. There’s also just so much talent on this team as a whole that the ball is usually on the other half of the field, which makes our job easier.

MKB: This weekend, you guys are making the trip down to Baltimore to defend your Centennial Conference crown. Describe the emotions you experienced during last year’s championship run, and tell us how you are feeling going into this year’s tournament.

EM: It was absolutely incredible to win the conference championship last year. I’ve never heard “We Are the Champions” sung so many times in one night.

We just had a great practice where everyone was working well together and playing beautiful soccer, so I feel really good about where we are as a team going into this weekend. I think everyone is pretty confident about our chances in the playoffs.

MKB: Following your Centennial Conference championship, you guys won one game in the NCAA Tournament. What is the ceiling for the team this year in the national tournament?

EM: I don’t think there is one. When we’re at our best, we can compete with any team in the country. Right now, I’m just trying to focus on the next game, playing our best and holding our opponents to the fewest shots possible.

MKB: Do you have post-graduation plans?

EM: Honestly, not really. I’m hoping to work with some social justice-focused organization when I graduate, and then go to grad school a few years later.

MKB: What is one thing that you would change about Swarthmore?

EM: I wish Swarthmore would rescind the 1991 ban that prevents the school from using social concerns to influence its investment decisions.

We have an obligation, especially as a school that takes deep pride in its Quaker roots, to consider the way we support systems of oppression and inequality, including through our economic investments. Whether or not Swarthmore actually chooses to divest from certain industries and companies, I believe the ’91 ban is antithetical to the values of the college and its student body in its refusal to think about such ideas at an institutional level.