Swarthmore College Bulletin (March 2000)

SWARTHMORE SWARTHMORECollege Bulletin March 2000

Correspondence forges lasting links among professors and their former students. SW AR TH M COLLEGE BULLETIN M A R C H 2 0 0 0

22 Features Don’t Forget to Write 14 Professors love to get letters from former students. By Ali Crolius ’84 The Drinking Dilemma 20 Swarthmore re-examines its alcohol policy. By Alisa Giardinelli Respect 22 To get it, you have to give it. By Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot ’66 Native Voices 28 You can’t teach a “people” in a literature course. By Alisa Giardinelli Matchbox Flames 30 Enduring unions span Swarthmore’s decades. By Andrea Hammer

On the cover: Correspondence between alumni and their former professors ranges from the personal to the professional. Have you written home to Swarthmore lately? Story on page 14. Graphics by Jeffrey Lott. 80 30 Departments Letters 3 ORE Our readers speak. Collection 4 Events and ideas on campus. Alumni Digest 38 Get connected here. Class Notes 40 Where everyone turns first. Deaths 42 Swarthmore remembers. Books & Authors 56 Television and social discourse. In My Life 64 Crying came easily. By Jack Satterfield ’72 Our Back Pages 80 The wonderwall in Hicks. By Sonia Scherr ’01

Alumni Profiles Never stop learning 52 Joseph D’Annunzio ’49 gets a law degree at age 73. By James Rosica

High expectations 66 Sherry Bellamy ’74 is a pioneering telecommunications executive. By Carol Brévart-Demm

In touch with the people 75 Law student Aaron Bartley ’96 leads a movement at Harvard. By Jeffrey Lott

9 Parlor Talk

’m not a big believer in destiny, but had I not entered a certain college in a particular year, I would never have met my wife. We fell in SWARTHMORE Ilove during sophomore year and married two years later. If I can’t COLLEGEBULLETIN ascribe this good fortune to fate, what was it that brought our stars into alignment? Editor: Jeffrey Lott An admissions office, of course. Two distinct decisions made by a Managing Editor: Andrea Hammer committee in early 1966 brought a pretty young woman from Con- necticut and me from Pennsylvania to a small Vermont college town. Class Notes Editor: Carol Brévart-Demm The result: 30 years of marriage, a family, and a life together. This Collection Editor: Cathleen McCarthy long-ago twist of fate—and this issue’s tender portraits of eight Staff Writer: Alisa Giardinelli Swarthmore couples (“Matchbox Flames,” page 30)—makes me won- der whether Swarthmore’s admissions staff considers potential Desktop Publishing: Audree Penner unions as they pore over those stacks of recommendations, essays, Designer: Bob Wood and test scores. Do they ever, even in jest, speculate on whether Intern: Andrea Juncos ’01 Heather from Honolulu might be just right for Mike from Michigan? “Well ... yes,” said Director of Admissions Jim Bock ’90 with a Editor Emerita: sheepish smile, “it does come up.” He hastened to add that Swarth- Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 more’s admissions staff prides itself on getting to know as much as Associate Vice President possible about applicants as individuals, and an admissions decision for External Affairs: would never be made on the basis of a candidate’s potential for Barbara Haddad Ryan ’59 romance. But he admits it’s not unheard of for the deans to speculate on how two students with similar interests might relate to each other. Changes of Address: Assistant Dean of Admissions Megan Smith ’96 said it’s the quirky, Send address label along unusual things about certain applicants that make her think of others with new address to: who might naturally become their friends at Swarthmore. She recalls Alumni Records Office reading a recent applicant’s essay about watching spiders on the Swarthmore College front porch and thinking immediately of 500 College Avenue Even if you don’t a Swarthmore sophomore who had writ- Swarthmore PA 19081-1390 ten about spiders two years before. believe in destiny, Phone: (610) 328-8435. Or e-mail: Should she introduce them, she won- [email protected]. college is definitely dered? Another time, when Smith actually a time and place Contacting Swarthmore College: did attempt to introduce two accepted to fall in love. students from separate high schools in College Operator: (610) 328-8000 www.swarthmore.edu the same city, she found that the pair had already met at home—and had been dating for several months. Admissions: (610) 328-8300 [email protected] Talk about fate. Whether you believe that such relationships spring from destiny Alumni Relations: (610) 328-8402 [email protected] or mere coincidence, college is definitely a time and place to fall in love. In one admissions brochure, Swarthmore students are described Publications: (610) 328-8568 [email protected] as having “a passion for learning,” but clearly that’s not all. Their well- known love for ideas, activities, and causes is often coupled with a Registrar: (610) 328-8297 [email protected] passion for each other. Thousands of Swarthmoreans have met and married over the World Wide Web www.swarthmore.edu years, and although not all have managed to stay married, most continue to share an additional passion—for the College itself. There’s a The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN 0888- reason. As Michael Graves ’69 wrote, “Our years at Swarthmore were 2126), of which this is volume XCVII, number 4, among the best in our lives. We learned a lot, became adults, and fell is published in August, September, December, in love.” You don’t have to marry another Swarthmorean to experi- March, and June by Swarthmore College, 500 ence this, but somehow these matchbox couples seem to feel a deep College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081-1390. Periodicals postage paid at Swarthmore PA connection to the College. and additional mailing offices. Permit No. 0530- It’s said that at freshman orientation, new students are asked to 620. Postmaster: Send address changes to look around at their classmates, and then told that about one in Swarthmore College Bulletin, 500 College seven will marry a fellow student. I’m sure that nervous laughter rip- Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081-1390. ples among the 18 year olds, but I know it’s true—because it worked for me. ©2000 Swarthmore College —Jeffrey Lott Printed in U.S.A. on recycled paper

2 Letters

SCALING THE WALLS QUAKERS be compati- missed too quickly; the Vati- Because actual Book & Key AND ble, and I can recently reasserted the members remain so silent, SCIENCE join with existence of Satan. The seek- maybe I should contribute I was delight- Mr. Kratten- ing of evildoers still goes on. my own memories of the first ed with Tom maker and My early experiences with floor of their temple. We Krattenmak- other the religion of the street boys scaled the walls of the Book er’s “Religion Swarth- helped me understand how & Key building once or twice in the Age of moreans in Pope Pius XII could maintain during the early 1960s, in Science” that view. silence in the early 1940s, spontaneous nocturnal (December T. NOEL even though after 1943 there ascents led by members of 1999). I agree STERN ’34 was no doubt about the ulti- the Outing Club. Afterward, that religion South Dart- mate defeat of Germany. He we took care to try to reseal and science mouth, had seen the communist their roof against rain. can coexist if Mass. takeover of Russia; Hungary; During 1964, the first floor not riled by and, for a short time, Bavaria, reminded me of a Masonic/ dogmatists Professor where (before Joe Stalin Eastern Star facility— on either side. Holmes’ essay is excerpted on cleaned things up) the revo- although smaller and with The article reminded me page 77. T. Noel Stern wrote lutionary leaders were, as less fancy furniture and inte- of Jesse Herman Holmes, pro- more extensively about him in often as not, Jews. Those rior decorating. The few cos- fessor of religion and philoso- the June 1992 Friends Jour- schooled in the teachings of tumes that then remained phy during my undergradu- nal. the New Testament knew were also suggestive of ritu- ate days. He was probably that the Jews participating in als like Eastern Star public Swarthmore’s best-known DEVIL THEORY the crucifixion of Jesus took ceremonies. and most controversial facul- In 1930, when I was 6 years the guilt on themselves and W. “TUCK”FORSYTHE ’65 ty member, and like Ian Bar- old, I was informed by one of their descendants for all Ellensburg, Wash. bour ’44, he began his life as my street acquaintances that time. It had to be clear that a scientist before centering I, a Jew, was guilty of killing the militant anticommunism OLD NOTES on religion. Jesus Christ. of Adolf Hitler, a Roman Elizabeth Weber’s [’98] arti- Holmes was the scourge The Swarthmore College Catholic who, to this day, has cle on Book & Key (“Our of conservatives in the Bulletin (“Religion in the Age never been excommunicated Back Pages,” December 1999) Delaware Valley, an agnostic of Science,” December 1999) from the church, was indeed came at a serendipitous time. Quaker, foe of religious and now tells me of the renewed useful in eliminating these I was a member of Book & political dogma, and socialist interest in religion by some atheistic communists in the Key in the Class of 1955 and candidate for governor of current students. The article overall struggle to eradicate was cleaning out some old Pennsylvania. primarily deals with conflict the agents of Satan—among notes when I read her history He helped me return to between science and religion. them, the Jews who, knowing of the organization. my family’s Quaker roots. I But this strikes me as minor of Jesus, consciously reject- In our class, the usual wanted to formally join the compared with other far ed him. seven were “tapped” in the Society of Friends during my more menacing aspects of In case the preceding dining hall. Apparently, six of Swarthmore years but hesi- faith. paragraph is disturbing, them accepted, and as I tated because several of my Swarthmore students— remember that events in Ger- recall it, these six felt that a Quaker friends were most protected by the greatest mil- many did happen, just as in larger membership was need- conservative theologically. itary machine ever known, Yugoslavia now. The prob- ed to be truly representative But I was able to overcome comfortable in the bounty of lem in addressing the role of and to re-energize the organi- my reticence after reading the greatest economic boom religion at Swarthmore or zation. Subsequently, 16 Holmes’ “Letter to the Scien- ever, and residing in beautiful similar blessed places is that more were asked to join, and tifically Minded,” which was and remote surroundings— the lumpen are not being I was in this group. Some- first published in 1928 by The remind me of the last czarina taken into account. And there how, I got the job of Friends Intelligencer. I remem- of Russia, who also lived very are a lot of them around. researching Book & Key’s ber thinking that Jesse well and who, in her religious Now, they are well fed and history so that we could all Holmes’ religion was for belief, turned to the religion have jobs and television, and understand better what its me—that although I could of the monk Rasputin for things are quiet. This was not mission was and could be. I not accept religious funda- comfort and support. so in Germany when I was made a presentation that mentalism, I could easily But far worse things being informed of my inherit- included suggestions for accept Holmes invitation to derive from religion than ed guilt and when Hitler members from the Class of become a Friend. people such as Rasputin. Call appeared and told the Ger- 1956—including Larry Shane, Today, I am happy to be it the devil theory of history: man people how the Jew- current chairman of the part of the liberal current in seeking the source of present communists were the source Board of Managers. Quakerism. I learned from discomfort in the identifica- of their problems. TED PHILLIPS, M.D. ’55 Jesse while I was a student tion of those in the service of Please turn to page 77 Lopez Island, Wash. that science and religion can Satan. This should not be dis-

MARCH 2000 3 Collection THE COLLEGE TODAY

Plans emerge for new science center fter months of review and debate, a joint faculty-staff steering committee has chosen a design for Swarth- more’s new science center. If all goes according to Aschedule, ground will be broken by June 2001. The complex will add 80,000 square feet to a renovated DuPont Science Building and will connect to Martin Hall and the Cornell Sci- ence and Engineering Library. The complex also aims to alle- viate classroom shortage, update laboratories, and foster greater interaction among science faculty, students, and departments. Concerns about DuPont, which was built in 1959, emerged among faculty a few years ago. “What really started it off was a sense of pending crisis about some of DuPont’s mechanical systems,” recalls Don Shimamoto, associate professor of mathematics and chair of the Division of Natural Sciences and Engineering. “DuPont was built 40 years ago, and science research and teaching has changed enormously since then. The building we have is no longer adequate for practic- ing science at the level we should be maintaining at Swarth- more.” “Before, science classes were taught with demonstrations or ‘cookbook labs,’” explains Rachel Merz, associate professor of biology and co-chair of the Science Center Planning

Committee. “But it became clear that students are more ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS engaged when they discover something for themselves. If you allow them to do their own experiments, planning for a lab gets more unpredictable. You need more flexibility.” CORNELL Demands on the College’s science facilities have grown LIBRARY RENOVATED NEW DuPONT dramatically in recent decades, she points out. Though the MARTIN CONSTRUCTION percentage of Swarthmore graduates majoring in science has HALL remained about the same, according to Registrar Martin Warner, the College’s enrollment has increased by about a third since DuPont opened. In addition, more nonscience majors take science courses than ever before. Another challenge is that science departments and curric- BEARDSLEY ula have become more interdisciplinary. Faculty and stu- HICKS dents complain that the current layout tends to isolate various departments from one another—and from the rest of the KOHLBERG campus. After getting campuswide input on a dozen designs over TROTTER several months last year, a design team drawn from three EINHORN YAFFEE PRESCOTT architectural firms—Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, Helfand Myer- Physics Professors Frank Moscatelli and John Boccio (above, top) berg Guggenheimer, and Gladnick Wright Salameda—nar- debate the merits of the X vs.Y final designs for the College’s new rowed the offerings to two, known as X and Y. In December, science center. Plan X (above), the eventual winner, maintains the the dueling plans were presented via model and diagram to original scale of DuPont, opens onto the Harry Woods Garden, faculty and administration. Plan X was eventually chosen, a and provides access to Crum Woods. design that maintains the original scale of DuPont, opens attractively onto the Harry Woods Garden, and provides pay attention to which design does that.” access to Crum Woods. The science complex is the largest project contained in a “It was very much the Quaker consensus process. There long-range plan approved last year that will lead to a $230 was no vote. We just discussed it into the ground,” Merz million capital campaign over the next several years. Other says. “Groups outside the science faculty had no problem priorities identified by the three-year planning process were leaning toward X. Many of the science faculty were Y-minded described in the September 1999 issue of the Bulletin. Read- to start with but were impressed with the fact that so many ers may find this article at www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin- people saw the other design as more open and welcoming. /archive/sept99/collection.html. That is important. I mean, we’re scientists. In a sense, that A more complete description of the science building proj- information was data: If you want a facility that appears ect is found at http://sciencecenter.swarthmore.edu. more welcoming to visitors and to the College, you have to —Cathleen McCarthy

4 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Off to Oxford and Istanbul After earning a acob Krich ’00 was playing cards with other Rhodes B.A. in mathemat- Scholarship candidates when he heard the news. ics at Oxford, JStunned, he called his mother. “Mom,” he said, “I’m going Krich hopes to get to England.” a Ph.D. in physics, One of only 32 college seniors selected in December to possibly at Prince- be Rhodes scholars, he will spend two years studying at ton. Like his role Oxford University. Associate Dean Gilmore Stott urged Krich model, Ernest to apply after he won a Goldwater scholarship as a sopho- Rutherford, the more. For now, he remains immersed in the subject of his Nobel laureate senior thesis: liquid crystals—the stuff of laptop screens, who discovered digital watches, and mood rings. Specifically, he’s studying the atomic nucle- the shape and alignment of chiral molecules as they go from us, Krich’s dream a liquid to a liquid crystal state and back again. is to devote his This senior is a crackerjack academic—he scored a per- life to researching fect 1600 on his SATs and fell below his A average only once, and teaching with a B+ in a sophomore-year Hebrew Bible course—but it physics. “I want to takes more than grades to win a Rhodes Scholarship. He understand funda- headed the campus Jewish student organization, Ruach, for mentally what a year and spent seven semesters on its board. He rides his makes things bike daily, when weather permits, and, last summer, he work,” he says, climbed a 13,000-foot mountain in Costa Rica. “and no science

Krich chose Swarthmore over Stanford because he want- asks deeper ques- GEORGE W IDMAN ed to experiment with other subjects before settling on a tions than Rhodes Scholar Jacob Krich ’00 is studying major. Although math and science are clearly his passions, physics.” liquid crystals for his senior thesis. he has also excelled in philosophy, religion, and English. “I Never having chose Swarthmore because I felt I could get better relation- visited Europe, Krich is particularly excited about the ships with my teachers here without declaring my major— prospect of touring the Continent and was already studying and that’s exactly what happened,” he says. “There are only train schedules in January. His goal is to get as far as Istan- a handful of my teachers I haven’t come to know outside of bul. Oxford itself dates back to the 13th century, he points class. There were times when I felt like the Swarthmore out. “It’s phenomenal how old everything is in Europe,” he poster child.” Last spring, for example, three of his classes says, smiling. “I’m looking forward to being amazed by it.” had four to eight students. —Cathleen McCarthy

The Phoenix gets a facelift ment weeklies than the traditional Alumni who haven’t recently seen The school newspaper. Like the City Paper Phoenix, Swarthmore’s venerable stu- and Philadelphia Weekly, both widely dent newspaper, probably wouldn’t read by students, The Phoenix now fea- recognize it today. After a significant tures a contents page and appears ear- increase in quality and quantity of cov- lier, on Thursday morning, allowing erage over the past year, The Phoenix students to read about upcoming now has a new look as well. events in time to plan their weekends. A series of editorial changes went “The new look is nice, but the into effect during last year’s spring important change is the improvement semester, sparked by then-editor in editorial quality,” says Editor-in- Nicholas Attanasio ’00 and current edi- Chief Kane. “For a lot of people, we’re tor Justin Kane ’02, which led to an the only link with what the adminis- increase from about 16 to 24 tabloid tration and student council are pages, including more in-depth fea- doing. The paper really helps the tures and several new columns. Attana- community feel more in touch with sio and Kane also lobbied successfully what’s going on.” for staff payment. Now all 16 editors The Phoenix, Swarthmore’s student To subscribe to The Phoenix, send a and many regular writers are paid. newspaper since 1881, has switched mailing address and check—$25 for a With the Jan. 20 issue, the staff to a tabloid format with a color cover, semester (13 issues), $50 for two—to launched a newly designed tabloid for- but the improvements are more than Phoenix Subscriptions, The Phoenix, mat with full-color front and back cosmetic. You can read the paper on- 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA pages. The Phoenix now more closely line at http://www.phoenix.swarth- 19081. resembles regional news-and-entertain- more.edu. —Cathleen McCarthy

MARCH 2000 5 Collection AHAMINDRA JAIN Swarthmore team develops improved glaucoma treatment

reating the painful buildup of fluid pressure in the patient could be converted to its active form in only one eyes of glaucoma patients presents a host of prob- location, close to the desired target. In this manner, he lems. Assistant Professor of Chemistry Ahamindra hopes to avoid the side effects that often result from more TJain’s work on developing a means to relieve that pain not general activity of a drug in the body. only has the potential for producing a drug significantly Because Professor Jain does not work with animals in his more effective than anything currently in use but also for lab at Swarthmore, he is looking for collaborators to help improving the ways drugs are developed and delivered to with the next experiments in drug delivery. “We would like the human body. to prepare contact lenses bearing our photoactivated drugs Jain and his student researchers for testing in rabbits that have been study the development and delivery given a chemical that causes the of compounds called fluorinated sul- symptoms of glaucoma,” he says. fonamides, which have the potential Jain says the eventual goal is to to be about 10 times more efficient develop contact lenses that counter than conventional treatments. The glaucoma’s effects in people. “But we research has two primary thrusts. really have no idea whether that is One is to improve the efficacy of the attainable until we get to test the sys- fluorinated sulfonamides, which tem in some animal model,” he says. interact with a protein in the eye More than a dozen students have known as carbonic anhydrase (CA) collaborated with Professor Jain on to relieve pain. Drugs now in use his research over the past few years, don’t interact efficiently with this a partnership of which he is very protein, forcing users to apply pain- proud. “The students do all the relieving eye drops three times a day. research work themselves, and they Meanwhile, because the sulfon- write up their results in the form of amides do not dissolve in water, the papers that we have published or team is perfecting a method of hope to soon publish in the chemical “masking” the pain-relief agents to literature,” he says. “I suggest experi- make them water soluble and thus ments for them to carry out, advise more easily delivered to the eye. them if they encounter any problems, Treatments for glaucoma often and help them revise manuscripts. rely on a sulfonamide that binds to But I can honestly say that our first CA. To make more efficient drugs, seven papers, four of which are pub- ways to increase the strength of the lished already, have been almost interaction between drug and protein entirely written by the students. must be identified. Jain believes an “I’ve been fortunate, both in my understanding of these drug-protein teaching and in my research, to have interactions might be useful in devel- the privilege to work with extremely oping better drugs not only for glau- Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Ahamin- bright, motivated, and independent coma but also for many other dis- dra Jain (far left, above) is working on a treat- students,” he continues. “Because of eases. ment for glaucoma that reduces production of their dedication to their projects, With respect to drug delivery, fluid in the aqueous humor. His research team we’ve made a lot of progress, and I Jain’s hope is to demonstrate that a includes (left to right) Jeffrey Doyon ’00, Chris hope that, along the way, they’ve drug can be activated by light in a Woodrell ’01, Ariss DerHovanessian ’00, Elizabeth each learned what real scientific site-specific manner, so that a Hansen ’02, Polina Kehayova ’01, Greg Bokinsky research is all about.” masked drug administered to a ’00, Patrick Dostal ’02, and John Huber ’00. —Alisa Giardinelli

6 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN On kidneys and being Jewish faith but a reenforcement of basic Jewish ethical values. By Robert Weinberg, Associate Professor of History Laurie and I are not religious or spiritual persons, but before the surgery, we did make sure that someone from n the morning of Oct. 19, a team of surgeons at the every denomination of the major Western religions was Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania removed praying for us on Oct. 19. I even called a friend to ask his my left kidney. In an adjacent operating room, relatives in North Carolina, where they belong to the African Oanother team of surgeons was waiting to transplant my kid- Methodist Episcopal Church, to mention us at Sunday ser- ney into my wife, Laurie, who was suffering from end-stage vices. Whether or not all the prayers said on our behalf renal failure as a result of polycystic kidney disease. were heard is something I cannot answer, but Laurie and I No cure exists for Laurie’s disease, and dialysis and did not want to hedge our bets. We were touched by the transplantation are the only treatments. A transplant is outpouring of concern expressed by so many people, always preferable when other complicating factors are not including some who had never met us. present. Laurie’s health had been deteriorating for years. It Like many American Jews, Laurie and I struggle with was a matter of weeks, perhaps what it means to be Jewish. I did not months, before her kidneys would emerge from the transplant any more have stopped working entirely. We inclined to embrace faith or attend knew the time had come for the synagogue than I was before the sur- transplant, and we were glad that we gery. Indeed, my faith in science and had beaten the fantastic odds against medicine was reinforced. Neverthe- my being a compatible donor. less, I believe the experience has a Fortunately, Laurie’s new kidney religious lesson. started working immediately. By the At the core of Judaism is a code of next morning, she, once again, had ethics, an unflagging belief that normal kidney function. Nearly two humans are responsible to each months have passed since the twin other. In addition to prayer and operations, and there are no signs learning, Jews are expected to engage that Laurie’s body is rejecting my in righteous deeds, in acts of charity kidney, affectionately called Bob Jr. and benevolence designed to Better yet, Laurie is now leading an enhance the quality of life of all peo- active, energetic life—a welcome ple. Although I do not pretend to ful- change from the bone tiredness she fill, or even try to fulfill, all the

had been experiencing for several ʼ 67 responsibilities and expectations of years. being Jewish, I try to embrace in my Even though Laurie has to take daily life one of the supreme values immunosuppressants and steroids of Judaism: sustaining, protecting, for the rest of her life (as well as pass and promoting life. I suspect that my up invitations to sky dive and ride surprise and consternation in learn- motorcycles), her doctors have ing that others might not be as will- assured her that she can return to ing as I to give up a kidney are rooted her usual daily routine and live for in my efforts to lead a life informed many years. Clearly, Laurie and I, by this essential Jewish value. I along with our families and friends, believe that our son, Perry, who was had much to be thankful for at this PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY STEVEN10 GOLDBLATT years old at the time of the trans- year’s Thanksgiving dinner. Laurie Bernstein and husband Robert Weinberg plant, has learned a similar lesson, After the surgeries, many friends were even more compatible than they realized. something that will inform his self- and acquaintances told us how His transplanted kidney has given her new life. identity as a Jew. moved they were by what they called As a teacher, I believe strongly in my “sacrifice” and “selfless act of love.” When I protested another Jewish value: teaching by example. Perry may be and assured them that others would act as I did in similar too young to be aware of this lesson, but I’m sure he will circumstances, several retorted that they were not as sure someday make the connection between the life-affirming act about the willingness of others in my position to undergo of my giving a kidney to his mother and why his parents surgery to help grant life to a loved one. When Laurie and I insisted that he go to Hebrew school—even though it meant discovered two years ago that we were compatible in more sacrificing his weekend mornings and one afternoon each ways than one, my decision to give her my kidney was a no- week for several years. brainer. To paraphrase Maimonides, the eminent Jewish philoso- I was surprised by the suggestions that others in my pher, a person must be willing to place his or her own life in position would hesitate. I began to think about lessons to be jeopardy to save someone who may die if help is denied. learned from what Laurie and I had just experienced, and, Having endured both his parents going under the knife like many people facing a life-or-death situation, I found simultaneously, I hope Perry takes away from this trauma myself taking a fresh look at my religious heritage, which is the lesson that the sanctity of life is always worth uphold- Judaism. What I discovered was not a renewed spiritual ing, no matter how difficult the challenge.

MARCH 2000 7 Collection

Fast track to enlightenment unusual, in part, because little remains of Tibet’s monaster- n first glance, it was simply a very attractive exhibit ies and the treasures they once housed. The Chinese inva- of Tibetan art and religious objects—intricate metal sion and occupation of Tibet destroyed all but a dozen of vessels, doll-like goddesses in brocade robes, walls several thousand monasteries, which were the centers of Ocovered with brilliantly painted textiles. But the traveling Tibetan religious, cultural, and intellectual life. Many of the exhibit Mystical Arts of Tibet, which visited the List Gallery in objects that appeared at the gallery were hand carried by November, was far more—it was a rare glance into a mostly monks who escaped over the mountain passes. vanished culture. Much of the artwork came from the collection of Drepung The exhibit, which The Philadelphia Inquirer called “quite Loseling Monastery in Lhasa, a major center of the Gelugpa possibly … Swarthmore’s most important art exhibition order of Tibetan Buddhism. Other pieces belong to His Holi- ever,” has been touring the United States since 1996. It’s ness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Dating from the 11th century to modern times, these paintings and statues were revered and meditated on by monks, and the tools and musical instruments were used in sacred rituals. Maribeth Graybill, the associate professor of art history who helped organize the exhibit, explains that Tibetan Buddhism differs from other forms of Bud- dhism. Although those in other schools believe in reincarnation and think that self-enlightenment hap- pens gradually over several lifetimes, Tibetan Bud- dhists believe it can be achieved in one. “Tantric Bud- dhism offers the fast track to enlightenment,” Graybill says, “for those who can master the complex, sometimes dangerous meditation and ritual practices.” Central to Tantric Buddhist ritual is the idea of transformation. Many of the objects on display once played a part in rituals where mundane offerings to the deities were consecrated through chants and visualizations into pure, rarified substances. Tantric Buddhism aims to transform all human emotions— even hatred and lust—into positive tools for enlightenment, Graybill explains. “The ultimate goal of the Tantric practitioner is to transform oneself into the perfection of a deity.” These concepts take visual form in the paintings and sculptures of fierce deities, shown enveloped in flames and surrounded by death imagery—skull neck- laces, dripping blood, dismembered corpses. How do you conquer death? If you’re a Tibetan Buddhist, you meditate on the most gruesome of images, as a way to realize that the pleasures of youth and beauty are only fleeting illusions, Graybill says. “Only from that insight of nonattachment can one realize that death is no more permanent or real.” The fury in the demonic expression of the gods is transformed into wrath against ignorance and sloth, impediments to enlightenment. Many of the paintings depict explicit images of sexual interaction been male and female deities. On first encounter, they appear to convey simply erotic ecsta- sy, but to the Tibetan Buddhist, Graybill explains, they represent something more profound: the perfect union of wisdom—a female principle and the goal of Tantric practice—and Tantric method, a male principle. “Sexual interaction is one metaphor most people can understand for the complete dissolution of differ- Considered one of the holiest goddess statues in the Drepung ences,” Graybill says. “Gender differences dissolve in this Loseling Monastery, this 16th-century bronze beauty depicts one blissful moment. Therefore, it’s a good metaphor for the Vajrayogini, the main deity propagated within the Gelugpa union of male and female energy.” order, who is said to speak frequently to practitioners. —Cathleen McCarthy

8 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Hero worship: a winning JFK collection

ugh Weber ’00 is this year’s first buttons. Weber’s entry focuses on only prize winner of Swarthmore’s a portion of this collection and includes HA. Edward Newton Student Library works that follow JFK’s development as Prize. Endowed by its namesake in a leader and the immediate period of 1930, this mourning award is after his given to a death. Weber student who says he found owns, and most of the who person- pieces of his ally collect- collection ed, the best almost entire- JEFFREY L OTT and most ly in local Hall of Fame coach “Pete”Hess intelligently antique shops chosen colin his native lection of South Dakota. For Pete’s sake books upon In the com- Professor Emerita of Physical Edu- any subject. mentary that cation Eleanor Hess, who served as Weber’s accompanied lacrosse coach at Swarthmore from “JFK Collec- his entry, 1957 to 1986, was inducted into the tion” was Weber says Pennsylvania Lacrosse Hall of Fame exhibited at he started his on Feb. 19.Hess, whom many know Swarth- collection just as “Pete,” served as president of more’s These playing cards, printed in 1963, were part after his the Philadelphia Women’s La- McCabe of a deck that depicted the whole Kennedy clan. eighth birth- crosse Association from 1969 to Library from “It was still great political sport then to mock our day. At that 1973.She has also received the Jan. 17 to ‘royal family,’” says collector Hugh Weber ’00. age, he says Philadelphia Board of Women’s Jan. 29. A he “deter- Official Service Award and the second prize was awarded to Sasha mined a life in public service would be Nancy Chance National Award for Issenberg ’02 for his collection of books fulfilling and found a role model that Service. In her honor, the Eleanor and memorabilia related to The New excited me.” Kay Hess Award is given to sopho- Yorker magazine. Weber, who is the senior-class presi- more women at Swarthmore who Weber’s complete JFK collection dent, is a political science major with a demonstrate a love of athletics, consists of more than 100 books and concentration in public policy and leadership, hard work, fairness, several thousand pieces of memorabil- black studies. and objectivity. ia, such as banners, posters, cards, and —Alisa Giardinelli

aniel Underhill Professor of Music James Free- man (right), Orchestra 2001’s founder and Dartistic director, and composer Nicholas Brooke (center) welcome Gilmore Stott, associate provost emeritus and associate dean of the College, to the inaugural Gilmore and Mary Roelofs Stott Commission Concert in November. Funded through an endowment given by Eugene M. Lang, the Stott Commission was established to honor the Stotts and encourage young composers by annually underwrit- ing the creation and professional performance of a new work for chamber or small orchestra. The November program featured violinist Erez Ofer in ʼ 67 Mozart Violin Concerto in A Major, composer and Swarthmore Professor Gerald Levinson’s Time and the Bell, and the premiere of Double by Brooke, winner of the first Stott Commission. STEVEN GOLDBLATT

MARCH 2000 9 Collection

Of college and community: a new Board committee

ommunity outreach students to engage issues of social responsibility facing our has been a central communities and societies and to set their own paths as focus at Swarth- responsible citizens toward shaping a more inclusive, just, moreC since its Quaker and compassionate world.” days, but leaders of the Specifics of how that mission will be accomplished have College had broader ambi- yet to be determined but will involve encouraging and facili- tions when the Board of tating “internal community practices, educational programs, Managers launched its lat- and institutional outreach initiatives.” est committee. They want “It’s a significant responsibility of the College not merely to revive the concept of to encourage students to engage in activities that involve good citizenship on cam- social responsibility but to make it part of the very fabric of pus—and, eventually, on the College,” says Committee Chair Neil Grabois ’57, a vice campuses nationwide. president at Carnegie Corporation of New York and former Formed last May, the president of Colgate University. The Committee consists of Committee on Social five board members, President Alfred H. Bloom, Provost Jen- Responsibility has met nie Keith, Vice President for College and Community Rela- twice so far. Anyone who tions Maurice Eldridge, four faculty members, three stu- read Eugene Lang’s [’38] dents, two staff members, and a representative from alumni essay “Distinctively Ameri- council. can: The American Liberal In its first two meetings last fall, Grabois reports, the Arts College” in Daedalus, group attempted “to learn what is happening on campus the journal of the Ameri- Neil Grabois ’57 chairs a new from the point of view of faculty and students and to begin can Academy of Arts and Board committee that seeks to to think in imaginative ways about how the College might Sciences, will not be sur- make social responsibility “part of engage this issue in a more integrated fashion.” prised to hear that the the very fabric of the College.” Lang, who founded the “I Have a Dream” Foundation, committee was his idea. says the initial meeting “was one of the most inspiring com- Lang is emeritus chairman mittee meetings of the many hundreds I’ve attended at of the Board of Managers, and the committee’s formation Swarthmore. Swarthmore will be the first college in the represents another step toward realizing his goals of foster- country, I’m sure, that has had the vision to establish, as a ing better citizenship through education. visible institutional responsibility, the need for turning out The committee’s ambitious charge includes “reflecting good citizens. By good citizens I don’t mean successful but upon the College’s commitment, in association with the ful- real citizens in the fullest sense of the word.” fillment of its institutional mission, to prepare and motivate —Cathleen McCarthy

And the Grammy goes to … spring, include compositions by Ger- Michener bequest goes Swarthmore made it to this year’s ald Levinson, associate professor of to faculty research Grammy Awards. Orchestra 2001’s music, and volume 5 will be devoted Swarthmore, the primary beneficiary most recent CD, featuring the music entirely to Levinson’s music. of the estate of the late novelist James of George Crumb, was nominated as Michener ’29, is devoting the bulk of best-engineered classical album. The Above freezing … his $6.5 million bequest to the sup- composer received an honorary Williams College has decided to freeze port of faculty research and develop- degree (D.Mus.) from Swarthmore in its tuition next year, a step Swarth- ment. The gift will add four second- 1989. more is not taking. College officials semester faculty leaves to the eight Independent audio engineers Curt say the move isn’t necessary because currently available. “That’s a signifi- Wittig and David Moulton recorded financial aid packages, a main target cant gift,” says Provost Jennie Keith. the disk in five sessions, from Febru- for endowment dollars, should offset Michener bequeathed his residual ary 1997 through May 1998, at Lang any possible tuition hike. This estate and the rights to all his literary Concert Hall. The CD is volume 3 of approach, notes Director of News and property to his alma mater upon his an ongoing series Orchestra 2001 is Information Tom Krattenmaker, death in 1997. As with his previous putting out with Composers Record- “remains the fairest and most effec- gifts to Swarthmore, Michener ings, Inc. (CRI ). Volume 1 included a tive vehicle for accommodating our entrusted the College to determine piece by Thomas Whitman ’82. Vol- families and ensuring our education how best to use the funds. umes 2 and 4, to be released this remains accessible.” —Cathleen McCarthy

10 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Winter sports highlights in the 55 dash trials (7.32). Desiree Peterkin The women’s basketball team advanced to the Centennial ’00 captured the triple Conference play-offs for the first time in school history. Post- jump (35’4.5”) and long ing a 14–10 record, the Garnet matched the school record for jump (17’3.5”) titles. victories in a season set by the 1983-84 and 1984-85 squads. Forward Heather Kile ’02 was named Centennial Conference Dan Jacobs ’03 placed Player of the Year, after leading the Centennial in scoring and third at the Centennial rebounding, averaging 18.9 points and 13.8 rebounds. Conference Wrestling Championships in the The women’s swim team placed second at conference cham- 125-pound class. Jacobs pionships for the sixth consecutive season, with the Garnet posted a season record setting several school relay records. The team of Becca of 14–6 with eight pins. Howes-Mischel ’01, Alice Bonarou ’02, Natalie Briones ’03, and Claire Arbour ’00 broke the Centennial and school mark The doubles team of in the 400 medley relay with a time of 4:02.58. The team of Siobhan Carty ’01 and Briones, Arbour, Amy Auerbach ’02, and Davita Burkhead- Karen Lange ’02 placed Weiner ’03 set Centennial and school records in the 800 second at the Northeast

freestyle with a time of 7:57.92 and a school record in the 400 Regional Badminton JOHN FERKO freestyle with a time of 3:40.86. Bonarou captured the 400 Championships to earn Sarah Tufano ’03 drives for the individual medley relay in 4:42.73, Briones won the 100 a berth in the National basket in a 46–43 loss to Muhlenberg. breaststroke in 1:06.78, and Arbour set a school record in the Championships held at The women’s basketball team 50 freestyle with a time of 24.92. Stanford University. The finished 9–4 in conference play. squad placed third out The men’s swim team finished in third place at the Centenni- of eight squads at the Regional Championships held in Tar- al Conference Championships. Ted Sherer ’01 was a double ble Pavilion. winner, capturing the 100 breaststroke in 58:58 and the 200 in 2:09.47. Earlier in the season, Sherer eclipsed his own mark in the breaststroke in 2:07.96. John Lillvis ’03 placed second Final Season Results Overall Centennial in the 400 individual medley with a school record of 4:12.23, Record Conference and David Whitehead ’03 set school records in the 500 Badminton...... 3–2 freestyle (4:45.44) and the 200 freestyle (1:44.09) for second Men’s basketball ...... 3–21 ...... 2–11 place. Women’s basketball ...... 14–10 ...... 9–4 In indoor track, Marc Jeuland ’01 set a College record at the Men’s indoor track ...... 7th place Centennial Championships with a second place finish in the Women’s indoor track ...... 4th place 5000 (15:20.87). At the women’s championships, Joko Agun- Men’s swimming ...... 7–4 ...... 4–2 loye ’01 set College records with a second place finish in the Women’s swimming ...... 9–3 ...... 5–2 5000 (18:17.57) and a third place finish in the 3000 (10:40.81). Wrestling ...... 3–10 ...... 0–6 Imo Akpan ’02 set both Centennial and Swarthmore records —Mark Duzenski

Net gain on both sides imbledon may not be in were held in the fall, taught by their future, but that did- men’s and women’s team mem- n’t dull the enthusiasm bers, followed by the winter ten- ofW the would-be tennis pros who nis lessons. Williams hopes to gathered in the Lamb-Miller Field hold an “all-comers” track meet House in February. Thanks to a for Chester kids this summer. new student volunteer program The program was the brain- run by Marian Snyder Ware Pro- child of Kendall Landis ’48, retired fessor of Physical Education and vice president of development, Athletics Robert Williams, chil- who helped raise money for bus- dren from the nearby Chester ing the children to the College. YWCA are now receiving training “The idea is to expose the kids to from Swarthmore’s top athletes. college athletics and college in ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS The program began last year general,” says Williams. “We stick John Temin ’00, a member of the tennis team, helps with a beginners’ swim program. to the easy stuff and try to attach Zain Harvey perfect his forehand. Temin organized the Fifteen to 20 boys and girls, a picnic to it and some discussion tennis workshops, one of the ongoing athletics seminars grades 3 to 8, showed up for a groups. We’re just getting start- held for young members of the Chester YWCA. series of workshops organized by ed—and our students are just as the women’s swim team, who excited as the kids who come demonstrated competitive dives, over.” turns, and strokes. Soccer clinics —Cathleen McCarthy

MARCH 2000 11 Collection

In search of black holes hat started out as a routine observing project from a small college telescope has turned intoW an exciting discovery of a possible black hole. Allyn Dullighan ’01 played a key role in the discovery. The black-hole candidate is part of a binary star system in which the two com- ponents revolve around each other every 91 days. This system is a variable star of unknown type and period named BG Geminorum (BG Gem). Using visible spectra of BG Gem obtained with the telescope of the Fred L. Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Ari- zona, Dullighan, an astrophysics major from Yardley, Pa., analyzed the spectra last summer at Wellesley College. She NASA/CXC/SAO found that hot gas around the primary This artist’s rendering shows a binary star system similar to the one studied by Allyn star appears to be eclipsed by the cooler Dullighan ’01. At left is a star that is losing mass to a dark companion—a likely black secondary one once in each orbital peri- hole—surrounded by an “accretion disk,” which emits energy over a broad spectrum. od. In addition, the secondary, estimated Dullighan’s black-hole candidate and its companion star are suspected to be orbiting from its spectrum to contain half the mass each other at a rapid rate, with the dark object eclipsing its brighter partner. of the Sun, is eclipsed half a cycle later. The eclipses imply that the binary system orbits in a plane black hole, Assistant Professor of Astronomy Eric Jensen tilted at nearly 90 degrees to the line of sight—a rare feels the case for this one is strong. “Black holes have been arrangement. theorized for a long time, but finding them is still a new Dullighan also determined that the secondary star races endeavor,” he says. “The whole problem is that back holes around the primary one at 75 km/s (170,000 mph), but the don’t give off any light, so they’re hard to find on their own, hot gas shows that the primary stands nearly still. Like a especially close by in our galaxy.” small dancer being whipped around by a big, strong partner, If BG Gem is confirmed to contain a black hole, it will the secondary in BG Gem is being pulled around at high open up a new window on how black holes are fueled. Its speed by the gravity of a more massive primary. orbital period, 91 days, is nearly 10 times longer than any “We definitely did not expect these results,” Dullighan other known black-hole binary. says. “The system was studied because it seemed to be an Dullighan, whose summer project was supported by the interesting massive binary. When our results first began to W.M. Keck Foundation, says her work was well received at suggest that this system contained a black hole, we were the American Astronomical Society conference in Atlanta in very skeptical.” January. A paper detailing her findings also appears in the And her reaction? “Excited is a good word,” she says. February issue of Astronomical Journal. Although the system hasn’t yet been confirmed as a —Alisa Giardinelli

Three new Alumni Managers selected

Young Alumni Alumni Manager Alumni Manager Manager Jere- Sherry Bellamy David Singleton my Weinstein ’74 majored in ’68 majored in ’97, a political political science sociology and science major, at Swarthmore, anthropology, graduated with received her law then received High Honors degree from an M.A. in crimi- and is now a Yale, and be- nology from Ph.D. candidate came president Penn. He is in political and chief execu- executive vice economy and tive officer of president of AMY SEMENUK government at Bell Atlantic– AIDA MANGSTU-MULUNEH M.B.N.A. Ameri- Harvard. Weinstein Maryland in 1997. Bellamy ca–Real Estate. Singleton

12 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Common ground beyond racial politics Rewards reworded … Swarthmore graduates will now conomic inequality is rising in associate professor of political science, receive diplomas free of religious American society, and we need a pointed out that Wilson was not break- reference. After three student multiracial political coalition to ing entirely new ground. “He’s taking polls and more than a year of combatE it,” William Julius Wilson told a old, familiar ideas and freshening debate, the words “in the year of packed campus audience in November. them,” Valelly said. our Lord” have been removed. In a “The elite benefit … as long as a mid- Coalition politics have been around nod to tradition, however, faculty dle and lower class are fragmented for 100 years, he explained. “So have voted to retain the Quaker-style along racial lines.” cycle theories. Arthur Schlesinger Sr. wording of the date. Diplomas this Publication of Wilson’s latest book, was the first to point out that there year will read: “this first day of The Bridge Over the Racial Divide: Ris- were liberal cycles and progressive sixth month in the year two thou- ing Inequality and Coalition Politics, was cycles in American politics.” sand.” a week away, and Wilson was spread- What Wilson espouses is the need The Curriculum Committee ing the word. for progressive, grassroots, “outside- (made up of the associate provost, To those who follow progressive the-beltway” coalitions, Valelly said, the registrar, two students, and political theory, Wilson has become a and language that emphasizes racially the three division chairs) recom- familiar figure neutral aspects mended the change, stating that over the past of issues facing the reference to “our Lord” was no quarter century. the general longer appropriate because many A professor of population. of those who award or receive the political sociolo- Keith Reeves diploma come from diverse reli- gy at Harvard, ’88, professor of gious backgrounds. Wilson worked political sci- The decision to change was not closely with ence, was on unanimous among either faculty President Bill the faculty with or students, according to polls Clinton during Wilson at Har- taken by the student council last his first cam- vard’s Kennedy spring. Although two of three stu- paign and has School of Gov- dent polls showed a slim margin in made frequent ernment before favor of the change, the other appearances at coming to favored the old wording. But the White Swarthmore another poll conducted by The House and on last year. “The Phoenix in April showed 80 stu- television. His critical ques-

dents for the change, 33 against, message to JIM GRAHAM tion,” Reeves and 17 undecided. “Good points Swarthmore William Julius Wilson, professor of political says, “is how were made on both sides of the was a version of sociology at Harvard and an adviser to do you bring question in the faculty meetings,” his trademark President Clinton, debates the finer points of together those says Registrar Martin Warner, “but theories, effec- coalition politics with a student. race-neutral the idea that carried was that sen- tively applied to coalitions to sitivity required less religiously the current political climate. solve the problems plaguing places explicit wording.” Despite the booming economy, he like Chester—industrialization, loss of Many colleges—including told his audience, “virtually all eco- jobs—when race is still such an obsta- Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Oberlin, nomic growth” has gone to the top 5 cle to the participants?” and Colby—still print their diplo- percent of wage earners in this coun- Wilson believes in putting “nonpar- mas in Latin, a language few grad- try since 1974. Graphs projected tisan pressure” on both parties. “When uates can decipher today. Bryn behind him showed an alarming dis- people believe that they need each Mawr also omitted the words “of parity in economic progress between other, they tend to relinquish stereo- our Lord” from its diplomas— classes. If trends had continued in the types and promote harmony,” he said, changing the wording three years direction they were heading from 1947 pausing to peer into the audience. ago from “in the year of the salva- to 1973, he said, “the annual income of “Is there a living wage movement on tion of our Lord” to “in the year of a young male high school graduate this campus?” he asked, referring to the Gregorian calendar”—but did would now be $33,000. Instead, as of coalitions of students and unions pres- not opt to translate it to English. 1997, it’s $13,000.” Yet “conservative, suring city governments to pass ordi- Williams College also dropped demagogic messages” in the media nances requiring businesses to pay $3 “our Lord” and changed other lan- have noticeably declined since 1996, above minimum wage. guage to make its diploma “gender Wilson reported. “We can thank the “Yep,” someone responded. neutral.” economy for that. I believe that now is “Good,” Wilson said, holding up his —Cathleen McCarthy the time to build on this shift in the fist and smiling. “We must emphasize public’s mood.” issues that unite, not divide.” After the lecture, Richard Valelly ’75, —Cathleen McCarthy

MARCH 2000 13 Correspondence forges lasting links among professors and former students.

he ink on the diploma is dry. The sphere of human relations. As Betsy N graduation photos have been Bolton, associate professor of English How are things? I can’t imagine sent to grandparents, uncles, literature, noted via e-mail for this arti- Swarthmore is much the same with Taunts. Those first jobs, the trav- cle: “In the early to mid-18th century, let- the changes going on (though we els abroad, the travails of graduate ter writing was privileged as something both know the old saying about school and first apartments have of a social art. Sample letters were print- things staying the same)…. I’ve fall- imparted their measures of thrills and ed in journals; women were said to be en in love with Robert Hayden anguish. Like a pair of new shoes broken better letter writers than men, smoother again for an entirely different in by degrees until they start assuming in their construction of a written rela- assortment of reasons. Particularly the shape of the wearer’s foot, adult- tionship.” his hope (embedded in a neo-Pla- hood has begun to feel familiar, if never How much fuller a picture we have of tonism) and his unrushing depen- entirely comfortable. Emily Dickinson through her correspon- dent clauses. The Swarthmore alum looks back dence with editor Thomas Wentworth N over a shoulder at the years passed in a Higgins, through Robert Frost’s fleshing I am enjoying my job, and music is nurturing nest of new faces, ideas, and out of his ideas about poems and the going well in Philadelphia. My cur- countless “firsts.” As they recede into feedback he received from editor Louis rent reading selection is Snow the distance, those years can shimmer Untermeyer? Gertrude Stein by reading Crash by Neal Stephenson.… Next like a mirage of an oasis; it can seem the letters of Vita Sackville-West? Even on the list is Airing Dirty Laundry by remarkable that one was lucky enough Sartre’s supercerebral heart must have Ishmael Reed. Also, I am in the mid- to come upon such a place and drink so pounded the faster when one of Simone dle of Miles Davis’ autobiography. deeply, before continuing along life’s de Beauvoir’s heady missives arrived. Any new books for you? journey. The openers to the following elec- But thanks to the written word, some tronic communiqués, culled anony- or alumni who take the time to write, graduates continue to quench their mously from actual alumni messages, Fletters and e-mail can extend their thirst through Swarthmore. By postcard sum up the mix of head and heart that education well beyond the tuition-pay- and greeting card, wedding invitation, characterize ongoing professor-student ing years. As music major Ali Momeni birth announcement, dashed-off note on relationships: ’97 said of his frequent e-mail exchanges monogrammed paper or company let- N with the professor who sparked his terhead—and now by that most expedi- I’m not sure if you remember me: I interest in composition: “I’ll tell you, ent means of communication, e-mail— took your Whiteness and Racial Dif- since graduation, [Daniel Underhill Pro- many relationships between professors ferences class.… I’ve come across fessor of Music] Jim Freeman has been and their former students are sustained. a book that you may be interested an extremely kind and supportive pres- In a world that is not particularly nurtur- in reading. ence in my life. I consider him a true ing, the urge to check back with a mis- friend as well as a great mentor, and I sive of gratitude, nostalgia, or sentiment By Ali Crolius ’84 feel very lucky.” can be strong. And for professors, watching former The art of correspondence has Photographs by students mature into colleagues, peers, always held an exalted position in the Steven Goldbaltt ’67 and friends can be incredibly satisfying.

14 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN “What’s great about getting letters tant Swarthmore contacts. Colorful trav- my town (Canalou, Mo.) literally from students is that it makes us elogues mingle with requests for syllabi starving. Most of the older people aware of the trajectory here,” said and recommendations, as in this e-mail have neither dentures nor teeth; 79 Provost and Centennial Professor of sent both to Schmidt and his depart- percent of the town’s got health Anthropology Jennie Keith. “As faculty ment colleague Professor Nathalie problems from the horribly con- members, we often never know the long- Anderson: taminated water; the list goes on term results of what we do. We never N this way. Not the place to go for a know what sticks or what makes a differ- Dear Guys: Hey, how are you both? getaway vacation, just in case any- ence.” How’s the semester shaping up? thing possesses either of you to set Don Swearer, Charles and Harriett Nat: the house? Peter: the “guys- foot in the rural Midwest.… I was Cox McDowell Professor of Religion, who-aren’t-dead-yet” course?... I’m wondering: I am applying for an maintains lively correspondences with down in the Missouri Bootheel internship ... with This American several former religion majors. They working like crazy on a couple of Life, a documentary (and funny) range from annual family news swaps different social service/community radio program.… They asked me with John ’76 and Donna Caliendo history projects. There are kids in for the names ... of a couple people Devlin ’78 to collegial exchanges with Anne Black- burn ’88, Wendy Cadge ’97, and several others. His experience echoes Keith’s: “What’s important isn’t that we convey a body of knowledge but that we’ve made a difference in their lives. Being in touch regularly or sporadically confirms that.” The tone that weaves its way through the letters of recent graduates is often one of nostalgia, said Professor Peter Schmidt, who posts missives from near and far outside his office in the Depart- ment of English Literature: N [I]t’s hard to look at all of those pictures of lovely wooded glades, soft gray buildings, and such without feeling both nostalgia and envy. N As much as I love it here in Santa Cruz [Calif.], I do miss the Swarthmore environment. N Aside from wanting my exam back, it was also very pleasant to “I would also like to thank you just read an e-mail about for everything,” wrote an alumna. Swarthmore-type things ... a reminder “Perhaps you feel that you’ve not of connections much done all that much, but I disagree. valued in this urban I’ve appreciated ... the advice you’ve jungle I’m in. given me.” N Like many faculty mem- One of Professor of English Literature Chuck bers, Schmidt receives James’ (above) many correspondents is Ricky equal shares of personal Phillips ’96 (right), now a graduate student at notes and those ad- Brown University. dressed to several impor-

MARCH 2000 15 they come to regard professors as a “weird blend of parent and sibling. They’ve been to your house, your home, so there’s a bond there—maybe more like a grandparent.” Swim wrote to let her Swarth- more “family” know that she had survived the tremors, going on to describe one of her jobs in vivid detail:

Between the tea/stationery store, there is a copy shop owned by Mr. Hoang, who I call “Hoang shu- shu.” His wife and children come over “What’s important isn’t that we convey every weekend to hang out, and a body of knowledge but that we’ve made the Chiang family and Hoang family a difference in their lives. Being in touch seem to be extended parts of each other. On the other side of the ... confirms that.” copy store from us, there is a win- —Professor of Religion Don Swearer (above), who has dow to the school with iron grating corresponded with Jenny Oldstone-Moore ’83 (right). that has been worn away in one spot, so there is a hole about the size of my forearm that we slip papers and drinks through to customers at their lunch and between- who could tell them about my writ- point that they—the Indians who class breaks. It feels clandestine ing, fatal flaws, and all of that. suffer the most all the way to the and exciting. Whenever it doesn’t Would you mind if I gave them Guerros, light-skinned Mexicans require any Chinese, when I’m yours? Hope you are doing well, and whites—feel it is a small price around, I help run orders back to writing some, and even rolling up to pay. Of course, everywhere you the students, and it makes me feel the Weinstein’s rug and shaking go in the world as a black, you are like I’m in a movie or something. It your respective groove things now faced with the daily struggles of seems like something that should and then—take good care. your difference. Even though some be forbidden. N —Mary Wiltenburg ’98 people know they’re descendants of Moors, Mayans, Aztecs, and Schmidt says that his teaching load N Spaniards—everyone wants to be causes his replies to be “relatively This postcard to Sara Lawrence- white. Go figure. I am surviving on terse,” but that he considers it a privi- Lightfoot Professor of English Literature this lonely planet though. Peace. lege to participate, however vicariously, Chuck James and his wife, Jane, also Love, in the lives of young grads. “I want to goes beyond mere news: —Keelyn Bradley ’99 say that mail coming in from all over the N world really makes me feel like a home- Oye mi familia! This is only a slice N body,” Schmidt wrote about his ongoing of Mexico City. It is huge (28 mil- The following group letter, beamed relationships with students. “Folks can lion), the largest city in the world. out by Elisabeth Swim ’99 to several fac- travel so freely when they’re in their And it is beautiful—pollution and ulty members and friends in the hours early 20s; I sort of envy them.” all. The racism is horrendous following last fall’s earthquake in Tai- though. And the sad part about it is wan, where she is teaching English, illus- till others expressed gratitude that everyone is so busy trying to trates Peter Schmidt’s idea that stu- Sdirectly. In a handwritten note, be a second-world country and the dents stay in touch with professors as Heather Schwartz ’99 followed specific leader of South America to the they might with family. Schmidt thinks thanks to Chuck James for writing her a

16 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN lot of weight. He let me go out on a limb f an alumna or alumnus and a profes- without constraining me.” Isor are going to do more than touch Sir, more than Like so many others, Neiman regrets base but really stay connected, it is kisses, letters that he fell out of touch with Swarth- often because the student has pursued more when earning a living and raising a the same profession and is on his or her mingle souls; family became his priorities. But profes- way to becoming a peer. Chuck James sors say that they do hear occasionally continues to correspond with David For, thus friends from students after a lapse of years, as Larzelere ’93, who as an editor of the absent speak. in this word of thanks from Jenny Old- new Granger’s Index to African-American stone-Moore ’83, a Swarthmore religion Poetry (Columbia University Press), —John Donne, letter major who was finishing a Ph.D. in the called on his former professor to pro- to Sir Henry Wotton history of religions. She contacted Don vide suggestions for the anthology. He Swearer for advice on traveling to Thai- took the opportunity to recall times land: spent together, both in and out of James’ Modern Black Fiction Honors recommendation with this more sponta- N seminar: neous outpouring. “I would like also to I enjoy thinking about the gifts N thank you just for everything. Perhaps both you and Kaori [Kitao, William I hope you and your family are you feel that you’ve not done all that J. Kenan Jr. Professor of Art Histo- well, [and] that the elysian fields of much, but I disagree. I’ve appreciated so ry] have given me that made my alma mater are peaceful and much over the past year or so the Swarthmore wonderful and that green. You know, I still have vivid advice (or advising) you’ve given me.” have lasted well beyond college memories of seminar dinner at Economics major Phil Neiman ’85, years. your ... house, where I met your now in investment banking in San sharp and charming wife and was Rafael, Calif., dropped James notes in longhand as he meandered his way from Wall Street to different law schools through the late 1980s: N Ninety-plus [hours] per week ... the first quarter just ended; nothing like The Paper Chase in terms of pressure and nothing like Swarth- more in terms of mental challenge or excitement. N A more recent note told James: N “Take care,” wrote I thought you might Associate Profes- like to know that your teaching stays sor of Education with some of us Lisa Smulyan ’76 to long after Swarth- Ed Varga ’91. “Do more: I named my something nice to kitten Buck, after reward yourself for London’s dog, to getting through the whom I was introduced in your natu- first year of teach- ralism course. (The ing. You’ll never apartment is a bit have another one, small for a real you know!” Buck.) N Neiman recalled by phone that he is quite sure he was not James’ most scintillating student but has stayed in touch anyway because “there was something about him. We clicked. At that age, when you haven’t had a lot of life experience, it’s not a Associate Professor of Education Lisa Smulyan ’76 given our ideas are going to be given a corresponds mostly by e-mail.

MARCH 2000 17 this is due to the “east winds”; the more cynical understanding is that in 1968 somebody saved someone a heap o’ dough. The spiritual environment: the Christian right, homo- phobic, conservative atmosphere can be both stifling and inspiring. When the football players call themselves “The Clan” and claim that the [capital] C makes all the difference, I think, “I need to be here.” N Varga maintains a more regular inter- change with Associate Professor of Edu- cation Lisa Smulyan ’76. Thanks to e- mail, Varga has been able to draw on his former professor in regular doses, a resource he found especially valuable as he struggled to find his place in the conservative community. Smulyan shared from her own teaching experiences to lend him perspective: N Dear Ed: It sounds like you have your hands full. Did you know what you were getting into when you went to teach at this school? I know there sometimes isn’t a lot of choice, but you might consider looking for a school whose philosophy more closely matches yours.… My guess is that people feel threat- ened, and that over time they will bother you less as they see you aren’t going to make them feel worthless or wrong.... In my first Students stay in touch with teaching job, I was almost fired in professors as they might with October, cried my way through family, thinks Peter Schmidt. November, and was doing pretty well by January. I hope things even They regard professors as a out for you at an even more rapid “weird blend of parent pace. Cheers, Lisa and sibling.” N Professor of English Literature Varga, who said in a phone interview Peter Schmidt (above) heard that he was “still looking for a type of from Elisabeth Swim ’99 (right). parental guidance from Swarthmore” in his early days of teaching, wrote to English and American literature. All it Smulyan in February 1998: royally fed and listened to music took to open the descriptive sluice gates N afterward in the living room—as I was a simple question from James, Just saying hello. I’m learning. I recall, a live Clifford Brown album “How are you liking the teaching profes- don’t want to know all of this, but that I’d never heard and haven’t sion, Ed?” I’m learning. My mother always led since. I must say, it remains the Varga, who teaches in a farming- me to believe that my father [a best gumbo I ever had—no doubt going suburban town whose mentality is teacher] was just being negative about it. far removed from the Portland schools when he came home complaining N where he student-taught, replied: and griping about the administra- James has also corresponded with N tion or reform.… It seems to me as Edward Varga ’91, who tracked down The physical environment: 90 per- I trip over the bags beneath my the professor’s e-mail address after cent of the classrooms in our eyes that there is plenty to take arriving in Oregon to teach high school school are windowless. Ostensibly issue with regarding “standards

18 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN things you want to be doing.… I’m about her challenges to balance her amazed that you still reflect back family and teaching demands, her strug- For professors, on School and Society [Smulyan’s gles with her health, even sharing amus- watching former course]. Somehow I assume out of ing anecdotes about her kids. Varga fol- sight, out of mind with my courses. lowed suit by taking a turn for the reflec- students mature into I’m always surprised when stu- tive in a letter early in 1999, suggesting dents refer back to them! It does that he had mastered teaching enough colleagues, peers, feel good though—thanks. Life is to muse on his personal life: unduly crazy right now. First, it has N and friends can be rained for 12 days straight. Now I My birthday’s in a month, and I’m incredibly satisfying. know that you Oregonians are used going to get a guitar. I need to play to that, but I’m starting to feel guitar and speak Spanish before I soggy. Second, last Monday, Aman- die, so I need to get a move on. reform” and truth from those in da [Smulyan’s daughter, then 7 This is my 30th birthday, the first Salem, as they say here in Oregon. years old] put her arm through a true sign of impending age. I’m not N glass door pane—5 hours in the ER old, but I finally get the concept Grueling as it was, Varga wrote in and 37 stitches later, I’m starting to that I will actually grow older. You May 1998 to tell Smulyan that he was recover too—probably the most don’t have to feel sorry for me; you going back for more the next fall. horrendous thing I’ve ever lived just have to humor me…. Teachers Smulyan replied: through.... Take care—do some- die and thrive by the switching of N thing nice to reward yourself for consciousness from student to stu- I’m glad you’ve decided to put in getting through the first year of dent. The day flies when I have another year. I think you’ll find that teaching. You’ll never have another four million “important” conversa- some of the energy ... that was one, you know! tions ... with students. That’s the used this year just to survive will N part I love. That’s also the part that be available to you for more of the Smulyan had been candid all along wants rest. N Smulyan observes that teaching future educators lends itself to staying in touch because there is no way around the early blunders and fog of first-year teaching but to get through it. A little moral support is always needed. Nearly unanimously, professors repeat that it’s never too late to get in touch. If you’re thinking that a favorite professor will not remember you, or worry “Getting letters that you’ve been away too sustains you in long and there’s too much what you do as to say, or think your life has a teacher.... been too uneventful, write Really, it feels anyway. Right away. As like a gift.” Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean Joy Charl- Professor of ton noted: “Getting letters Sociology and sustains you in what you do Associate Dean as a teacher. We all have Joy Charlton moments when we say, ‘Is this worth the effort? Am I making a difference?’ Every- one needs to know their work is valuable, and this is definitely one way of finding out. Really, it feels like a gift.” I

Ali Crolius ’84 is a self-employed journal- ist and painter who lives in Amherst, Mass., with her 8-year-old son, Ezra Shapiro.

MARCH 2000 19 The Drinking Dilemma Swarthmore re-examines its alcohol policy.

t’s Saturday night, and the Twenty-seven people— music is throbbing in Paces. including 18 Swarthmore stu- IOn the first weekend after a dents—were charged with monthlong winter break, 200- underage drinking. All subse- plus students jam into the quently participated in a first- room at the back of Clothier time offenders program that Hall—part of the Tarble Social exchanged community service Center—where the Interna- and education for an expunged tional Club is throwing the first record. all-campus party of the The raid caught many peo- semester. ple at the College off guard, Almost everyone is dancing. including former Parents At a bar along one side of the Council member David Single- room, student bartenders dis- ton ’68, who was recently pense drinks from white plas- elected to the Board of Man- tic buckets filled with fruit agers. His daughter Sarah was punch. A sign on the wall a senior last spring. advertises “screwdrivers”— “Having a daughter at vodka and orange juice—but Swarthmore for four years, I there is also plenty of Coke certainly wasn’t surprised to and Sprite to provide alterna- hear that alcohol had been tives to the half-dozen bottles ʼ 67 served at that event,” Single- of vodka and other spirits that ton says. “What did surprise sit under the bar. Surprisingly, me was that, as far as I’m there is no beer, and to Bul- aware, this was the first time letin photographer Steven the borough police took that Goldblatt ’67, no student STEVEN GOLDBLATT kind of action.” appears to have had too much to drink. who do not; as a result, many must con- For his part, Borough Police Chief The room is loud, warm, and crowd- tend with drunken, sometimes illegal, Brian Craig says his officers have better ed, pulsing to the beat of the deejay’s behavior. things to do than issue drinking cita- music, and companionship seems to be Swarthmore received a pointed tions. “We don’t go crusading to these the reason to party tonight. After the reminder of the consequences of alco- things,” he says. “On every occasion liquor ran out sometime after midnight, hol use on campus last spring. Borough when we’ve investigated, something has the party went on unabated until 2 a.m. police raided Delta Upsilon (DU) one prompted our involvement. In one A normal Saturday night at Swarth- night around 9:15, after a barbecue but, instance, an officer was driving on cam- more? Yes and no. according to students, before the begin- pus, and a chair was thrown out a winning of DU’s “Margaritaville” event—a dow in his direction. That draws our or most students, college life routine- party that drew its theme from a Jimmy attention.” Fly involves drinking. This informa- Buffett song that includes the lines: Although unwanted, such attention tion is not new, but some recent nation- has prompted numerous campus dis- al studies show just how pervasive the But there’s booze in the blender, cussions about the DU party itself, as problem is. One published in the Journal And soon it will render well as a thorough review of the col- of the American Medical Association That frozen concoction that helps lege’s alcohol policy. The policy is cur- found nearly half of all college students me hang on. rently the subject of a dean’s advisory drink excessively, and that one in five Wasted away again in Margaritaville council review. do so frequently. The same researchers Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt.... “The alcohol policy had not been sys- also found the subsequent effects of tematically reviewed since 1994,” says excessive drinking extend not only to Dean of the College Bob Gross ’62. “The the individuals who drink but to those By Alisa Giardinelli charge [of the council] is to review the

20 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN policy, make recommendations, and each other, and the norms among our change brought about by Margaritaville. deal with the contradictions in the poli- student population do not favor heavy “This year, it’s working better,” says cy.” drinking. We have some real positives Goundie. “In addition to having lots of On paper, Swarthmore’s policy is going for us.” PAs, the student body expects that a PA clear. It states: “Under Pennsylvania But does that guarantee nothing will will be at the door.” state law, a person less than 21 years of go wrong? “No,” says Gross. Swarthmore Police Chief Craig also age may not purchase, consume, pos- “I think we have a fairly proactive thinks the changes have been good sess, or transport alcohol.” All social policy,” adds Goundie. “But there will ones. “I haven’t seen as many incidents functions where alcohol will be served always be some finger crossing.” this year,” he says. “The parties seem to must be registered under a party permit have been much better controlled.” issued to two hosts at least 21 years of rofessor of Physics Frank Moscatel- A retired Philadelphia police captain, age, and failure to obtain and display a Pli, a member of the dean’s advisory Craig doesn’t see uncontrolled parties permit at the event “will result in the council, thinks the current policy is far and drinking at Swarthmore on the scale illegal party being closed down.” from perfect. “Our policy should be of other schools. “It’s not like it’s a Along with party registration comes more than crossing our fingers,” he major problem,” he says. “I’m very the obligation to have Party Associates says. impressed with the [Swarthmore] stu- (PAs) attend and monitor each party—a That was clear at the Margaritaville dent population. If there’s a problem, requirement that originated when the party last spring. Although PAs were it’s a small problem, and what we’re policy was last reviewed in 1994–95. working to do is keep it to a small prob- PAs are students who are trained and lem.” paid by the College to check IDs, escort impaired students, and contact campus “We see our warthmore has not always allowed Public Safety if, as the policy states, Sstudents such freedom when it “events get out of hand.” primary goal as comes to drinking. As an undergraduate Each PA receives instruction on how creating a safe in the late 1960s, David Singleton had a the party policy works, how it evolved very different experience on a campus to its present state, and what their environment for that was officially dry. “The college had responsibilities are. “Two upper-class an explicit no-alcohol policy,” he says. “I PA coordinators also set up role plays students to enjoy can recall getting caught in my dorm for them on some of the situations they room by my proctor with a bottle of might encounter,” says Associate Dean a social life.” something I had legally purchased in for Student Life Tedd Goundie, who is —BOB GROSS ’62 New York. He made me pour it down the responsible for the party policy and the DEAN OF THE COLLEGE drain.” PAs. As a result, Singleton says drinking Although birth dates appear on stu- was fairly covert, and parties often took dent IDs, it is ultimately the hosts’ supposed to be present, there were place off campus and out of town. “I responsibility to check ages—not the none at DU that night—likely a combina- recall going many, many times to parties PAs. “Some hosts are better than others tion of the party’s occurring at the end at a barn in Chester County,” he says. at checking ages,” Goundie acknowl- of the semester and of the dearth of stu- “We would go, have a good time, and edges. “But I know of some events dents who wanted the job. drive back. Was it better to push stu- where hands were marked with different “Last year, the PA program sagged,” dents to do this? It’s a tough call. Even colored ink depending on whether the Goundie says, and there was no PA at the consequences of the borough police student was over or under 21.” the door. An undercover Pennsylvania getting involved pale by comparison Dean Gross knows this does not Liquor Control Board (LCB) agent work- with the consequences of a car full of always happen. “We can never come up ing with borough police easily gained kids plowing into a tree at 1 a.m.” with a policy that fixes the problem per- entrance to the party. Perhaps not surprisingly, most stu- manently,” he says. “It’s always going to Many think the bust could have been dents think the College’s current policy be an issue. Eighty percent of the stu- prevented had PAs been there to check is fine the way it is. “It just doesn’t both- dent population drinks. Only 20 percent ID cards and keep the LCB agent out er me,” says Julia Sable ’00. “You go to a are 21 or older. That tracks with nation- because she was not a Swarthmore stu- party, have a couple of drinks—normal, al data. We see our primary goal as cre- dent. “Most people on campus are no problem.” ating a safe environment for students to aware that it is necessary to have IDs Sable, an Honors English major, enjoy a social life.” checked,” says Joshua Bess ’00, a chem- comes from Nova Scotia, where the Gross thinks the College’s use of PAs istry major from Indiana who served drinking age is 19. She admits that may is just one of several conditions that three semesters as the treasurer of the partly color her views. Underage make Swarthmore a relatively safe envi- Student Budget Committee (SBC), which drinkers at Swarthmore, she says, are ronment. “We don’t have residential fra- oversees student activity funds, and “basically breaking the law, sanctioned ternities,” he says. “That’s a plus, thus has a large role in financing student by the College. I guess that should both- because the national data show residen- social events. “We don’t exactly like the er me. Does it make a difference? Not tial frats as a source of abuse. We also Ville kids hanging out at our parties.” really.” have a fairly tight residential community Improvements to the monitoring sys- Dean Gross accepts this view, albeit where students tend to look out for tem, including higher pay for PAs, is one Please turn to page 78

MARCH 2000 21 RESPECT To get it, you must give it. By Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot ’66

NO ONE OF MY GENERATION—baby Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot ’66, the Emily Hargroves Fisher Pro- Creating boomers now in our middle years— fessor of Education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, can possibly read the word RESPECT is the first African-American woman in Harvard’s history who Symmetry (in bold capitals) without hearing will have an endowed chair named in her honor after retire- Aretha Franklin’s searing declaration; her soul-stirring, heart- ment. wrenching anthem. “R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to Dr. Lawrence-Lightfoot completed an undergraduate degree me ... Show me, just a little respect.” Aretha, the Queen of at Swarthmore in psychology and later served on the Board of Soul, sings to her lover, demanding a little respect from the Managers from 1981 to 1989, when Swarthmore awarded her man who has demeaned her, diminished her, and made her an honorary L.H.D. In 1984, she received a MacArthur Fellows feel small and worthless. But we have made it our song. We Award, which allowed her to pursue creative work in her field. are beating the rhythm with our bodies, in heartfelt empathy, In 1991, author James Michener ’29 established an endowed in total identification. We are pounding our feet, raising our professorship in her name at the College. fists, flashing our eyes, and singing along. Every party we go In addition to her tenured work in sociology at Harvard, to, every time we crash or jam or jive, we put on Aretha’s studying the educational ecology of families, schools, and com- “Respect.” munities, Dr. Lawrence-Lightfoot has published widely. Her Aretha’s anthem is a women’s wail, but the men shout it books include Worlds Apart: Relationships Between Families out as loud as we do as they join the groove. Here we are— and Schools (1978); and the award-winning The Good High children of the sixties—serious students, dedicated activists, School: Portraits of Character and Culture (1983), Balm in hanging-out hippies, irreverent beatniks—wearing black and Gilead: Journey of a Healer (1988), and I’ve Known Rivers: thumbing our noses at authority, joining peace marches and Lives of Loss and Liberation (1994). growing our Afros, questioning power in all its guises. Here Lawrence-Lightfoot, sister of Paula Lawrence Wehmiller ’67 we are dancing “Respect,” demanding it, claiming it. At other and mother of Martin and Tolani (the West African name that times, our longing sounds more like a prayer: “Please dear means “one who gives respect and one who is respected”) Lord, dear parents, dear teachers, show us a little respect! traces the origins of high regard back to family models in her See us, hear us, pay attention.” most recent work, Respect: An Exploration (1999). The intro- Aretha’s voice fades into a vision of a beautiful little East duction and Chapter 3—highlighting the mutuality of esteem African girl whom I met in 1976 while traveling in Kenya. She and focusing on the positive exchange between teachers and is four years old and speaks four languages with astounding students—are excerpted here. fluency. I meet her, ask her name, and she tells me, “I’m Tolani.” I love the name, its lilting, musical sound, and decide From the book Respect. Copyright © 1999 by Sara Lawrence- immediately that if I ever have a daughter, I will name her Lightfoot. A Merloyd Lawrence Book. Reprinted by permission Tolani. Much later I discover the name’s meaning. In fact, it is of Perseus Publishing. All rights reserved. a West African name, used by both boys and girls; and it

22 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN means “one who gives respect and one who is respected.” respect is motivated by more than personal memories, how- How I love its meaning, its promise of symmetry, as much as ever. I am also drawn to the concept because it holds its music. You get respect when you give it. When my daugh- increasing importance for public and private life today. ter arrives four years later, I name her Tolani, and hope that When we worry about the deterioration of civility, street vio- she will live both sides of this resonant equation. lence, the lack of decorum and safety in our schools, the Thinking about my small daughter’s name sends me fur- invasions of privacy by the press, harassment in the work- ther back to my own childhood; to watching my parents operate in many spheres, observing the ways they treated everyone with the same evenhanded generosity and deference whether conferring with a university president or greeting the gas station attendant. Whether they were listening to an elder’s wise, weathered tales or deciphering the tangled story of a young child, there was always this clear-eyed, full attention. When my father died in 1986, my brother gave the eulogy, his intimate, loving view of a very public man. Chuck’s voice cracked as he recalled one of our father Charles’s loveli- est qualities.

Charles had a natural air of authority about him. He commanded respect without ever asking for it. In high school, my rowdiest friends—the guys who stole hub- caps and crashed parties—were perfect gentlemen in my father’s presence. They’d stand and say “yes, sir, Dr. Lawrence,” and answer his many questions about school and home and where their parents and grandparents were from. It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened to the fourth-grade kid in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a bishop or college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say. And although he had the intellectual and physical tools to outmuscle a smaller person or mind, he never bullied. He gained your allegiance by offering you his strength, not by threatening to overpower you.

My mother Margaret shared her husband’s quiet authority. I remember watching her at her work as a psy- chiatrist treating inner-city families at Harlem Hospital. I remember her sitting comfortably on a tiny child’s chair, pulling play people and cars and balloons out of her JOHN HANCOCK large African bag. Sometimes she brought a loaf of her homemade “Maggie Bread” to be offered in bite-sized The journey toward mutual pieces for a hungry child. I remember the way a child responded with trust to her serious, nurturant gaze. The understanding is not necessarily parents’ bodies would relax as they listened to her soothing voice and began to appreciate the intelligence peaceful or comfortable. and bravery she saw in their son. Her reverent respect for the child and his family was always in evidence. It is full of minefields. My interest in exploring the underlying nature of

MARCH 2000 23 place, and the dirty language and offensive gestures that fill anyone, but as a way to explore and connect. Five days a our daily encounters, we often cite lack of respect as the rea- week, Kay tries to provoke dialogue, encourage risk taking, son that our social fabric is tearing. Likewise, when we suffer and sustain the trust in her classes at Weston High, an afflu- the private assaults of infidelity, emotional and physical ent, suburban school with a fine academic reputation west abuse, even misunderstanding and isolation, we often see of Boston. Although Kay enjoys these students and is the roots of the pain as originating in disrespectful attitudes inspired by teaching in this privileged environment, her and behavior. Every morning the newspaper contains a career—which spans over thirty years—has been an eclectic story that echoes the words of Aretha’s anthem: pleas for mix of suburban and urban, rich and poor, and white and respect from people who have been violated, neglected, or black schools. In all these settings, she has earned a reputa- ignored by loved ones, acquaintances, strangers, or public tion as an inspiring and creative teacher whose intellectual figures. Courts are filled with juveniles who have been prowess, eclectic repertoire, and passion make her a force thrown out of their homes and cast out of school for their to be reckoned with. “She definitely disturbs the inertia,” delinquent behavior. The judge may or may not give them says one of her colleagues with obvious admiration in his time in juvenile detention, but she will almost always give voice. In this school system, filled with an experienced and them a sermon on respect. In September, in almost every aging faculty, which “tends to rest on its laurels,” Kay com- classroom across the country, teachers begin the year with bines team playing with stretching the rules, realistic goals admonitions and rituals that have respect as their central with idealism, and comforting rituals with risk taking. message. And parents lament the ways in which their off- spring do not show them the respect that they remember Nurturing Inquiry giving to their parents when they were young. N AN AFFLUENT SCHOOL SYSTEM with a reputation for excel- In order for us to explore the rich phenomenon of Ilence, Kay knows that teachers and administrators can respect, we must ourselves engage in respectful dialogue, easily begin to feel satisfied with the status quo. They may one built on relationships that move toward symmetry and start to resist change as they adopt the habits and routines intimacy. Our dialogue captures our full attention, allows us that have worked so well for so long. She also knows that if to take risks, explore silences, and challenge our inhibitions. she asks for permission to do the offbeat and provocative The attentive, healing power of such a relationship, the life- things she wants to do, the superintendent or principal may enhancing glow of respect given and gained, is an experience balk, a reluctance often based on fear of litigation. If she goes I would wish for all my readers. ahead and does what she thinks is “intellectually and spiritu- ally enriching” for the students—stretching their minds, raising hard questions—she believes that it will usually work Dialogue out. Kay sometimes risks reprimand ... , but she is willing to I have spread my dreams under your feet tolerate the occasional slap on her wrist in order to teach in Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. a way that she believes is challenging and productive for students. —William Butler Yeats, Kay’s focused attention is revealed in her subtle respons- “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” es, and her probing questioning, which asks them to articu- AKING ONESELF VULNERABLE is an act of trust and respect, late their thinking process. “How did you arrive at these Mas is receiving and honoring the vulnerability of choices?” she asks each student in different ways.... Kay’s another. Such an offering of oneself aligns with Martin students seem to be used to her style of questioning, which Buber’s idea that a person who says “You” does not “have” invites reflection, introspection, and criticism. They know something, but “stands in relation.” Dreams, when “offered,” that in Mrs. Cottle’s class there are no right or wrong do not become the possession of the other. They represent answers, only opportunities to deepen the dialogue. the trust and respect that forges a connection. Yeats’s offer- In every class she teaches, Kay works to create a place for ing of dreams shows the power of trust and respect, as a the “meeting” of minds and hearts; for communication—in generative force, in relationships. He also conveys the risk: all its myriad forms and guises. She claims that whether she how will it be received? is teaching sixth-graders or twelfth-graders, honors courses Kay Cottle, a teacher of middle and high school students, or heterogeneous classes, she always hopes for the same sees the mutual trust that is so crucial to teaching and learn- result: that her students will begin to experience the excite- ing. Her students begin to learn how to question, listen, and ment of inquiry, the adventure of learning, and that they will receive, when they feel safe enough to begin to take risks begin to take responsibility for their own work. Her respect and to make themselves vulnerable to one another; when for her students makes her hate rote learning and work their ideas are offered as “dreams,” not to be possessed by against empty rituals and classroom routines. She works for

24 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN student involvement and engagement, by provoking debate, ness of his language and the ways he dealt with everyone challenging assumptions, and pushing the boundaries of with great civility and fairness. “When he would be working learning. with an architect, and they would have different views of the project, my father was wonderful in the way he would help Legacy of Trust the person see the problem, and find a way of solving it AY COTTLE FEELS THE IMPRINT OF HOME in the way she crafts together. He had a way of mediating and communicating Krelationships with her students and “grows” respect in ideas without being dictatorial or authoritarian.” the classroom. The lessons that seem to have informed Kay’s teaching Her mother, Eloise Michelson, a portrait artist, had cap- the most flow from intimate moments she spent with her tured the faces and spirits of three generations of children in father when they would go fishing, hiking, or camping St. Louis. Her clients liked not only her artistry, but also her together. Kay still savors these moments. As the second sensitive and perceptive way with their children. Kay daughter in the family, and as someone who loved vigorous physical activity and the out-of-doors, Kay assumed the role most often taken by the son in a family. “We did things the sons would do.” She remembers, for example, going to football games with her dad, learning how to chop wood by his side, being instructed in fly fishing, and going for trout fishing expeditions in Colorado. They were always so comfort- Making oneself vulnerable is able together, an alliance and intimacy that was rarely spo- an act of trust and respect, ken about, but one that had a deep impact on Kay. “He was such a wonderful teacher ... so patient and so skilled in as is receiving and honoring choosing such few words of advice. I remember how he the vulnerability of another. helped me retrieve and untangle the line. There was almost complete silence in that moment ... just patience and gentle- ness.” Being the “son” of Eddie Michelson “made me more receptive, and respectful of, the qualities in male and female students.” She has no trouble, for instance, appreciating and decoding the more restrained, unexpressive side of many of her male students whose talk in class tends to be spare and remembers how her mother would take several rolls of pho- unadorned. Neither does she recoil from the boisterous, tographs of the children, and then go down to her darkroom male bravado and humor that often seem to be the counter- in the basement to develop them. “I loved to watch her,” point to their masked silence. Unlike many female teachers, recalls Kay. “It was like magic, mysterious and wonderful.” she finds these characteristic male behaviors neither Eloise would show the array of photos to the parents and unattractive nor puzzling.... Having watched the passion ask them to choose the photograph of their child that they underneath her father’s reserve and the deep connections liked the best. Their choices were often surprising. Instead he made with folks that didn’t require paragraphs of talk, of the prettiest or most likable image, they would often Kay understands how such stereotypes might disadvantage choose the one that conveyed the child’s character or tem- boys and limit the legitimacy of their style in classrooms. perament, or perhaps those qualities that they wanted to She understands that dialogue includes talk and silence. see developed more fully. Kay would watch her mother help Kay’s teaching also embraces Eloise’s “more expressive families navigate these sensitive and important choices. “She side,” the way she liked to communicate with words and pic- would always listen very carefully to them; she was always tures to capture experience. She uses Eloise’s colorful lan- deeply respectful and very generous,” says Kay. The rela- guage, grand gestures, storytelling, and emotionality in her tionships allowed her to create portraits that were “not teaching as well. merely decorative ... My mother wanted to honor the pre- “Teaching in a heterogeneous classroom makes me ciousness and uniqueness of each person.” always feel like I’m coming home. The variety, the differences Kay learned equally powerful lessons from her father, feel very familiar to me since I was raised by parents who Eddie, who was a civil engineer and contractor.... Eddie was were so distinctly different. First I want to help my students a man of few words who rarely felt the need to elaborate or enjoy the differences. I want them to appreciate the incredi- embellish. But this did not mean that he had any difficulty ble variety of feelings and thought ... then I want them to communicating. In fact, Kay remembers admiring the spare- work together to find a common ground.”

MARCH 2000 25 Forging Connections LTHOUGH THE GREAT CONTRASTS that Kay saw in her parents “Respect has to be earned; Aseem to have fueled her appreciation for the range and variety among her students, it is her relationship with her it has to grow. Teachers must older sister that seems to have motivated her to find “common ground.” “We were very different,” she begins. “There facilitate that attitude, was tension and misunderstanding in our differences. I was that opening of minds.” always active, adventurous. I am sure that she considered me childish and immature, and I sometimes felt diminished by that.” Kay is struggling to be fair, but her voice reveals the still lingering disappointment and the lost moments of intimacy. The differences that led to distance were never articulated, confronted, or resolved. Kay believes that the lack of connection and resolution with her big sister, whom create a respectful classroom environment that makes it she admired and always wanted to know and be close to, safe for people to speak their minds, that encourages may have been an impulse behind her desire to help her stu- diverse views, that “questions authority” and “questions the dents forge connections. “When you don’t fully solve prob- facts of history.” lems that get in the way of a harmonious relationship, you “I don’t feel I have to exert a disciplinary attitude,” says find a way of recreating or rehearsing those in your adult Kay. Quite the opposite. The respect she enjoys and projects life. There is a desire to play it again.” grows out of a symmetry and mutuality all around, “a gen- Kay refers to the work and patience involved. “Respect uine appreciation of one another.” As a matter of fact, it is has to be earned; it has to grow. Teachers must facilitate rarely a conscious concern of Kay’s, because the respectful that attitude, that opening of minds.” As the months go by, regard among students is usually quite “naturally” the students become more familiar with Kay’s values and expressed. Kay notices it only by its absence, by the “lapses” style, and more comfortable with one another. The conver- that symbolize a “major breakdown” in the usual patterns. sation “deepens” and the discussion becomes more dynam- When a student is “rude or uncivil” or mean to another stu- ic and authentic. dent, or even when a student sits “passively” by and refuses Kay wants to make sure that I understand that the jour- to “buy into the process,” she sees a rupture in the respect- ney toward mutual understanding is not necessarily peaceful relationships. In the former case—of outright rudeness or ful or comfortable. It is full of minefields. It requires that peo- animosity—she speaks directly and publicly about it. In the ple be “ready to put themselves out there.” The pretense of latter case of student passivity, the remedy is often more harmony never leads to the kind of vigorous questioning and complicated and subtle, and usually private. She will find the “interweaving of ideas” that is the bedrock of respect. “To student in the cafeteria over lunch (Kay makes it a point to pretend to understand is a cardinal sin in my classroom,” speak privately with all of her students at some point during exhorts Kay as if she is describing the worst possible trans- the semester), and speak with him about his reticence, urge gression. “If you sit there passively, not learning, not taking his participation, and cheer him on. “The more you give to advantage of the moment ... ” Her voice drifts off as she this enterprise, the more you will get from it” or “We need remembers her own English teacher in high school. “She you! ... your contribution is valuable to the rest of us.” Often helped me learn that agreement and consensus are not this private engagement works to draw out students. They always the best thing.” feel seen, listened to, and challenged. They begin to feel “Real curiosity often gets knocked out of kids during their known. early schooling and almost disappears by the time they “I want a level playing field,” says Kay to express the sym- reach high school. I so much want them to enjoy what hap- metry of power that good teaching requires. pens when you raise a significant avenue of inquiry or find a way of formulating a good question. Storytelling “Questions are my major mode,” says Kay. She is con- NOTHER WAY IN WHICH KAY FORGES a “meeting” of minds and stantly asking her students, “How could you make this clear- Ahearts in her classroom is through stories. One story er?” or “How did you make the choices you’ve made?” She invites another as the teacher and her students weave more admits that her approach is partly fueled by her “rebellion and more human connection. “In lots of ways,” says Kay, against the autocratic style” of so many teachers. “I will not “teaching is storytelling ... It is the place where lives can call on students or single them out or force them to partici- meet.” pate,” she says. Such an approach can both humiliate stu- During the discussion of magic and intuition mentioned dents and diminish their power. She would much prefer to earlier, Kay offers a story she heard: “I have a horrible story

26 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN that illustrates that point ... A friend of ours, about your age, the tension between head and heart, closeness and distance. was with his friend up in New Hampshire swimming in a She hopes that her students will develop a “passion about river where there was a big rope vine that swung out over the beauty of ideas”; that they will learn to “merge these craggy rocks and landed you in the water. His friend took the realms”; that they will “learn to talk from the heart.” “Some- first leap and crossed over the rocks, landing in the water. times,” she says, “I even think the discussion gets too intel- But when it came to my friend, he was feeling this big fear ... lectual; it needs to be disturbed and challenged ... by humor He grabbed the vine, hesitated, and fell on the rocks. He hurt or passion, or irrationality.” himself very badly. His fear and the ensuing hesitation ... his As I listen to Kay, I feel completely identified. In my own inability to imagine himself doing it, might have led to the teaching of graduate students at Harvard, I have thought fall.” about, and used, stories in many of the same ways as Kay Kay’s students are riveted by her story; for the first time does: as counterpoint to abstraction, as an opportunity for they seem totally absorbed.... After several students speak, improvisation, as a way to develop greater symmetry with each contribution building on the last one, Kay concludes my students, and as a way to encourage the “meeting of with an exclamation and a question. “... Can we see a distinc- minds and hearts.” ... I use stories—selectively and strategi- tion between seers and prophets and ordinary people who cally—as a way of grounding the abstractions, as a way of possess intuitive intelligence?” illustrating the concepts, and as a way of reducing the fear. Even though Kay recognizes the ways in which stories But I also use stories—as Kay does—to create deeper give shape, texture, and depth to classroom discourse, she connections with my students, to reveal the universal also believes that teachers must be strategic and restrained human themes that we share, and to bridge the realms of in their storytelling; that stories can become opportunities thinking and feeling. As the one hundred and fifty students for narcissistic excursions, for the teacher’s catharsis and sitting in the lecture hall hear my stories—of awkwardness self-indulgence. So Kay tries to be very conscious about and confusion during my own adolescence, of struggles, when, how, and for what purpose she might use a story in humiliations, and tender moments with my teenage daugh- class. First of all, she tries very hard to let her students’ ter, of learning a new computer program at age fifty under stories, illustrations, insights, and experiences dominate the the tutelage of my thirteen-year-old son, each story embroi- discussion. If their voices and perspectives are productively dered into narratives that illustrate central ideas in the engaged, she feels it is “wrong” to interrupt the flow or inject course—they begin to see themselves reflected in my experi- her story into the discussion.... Kay also hopes that her stu- ences, and they respond with feeling and insight, passion dents will see some of the values embedded in her narra- and analysis. In these moments of personal revelation they tive—loyalty, honesty, and friendship—that were being chal- also experience my vulnerability, my trust, and my respect. lenged during her adolescence. She also wants to make herself more accessible, more open, more real to them. “I want Risk and Faith them to see me as human, as imperfect, as someone with LTHOUGH KAY’S EXPERIENCES WITH HER STUDENTS at Weston feet of clay.” She says adamantly, “I want to show my respect AHigh have been almost uniformly and mutually respect- for them as peers. I want to treat them as friends.” ful, in her three decades of teaching she has not always been Kay recognizes, of course, that there is some risk in being as fortunate. Respect, after all, grows best in an environment so personally revelatory. Students may begin to feel threat- where teachers feel supported and nourished in their work; ened by the intimacy or the passion; they may feel that some where the school culture allows a focus on teaching and boundary has been crossed, and retreat from the discourse. learning; and where teachers feel able to foster trust, ques- Or they may feel that the teacher’s voice overwhelms their tioning, and risk. own; that there is no way that they can match the nuances For Kay, ... “Teaching is loaded with risk. Good teachers of her narrative or the depth of her experience. Or they may are comfortable with this. And adolescents often define not be able to trace the connections between the autobio- themselves by testing, by flirting with danger, by pushing up graphical excursions and the larger concepts or ideas that against the rules and defying the laws of gravity. To be in the stories illustrate. sync with that, as a teacher, you sometimes have to take a Kay also knows within herself the feelings of overexpo- leap of faith ... and you must often make the decision to leap sure; the times when she has left the class with the aching in a millisecond. Timing is everything. There is always the sensation that she has given away too much; or when she possibility that it will not work out ... Of course, you would suspects that the intimate storytelling might offend the never knowingly take a risk that would hurt a student. No, other adults in the school who have a more restricted sense the risks usually come from a different place. Risks are about of what is appropriate classroom fare. the teacher seeming too open, too candid, too childlike to Kay, too, emphasizes the ways stories create intimate students ... so that it looks out of character with what stu- conversations across boundaries.... Because “blurring dents think that teachers should be doing. You are—quite boundaries” is her “philosophical stance,” Kay does not feel simply—risking their respect.” I

MARCH 2000 27 Somewhere in America a television explodes ! & here you are again "again#! asking me to explain the broken glass$ —Sherman Alexie, “Introduction to Native American Literature”

er class has the same title as this poem, and, not surprisingly, Visit- Hing Instructor in English Litera- ture Michelle Hermann thinks it is the perfect poem to discuss on the first day. But before Michelle decides to prompt her 11 students for their reactions to it, she takes time to explain the class. “This is a Native American literature course,” she informs them, “but you won’t get ‘the whole truth’ about Native Americans. This is not an anthropology course. I don’t think it’s possible to teach a ‘people’ in a course. You’ll instead get a variety of Native American perspectives as they are presented in a variety of literary genres. This is the case with any minority literature class.” Students learn that Native American literature encompasses more than 2,000 languages, nations, and communities, and spans an area from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America. “So this class raises more questions about what ʼ 67 constitutes Native American literature than a list of qualifications,” she says.

You scour the reservation landfill ! STEVEN GOLDBLATT through the debris of so many lives: ! old guitar% basketball on fire% pair of shoes$ ! All you bring me is an empty bottle$ he course is Hermann’s third since NativeVoices Tshe arrived on campus last spring. Following Native American Autobiogra- In her Native American literature course% phy and Earlier Native American Litera- Michelle Hermann teaches about identity and experience$ ture, this semester’s course examines writings by and about Native Americans By Alisa Giardinelli in a host of genres. “My primary goal is to broaden my face value is Hermann. While introduc- at San Francisco State University, students’ understanding of what consti- ing herself to the class, Hermann UC–Berkeley, and at San Quentin tutes Indian identity and experience,” describes her own background. “My Prison’s college program. This reference Hermann says. “The experience is so mother is Seneca, and my father is Ger- raises a few eyebrows, even at 8:30 a.m. diverse; I could never cover it in one man-American,” she says. She later “It was such a wonderful teaching semester. I want to teach everything, explains that students often ask her, so experience, and so surprising,” she says. but it’s impossible to do that.” she likes to anticipate their questions. “A lot of my stereotypes of who I Hermann wants students to acquire a “I don’t think it at all authenticates thought I would be teaching were com- healthy skepticism. “I hope they ques- my research or pedagogy,” she says. pletely shattered. A lot of the young tion everything they hear or thought to “My experiences and my anecdotes may men looked just like Berkeley students. be true about Native Americans,” she be more interesting in relation to what They had a keen intellectual curiosity says. “My classes are not correctives, we are reading, but I challenge the and were really excited to read different and I’m not providing the ‘truth’. But assumption that my statements are things.” they can learn not to take everything at infallible based on my identity.” Hermann taught English composition face value.” During her personal introduction, at San Quentin for a year while in gradu- One thing they learn not to take at Hermann mentions her teaching stints ate school. “One student told me that at

28 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN night, he used to sneak reading the used part of her fellowship to study Because you sleep ! does not mean you Bible,” she says. “Now, he said he Aboriginal culture in Australia. see into my dreams$ sneaks reading James Baldwin. I thought Wagaman first got to know Hermann that was great, that reading after curfew when she took her Native American ngaging her students is one of Her- is prohibited but self-edifying.” autobiography class. “Her course was Emann’s challenges, and she relishes Hermann sees the positive effects of one of the most important I have experi- it. Last spring, she took her class to the her prison work in the college classes enced in my time at college,” she says. “I Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pa., she now leads. “Teaching there made frequently came out of class with my the country’s first off-reservation board- me more excited about teaching in gen- mind buzzing and wanting to talk about ing school for Native American children. eral,” she says. “I learned how to engage all of these things with my friends. The Although it closed in 1918, many of its students and how to effectively use atmosphere she created was conducive buildings, and its cemetery, still stand. small group discussions. I had to make to the best type of learning.” “We were reading autobiographies,” things like the eight parts of speech Hermann’s influence on Wagaman Hermann says, “including one by Luther interesting, so I also learned to mix it up has been more than academic. “I don’t Standing Bear, a member of the school’s and not teach the same way every day.” look overtly Native American,” Waga- first graduating class. Visiting the school man says, “so I was tentative to bring it provided a living link to him.” Am I the garbageman of your dreams? up in class. I didn’t want everything I In addition to learning a part of his said to be taken as the Native American story firsthand, students discovered ne of Hermann’s passions outside of perspective.” this largely unknown aspect of Native Oclass involves beadwork and things Now, Wagaman says, that has American history. “The children sent to she finds at flea markets. In December, changed. “More and more, I’m a lot the school had never been away from she submitted an example of her own more confident about identifying,” she home, and it took days to get there,” unique style of beadwork for a staff and says. “Now I don’t feel like I have to look Hermann says. “It was like going into the faculty art exhibit at the List Gallery of Native American to tell people I am unknown. Often only a few children the Lang Performing Arts Center. Native American. That partly comes were sent to Carlisle from any one tribe, “The piece had beads and shells and from Michelle’s class. She helped me so they couldn’t always communicate porcupine quills,” she says, “juxtaposed realize it’s a universal question—how with each other in any language. But with doll faces, the kind old ladies buy do minorities function in mainstream because they were children, they had a and make dolls out of. All of my friends, society?” great sense of humor about it, and they even artists, think it’s the most hilarious Hermann knows what a tough ques- learned different survival skills they thing they’ve ever seen.” tion that is to answer. “I feel like I have a never would have otherwise. I’d like to Why dolls? “I never played with dolls, responsibility to students who identify go there again this semester. That but I’m obsessed with the idea of dolls as Native American,” she says. “There school is the quintessential one of it’s and how they shape our idea of beauty are so few professors who are Native kind.” in America. I like to explore the dividing American, but it’s good to have role line between what is beauty and what models in higher education. I try to In the end it will pick you up from the may be a little grotesque or unsettling.” make myself as accessible as possible.” pavement ! & take you to the tribal cafe Her next piece follows a similar path. Wagaman credits Hermann with help- for breakfast$ ! It will read you the menu$ ! “I’m working on something now that ing her decide to share her experiences It will not pay your half of the bill$ incorporates beadwork and limbless with the College. “Knowing Michelle has Barbie dolls I found in a thrift store in been incredibly invaluable,” she says. “I efore their first day in class, Her- Phoenix,” she laughs. went to her house for dinner when I was Bmann’s students may have been thinking about starting a Native Ameri- more familiar with Sherman Alexie’s Because you have seen the spine of the can student group with Aurelio Perez 1998 award-winning movie Smoke Sig- mountain ! does not mean you made the ’02. Michelle was very supportive of the nals than with his poetry. But that soon climb$ idea and generous in offering her own changed. time and efforts. I was abroad last “This class is exciting,” she says. ermann helped make history at semester, but I’m going to give it an all- “There is a lot of give and take. You HSwarthmore last year as well. This out go during this one.” have to be willing to ask questions if you year is the first, in the more than 10 the Hermann understands the kind of read something you don’t understand. program has existed at Swarthmore, role such a group could play on cam- In any class, this should be true—but that the College’s Mellon undergraduate pus, having benefited from one while especially here because most students fellow is Native American. Hermann she was in graduate school. “At Berke- never learned anything about Indian his- nominated Stacy Wagaman ’01 for the ley,” she says, “there was an organiza- tory in school except for fleeting refer- fellowship and is now her faculty mention just for Native American graduate ences to the Trail of Tears or Wounded tor. students, and there were 40 self-identi- Knee. Alexie and the other authors are “It’s a bit intimidating, being the first- fied Native American grad students on asking readers to be more active and ever Native American invited into the campus. It’s great to meet people who take more responsibility for educating program,” Wagaman says. A hopeful are going through the same experi- themselves.” double major in political science and ences. The onus to represent things in Michelle Hermann should know. She English from Baltimore, she has already class is not always on you.” asks for that commitment, too. I

NOVEMBERMARCH 2000 1991 29 uaker matchbox is “a play on words,” said Mary Ellen Grafflin QChijioke ’67, curator of the Swarthmore’s Friends Historical Library. “It refers to both the small size of the College and its proclivity for matchmaking,” she added. Tracing the matchbox origins further, Paul Mangelsdorf Jr. ’49, the Morris L. MATCHBOX Clothier Professor Emeritus of Physics who married Mary Burnside ’48, said: “Much earlier in the last century, many young people got married as soon as they finished College. Those who went FLAMES to co-ed colleges tended to marry one another in disproportion, so any small co-ed college was a ‘matchbox’; because there weren’t many of these in the East, spark enduring it was more noticeable here.” In addition, “Swarthmore, being notably Quak- er in those days—the telephone operator addressed all callers as ‘thee’—this alumni unions was the ‘Quaker matchbox.’” Evolving from its strictly Quaker roots, which nonetheless influence many at the College, the matchbox now embraces a spectrum of alumni couples, reflecting the diversity of the campus itself. To represent the College’s matchmaking tradition, the following eight couples—one selected from each decade and categorized by the husband’s class year when relevant— describe the Swarthmore values that have shaped and guided their relationships, often enduring across generations. The Torch Still Burns he flame uniting John “Jack” ’29 and TEvelyn “Sunny” Taylor Patterson McBride ’32, the oldest living Swarth- more couple, burned steadily over their lifetime—even though they spent most of their years apart. Sunny and Jack, former College sweethearts, were reunited just eight years ago after each of their first spouses died. Their spark first ignited nearly 70 years ago, when Jack was a senior at the College, and he gave Sunny—who is “very proud of having graduated from Swarthmore”—his fraternity pin. But on the winding roads of life, his first job took him to New York, where he began a career that eventually led him up the ranks as a General Electric manager, Percy Bigland’s painting Friends Wedding hangs in Bond Hall. married Elizabeth Posson, and had three children. In the meantime, Sunny FRIENDS HISTORICAL LIBRARY OF SWARTHMORE COLLEGE Patterson lived in New York; New Haven; Boston; and Delray Beach, Fla., By Andrea Hammer with husband William “Wick” Wicker-

30 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN sham ’29, who was a self-employed manufacturer’s representative, and with whom she had two children. After Wick’s death in 1976, Sunny traveled extensively to Paris, Stock- holm, Moscow, Africa, Morocco, and Shanghai. Jack was living in Harrods Creek, Ky., enjoying simple pleasures like golfing and painting. In January 1989, Sunny settled into Bentley Village, a retirement community in Naples, Fla., extending her many active years as a fellow golfer and traveler. When Sunny read in Class Notes that Jack’s wife died in June 1990, she wrote him a letter, recharging the connection first formed in their college years. “The torch still burns,” Jack wrote back to Sunny, leading to his relocation to her home in Florida and their second marriage on March 19, 1993, with a justice of the peace and five others present. “We split everything halfway, and we’re used to each other,” Sunny said. Ben ’37 and Elizabeth Stubbs Cooper ’38, whose first date was at the Describing his bride as the person who “Sadie Hawkins” dance, have enjoyed a 60-year marriage. has influenced his life the most, this 93 year old still elicits a whispered comment from his wife. An Overflowing Cup Sept. 23, 1939, in the Brooklyn Friends “Wait a minute,” Sunny said as he en ’37 and Elizabeth Stubbs Cooper Meetinghouse, with many of our College passed by her before they headed off B’38 had their first date at the “Sadie friends present,” she said. “We didn’t for an afternoon nap together. Lowering Hawkins” dance, when she was a fresh- decide to marry until we had jobs and her voice, she said with a giggle, “He’s a man and he a sophomore. “Swarthmore could afford it.” good kid.” in the 1930s was a very close group of Shortly after graduating with High students,” said Stubby, who Honors and receiving the McCabe Engi- was an English major and histo- neering Award, Ben joined General Elec- ry minor. tric Company in Schenectady, N.Y., as “We did not have cars and an engineer. He later transferred to a stayed on campus most week- position with the company in Waynes- ends. There was a social com- boro, Va., where he and Stubby now mittee that set up events for us, live. including parties in fraternity In earlier correspondence with the houses,” she said. “Collection College, Ben, now retired, said: “Our was on the second floor of Par- business has increased approximately rish, where, after dinner, 10 times since moving to Waynesboro, dances were held to record and with it have come many satisfying music.” During this period at years working with our people in the College, when strict rules accomplishing these technical required students to be in their advances.... In our personal lives, my rooms by 10 o’clock, a “date” wife, Elizabeth, and I have been very for- often meant simply walking tunate. Our family of two boys and one around the campus. girl have developed well, are all married, Other common interests for and we now have a total of nine grand- Ben and Stubby included children. So you can see our cup is over- sports. He played football and flowing.” lacrosse at the College, and she Stubby also believes that they “both played basketball, field hockey, benefited from our education greatly— and tennis. helping us to raise three children to Both Quakers, Ben and Stub- maturity and be contributors to our John ’29 and Evelyn Taylor Patterson McBride ’32, by attended the Swarthmore community.” Their second son, Richard, the oldest living Swarthmore couple, reconnected Friends Meeting while at the works for Architectural Precast Con- eight years ago and now live in Naples, Fla. College. “We were married on crete Co., and daughter Nancy teaches

MARCH 2000 31 “ warthmore placed an emphasis on values and S looked for students who were committed to these.”

special education students. Ben ’63, executive director of the Association of Oil Pipelines, also previously served as staff director of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, form- ing government and energy policies and programs. “Our oldest son graduated 25 years after I did, and we have reunions during the same years,” she added. Ben and Stubby have attended most of their reunions regularly over the years, and both have served as class agents. “Trust and honesty are the basis of everything,” Ben said, and Stubby agreed. “We have also been lucky to have good health,” she said.

Saddle Shoes, “Sloppy Joe” Sweaters, and Hair Flowers

hen Henry Leader ’42 played Ping- WPong on the second floor of Par- rish, Doris Morrell’s [’44] curly black hair, saddle shoes, and oversized “sloppy joe” sweaters caught his eye. Passing through the Collection area, which was the student center at that time, to her dorm room, “Dorrie would have on a red sweater, with a red flower in her hair, one day; the next, she would wear a yellow sweater and yellow flower,” Henry remembered wistfully. “It took me time to work up the Henry ’42 and Doris Morrell Leader ’44, married for 53 years, courage to take advantage of the social say one secret of a good relationship is flexibility. situation at Swarthmore,” he said. But, finally, when Henry was a senior and ing this thought and the rest of their which time we had become engaged,” Dorrie a sophomore, he asked her out story in the background, Dorrie added, he said. “Because of her organized on a “druggie date”—radically different “We had the Swarthmore stamp on us mother, we were married three weeks from today’s reference—for a fountain as a self-selected group.” later. I recommend that to anyone plan- soda and a sticky bun at Michael’s Phar- They were separated, though, when ning a wedding.” macy around 9 p.m. Henry graduated in 1942 and went to After 53 years of marriage, 4 chil- To “neck,” they had to go to Crum Yale law school. But Dorrie wrote a let- dren—including Martha ’71 and Eliza- Woods, where Henry kept running into a ter that “gave me new hope,” Henry beth ’73, and 5 grandchildren, Henry fence. But, like all good partners, Dorrie said. Dorrie visited Henry at Yale before revealed the secret of a good relation- “helped him find their special bench.” he went to war overseas. Then, they ship in one simple word: flexibility. Of his common bond with Dorrie, Henry saw each other only when Henry had “Henry has been supportive of my said, “Swarthmore placed an emphasis furloughs, and, for two-and-a-half years, work as a civil rights activist,” Dorrie on values and looked for students who while Henry served in Italy, “We corre- added appreciatively. “We have grown were committed to these.” Supplement- sponded until I returned in May 1946, by and changed together.”

32 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN “Inner Light” and Simplicity harlie ’57 and Anne Parker Oden- Cweller ’59 met on her third day at Swarthmore. One evening after dinner, each freshman drew a slip of paper from a basket, indicating a designated place to eat dessert. “My slip of paper said the Delta Upsilon (DU) fraternity, so down I went,” said Anne. “I think we had name tags that included our hometowns; so when I went to the DU house, Charlie came up and talked to me because he had had a roommate from my home- town, Port Washington, N.Y.” They started eating lunch and dinner together almost every day and sitting in the parlors after dinner. “Charlie used to help me with my math homework,” The Quaker commitment to a life of simplicity—and a life without conflict—has Anne continued. “In those days, no one guided the relationship of Charlie ’57 and Anne Parker Odenweller ’59. had a car on campus, and we didn’t have any money either. So we attended feel at home on the campus despite tough stick around.” She also recom- College sporting events and festivities at many new buildings and changes since mends choosing your partner careful- the DU house.” They were married on our time there.” ly—“either someone like yourself or June 20, 1959, just a few days after Now retired, Charlie enjoys travel, someone whose personality and Anne’s graduation. golf, tennis, pastry making, and other strengths will complement yours.” An English major, Anne “was fascinat- gourmet cooking. They are both proud Anne and Charlie, who live in Paoli, ed with the Quaker concepts of the of raising “three intelligent, responsible, Pa., have also made each other and ‘Inner Light’ and ‘Sense of the Meeting’” daughters” and nurturing their 40-year their family their first priority. “Always at the College. “I was impressed with the marriage. believe in the intrinsic goodness of your commitment to a life of simplicity—and “Commit for the long haul,” Anne spouse, and be thankful for the life that a life without conflict—and I admired said. “When the going gets tough, the you have together,” Anne suggested. Quakers for their serenity, inner peace, and carefully thoughtful approach to all things,” she said. “There are probably many other val- “The State of Our Unions” ues that I encountered ... that are so ingrained that I don’t even think about n Swarthmore College: An Informal History, Richard J. Walton states: “And them. But the things that I have men- Ibefore long, when the inevitable marriages resulted, Swarthmore, perhaps tioned made a deep impression on me just as inevitably, became known as ‘the little Quaker matchbox.’ ... Accord- and have influenced the way that I inter- ing to an Alumni Office report of January 1986, 1,067 Swarthmore women are act, not just with Charlie, but in other married to Swarthmore men, or vice versa, making a total of 2,134 out of situations where I have had the oppor- 14,592 alumni. This rather large percentage is no doubt swelled by a number tunity to be a leader,” including 35 years of widows, widowers, and divorced alumni.” in the Valley Forge chapter of the Ameri- Mirroring national statistics based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, can Association of University Women. indicating a 43 percent decrease in marriages during the last four decades, Both Anne and Charlie, who was an the number of Swarthmore marriages has also nearly halved since the 1980s. engineering major, “treasure the friend- In January 2000, a total of 1,218 currently partnered graduates out of 17,190 ships that we made at Swarthmore and living alumni were identified in Swarthmore records. The 1920s produced 1 keep in touch with some of our class- surviving couple, representing the entire decade; the 1930s made 40 matches; mates and friends from other classes. the 1940s paired 129 couples; the 1950s created 191 partnerships; the 1960s We try not only to attend but to help marked 196 marriages; the 1970s helped 214 couples connect; the 1980s plan and work on our class reunions, claimed the highest record of 260 matches; and the 1990s united 187 couples. and we find those gatherings to be Supporting these matches, “The State of Our Unions: The Social Health of heartwarming.” Marriage in America,” a study published in June by the Rutgers University Anne, who has worked as both an National Marriage Project, concludes that “most Americans continue to prize exercise instructor and an editor, said: and value marriage as an important life goal.” The findings of this study—sug- “Whenever I see our Swarthmore gesting that the marriage benefits of faithfulness, support, trust, and commit- friends, I feel that I can pick up where ment “cannot be found in the marketplace, the workplace, or on the Inter- we left off. I feel comfortable with them net”—are available on the Web at http://marriage.rutgers.edu/State.html. because of our shared experience, and I

MARCH 2000 33 “Our years at Swarthmore were among the best in our lives.” A Bond Melded in Social and Personal Change ichael and Sherryl Browne Graves M’69 met at a square dance during freshman orientation at Swarthmore. “Although I participated in the square dance because it was designed to get you to meet people, Michael played ball in the back of the gym with other guys,” Sherryl said. They did not have classes together during freshman year, but Sherryl and Michael started to socialize by both eating meals and going to parties together. “There were a limited number of African-American students on the campus,” said Sherryl. Because Michael, a political science major with a black studies concentration, and Sherryl, a psychology major, connected early at the College, her “social experience at Swarthmore was a positive one.” Michael and Sherryl were paired for most of their four years at Swarthmore. “Though we had been a couple for a long time,” she said, “many of our classmates predicted that we were the couple most unlikely to succeed, which was probably based on the differences in our interests and personalities.” Marrying in August 1970, Michael and Sherryl later lived in Venezuela for more than six years, when Michael was vice president for Citibank. Now living in Greenwich, Conn., they have maintained contact with Swarthmore classmates since they left the area—both while they were in graduate school and then when and fell in love.” In addition, “I learned Michael and Sherryl Browne Graves ’69 they started professional lives and a to think and met my wife and best met during freshman orientation at the Col- family, including sons Daren and Camar. friend,” he said. lege, while she participated in a square Sherryl, who is chair of the Depart- Later writing to the College about dance, and he played ball with other guys ment of Educational Foundations and their 25th wedding anniversary, Sherryl in the back of the gym. Counseling Programs at Hunter College and Michael wrote: “Our love continues in New York and has published articles to grow and deepen.” Now, after 30 rules about handling conflict. Sherryl on the effects of television on human years of marriage, Sherryl added: “Our thinks that other ways to nurture a good behavior, and Michael, who is currently relationship developed and was main- relationship are “not taking it for grant- a vice president and global fixed-income tained in the context of social and per- ed, accepting and acknowledging that it analyst for Standard New York, Inc., sonal change while we were at the Col- takes work, and being committed to renewed a more direct connection with lege. This served as the basis for the maintaining a relationship with the per- Swarthmore in the late 1980s. long-term development and mainte- son you love.” In previous correspondence with the nance of our marriage.” Another major key, she said, is “for- College, Michael wrote: “Our years at Also contributing to the success of giving your mate in the present so that Swarthmore were among the best of our their longtime bond are a sense of you can be forgiven when you err in the lives. We learned a lot, became adults, humor, complementary interests, and future.”

34 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Scottish Country Dancing “I think the Swarthmore experience lists involving various groups of current and Crossing Generations had a good deal to do with why we are students and alumni and attends so compatible despite the difference in Swarthmore Warders of Imaginative Lit- he paths of Don Cheetham ’73 and age,” she continued. “It fostered and erature events a few times a year to TMelissa Shaner ’93, who graduated 20 nurtured shared values, gave us a joint enjoy role playing and fantasy games. years apart, first crossed in the Lang geographical and intellectual frame of As an extension of the Swarthmore Performing Arts Center in 1993. During a reference, encouraged us to be open- experience, “Both of us have a tendency performance of the Philadelphia Revels minded about discovering other people, to intellectualize issues and problems,” presented on campus, Don was a guest and tweaked our senses of humor in Don said. “Speaking for myself, and dancer, and Melissa was working back- similar directions.” probably for her, I tend to overanalyze stage. Don added: “What I find intriguing is issues, options, implications, and sub- They soon discovered a common that Swarthmore has selected people— meanings.... On the other hand, we both interest in Scottish country dancing, over a wide span of time—with whom I will discuss problems, concerns, and which each learned while an undergrad- find myself compatible.” His best man future possibilities rather than avoiding uate. The dance group has a sizable was Geoffrey Selling ’71. “I have many them. It doesn’t mean that all is number of alums and a fluctuating num- friends and acquaintances from the ’70s, resolved, but it does mean that issues ber of students; the 30th Swarthmore running up to current students. Much of are on the table, recognized, and dealt English-Scottish Ball took place in Febru- this connection admittedly comes from with over time. This approach has ary in the Tarble All-Campus Space. the Scottish, English, and folk dance always seemed quintessentially Swarth- One of their early meetings was “sim- community from Swarthmore,” he said. more and has stood us in good stead.” ple and inauspicious enough,” said Don, In addition to attending and organiz- Both Don and Melissa recommend a staff attorney at the Montgomery ing many of the Scottish dance events balancing the need for sharing and per- County Legal Aid Service. “At a dance held on campus regularly, both have sonal “space.” Melissa added: “Keep party off campus, I saw a new person sit- participated on alumni career panels. your sense of humor ... and keep flirt- ting by herself. I went over and intro- Melissa is also on several e-mail chat ing.” duced myself to make her feel welcome. Because I was involved with someone else at the time, we had the opportunity to get to know each other without any pressure. Eventually, the situation changed; we began meeting more seriously.” Don and Melissa, who is development director with the Phila- delphia Young Playwrights Festi- val, have been very involved in the Delaware Valley Branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society. They got to know each other at various parties, classes, and balls and were married on Sept. 12, 1998. “Many of our closest friends, both as a couple and individually, are Swarthmore people, and they are committed to supporting us and our marriage, in addition to being sources of joy for us as individuals,” Melissa said. Her attendants at their wedding were Kristen Jester ’94 and Susan McCready ’92.

Don Cheetham ’73, who wore a kilt at their wedding ceremony, and Melissa Shaner ’93 discovered each other through Scottish country dancing—even though they graduated 20 years apart.

MARCH 2000 35 Oasis of Safety and Support added, “Swarthmore was an oasis of job Swarthmore’s Admissions Office did safety and support that gave Roger and at bringing me together with people acking the option of marriage, Assis- me a venue for a normal, unashamed, who were to become some of my most Ltant Professor of Biology Roger Lath- and confident courtship.” important and lasting friends,” Roger am ’83 and Stephen Demos ’84 date the Stephen spent his spring 1982 said. “Of course, we all chose Swarth- start of their partnership to November semester abroad in Spain, and Roger more as well as having been chosen by 1981. “Even before we knew each visited him at his parents’ home when Swarthmore, and each of us gravitated other’s names, I remember exchanging he returned. “We had written letters toward particular individuals among our friendly smiles and greetings with back and forth while he was away, but I fellow students once we got there. Still, I Stephen on the paths across campus,” wasn’t sure what to expect,” Roger said. give a lot of credit to the institution and Roger said. “We first met at a gathering “I was surprised to find myself ecstati- to the good judgment of certain admis- of the gay student group. It was known cally, intoxicatingly, in love. From then sions officers for making possible the as the Gay Student Union at that time through graduation, we were one of most amazing and fulfilling relationship and, a bit later, the Gay and Lesbian those inseparable ‘dyads’ whom you see of my life.” Union.” They were regular participants together more often than apart, moon- Roger, an ecologist and conservation in the group during their years at ing over each other in their own little biologist, and Stephen still share a Swarthmore. universe.” strong activist commitment, which was “As I was going through the process Since graduation, Stephen and Roger nurtured during their college years. “I of coming out to roommates, friends, have lived just across Crum Creek in am heavily involved in biodiversity con- and family, I relied on the Gay and Les- Wallingford and in Rose Valley, Pa. servation initiatives with the Nature bian Union for support,” said Stephen, “Many of our closest and most enduring Conservancy, Natural Lands Trust, and who is now a high school math teacher. friendships have been with other alumni other organizations and agencies,” “Roger and I worked together with a few and with members of Swarthmore’s fac- Roger said. “We enjoy doing some of other students on that year’s forum on ulty and staff,” Roger said. “Steve has this work as a team, especially when it homosexuality, and one thing led to been a congenial and sociable faculty involves spending time outdoors togeth- another,” he remembered. spouse, attending functions and faculty er.” Stephen currently serves as a volun- “Despite the fact that there existed a get-togethers and taking an interest in teer Delaware and Chester County coor- significant amount of prejudice on cam- my colleagues and their families,” he dinator for the Pennsylvania Gay and pus and that most of the gay/les- added. They also attend reunions regu- Lesbian Alliance, which Roger also bian/bisexual/transgendered faculty larly. actively supports. were closeted at the time,” Stephen “I’ve always marveled at what a great They place a high priority on devoting time to both common—and separate—interests together or apart. “I celebrate him for exactly who he is and support him in being the best and most complete version of that self, with total trust that he will do the same for me,” Roger said. Referring to another key to their long- term relationship, Stephen also praises his “loving, committed gay uncles as exceptional role models.... They were there on Christmas morning when our family opened presents, and they are still there as examples to Roger and me in how to live life fully and joyfully.” In addition to warm and supportive families helping their relationship work, there is “all the usual stuff about love, trust, and understanding that we belong ʼ 67 together forever,” Stephen said. “But that third thing came with maturity and our shared experiences over many years, not with a vow.” In 1991, on the initiative of a close friend Jane Devon Stavis ’83, Stephen’s mother, and other family members and

PHOTO BY STEVEN GOLDBLATT friends, Roger and Stephen had a cele- Assistant Professor of Biology Roger Latham ’83 (right) and Stephen Demos ’84 bration of their first 10 years together. credit the Admissions Office with making their connection possible and providing “We’re looking forward to our 20-year some of the “most important and lasting friends” in their lives. celebration next year,” Roger said.

36 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN “ warthmore’s Smulticultural community encouraged us to pursue an interracial relationship in a nurturing environment.”

Ping-Pong Bounces Laughter—and Later Love— Off the Table

uring the 1988–89 academic year, DSerge ’91 and Anne Danielson-Fran- cois ’90 first met during student orientation. Anne was co-chair of the orientation committee, and Serge was a resi- dent assistant in training. “We were introduced by a mutual friend in Parrish Parlors a few days before the freshmen arrived,” Anne said. I challenged Serge to a game of coordinator from July 1991 to June 1993. Swarthmore’s supportive community Ping-Pong in the game room, during “Both Serge and I enjoyed being part of helped strengthen the union of and Serge which we laughed so hard we could the College in a new way,” said Anne, ’91 and Anne Danielson-Francois ’90. barely keep the ball on the table. From who is now a graduate student at the the beginning, an incredible friendship University of Arizona. love manifested in living color.” turned into an incredible romance.” “Although we have experienced prej- In addition, each has a deep respect Serge remembers Dec. 7, 1988, as udice as a mixed-race couple, the sup- for the other—“with a sense of irrever- their first date, when he invited Anne to port we received at Swarthmore, while ence that allows us to laugh at each midnight mass. “That night, we stayed our relationship was just beginning, other and ourselves,” Anne said. They up until 4 a.m., and I finally mustered stayed with us,” she added. “We were enjoy simple, quiet moments; a love of enough courage to ask Anne to go married at Swarthmore to celebrate the conversation and a “metaphysical need steady with me,” he said. “I actually people and the community that helped for good books,” according to Serge; used those words.” strengthen our union. To be treated as photography classes; and community They dated for five years and were any other couple and allowed to grow is service events. “We are constantly in married at Swarthmore, with class- something we treasure from our years conversation with one another and seek mates making up the bulk of the wed- at Swarthmore.” other hobbies besides spending hours ding party and guests. Most of the Col- Anne and Serge, who have both in bookstores together,” Anne added. lege’s biology faculty and staff, who served as alumni interviewers in Tucson “I believe that a common educational were Anne’s co-workers when she was since 1996, have integrated trust, experience, a common network of a research and then a teaching assis- respect, openness, and honest reflection friends, and compatible professional tant in biology from July 1991 to June into their marriage. “Swarthmore’s mul- aspirations have given Anne and me a 1995, also attended their ceremony. ticultural community certainly encour- marked advantage in this crazy little Serge, who is now a teacher and devel- aged us to pursue an interracial relation- thing called love,” Serge said. “I think we opment director in Nogales, Ariz., also ship in a nurturing environment,” Serge balance the other’s strengths and weak- worked at Swarthmore after graduation said. “We consider our marriage a sacra- nesses—our sum is greater than its as assistant to the deans and volunteer ment of God and a testament of God’s parts,” Anne concluded. I

MARCH 2000 37 Alumni Digest

attend a music and dance concert by Melanie Kloetzel’s [’93] dance company on Thursday, April 27, followed by an alumni reception. The Book Club will wrap up its season with guest lecturer Professor Philip Weinstein on Sunday, CALENDAR May 7. Philadelphia: Connection co-chair Family Weekend Bruce Gould ’54 is arranging for alums April 7–9 to attend a performance by the Guarneri String Quartet at the Curtis Institute of Alumni College 2000 Music on Sunday, April 9. May 30–June 2 Pittsburgh: Alums will join Connection The Folk Festival Reunion on Alumni Alumni Weekend chair Melissa Kelley ’80 at a Philadelphia Weekend will feature Jean Ritchie, one of June 2–4 Flyers vs. Pittsburgh Penguins National the most acclaimed interpreters of folk Hockey League game on Saturday, April music and a favorite at the original Swarth- Alumni College Abroad 1. Provost Jennie Keith will discuss more folk festivals. On Saturday, June 3, June 17–July 2 Swarthmore today at a reception Friday, she’ll speak at an afternoon presentation, “A Close-Up Visit With Jean Ritchie,” and Cycling With Swarthmore April 28, which Melissa will host at the Rivers Club. Connection members also give a performance that evening. Aug. 20–25 are planning a trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo Fall Weekend/Homecoming on Sunday, May 21. Paris: Connection chair Robert Owen Oct. 28–29 Portland, Ore.: Kenneth and Linda ’74 and hosts Cathy and Thomas Habas Mantel ’60 will welcome Robert O’Donnell ’69 welcomed Carl Grossman, Gross ’62, dean of the College, to a gath- associate professor of physics, at a Upcoming events ering of alumni and parents on Friday cocktail party celebrating the revived Charlottesville, Va.: Paul and Mary evening, March 24. Connection. Alumni and friends ended Wilkinson Gaston ’52 will host Dan West, the evening with dinner at a restaurant. vice president for alumni, development, Recent events Philadelphia: Connection co-chair and public relations, at their home on Metro NYC: Alumni Council member Ike Bruce Gould ’54 and Marcia Satterth- Tuesday, April 4, for an update on Col- Schambelan ’61 invited Swarthmore waite ’71 have launched a Philadelphia lege plans for the future. alums to a performance of Moss Hart’s Connection Book Club. The first session Chicago: Connection chair Marilee Light Up the Sky by Theater by the Blind, featured Philip Weinstein, Alexander Roberg ’73 and Parker and Julie Lange which Ike directs. Griswold Cummins Professor of English Literature. Connection co-chair Jim Hall ’55 will host Rachel Merz, professor Palo Alto, Calif.: Paul ’62 and Iris Lang Moskowitz ’88 hosted a visit to the of biology, at the Mid-Day Club on Fri- Brest ’61 hosted Associate Provost Craig Barnes Foundation collection of post- day evening, March 24. Professor Merz Williamson at their home for a conversa- impressionist and early modern French will discuss her research and develop- tion about his scholarship in English lit- paintings. ments in the College’s science program. erature as well as current academic Metro NYC: Connection members will issues at Swarthmore. Pittsburgh: Connection chair Melissa Kelley ’80 hosted two “Third Thursday Boston Extern Luncheons” at the downtown Harvard Program Yale Princeton–Pittsburgh Club for Alumni and stu- alumni, family, and friends. dents gathered at Seattle: Connection chair Deb Read ’87 the home of organized a visit to the Seattle Art Muse- Roberta Chicos ’77 um for An American Century of Photogra- to swap stories phy: From Dry Plate to Digital. about their extern- ships during winter break. Pictured Regional Swarthmore events are run by (left to right) are volunteers. If you would like to organize Martha Hicks- an event in your area, please contact Jody Courant ’77, Sanford, assistant director of alumni rela- Stephanie Hirsch tions at (610) 328-8404 or jsanfor1@- ’92, Ani Silwal ’03, swarthmore.edu. The latest information Xiao Chang ’03, on upcoming alumni events and activities and Dmitriy Shche- is on the alumni home page: lokov ’02. www.swarthmore.edu/Home/Alumni.

38 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN College seeks [email protected] alumni director edu and give their Social Security number or date of Swarthmore has begun a birth to verify their identity. search for a director of alum- The ID will then be sent to ni relations. Reporting to Dan them. Participants are invit- West, vice president for ed to post their comments alumni, development, and about the site, pro and con, public relations, this person to alumnirecords@swarth- will direct the College’s alum- more.edu. ni relations program. Bar- The address and employ- bara Haddad Ryan ’59 is leav- ment information is from ing in August after eight the College’s 1999 files. years as associate vice presi- Although the Alumni dent for external affairs. Records Office is updating Interested candidates, Zan Cochran-Bond ’72 (far right) hosted a postgame reception the files this month, partici- and those with names to sug- for the women’s basketball team, parents, and alumni pants are encouraged to gest, may contact Vice Presi- at Claremont-McKenna College in January. update their own data to dent West by mail at 500 Col- see how easily it is. lege Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081; by graphical information, create a perma- The Class of ’99 had not graduated telephone at (610) 328-8285; or by e- nent e-mail address, set up bulletin when the file was first saved, so these mail at [email protected]. boards and chat rooms, advertise busi- records won’t be on-line until this nesses and services, announce job spring. IDs and instructions will be Join Swarthmore’s openings, and post résumés for mailed when access is ready. new On-Line Community prospective employers. In addition, the College supports a Swarthmore’s On-Line Community The Web site is password protected, number of alumni listservs for class (OLC) was successfully launched last so participants must use the ID that reunions and special-interest groups. month. Alums now can network elec- was mailed to them. Anyone who didn’t For directions on how to subscribe, log tronically with each other, update bio- receive an ID may contact alum- on to http://listservs.swarthmore.edu.

Swarthmore Connection Chairs If you live in a Connection Chicago Apartment B10 Jim Moskowitz ’88 area and have ideas for Marilee Roberg ’73 Jersey City NJ 07302 15 Lawnside Road events or activities for 121 6th Street [email protected] Cheltenham PA 19012 alumni or parents, please Wilmette IL 60091-3435 North Carolina [email protected] contact your local chair. [email protected] George Telford III ’84 Pittsburgh Los Angeles 2810 Welcome Drive Melissa Kelley ’80 National Chair Lisl Cochran-Bond ’97 Durham NC 27705 1233 Palo Alto Street Donald Fujihira ’69 2843 Tanoble Drive annualfundmgr@dukeschool- Pittsburgh PA 15212 1199 Park Avenue Altadena CA 91001 .com [email protected] Apartment 7B [email protected] Paris San Francisco New York NY 10128 Metro DC–Baltimore Robert F. Owen ’74 Neal Finkelstein ’86 [email protected] Kathryn E. Stevens ’89 33 allée de la Cauvinière Rebecca Johnson ’86 Austin, Texas 823 Gist Avenue 78112 Fourqueux 5208 Golden Gate Avenue Jon Safran ’94 Silver Spring MD 20910 France Oakland CA 94618 4501 Whispering Valley [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Drive Metro NYC com [email protected] Apartment 28 Sanda Jennifer Balaban ’94 Philadelphia Seattle Austin TX 78727 405 West 21st Street Dr. Bruce Gould ’54 Deborah Read ’87 [email protected] Apartment BRE 2200 Benjamin Franklin 5060 SW Stevens Street Boston New York NY 10011 Parkway Seattle WA 98116-2943 Jeremy Weinstein ’97 [email protected] Apartment 1209 [email protected] Winthrop Mail Center 502 vard.edu North Building Cambridge MA 02138-7531 Deborah Branker Harrod ’89 Philadelphia PA 19130 [email protected] 200 C. Columbus Drive (215) 563-4811

MARCH 2000 39 class notes

PHOTO BY PHILIP MAYER / COLLECTION OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL LIBRARY ancy Beall Jarvis ’66 (left) and NGeorgia Weismiller Sargeant ’67 posed on the steps of Parrish Hall in May 1964. In the background is the College library, which was replaced by McCabe Library in 1967. The old library, later converted to a student center, was destroyed by a fire in 1983.

40 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Alumni Profile

Never stop learning Joe D’Annunzio ’49 earns a law degree at age 73.

t’s not often that four gen- two daughters. Ierations of a family can In 1968, Joe Sr. and Joe Jr. watch one of their own grad- sold the family business. uate from law school. But D’Annunzio moved to Chica- Joseph D’Annunzio Jr. ’49, go to head a division of the who received a J.D. from the Teledyne Corp., rising to vice Florida State University president, overseeing nine (FSU) College of Law last companies that made every- May, was cheered on by his thing from robots for car 49-year-old son and his 9- assembly lines to wooden year-old grandson. His 97- pizza paddles, he said. year-old dad, Joe Sr., led the Upon retirement from cheering section. Teledyne in 1991, he bought D’Annunzio, age 73, made one of the company’s divi- history. He’s the oldest per- sions in Minnesota that made son ever to graduate from graphic arts reproduction

FSU’s law school. He put an- BARBARA D ʼ ANNUNZIO products. Barbara ended up other first on the books on Not only is Joseph D’Annunzio ’49 (right) the oldest person to running the company, how- Jan. 1, when he became the graduate from Florida State University’s law school, he was the ever, when he was asked to first person of the new centu- state’s first lawyer of the new century. On Jan. 1, he took the oath help a Venezuelan company ry sworn to the Florida bar— from Major Harding, chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court. set up a blueprint-paper arranging to have the oath manufacturing plant in Quin- administered by the chief jus- whatever subject was discussed.’’ cy, Fla., near Tallahassee. tice of the state Supreme Court. D’Annunzio was born in Philadel- After that assignment, Joe and Bar- That’s after a career building a fami- phia in 1925 but grew up in Trenton, bara sold the Minnesota company to ly-owned business in New Jersey, mov- N.J., the state capital. There, during the its employees (according to their origi- ing to Chicago to become vice presi- Depression, his father opened D&W nal plan) and bought a house in Talla- dent of a big conglomerate, running his Blueprint Co., an engineering supply hassee, making Florida their home. In own company in Minnesota, then mov- firm that was the forerunner of today’s 1995, he began volunteering for the ing to Tallahassee to work for a ubiquitous quick-copy shops. Leon County Alternative Dispute Reso- Venezuelan firm. In 1943, D’Annunzio joined the Navy, lution (ADR) Program, which mediates “I want to be useful,’’ D’Annunzio which sent him to Columbia University small claims disputes. said, explaining his decision to study to study electrical engineering. He “To learn more about ADR, I took a law. “I’ve seen too many people retire briefly spent time on a gunboat in the course at FSU law school as a special and have no enthusiasm for life.... I’d be North Atlantic but saw little action. student—not expecting credit or to interested in prosecuting white-collar After the war, D’Annunzio returned pursue further, but a little learning is a crime,’’ he said. “Or maybe working for to his studies on the GI Bill, earning a dangerous thing. I decided to apply the a trade association.’’ Another possibili- humanities degree from Swarthmore. next term, took the entrance exams, ty is public service with a state envi- After marriage to a local woman that jumped all the hurdles, and submitted ronmental or public utility commission. ended in divorce, he lost touch with an application. ‘If you want a diversi- Professors and fellow students men- the College but now says that Swarth- fied student body,’ I wrote, ‘here I am.’” tion some facts not on his résumé: He more “provided balance in my educa- One of his professors was Jean never missed a class, he wore a jacket tion. Between my technical education Sternlight ’79, who teaches ADR. Her and tie to school every day, and he was at Columbia and the liberal arts at father, Peter ’48, was a contemporary older than all of his law professors, Swarthmore, I had the beginnings of a of D’Annunzio at the College. except one. proper education.” After three years, D’Annunzio In fact, D’Annunzio had some of his He also recalls fondly his stint as admits to being a B and C student at fellow students fooled. goalkeeper on the Swarthmore soccer FSU. “I pay no attention to it,’’ he said. “For the first several weeks, I team, with Chris Pedersen ’49 playing “Scores are not going to determine my thought he was with the Board of fullback in front of him. “He made my future.’’ Regents, monitoring the classes,’’ said job easy,” says D’Annunzio. “Stopping at age 65 would have been Neil Mooney, a former classmate who After college, D’Annunzio went back a mistake for me,’’ D’Annunzio said. graduated in December 1998. to work for his father and, during the “One should never stop learning—that “This has not been an intellectual next 20 years, helped build the family is the measure of vitality. exercise for Joe,’’ he said. “He came to business from a single storefront to —James Rosica every class prepared, asking questions four locations. In that time, he and his Tallahassee Democrat that indicated a deep understanding of second wife, Barbara, raised a son and Adapted by permission

52 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Books & Authors

Television Debate Scheuer’s eloquent, passionate, and and conservatism as inherently simplis- unquestionably intelligent description of tic—seductive as such a view might Jeffrey Scheuer ’75, The Sound Bite the sorry state of political discourse in be—would not be productive. It is, I Society: Television and the American contemporary America. Our lack of a might suggest, a limited vantage point Mind, New York, Four Walls Eight Win- vigorous public sphere, of rational polit- from which to start a call for greater dows, 1999 ical debate that faces complex issues in complexity in our political discourse. complex terms, is threatening our Pinning the blame on television for he latest addition to the distin- democratic future. Current political and simplification (and thus the rise of right- Tguished lineage of American social social discourse on television and in wing politics) only makes this argument criticism directed at the impact of televi- other mass media does not offer the more alluring, given the depths of the sion, Jeffrey Scheuer’s The Sound Bite critically needed forum to exchange American left’s hostility to television. At Society is both thoughtful and entertain- these ideas meaningfully. In these terms, the least, such an argument offers the ingly scathing in its indictment of the a defense of the political and public con- same easy solace to liberals that “false televisual corruption of political dis- tent of television as it stands is a losing consciousness” does to vulgar Marxian course in the United thinkers and, as such, is States. Scheuer revisits an illusory comfort that some familiar points in liberalism cannot afford. the TV debate with a Accusing television of fresh voice and strong being the root cause of resolve, while also deal- any social problem also ing with some of the carries some deep evi- wider changes in mass dentiary burdens, some media during the “infor- of which Scheuer is mation revolution” of the aware of and addresses past decade. ably. Among the issues Scheuer’s most con- he does not address, vincing argument—the however, is a historical one that will draw the one. If television in the most attention to his United States has led to work—rests on the the- the relentless simplifica- sis that television intrin- tion of politics, and sically simplifies political therefore the rise of con- and social discourse. servatism, then was our This point itself is not a political culture more novel one, though complex, subtle, and par- Scheuer makes it persua- ticipatory before the sively and comprehen- advent of television? And CORBIS sively. He proceeds from if so, was this golden age this idea, however, to more favorable to liberal- argue that conservative Jeffrey Scheuer ’75 argues that ism? The short decade of politicians and political the New Deal would causes are the natural television intrinsically simplifies seem to support some of beneficiaries of such sim- Scheuer’s argument, but plification. Liberalism, he political and social discourse, the era before television argues, is “serious and and conservatives are extends back much fur- complex” and, as a ther than that. result, inevitably “falters the natural beneficiaries. This work stands on television.” He con- proudly alongside clas- tends that right-wing pol- sic critiques of television itics, by contrast, flourish in what he proposition. like Eric Barnouw’s Tube of Plenty and sees as television’s intrinsic superficiali- However, it seems to me that one Marie Winn’s The Plug-in Drug and is ty. important step toward a more robust deserving of a wide audience. My own This argument is certainly a twist on and democratic public culture would deep skepticism about antitelevision the oft-repeated and largely spurious have to involve the cultivation of a new polemics certainly colors my view of claim that the mass media has a “liberal civility in public debate—a backing-off Scheuer’s book, but it does not blind me bias,” and it offers a comforting explana- from the scorched earth tactics of the to its many virtues. tion for the rise of right-wing politics in culture wars of the 1970s and 1980s. If the past two decades. so, to begin such an effort by character- —Timothy Burke In large measure, I agree with izing liberalism as intrinsically complex Assistant Professor of History

56 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN postcommunist transformations, Gordy Rose Laub Coser, Laura S. Anker, and Other recent books describes the nationalist authoritarian Andrew J. Perrin ’93, Women of Leonard Barkan ’65, Unearthing the regime that took hold in Serbia. Courage: Jewish and Italian Immigrant Past: Archaeology and Aesthetics in the Catherine Embree Harris ’41, Dusty Women in New York, Greenwood Press, Making of Renaissance Culture, Yale Uni- Exile: Looking Back at Japanese Reloca- 1999. This book highlights the stories of versity Press, 1999. In this book for art tion During World War II, 100 Italian and Jewish immigrant women historians, scholars of the Renaissance, Mutual Publishing, 1999. who settled in New York, exploring the and readers interested This tale about the ways they assimilated and differentiated in history and Japanese relocation dur- themselves from mainstream American artistic producing World War II culture. tion, the author describes how a single John Ridland ’53 (trans.), John the rediscovers ethnic group was uproot- Valiant, Corvina Books, 1999. This first ancient artwork ed from their West Coast full translation in rhyming English verse from the 15th and homes and forced to of Sándor Petófi’s spirited folk epic 16th centuries. live in crowded, hastily János vitéz includes an introduction Robert E. Bartkus built centers. about Petófi’s life and his place in the ’68 (ed.), New Jer- Aseem Prakash and Hungarian consciousness. sey Federal Civil Pro- Jeffrey A. Hart ’69 Ralph Lee Smith ’51, Songs and Tunes of cedure, New Jersey (eds.), Globilization the Wilderness Road, Mel Bay Publica- Law Journal Books, and Governance, tions, 1999. This collection of traditional 1999. Tackling some Routledge, 1999. music for the mountain dulcimer links of the more arcane Contributors to this the people, music, and the Appalachian aspects of federal pro- collection of essays mountains world. cedure and clarifying on globalization specific areas, this examine strategic Brenda (Schwabacher) Webster ’58, book examines New Jer- options available The Last Good Freudian, Holmes & sey District Court and to firms and gov- Meier, 2000. This memoir offers insight Third Circuit cases. ernments as well into the subculture of psychoanalysis, Brenda (Schwabacher) Webster ’58 focusing on ways the author achieved Robin (Smith) Chapman as the political, personal autonomy by freeing herself ’64, The Way In, Tebot institutional, and economic from a lifelong addiction Bach, 1999. This collection of poems factors behind specific cop- to Freudian finds the “way in” through stories, drawing strategies. analysis. ing on childhood memory, family con- Christopher Laszlo ’80 flict, parent-child relationships, and and Jean-François Laugel, Andrea Young divorce. Large-Scale Organization- ’76, Life Lessons Philip Davies SP, U.S. Elections Today, al Change: An Executive’s My Mother Taught Manchester University Press, 1999. Guide, Butterworth Me, Jeremy P. Through the lens of the U.S. election Heinemann, 2000. In a Tarcher, 2000. process, the author observes the histo- book exploring the This tribute to the ry and contemporary structure of Amer- principles by which author’s mother—a ican politics and government. large organizations respected advocate reinvent themselves, in the civil rights Gregory Gibson ’67, Gone Boy: A Walk- the authors highlight and children’s rights about, Kodansha International, 1999. ways leading compa- movements—traces The author describes the murder of his nies learn, adapt, her legacy of truth, 18-year-old son, expanding the inquiry and innovate in fast- love, integrity, faith, into guns, violence, and the journey to changing environ- and courage. manhood in America. ments. Kristin Camitta Zimet Alan Gordon ’81, Thirteenth Night: A J. (Peter) May ’60, ’69, Take in My Arms the Medieval Mystery, St. Martin’s Press, A Concise Course Alan Gordon ’81 Dark: Poems, Sow’s Ear 1999. Drawing on the same sources that in Algebraic Topolo- Press, 1999. Nominated Shakespeare used in Twelfth Night, Gor- gy, The University of Chicago Press, for the 1999 Paterson don continues this mystery of misunder- 1999. Emphasizing concepts that are Poetry Prize and the standings and misperceptions. central to developing algebraic topology Library of Virginia Literary Award, the Eric D. Gordy ’88, The Culture of Power and axiomatic treatments of homotopy collection of poems includes “Survivor’s in Serbia: Nationalism and the Destruc- theory, this book is aimed at teachers of Christmas,” “Wisteria,” and “Metamor- tion of Alternatives, The Pennsylvania the subject and advanced graduate stu- phosis.” State University Press, 1999. Discussing dents in math.

MARCH 2000 57 In My Life

atural and man-made disasters seem so commonplace these Ndays, we’ve come almost to expect the worst. But we never really prepare for it. I’ve had a rich career involving television news, military service, and work in the defense industry that has led to travel on six continents in every imaginable condition. I’ve probably witnessed more than my share of misery and consider myself flea-bitten, cynical, and profane. Nothing short of the Normandy inva- sion, however, could have prepared me for what I saw in late 1998. Just a couple of weeks after Hurri- cane Mitch wrecked Central America, I went to Honduras to fly with the U.S. Army and observe relief operations. The U.S. Southern Command, with head- quarters in Miami, had dispatched Joint Task Force Bravo, with units from every service branch, to help put the region back together again. Our military people were part of a global humanitarian effort. Boeing, my employer, builds the big, Crying Ca m tandem-rotor CH-47 Chinook helicopters the Army used to get food and medical supplies to people cut off from any help by ground. We wanted to doc- ument these operations because relief work has become an increasingly important Chi- nook mission worldwide. Boe- ing colleagues Bob Ferguson, Will Morrison, and I spent a week flying on missions that lifted tons of grain and medicine into areas devastated beyond com- prehension. I also had flown with Army Chinooks after Hurricane Andrew flattened Dade County in 1992. That storm caused unimaginable property damage, and more than 60 people died. But Hurri- cane Mitch was more lethal and damag- ing. Virtually all the modern infrastruc- ture in Honduras vanished, wiping out about a half-century of tentative technical progress. Rebuilding will take decades. We’ll never know the death toll. Our Chinooks flew over milewide river valleys buried under 20 feet of mud. Villages once stood along the streambeds. People by the thousand were under that muck or swept out to sea as floods ripped the landscape. The

64 PHOTOS BY ROBERT FERGUSON, THE BOEING CO. By Jack Satterfield ’72

survivors, many of whom had next to The unit with which we worked—the nothing before the storm, were left bare- “Flippers,” of Company C, 159th Avia- ly clinging to life—no food, sanitation, or tion Regiment, 18th Airborne Brigade of water except for the sewage they drank Fort Bragg, N.C.—delivered thousands and in which they bathed. Boeing of tons of food, powdered milk, medical videographer Will Morrison, a rangy, and relief supplies, and hundreds of pas- tough former Marine and Vietnam vet, sengers, mostly medical teams and broke down and wept openly many relief workers, to those in need. In one times. Crying came easily in Honduras. case, an Army crew flew their Chinook, The Honduran government seemed capable of lifting 25,000 pounds, to carry to care not a whit about the people left a critically ill, 6-pound infant—the only stranded in the countryside. For the cargo on that trip—to a hospital. Those “haves” in many developing countries, four young men saved the baby’s life. life is often a zero-sum game. Experience I left Honduras with a mixed sense of teaches them that if others gain, they anger over the ineptitude of Honduran must lose. Consequently, many of the authorities, astonishment that the privileged hoarded what they could, not American media and public seemed only to protect themselves but also to more interested in Monica Lewinsky keep peasants under their control. than the Central American disaster, and In Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, pride in our military people. On my men with assault rifles and shotguns return, a friend said, “Welcome back to guarded businesses and homes that sur- reality.” My response: “No, we live in vived the storm. The scene Disney World. Honduras is reality. reminded me of legendary Tonight, when you go home, get on your Dodge City in the 1880s. In one knees, hug your children, and thank God me Easily case, I watched a Honduran you live in the United States.” Army colonel fire his pistol in Only a few of the young soldiers with the midst of some 5 year olds whom we worked could get into Swarth- Only a few of the gathered near our helicopter. As the more. Many of them probably will never children scattered in terror, the colonel set foot on a college campus. The same young soldiers explained that they were getting in the can be said of many workers at Boeing way. who actually built Chinooks, enabling will ever set foot Several districts in Tegucigalpa, the Army to save so many lives. What almost all of them poor, also were they did, however, is far more important on a college wrecked. Relief workers told us heavy than my meager attempts at intellectual equipment was available to help clean development so long ago. campus, but they up the ravaged city, but hundreds of Those soldiers went about saving saved lives. students in hip boots dug away at the innocent lives with no sentiment, no fetid mess with shovels. They said the self-reflection, no awareness of their government told them this would gener- own importance. The people who build ate more sympathy and lead to foreign- Chinooks seem to get well-made hard- debt forgiveness. ware out the door to the customer with For every instance of deception and the same absence of indulgence and meanness that angered us, however, we emotion. Clockwise from above: also saw astonishing decency. Without The point, I guess, is that attending a I After Hurricane Mitch in Octo- the American soldiers, sailors, Marines, fine college—and all the elegant theoriz- ber 1998, Jack Satterfield ’72 car- and airmen—mostly just kids—who ing in the world—isn’t worth a bucket of ried a 50-kilogram grain sack in came to help in hard-scrabble places warm spit if we don’t do something to 95-degree Honduran heat. I Two like Soto Cano, Honduras, starvation justify the space we take up on the plan- U.S. Army CH-47D Chinooks, built and disease would have taken at least as et. So, when the time comes for hon- by The Boeing Co. in Philadel- many lives as did Hurricane Mitch. orifics, I suggest, for a change, let us not phia, delivered supplies over the Our servicemen and servicewomen, now praise famous men. Instead, let’s Honduran countryside. I Many average age about 22, I’d say, lived with- give the kids in Company C—at least the people, especially Honduran chil- out complaint in tents and mosquito ones old enough to drink—a round of dren, were traumatized by Hurri- netting through Thanksgiving, Christ- beer. cane Mitch. I A village was mas, New Year’s, and beyond, after leav- buried under the mud in this river ing their own families on 48 hours’ Jack Satterfield ’72 is a communications basin. notice to save the lives of people they manager at The Boeing Co. in Philadel- didn’t know. phia.

MARCH 2000 65 Alumni Profile

High expectations Telecommunications executive Sherry Bellamy ’74 strives to make a difference.

herry Bellamy ’74, president and expect so little of someone black and Schief executive officer of Bell female. I am not exceptional, but I am Atlantic–Maryland, has many shoes to lucky to have been given the skills and fill. Representing Bell Atlantic’s inter- the opportunity to use the talents I ests in Maryland with customers, legis- have. People usually live up to expecta- lators, and the business and civic com- tions—it is racist and sexist to expect munities, she rarely has time to spare. less than excellence because of one’s “The demands on my time and the color and gender.” need to adapt to several different roles Despite a whirlwind professional and juggle several different issues in schedule, Bellamy still succeeds as a any one day can be daunting,” she devoted spouse and mother. Raising says. “But I’m never bored.” four “great children” and creating a Bellamy grew up in Harlem, as the “great marriage” are more important to youngest of seven children. Attending her than anything else. “While that may New York City Catholic schools, she sound outdated, coming from an was a good student, curious and eager avowed feminist,” she says, “without to learn. “Education was always the mental and emotional support that emphasized in our home,” she says, I derive from my immediate family, I “and I saw educational attainment as a wouldn’t be able to do all the other way to achieve a secure future.” She things that I spend my time on.” Of

was encouraged to apply to Swarth- AIDA MANGSTU-MULUNEH architect husband George Bumbray, more by a friend who recognized her Sherry Bellamy plans to stay in the tele- Bellamy says, “He helps keep me sane, scholastic performance and interests communications business for many years. by ensuring that I never take myself too to be a “good fit.” Her school counselor seriously.” They enjoy collecting laughed at her, thinking that the school her. During four years with legal aid, African-American art, selecting only the was “out of her league, as a poor kid Bellamy paid a high emotional toll. pieces with which they “fall in love.” from a school in the Bronx.” Refusing Ten years in the very different world Bellamy, who is 47, sees her profes- to be put off, she applied and was of corporate law followed. Then, in sional career as only half over; she admitted early. 1991, Bellamy was recruited by Bell intends to stay in the telecommunica- For Bellamy, who graduated with a Atlantic and, only one year after being tions business for many years to come, degree in political science, Swarthmore hired, she was promoted to vice presi- saying, “There is no other industry that presented “an incredibly beautiful dent and general counsel of Bell is more exciting or changing more change from the streets of New York Atlantic–Washington, Inc. During that quickly.” One of her goals is to lead her City and an intellectually challenging time, she was instrumental in obtaining company into the long-distance busi- adventure.” Musing on her College approval for the merger of Bell Atlantic ness, from which it is currently barred. years, she says: “Swarthmore gave me with Nynex Corp., which, she says, was She’s also eager to further a full-scale confidence, stretched me beyond what essential to Bell Atlantic’s progress. effort to ensure that all Americans have I thought I could do, and allowed me to She was appointed to her current posi- access to the advanced technologies feel comfortable being ‘brainy’. I have tion in 1997. One legislator with whom evolving in telecommunications. never felt more at home than in a semi- she worked, Casper Taylor Jr., Allegany Bellamy’s commitment to social bet- nar at Swarthmore, arguing over some County Democrat and Speaker of the terment is undiminished by her cor- arcane bit of political theory. Nothing Maryland House of Delegates, says of porate career. In fact, she says: “One seemed difficult after four years there.” Bellamy: “She’s very, very knowledge- thing my career has afforded me is to Bellamy went on to obtain a J.D. able and proficient in the way she deals be involved in civic and nonprofit activ- from Yale law school, aiming to use the with government. She’s a tremendous ities. I’d like to make a difference in law as a force to improve society. ambassador for her company.” whatever way I can.” Among other Then, she joined New Haven Legal Bellamy, who enjoys being a visible things, she serves as director of the Assistance, founding a specialized unit representative of the opportunity and Kennedy Krieger Institute, where chil- to represent children. She says, “Grow- diversity of Bell-Atlantic, is proud of dren with brain injuries are treated, ing up in Harlem, I thought I had seen being the first African-American studied, educated, and supported. And most of the trauma that life can throw woman to reach a senior executive last December, Bellamy was appointed at the unfortunate, but I had never seen level within the company. On the other to Swarthmore’s Board of Managers. anything like the painful lives of these hand, she regrets the fact that so many “Ultimately,” Bellamy says, “I’d like children.” While representing three lit- people make the mistake of labeling to find a nice spot on a beach and read tle girls whose mother was starving her “special” or “different.” She says, “I those few Michener books I’ve had no them, she became tearful when the usually take those comments to mean time for yet. But that is many years off!” girls asked her if they could live with that I surprise them because they —Carol Brévart-Demm

66 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Alumni Profile

In touch with the people Aaron Bartley ’96 is a leader of Harvard’s Living Wage Campaign.

or more than a year, stu- student. Yet after gradua- Fdents nationwide have tion in 1996, he joined the rallied against sweatshop AFL-CIO’s Union Summer labor, urging their colleges campaign—an effort to and universities to stop introduce college students purchasing goods made to labor organizing. Bartley under adverse labor condi- worked with a local Service tions. Last spring, the anti- Employees International sweatshop movement at Union (SEIU) in Denver, try- Harvard University took ing to organize janitors in another turn when newly big corporate office build- energized student activists ings. began to look at wage struc- “It opened up a whole

tures and working condi- COURTESY AARON BARTLEY new way of looking at poli- tions within the university. tics and the economy,” he The result: a “living wage” cam- says of the “summerista” experience. paign that has confounded the He stayed on with SEIU for four nation’s oldest and wealthiest univer- months after the end of the Union sity and led to a re-examination of Summer program, then worked with how its lowest-paid workers are community and consumer organiza- employed and compensated. The pri- tions in Brooklyn and Cambridge mary goal of the campaign is a $10 before entering Harvard Law School per hour minimum wage for all Har- in 1998. vard workers—including those Aaron Bartley ’96 (left) and Mike Mirarchi Finding a like-minded group of whose jobs have been outsourced in ’97 (right) think all workers at Harvard Uni- activists in the PSLM, Bartley first recent years to private contractors. versity should be paid at least $10 per hour. joined the anti-sweatshop campaign, Aaron Bartley ’96, now a second- Last fall, they organized a rally in support but as the university responded in year law student at Harvard, is de- of university janitors (above). positive ways to that initiative, the scribed by The Harvard Crimson as PSLM “decided to focus on some- the founder of the campaign, but our community. We think Harvard thing more immediate.” Bartley gives credit more broadly, cit- has a responsibility to pay wages that The group’s public rallies and ing Harvard’s Progressive Student allow its workers to live in and be a direct actions—such as loudly Labor Movement (PSLM) as the part of the Cambridge community.” demonstrating in the office of the uni- source of the activism. The PSLM is a Mirarchi, elected this year to the versity’s director of labor and human coalition of undergraduate and grad- Harvard Law Review, has created a relations—have made it one of Har- uate students with ties to local labor Web site for the Living Wage Cam- vard’s most visible student organiza- activists and unions. paign, where a digest of articles tions. One student told The Crimson, Bartley, along with fellow Harvard about the movement and other “they pay attention to us relative to Law student Mike Mirarchi ’97, has salient documents about the cam- the amount of noise we make.” helped organize more than 10 public paign are posted. Readers can visit President Rudenstine admitted in rallies. The 300 Harvard-employed the site at http://record.law.harvard.- December 1999 that “the students custodians won a $1.15/hour wage edu/~mirarchi/living-wage. have been unusually effective in mak- increase, which will bring their base The vocal campaign last spring ing clear what the issues are.” wage above $10 per hour by 2002. prompted Harvard president Neil The future of the movement is But, says Bartley, most food service, Rudenstine to appoint a faculty- unclear. The university’s ad hoc com- custodial, and security workers at adminstration ad hoc committee on mittee, whose members Bartley char- Harvard are employees of outside employment policies. Rudenstine acterizes as “moderate and apoliti- contractors, some of which pay only stated that regular full-time Harvard cal,” has yet to report its findings. It about 60 percent of prevailing univer- employees receive competitive is not known whether they will make sity wages. wages and generous benefits, but he any recommendations regarding spe- As a result of rising rents and the asked the committee to report on the cific wage targets. high cost of living in Cambridge, status of the university’s many part- After finishing his law degree, Bart- Mass., says Bartley, many low-wage time and contract employees, whose ley plans to continue his activism. employees of the city’s universities numbers have grown in recent years. “Studying law sometimes seems irrel- can no longer afford to live there: Although a political science major, evant,” he says, “but it puts you in “The departure of working-class peo- Bartley says he didn’t think much touch with a lot of good people.” ple has decreased the diversity of about labor issues as a Swarthmore —Jeffrey Lott

MARCH 1999 75 Letters CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

When the riots occur, the “In My Life,” September act of a martyr and saint. reported in “Parlor Talk,” gentle and rational people 1999). They still venerate Gold- December 1999. James who are more interested in It is heartwarming to be stein’s memory at his tomb. Noyes of Savannah, Ga., the transcendental aspects reminded that some chil- So Mr. Wachman has a father of Julie ’95, has served of religion retreat into con- dren can grow up with a set choice. Either he must face on the Board since 1990. I templation. Although this of all-encompassing con- the question: “Is there some- The photo of Chinese naval letter has dealt with Chris- crete values, protected from thing lacking in my total sys- officers on page 36 came tian-Jewish relations, other the evils of contemporary tem of belief, so that it does from the papers of George religions have their own mass culture. not protect people from the Thom, former professor of ignorant believers whose But this shelter may not grievous error of confusing engineering. It was donated conceptions of religious be absolute. For instance, mass murder with martyr- by his daughter, Marjorie teaching does not quite there is the case of Baruch dom?” Alternatively, those Thom Argo ’57. I In our match the faith of the gentle Goldstein, who in February who venerate the memory of book reviews, we failed to intelligent believers and who 1994 machine-gunned a Baruch Goldstein would be mention that Andrea Bixler are willing and eager to take group of Muslims (including prudent indeed to protect ’91 was a contributor to The action against those whom women and children) at their children from the cor- Smithsonian Book of North they conceive of as evil ene- prayer in Hebron. To the rupting influence of Swarth- American Mammals, edited mies. rest of the civilized world, more College and all it repre- by Don Wilson and Sue ARNOLD KRELL ’49 this was a case of mass mur- sents. Willis Ruff ’60. I And a letter Cherry Hill, N.J. der—and so it was for many JERRY RAVETZ ’50 from Samuel Hynes reminds of Mr. Wachman’s co-reli- London, England us that although we men- DELIVER US FROM EVIL gionists. But for a significant tioned Daniel Hoffman’s son I am writing to comment on number who outwardly CORRECTIONS in our “Collection” article, the letter “Joys of Judaism” share the same beliefs and I Not every member of the we didn’t say that his daugh- by Elliot Wachman ’83 (De- practices, it was nothing of Board of Managers is a grad- ter, Joanna, is a member of cember 1999, responding to the sort but rather the noble uate of the College, as the Class of 1974.

To the Scientifically Minded based on the conviction that war hinders the develop- By Jesse Herman Holmes ment of the world family; yet we do not exclude from membership those who do not have that conviction.... or a large number of people of Christendom, espe- We have deferred until this point the use of the word cially for those trained in scientific thinking, the “god”—a word of diverse and uncertain meaning. To us, Fgreat organized Christian churches are failing to sup- “god” means a unifying influence, which makes men long ply the needed religious element. The trend of our time is for a brotherly world; which tends to bind men together scientific. It is impossible for a religion that ignores or in unity. Our religion is built on such experience as the opposes this tendency to serve the purposes of all who chief imperative of life. We have never been very particu- receive modern education.... lar about names; we have called this element of life the This letter calls your attention to the Religious Society Seed, the Inner Light, the In-speaking Voice, the Christ of Friends, commonly called Quakers. This society makes Within, the Word. We are willing to have still other no claim to be a church in the sense of assuming authori- names: “The power not ourselves that makes for righ- ty to settle questions of doctrine or of historic fact. We teousness,” The Hidden Dynamo, The Super-self, The are a society of friends whose members owe each other World-father, all seem to be proper symbolisms.... friendliness and claim no authority one over another. We Whatever God may be and whatever life may mean, we have no formal creed, and such unity as we have—and we are not insured against loss, suffering, and death. But have a great deal—is due to the fact that reasonable there is an element of life greater than our normal every- minds working on the same materials are likely to arrive day selves, which enables us to rise above loss and suffer- at similar conclusions. However, we demand no unity of ing and to face life and death without fear.... opinion, and we find both interest and stimulus in our The Religious Society of Friends is a group of people of many differences. good will, working together for mutual support in making Most Friends agree that the Sermon on the Mount pre- the God-element of life the commanding element. We nev- sents the highest ideal for a way of life; this we accept not er altogether succeed in doing this, but the effort is an only on authority from without but mainly as conviction essential part of our religion. It is only by squarely facing from within. We thus unite on a common purpose; a what is that man may hope to accomplish what may be: human society organized on a basis of good will and wherefore religion as we understand it has nothing to fear friendliness.... Our objective determines for us the mean- from science. Indeed, we welcome every extension of ing of right and wrong. Right is that which serves the com- mental horizon, every new discovery as to the nature of mon purpose, wrong is that which hinders or thwarts it. It the world we live in. is the standard by which we undertake to test the organization of society, international policies, and indeed all First published in The Friends Intelligencer, 1928. Adapted human conduct and institutions. Our opposition to war is by permission of the Friends Journal.

MARCH 2000 77 students are often amazed at the have to answer to the administration DRINKING ... amount of money that is given to groups and try to do things that are in the best to throw parties,” she says, “they tend interest of the College as an institution.” Continued from page 21 to be more concerned with bands and Further complicating the issue is the deejays than with food or drink.” Swarthmore tradition that all campus reluctantly. “Is there underage drinking The relatively free availability of alco- events are free to students and thus going on? Yes,” he says. “Attempts to hol at Swarthmore parties, although not fully financed by College or student squelch it drive it underground, [which new, is unusual. “The party scene at activities funds. Timothy Burke ques- results in] just as much or more drink- Swarthmore is pretty unique as far as I tions this arrangement. ing in ways that can’t be monitored. It’s can tell,” Bess says. “I haven’t met any- “I’ve been taken aback by the idea of a dilemma all colleges deal with, and it one from another school where people free booze as an entitlement,” he says. has gotten more acute as a result of can get money to throw all-campus par- “If Swarthmore students can spend 5 public pressures.” ties. As far as the presence of alcohol bucks a week on coffee, it wouldn’t hurt goes, I think it’s easier to get it here than them to pool 5 or 10 bucks a week for n addition to the problems posed by at many schools, regardless of who pays booze.” Iunderage drinking, another vexing for it.” How to control the activities fund is a issue came to the attention of the dean’s perplexing question for administrators. advisory committee as a result of Mar- “Short of having people going to every garitaville—the use of student activities Members of the party inventorying how much was spent money to purchase alcohol for Swarth- on food, decorations, or music … we’re more parties. Although expressly pro- Student Budget still scratching our heads,” says Associ- hibited by College policy, it is no secret ate Dean Goundie. among students that party organizers Committee are Bess thinks that asking students to routinely use actual or falsified receipts take on such a responsibility is out of for food, nonalcoholic beverages, deco- “on the fence.” the question: “I think I speak for all [stu- rations, bands, or deejays to be reim- They’re supposed dents] when I say that I enjoy my social bursed from student activity funds for life and would not be willing to walk into expenditures that actually go to the pur- to finance parties [an event] in the role of ‘Party Patrol.’” chase of alcohol. Some find this aspect Nonetheless, several new ideas have of the issue to be the most troubling. in a fair and legal been raised during dean’s advisory “This disturbs me and my faculty council meetings. Burke thinks conduct- cohorts more than the drinking,” says manner but are ing a few random audits a semester Moscatelli. “This elaborate system of also expected to “would do a lot to ease concerns that nods and winks about receipts—it’s so we’re turning a blind eye to a culture of open and well known and not [indica- help fellow dishonesty.” Other suggestions include tive of] an ethical, intelligent environ- having a limited list of vendors with ment.” students have whom the students can do business or Moscatelli is not alone in his view. a good time. having adults, rather than students, ver- “I’m not bothered by underage drink- ify the party receipts. ing,” says fellow advisory council mem- Mandating a dry campus would be an ber Timothy Burke, an assistant profes- extreme response, and most agree it is sor of history. “But I am bothered by an Amounts of alcohol at parties can not a viable option. “In keeping with our organized regime for cheating the sys- vary considerably—from the three kegs tradition of student autonomy, we want tem. I think that’s a lousy lesson for life.” and a dozen bottles of liquor confiscat- students to be responsible for monitor- “It may seem hypocritical for me to ed at Margaritaville to the half-dozen ing themselves,” Gross says. “And we say that I agree totally,” says Josh Bess, bottles of liquor at the International want Swarthmore to have a satisfying who was the SBC treasurer when Mar- Club party this semester at Paces. But social life. But free alcohol is not an enti- garitaville occurred. “In the eyes of whatever the amount, who pays for the tlement.” many, the SBC Office is the enabler for drinks remains an issue. Burke agrees that having a dry cam- the system. As a student who drinks and Having served three semesters as pus is a “nonstarter. It doesn’t do much has probably benefited from the system, SBC treasurer, Bess thinks “sitting on a but make all other discussions irrele- I personally don’t think people should fence” should be part of the job descrip- vant. Swarthmore is much more in love complain. But I think that anyone who tion, and he’s reluctant to speak too with baroque, intricate solutions to cared enough to really make an issue candidly for fear of jeopardizing student admittedly complex problems, so I sus- out of it would be entirely within rea- authority over the funds. “On one pect that’s what we’ll continue to favor.” son.” hand,” he says, “the people who work in As for the current policy, Goundie Most students, however, are not the SBC Office are supposed to make does not see sweeping changes in its bothered by how alcohol at Swarthmore sure that the money is spent in a fair future. “I don’t think our policy promis- parties is financed. Laura Farra ’01, a and legal manner. On the other, they are es anything we don’t deliver,” he says. psychobiology major from Winchester, supposed to help the rest of the student “It’s working as well as we’ve seen it Va., is the new SBC treasurer. “While the body have a good time. But we also working anywhere.” I

78 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN HT TP :/ /A LU MN I. SW AR TH MO RE .E DU

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The On-Line Alumni Community has been created exclusively for alumni through the efforts of Swarthmore College and Search Swarthmore’s Alumni Directory. B.C. Harris Publishing Inc., Update your address and alumni records. publishers of the. 1999 This new Create a permanent e-mail address. Alumni Directory on-line community offers a Post notes on Swarthmore bulletin boards. place on the Internet where Participate in alumni chat rooms. Swarthmore alumni can reconnect, communicate, and Post your résumé, and network for jobs. network with each other.It is Advertise your business or services. a private, password- protect- ed community available To join, go to http://alumni.swarthmore.edu, where you’ll exclusively to alumni, and it find instructions and the link to the actual community. To com- is free of charge. Register plete the registration process, you’ll need the personal ID number today,and start taking advan- printed above your name on the back cover of this magazine. tage of this valuable service. (Don’t enter the leading zeros.) Once you register, be sure to keep track of the username and password that you select because this will allow you access on subsequent visits. The Wonderwall in Hicks By Sonia Scherr ’01

f there were one quintessentially supposedly modeled on an actual An eye problem soon compelled Swarthmore work of art on campus, Swarthmore engineering professor. Egleson to give up engineering, howev- Iit would be the Hicks mural. For any- er. In 1931, he began working for the one who has seen it, the choice is obvi- New York City Telephone Company and ous. The piece, an epic of sorts by The history attending art school at night. A visit to Swarthmore standards, graces the ex- In the mid-1930s, James Egleson ’29 the José Orozco mural at Dartmouth pansive walls of the Hicks mural room approached the College about the possi- inspired Egleson and led to an appren- on the third floor of Hicks Hall. bility of painting a mural in Hicks Hall. ticeship with the artist in Mexico. The themes are familiar. One envi- Two years later, the mural was complet- Egleson first broached the subject of sions the engineer as the proletarian ed and opened to the public—but not the mural to Professor Alfred Brooks, intellectual, literally, marching side by before a heated controversy involving chair of the Fine Arts Department, in side with the hard-working men and Egleson, the Swarthmore administra- 1936. The College gave him permission women of the industrial class. In one tion, and a College donor almost led to to paint the first panel of the mural, scene, several workers are huddled in a the project’s abandonment. A paper which depicts both the positive and circle with a triangle-clenching engineer, written by Lisa Silverman ’84 in 1981 negative uses of technology. Soon after, as if conferring over a problem. was the source for the following infor- he completed a second panel showing Another panel features both a white mation unless another source is indicated. the beneficial role of engineering in soci- and brown hand clasped together tight- James Downey Egleson, painter of ety, and the College subsequently com- ly in a display of racial solidarity. the Hicks mural, was born in Capelot, missioned Egleson to paint the rest of The mural also tackles the role of Quebec, in 1907. He grew up in Ridley the mural. technology in society. It questions the Park, Pa., and attended Lafayette Col- Work proceeded smoothly until a relentless pursuit of scientific research lege before transferring to Swarthmore, student assistant sent a picture of the for political or other goals. One scene where he was a member of the Theta partially completed mural to his grand- juxtaposes a research lab and an illus- Sigma Pi fraternity as well as the Sigma father, a College alumnus and generous tration of a women searching in a pile of Xi and Sigma Tau academic honor soci- donor. Outraged at what he deemed to rubble for potatoes. eties. He graduated from the College in be the mural’s communist message, the Taken as a whole, the painting repre- 1929 with High Honors in engineering student’s grandfather urged the College sents a distinctly Swarthmorean view of and received an advanced degree in to force Egleson to alter his mural. the world. One of the engineering pro- aeronautical engineering from the Mas- The Board of Managers investigated fessors featured in the painting is even sachusetts Institute of Technology. and found nothing wrong with Egleson’s

80 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN project. In response to continued pres- deeply—just as the artist had hoped sure, however, the College told Egleson nearly 60 years ago. that he would have to change the mural T. Carpenter,” Bowler wrote. Carpenter Kwabena Adu ’01, an engineering or stop painting. Egleson chose to leave later served as chair of the Engineering major, first saw the mural during his the College rather than subject his work Department for many years. introductory engineering class. Adu to censorship, and the room containing Since the mural’s completion in June recalls being disgusted by what he calls Egleson’s unfinished mural was prompt- 1938, it has enjoyed a quiet existence in the “communist” aspects. “When I first ly closed to the public. Hicks 312. And yet, the mural still bears came to Swarthmore, I was quite con- Egleson eventually yielded to the Col- the evidence of its uneasy birth. In the servative,” he says. “I [regarded] the lege’s demands, citing his respect for War panel, the eagle’s mouth remains mural as communist propaganda.” the Swarthmore faculty and administra- empty, and in Peace, no clenched fists But in his two and a half years at tion involved and his need to complete pierce the sky. Swarthmore, Adu’s political leanings the project to launch a career in art. have shifted. He is now “more open- Two images were painted out of the minded” and has gained “a lot of mural: a gold dollar in the mouth of an The response respect for the mural.” eagle in the War panel and a pair of Egleson wrote in 1938 that his newly In the weeks following his first clenched fists in the Peace panel. completed work would “trace on the impression of the mural, Adu says he The mural has a unique connection minds of people looking at [it] views as tried to “find out its secrets” during to the College—not only because it was divergent as the antipodal opinions that class. He remembers thinking that the painted here. Professor of Engineering men everywhere arrive at regarding the image of both a brown and white hand Samuel Carpenter was a model for one same reality.” He identified the mural’s clasped in brotherhood “didn’t make of the engineers depicted in the mural, merit in its ability to evoke such re- sense” because blacks form a large according to Professors Frederick Orth- sponses, saying, “the degree to which it majority in Adu’s native Ghana. lieb and David Bowler, who is now may cause people to ponder the reali- The absence of women in the mural retired. ties of our times may lie in the measure also continues to puzzle Adu. Pointing “On the front wall, one of the figures of its contribution to the real education- to the Science and Poverty panel, in is relatively tall and slender and is car- al and cultural mission of the College.” which an old woman searches for food rying something [a surveyor’s tape] that The following responses to the Hicks in a pile of discarded bones and appears to be circular in his right hand. mural suggest that Egleson’s creation weapons, Adu observes that women are That figure represents Professor Samuel continues to force people to think present in only the “most troubling” Artist James Egleson ’29 completed the mural in 1938—but not before being pressured by the College to soften its political message. PHOTOS BYGEORGE WIDMAN

scenes. “It would be great if the mural panel,] you see horrible things sur- onated more strongly in the pre– [depicted] more women,” he says. rounding a room where people pursue World War II atmosphere in which it “The mural reminds you that while genteel activities.” She sees a lesson in was painted. Emphasizing that “the you’re studying ideal beam bending, the mural’s depiction of evil, for “it engineering program [at Swarthmore] there’s a whole world out there,” says reminds us that people need to learn currently subscribes to humane uses Hannah Rakoff ’01, also an engineering about horror to avoid repeating it.” of technology,” he is not sure if this major. “It gives you a sense of respect “I’m glad the mural is there because was true in the years following World for the real world.” it ... stimulates discussion of issues War I. Although Orthlieb notes that Like Adu, Rakoff finds the mural that are never considered at some the mural “must be understood in the “interesting to ponder during class,” places,” says Professor Frederick Orth- context of its time,” he acknowledges though she confesses that Hicks 312 lieb, an engineering teacher for nearly that it also speaks to more recent con- seems “hardly right for a grand 25 years. “The mural forces you to flicts, including the Vietnam War, mural.” For Rakoff, the images of a consider the sociopolitical context of Kosovo, and the genocides in Africa. bomb plunging into an open book and technology.” “People who have had military a gas mask on the ground are particu- Orthlieb finds the mural particular- experience may bring a different view larly disturbing in their depiction of ly “intriguing” as a result of the year he to the mural,” he says. “Experiences 20th-century themes. spent working at the National Science during one’s formative years influence Rakoff is awed by the wide thematic Foundation’s Office of Energy how one looks at the mural. The scope of the mural—including its por- Research and Development before [increasing diversity] of students at trayal of such major issues as science coming to Swarthmore. This experi- Swarthmore brings more viewpoints and technology, communism, hunger, ence gave him insight into the to the mural and to its significance.” war, and Nazism—as well as by the exploitive relationship between poli- Although Orthlieb has seen works ways in which it combines these tics and technology portrayed in the that depict similar social realist themes. “The mural is so big, [yet] the mural. “The political process views themes, he says that this mural has an scenes seem to melt into each other,” technology as a means to an end. And “uncommon strength” and “a sharp she says. that end is often political,” he says. edge.” He adds: “It’s powerful stuff if The mural’s juxtaposition of oppo- “This point is brought home strongly you let it be.” sites also creates a dark and powerful in the mural.” effect, according to Rakoff. For exam- Orthlieb believes that the darker Adapted by permission from The ple, “[In the Science and Poverty themes of the mural may have res- Phoenix, Dec. 3, 1999. "

! and friends as they tour the shores of Lake Michigan Cycle! parents With Swarthmore! Join alumni Interlochen/Lake Michigan Sightseer, August 20–25

! well$manicured farms$ ou#ll travel through lush! countrysides peppered ! with fragrant orchards" There will be time! fortennis swim " A Yand placid lakes! hiking woodland trails ming! kayaking golf%and enjoying sunsets on Lake Michigan #ll have an Mackinac Island, August 25–27 highlight of the Interlochen trip will be an overnight ! home of the internationally" There you known" The at Onekama $free Interlochen Center for the Arts ! opportunity to attend an evening concert! Fort Mackinac Mackinac adventure will feature two days" of car cycling with trips$mile to&long theGrand Mackinac Hotel Bridge and the five " The Mackinac " The terrain on the Interlochen tour is ideal for and the beginner to intermediate riders ! $ Islander is good for novice to intermediate" The climate cyclists is moderat ! Hot days in northern Michigan are rare $ humidity is comfortably low '( F and a night ed by westerly winds that pass over the Great Lakes You may even notice early" signs of with an average)* F daytime" high of ./ time low of - and $ Interlochen fall as the maples begin+* to , change color " The deadline for reserva Space is limited to ! - participantsYou may order a brochure ,Mackinac +/" ! April ! Alumni Relations! tions is Friday College Avenue ; from Cycle With Swarthmore! )00 ,*+0- 2.1$1/0. ; call 33$ Swarthmore College+(01+$+2(' Swarthmore PA " or sign up on the College"edu Web site: http: swarthmore bicycle" ARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW for an exceptional pro- . . . gram combining intellectual challenge, lively SS “extracurricular” activities, and good fellowship with E Mother alumni, parents, and friends. IN This year’s biannual Alumni College will have an ambitious S scope worthy of the year 2000. Our faculty chair is Larry West- U phal, the J. Archer and Helen C. Turner Professor of Econom- B N ics. He has observed that today “we all live the Chinese A D E curse: ‘May you live in interesting times.’ Rapid E G R change confronts us everywhere, and we know H N U imperfectly, if at all, where it will lead. Thus, there U I S I T is anxiety through every level of our doing and N F I N T U thinking, from the profoundly personal to the uni- N F versal, encompassing the natural, cultural, intellec- C O N F R O tual, economic, political, social, and spiritual I N realms.” U TA Professor Westphal has invited six outstanding rep- N C E R resentatives of Swarthmore’s new generation of scholars ALUMNI COLLEGE 2000 This year’s Alumni College faculty will be (left to right) Tyrene White, associate professor of political science; Larry Westphal, professor of economics; Nathaniel Deutsch, assistant professor of religion; Timothy Burke, assistant professor of history; Colin Purrington, assistant professor of biology; Hansjakob Werlen, associate professor of German; and Lisa Meeden, assistant professor and program director of computer science. MAY 30– JUNE 2 to offer insights on what may lie ahead. Each will select and explore a significant concern—in or outside their own academic disciplines—and assess its future impact on humankind. Outside the classroom, the program will include a reception at the home of President Alfred H. Bloom and Mrs. Peggi Bloom; an insider’s look at the Scott Arboretum; an update on the Math Forum, Swarthmore’s first spin-off Internet company, by Gene Klotz, Albert and Edna Pownall Buffington Professor of Mathematics; and a thinking person’s beer tasting led by Professor Werlen, comparing the products of U.S. and Euro- pean microbreweries. Alumni College participants will be housed in Mary Lyon, and participating faculty members will join them at the din- ners. The campus will be at its verdant best—and there will be no exams! A brochure will be available this spring from the Alumni Relations Office. Call (610) 328-8402, or e-mail alumni@swarthmore.edu.