Swarthmore College Bulletin (December 2006)
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TRUTH in translation features departments 16: Truth in Translation 3: Letters A new theater project examines South Readers react. Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission through the work of 4: Collection profiles its translators. Campus buzz By Elizabeth Redden ’05 47: All About the Kidney 38: Connections The contributions of retired physiologist 24: A Soldier’s Tale Coming to a city near you: Swarthmore Heinz Valtin ’49 have impacted renal A veteran of the Iraq War tells why he science worldwide. enlisted in the Marine Reserve and how 40: Class Notes By Carol Brévart-Demm he was shot on the streets of Fallujah. Alumni news exchange By Sean Barney ’98 57: The Public’s Right 45: Deaths to Know 30: The Writer’s Writer Remembering departed friends and Kentucky attorney Jon Fleischaker ’67 fights Literary fame has brought acclaim—but classmates for open government and a free press. not fame—to Norman Rush ’56. By Robyn Davis Sekula By Paul Wachter ’97 62: Books + Arts The Theory of Almost Everything 59: Tweaking Capitalism 34: 100 Watts of by Robert Oerter ’83 Julie Eades ’75 helps low-income earners level the economic playing field through Community Power Reviewed by John Boccio Rural radio rocks Mongolia, says an community loan funding. NPR producer who spent a year there. 70: In My Life By Audree Penner Silent No More By Charlie Mayer ’98 67: Nobody’s Pawn By Michele Curay Cramer ’93 Writer Will Saletan ’87 faces a fresh slate. 80: Q + A By Elizabeth Redden ’05 Why Is Helen North Anything But Retiring? By Alisa Giardinelli ON THE COVER Truth in Translation, a project of director Michael Lessac ’61, is more than a play. The project explores the process of healing after violent civil conflict has torn a society. Here, Robert Koen and Thembi Mtshali act in a production at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. Photograph by Jeff Barbee/Black Star. Story on page 16. OPPOSITE Swarthmore students have to keep a lot of balls in the air—particularly student athletes. Members of the men’s soccer team warm up before a night game in October. For more on a strong soccer season for Swarthmore, see page 14. Photograph by Eleftherios Kostans. parlor talk iving seems to be on everyone's mind at this time of year. In church last Sunday, we were asked to make a special contribution to UNICEF. Our Gminister spoke briefly about the many good works of this international organization and urged us to put an extra check in the offering plate—or, he said, Swarthmore “You can just forget about the IRS and drop in a crisp $100 bill.” For some reason, COLLEGEBULLETIN he always tries to elicit a chuckle from the congregation at offering time—but the need itself is real. Editor: Jeffrey Lott In November, The New York Times published a 42-page special section on philan- Associate Editor: Carol Brévart-Demm thropy, covering everything from Katrina relief to new models for attacking poverty. Class Notes Editor: Susan Cousins Breen It reported that, according to the Council for Aid to Education, colleges and univer- Staff Photographer: Eleftherios Kostans sities received more than $25 billion in private philanthropy during fiscal 2005. Stanford University led the way with $604 million—part of a $4.3 billion campaign Desktop Publishing: Audree Penner goal announced in October. Art Director: Suzanne DeMott Gaadt, Gaadt Perspectives LLC Swarthmore is now concluding a successful campaign with a much more modest goal of $230 million. The Meaning of Swarthmore has already had an enormous Administrative Assistant: Janice Merrill-Rossi impact on the College's ability to contin- ue to educate the extraordinary kinds of Interns: Lauren Stokes ’09, the meaning of Lena Wong ’10 people who are often featured in this swarthmore Editor Emerita: magazine. By the campaign's conclusion Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 on Dec. 31, the total amount raised will As a fund-raising be well over $240 million—more than Contacting Swarthmore College campaign, The Meaning $30 million of which has come from contributions to the Annual Fund. College Operator: (610) 328-8000 of Swarthmore is over. www.swarthmore.edu On campus, everyone knows that a Admissions: (610) 328-8300 But Swarthmore will new campaign for an even larger [email protected] amount is just over the horizon, but continue to have meaning Alumni Relations: (610) 328-8402 why? After you have read the news, fea- [email protected] in the lives of students tures, and Class Notes in this issue, I Publications: (610) 328-8568 and alumni—and in urge you to study the report attached to [email protected] page 9. In this succinct annual state- creating a better world. Registrar: (610) 328-8297 ment of the College's financial position, [email protected] Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Suzanne Welsh shows that, net of finan- World Wide Web cial aid, revenues from student charges provide just 36 percent of the College's total www.swarthmore.edu income. In recent years, the College's endowment has begun to provide a greater proportion of total revenue than tuition, fees, room, and board—up to 43 percent in Changes of Address fiscal 2006. Send address label along Another fact: In the same year, again excluding financial aid, the College spent with new address to: $73,691 to educate one student. With student charges at $41,280 and half of all stu- Alumni Records Office dents receiving College scholarships (the average grant was $22,681), it is clear that Swarthmore College 500 College Avenue Swarthmore's $1.3 billion endowment is the foundation of its excellence. And where Swarthmore PA 19081-1390 did this significant sum come from? Philanthropy has been its constant source, and Phone: (610) 328-8435. Or e-mail: careful management over many years has led both to its growth and its continuing [email protected]. ability to provide the highest quality education today and into the future. (Read more about the endowment, investment strategy, and spending policy in Vice Presi- The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN 0888-2126), of which this is volume CIV, dent Welsh's report.) number 4, is published in August, Sep- As a fund-raising campaign, The Meaning of Swarthmore is over. But Swarth- tember, December, March, and June, more will continue to have meaning in the lives of students and alumni; in leading with a special issue in September, by Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, American liberal arts education; and—in ways large and small—in creating a better Swarthmore PA 19081-1390. Periodicals world. And without a doubt, it will also continue to pass the collection plate. postage paid at Swarthmore PA and —Jeffrey Lott additional mailing offices. Permit No. 0530-620. Postmaster: Send address changes to Swarthmore College Bulletin, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081-1390. ©2006 Swarthmore College Printed in U.S.A. 2:swarthmore college bulletin letters HYSTERIA OR MERE MCGUILT? epiphenomena that will result. Infantile I wanted to thank Josef Joffe ’65 for “Amer- envy may be the psychological explanation ica the Ubiquitous” (Sept. Bulletin). He has of anti-Americanism, but it is still a puerile convinced me that they (as in the rest of reflex. the world) don’t “hate us for our free- Like anti-Semitism and racism, anti- dom”—it’s just that they feel guilty about Americanism is an indictment of the hater, loving McDonald’s so much. Nothing not of the object of his hate. America does can affect this relationship, STEVEN ADLER ’76 so the only rational course is to proceed Seattle unilaterally. I also agree that it was perverse when THE HUMAN FAMILY millions of people around the world I was touched by Dahlia Wasfi’s [’93] america protested against our war of preemption. account of her reactions to the Iraq wars the überpower Pure hysteria. These America-haters could- (“For Now, They Struggle,” June 2006 Bul- n’t yet have known that the case for war letin). I felt much sympathy with her was based on lies. anguish. I was dismayed to learn that there But imagine my surprise when I discov- was an outbreak of flag waving and pro- schedule carefully, you would write one ered at the end of the article that this mod- war atmosphere on Swarthmore’s campus paper each week. I wrote more than 50 erate, rational voice happens to be a fellow during the 1990 Gulf War, when Wasfi was such essays—all of which were analyzed by at the Hoover Institute. Could this be a student. One would expect a more my teachers and fellow students. another desperate attempt of the neocon- thoughtful and perceptive response. It is The separation of grading from teach- servatives to regain their credibility after exasperating that the human family, to ing was essential to our Honors Program's the disaster(s) that their brief but total which every one of us belongs, cannot success. Professors became our senior part- political dominance has brought about? learn to resolve its differences nonviolently, ners; we studied because we wanted to No, that’s probably just the anti-imperialist and indeed, shows little interest in doing learn, not to meet any external standard or in me “find[ing] any proof that justifies so. Why do we prefer to kill each other? teachers' expectations. That was the lock- [my] prejudice.” JUDITH INSKEEP ’60 step that Aydelotte broke. WILLIAM WANJOHI ’05 White Plains, N.Y. In the 1980s, the Honors Program came Brooklyn, N.Y. under sharp criticism—in part because it THE ESSENCE OF SWARTHMORE was not open to all students, but also CONSIDER THE SOURCE It was good to read that the current Hon- because some wanted options the program Josef Joffe’s insightful article “America the ors Program at Swarthmore pleases many did not include, such as the study-abroad Ubiquitous” describes a world fearful and students.