Swarthmore Inaugurates Eleventh President
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
S w a r t h m o r e COLLEGE BULLETIN, ALUM NI ISSUE JAN U ARY, 1974 Theodore Woo< Swarthmore Inaugurates Eleventh President On a brilliant October day, as the tulip poplars shed their leaves around the assembled guests in the Scott Outdoor Auditorium, Theodore Wood Friend III was inaugurated the eleventh president of Swarthmore College. The simple ceremony presided over by Stephen G. Lax ’41, chairman of the Board of Managers, included two selections by the College Chorus, members of the orchestra, and guest instrumentalists, under the direction of Peter Gram Swing, and an address by President Friend. The academic procession was composed of members of the Board, Faculty, Student Council, and distinguished visitors. Among the nearly twenty college presidents who attended were those from Williams, President Friend’s alma mater; Pomona, which has an exchange program with Swarthmore; the University of Pennsylvania, Barnard, a number of nearby institutions, and some Quaker colleges. Some 50 other representatives from colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher learning also attended. In his address President Friend spoke of “the original aims of the College, of authority and responsibility in its current organization, of the principles of excellence and equality, and of reason and faith in the temper of all that we do here.” He found occasion to quote from the inaugural remarks of the sixth president of Swarthmore, Joseph Swain, in speaking of the relationship of the various con stituencies of the College to each other. “Perhaps because he, as I, came here from a state university, I easily share his perspective. In a time affected by a longing for new solutions, sometimes an unappeasable mania for the new, it is refreshing to find usefulness in the thought of a man speaking in 1902. In a direct statement to the undergraduates present at his installation, President Swain said: ‘Students of the College, but for you, none of us would be here. It is for your needs and it is to develop the possibilities in you that it exists.’ What was true then and before is still a truth for an institution such as this. Students are not merely transients here, but the object of the College’s purpose, and of the major concerns of the faculty. Students do not merely pass through, as do many in large universities; rather the College passes through them, and into their character. They become alumni, and upon their advice and inspiration and loyalty the welfare of the institution depends.” Stephen G. Lax ’41, chairman of the Board of Managers, shares a light moment with President Friend before the academic procession begins. The Swarthmore College Bulletin, of which this publication is Volume LXXI, No. 4, is published in September, October, December, January, March, May, and July by Swarth more College, Swarthmore, Pa. 19081. Photograph by Pekka Mooar 11 After the ceremony, which included music by members of the chorus under the direction of Peter Gram Swing, President Friend greeted Student Council members Morgan Frankel ’76, Janis Palmer ’74, Mitchell Black ’74, and Bruce Toth ’75, and other well-wishers. Photographs by Walter Hi Inaugural principals included (left) Sue Thomas Turner ’35, then secretary of the Board, and John W. Nason (Hon. ’53), eighth president of Swarthmore; (below) Board members Clark Kerr ’32, Edwin Bush ’49, Charles F. Barber, and Thomas B. McCabe, ’15, (bottom) James A. Perkins ’34, former vice-president of Swarthmore, and J. Roland Pennock ’27, Richter Professor of Political Science. W hat are the capital needs of Swarthmore College? How much new money is the College going to need for programs, facilities, and endowment during the next several years? December 17,1973 ing Committee is composed of the E. Gilbert), reviews implications of How can Swarthmore maintain its ex President, chairmen of the major com the College’s academic program for cellence in an era increasingly perilous mittees of the Board, and three mem capital planning. These include capi for private colleges? The problem re bers of the Development Committee tal needs for program costs, physical solves itself partially into one of capi of the Board. “It must be emphasized needs^ associated with the academic tal needs. How much new money is that the DPGs make no decision. Ours program, and support of faculty re the College going to need for pro is a recommending and. advisory search and professional development. grams, facilities, and endowment dur body,” says Mr. Kohlberg. “The DPGs From this definition of function, the ing the next several years? Four will report their assessments, options, Academic Program DPG was in groups, meeting frequently on campus and recommendations individually to structed to consider such issues as: since September, have been develop the Steering Committee for coordina What will be distinctive and char ing ways of answering, and answers tion and integration into a compre acteristic in a Swarthmore education? to this question. The Development hensive report for the President and In pursuit of excellence should the [Planning Groups, or DPGs as they Board of Managers. The Board will College settle for only the highest | became known, are each composed of meet to consider our report sometime standards of undergraduate education members of the College’s several con this February.” in all elements of its formal academic stituencies— Board members, alumni, In a series of meetings over the program, or must it acknowledge pro administration, faculty, and students summer, the Steering Committee laid gram elements at once essential to —working in the arbitrarily separate out the guidelines for the DPGs: They and unsusceptible to excellence in the areas of Academic Program, Student were to accept certain working as kind of college Swarthmore is? Life, Physical Facilities, and Finance. sumptions. It was assumed, for ex What will be the characteristics of These groups have been testing and ample, that long-term economic con the faculty in the next decade, includ appraising a provisional list of ques ditions will continue to be favorable ing its size, quality, and makeup in tions prepared by the administration: and that there will be no involvement terms of age and rank, and what are Are there any specific needs that have in a major international conflict; that the financial implications of this pro been overlooked? What is most im inflation will continue at the present jection? portant and what is most urgent? rate; that the traditional American view What are the principal npeds for What directions may the College take of higher education as essential to the faculty development to serve the edu- in the future? What is happening in well-being of the country and its citi the financial environment? The DPGs zens will continue; that a somewhat [have been reviewing a number of ex smaller pool of qualified candidates pressed needs of the College with the probably will be available to privately purpose of focusing opinion and judg supported institutions and that com ment on them in the context of total petition for the best students will be institutional need and potential re keener; that the present favorable tax sources. They have met with repre- treatment for colleges and univer jsentatives of the various departments, sities will remain essentially un [With technical experts, with ardent changed. Finally it was assumed that proponents of and equally ardent dis Swarthmore will remain a highly sidents from various points of view, selective, relatively small, undergrad phis work will culminate in four re uate, coeducational, liberal arts col ports which will clarify needs, evalu lege, striving, as Board Member H. ate alternatives, and suggest order of Thomas Halloweil emphasized, “for [attention. Development planning, excellence in everything it under .while not as comprehensive as total takes.” mstitutional planning (like that which The Academic Program DPG, com M to Critique of a College in 1967), posed of the faculty Council on Edu paust result in a sense of priorities. At cational Policy, plus selected members [the same time, it must be flexible, of the Board of Managers and alumni Providing for opportunity or unex and students (chairman is Board pected turns of events. member Barbara Whipple Heilman | The Development Committee of the ’43; vice chairman is Provost Charles p°urd of Managers is the coordinating agent. An ad hoc Development-Plan- Nag Steering Committee was initially President Friend and Committee Chair organized by President Theodore man Kohlberg hear recommendations from the Steering Committee. Opposite Rend and chaired by Board Member page, Student Life DPG is presided over lJerome S. Kohlberg, Jr. ’46. The Steer- by Chairman Isabel Logan Lyon. NhJARY, 1974 The Physical Facilities DPG in session. specifically to issues as homely and the vice chairmanship of Samuel T. tuitioi necessary as laundry service, security, Carpenter, Isaiah *V. Williamson Pro-1 ^ co cational purposes of the College, in switchboard service; as basic as the fessor of Civil and Mechanical Engi- struct] cluding leaves, teaching loads, facili need for more dormitory space and neering, is drawing up a tentative a cha] tation of research and scholarship? advising services; as far-reaching in “ critical path” projection of new and Will What uses are expected of techno implications for the College as stu renovated buildings needed at Swarth- tinue i logical aids, of computing, of libraries dent-faculty relations, the siting of more over the next decade, in order oi expect and laboratories of all kinds; what new athletic facilities, and potential physical priority, along with estimates gajns. prevalence of more-or-less independent space requirements of Drama and the of capital costs, and allowing for al- Sine work; what economies or added costs Dance. tematives. into c in class size and format? Ultimately, the recommendations of Richard B.