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ociologist Fatima Meer, a South African of Indian Sextraction, first spoke publicly against apartheid at 17. She advocates “passive resistance,” although she has been officially silenced twice, jailed, and nearly assassinated. Fighting, apartheid

In South Africa today 4.5 million whites Fatima Meer’s soft voice caresses the word: without struggle to retain control of a country “Unbanned.” She leans forward eagerly and populated by 28 million blacks, coloreds, her eyes shine as she struggles to convey and Asiatics. The country’s recent history is what it means to be free to live and work marked by a succession of repres­ openly once again in her home­ fear or sive laws and political protests. land, South Africa, after seven Since the conservative National­ years of officially enforced si­ ist Party came to power in the lence. “I feel almost as though the unhappiness late 1940s, it has enacted: laws sky’s the limit. Unbanned!” establishing separate “homelands” for blacks This gentle, matronly woman of East shoulder. Had she been there first, Meer Indian extraction, who is South Africa’s says, the blast would have struck her in the and segregated group living areas for Indians highest ranking non-white academic, hardly head. No one was ever arrested for the and coloreds, which caused the uprooting and impoverishment of literally millions of fits the stereotype of a national security attack, although Meer believes the same people; laws requiring separate public facil­ threat. Yet, for seven years she was not people were responsible for the murder three allowed to speak publicly, to publish so weeks later of her close friend Richard ities for whites and non-whites; bans on racial mixing; and curbs on freedom of much as a drawing, to see more than one Turner, a white colleague at the University person at a time outside of her own family, of Natal. Turner also was banned at the time speech and assembly in the face of repeated or to leave Durban’s Indian quarter. Her for his opposition to apartheid. outbreaks of political protest and violence. Although born in Durban of Indian scholarly books were removed from library Since 1952 Meer has been banned twice parents, Meer follows the custom, adopted shelves and she had to get official permission and arrested and tried twice for violating her by South Africa’s non-white dissidents in the to continue teaching and even to talk to her banning orders. She also was detained with­ 1970s, of referring to herself as black. Her husband. out trial for five months following the father was a shop assistant whose passion for Last July the South African government Soweto ghetto uprising in 1976. Last year, writing protest letters led him into journal­ finally lifted its ban against her and about only a few weeks after her second seven-year ism and, eventually, into becoming the 100 other political dissidents. A few months banning term was lifted, Meer joined in a owner and editor of Indian Views, one of later she was granted an unrestricted one- protest against South Africa’s new consti­ South Africa’s two oldest Indian news­ year passport, allowing Meer to come to tution and was arrested again. She faces trial Swarthmore as a Cornell Visiting Professor on charges stemming from that arrest when papers. Meer gave her first political speech when to lecture on South Africa during spring she returns to South Africa this summer. she was a 17-year-old school girl. She spoke semester. She was awarded an honorary “They are trying to co-opt the Indians and at a mass political rally in 1946 during the doctorate by the Board of Managers at coloreds into the apartheid system,” Meer Indian Passive Resistance campaign oppos­ commencement ceremonies May 28. says of the new constitution. Separate “mini­ ing new laws legitimizing the segregation of Meer is a professor of sociology at the parliaments” for South Africa’s Indian and South Africa’s Indian population. Six years University of Natal, a university for white colored minorities are mandated by the new later, Meer was banned for seven years students in Durban. There she has done constitution. The government extols the because she and her husband, Ismail Meer, a extensive research on South Africa’s black, measure as a liberal reform effort, but Meer Durban attorney, were active in the “Defi­ Indian, and “colored” (mixed blood) popu­ and opponents of apartheid contend that it ance Campaign” opposing the Group Areas lations. For nearly four decades, she has will give Indians and coloreds no more openly opposed the South African gov­ political autonomy than that given to some 3 Act. “The Group Areas Act established sepa­ ernment’s repressive apartheid racial segrega­ million blacks the government has relocated rate living areas for Indians and coloreds,” tion policies. One night in 1977, her opposi­ in ten impoverished “homelands.” Meer explains. “Both groups suffered ter­ tion to apartheid nearly cost her her life. “Those two parliamentary chambers are ribly because literally hundreds of thousands That night a band of racist extremists tried puppet chambers, just as the black home­ were moved and they were given an absolute to burn down her house, while firing several lands are puppet governments. By giving us pittance for their homes and for their land shotgun blasts and bullets into her living puppet chambers, the government hopes to which was toward the centers of most cities room and seriously wounding a house guest. alienate the Indians and coloreds from the and which the whites then wanted.” “It was a very vicious attack, an attack on black community,” Meer says, explaining Durban’s Indian population was relo­ my life,” Meer says. “I am quite lucky to be why she and many others are opposed to the cated to government housing on an old alive.” measure. banana plantation twenty miles outside the When the fire erupted, Meer’s house guest city. Meer’s widowed 68-year-old mother narrowly beat her to the front door, she had to sell her Durban home—purchased in recalls, where he took a shotgun blast in the BY JODINE MAYBERRY

1 JUNE 1984 1939 and which with improvements cost her 20.000 pounds—for 4,000 pounds in 1965. “The government knew very well that for TO: FATIMA MEER (I.N. 800/253936A ) 4.000 pounds she could not buy even a plot SYDENHAM, DURBAN of land on which to rebuild a house. She was made destitute. She just had to go around NOTICE IN TERMS OF SECTION 10(1) (a) OF THE living with her children” notes Meer. INTERNAL SECURITY ACT, 1950 Meer’s husband Ismail—a “listed” person under the terms of South Africa’s Suppres­ WHEREAS I, JAMES THOMAS KRUGER, Minister of sion of Communism Act—is banned for life Justice am satisfied that you engage in activities which from certain political organizations and endanger or are calculated to endanger the maintenance from being published. Her son Rashid, 26, of public order, I hereby... prohibit you for a period was banned and detained in 1976 and now commencing on the date on which this notice is lives in exile in England, where Meer was delivered or tendered to you [in July 1976] and expiring able to visit him for a week enroute to on 31 July 1981 from— Swarthmore. She also has two daughters, (1) absenting yourself from the magisterial district of Shamim, 29, and Shehnaz, 27, a lawyer who Durban; runs the Cape Town offices of Legal Re­ (2) being within— sources, an agency which provides free legal (a) any Bantu [black African] area... services to blacks. (b) any Bantu compound; Much of Meer’s work, both as a sociol­ (c) any area set apart under any law for the occupa­ ogist and as a political activist, has focused tion of Coloured or Asiatic persons, except on the non-white women of South Africa. Sydenham ; She was a founder of the Women’s Federa­ (d) the premises of any factory... tion of South Africa, a national coalition of (e) any... premises on which any publication... is white and black women formed in 1952 to prepared, compiled, printed or published__ protest the extension of “pass laws” to black (3) performing any of the following acts... women. (Pass laws confine blacks to specific (e) (i) preparing, compiling, printing, publishing, geographic areas in South Africa, unless disseminating or transmitting in any manner they obtain government-issued passes per­ whatsoever any document (which shall include mitting limited access to restricted areas to any book, pamphlet, record, list, placard, poster, work, or for other clearly defined purposes.) drawing, photograph or picture... Like Meer, most of the members of that in which, inter alia— group were banned. (aa) any form of State or any principle or policy In 1975 she was a founder and first of the Government of a State is propagated, president of the South African Black Wom­ defended, attacked, criticised, discussed or en’s Federation, whose protest activities, referred to ... following the killing of as many as 1,000 (cc) any matter is contained which is likely to blacks in Soweto and other black enclaves in engender feelings of hostility between the White 1976, led to the banning of the group and its and non-White inhabitants of the Republic of members. “We were really getting some­ South Africa... where. We were going to the rural areas and (4) communicating in any manner whatsoever with any setting up committees to work out their person whose name appears on any list in the priorities, we were fund raising, we had custody of the [government] . . ., or in respect started planning a women’s magazine, and of whom any prohibition ... is in force, we were organizing conferences on housing except your husband, Mr. Ismail and education. Then suddenly they banned Cassim Meer. . . . Nothing in this me again because after [the 1976 uprising in] notice contained shall debar you Soweto we were so busy organizing protests against the shooting of our children.” from... being within the premises of the University of Natal, Durban,... in the Among the group’s unfulfilled programs were plans to sink water wells in some of the execution of your duties as a lecturer. arid rural areas where black women and children are forced to raise crops on unirri­ gated land while their husbands live in the cities and labor for whites. Women and children are barred from the cities and can only hope that their husbands will send them part of their wages. Malnutrition, disease, and starvation are common and social pro­ grams and welfare virtually non-existent. Meer was banned again in July 1976, a month after Soweto erupted. A month after that, she was detained

SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN “Three or four cars full of policemen pulled up outside my house— I had to pack a bag, then I was taken away. I was taken to Johannesburg and detained for five months. The first month I spent in solitary confine­ ment, but I was never interrogated, nor was I badly treated,” she says. In South Africa, interrogation often is accompanied by tor­ ture. During the past twenty years, an estimated fifty persons have died while undergoing police interrogation, including black political activist Steven Biko, one of Meer’s former students. “I was banned, my son was banned, my son-in-law was banned. We had to have special permission, in the terms of our banning order, just to speak to each other because one banned person may not speak to another. And each of us had to have special permission to speak to my husband [because he is a listed person],” she explains. The banning process is very ritualistic, Meer notes. “We get a knock on the door and the gentlemen come in—they’re always male—and they issue the banning order, which is a big thick sheaf of documents. There’s one banning order that bans you from all social gatherings; there’s another that bans you from all factories, docks, and printing presses; and then there’s another that bans you from entering any group area other than the one in which you are living. The only group areas they don’t bother to ban you from are the white areas because you’re already banned from there anyway.” When Meer was banned in 1976, Mc­ Graw-Hill was in the process of revising her definitive and popular work entitled Por­ traits o f Indian South Africans. The publish­ ing company chose to drop the project when of them, entitled Apartheid— Our Picture, is The drawings o f scenes inside a South she was banned, since the book then could a devastating sociological study of the effects African prison used to illustrate this article not be sold in South Africa. of apartheid on South Africa’s black popu­ were made by artist Fatima Zahra. In addition, just before she was banned, lation, published by the Institute for Black Meer was one of several prominent South Research. Meer is a founder and director of Africans who had contributed drawings of the institute, which was established to per­ teaching duties to pursue other institute endangered species to a book on the subject. mit black writers and academics to study projects. When the book was published, shortly after and write about the nation’s non-white “I want to issue a popular version of the she was banned, her drawing of an aloe plant populations. study on working women which we can had to be ripped out of each copy of the “Blacks just aren’t asked to do the writing then give out to the women themselves so book before the government would permit it of any piece of research. They will be they can see what they look like, what they think of themselves, and they can realize also to be sold. employed as research agents to bring in the During her seven-year ban, Meer had a information, but the whites write it and the that what they see as individual personal book on suicide published abroad. She also whites take all the accolades,” says Meer. problems are problems that permeate all worked on other books which have been “The apartheid book was a voluntary strata of working women. There is really no published without her name on them. One work of love on the part of the researchers. difference in the kinds of problems that an There is no money. We’d go out and do the Indian woman working in a factory faces research, then go to a printer and say, ‘We’ll from those confronted by an African woman pay you when we sell the book.’ ” working in a factory.” The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN 0279-9138), Meer now believes that she should work of which this is volume LXXXI, number 6, is published The institute did receive a $30,000 grant twice in September, and in November, December, from the Ford Foundation to conduct a on a smaller scale with South Africa’s black March, and June by Swarthmore College, Swarth­ study of non-white working women in women, organizing community groups more, PA 19081. Second class postage paid at South Africa; and when Meer returns to within each rural enclave and squatters Swarthmore, PA and additional mailing offices. Post South Africa in June, she plans to finish the camp, networking between communities, master: Send address changes to Swarthmore College helping the women find ways to earn Bulletin, Swarthmore, PA 19081. study and then take a year off from her

3 money, establish clinics, schools, and day­ confront the legal issues raised by her without any sense of recrimination or any care centers. Such small, individual com­ defense and possibly epibarrass a high- sense of fear or unhappiness. It leaves you munity groups would be less vulnerable to ranking government official who would with a feeling of justifying your existence. government suppression than the larger have been called on to testify. Otherwise, how do you justify your privi­ national women’s groups she helped organ­ To Meer, all of these activities and the leges?” ize in the past. government’s actions against her are part Meer is anxious to return home and Meer spent much of the past three years and parcel of her way of life. She speaks of resume her academic research and political establishing a craft center at a black squatters her arrests and trials and work among the activities in her new, unbanned state. She is camp near Durban, to teach the women nation’s blacks as matter-of-factly as if she confident she will be acquitted of the charges skills, such as knitting and pottery, so they were speaking of a trip to the supermarket. she faces on her return, of violating her could sell their work and supplement their When asked what motivates her to spend a previous banning orders, and she says she meager incomes. She also ran and financed a lifetime on the cutting edge of protest and has no intention of curbing her outspoken­ secretarial school for black women. dissent in South Africa she replies: “If you’re ness to prevent any reimposition of the ban. The government charged her with violat­ living in South Africa and you know how “If they leave me unbanned, I think ing her banning orders when she was caught much suffering there is among the people, there’s a lot I can do. I feel good about it. But leaving the Durban city limits to run her the African people in particular, and you I’ve been as critical here of South Africa, as I craft center and secretarial school. The yourself have made it economically and have there. And when they hear what I’ve magistrate chose to drop the charges for intellectually, you feel you owe it to the said about apartheid, I don’t think they’ll insufficient evidence, Meer says, rather than people. I think it is that which leaves you like it too much,” she says with a smile.

ON PETTY APARTHEID (SEPARATE FACILITIES): Fatima Meer on South Africa “[When] you went to the post office, there was one ON INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION: entrance for Europeans and one entrance for non- “Racism is preserved in South Africa because the Europeans. You were not allowed in the restaurants if western powers find it in their interest to preserve it. If you were not white, and... in the shopping areas the the western powers found it not in their interest to sup­ toilets would be only for Europeans. They are beginning port this situation, then immediately strategies [would] be to take those [signs] down. They themselves used to move the country away from racism. It is acknowledge that these are petty signs. The important important to exert the kind of pressures you can inter­ signs remain.” nationally, to influence the American public, and to ON THE CONSERVATIVE NATIONALIST PARTY: arouse the consciousness of the black electorate in “In the last thirty years [while] the Nationalists have America because it should be more sensitive and been in power they have changed the form of apartheid. responsive to racism in South Africa.” They are far more sophisticated. They don’t talk about ON THE IMPACT OF APARTHEID ON apartheid, they talk about separate development, for SOUTH AFRICA’S BLACKS: instance. They talk about separate freedoms, for “One vicious consequence of apartheid is the inroads instance. They talk about giving independence to the it m akes into family life__ The woman has to stay out in Africans in the homelands and now they talk about the rural areas and take care of the old people and extending franchise rights to the Indians and coloreds children. She is never, never certain she is going to get [mixed blood].” any financial support from her man in the city. All too often the men just don’t return.” ON GOVERNMENTAL REPRESSION: “Is it better to be a black person in South Africa today than it w as thirty years ago? I would say it w as far better thirty years ago— The opportunities for resistance have shrunk, the kinds of actions the state takes against you are... far more severe now. We didn’t have people dying in prisons thirty years ago, but in the last twenty years we’ve seen a lot of people detained and then never come out. We go and collect the bodies.”

ON FOREIGN INVESTMENTS: “Fundamentally it is an involvement which serves the interests of the governing party. Right now all the governm ent is being asked to do is a little window dressing. The life of the average black person is not improved, not by an inch, not by an iota. It remains as deplorable as ever. The window dressing has not touched them.”

ON THE ARMS EMBARGO: “There is no [effective] arm s em b arg o ... South Africa is able to get all it wants. It just puts the price up a bit.”

4 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN From Bronte i to Bronowski Kenneth Turan ’67 Nine sagacious Film critic and book editor fo r California Magazine and film critic fo r National Public Swarthmoreans suggest Radio’s “All Things Considered” summer reading This summer I am going to do what any sensible resident of Los Angeles ought and flee as far as possible from the site of the 1984 Olympics (to Cape Breton Island off the coast of Canada in my case), bringing along a couple of fat books I’ve been wanting to take a crack at for years: Proust’s Remembrance o f Things Past and Tolstoy’s David W. Fraser Anna Karenina. I was going to add Lady Swarthmore College President Murasaki’s nine-hundred-year-old Tales o f the Genjii to the pile, but I had pity on my The Maori Mantle by H. Ling Roth (Bank- aching back and besides I’ve been told that it field Museum, Halifax, 1923, reprinted by is a novel better read in tiny sips than one The Scholar Press, Ilkley, Yorkshire). The long summertime gulp. classic description of a textile that evolved This may sound rather a rigorous regi­ through several phases in the last 500 years men, but it should be remembered that I and may be the finest form of wrapped weft spend all year watching films intended for twining. gullible teenagers with money and am in Revolution in Time by David S. Landes sore need of a change. If I feel like a special (Belknapp Press of Harvard University, treat, I will take along The Duke’s Children, Cambridge, 1983, 484 pp.). A history of the final volume of Anthony Trollope’s “seething” and they should know. timekeeping and the effect of clocks on the Palliser novels, which I began after his Shiloh and Other Stories by Bobbie Ann development of societies. Barchester series, discovered in turn while Mason. The best American collection of Symposium of the Whole by Jerome feeling at loose ends after I’d run through short stories since the days of Flannery Rothenberg and Diane Rothenberg (Uni­ Jane Austen. Trollope’s wonderful charac­ O ’Connor. Period. versity of California Press, Berkeley, 1983, ters and serene predictability make him the Tapping The Source by Kem Nunn. An 503 pp.). A survey of the role and form of most delightful of novelists, a true balm to expressively written mystery in the Ross poetry across a variety of societies. the heart and soul. McDonald mold, set against the decadent Princes and Peasants by Donald R. Hop­ Since summertime reading is nothing if youth culture of steamy Southern Cali­ kins (University of Chicago Press, 1983,380 not fun, I’d like to close with a list of the fornia. Nunn’s word pictures of the attrac­ pp.). The best history of smallpox, by a books I’ve enjoyed most over the past year, tions of surfing will make even non­ physician who contributed to its eradication. ones I wish I could once again have the swimmers wish they could catch a wave. Bison Kills and Bone Counts by John D. pleasure of reading for the first time: Mis­ Cut Stones and Crossroads by Ronald Speth (University of Chicago Press, 1983). sionary Stew by Ross Thomas. Yet another Wright. A thoughtful, consciously provoca­ Inferences about fifteenth-century hunting seamless, hugely entertaining tale of intrigue tive travel book about Peru, its glorious past and butchering strategy made from quantita­ by the pre-eminent American thriller writer, and glum present, written by a casually eru­ tive analysis of bison bones in a southeastern considered a peer of Le Carre in Europe, but dite scholar with a poetic gift for metaphor. New Mexico arroyo. My introduction to the underappreciated here. Angels by Denis Johnson. A brilliant field of taphonomy. The Wilder Shores of Love by Leslie debut novel by a German-born poet. A dark, The Secret War in Mexico by Friedrich Blanch. A welcome reissue of this involving disturbing, nightmare tale of life at the very Katz (University of Chicago Press, 1981). A work of popular history about four nine­ bottom of the American pyramid. Perhaps description of the economic, political, and teenth-century women who abandoned not quite the book you want to take to the military tactics used by European countries stuffy Europe for the lure of exotic, erotic, beach with you, but then really fine writing and the United States in 1910-20 to shape romantic Arabia. The New Yorker called it is no respecter of seasons. the Mexican Revolution.

JUNE 1984 5 stories and a novelette about growing up Emi Horikawa Jewish in America. and Meg Spencer Nora Ephron’s Heartburn is the thinly Cornell Science Librarian and Assistant disguised account of Ephron’s separation from journalist Carl Bernstein (of All the Not all of the books in Cornell Library are so President’s Men fame). She is very funny. In technical that they cannot be read by non­ Crazy Salad Plus Nine, a book of essays scientists. We, along with the third staff about feminism and related topics, she is member at Cornell, Gail Gaustad, reviewed trenchant and socially conscious as well. our collection and chose representative titles Funnier, more trenchant and socially of books you may find interesting. There are conscious, and terribly grouchy is Fran biographies, essays, and even poems to be Leibowitz in Metropolitan Life. I have never found in our stacks. Other topics of interest read anything wittier than these short pieces are UFOs, “fractals,” puzzles, volcanoes, on city life in the ’80s. and also a book on frisbees. Finally, Minnesota Public Radio’s “Prai­ A Sense o f the Future: Essays in Natural rie Home Companion” host Garrison Keil­ Philosophy by J. Bronowski. lor has written a collection of short stories The Medusa and the Snail More Notes of and essays. Happy to be Here chronicles a Biology Watcher by L. Thomas. Midwest life and stepmothers’ bad press, Hen ‘s Teeth and Horse’s Toes by Stephen among other things. Gould—“Latest collection on the mysteries and marvels of science.” When the Snakes Awake by Helmut Judith D. Zuk Tributsch—Animals and earthquake predic­ Director o f the Arthur Hoyt Scott tion. Horticultural Foundation Darwin for Beginners by Jonathan Mil­ Some of the best gardening literature avail­ ler—“Illustrated, clever, witty book pub­ able comes from England, a country with a lished for Darwin’s 1982 centenary.” long history of successful gardening. If its Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science readers keep in mind that growing condi­ by Martin Gardner—“The curious theories tions can vary dramatically between parts of of modern pseudoscientists and the strange, the United States and England, and that all amusing and alarming cults that surround of the plants mentioned may not be hardy or them.” available in this country, they will be richly Ideas and Integrities, A Spontaneous rewarded by the ideas and creativity to be Autobiographical Disclosure by R. Buck­ found in these publications. Ideally these minster Fuller. books should be read in the garden, where The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. inspiration for changes will be most useful. I On Sakharov edited by Alexander Bab- intend to sit in my garden and read: yonyshev—“A tribute to the courageous The Well-Chosen Garden (Harper and Nobel Prize physicist. . ..” Row) by Christopher Lloyd. A book for The Biology o f Algae and Other Verses by Erica A. Marcus ’84 people who are “keen on plants but want to Ralph A. Lewin. make the most of them in the limited space Change! 71 Glimpses of the Future by The following books are available in paper­ at their disposal.” Philosophical and prac­ Isaac Asimov—and other Asimov books. back. You can put them in your beachbag; tical ideas on handling a variety of garden they don’t weigh much. Or you can drop situations. Surtsey: Evolution o f Life on a Volcanic them from your raft into the water; they are Three Gardens (Capability Books) by Island by Sturla Fridridsson. cheap to replace. Graham Stuart Thomas. A personal account Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey. Andrew M. Greely, a Catholic priest, has of this great plantsman’s career, as seen The Cosmic Dancers: Exploring the Phys­ written a trashy novel called Cardinal Sins. through the three gardens he has owned and ics o f Science Fiction by Amit and Maggie In addition to possessing all of the traditional created. Goswami. trashy novel virtues, it is also a fascinating Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden Nuclear Hostages by Bernard O ’Keefe. portrait of life in the higher reaches of the (Antique Collectors’ Club) by Gertrude The Moment of Creation by James S. church. Jekyll. Recent reprints of the works of this Trefil— “Big Bang Physics from before the For the lay reader there is Mary Gordon’s legendary figure have been a blessing for First Millisecond to the Present Universe.” Final Payments. Since she was 19, Isabel has garden enthusiasts. This book is perhaps Mathematics: A Human Endeavor by taken care of her invalid father, a brilliant, Jekyll’s most famous and sought after work. Harold Jacobs—“A book for those who but reactionary, Catholic theologian. When Gardens of a Golden Afternoon, The think they don’t like the subject.” he dies Isabel must leave the stultifying, but Story o f the Partnership: Edwin Lutyens and Great Scientific Experiments by Rom safe, martyrdom of her past and create a new Gertrude Jekyll (VanNostrand Reinhold) Harre—“Twenty experiments that changed life for herself. by Jane Brown. A generously illustrated our view of the world.” Also posing the question, “Is it ever biography of this famous, creative partner­ Little Sparrow: a portrait of Sophie Kov- possible to escape one’s background?”, is ship. Of interest to architects and art his­ olevsky by Don Kennedy. Phillip Roth’s Goodbye Columbus, short torians as well as gardeners.

6 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Christopher Lehmann-Haupt ’56 uniform, hardcover series—I’d probably and South, Mary Barton, Cranford), Anne start with the first volume of Henry James, Bronte (The Tenant of Wildfill Halt), and Senior Daily Book Reviewer, The New York containing the novels he wrote between the almost forgotten Miss Weston, a govern­ Times, and author of a forthcoming book 1871 and 1880; and in any time left over I’d ess whose journals (Miss Weston’s Journal about baseball, tentatively titled Innings, to browse through the Oxford Dictionary of of a Governess, edited by J. J. Bagley and be published by Simon & Schuster. Computing. Augustus M. Kelley) tell the harrowing story Actually, the books that I’ll be reading of her childhood, her prolonged financial this summer are the ones I’ll have to be difficulties, her service as a governess (in­ reading in the line of my duties as a book Mary L. Poovey cluding a blood-curdling scene in which reviewer. That means I’ll be reading the best Associate Professor of English Literature Miss Weston’s young charge burns to death and most newsworthy (in the broadest sense Looking forward to a year of scholarly work in front of her), and the tyrannies of a of the word) of the books that are going to be on nineteenth-century women, I will spend husband who locked her up, abused her, and kidnapped their daughter. This two-volume published this summer. Among these that I my summer reading books by and about know at this point, I’m looking forward women. Of the books I have already had a work makes Mary Wollstonecraft’s Maria seem more like truth than fiction. especially to the following: chance to read, I particularly recommend: Diane Arbus: A Biography by Patricia The Politics o f Reproduction (Routledge & Bosworth (Knopf)—a study of the late Keegan Paul) by Mary O ’Brien, a controver­ photographer by the author whose last book sial but provocative rethinking of traditional Hans Oberdiek was a particularly skillful biography of the political philosophy; Understanding Women Chairman of the Department of Philosophy film actor Montgomery Clift. A Feminist Psychoanalytic Approach (Basic Lincoln by Gore Vidal (Random House) Books) by Luise Eichenbaum and Susie More Work for Mother by Ruth Schwartz —the latest in a series of corrosive, revision­ Orbach, a clear, jargon-free rethinking of the Cowan and Computer Power and Human ist fictions about American history, by the psychological development of women and Reason by Joseph Weizenbaum. Two books author of Burr and 1876. the accommodations contemporary society for “happy technologists.” Ruth Cowan Intimate Memoirs by Georges Simenon forces us to make; and The Powers o f Desire: writes engagingly and informatively show­ (Helen and Kurt Wolff/Harcourt Brace The Politics o f Sexuality (Monthly Review ing how technology, far from relieving Jovanovich)—in which the prolific novelist Press) edited by Ann Suitow, Christine women from the drudgery of housework, describes his life, especially the devastating Stansell, and Sharon Thompson, an exciting, has instead added to it. Then, Joseph Weiz­ experience of his daughter’s suicide at the varied anthology of writings about the enbaum, a professor of computer science at age of 25. female experience of sexuality. M.I.T., argues eloquently and persuasively Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays, by The next books on my list are Patriarchal that there are many things computers can’t Christa Wolfe (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)—a Precedents: Sexuality and Social Relations do and even more that they shouldn’t do. reinterpretation of the Cassandra myth by (Routledge & Keegan Paul) by Rosalind Geoffrey Barraclough’s book Turning the East German novelist whose last book Coward, a critical analysis of the term Point in World History outlines changes in was No Place on Earth. “patriarchy”; A New Approach to Women the pattern of international relations in the Auden in Love by Dorothy J. Farnan and Therapy (McGraw Hill) by Michelle twentieth century. In addition, he discusses (Simon & Schuster)—what the author de­ Greenspan, a book that argues that psycho­ how regional isolation, the weakening of scribes as “a love story” made up of “a logical “treatment” must take into account Europe in two world wars and the shift of collection of memories about a relationship the social conditions under which women power to the United States have produced that has often been misunderstood: that live; and Eve and the New Jerusalem (Pan­ dangers affecting everyone on the planet. between W. H. Auden and Chester Kail- theon), Barbara Taylor’s study of socialism The Religious Roots of Rebellion by man.” The author is married to Kallman’s and feminism in nineteenth-century Eng­ Phillip Berryman. Berryman is a Quaker father, Dr. Edward Kallman. land. who has traveled in and written extensively If things run true to form, I will have been I also want to note how much I’ve been about Central America. He stresses the role disappointed by eighty percent of these enjoying rereading nineteenth-century writ­ of religion in Central America. This book is books by the end of the summer, and I will ers, particularly Charlotte Bronte (not just a necessary supplement to the Kissinger be left wondering, as I do from time to time, Jane Eyre, but also Shirley, and Villette, report, which virtually ignores the essential what I would have read if I could have read which is one of the most puzzling novels I role religious groups play in Central Amer­ anything. Probably nothing, is the first have ever read), Elizabeth Gaskill (North ica. thought that occurs to me whenever I ponder this matter: Does a bricklayer lay bricks when he is off on vacation? But having read so much for so long, I probably could never break the momentum. So I’d read what I always find myself wishing I had time to read—the new defini­ tive three-volume French Pleiade edition of Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin, and Andreas Mayor (Random House); or any one of the fifteen volumes so far published of the Library of America, which will contain the collected works of America’s foremost authors in a

JUNE 1984 7 FROM EAST TO WEST ON lUc Orient Express

In a faraway land one morning last June the breeches of their slung rifles. If they heard or sun was breaking up the morning mist in the understood anything, they gave no sign. lower Danube valley. I was in a wood- (Back home a friend remarked, “I’m sure panelled, first-class compartment furnished they understood everything, and I’m sure with upper and lower berths, a washstand, a they didn’t care.”) blue night light, and assorted hooks and After the forest green train was gone, the hardware that included an emergency-stop Orient Express started to move. The soldier handle exactly like the one an hysterical nearest my window looked up grinning and Margaret Lockwood yanked in the 1938 waving. “So long,” he said in English, “so Hitchcock film, “The Lady Vanishes.” The long.” He seemed worried that I wouldn’t “Nostalgie Orient Express No. 8” was respond. Ex-Specialist Five Snel returned parked on a siding just south of Bucharest. the farewell. Two hours earlier, before reaching the The journey had started from Istanbul the Socialist Republic of Romania, I’d suffered day before. Sirkeci Station is a three-story, a momentary fright in the People’s Republic slate gray stucco box that could pass for an of Bulgaria. At dawn the train was halted in unbonded warehouse. Parked on the main Ruse, and a Bulgarian customs man was track was a steam locomotive with red- rousting us from our berths so he could bang trimmed drive wheels. Flanking the head­ an exit stamp on our passports, but I had light was a pair of star-and-crescent flags of mislaid my son’s. There was anxious scram­ the Turkish Republic, then under martial bling through laundry and litter, and Ross law. Coupled behind were seven blue was wailing, “Dad, they’ll keep me here!” Wagons-Lits carriages built in the 1920s; But I located his passport in the pocket of a three blue and cream restaurant cars; and a stray jacket, and the customs man banged brindle kitchen car whose vent spurted “ 17 06 83 PYCE CAPA” on it. Now we BY DIRK D. SNEL ’55 cookstove coal smoke. were settled on this siding in Romania PHOTOS BY ROSS A. SNEL I was on the platform sniffing the breeze waiting for clearance ahead. Ross was break­ from the Sea of Marmara that carried vapors fasting in the restaurant car. I was stumbling was guiding a muzzled German shepherd so from deepwater freighters, Mercedes trucks, around in jeans and a T-shirt, getting ready it could sniff the undercarriages. and sun-cured hides. I was forty-nine years to shave. On the adjoining track, a train of “Chicago?” the young Polish women old, had never before been out of the United forest green sleeping cars glided abreast and were asking. States, and was looking at what Ian Fleming, stopped. “No, Washington.” the chronicler of James Bond, once called On European trains you can crank down The fraternization didn’t seem to bother “one of the most romantic signs in the your compartment window part way. I the three Romanian soldiers. They were all world.” It was the metal destination board leaned out and saw two young women on maybe nineteen, a little tired early in the fastened to the Wagons-Lits carriage, which the neighboring train looking back. After morning. read: checking out the markings and destination I asked the Polish women for their home­ Nostalgie Istanbul Orient Express board on the sleeping car, I made a shaky town: “Warsaw? Cracow? Gdansk?” Istanbul- Edirne- Sofia deduction. “Breslau,” they answered. Their forest Bucarest-Budapest- Wien-Paris “Polska?” I asked. green sleeping car started moving but we The sign was trivially misleading, for Sofia “Yah,” they answered. The deduction kept staring at one another. I realized that I’d would be bypassed. But the sequence of city wasn’t so shaky. not likely pass this way again. Besides, the names traced much of the route of the “American,” I announced, thumbing my three Romanian soldiers didn’t have the former Orient Express, celebrated in films chest. “Speak English?” tight look of cops. and thrillers. During its prime, the train They looked bewildered. They may have “Solidarnosc!” I called after them. I carried rogues and courtesans who lived murmured a no. forgot to make the V sign. minute to minute by their wits. Or so it is All this while, three Romanian soldiers in “Ah!” they gasped brightly and ambig­ written. mustard-colored fatigues with slung rifles uously. The three Romanian troops were But in 1977 the Orient Express ceased were positioned between trains. A strolling standing nearby, but long sickle-shaped scheduled operations; direct sleeping-car ser­ blue-uniformed customs man in a red cap magazines were planted solidly in the vice, bridging the 1,900 miles between Paris

SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN and Istanbul, ended. What two world wars kitchen, and the Swiss run the train.” delineates Greece. On the road paralleling couldn’t do, what fascist and communist As the Orient Express puffed out of the track, lorries bound for Greece or Turkey dictators couldn’t do was accomplished by Sirkeci Station, I gazed through the corridor were backed up half a mile. The train jet aircraft. Air France’s flight 606 cuts the window at the shipping congesting the Sea ground to a standstill near Svilengrad. Signs travel time from sixty-seven hours (the of Marmara. We rounded the seaward side outside now proclaimed their messages in train’s most usual schedule in times past) to of Topkapi Palace and moved at yard speed Cyrillic letters. I remembered the old line three and a half. That about equals the through the western suburbs where kids on from the movie “Casablanca.” “We are nonstop flight from Washington to Denver. balconies fingered the edges of their en­ from Bulgaria, Jan and I. Oh, things are very The new “Nostalgie Orient Express” I shrouding shawls, making tentative gestures bad there, M’sieur Rick. The devil has the was about to board was not on any daily or to cover their faces but never completing the people by the throat.” weekly schedule. Instead it was a special move. Ataturk had outlawed the veil in The bar car was almost empty of passen­ “cruise” train which, since 1982, has oper­ 1923. gers. There was a stringy, blue-uniformed ated in early fall and late spring. The train’s An hour out of the suburbs, and it was Bulgarian customs man seated with two vintage rolling stock was assembled by made obvious that the steam locomotive chunky plainclothesmen who looked as if Intraflug AG, a Swiss rail-touring organiza­ was a decorative pretension. It was replaced they had done service for loan sharks in tion. Intraflug personnel operate the train, by a cream and brick-red TCDD (Turkish South Philly. The stringy customs man was except for food service which is the domain Railways) diesel for the seven-hour haul to talking pidgin German with our hostess. of the Paris-based Compagnie Internationale the Bulgarian border. This was the first of Piled on the table were the passports of des Wagons-Lits et du Tourisme. Society countless locomotive changes. Official every passenger and every crew member on Expeditions, a Seattle firm, markets these changes were dictated by governments; every board. cruises as all-expense-paid packages. About one of the six frontiers along the way Next to the lily-shaped Wagons-Lits vase $5,000 buys you a one-way passage plus a brought a new engine crewed by nationals of holding a pink rose, the crew’s passports few nights at Versailles’ Trianon Palace the country being entered. Then there were made a European rainbow: the bright reds of Hotel and at the Istanbul Hilton. I had other changes dictated by esthetics—those the Swiss Confederation, the ultramarines of chosen the westbound passage from Istanbul. always meant switching from diesel or the French Republic, the occasional gray- On this run the United States provided all electricity back to steam. Steam in Romania blacks of Spain. Each was being checked for of the eighty-odd passengers. Some of the from Bucharest to Ploesti; steam in Hungary visas and then rechecked against the train inevitable retirees—and the retirees are the from Debrecen to Fuzesabony, while a manifest and somehow they weren’t tallying ones who can spare time, if not always string trio in the bar car played Liszt. and wouldn’t do so for an hour and a half. money, for cruises— had lived full lives, At 5 p.m., under a turbulent sky boiling After a while Otto Hantzschel, the bar-car including a former pilot, who flew cargo in with thunderstorms, the train just out of pianist, played “Don’t Fence Me In.” One of and out of most airstrips dotting the Pacific Ediren (“Adrianople” before 1923) halted at the chunky plainclothesmen didn’t catch on rim, and an L. A. retail furniture tycoon, who a no-name Turkish border stop. The Bul­ or didn’t want to. “Good moozic,” he joked courageously between the scheduled garian locomotive moved into place. Out in murmured with a straight face. placements of nitroglycerine tablets under the rain, next to the duty-free shop, a brass I hovered nearby because I didn’t want to his tongue. Travel agents accounted for one- band played “Old Comrades” in farewell. lose sight of our passports. (During the third of the passenger manifest. They could The next freedom stop would be in Vienna journey I took mine into the “john” and the deduct their fares as business expenses. in sixty hours. Ever so slowly the train showers with me. Call it first-time-out para­ A passenger from Tacoma summarized crawled into Bulgaria, into the domain of the noia.) My unwavering gaze discombobu- the ambience of the journey quite well. Warsaw Pact. Barbed wire was everywhere. lated the Bulgarian customs man who sud­ “Wonderful!” he said. “The French run the Three borders converge here—the third denly asked me, “Okay?” and again cried

9 JUNE 1984 out, “Okay?” He actually appeared jittery. “The Soviets,” she said, “don’t send well south of Bistrita. “Yeh, okay,” I grunted in response. I occupation troops to our country. They Transylvania was behind us on the third wondered if they made arrests years ago for don’t have to. They have us surrounded by morning when the broad green plain of casting the Evil Eye. their divisions in Hungary, by their own Hungary unfolded in the sunshine. At Debre­ We crossed Bulgaria northward at night. border to the north of us, and by the cen, a black MAV steam locomotive was At some station stops I noticed that the Bulgarians to the south.” coupled on, and the Swiss car mechanic, sweepers were all women, but supervised by That afternoon near Sighisoara in Tran­ speaking in pidgin German with Hungarian men. Lenin once said that if you truly sylvania, during an off-train tour, the bus station attendants, was manhandling lengths wanted to gauge a society, pay attention to passed a large marble slab engraved in of hose to replenish the water supply for the the way it treats its women. Cyrillic with a red star on top. It had to be a shower car. I watched the Bulgarian night glide past. Soviet war memorial. It was an obvious The black MAV steam locomotive and its The U.S. Clean Air Act wasn’t enforceable landmark, yet the Romanian tour guide kept coal-carrying tender looked pre-World War where the asphalt plant was—spewing out quiet and stared straight ahead. II. Could it have been misused to haul thick smoke luridly lit by arc lamps. There The lovely scenery of Transylvania, in holocaust victims to Nazi death camps? were two long tunnels through the Balkan Romania’s northwest, belies its ghoul- Could it, after the 1956 Hungarian revolt, Mountains, perhaps as long as those which haunted mythology. The dark woodlands have hauled some of the 63,000 Hungarian Amtrak’s empire builder must labor through between Munich and Stuttgart are spookier political prisoners toward exile in Siberia? to cross Snoqualmie Pass in Washington by far. Transylvania, from Brasov to Sighi­ During a stop at Hortobagy, I bought two State. soara, has the white-water streams and 12-franc cigars at the bar and walked for­ Our first crossing of the Danube came at misty-mountain look of southern Oregon, ward to the locomotive. Half a dozen dials in about 6:30 the next morning. We would but with deciduous growth interspersed with the cab had readings for “kg/cm2” or cross it again at Budapest, Vienna, and Ulm. evergreens. kilograms of steam pressure per square On the north Romanian bank, armed sen­ It was long dark when we got to Cluj, and, centimeter. I gave the cigars to the Hun­ tries guarded the pier and span of the trestle from there, the route might have described— garian hogger and stoker. I’d always wanted and stared at the opposite Bulgarian bank. in reverse—Jonathan Harker’s fictitious to do that. Later that day, a seemingly frank Romanian journey toward Castle Dracula. The depic­ My notes for the day in Hungary say this: tour guide— who kept saying, “No, I don’t tion of Harker’s journey starts from Munich, have to be a Party member to have this job, thence to Vienna, Budapest, “Klausenburg” and I’m not, and only five percent of our (Cluj?), and terminates at “Bistritz” (Bis- people are”—explained that Bulgaria com­ trita), northeast of Cluj, where Harker is met pleted Romania’s encirclement. by Dracula’s coachman. Our own route was

Above: Folk dancers in Bucharest. Right: The Turkish locomotive which began the journey in Istanbul. Far right: A Romanian soldier on guard duty at a museum. “Munitions train sighted east of Budapest— Now when Pierre is in Budapest, they dine my car conductor; the chef de train; the two APCs (armored personnel carriers) on flat­ together and have delightful times, although Swiss physicians, one of whom dispensed an cars. Mixed cars in Budapest: DR; Mitropa; Pierre admits that neither one speaks a ointment to relieve Ross’s American poison CCCP [USSR in Cyrillic]. Chopped ice language which the other understands. ivy; the chef; the maitre d’; the cooks; and all delivered to restaurant car. Station poster: One point in a journey always foretells its the waiters who had served seven meals on ‘Jesus Christ, Superstar.’ ” inevitable end. In Oregon, it is when Am- each of the four days of our journey while It was in Budapest’s Eastern Station that I trak’s southbound Coast Starlight snakes traveling at rickety high speed, without saw my first Soviet soldier, an officer with a across the Columbia River that the mind’s dropping a crumb or spilling a drop. red-blotched face and blue-veined nose. The eye foresees the stone turrets of Portland’s The track behind was long: It twisted piping on his olive drab jacket and shoulder Union Station. Or eastbound from Denver, through mountains, bisected plains, and four boards was red and blue, a blue that was the the passing flash of the depot at Aurora, 111., times crossed the Danube. It ran past shade of Waterman’s blue-black ink once its signals that Chicago is just ahead. On the mosques and churches and whatever syna­ stain had set. In the station’s waiting room, a Orient Express, the Chateau-Thierry station gogues the Nazis had spared. It bore the zither soloist was playing the “Third Man signals that Paris is just ahead. tonnage of many munitions trains whose Theme.” The return to the West had been cele­ routings and loads served two opposing It was 8 a.m., and the Orient Express brated in a rainy Vienna the day before over ways of European life. But, as the chef de remained parked in Eastern Station while “kaffee mit schlag.” And that morning in train Hans Gahwiler said, the signals and the passengers dined in Budapest’s west hills. Reims, the profuse graffiti—“Liberie en switch gear are pretty much the same all The rail traffic had abated. The “shoppers Iran”—reminded me that I was amidst across Europe to the Soviet border. And special,” carrying bargain-hungry Austrians democratic rambunctiousness again. there’s the wonderful way a station guard from Vienna, had made most of its incoming After we sped down the valley of the can flourish his rod-mounted signal disc, runs for the weekend. It was then that Pierre, Marne, the adjoining trackage multiplied green side facing forward, red side behind, to the only conductor who was French instead tenfold. Double-deck orange-and-white start a train out of Corlu, Stara Zagora, of Swiss, locked up Car No. 7 and proceeded SNCF commuter trains whipped past. At Brasov, Debrecen, Linz, Augsburg, or Nancy to meet a young secretary. Pierre said he had about five in the afternoon, on June 20, —and move it on home. first seen her on an earlier Orient Express 1983, Train No. 8 of the “Nostalgie Orient run. She was silhouetted in a high window of Express” came to its final stop at the Gare de Eastern Station’s terminal building. Pierre l’Est in Paris. A welcoming brass combo, all Dirk Snel ’55 is a trial lawyer fo r the U.S. had introduced himself by lashing two members wearing crunched-down top hats, Justice Department in Washington, D.C. sleeping-car ladders end to end to hoist a was playing operetta overtures. Ross Snel, his son, is a 1984 graduate o f bunch of flowers to her, along with a note. What remained was to shake hands with Phillips Exeter Academy.

Right: The Hungarian Parliament, built under Below: Socializing in the the Hapsburgs, viewed Orient Express bar car from across the Danube. before dinner, between Salzburg and Munich. W W m Are there enough good students to go around? From ‘baby boom’ to ‘birth dearth’

It began in earnest in the fall of ’46. points out Swarthmore’s Dean of Admis­ funding aimed at recruiting students over the Thousands of veterans of World War II, sions Robert A. Barr, Jr. ’56. “As the pool past seven years. “W e’ve done a lot of buoyed by the G.I. bill, hit the nation’s [of prospective students] shrinks, so will that traveling and visited a lot of schools in that college campuses like a tidal wave. The part of the pool consisting of high-ability time,” Barr says, “but the most important enrollment at Swarthmore swelled from students.... change has come in our attempts to interest only about 700 in 1944 to over 1,050 in “Highly selective colleges like Swarth­ prospective students through direct mail and 1947, an increase of nearly 50 percent in just more will have the double burden of main­ other types of publications, and increasingly three years. Although enrollments had taining academic standards as best they can through alumni support efforts.” dropped off sharply by 1951, they stabilized while drawing on this shrinking pool of These stepped-up recruiting efforts have around 900 during the ’50s and climbed prospects,” Barr adds. “It would be easier if noticeably increased interest in and applica­ steadily in the 1960s as a second postwar we were worried simply about survival and tions for admission to Swarthmore from wave hit—the “baby boom” generation. were willing to let [scholastic aptitude] test targeted areas. Last fall, students from forty- Between 1950 and 1980 the number of scores and grade-point averages find their eight states and thirty foreign countries were 18-year-olds in the United States roughly own levels. But that’s just not the ball game included among the 1,270 students enrolled. doubled. During that period, Swarthmore we’re in.” “The most dramatic increases in interest and most of the nation’s other college While conceding that composite SAT and applications have come from the West campuses were awash in a seemingly endless (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores for fresh­ Coast,” Barr says, “while the Middle Atlan­ stream of students. Only recently did the tide men at Swarthmore have declined some­ tic region remains relatively constant. Be­ turn. what over the past decade in absolute terms, tween 45 and 50 percent of our applications By the mid 1990s, census figures indicate, Barr says that compared with those else­ still comes from the Middle Atlantic states, the traditional college-age population in the where Swarthmore’s students still are among but New England and the West Coast have United States will drop 26 percent to 3.2 the brightest. “The reason,” he explains, “is increased their portion of our pool. million, from 1979’s high watermark of 4.3 that their scores parallel the decline in score “Up until this year interest in Swarthmore million. The Northeast— Swarthmore’s pri­ averages nationally. In fact, our [students’] in the Southeast was at a fairly low level, but mary source of students— will be the hardest composite scores would be, if not the high­ things have picked up there as a result of hit of any region in the country. The number est, at least as high as those anywhere else.” some concentrated efforts. We spent more of 18-year-olds in Swarthmore’s backyard In an effort to maintain its high academic time in those states ... and there has been will plummet fully 40 percent by 1994. After standards the College has nearly doubled renewed alumni activity in Florida, Atlanta, decades of growth American colleges and universities are beginning to feel the effects of the “birth dearth” of the late ’60s and the 1970s. Experts predict that scores of colleges will be forced to close their doors for lack of students. “It’s not just that all colleges will be scrambling harder to fill their classrooms,”

By Larry L. Elveru

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

12 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN and North Carolina. Some vigorous, inter­ this change is presented in full on page 14.) Northeast Region The change will reduce the amount of ested alumni there have extended the reach 1987 1988 1994 1995 of the College by hosting receptions, doing money that middle- and low-income stu­ telephone work, and attending college fairs dents are expected to borrow, by increasing and college nights in local high schools on grant support for them with income from the behalf of Swarthmore,” Barr explains. College’s endowment. The median family “Alumni have been an important factor in income of students enrolled at Swarthmore Texas, as well, where we are doing better last year was $35,000, while the median than we have ever done before. income of families in the United States as a “We also have targeted certain other whole was $25,000. areas where we think we ought to be doing In 1983-84 the College allocated approx­ better. Over the next few years we hope to imately $2.7 million for direct student grants. do much better in the Northwest, in which The new program, which goes into effect for Northcentral Region we include the Denver as well as Seattle and the freshmen class entering in the fall, is 1986 1988 1994 1995 Portland areas. W e’ll also continue our expected to cost the College an additional efforts in Texas and expand them in Arizona $100,000 for the 1984-85 academic year. and New Mexico.” During its seven-year trial, which ends with While working to broaden the geographic the graduation of the class entering in 1987, diversity of the student body, the Admis­ the program is expected to cost an extra $ 1 sions Office also plans to intensify its re­ million. cruiting efforts among low- and middle- Barr credits this change in the loan - 32 income students. Those plans got a major program with part of a sharp increase this boost in March when President David W. spring in the number of freshmen signed up Southeast and for the fall. The entering class now numbers Fraser announced a dramatic change in the Southcentral Region College’s financial aid program, to make it 406, an increase of 17 percent from last year. 1986 1989 1991 1995 easier for needy students to enroll at Swarth­ Over time the changed loan policy could more. (President Fraser’s announcement of have a snowball effect, he suggests. “It certainly will put us at a competitive advan­ tage among low-income students... and if it -12 -13 Population, Age 18 (in thousands) catches on and becomes identified with Swarthmore then we may get some real Year Total Men Women Western Region mileage out of it. Except California 1950 2,164 1,090 1,074 “Of course, if it does begin to cut into + 9 1960 2,612 1,323 1,289 other colleges’ pools, they very likely will 1970 3,780 1,913 1,867 adopt a similar strategy,“ Barr adds. “And 1984 1989 1990 1975 4,242 2,146 2,096 for the good of society we hope they will, 1995 1976 4,251 2,150 2,101 since that would make quality higher edu­ 1977 4,241 2,142 2,099 cation available to more and more low- “ HI -8 1978 4,228 2,138 2,090 income students.” 1979 4,291 2,172 2,119 Even though this change gives the College - 12 an objective advantage in recruiting low- ■ 1980 4,211 2,130 2,081 Western Region 1981 4,145 2,098 2,048 income students, institutions like Stanford, 1985 1988 1991 1995 1982 4,087 2,070 2,017 Harvard, and Yale retain a powerful subjec­ 1983 3,917 1,979 1,938 tive advantage over Swarthmore—name 1984 3,703 1,874 1,829 recognition. Studies conducted by the Col­ 1985 3,604 1,822 1,782 lege’s Admissions Office in conjunction 1986 3,521 1,783 1,738 with the Financial Aid Office indicate that 1987 3,567 1,805 1,762 second-generation college goers are more Pennsylvania 1988 3,654 1,850 1,804 likely to enroll at Swarthmore than first- 1987 1988 1994 1995 1989 3,733 1,895 1,838 generation college students, who may be 1990 3,426 1,736 1,690 more easily seduced by the aura of an Ivy 1991 3,241 1,643 1,598 League college. 1992 3,168 1,609 1,559 “Just as certain nationally known institu­ 1993 3,247 1,648 1,599 tions like Harvard and Yale benefit from 1994 3,199 1,626 1,573 their reputations in recruiting, we have a 1995 3,261 1,657 1,604 unique reputation in the academic commu­ 1996 3,359 1,707 1,652 nity nationwide,” Barr notes. “People who 1997 3,491 1,774 1,717 have had a substantial amount of education 1998 3,652 1,856 1,796 and are concerned about a quality liberal 1999 3,806 1,934 1,872 arts education hold Swarthmore in high 2000 3,910 1,987 1,923 regard and that can be useful in our recruit­ The bar graphs above show projected per­ ing efforts. centage changes in the number o f 18-year- Source: Charles J. Andersen, 1981-82 Fact Book for “But when we’re going after students olds (using 1979 as the base year) for Academic Administrators. Washington, DC: American Council on Education, 1981, p. 5. whose backgrounds and schooling don’t selected regions o f the U.S.

JUNE 1984 13 naturally lead them to think about college, if they can be lead to consider college,” Barr Easing the Burden of Student Loans says, “they are more likely to favor places that are practically household words like Harvard and Yale, rather than Swarthmore. Student financial aid programs that increas­ number of black students who applied to Despite this obstacle, low-income stu­ ingly rely on loans instead of grants are top-flight colleges last year may have been dents and minorities are certain to figure keeping students from low-income families related to this trend. Higher Education prominently in Swarthmore’s recruiting from obtaining the best college education. Research Institute President Alexander Astin plans, if only because blacks and Hispanics Consider the daunting prospect of debt faced has shown that students faced with a choice will make up a growing percentage of the by the bright high school senior whose father of the college to attend are not, on the 18-year-old population between now and is unemployed and whose mother earns average, attracted by increasing amounts of $12,000 per year. Four years of college loan, indicating that availability of loans, the late 1990s. Although Swarthmore has could easily leave the student with more although no doubt seen as helpful by some, enjoyed some success in recruiting blacks than $10,000 in debts: $2,500 per year is viewed warily by others less willing to over the past two to three decades, the under the National Direct Student Loan assume large debt. Students also tend to take College has had little experience with His­ program. A deeply committed student might on debt in rough proportion to the amount panics and native Americans. take on that debt anyway, convinced that of income they expect to receive after “W e’ve really got to try to understand the the value of a college education is far greater graduation; increasing amounts of debt may perceptions of higher education in each of than the costs. However, students from distort students’ choices of courses and the cultural subgroups from which we want families that do not have a tradition of careers if they feel pressured to enter a to recruit students,” Barr says. “In the black college education may weigh the costs more lucrative profession to pay back educational community it’s beginning to swing around heavily. By joining together now, colleges debt. to the point where private college going is could make a start in solving the problem. The most selective liberal arts colleges in not so unusual. But in native American and From a strictly economic standpoint, the country provide large amounts of aid for Hispanic communities the overwhelming funding college education through loans needy students in the form of grants to majority of students go to community col­ may make good sense. With loans, the cost supplement federal aid programs. In most leges or branches of state universities. of the education is borne by the student, the cases students are expected to borrow up to a person who most directly benefits from the specified amount before grants are given. “Given the emphasis on strong family education. Moreover, fiscal studies have This loan threshold is often as high for the relationships in most Hispanic communities, shown that even $10,000 is a manageable neediest students as for those from middle- for instance, Hispanic students may be debt for most college graduates. Student aid income families. But an equivalent amount reluctant to move long distances away from given in the form of loans certainly costs the of loan is likely to result in a more formi­ home to go to college. So our major donor—either the federal government or the dable barrier to students from poorer fami­ Hispanic recruitment efforts might be most colleger-less than would an equivalent lies. The policy ought therefore to be recon­ productive in New York, Philadelphia, and amount in grants, an important consider­ sidered. the southeastern states. But we’ll certainly be ation as budget deficits and college costs rise. In order to help make fine liberal arts looking to recruit Hispanics whenever we If, however, the end result of our loan-based education accessible to all talented students can,” he adds. student aid programs is to keep the neediest regardless of wealth, Swarthmore College is Ironically, Barr expects that a projected students from attending the best colleges, we markedly increasing its grants for needy shortage of educators may help Swarthmore must consider changing our aid programs. students. As a four-year trial program, those hold its own during the student shortage of Signs abound of this financial and psycho­ who enroll as Swarthmore freshmen begin­ the next ten to fifteen years. “The first thing logical barrier to the best education. In 1976, ning this fall will be expected to borrow a we will see is an improvement in the Princeton economist Richard Spies showed maximum of $ 1,200 per year—down from that family income was an important factor the maximum of $1,900 per year asked of opportunities for secondary school teachers. in determining whether a student would this year’s freshmen—and the neediest stu­ In certain subject areas there should be an even apply to a selective college (defined for dents will be expected to borrow only $800 increasing demand for secondary teachers his purposes as one in which the average per year. The $700-$l,100 difference will within four to five years. By then we should sum of the verbal and mathematics SAT be made up by increasing scholarship grants be able with honesty to call prospective scores was 1300 or more and the total of from the College. Swarthmore College can students’ attention to the excellent teacher tuition, fees, room and board was then afford to undertake this program because the education program here. $6,000 or more): among students with SATs generosity of its alumni over the years has “That will be followed, according to the of 1200, 48 percent from families with provided it with a substantial endowment. projections I’ve seen, by an increased de­ annual incomes over $100,000 applied to The College feels strongly that this endow­ mand for Ph.D. candidates—the bread and selective colleges as compared to only 10 ment should be used to ensure access for all butter of this place—as substantial numbers percent from families with annual incomes talented students to the best education and of college professors begin retiring in the less than $10,000. By 1982 the median has structured this program to further that 1990s,” he notes. family income of students at a sample of the end. Swarthmore hopes that other private “We won’t be insulated from the pressure most selective liberal arts colleges was more colleges will join in this program so that any [of declining enrollments], but because of than $50,000 per year. In a study of inde­ beneficial effects it may have on our society' our reputation for academic excellence I pendent colleges and universities, the pro­ may be magnified and the goal of universal portion of students from families with in­ access to high quality liberal arts education don’t think our problems over the next comes less than $24,000 in 1978 dollars realized. decade will have to do with survival, as will dropped from 32.3 percent in 1979-80 to those of other institutions,” Barr explains. 28.8 percent in 1981-82. The drop in the -President David W. Fraser “We’ll make it and one of the reasons is that we are adept at preparing people for careers that require strong academic credentials.”

14 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN College as a commodity What the buyers guides say about Swarthmore

With more seats now available in the school the academic pressure cooker they its description of Swarthmore with this nation’s college classrooms than students to say it is? Probably not. At any given sentence: “In many respects Swarthmore is fill them, college-caliber high school seniors moment, half the people in the library are the most highly selective undergraduate can afford to shop around. And as prospec­ blissfully sleeping on those plush carpets— institution in the U.S. Founded by Quakers tive students increasingly find themselves in Half of these types are mercenaries who and long a stronghold of liberal studies, it has a position to decide which colleges they will want to be rich lawyers. [In 1971!]— Scott become in recent years the symbol of liberal accept, college guide books continue to Paper Co. owns this college__ Swarthmore arts college distinction.” multiply and grow more specialized. The is one of the most intense and highest-ranked Perhaps the most controversial of all various guides, however, can give very of the nation’s small colleges.” college guide books is Fiske’s Selective different portraits of the College. A more recent edition of The Insider’s Guide. When it appeared in 1982, it was “On the verdant banks of Crum Creek, Guide takes a different approach to describ­ described as a subjective guide to the most with its trees and flowers labeled courtesy of ing Swarthmore. Some of the quotes in the selective colleges in the country. a horticultural foundation, Swarthmore new write-up include: “a very intense place According to Fiske, the information was looks as much like an arboretum as it does a both academically and socially— the work compiled from “a large packet of question­ place of higher learning,” notes New York is very demanding and the grading is often naires” which was sent to each college, Times education editor Edward Fiske in his brutal. . . . few small schools can offer a including questionnaires to be completed by Selective Guide to Colleges, 1984-85. “Ac­ student body as rich, as diverse, and as the president, the director of admissions, the tually, Swarthmore is an intellectual hot­ uniformly brilliant as that found at Swarth­ director of institutional research, and a house,” he explains, “where the minds are as more. . . . the campus, an arboretum, is cross-section of students. The strange thing is fertile as the soil, and classmates and course gorgeous___there are a lot of mediocre and that no one at Swarthmore remembers offerings combine to provide some of the bad sports teams. . . . fine faculty, student having received a questionnaire and thus the most rigorous academic standards to be body, and educational opportunities.” sources for the description of the College are found at any college.” The Comparative Guide to American unknown. While most guide book authors concur Colleges, by James Cass and Max Birn- When the first edition of the Selective with Fiske’s judgment that Swarthmore’s baum, calls itself “the only consumer-ori­ Guide appeared in 1982, colleges from all academic standards are among the highest in ented college guide based on original re­ over the country reacted to the subjective the country, each author evaluates the Col­ search and data from student leaders, college comments and the rating system of from one lege by several other criteria geared to the presidents, and deans of students.” The most to five stars. (Swarthmore received five stars particular audience each hopes to reach. recent edition of Cass and Birnbaum begins on academics, three on social life, four on Every woman’s Guide to Colleges and Uni­ quality of life.) The outcry was so great that versities, for instance, looked for indications the New York Times asked that future of women in leadership positions at Swarth­ editions separate the newspaper from the more and concluded that: “Women have author in terms of the book title. Swarth­ good opportunities to exercise leadership on more was among the colleges that objected this campus.” On the other hand, Hawes to the description in the book. Lorna Shur- Comprehensive Guide to Colleges, published kin, director of information services at the in 1978, ranked colleges for social prestige College, wrote a long letter to Fiske, express­ according to “where the most prominent ing concern about several statements. families send their children to school” and She took issue, for example, with the concluded that Swarthmore had only “mod­ remark that “undergraduates include a fair erately high” social prestige. amount of prep-school folk but also a good Seven years earlier, The Insider’s Guide to mix of the best the public schools have to the Colleges, compiled and edited by the offer.” She wrote back to Mr. Fiske that staff of the Yale Daily News, presented a “The impression [given by the guide] is that different perspective. It claimed to “begin our students are mostly preppy, but that where the standard college guides... leave some public school students are tolerated. In off,” and called itself “the only college guide fact, 75 percent of our students are from that students really trust.” The methods used public schools; only 25 percent are from for collecting data or information were not private and parochial schools.” disclosed but the introduction stated that Where does it all end? Do students and “the views in this book are not ours but parents and counselors believe everything theirs [the students’].” The first edition was they read in these guide books? Some do. well circulated for many years, unchanged, Others take time to visit, to see for them­ By Phyllis Raymond ’54 and we heard over and over famous quotes selves, and to realize that the “truth” is often from the Swarthmore write-up: “Is the Associate Dean of Admissions subjective. By Larry Elveru He just couldn’t make his body do every­ thing he wanted to,” Mahler recalls, “but you could see he knew how. I mean, he could turn and run and charge the ball—he played second base—but he couldn’t bend. He had the right idea, though, you could tell from his motions. “There were two women there. One was there on a lark. She had won the trip on fan appreciation night at a Phillies game. The other woman was there with her husband and was quite good. She was fifty years old, Fulfilling a but she could really field ground balls.” While they were wearing official Phillies uniforms, Mahler says he and his teammates were expected to abide by many of the same training rules and customs observed by regu­ Phillies Fantasy lar rookies. “They announced that they were going to Those who know him know that Ed Mahler make us feel like major leaguers in every ’50 does nothing half-heartedly. Merely way, and one of those was fines,” Mahler saying he is an avid baseball fan misses the explains. “Every morning the fines were mark. read off. They were a dollar each. If you “I walked in and they told us where our didn’t wear your uniform properly—if you lockers were and there it was—this Phillies didn’t have your shirt tucked in or some­ uniform with ‘MAHLER’ on it and ‘24,’ my thing like that—it was a dollar. If you were number when I played baseball at Swarth- late for the morning meeting or late for more. .. . It was a real kick!” exercises, it was another dollar. And you Thus began “Dream Week” for Mahler didn’t go into the training room in your and forty-three other hard-core baseball fans street clothes. You could go in there stark last February at the Philadelphia Phillies’ naked, or with part of your uniform on, but spring training camp in Clearwater, Fla. never with any street clothes on. It’s just not Mahler, who played baseball well enough at done. Swarthmore to try out a couple of times with “And you never, never went into the the Phillies, readily acknowledges he real­ coaches’ room. Ball players do not just walk ized a lifelong fantasy that week wearing a in there. It’s the inner sanctum. But some Phillies uniform and training at Carpenter guys in their enthusiasm did and it cost them Field under the watchful eyes of Del Ennis, a buck. The fines went to the clubhouse Richie Ashburn, Tony Taylor, and other caretakers, the guys who washed our uni­ former Phillies stars. The unique vacation forms every night.” was a surprise Christmas gift from Ed’s When asked whether he violated any of wife, Ruth Wilcox Mahler ’49. these somewhat arcane rules, Mahler con­ “I just loved it.... We worked out twice fesses that he did have to pay one $1 fine. “I a day, from 10 a.m. to noon and from got yapping away and I didn’t get out for the one to four in the afternoon,” Mahler afternoon exercises on time. That was my explains. “We got instruction in the only fine, though. I was a good boy.” morning on base running, bunting, Another major league training camp tra­ hitting, and handling ground balls. dition observed involved a gold cord and a And in the afternoon we’d warm noose. “They gave a gold cord to the person up again and play a game. who played the best the day before and a “There were forty-four of us. hangman’s noose to the ‘goat.’ There was a They split us into four squads of presentation of both every morning. I partic­ eleven each and we all played ipated in neither,” he notes. in intrasquad games. I wound “There also was a curfew,” Mahler adds, up playing first base for Del laughing, “at 4 a.m. But God help you if you Ennis’ team. He played with the stayed out until 4 a.m., because you weren’t Phillies in the ’50s.... Oh, it was great fun.” going to survive the next day. ... It was At 57, Mahler was the fourth oldest in the physically demanding. Did I ever have sore group of forty-two men and two women. muscles.” The organizers of “Dream Week” limited The climax of Dream Week came on the participation to fans over 35, but set no final day when Mahler and his forty-three upper age limit. teammates played a Saturday-afternoon dou­ “There was a 69-year-old fellow there. bleheader—two six-inning games—against

16 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN “One o f the toughest things was [deciding] which picture I wanted on my baseball card, ” Ed Mahler ’50 says o f his week in the Philadelphia Phillies’ spring training camp.

a team of retired professional ball players, including a tea former member of the old Philadelphia Athletics, the “A’s.” “I batted against Bobby Schantz. Schantz used to pitch for the A’s and he was my idol,” Mahler notes. “I couldn’t believe I was going to bat against Schantz. “He can’t throw hard anymore, but he has a curve spin that breaks on the outside corner of the plate. I was so eager that I reached for it and I kind of looped a hump­ backed line drive down the first base line that was caught without much trouble.” Overall, Mahler batted a very respectable .454, getting five hits in his eleven times at bat during his week at Carpenter Field. It will be an impressive statistic on the genuine “Ed Mahler” baseball card he will bo presented with at a Phillies game this month, along with a video cassette of his exploits, as mementos of his week as a rookie in spring training. He clearly savors the memories. “It was as much an emotional experience as it was a physical one,” he says. “All I did was play baseball. I’d wake up in the morning and think about what I had to do that day and realize, ‘I’m going to play a game! ’ ” Black Alumni Weekend A spirited show by the Swarthmore Gospel Choir, an exhibition of work by artist Andrew Turner, an appearance by actress Vinie Burrows in the play “Sister! Sister!”, along with receptions and a banquet highlighted the annual Black Alumni Weekend in February. Nearly fifty alumni, plus many spouses and children, gathered for three days to enjoy the varied program, meet with College officials, and for many, take their first look at the newly refurbished Black Cultural Center, Robinson House.

1 Bernard Jefferson, a guest (left), and Joseph Boyd ’68 (center) with Frank Posey ’86 at the Friday evening reception at the Black Cultural Center. 2 Persia Walker 78 (left) and Sharon Turner Shelton 79 arrive fo r the festivities. 3 Joanne Jones 73 and Randy Connell 76 listen to Saturday night banquet speaker Sister Falaka Fattah. 4 The Swarthmore College Gospel Choir departed from its tradition of choral presentations to put on a show. 5 Little Morgan Grace Glanton is the center o f attention fo r (from the left) Brenda Brock, associate dean o f admissions, Cristal Clark ’87, Marcia Young ’84, and her mother, Scheryl Williams Glanton 74. 6 Together again are (left to right): Linda Datcher-Loury 73, her husband Glenn, and Cynthia Jetter 74. 7 College officials attending the banquet included Vernon Savage, associate dean and director of black and minority affairs, Jane James, assistant to the director of computing services, and Dean Janet Dickerson. 8 Marvin Smith ’84 and Yvette Miller ’82 obviously enjoyed the weekend’s events. 9 “Queen o f Black Theater’’ Vinie Burrows in her Friday evening performance of “Sister! Sister!”

PHOTOS BY ALEX SPENCER ’87

SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN JUNE 1984 19 In the late 20’s and throughout the 1930’s, Hunt was an avid mountain climber, usually climbing in the Colorado Rockies. He was also a devoted horseman, and for many years kept a horse at a farm owned by a THE COLLEGE Swarthmore alumnus in Newtown Square, Pa. Surviving Dean Hunt are his wife, Mar­ jorie Kate Watson; son and daughter-in-law, Alan and Margo; grandchildren, David and Bruce Hunt; nephew, Charles Gilbert; and sister-in-law, Helen E. Watson, all of Swarth­ more. Hunt’s first wife, Dorothy, died in 1953. Dean Emeritus Students, alumni win Everett L. Hunt dies grants and awards Everett Lee Hunt, dean emeritus and pro­ for graduate study fessor emeritus of English at Swarthmore College, died on Monday, April 30th at Again this year Swarthmore students and Taylor Hospital, Ridley Park, Pa., after a alumni have won a disproportionately large short illness. He was 93, and had lived in the share of prestigious awards and grants to Borough of Swarthmore since coming to the pursue advanced studies. College as a professor of public speaking in Two alumni and two graduating seniors 1925. have been named recipients of the Mellon Hunt served as dean at Swarthmore Fellowships in the Humanities for 1984-85. College from 1932 until 1956. He was a Presented for the second year, the fellow­ professor of English from 1938 until his ships are sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson retirement from the College in 1959. During National Fellowship Foundation for recent retirement he taught at Cornell University graduates “to begin graduate study in prep­ and the University of Colorado. He had also aration for careers as scholars and teachers been a scholar in residence at the University in humanistic disciplines.” of Hawaii. Swarthmore is one of only nine schools Hunt’s writings include studies of Plato, nationwide which had four or more winners. Aristotle, and Matthew Arnold. He also Dean Emeritus Everett L. Hunt Receiving the grants are Elizabeth A. Cole contributed many articles to the English ’81, Slavic languages and literature; Leslie S. Journal, Sewanee Review, and the Quarterly Katz ’84, comparative literature; Martha A. Journal of Speech, which he edited from As dean of the College, Hunt was called Matthews ’84, philosophy; and Johanna H. 1927-1930, and wrote “The Dean and the upon to do admissions work as well as Prins ’81, comparative literature. Psychiatrist,” for Mental Hygiene. He was provide academic and personal counselling Once again the College was among the perhaps best known as an author for his of students. He sometimes had to act as a top twenty institutions in winners of Na­ book The Revolt o f the College Intellectual, disciplinarian, but still managed to keep the tional Science Foundation Graduate Fel­ published in 1963, which was an account of love and respect of his students. According lowships. With eight NSF grant recipients, the changing mores and attitudes of college to John M. Moore, professor emeritus of Swarthmore ranks first among all small students. For this book, he drew heavily philosophy and religion and former asso­ liberal arts colleges in the nation. And, on a Upon his years of experience at Swarthmore. ciate dean, Hunt was “a man so full of per capita basis of full-time undergraduate An innovator as well as a scholar, Hunt common sense and warmth that students students, Swarthmore ranks second only to was a pioneer in the field of the development liked him even when he had to discipline Caltech and ahead of Harvard/Radcliffe, of teaching methods and research in speech. them.” MIT, and Princeton. He helped to form several professional Born in Colfax, Iowa, Hunt spent his Seniors receiving NSF grants are Richard organizations devoted to that field. Hunt boyhood in the mountains of Kentucky and Roy Koch, mathematics; Greg Eric Shaffer, also pioneered in the provision of counsel­ part of his youth in a sod house in South economics; and Christopher Roy Stover, ling services for students. Long interested in Dakota. He later earned a B.A. in 1913 from mathematics and physics. Alumni include the field of psychology, he was responsible that state’s Huron College, and was awarded Daniel Forest Doak ’83, biology; Donna for instituting an experimental course in the an honorary D. Litt. from that institution in Leigh Gresh ’83, engineering; Roger Earl 1950’s called “Emotional and Motivational 1938. He received an M.A. from the Univer­ Latham ’83, biology; Mollie Susanna Nor­ Processes.” Hunt taught this course in col­ sity of Chicago in 1921, and studied also at w ich ’83, economics; and Sarah Sargent laboration with two noted experts in the Dublin’s Trinity College, the University of ’82, biology. field of psychology, Swarthmore Professor Edinburgh, and Oxford and Cambridge Uni­ Two current students, William Cohen ’85 Solomon Asch, a nationally known social versities. and Joanne A. Wood ’86, are among sixty- psychologist, and Dr. Leon Saul, professor Hunt was a former, chairman of the board seven students chosen for the Younger of clinical psychiatry at the University of of Friends Central School and a long-time Scholars Program sponsored by the Na­ Pennsylvania School of Medicine. leader of Swarthmore Friends Meeting. tional Endowment for the Humanities. The

20 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN program, begun this year, provides grants for nine weeks of intensive full-time, noncredit work during the summer. Cohen, an English literature major, plans to study “The Interaction of Modern Critical Theories and Shakespearean Texts,” while Wood, a philosophy major, will study “Kantian Morality and Conrad’s Lord Jim: The Problem of Moral Agency.” Watson Fellowships, designed to “enable college graduates of unusual promise to engage in an initial postgraduate year of independent study and travel abroad,” have been awarded to seniors Paul Golub and Adam Silver. Golub plans to study political theater in Italy, France, and England, while Silver will study Hindu religious architec­ ture.

Chester interns finish first house Swarthmore student volunteers and interns working with residents of Chester, Pa.— one In March a group o f alumni toured one o f the houses in Chester, Pa., being renovated with of the nation’s poorest cities— finished reha­ the help o f Swarthmore students. Pictured above (from left to right) are: Jane Carol bilitating their first house there during spring Glendinning ’66, Donald Fujihira ’69, Steven A. Delibert ’65, and Louis E. Rowley ’5 7, semester and hope to complete another by with Serge Seiden ’85, talking with Chester intern Salem Shuchman ’84. fall. In February, Chester resident Carolyn Braxton and her 7-year-old son Virgil moved has increased from eight to twenty. A total of cently created a part-time coordinator’s posi­ into the first renovated house at 214 forty Swarthmore students now work with tion to maintain the program’s continuity. Broomall St. The building, which had been CCIP, while sixty have been placed in abandoned, was purchased for $657 last fall regional social action programs by the Vol­ Campus communications from the U.S. Department of Housing and unteer Clearinghouse, an agency run by the center completed Urban Development (HUD). Braxton Swarthmore-Chester interns to help stu­ bought the thoroughly renovated row house dents find meaningful volunteer work A centralized communications center, to for $10,000 with a 9.5 percent mortgage throughout the year. provide the College with an efficient year- from a local bank that wishes to remain CCIP is now finishing work on a house at round operation, has been established, en­ anonymous. “This is what I call responsible 1329 West Second St., the first project suring quicker response in case of an emer­ bank behavior,” said former intern Salem undertaken with student help, and is negoti­ gency and allowing 24-hour personal access Shuchman ’84, referring to the bank’s de­ ating with HUD to buy another abandoned for service. cision to give Braxton a loan. Several area property next door to Braxton’s new home. James Lyons, director of security and banks had refused to loan Braxton mortgage One problem CCIP has run into when safety services, explained that the functions money because she earns less than $ 10,000 a working on vacant houses is theft. For of the College switchboard operator and the year, he noted. example, two steel doors and a bathtub were security receptionist have been combined “I couldn’t be happier with the program,” stolen from one house less than a week after into a single operation using existing per­ Braxton said after moving in. “I really got a being installed. To discourage further theft sonnel on staggered shifts for continuous good deal on my house. I tell people in the Rob Abbot ’86 moved into that house in coverage. neighborhood about it, people who are April until it could be better secured. Abbot “Improvement in the area of communica­ interested in improving themselves and the previously has worked in Camden, N.J., tions has been an ongoing project for several community__ We’re starting a garden now, organizing tenants to assert their legal rights. years,” Lyons said. “When I came here in trying to get other people on the block The Swarthmore-Chester Internship Pro­ 1980 it was a rather fragmented function. involved in neighborhood improvement.” gram was established during the spring of The switchboard operator worked business The number of Swarthmore students 1983 to encourage student efforts to improve hours during the academic year and the working in Chester has grown rapidly since living conditions in Chester, which is located security receptionists worked in Parrish the summer of 1982 when Shuchman and just three miles south of the campus. Student center hall, with some extended hours. The Dana Lyons ’82 moved to Chester and interns take a semester’s leave of absence problem was that during holidays and vaca­ began working with the Chester Communi­ from the College to work for either CCIP or tion periods there was no one who covered ty Improvement Project (CCIP) under the the Volunteer Clearinghouse. Living ex­ College communications other than a secu­ direction of the Rev. Wallace Smith. In the penses for two students each semester are rity officer who called an answering service past year, the average number of students covered by stipends made possible with once an hour. In the case of an emergency, who spend their Saturdays rehabilitating funds donated by foundations, corporations, an hour delay could be very bad.” deserted and dilapidated houses in Chester religious groups, and alumni. The College re­ The new center, located in Parrish Annex,

JUNE 1984 21 Tribute concert staged for Patricia Boyer Friends, colleagues, and students of Patricia Boyer, the founding director of the dance program at Swarthmore, joined in a celebra­ tion of her achievements at a music and dance concert March 17. Boyer, who also helped found the Phila­ delphia Dance Alliance, suffered a cerebral aneurism last year which left her partially paralyzed and in need of continual care. The concert was organized to honor her dedica­ tion in bringing exciting dance teachers, students, and artists to campus, thereby elevating dance to an important place in Swarthmore’s life. Among the performers was Joseph Kelly ’71, who has appeared in musical theater and cabaret throughout the country. Kelly Professor Patricia Boyer is greeted by a well-wisher. toured for ten years with the Atlanta Con­ temporary Dance Company as artistic di­ rector and lead dancer. In the fall he will Mullerin, choreographed by Taylor and Wagoner’s Round This World Baby Mine, teach jazz dance at Swarthmore. Nina Haft ’84, highlighted the concert. The and, along with Roberta Chicos ’77, con­ Also taking part were Susan Foster ’71, Swarthmore College Dancers and Carolyn ceived and directed an audio tape collage currently a member of the dance faculty at Reichek, a member of the dance faculty, which included reminescences about Boyer Wesleyan University, and Mark Taylor ’75, performed the piece to the accompaniment by her colleagues. founding director and choreographer of his of singer Jennifer Denman ’80 and pianist Concluding the tribute were four-handed own company, Mark Taylor and Dancers. James Freeman, chairman of the Depart­ piano duets performed by Gerald Levinson, Taylor taught a course in modern dance on ment of Music. assistant professor of music, and Barbara campus during the fall semester. Paula Sepinuck, acting director of the Devin, who teaches piano and performs Excerpts from Schubert’s Die Schone College’s dance program, performed Dan locally.

(continuedfrom page 21) FÌVC teaiIlS take tîtlCS centralizes the switchboard and security dispatch functions and allows for 24-hour Jones bitter pill for lacrosse rivals walk-in access for information and key sign- out. It also houses the central station alarm Maybe it was the hot sun beating down. recalled, “I had all these Tylenol samples I monitoring system, which monitors all fire Maybe it was the gambling losses adding up. gave out to everybody. Then a few days and intrusion alarms on campus. Whatever the reason, they sold a ton of later, it comes out that people are dropping The new system, with virtually every Tylenol at the Jersey shore in the summer of dead from taking Tylenol. building on campus hooked into it, has 1982, and Gwyneth Jones basked in the “One of the equipment managers said to eliminated previous problems that plagued warmth of the sales figures. me, ‘I can’t believe your company!’—and he the campus. A recent occurrence of the fire Gwyneth Jones—tall, blond, self-assured— was, like,yelling at me. I didn’t understand; I alarms not sounding on the upper floors of exceeded her quotas in her first summer as a wasn’t paying attention to the news reports. Parrish caused major concern. Tylenol sales rep. Her territory included 250 Then all of a sudden I hear somebody on TV “That has been fixed,” Lyons said. “Now stores from Long Beach Island to New going, “. . . and a sixth person has died in all alarms can be received instantaneously in Brunswick. When September arrived, she Chicago. . . ’ ” one central location and instructions for pocketed a nice fat bonus and headed back Gwyneth Jones went back with McNeil response given immediately. This particular to Swarthmore College for her junior year. Consumer Products, the makers of Tylenol, system also has a battery backup to provide At Swarthmore, this overachiever from again last summer, and again she smashed emergency power in case the electricity goes Princeton, N. J., kept on demolishing quotas, her sales quotas. When she graduated from off.” this time in lacrosse. On May 6 she fired in Swarthmore in May, she joined the com­ The reorganization of the communica­ the 198th goal of her career and 63rd of the pany on a permanent basis. tions function, he emphasized, is to “ensure season—both school records—as Swarth­ If the NCAA would allow it, Swarthmore reliable and consistent and accurate” re­ more (10-5-1) finished sixth in the U.S. might offer her a permanent job hammering sponse in any emergency. Women’s Lacrosse Association national one goal after another in lacrosse. The 5- “We’ve had very few serious incidents on tournament. foot, 10-inch attacker is simply too big, too campus,” he added. “We’re actually a very But after what happened in September strong, and too quick for most defenders. safe place. What this new centralization 1982, Gwyneth Jones is lucky her team­ She popped in 47 goals as a sophomore, 53 does is improve our position to respond mates didn’t toss her off the squad. as a junior, and 63 this year—setting a new better to calls for service.” “When I got back to school that fall,” she school record each time.

22 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN “She’s been a dominant force for four years, just a constant threat,” coach Eleanor (Pete) Hess said. “And she’s become a much-improved team player, a playmaker. As people have double-teamed her, she’s helped other players develop by getting them the ball. But whenever we really need a goal, we can count on her. A hundred ninety-eight goals speaks for itself, doesn’t it?” Jones isn’t the only reason Swarthmore went unbeaten in its last eight regular season games this year and won the Philadelphia AIAW Division II title. Donna Marchesani, a former Ridley High standout, banged in 46 goals, the highest total in school history by someone not named Gwyneth Jones. Center Nan Weinstock dominated the draws, the lacrosse equivalent of a hockey faceoff. Meg Chaplin and goalie Lori Hoppmann helped the defense hold opponents to just one goal in the last 117 minutes of regular-season play. The Garnet wrapped up the PAIAW crown in April and a third straight tourna­ ment bid with a 12-1 rout over Widener. Midway through the second half, Jones took a Widener stick in the face and sank to the ground. She got up slowly—and then pumped in three goals in three minutes. PHOTO BY BRENDAN FLYNN '86 Gwyneth Jones ’84 (center)-B-Swarthmore’s all-time women’s lacrosse goal scorer. “Gwyneth is a person who loves a chal­ lenge,” said her father Tom, a Johnson & Johnson executive and Swarthmore alum­ tore ligaments in her thumb just before the title, finishing third. nus (’53). “She’s extremely competitive. Not opener. Softball was out, but she kept on Swarthmore had so many good teams your Leo Durocher kind of competitive— playing squash with a metal brace on her and so many outstanding athletes in 1983- flying spikes and all that. But she’s tough.” thumb, and kept on getting better. By April 84, they tend to blur in the mind. Let’s Last spring Jones made the PAIAW all- it was coach Mike Mullan who proclaimed, sharpen the focus one last time: star team as an attacker. Last fall she made “Alyson? She’s goood.” Football (7 ~2): All-league linebacker the all-star field hockey team on defense—in Alyson Mason spent her freshman year Dom Lepone led the “Dogface Defense” to only the second season she’d played the struggling and sweating and striving—and a No. 4 ranking nationally, and the Garnet sport. in the end she failed to win a varsity letter. Tide won a share of the Centennial Confer­ “I don’t really like field hockey that But she will. That’s the beauty of Swarth­ ence title. ABC televised the Muhlenberg much,” she said. “But I had to have a fall more athletics. There’s room for everyone— game, Swarthmore’s first TV appearance sport. I didn’t want to just sit in my room the Gwyneth Joneses who triumph and the since 1952. after class.” Alyson Masons who try. Men’s Soccer (7—5~3): After an 0 _4 Every athletic program needs the Gwyn­ • start, Curt Lauber’s team took off on a 10- eth Joneses, the game-breakers. But there’s In 1983-84, Swarthmore athletes earned game unbeaten string, winning their division something missing if it doesn’t have the more than their share of triumph. Five of the title and entering the Middle Atlantic Con­ Alyson Masons. 22 varsity teams won conference or division ference playoffs for the first time since 1977. • titles (football, men’s soccer, women’s la­ Goalie Ken Mikalauskas gave up just three Alyson Mason came up from Pikesville, crosse, men’s lacrosse, men’s tennis). Three goals in that 10-game span. Md., in September, a slightly frightened others just missed winning championships Field hockey (10-6): Pete Hess’s club freshman who marveled at more polished, (women’s tennis, softball, women’s swim­ tied Textile for the All-College Tournament more experienced players who threatened to ming). And seven teams rang up their crown, its first since 1979. Freshman Heather nudge her off the field hockey team. “They’re highest win totals ever (men’s cross country, Duncan led the way with 11 goals. so gooood,” she half-laughed, half-moaned, women’s swimming, women’s basketball, Men’s Cross-Country (12-2): The run­ shaking her head. She saw less than ten women’s lacrosse, men’s lacrosse, softball, ners gave coach Joe Stefanowicz his 100th minutes of varsity action all year. But she and men’s tennis). career win and a record number of victories stuck with it when others quit. In early May, three Swarthmore teams for a single season. Junior Tim Pfaff lowered In the winter, she had a so-so season with were competing for national championships the Swarthmore course record twice in five the squash club— not bad for someone who at the same time— in men’s lacrosse, wom­ days and became only the second Garnet learned the rules just two months before. In en’s lacrosse, and men’s tennis. Mike Mul- runner in 12 years to qualify for the NCAA the spring, she went out for softball—and lan’s tennis team came closest to a national championships.

JUNE 1984 23 sends greetings to all the Class. Women’s Basketball (14-8): Sophomore Michele Fowler Things go along the same with her ______rose to all-America status with 20.8 points and 8.7 rebounds per 07 mail, TV programs and world news. game, but defense was the key to a team-record victory total. Clementine Hulburt Gibson Charles Eberle, Jr. ’40, son of Coach Bunny Watts orchestrated the No. 2-ranked defense in the 111S. Chester Road, Apt. 1C Nan T3 and Tod Eberle ’12, and nation in Division III. Swarthmore, PA 19081 his wife, Mary Lo Broomell Eber­ le ’40, took me to the Philadelphia Women’s Swimming (8-2): It came down to the final event I am sorry to report the death of Swarthmore Club luncheon at the Marjory Matthews Lamb on Feb. at the MAC championships before Dickinson nosed out Sue Rittenhouse Club. There I saw 2, 1984. Marjory was ninety-eight Davis’ group for the title. But the second-place finish was their Boyd Barnard T7, and he said he when she died, and I do not believe best ever. Kathy Sexton became an all-American in the 200-yard just saw his brother Elliot. Hello, that she had an unkind thought or backstroke and freshman Diana Lecza won the conference title in Elliot can’t you send some news? said an unkind word in all those the 200 breaststroke. Better yet, come to our 70th years. She was a very loyal Reunion on June 2. Men’s Tennis (20-9): Mullan’s men held the No. 1 ranking Swarthmorean. all season before winding up third at the Division III national I will take a car of Swarth­ tournament. Steve Brown made it all the way to the semifinals in moreans from Rydal in May to see singles play and won the Arthur Ashe Award for ability, Tom Hallowell’s [’29] gardens. sportsmanship, and humanitarianism. Shep Davison made it to 13 ______Only a mile from Rydal, Deerfield has boxwood, azaleas, dogwood, the quarterfinals and shared all-America status with Brown. and rhododendrons. Twenty-three Swarthmoreans are Women’s Tennis (6-1): Making the transition from fall to I will be on the campus June 2 living in the retirement community spring, the net women came within a loss, to Johns Hopkins, of for pur 70th reunion. Can’t some of of Medford Leas. They range in age winning the MAC title in their first season in the league. the ’14ers be there? Softball (13-7): Gomer Davies’ team came to life in mid­ from our eldest, Edith Gibbs Reeder ’07, to our youngest, season and ran up a nine-game winning streak, longest in club Margaret Deknatel Hinman ’38. history. If the Garnet had made it 10—by beating Allentown in Four of us—Dan Smith ’29, the season finale—the PAIAW would have been theirs. Left- Ruth Stephenson T6, Grace 15 ______fielder Nancy Davis capped an outstanding 12-letter career by Greene Musser T3, and Marion winning the Wheelan & Wheelan Award as Philadelphia-area Coles Roberts T3—have dinner Margaret McIntosh Linton is MVP, and freshman Sharon Younkin led the club with a .357 together once a month. The topic of the subject of an article in the Feb. average. conversation, as you might suspect, 15th issue of the Springfield Press. Men’s Lacrosse (11-2): Little Eddie Meehan won the con­ is “Swarthmore,” its past, and the Margaret writes stories using her ference MVP award as Jim Noyes’s boys roared to a No. 9 many changes there since we grad­ life experiences. “I find writing national ranking, an MAC crown, and their first NCAA uated. All four of us have been back interesting and challenging,” the recently enough to have some idea article quotes her as saying. The tournament berth. Pat Carney, Hans Hurdle, and Bob Cooney of the extent of the campus and the winter edition of Music Journal joined Meehan on the all-MAC first team. Leading scorer Jerry many buildings. When Dan invited contained her article about the Hood (25 goals, 31 assists) mysteriously wound up on the second Martyn James ’83 to have dinner Madagascar valiha. team. with us, we learned from him about Speaking of Hood, the Hood Trophy (no relation) stayed put the current curriculum and the less at Swarthmore thanks to a 51/2-point to 21/2-point victory over tangible aspects of the College. Grace and Marion went back to Haverford in men’s sports. The women will compete for their ______our 70th Reunion last June. We 16 own trophy beginning next year. — By Elliot Tannenbaum were glad to find Mark Bittle there Isabel Jenkins Booth with his wife, but we had hoped 84 Kendal at Longwood TEAM RECORDS that others of our class would be Kennett Square, PA 19348 FALL there. We were escorted to the I am sorry to report the death of Men’s Cross Country: 12-2 Men’s Soccer: 7 -5 -3 Alumni Meeting in a golf cart Hazel H. Brown last December. A Women’s Cross Country: 6-2 Women’s Soccer: 6 -8 driven by, we were amazed to find, fine article appeared in the news­ Field Hockey: 10-6 Women’s Tennis: 8 -4 President David Fraser. We would appreciate it if those paper concerning her career as the Volleyball: 10-10 Football: 7-2 of 1913 who did not get back in first woman judge in Philadelphia. I WINTER June would send news of them­ have also to report the death of Badminton: 6 -6 Men’s Swimming: 3 -7 selves to the Alumni Office or to Alice Bryan Dorsey in January. Men’s Basketball: 10-14 Women’s Swimming: 8-2 Grace Greene Musser (Apt. 437) Sewell Hodge, who was in a Women’s Basketball: 14-8 Wrestling: 8-16 or Marion Coles Roberts (Apt. serious auto accident last fall, is re­ covering and able to attend lectures Gymnastics: 0 -8 172) at Medford Leas, Medford, N.J. 08055. and musical programs here at SPRING Gladys and Mark Bittle have Kendal. Baseball: 10-18 Softball: 13-7 moved to Normandy Farms Estates, Hope to hear from more of you Golf: 1-11 Men’s Tennis: 20-9 Blue Bell, PA 19422. next time. Men’s Lacrosse: 11 - 2 Women’s Tennis: 6-1 Women’s Lacrosse: 10-5-1 Track and Field: 4 -5 Elliot Tannenbaum, Swarthmore’s sports information director 14 ______17______fo r 1983-84, won first-place honors in the Eastern region for the J. Horace Githens top narrative press release of the year in judging conducted by Rydal Park #165, Rydal, PA 19046 The Groffs sent a note to Nan CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America. Sullivan at Christmas. Sam went on Tannenbaum will serve on the press operations staff at the Victoria Lesley Steigelman a trip to the Midwest to visit family Olympics this summer. 24 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN June 1984/Second-class postage paid at Swarthmore, PA 19081 and additional mailing offices. m «ft issue: Swarthmore College Bulletin 1 Fighting apartheid “without fear or unhappiness” By Jodine Mayberry 5 Sagacious selections for summer reading 8 East to West on the “Nostalgie Orient Express” By Dirk D. Snel 55 P a g e 1: A visiting professor’s harrowing fight for racial 12 Are there enough good equality in South Africa students to go around? 16 Fulfilling a Phillies Fantasy 18 Black Alumni Weekend P a g e 16: Ed Mahler 50 Photos by Alex Spencer ’87 slid into a dream world 20 The College with the Philadelphia 24 Class Notes Phillies this spring. Editor: Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 Managing Editor: Larry L. Elveru Assistant Editors: Kathryn Bassett ’35 Kate Downing Editorial Assistant: Ann D. Geer Designer: Bob Wood Cover: A drawing of the inside of a solitary confinement cell in South Africa by Fatima Zahra.

P a g e 5: Suggestions for summer reading from both amateur and professional bibliophiles

P a g e 8: Musings on the Orient Express