THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF HAVERFORD COLLEGE THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF HAVERFORD COLLEGE spring ’08 The Alumni Magazine of Haverford College SPRING 2008 TODAY’S SPECIALS HAVERFORD COLLEGE Non-Profit Org. Haverford, PA 19041 U.S. Postage Address Service Requested PAID Conshohocken, PA Permit No. 345 SPRING 2008 Today’s Specials Include... I’m neither vegan nor food-allergic nor particularly activist when it comes to sourcing. But I am grateful for the work of those who are, because they are making our world—the one around us, and the one here on Lancaster Avenue in Haverford—a more interest- ing (dare I say ‘better’) place to be—and eat. Just yesterday I had my first vegan BBQ ‘rib’ in the dining center. Tasted great and is probably better for me—and easier to digest—than the steaks that my classmate Eve Bernstein Carlson ’82 recalls for us in our cover story about food service here on campus. Back then, choices were limited, not always the freshest, and subject to the profit-and-loss needs of the vendor. (I remember the day we transitioned to a new provider who dazzled us with things like freshly-baked bread and flavored yogurt—gee, thanks!—only to see that vendor ditch those welcome improvements when corporate needed budget relief...) With Haverford doing its own catering, the effort is much clos- er to the ground and John Francone, the guy who runs Dining Services, deserves all the praise he gets for both providing quality food and being so responsive to student requests. As a ‘then and 29 now’ diner, it’s a very different experience at every level (one thing that immediately struck me when I returned to campus last year was the near-total lack of lines. Let’s hear it for swipe cards). If you Steven Kavanaugh Contributing Writers haven’t been back to campus in some time, it’s worth a trip just to Interim Vice President for Janine Beaman check out the chow. Other changes: the Coop flew it, from its nest Institutional Advancement Kate Campbell Charles Curtis ’04 in the basement of the Dining Center for nicer quarters in the Chris Mills ’82 Brian Johnson ’08 Whitehead Campus Center, just beyond Sharpless. (One of our Director of College Communications Greg Kannerstein ’63 Beth Kephart Brenna McBride Roads Taken & Not Taken essays in this issue mentions yet another, Carlene Kirby ’01 Staff Writer earlier Coop in the basement of Union. Who knew?) Emma Lapsansky-Werner The new Coop is a welcome change consistent with all the other Acquire, LLC Frank Lyman ’59 Graphic Design Michael Matza food-related improvements that the College has made, someplace www.AcquireVisual.com Dave Merrell ’09 you’d expect to see at, say, the National Gallery of Art: a clean, Tom Nugent Virtual Communications Com- Cheryl Sternman Rule ’92 well-lighted and -tended place serving an array of sandwiches, sal- mittee Editorial Advisory Committee Norman Pearlstine ’64, Chairman ads and grill items at fair prices. There’s also a coffee bar-style cafe Jody Romano at the Center for Peace & Global Citizenship in Stokes (free lunch John R. Botti ’92 on Friday when topical issues are unpacked by any and all who care Kaye Edwards Gregory Kannerstein ’63 to come by—this means you, locals). Bradley J. Mayer ’92 Food is such an intimate part of life, and as Cheryl Sternman William E. Williams Rule ’92 makes clear in her story, we’re fortunate to have such car- Corrections ing, engaged—and talented—people looking after that side of In the Winter 2008 edition of Haverford Magazine, the woman wearing a gray sweater in the photograph on page 41 was incorrectly identified as Adaobi the house. Nwaneshiudu ’03. This woman is actually Nicisha Stephenson ’03; Bon appetit! Nwaneshiudu is second from the left, wearing a headscarf. Also in Winter 2008, a photo caption in our profile of Richard Lingeman ’53 (“Dances With Words”) incorrectly attributed a comment to Calvin Trillin. In fact, Marvin Kitman was describing Trillin. In that same article, a paragraph on p. 49 should have read, “Navasky as a friend, and Katrina vanden Heuvel, as a Chris Mills ’82 sympathetic boss, have afforded Richard time to work on his major opuses: [email protected] “Rebel From Main Street”, the Sinclair Lewis book, clearly shows the calming influence of security, being 554 pp., but not Ferberish or Michener-esque, as the two-volume Dreisers were, painting “Red” Lewis more intimately and nov- P.S. For an exciting and insightful look at the Haverford of today— elistically. From the first frozen day of his homecoming funeral in Sauk Center, including the food, and much more—please check out the new Minnesota, through his brief, collegiate religious fanaticism, to his rebellion against the hackish heights he’d reached working for George Horace Lorimar’s video clips on our website, www.haverford.edu/admission. Saturday Evening Post, a magazine that relentlessly sold the American Dream (as, say, Rolling Stone, in its “Fear & Loathing” era, relentlessly sold its obverse), the book paints Red as a neurotic writing machine, revved like a motorcycle by the forces that moved him against American pieties.” spring 2008 36 44 FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 2 View from Founders 36 Today’s Specials Local flavors, broader choices: how Haverford’s food 4 Main Lines has evolved. 20 Reviews By Cheryl Sternman Rule ’92 25 Ford Games George L. Mosse: An Exile at Home in the World 44 29 Faculty Profile Born into one of Berlin's richest families, forced to flee Hitler's rise, George L. Mosse ’41 became a dynamic scholar and 33 Haverford Conversations teacher in the United States. 61 Giving By Kate Campbell 63 Notes from the Alumni Association Getting Beyond Sicko 50 64 Annual Giving What’s wrong– really wrong–with healthcare and health in the America of 2008? Sociologist James S. House ’65 67 Class News has an answer that may surprise you. 80 Roads Taken and Not Taken By Tom Nugent 58 The Universal Language of Health A clinic run by Steve Larson ’83 serves the needs of South Philadelphia’s Latinos. Haverford College Office of Communications By Michael Matza 370 Lancaster Avenue • Haverford, PA 19041 (610) 896-1333 • ©2008 Haverford College Haverford Alumni Magazine is printed three times a year. Please send change of address information to Haverford College in care of Ryan Johnson, 370 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, PA 19041 C Haverford Alumni Magazine is printed on recycled paper. “I never thought of myself as Mixolydian, but then again...” by Stephen Emerson ’74 view from founders Not long ago, our Hurford Humanities Center present- influence on the musical superstructure that is built upon ed a workshop in jazz/funk improvisation. There must have it. What happens when you add a beat to the measure? Take been two dozen student musicians there in the basement of one away? Emphasize the “and-of” three? Move from Lunt, of varying degrees of skill and experience. Watching Phrygian mode to Mixolydian? (These are Fords, they can our video coverage of the event (which you can find at our handle it!) The bottom line: It doesn’t take many changes website with the search term “funk fest”), I’m to yield profound change. not surprised by the range of talent on And, as the music swirls from my computer, I realize how display, nor the friendly accommo- those of us who play stewardship roles here at the College are dation of all by all. And while I’m attempting something similar in that we’re exploring how amazed by the ease with which a few small changes in what we do can have a profound they comprehend the fundamen- impact on the future. tal lesson of improvisation and Here are two examples. its core message of listening to Concerned that the rising cost of higher education could others and allowing their state- be a barrier to a Haverford education, the College revamped ments to inform one’s own, its Financial Aid program last December such that incoming that too seems wonderfully freshmen who receive aid won’t have to take out student Haverfordian—and therefore loans; rather, we’re going to give them grants which, at cur- not unexpected. rent levels, will total some $15,000 over their four years. What struck me at first listen I could not have been more proud the day that our Board (and resonates with me still) is the of Managers embraced this notion, which received a good way in which slight and bit of news coverage and has become part of the same “news subtle changes in the cluster” that includes Harvard, Yale, Pomona and Swarthmore, underlying musical which also recently revamped their aid packages. But here’s foundation can the thing. We then asked ourselves, jazz improvisation- exert enormous style, how we might go further and build upon this funda- mental change to effect still greater change. What if, in effect, we did the equivalent of swapping out the major chord in favor of a ninth? How might that open the door to changing the overall composition? Within hours, we had our answer: Yes, we’d scrap loans in favor of grants but we’d add something different. We’d invite those who receive such grants to contribute to a new schol- arship endowment fund in the years after graduation “as their means allow and the spirit moves” to help ensure that future students—our next generation—enjoy similar oppor- tunity. We then went still further, noting that because gen- eral endowment so mightily contributes to our operating budget, every student benefits regardless of aid status— and so all will be invited to contribute to this fund as it evolves into our general scholarship endowment source.