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THE

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 • THE CAMPUS NEWSPAPER OF SWARTHMORE COLLEGE SINCE 1881 • VOLUME 134, ISSUE 2 Inside: Hurricane leaves Swarthmore unscathed Remembering Alice Paul ’01 Fringe Festival showcases alums’ work

Setting a New Pace:

Paces Café gets new management, a new vision and a new look

The Phoenix

Thursday, September 1, 2011 Volume 134, Issue 2

The independent campus newspaper of Swarthmore College since 1881.

EDITORIAL BOARD Amelia Possanza Editor in Chief Menghan Jin Managing Editor Marcus Mello Managing Editor Adam Schlegel News Editor Patrick Ammerman Assistant News Editor Dina Zingaro Living & Arts Editor Tim Bernstein Sports Editor Allegra Pocinki Photo Editor Peter Akkies Webmaster Eric Sherman Webmaster

Justin Toran-Burrell The Phoenix

One of the spots on campus heavily affected by Hurricane Irene was the area behind Mertz. The gate surrounding the dorm bore much damage in the aftermath of the storm.

News Swat on top of hurricane preparedness

Swarthmore survived Hurricane Irene with minimal damage. Facilities, EVS and others worked behind the scenes to keep the campus safe. PAGE 3

Remembering the legacies of Alice Paul ’01

Yared Portillo describes the story of Swat alumna Alice Paul, the famous women’s rights leader, and how she went from Swarthmore to founding the NWP and writing the Equal Rights Amendment. PAGE 4

Paces Café receives its first makeover in decades

Paces Café has sweeping new changes this year. With new paint and new ideas, the café is poised for opening night. PAGE 5

There must be something other in the name of equality. PAGE 16 The U.S. needs to borrow, rotten in the film industry Thinking about seeing a particular movie? spend and create jobs

Nolan Gear warns against the dangers of using Rottentomatoes as a film crutch.

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Baking cookies that mimic the Swattie experience

Lauren Kim welcomes students to the artistic world of baking where the creation of delectable Diamant Cookies echoes the growth of a Swarthmore student.

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Despite the U.S.’s current economic crisis and the country’s recent credit rating downgrade, Peter Gross says that now is the time for the nation to take advantage of a wealth of borrowing opportunities and use that money to create new jobs. PAGE 17

Sports

Global money markets Women’s soccer eyes exchange and transform After this summer’s chaotic economic at- postseason after near miss mosphere around the globe, Aliya Padamsee reflects on the ebb and flow of monetary matters from country to country.

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Last year, they were on the brink of the postseason. Fresh off a summer training in Europe, the re-tooled women’s soccer team looks to take the next step. PAGE 18

Exploring sexy alternatives Men’s soccer looks to bring of a different kind conference championship LRC renovated to enhance If you’re feeling that your high school Sex- to Swat course denied you a proper education, studio learning experience Ed Vianca Masucci writes in from India to With high postseason rankings, expectaA renovated Language Resource Center opens with mobile work spaces, new iMacs and a whole new look. PAGE 6

supply every Swattie with some sexy alternatives to studying.

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Living & Arts Opinions

tions for the men’s soccer team are skyhigh. This season, winning the conference will be the only goal that matters. PAGE 18

What Adam Dunn’s historic struggles remind us For years, Adam Dunn was one of baseball’s biggest sluggers; now he’s having one of the worst years in baseball history. Why? The answer might be impossible to find out. PAGE 19

College well represented in Switching sides on the 2011 Philly art festivals Golf aims to bring strong September’s Philly Fringe and Philly Arts immigration debate Festival provide a platform for both estab- After hanging out with some libertarians finish into new season lished and upcoming artists from around over the summer, neoliberal Danielle Chathe world including Swarthmore alumni’s very own Pig Iron Theater Company and Tangle.

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rette changed her mind about immigration policy. She explains the economic benefits of loosening up the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Last year’s season was hardly short on highlights. The Swarthmore golf team looks to make this year just as memorable — by taking home the conference title. PAGE 20

teams journeyed abroad to Greece and Germany respectively, where they were exposed to unfamiliar tastes, sights and sounds. PAGE 7

Sam Zhang finds himself surrounded by people that constantly tell each other to keep their humor PC. He reflects on what is lost when we censor ourselves and each

Everyone remembers last year’s win over Haverford. With every starter returning, will this be the year the Garnet’s journey ends with a conference title? PAGE 20

STAFF Sera Jeong Living & Arts Writer Steven Hazel Living & Arts Writer Nolan Gear Living & Arts Columnist Jen Johnson Living & Arts Columnist Lauren Kim Living & Arts Columnist Vianca Masucci Living & Arts Columnist Susana Medeiros Living & Arts Columnist Aliya Padamsee Living & Arts Columnist Johnny Taeschler Living & Arts Columnist Naia Poyer Living & Arts Artist Tyler Becker Opinions Columnist Danielle Charette Opinions Columnist Olivia Natan Opinions Columnist Peter Gross Opinions Columnist Shimian Zhang Opinions Columnist Emma Waitzman Political Cartoonist Renee Flores Sports Writer Ana Apostoleris Sports Writer Paul Chung Photographer Simone Forrester Photographer Christina Matamoros Photographer Holly Smith Photographer Renee Flores Copy Editor Shashwati Rao Copy Editor BUSINESS STAFF Business Manager Ian Anderson Advertising Manager Paul Chung COVER DESIGN Amelia Kucic Image courtesy of 4.bp.blogspot.com CONTRIBUTORS Alyssa Bowie, Victor Brady, Julia Carleton, Ariel Finegold, Max Nesterak, Yared Portillo OPINIONS BOARD Amelia Possanza, Menghan Jin and Marcus Mello EDITOR’S PICKS PHOTOS COURTESY OF: (clockwise from top left) http://tiny.cc/fnngc http://tiny.cc/0rb9y http://tiny.cc/35h5h TO ADVERTISE: E-mail: advertising@swarthmorephoenix.com Advertising phone: (610) 328-7362 Address: The Phoenix, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081 Direct advertising requests to Amelia Possanza. The Phoenix reserves the right to refuse any advertising. Advertising rates subject to change.

CONTACT INFORMATION Offices: Parrish Hall 470-472 E-mail: editor@swarthmorephoenix.com Newsroom phone: (610) 328-8172 Address: The Phoenix, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081 Web site: www.swarthmorephoenix.com Mail subscriptions are available for $60 a year or $35 a semester. Direct subscription requests to Amelia Possanza.

The Phoenix is printed at Bartash Printing, Inc. The Phoenix is a member of the Associated College Press and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.

All contents copyright © 2011 The Phoenix.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission.

Swat athletes become The casualties of vigilantly For the volleyball team, policing political correct- classic upset only the summer globetrotters The men’s and women’s varsity soccer ness beginning

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September 1, 2011

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Events Menu Today Dean’s Office Division Karaoke Meet & Greet Come enjoy some Qdoba Mexican Grill and meet the Deans today: 3-5 p.m. on Parrish Beach. Karaoke will be open for all.

Swat on top of hurricane preparedness

Fencing Interest Meeting Meeting for all interested in being a part of Swarthmore’s fencing club. No experience is required and equipment if provided. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at the field house.

Tomorrow Boy Meets Tractor & Vertigo-go Orientation Show Come to “The Giggle Dome,” and watch some of Swarthmore’s best comedic talent. Both Boy Meets Tractor and Vertigo-go will be performing their orientation show in SCI 101 at 8 p.m.

Laser Tag & Black Light Mini Golf The Student Activities Committee will be holding games of laser tag on Sharples Lawn and black light mini-golf in Upper Tarble. Fresh popcorn and cotton candy will also be available. The games will run 6 p.m.-10 p.m..

Saturday, September 3rd The Silk Road and Mummies Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, will be speaking on fieldwork he’s done on the Tarim Basin in China. Mair is a leading scholar in the field of ancient mummies found in the Tarim Basin. The talk begins at 4:30 p.m. in Kohlberg’s Scheuer Room.

Concert & DJ Dance Party Extravaganza The Student Activities Office has partnered with CampusPhilly, WMMR 93.3 & Xfinity to bring to campus hip hop/soul duo the “ISHI + Hezekiah Project,” who will be performing their own music as well as a DJ set.

Dippin’ Dots ice cream and Henna Tattoo designs will also be available.

Prizes will be given away as well.

The extravaganza will be 2 p.m.-6 p.m. on Parrish Beach.

Phi Psi BBQ Come for a bite to eat and to meet the brothers. The event runs 3 p.m.-5 p.m. at Phi Psi. Sunday, September 4th Activities Fair Hosted in partnership with the Lang Center, come to see representatives from Swarthmore’s over 100 student groups, ranging from academic groups, performance-based groups, community-oriented groups, and athletic teams. The fair runs 3 p.m.-5 p.m. and will be held on Parrish Beach.

E-mail submissions for the events menu at news@swarthmorephoenix. com.

Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix

Behind Mertz, a catalpa tree was uprooted by Hurricane Irene, which ripped through Swarthmore last weekend.

By Patrick Ammerman pammerm1@swarthmore.edu

Over this past weekend, before many students even arrived on campus, many at Swarthmore were preparing for the campus’s first hurricane since Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Predictions about the damage the storm would cause seemed dire.

“This could be the worst storm event to hit the Philadelphia area in 50 years,” Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter warned even as the storm approached (source: NBC Philadelphia).

Looking back now, the wreckage left behind by the storm seems underwhelming, but before the storm, fears among students in the hurricane’s build-up were quite tangible.

“I was really afraid my entire hall was going to flood,” Kevin Li ’13, RA in Willets Basement, said. An update sent out to all Swarthmore students advised those living in the lowest hall in every building to remove all items from the floor of their rooms. Many students arranged their rooms accordingly.

In order to accommodate upper-class students who were arriving early because of the storm, Sharples dining hall was open to all students on Saturday night as well as for Sunday brunch.

Saturday night’s orientation play went off without a hitch at the Lang Performing Arts Center on Saturday night, despite the rain already starting to fall outside. Festivities continued late into the night, when several groups of students could be seen running across water-laden fields in the storm.

However, the traditional screening of “The Graduate” on Parrish Beach was postponed until Monday night, due to concerns that the grass would still be too wet on Sunday evening for an outdoor screening. The event was moved to Monday, and was well-attended despite the postponement.

The storm dumped about seven inches of rain on Swarthmore. The rainfall record in the Philadelphia area for the month of August, before it was broken last month, was thirteen inches. In anticipation of the storm, according to NBC Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter de-

clared the first state of emergency for the City of Philadelphia since 1986.

To deal with all the rain required a great deal of preparation. According to Stu Hain, Vice President for Facilities and Services, Swarthmore staff members spent the days before the storm cleaning roof drains, gutters, down spouts and area wade drains, as well as laying out sand bags and hay bails, to prepare the campus.“We tried to [prepare] anyplace we knew we had potential water problems,” Hain said.

Hain also sent out several weather updates to Swarthmore students, faculty and staff. The suggestions provided in the updates were based on “looking at weather forecasts, thinking of what we were doing, looking at websites from other schools, looking at every piece of information that could help us,” Hain said.

The messages sent were the result of much deliberation amongst members of the Swarthmore administration. “It was a collaborative effort bringing people together … we tried to think [the storm] through as best we could,” Hain said.

Included, Hain recommended that students not try to get to school after Saturday morning, and instead delay their travel plans until Monday. “We were trying to relieve some of the pressure of making people think they needed to get here,” Hain explained. Faculty were asked by the Provost to be understanding of students who have been arriving to campus late because of the storm.

Even at approaching the end of the first week of classes, some of these students are still just making the return trip to Swarthmore. “I was originally supposed to fly at 11:30 on Saturday, but that flight got canceled sometime Friday afternoon. [My family] managed to switch me onto a later flight that said it was still on time. A few hours later, that one got canceled too.” Explained Valentina Garcia ’14, who finally made it back to campus on Tuesday. Garcia had four canceled flights, including one that stranded her in the Charlotte airport, before finally getting one to Philadelphia. “I was really lucky because a lot of other people couldn’t get flights until Thursday or even Friday,” Garcia added.

THE PHOENIX September 1, 2011

On campus, places that are known to flood habitually in bad weather were scrupulously prepared. The bookstore, for instance, has had a problem with flooding during any heavy rainfall due to the way it was built.

Kathy Grace, Bookstore Director, was very pleased with how attentive Environmental Services were to flooding in the bookstore. “We were assured that there would be facilities people here and environmental services people here … they did a lot of stuff in preparation for being ready for whatever it was might happen,” she said.

According to Grace, EVS came multiple times on both Saturday and Sunday to pump water out of the bookstore’s storage room. All the items in that room had been moved off the ground, so nothing was damaged during the storm.

Flooding has also been reported in Mertz Basement and Parrish Basement as a result of the rain. The water has been pumped out of those areas, and so far no serious damage is apparent. It is possible that some buildings may still have flooding that has yet to be discovered.

Also noticeable after the hurricane were the limbs and branches that covered the ground. However, tree damage was largely limited to small debris.

Claire Sawyers, director of the Swarthmore Arboretum, feared the worst in the build-up to the hurricane.

“We generally felt that the damage was pretty minimal compared to what the predictions would have been if we had had much higher winds,” Sawyers said.

Aside from a Catalpa tree near Mertz that was felled overnight by the storm, no other plant life was lost during Irene.

“There was significant storm damage at different points in the history of the arboretum, “ Sawyers recalled. One hurricane alone several years ago knocked down multiple trees at the southern end of Magill Walk.

According to Hain, much of the cleanup efforts around campus were started on Monday, after high winds in the area had stopped. It is unknown how long it will take to clean up everything that Irene left behind.

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Remembering the legacy of Alice Paul, women’s rights

Week in pictures

rights: writing her dissertation at UPenn on the legal rights of women in Pennsylvania.

Imagine a woman in her mid-thirOnce she returned to the US, Paul ties standing before a gold, white and took part in and led a variety of wompurple banner, sewing a 36th star en’s suffrage groups including the onto the double row of stars which National American Woman Suffrage runs down the middle.

Association (NAWSA) and ultimately This woman was Swarthmore founding NWP. graduate Alice Paul ‘01, 91 years ago, Especially known for her aggrespreparing to celebrate the passing of sive, militant take on the fight for the 19th Amendment, and that star women’s rights, rather than the typirepresented the state of Tennessee — cal lady-like expectations, Paul was of the final state necessary for the pass- the suffragists who were repeatedly ing of the amendment. imprisoned for “disorderly conduct Paul was a leading activist in the and disturbing the peace,” according fight for women’s suffrage and one to the “American National Biograof the critical players in the push for phy.” the 19th Amendment, which allowed While in prison, Paul would often women the right to vote. go on hunger strikes and have to enShe was founder and leader of dure force feeding — an action which the National Women’s Party (NWP) required forcing a tube down the and is credited with the drafting of subject’s, in this case Paul’s, nose or the Equal Rights Amendment, as de- mouth into the stomach and feeding scribed in the “American National them through the tube.

Biography.”

She also led a march of 5,000 in Coming from a Quaker heritage D.C. at the same time of the inauguand stepping ration of Woodwell beyond the row Wilson, and, typical educaNWP, led [Paul] was founder and with tion of a woman the first group in her day and leader of the National to ever picket age, Paul not front of the Women’s Party (NWP) in only attended White House in Swarthmore and is credited with the order to force College, but also Wilson to supdrafting of the Equal went on to study port the suffrage at the University amendment. As Rights Amendment. of Pennsylvania a result of the and Washington latter, and true College of Law to her character, and American University.

Paul was arrested shortly after.

She graduated in 1905 from SwarthPaul was so dedicated to her cause, more, majoring, unlike most women in fact, that after one of her psychiatof her time, in biology. ric evaluations she was compared to As a Swarthmore student, Paul was Joan of Arc — someone so dedicated involved in a variety of activities, in- to her cause that she was willing to cluding being a member of the hockey die for it. team, the class basketball team, the An article in Everybody’s Magaathletic council, the executive board zine published in 1916 entitled “A of student government, the Joseph new leader – Alice Paul – why she is” Leida Scientific Society and Ivy Po- it reads that, “There is no Alice Paul. etess and Commencement Speaker, There is suffrage. She leads by being as the 1906 “Halcyon,” Swarthmore — not by being for — by being — her yearbook, records show. cause.”

However, it was not until Paul The “Swarthmore College Bulwent abroad to England that she letin” shows attempts of recognizgrew heavily involved in the suffrag- ing Paul on campus when students ist movement, campaigning with the named a women’s center after her in Women’s Social and Political Union. the mid-seventies.

Paul’s experiences in England However, that soon faded by the were so defining to her suffragist per- mid-nineties when many students sonality that the “American National showed apprehension toward the Biography” credits it as “an experi- women’s center being associated with ence that redirected her life’s work Paul, as Paul was also known to share and shaped the history of American sentiments of racism and antisemifeminism.” tism.

Upon returning to the United In 2005, at long last, a dorm on camStates, Paul continued engaging in pus was named after Alice Paul at the such movements, embracing the request of one of the donors. more militant side of English suffragPaul passed away in 1977 in the ist fights — something that was not as Moorestown Quaker Nursing Home. popular in the United States.

Now, the Alice Paul Institute works Paul also went on to also gain de- to preserve the legacy of Alice Paul, grees in law that would become very based out of Paul’s birthplace in beneficial in her fight for women’s Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

By Yared Portillo yportil1@swarthmore.edu

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Yesterday, a speaker lectured of her experiences as a photojournalist with the Associated Press in the Middle East.

Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix

A new table and umbrella stand outside of McCabe library, waiting for students to start their studying.

Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix

On Wednesday, the Swarthmore Earthworms, the men’s Ultimate Frisbee team, enjoy the beautiful weather and their first practice of the semester on Mertz field.

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Paces Café receives its first makeover in a decade

Jake Mrozewski The Phoenix

Students enjoy hookah and food during MULTI’s Paces takeover at the end of the Fall By adam schlegel aschleg1@swarthmore.edu Within the past week, an array of aesthetic, operational and functional changes have been made to the Paces Café space that is nestled in the far southwestern corner of Clothier Hall.

Having earned a reputation throughout the college as the grungy site of Pub Nite and weekend dance parties, Paces is in the process of being reborn as a cleaner, more integrated community space through efforts made by its current student leadership as well as by the administration.

This is the first physical renovation to have taken place in Paces during the past 10 years, offering both incoming and established students a new look at what has been a center of campus life and culture at the college.

At the forefront of this effort are two members of the senior class — Tania Doles ’12 and Callie Feingold ’12. As coDirectors of Paces this year, both Doles and Feingold have been instrumental in providing the vision for the renovations being made.

Citing their experiences as firstyears at the college, both Feingold and Doles agreed that Paces Café was previously a rather closed space which was relatively unknown outside of a small group of students.

“Paces was previously made to be a very exclusive [space] for mainly upperclassmen … I didn’t even first hear about it until spring semester,” Doles

said.

Despite such exclusivity, both Doles and Feingold began their careers at the Café as first-years and have continued to be involved ever since starting out as a chef and baker, respectively.

During these years, the two began to develop ideas for ways to improve both the Café and the space as a whole. “We wanted to make [Paces] a space for collaboration and for the appreciation of students in all different forms,” Feingold said.

At present, both Doles and Feingold hope to increase the number of openmic nights, during which students or groups of students can share their talents (e.g. music, poetry, etc.) with their peers. Additionally, within the scope of operating as a Café, they are seeking to create a more communally-focused, team-driven atmosphere amongst workers through weekly staff development meetings as well as occasional “skill-shares.”

“Paces Café should [have the capacity to] be a practical outlet for this challenging intellectual environment,” Doles said.

Aside from greater integration within the student body, both this year’s Café leadership and the administration have concentrated efforts on transforming Paces into a cleaner, more hygienic space.

Currently, while it is not known within the student body for being such a location, this doesn’t present much of a barrier to the many social events

Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix

Standing at the back of Paces, one can clearly see the dramatic aesthetic, operational and functional changes that have been made.

routinely held there during weekends.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s clean or dirty, we’ll still have a lot of fun there,” Abir Varma ’14 said.

However, the administration sees the matter through a different lens.

“We’re hoping that the renovations are the first part of a larger campaign to respect the space,” Paury Flowers, Coordinator of Student Activities, said.

The administration holds the view that the space is a Café first and a party space as a supplement. Since the administration bears the financial burden for the daily operation of the Café, the primary purpose of increasing cleanliness and hygiene is to attract more people to the Café as paying customers. “[Our goal is] making it more financially solvent and to be loved more by a larger group of people,” Flowers said.

To this effect, the administration and student leadership of Paces are hoping to create a paid student cleaning crew to assist in keeping the space in good condition. Both Doles and Feingold added that stricter health codes will be adopted by the cooking staff at the Café through cooperation with EVS and Dining Services.

THE PHOENIX Septemeber 1, 2011

With regard to physical renovation in Paces, Doles and Feingold worked extensively during orientation week to repaint the walls, clean the floors and help set up new equipment (e.g. sound system). The “feet mural” that previously occupied the wall behind the bar has now been painted over and is awaiting a new makeover by the social and political art group Zero Hour artist collective.

Looking back on the progress made to the Café in the past week, both Doles and Feingold agree that the education at Swarthmore has taught them how to think critically and analytically, but often times, does not stress the practical implementation side of idea creation.

As such, the current project renovating Paces Café has become a way for the two to gain practical experience.

“It’s easy to think about … [but] not that much harder to implement,” Feingold said.

Paces Café will be open from Sunday to Wednesday, tentatively starting Sunday, September 18th. However, there will be no pub nite this week. The Café is currently taking applications for positions.

News LRC renovated to enhance studio learning space swarthmorephoenix.com

By Max nesterak mnester1@swarthmore.edu The Language Resource Center (LRC) just needs to let the paint dry and work out a few technological kinks before its first major renovation is finished since it opened in 1996.

Bright colors, mobile workspaces and top of the line iMacs and MacBooks on wheeled tables were all part of LRC Director Michael Jones’s plan to create a welcoming, flexible learning environment to meet the varied needs of language learning.

“We’re trying to go more into a studio learning space where students and faculty can arrange the space much the way they do a classroom to suit their own learning styles or their own teaching styles,” Jones said.

Jones said the renovation plans were a year in the works, during which he researched language resource centers at other colleges, surveyed faculty and staff and led focus groups on different designs.

Jones said he worked closely with Cicada Architecture/Planning Inc to plan the design and manage the budget while Swarthmore’s Information Technology Services provided tech advice and helped garner approval from the administration. The project cost approximately $100,000, with most of the cost coming from construction and wiring. However, Jones said he was able to do more with his budget by reusing some furniture New iMacs and MacBooks adorn a newly painted Language Resource Center on the third floor of Kohlberg. and doing the demolition work himself.

“Facilities budgets are really tight for three years and helped research difright now and the project went forward ferent designs, said he thinks the renobecause there was some replacement vations will allow students to better acmoney being put away by the college on cess the center’s resources. a yearly basis for the eventual replace“I always thought the actual techment of the [LRC], and that money had nology of the LRC was always more adaccumulated to a point that that had vanced than the space was. Even though funded about 90 percent of it,” Jones there was all of this software, all of these said.

DVDs, all this video equipment availWith a design focused around flex- able, I don’t think the space facilitated ibility, Jones says he hopes the lab will the use of those things,” Frye said. be able to be continually updated withTechnologist John Word, who also out having to undergo another large- helped with the domolition work, said scale renovation. the new group colWhile the LRC’s laboration space new private work and new large stations with moscreen television Aesthetically … we bile dividers and students acwere looking for some- help large group colcess the LRC’s laboration space technologies are thing more energetic make the center great for remote and comfortable. functional for a learning and variety of learnfor group projMichael Jones ing needs, Jones ects. Friends can Director of LRC said he chose gather together to items that would watch an internaalso make the LRC tional soccer game more visible and welcoming to students. while entire classes can video chat with “The social aspects of the idea of cre- students around the world. ating a community of learners around Word said he’s most excited to see the language department was very what uses students come up with for the much a part of what we were looking LRC. to do,” Jones said. “Aesthetically … we “I’m excited to see when the space were looking for something more ener- is used by students, and see how they getic and comfortable.” adapt and how they drive how the space Modern Literature and Languages is used,” Word said. “[Students] are tellChair Professor Sibelan Forrester said ing us how they want to use the space.” she is pleased with the new center that The LRC is located on the third floor serves her department. of Kohlberg Hall.

“It’s pleasant just to be in there,” ForThe LRC is typically used for lanrester, a professor of Russian, said. “[Be- guage learning purposes, such as watchfore] it was all pale gray, and it had been ing foreign language films, completing there since 1996. It was starting to look online exercises, video chatting with like socialist language lab.” international students, but Jones says Alex Frye ’11, who worked in the LRC the LRC is open to all.

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Around Higher Education

Hurricane Irene leaves Penn mostly unscathed

By Shelli Gimelstein dailypennsylvanian.com, Aug. 29, 2011 The Schuylkill River crested to 13.56 feet on the afternoon of Aug. 28 following Hurricane Irene’s arrival in Philadelphia the previous night. Various Roads in the region were shut down by city officials due to flooding.

Despite fearsome predictions and precautionary measures, Hurricane Irene left the Penn campus relatively undamaged.

Throughout the weekend, the Division of Public Safety worked with Business Services and Facilities and Real Estate Services to minimize and catalog damage done on campus. According to Facilities and Real Estate Services Vice President Anne Papageorge, the brunt of the damage caused to buildings on campus was in the Quad, with approximately 25 rooms experiencing some leaking.

Other minor damage, Papageorge said, included a fallen tree at College Green and a cracked window at the Richards Medical Research Laboratories located behind the Quad that has since been boarded up.

Meanwhile, the storm also posed

a threat to the students planning to move in early. Early move-in and preorientation programs were officially postponed to Monday, and measures — including moving students already on campus to their permanent rooms and accommodating housing and dining staff overnight — were taken, according to Douglas Berger, executive director for Business Services. Berger added that 500 students were living on campus during the storm, and an additional 200 moved in on Sunday.

“Our top priority was to make sure students were safe,” said Assistant Director of Operations for Hospitality Services Holly Marrone, who served as co-chair of the move-in committee. “The University was really proactive in planning [the response to the storm] and we used our communications system to ensure all were aware of the situation.”

“This isn’t the first time weather has been a factor for early move-in, but this definitely required advanced planning,” she added. “But the process ran fairly smoothly, and most people came to campus on Monday after the storm.”

In preparation for the storm, DPS formed an Emergency Control Center

Students celebrate the end of Ramadan

Friday morning and adjusted police and security levels, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said.

Rush also reported a steep decrease in crime, with no crimes against people and one reported theft. Despite the lack of criminal activity, however, police did have to take some action to secure student safety.

“We had one student running up and down some streets, and it took a bit of corralling to chase him down,” Rush said, adding that the student, who was not placed under arrest, was intoxicated and eventually taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Following the storm, DPS shifted its focus to closing down flooded roads.

The worst of the Category 1 hurricane affected the Philadelphia area Sunday morning between 4 and 8 a.m. The Schuylkill River crested at about 13.5 feet Sunday afternoon.

Mayor and 1979 Wharton graduate Michael Nutter issued a state of emergency Saturday evening — the first for the city since 1986 — and asked residents to clear the streets. The warning was lifted at noon Sunday.

Many businesses on campus closed

early or had plans to close ahead of schedule. City Tap House, at 3925 Walnut St., shut its doors around 7 p.m. Saturday, said Jim Reilly, a bartender.

Tap House’s management originally planned to keep the restaurant open and had booked hotel rooms for the employees in the nearby Sheraton Hotel, Reilly said.

The Blarney Stone, at 3929 Sansom St., planned to remain open until 12:30 a.m. Sunday, but had its front door locked and was directing patrons around to the back entrance.

Blarney Stone manager Ryan Kearney said he couldn’t recall a time that the campus watering hole had shut its doors early due to inclement weather, but wanted to keep people off the streets when the worst of the storm hit. The bar is usually open until 2 a.m. Sunday mornings.

Metropolitan Bakery and Hummus restaurant, both near 40th and Walnut streets, had already closed their doors by 7 p.m.

As Hurricane Irene moved up the eastern seaboard, the Philadelphia area braved the storm while surrounding suburbs took the brunt of the impact.

By Shelli Gimelstein dailypennsylvanian.com, Aug. 30, 2011 Between sunrise to sunset, College senior Hadi Kaakour’s typical summer day was similar to that of many Penn students — waking up, heading off to a research job and spending time with friends. One thing it did not contain, however, is food.

Kaakour is one of many Muslim students who observed Ramadan on campus. A month-long celebration which ended on Tuesday, Ramadan involved fasting during the day and sharing a meal with family and friends at night.

“Ramadan is a time for devotion and reflection — at home, people get together with their family, and at Penn, friends will eat together,” said College junior Umar Sheikh, a board member of Programs in Religion, Interfaith and Spirituality Matters — Penn’s interfaith umbrella organization.

Because Ramadan falls on different dates each year according to the lunar calendar, this year the holiday ended before students return to campus.

The timing has posed a challenge for the Muslim Students Association. “In past years, MSA would host meals every night to break the fast. It was a great opportunity for community-building and getting to know freshmen,” said College senior and Muslim Students Association President Sarah Ijaz, adding that members are “definitely conscious of this — we want to show new students that we have a community.”

The MSA plans to host a banquet or barbecue to celebrate the Eid holiday, which marks the end of fasting, once more Muslim students return to Penn.

Although no formal MSA events were organized during the summer, students within the Muslim community still reached out to one another to observe the holiday together. According to Sheikh, several local restaurants such as Desi Chaat House and Sitar India took the holiday into account by staying open for those breaking the fast and serving dates, a food traditionally eaten during the holiday.

In addition, several Penn students took advantage of evening meals hosted by the Drexel MSA to break the fast.

In past years, the Undergraduate Assembly also worked with Penn Dining Services to provide Muslim students with boxed meals at night to eat the next day prior to sunrise. The program was not continued this summer because of the holiday’s timing.

“I would wake up around 4:15 every morning to eat breakfast before sunrise, then head off to work right away, so it was pretty tough,” Kaakour said.

“The first few days of fasting are difficult, but you get used to it, especially when you’re doing it with your friends and family,” Ijaz said.

THE PHOENIX

September 1, 2011

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Living & Arts

swarthmorephoenix.com

College well represented in 2011 Philly art festivals in “Twelfth Night” convinced the artistic directors to embark on their first Shakespeare production.

Pig Iron’s approach to theatre is as unconventional From Sept. 2nd to 17th, the annual Philadelphia as its name; its closest predecessor is the methods of Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe returns to Jacques Lecoq, a renowned French actor and mime.

Jacques Lecoq strongly influenced Pig Iron’s coshowcase the best of Philadelphia’s performing arts, offering both local and international artists an op- founders belief that physicality is critical to commuportunity to present their creative works in one of nicating emotion and solidifying characters. Thus, Pig Iron has developed a reputation for weaving Philadelphia’s largest cultural events of the year.

The Live Arts Festival is a curated festival that fea- movement, dance and music into its works of theatre, resulting in a pertures a wide-range of formance experience of performing art groups great breadth. who are invited by the Style and genre continue to be After graduation, Festival’s Producing Rothenberg traveled Director Nick Stuccio. questions, not givens... to Paris and studied at Performances offer a Dito van Reigersberg Lecoq’s theatre school, great range of enterÉcole Internationale de taining and intellectuCo-director of Pig Iron Theatre Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. ally challenging artisAt Swarthmore, this tic experiences, and the Festival is often the only opportunity for the region’s trio of undergraduates sowed the seed of what was audiences to see these works without traveling out- to become Pig Iron with their collaborative project side the country. This year’s approximately 13 live of an interpretation of the French 19th century play shows will be located at a number of venues through- “Cyrano de Bergerac.” In Bond Hall, Rothenberg diout the city such as Center City, Old City and South rected the play and both van Reigersberg and Bauriedel were cast as Cyrano and Christian, respectively.

Philly.

Rather than perform a traditional interpretation, Accompanying the Festival, the Philly Fringe is an unfiltered festival and a platform for new and es- they decided to the tablished artists. Participating artists are encouraged accompany to develop their artistic visions with complete free- production with dom without any curatorial barriers, while playing a a string quartet role in ensuring the growth and strength of the local and a quasi-Greek and regional performing arts community. This year, chorus. With such the Philly Fringe will present over 200 self-produced musical elements, shows by thousands of artists throughout the region. the play became the type of unusuThree Swatties, Philly festival veterans al pieces now typiFounded by Swarthmore’s own Dito van Reigers- cal of Pig Iron.“It berg ’94, Dan Rothenberg ’95 and Gabriel Quinn Bau- was infectiously riedel ’94, Pig Iron Theatre Company is a veteran of fun, very physical Philly Fringe and this year, will premiere its Shake- and cobbled tospeare’s “Twelfth Night, or What You Will.” Estab- gether from differlished in 1995 by the three alumni and making Phil- ent versions of the adelphia its permanent home in 1997, the Company play,” van Reigersdescribes itself as a “dance-clown-theatre-ensemble.” berg said.

The New York Times describes this avant-garde Over the years, theatre company as “one of the few groups success- the co-founders fully taking theatre in new directions.” An interdis- have remained ciplinary ensemble, the Company creates what it in touch with the describes on its website as “new and exuberant per- college and both formance works that defy easy categorization.”

Rothenberg and van Reigersberg In 2010, these three co-founders and artistic direc- were guest artists invited to teach in tors received an unrestricted $50,000 grant from Unit- the theater department in 2004. Also, ed States Artists (USA), part of a $1 million grant from Bauriedel is currently a Visiting Asthe John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to USA, a sistant Professor at Swarthmore this national grant-making and advocacy organization. In semester teaching a workshop on Moveaddition, the Company received an additional $5,000 ment Theatre. to engage local residents by conducting workshops, According to Yuan Qu ’14, a student talks or other events. in Bauriedel’s Acting I course last fall seRothenberg will direct this Shakespearean comedy mester on campus, the class reflected Pig “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” which the theatre Iron’s unconventional approach to acting. company anticipates will be “alternately absurd and In the past, Qu has studied acting in the Inheartfelt,” according to the company website. With ternational Baccalaureate program in high twelve actors and five musicians, the performance is school through more traditional means such Pig Iron’s most ambitious project to date. as performing skits.

The musicians will actually move amongst the Thus, under Bauriedel’s tutelage, Qu felt actors on stage, which adds to the physicality of the surprised when he began his classes with production. The effect, described by van Reigersberg, yoga, stretching and voice exercises. “We did will be “as if you had a Gypsy band follow you around a lot of silly stuff that would make us open up and play your life’s soundtrack.” However, for a the- and be comfortable in a group. If you’re going to atre company that has grounded its reputation by cre- be acting you need to be comfortable with your ating experimental works, this presentation of a more peers and environment,” she said. well-known comedy is a risk.

Unlike in her previous acting classes, Qu beWhile creating the performance, Bauriedel won- lieves Bauriedel’s class had less emphasis on theodered, “Can Pig Iron work with an existing text and still make it an original production? Can we still have (Top) Co-founders of Pig Iron Theatre Co., Rothenberg, as much creative license and playfulness in a work Bauriedel and Reigersberg met and worked collaborathat is 400 years old as we can in a work that we are tively while at Swarthmore. (Bottom) Premiering a show giving birth to ourselves?” In the end, Bauriedel ex- in Philly Fringe, Tangle experiments with movement and plained the uplifting tone and the strong role of music expression while fusing unusual styles of acrobatics.

BY SERA JEONG sjeong1@swarthmore.edu

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September 1, 2011

ry, and instead focused on interactive exercises such as yodeling. “Obviously [Bauriedel] had a lesson plan, but a lot of it was ingrained in having fun and being comfortable,” Qu said.

Bauriedel explained his belief that at the core of acting lies the “instrument,” which is composed of the body, the voice and the imagination. This instrument cannot be mastered through rote learning. He said, “Theory does very little to help acting students.

In fact, most acting training is about getting students out of their brains and into their bodies.”

While a student at Swarthmore, van Reigersberg believes that his experience in theater classes supplied him with a strong foundation for his career in the acting industry. He names Professor Allen Kuharsky of the Department of Theatre his mentor and credits Kuharsky’s workshops with inspiring the current creativity that surges through Pig Iron’s productions today. “[Kuharsky] brought in influential artists such as Dan Chumley of the San Francisco Mime Troupe and Joseph Chaikin of the Open Theater,” van Reigersberg said.

However, several classes outside the theatre department influenced van Reigersberg’s career. “I also took a variety of dance classes, in particular Dance See PHILLY FESTIVAL, p.10 Courtesy of http://tiny.cc/g459n

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THE PHOENIX

Living & Arts Exploring very sexy alternatives of a different kind swarthmorephoenix.com

Another Just makin’ out year at Not actually sex, but very sexy. The Swat, an- lips are the home of oodles of nerve other thou- endings—similar to the clitoris or the sand hours penis. Think of the lips as face genitals. spent on (That’s a great image, isn’t it?) For this s t u d y i n g reason, the constant stimulation of this and signifi- erogenous zone is totally capable of cantly less leaving you satisfied in a way that you time spent might not expect. on screwKissing is a very sensual way to get ing.

But aroused and a low-stakes way to become there is intimate with someone. And, though Vianca Masucci some time it may not lead to orgasm, it does not Missing Parts spent on mean that you will not be sexually satscrewing, isfied. Orgasms are not the only indicano matter tion of pleasure—think of them not as how little. And if you are a true Swattie, applause, but a standing ovation. So, you will agree with me that anything smack those lips and be prepared to worth doing is worth doing very thor- show your appreciation for the show. oughly - after unnecessarily obsessing/ stressing over it for twenty-seven hours. Groping Sex is no exception to this rule.

Never underestimate the power of a I’m Vianca — currently living as a good feelin’ up session. Just the hands displaced Swattie in incredible India. of another on your body, taking joy in Over the course of the semester, I’m going to help fill in the missing parts of the curves of your flesh, might be all Sex Ed. Standard Sex Ed covered all the you need to get your feathers ruffled.

Conversely, the excitement of explorbasics, but was too bashful to get into the sticky (and exciting) specifics that ing someone’s body with your hands can have the same effect on you. It really is we were all actually hoping for. a physical introAnd, just to duction, similar be sure that I’m to penetration, answering the questions that College is for learning, both but, unlike penit can you do truly want inside the classroom and etration, happen in stages answered, I am or even at pub underneath the clothes. inviting all quesnight. tions or inquiClothes on, ries for advice clothes off, in about sex, sexuality, sexual health, or relationships. As I travel through this the light, in the dark, in privacy, in pubintoxicating country, I will answer your lic, groping is a versatile and sexy fix. questions about sex (while, hopefully, If you’re doing it without clothes (hopefully not at pub night), I suggest adding discovering a couple of my own).

‘Sex’ is a word that carries a lot of a little oil to the mix and making it a weight. A big misconception that most slippery, sexy massage. people have is that they believe ‘sex’ is synonymous with penetrative inter- Dry Humping Dry humping comes in many gloricourse. It is not. Penetrative sex is great, stupendous, wonderful, mind-blowing, ous forms. There’s the clothes on humpbetter than Keats and so on and so forth, ing that was really great in, like, the 7th but there is so much more to sex than grade? Remember that awkward awejust the in-and-out style forking. someness? Well, it’s still that good. Plus, Penetration is just one form of the retro is in. So, revisit it, for hipness’s myriad of equally enjoyable activities sake. that one can engage in under the title Then, there’s frottage, dry humping “sex”. The snag with penetrative sex is without clothes. You can partake in frot, that it can lead to feelings, it puts you when two boys rub their wood together at risk for STD and/or pregnancy, and it to make a fire the old fashioned way, can be at a higher level of intimacy than tribalism, the scissors position by any one really desires. One or all of these other name is still as sweet, a vulva to problems are relevant to all sexually ac- penis massage, or penis to vulva mastive adults. sage. The one downfall of this sexy fun The common belief amongst us is that it does put you at risk for certain American college students is that when STD’s and carries a very small risk of you get to college you have to be a crazy pregnancy where a beaver and a beef sex pig and have as much sex as human- missile are involved. ly possible. FYI: you have your whole To avoid these risks, but still allow life to screw; your junk doesn’t start to the sensation of genital to skin contact, rust after you graduate from college. experiment with using other parts of So there’s no reason to rush into your partner’s body to get off. Breast things. College is for learning, both in- boning, footjobs, and thigh riding are side the classroom and underneath the popular examples of this. clothes. You wouldn’t take Orgo without first taking Chem 10. (Actually, my advice for your sex life is that you don’t Mutual masturbation Is my favorite form of outercourse take Orgo at all, but whatever.)

So, similarly, work your way up the because it is useful in so many ways. sex ladder and allow yourself to enjoy There are two ways to do this. The first each peg. In jumping right to the bon- is for you and your partner (or partners) ing, you’re missing out on so many fine to stimulate each other manually. The intermediate features. So, start slow, re- great thing about this is that it gives ally get to know someone and try one of both partners the potential to reach or(or all of) these penetration alternatives gasm at the hands of one another, no pun intended. instead: THE PHOENIX

This way, you and your partner are actively committing to getting each other off in a way that you’re not with dry humping.

Taking such an active role in your partner’s pleasure provides a good foundation for a blooming sex-included relationship.

The other way to do this is for each partner to individually rub one out while the other watches. The added benefit to this naughty act, besides the really sexy exhibitionist/voyeur level to it, is that each partner gets to see what the other partner really likes.

Do this many times and take note of the trends of your partner’s masturbation style—what specific nook or cranny really drives them wild? Do they like a soft touch? Or better yet, a rough one? Do they like up and down movements? Or circles? Or perfect right angles?—so that, if the relationship does escalate, you know exactly how to please your partner.

Fantasizing Verbal boning is tops. Especially, when you’re doing it with a Swattie who has a really, really big … vocabulary.

Mhmm! This, in my opinion, is one of the most intimate ways to share your erotic self with someone.

You’re not sharing your physical self, but your mental self—the person you are. You can use fantasy as a way to get to know your partner and build some trust and comfort with them.

You can also, conversely, use it to discover that you don’t want them anywhere near your genitals. Better to find out while fantasizing than when you feel a clothespin tighten around your labia or penis.

For some drunken fun, have a fantasy slam with a whole bunch of people.

September 1, 2011

Courtesy of http://tiny.cc/uzaee

Hopefully, you can find someone who shares your proclivities (for clothespins).

I’ve outlined some great penetration alternatives that anyone can try.

If, however, you decide that you cannot live without some sloppy mopping and go down the penetration route, do it safely. Use condoms, even for oral sex, dental dams, and sterilize your toys between person to person use.

One night of pleasure is definitely not worth a lifetime supply of cooling creams. Sex, in all forms, penetrative and non-penetrative, is absolutely wonderful. Have fun with it.

On a final note, if you have any sex question that you would like answered or are in search for some advice, write in. If I receive enough questions, I will write a question of the week section along with a column installment of my topic of choice and answer a few selected questions online.

Vianca is a junior. You can reach her at vmasucc1@swarthmore.edu. You can submit your questions and inquiries anonymously at www.swarthmorephoenix. com/sexedquestions. All submissions will only be read by Vianca.

cartoon by naia poyer

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Living & Arts

swarthmorephoenix.com

Alums, both veterans and newcomers, take the stage Continued from p. 8

Improvisation with Paula Sepinuck, that exerted a lasting influence,” he said.

Professor Natalie Anderson of the English Department also serves as a mentor, as she encouraged van Reigersberg to realize acting was a creative process, rather than simply from a passive role of simply memorizing lines. He said, “ I took the Poetry Workshop with Nat, one of the most inspiring and fervently creative classes I have ever taken. That class … gave me permission to think of myself as having an authorial voice with a style and sense of humor that is very particular.”

Also, the multidimensional nature of Pig Iron’s productions, featuring music, poetry and movement reflect van Reigersberg’s liberal arts education. He said, “Style and genre continue to be questions, not givens, and it’s exciting to push at the boundaries of what seems possible.”

Qu believes that aficionados of abstract theatre will appreciate Pig Iron’s performance, and those more familiar with conventional theatre should be prepared for a shift in perspective. “A lot of [experiencing Pig Iron] is learning to let go of critical analysis and just enjoying it, soaking it in and being entertained,” Qu said.

New artists in the neighborhood Tangle is another company founded by a Swarthmore alum. The brand-new aerial acrobatics company based in West Philadelphia and founded by alumna Lauren Rile Smith ’08 will premiere their performance of “Ampersand.”

Using trapeze, aerial silks, partner balancing, live music, dancing and unusual love stories, the performance combines traditional circus arts with powerful

10

narratives of identity, memory and belonging. In an email, Smith said, “And, if you listen carefully, you may also hear some Swarthmore critical theory between the lines!”

Interestingly, the company named the show “Ampersand” after the typesetter’s symbol for “and” since, as Smith explained, the group is “inspired by stories of unusual connection and intersection.” She continued, “This show is all about melding performance disciplines, using music and found text to create new con-

cepts, bringing bodies together in movement, building structures from which we can take flight.”

For The Philadelphia Arts Festival, Pig Iron’s “Twelfth Night, or Take What You Will” will run from Sept. 1st to 17th at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre at varying times. Tangle will perform “Ampersand” for Philly Fringe on Sept. 8th at 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 9th at 6:30 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. at Philadelphia Soundstages. For more showtimes and ticket information, visit website at http:// www.livearts-fringe.org/.

Courtesy of http://tiny.cc/g459n

Quinn Bauriedel, co-creator and cast member of Pig Iron Theatre Co., works with students during a workshop at Colgate University.

September 1, 2011

THE PHOENIX

Living & Arts

swarthmorephoenix.com

Swat athletes become summer globetrotters

By STEVEN HAZEL shazel1@swarthmore.edu

With Greece barely avoiding bankruptcy this June and receiving a $157 billion rescue plan from European leaders in July, the country is far from the secure ground upon which Germany stands whose central bank — the Bundesbank — forecasts the German economy actually growing by 3.1% in 2011.

However, even beyond economic affairs, the two countries boast different landscapes, cuisines and cultures. Both Germany and Greece were travel destinations for the women’s and men’s soccer teams respectively this summer.

In The Phoenix Orientation Issue, published on August 25, sports writers Renee Flores and Ana Apostoleris reported on the teams’ match play and experience competing abroad, while Living and Arts will explore specifically the cultural diversity the students discovered while abroad.

While abroad in Greece, the men’s team visited Crete, which is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands.

Off the field, the students traveled to a number of sites including the Acropolis, home to the Parthenon, and Delphi, the location of the famous oracle at the sanctuary of Apollo.

The college’s Director of Sports Information Mark Anskis, who accompanied the team, felt surprised by the team’s interest in the history and said, “The team definitely enjoyed the Greek mythology and history.

During the team’s first day off after several busy days of training and games, I was surprised that nearly half the team chose to spend the day in Athens rather than relaxing at the beach.”

More than 1,000 miles away, the women’s team arrived in Germany, which was the site of this summer’s 2011 Women’s World Cup Final.

Upon their arrival, the students first visited the small town of Rothenburg, which is located in Bavaria, Germany and well known for its well-preserved medieval old town. “We stumbled upon these gorgeous gardens that had a great view of the village,” Ariana Spiegel ’13 said. “It was picturesque and unbelievable at the same time — just because I, at least, hadn’t slept on the plane and was extremely tired but yet was beyond flabbergasted at what I was staring at.”

Even though in entirely separate countries, both teams enjoyed their respective palette-pleasing cuisines. In an online blog documenting their trip in Greece, David Sterngold ’12 detailed one of the team favorites. “Souvlaki is similar to a Gyro — pork or chicken, lettuce, tomato and tzatziki sauce wrapped in pita bread. Souvlaki is a big deal in Greece, and I’ve probably eaten it for lunch every day of the trip.”

For those unacquainted with either of these Greek delicacies, souvlaki is similar to a shish kabob and has chunks of cooked meat on a skewer, often with a pita and tsaziki sauce. On the other hand, gyro is meat cooked slowly on a vertical rotisserie and then cut into strips and small slices of meat. Similar to the souvlaki sandwich, a gyro sandwich consists of the gyro meat in a pita with traditional toppings.

Of the German cuisine of exceptional meats and desserts, Katie Sipi ’14 said,

“My favorites [foods] were schnitzel — flat fried pork, and schneeballen, which was a dessert of baked dough, powdered sugar and dipped in chocolate. It was so different from what I normally eat [at home] — I realized there are so many cultures and foods that I probably will never notice unless I make an effort.”

Aside from the usual tourist spots, the teams came to appreciate the oftenstartling landscapes of their respective host countries over the weeks that they

visited. “Before this trip, I had never been outside of North America,” Spiegel said. “I think the landscape was something that really surprised me … not that I didn’t know that there were other landscapes, but seeing vineyards on extremely steep hills and windmills and farms all around was something that I wasn’t expecting.”

Amidst Ancient Greek ruins, the men’s team explored the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, which over-

GERMANY

GREECE

Alyssa Bowie for The Phoenix

Toby Heavenrich for The Phoenix

Alyssa Bowie for The Phoenix

Courtesy of http://tiny.cc/yuzp7

Alyssa Bowie for The Phoenix

Geli Carabases for The Phoenix

Alyssa Bowie for The Phoenix

(Left): The women’s team enjoyed the quaint medieval charm of old German towns (top and bottom photos), indugled in delectable chocolate desserts and dressed up patriotically for the 2011 Women’s World Cup Final.

THE PHOENIX

Geli Carabases for The Phoenix

(Right): The men’s team journeyed to the ancient ruins of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, discovered Greek souvlaki, danced alongside traditional Greek folk dancers in Crete and visited the Parthenon in Athens.

September 1, 2011

looks the Mediterranean. Writing on the online blog, Anskis described the panoramic view. “You know you’re in a place of spectacular beauty when the consensus among most team members was that this was the most beautiful place anyone had ever seen,” he wrote.

Also enjoying the natural beauty of their respective country, the women’s team traveled across Germany and visited the historic cities of Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Cologne, as well as venturing into the Netherlands to visit Amsterdam and Maastricht.

When asked to pick a favorite destination, Sipi struggled and said, “Its hard to pick just one [city], but I liked Rothenburg because it was an ancient Roman walled city and it was just so charming. It was also the first city we visited so it was a great welcome to Germany and German culture.”

Reflecting on the trip, Sterngold named the after-dinner entertainment in Crete as his most memorable experience abroad. “The highlight was the Cretan dancers, who recreated melodramatic scenes from Cretan and Greek mythology like Theseus’ victory over the Minotaur of Knossos and the ascension of the Greek Pantheon.”

In fact, the show became interactive as the teammates joined hands with fellow diners and dancers in a large circle around the restaurant and as Sterngold recalls, “kicking up [their] legs in time with the increasingly frantically paced music.”

While in Greece, the team enjoyed the hospitality of the locals amidst the new foods, landscapes and culture.

In an interview, Anskis said, “I can’t say enough about how hospitable the Greeks were. They would clear tables for us [at restaurants] and ask us how we did. They treated us like we were professional soccer players.”

Visiting Germany while the country was hosting the World Cup transformed the women’s two-week adventure into a truly unique trip for the team.

“I think the fact that we were in the country that was hosting the World Cup, rather than another country at the time, added another component to the trip that made it exceed our expectations,” Speigel said. “Going to the World Cup final … really brought about the sense of pride the team has for the game of soccer.”

For the men’s team, an additional component to their travels similarly enhanced their experience while traveling abroad. Towards the end of their stay, the team gave back to their host country and teamed up with people from Germany, Serbia and other Europeans to clean up a local beach.

Remembering the picturesque landscape, Anskis said, “The beach was a perfect blue, like a postcard.”

Looking forward to the semester ahead, Sterngold said, “Perhaps spending a few days steeped in the rich history of the Greek peninsula will allow us to transition smoothly back to the ‘life of the mind’ that awaits us at Swarthmore.”

To read about the teams’ matchplay and competition abroad, check out this year’s Orientation Issue, published on August 25. On pages 11 and 12, Ana Apostoleris and Renee Flores report on the teams’ matches in Greece and Germany, respectively.

11

Living & Arts There must be something rotten in the film industry swarthmorephoenix.com

A first column should, I’m told, grab the reader’s attention and hold it fast as its perfect marriage of content and style induces a gravitational field of wow — unfortunately however, this summer’s lineup does not allow for such a column.

The past couple months’ film fodder has been predictably, well, poor. I could tell you that Viola Davis Nolan Gear shines in a totally toothless Oui Oui Wiseau civil rights movie (“The Help”), that Rob Brydon’s Al Pacino impression is embarrassing while his Woody Allen is inspired (“The Trip”), or that children’s animation has reached calamitous new lows (“The Smurfs”). But none of this really screams out, “This is a snazzy first column, read me again, please!”

Additionally, I wasn’t entirely sure what this year’s column should be about - film reviews are fun, but I didn’t want to write about just any movie, y’know? I decided on a whim that this column should cover the current cinema, yes, but should more broadly address film thought, film culture, and other such nonsense.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that — panicked — I went trolling for inspiration on the web, looking for gossip and Oscar buzz (no it’s not too early), film reviews, even showtimes. As I often do when I’ve got box office on the brain, I also checked Rottentomatoes. com.

In the interest of fuller disclosure, I should tell you that Rottentomatoes is, um, evil and that for the past 7 years I’ve checked it routinely, maybe semi-religiously.

Mind-numbing, systematizing, corporate and codifying, it’s like the Imperius Curse of film criticism.

Maybe (just maybe) I’m exaggerating — at the very least I’d serendipitously stumbled upon this column’s

rather self-aware subject. For those who don’t know, Rottentomatoes is a “review aggregator” (thus spake Wikipedia) that systematically collects and organizes online film criticism; blogs are getting increasingly popular, but mostly it’s still conventional print newspapers.

So you’ll read reviews by A. O. Scott, Roger Ebert, even troglodytes like Robert Butler from the Kansas City Star (my hometown). These reviews are deemed “rotten” or “fresh,” and each film on the site gets a score, the quotient of the fresh reviews over the sum of both: “The Godfather” is sitting at 100%, while Tommy Wiseau’s brilliant “The Room” is pulling 36%, and “Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever” has a whopping, ahem, 0%. What, you ask, is wrong with being told whether or not you want to see a movie?

Sure it’s a tad stupefying to reduce a vast quantity of criticism down to a percentile — but after all, we’re talking $10-15 dollars spent at the modern cinema. Personally, that’s more money than I wish to spend on a lousy movie.

Also, we’re accustomed to being told what we want to consume — if I were really going to tear into the mighty Tomatometer, as it’s been absurdly dubbed, then I’d have to hit up consumerist faddishness in general, and I just don’t have the space or energy for that. Let me not stoop to hypocrisy: I use Rottentomatoes all the time — it kept me from seeing “Cars 2” in theaters, introduced me to Almodovar and has won me several bets (I’m not proud).

Here’s the problem with Rottentomatoes: it privileges universality over nuance, it vilifies critical outliers, and it creates a weird-ass version of cinephilia, one that gives me the heeby-jeebies. Let’s start with the universality problem. “Toy Story” holds 100% on Rottentomatoes — as do “Jaws,” “Chinatown” and the aforementioned “Godfather.”

The thing is, these films are so canonical, so petrified, so “excellent” — that they require no advocacy. A movie holding a very high rating on Rottentomatoes is, on a certain level, holistically unchallenging. It intelligently proffers to critics something they wish to see, masked behind layers of production values or international edginess (“3 Weeks, 4 Months and 2 Days” — 98%).

These are safe movies, movies you can adulate at cocktail parties and in classrooms with impunity. The beautiful irony is that they are considered “challenging,” a fraught and nonsensical designation that usually just means “sad” or “intellectual.” Think about it — a truly challenging film desperately needs spokespeople.

Which brings us to the question of contrariness. Anyone who reads Rottentomatoes regularly knows who Armond White is — a critic for the New York Press, he hates Pixar, pretentiousness and especially Oscar bait. He seeks to challenge comfortably popular films, particularly those whose political aspirations he deems hypocritical, forced, or false (his review of Van Sant’s “Milk” is paradigmatic in this regard).

Love him or hate him, Armond White is a proud and playful contrarian. Those who write user comments hate him. Unlike most critics on Rottentomatoes, White is regularly read, and pretty much every one of his reviews gets comments. His scathing review of “The Dark Knight” got, count ‘em, 322 acidic little posts — and he is absolutely, universally loathed. Here’s a sample: “I knew this douche would do this. He does it every time. LoL. The real losers here ... the New York Press for wasting their money on this scum bag.”

The comments get more extreme, hateful, profane — and less nuanced (if you can believe it). People hate what White does — to the beloved Tomatometer. The cinephilia that Rottentomatoes engenders — and it certainly caters to obnoxiously self-identified “cinephiles,” one of the biggest communities of them on the Internet — is fetishistic and assimilationist, paying high reverence ... to a number.

No user comment I’ve read has questioned the legitimacy of the Tomatometer, or has advocated a critically panned movie without heavy doses of shame and selfdeprecation. The tragic cyber-paradox: by amassing and numerating popular opinion and dissent, Rottentomatoes makes preference a commodity — makes it opinionless.

Nolan is a senior. You can reach him at ngear1@swarthmore.edu.

Global money markets exchange and transform It’s Sunday, August 7 at 2 p.m. and I’m watching the finals of a professional women’s tennis tournament in San Diego on an exquisitely Aliya Padamsee clear, sunny day, when Money Matter$ my iPhone buzzes with a CNBC MarketWatch alert: Saudi Arabia plunges 5.5% in an extra Sunday session when all other global markets are closed.

Even the California heat isn’t enough to calm my chills in apprehension of Monday morning’s tumble in the U.S. markets.

From East to West, a cascade of dominoes follows the sun’s path as Asian, then European and finally U.S. markets awake.

The Dow Jones opened 200 points down and ended the day 634.76 points down, or 5.5%, which is the sharpest one-day decline since the financial crisis in 2008 and the sixth largest percentage drop ever, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Two days before, on Friday afternoon, a Standard & Poor agency cut ratings from AAA to AA+ on U.S. treasury bonds, which are considered by most investors much safer than stocks. Firstly, this implies that U.S. assets are not the safest ones to invest in, unlike those of France and Germany, which still have their AAA rating.

Secondly, as this downgraded credit ripples through the nation, lenders will

have to re-price their assets, increasing interest rates on common loans, such as car loans and mortgages. In this precarious economy, the credit downgrade is not only causing our economy to suffer further, but also sparking a global route.

A basic concept learned in grade school, “the sun rises in the East and sets in the West,” suddenly becomes ironic.

In our current economy, it’s a storm’s thunderclap reverberating westward, like a gunshot heard around the world.

See, news is market candy. A tsunami in Japan, a plague in Africa or a terrorist threat in Europe can all have profound effects on the markets even as America blissfully sleeps.

If financial analysts choose to interpret the news as highly consequential, then such events will have major repercussions.

Furthermore, with super-computers interconnected, in just the few nano-seconds it takes to travel the information highways, these events spark raw emotional responses that cause extreme market volatility.

And since our global markets are heavily interconnected with singular events linking us through economic evaluations, it truly must be a small world, after all.

Author of “The Markets Never Sleep,” Tom Busby labels Asia “The Land of the Rising Sun” — the first to open and view the world’s financial landscape.” Housing the majority of the world’s population in its vast landmasses, Asia contains an eclectic mix of nations.

Some countries, such as China, Japan and India have both rural and welldeveloped areas, constituting some of the world’s major economic centers. Other Asian countries, either unstable or troublesome, are Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

Smaller Asian nations have large-scale

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issues with small-scale economic impact on their own, leaving bigger economic powers to analyze their situations and set significance.

Due to the modernized and developed national stock exchanges of the Nikkei in Tokyo and the Hang Seng in China, most traders find useful market sentiment of early traders in the East in these particular indexes, most reflective of U.S. markets. Asia will be the first to express its sentiment on particular events, setting the stage for the following time zones.

Asia has spoken.

As we trace the sun’s path, illuminating market by market across the sky, Europe is next to react. Mimicking a sprinter running around the track and passing the baton to his teammate, so goes the market hand-off. Germany is home to Europe’s largest national economy and whose GDP ranks fifth in the world. Throughout the twentieth century, Germany was a powerhouse of industrialization and today is a major exporter to the U.S, which makes it a key player in the global marketplace.

In his book Busby also looks toward the most critical stock index on the Frankfurt ExDina Zingaro Phoenix Staff change, the Dax. In comparing Dax and Dow Jones, he explains that both indexes contain the top 30 respective companies. He believes that since the

September 1, 2011

Dax is such a large index and reflects the opinions of many European and global traders, it should be in agreement when trading in the U.S. markets. Last, but certainly not least, we pass the baton to the U.S. and specifically, to New York City, with its daily hustle and bustle with executives, traders and analysts streaming through the streets towards Manhattan’s financial district on Wall Street. As the 9:30 a.m. bell sirens and the highly volatile action ensues, the U.S. markets lead the way.

The health of our financial markets is reflected on indexes such as the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, which — according to Busby — have gained worldwide respect and regard “from Dubai to Iceland and everywhere in between.” And as these NYC traders begin their lunch hour from roughly 12 to 2 p.m., California takes the baton for the remainder of the U.S. day.

Thus, as the sun sets across the United States, trading centers in New York, Chicago, California and our very own Philadelphia are ready to rest.

In Asia, the sun will soon rise again as this cycle continues and the markets never sleep.

Aliya is a sophomore. You can reach her at apadams1@swarthmore.edu.

THE PHOENIX

Living & Arts

swarthmorephoenix.com

Baking cookies that mimic the Swattie experience E v e r heard of a ‘diamant’ before? Or perhaps ‘sablé diamant’ may ring a bell.

Still nothing?

Boy, the things I could share Lauren Kim with you …

Collegiate Confections this word actually originated from the French word ‘diamanté’ in 1904, courtesy of the Online Etymology Dictionary, and translates to ‘diamond’. Also, it refers to French-style cookies that are covered with sparkling sugar granules to present an image of twinkling diamonds ... get it?

Are you familiar yet with the “highon-academics” Swarthmore environment yet? Perhaps you haven’t yet heard a fellow student eagerly preaching about the most random topic ever, or overheard a peer elaborating on a light topic, making it absurd and excessively philosophical.

So, if you have not been introduced to either of these types of conversation, I’ll gladly cover both and kill two birds with one stone. But first, welcome to Swat!

Through this column, you will hopefully gain knowledge of (and mastery over) some simple but scrumptious recipes for treats to satisfy those betweenmeal or midnight cravings. And over the course of the semester, all students are welcome to submit their own recipes to share with fellow Swatties and of which they would like me to bake and comment on in my column.

I must admit, I absolutely love all things sweet, chocolate-y and anything else considered a dessert. And for me, baking is definitely a form of art since once you’ve honed the basic skills, you can draw from your own creativity and instincts to create new tasty treats.

Thus, although baking may be timeconsuming, it is so worth the time and effort. Trust me, it’s not only the sweet tooth that smiles at scrumptious treats, but also the soul.

One of my courses last semester, Taste and Aesthetics in Chinese Culture, sparked my interest and inspired me to approach baking differently: to break down food into its features, harmonies and the purposes of each component. Thus, I began to realize how Swatties are like cookies ... or diamants, to be exact.

This sweetened journey begins with a playdough-like mess with all of the inconsistencies in the gooey chunks of flour and butter. But do not fear, this is not a problem. Too much kneading will create air bubbles in the dough that burst in the oven, making the cookies go flat.

Therefore, don’t stress about kneading every imperfection out of your dough. Sometimes, you just have to have a little faith in your cookies and believe that they’ll turn out all right on their own by the magic of good-quality ingredients and a reasonable amount of coaxing (although the occasional prayer is also encouraged.)

This “academic bakery” of Swarthmore College only releases one batch of cookies each year to the public — i.e. the senior class. However the school perfects each of its batches for four years. About two years into the process — sophomore year — the patissiers, holding various degrees and professorship, start on the sugar coating.

The class of Swatties — like the diamant dough — begins with individual ingredients. Together, they contribute to the harmony of distinct flavors.

The end product is a cohesive dough, all ready to be divided into individual pieces once again. Then they will be ready to receive their sugar coating to be delivered out to the rest of the world. At the end of the fourth year, the coating will be complete: the dough sparkling like diamonds on the outside and complemented by a lovely golden brown inside.

With this much time and effort spent on each cookie, who in the world could resist the results?

Just to note, Swattie diamants are most often coffee-flavored … must be the popular dependency on caffeine for late nights of studying. See, the patissiers learned long ago that the secret to producing the best-quality dough was to keep it happily moistened with strong espresso.

Lauren is a sophomore. Please submit any recipes you would like to share with Lauren for her to try for her next column by emailing her at lkim1@swarthore. edu.

Lauren will offer free samples of her Coffee Diamants today at the top of Sharples at lunchtime.

Don’t miss your chance to try these mouth-watering treats.

Learn journalism. Get paid. Work for The Phoenix.

Living & Arts is looking to hire reporters, artists, photographers, and crossword puzzle creators. Most positions are paid.

All positions are open to any currently enrolled student and no experience is necessary.

Hurry at lunchtime to get your FREE diamant cookie at the top of Sharples.

Lauren Kim for The Phoenix

The Recipe for Coffee Diamants Ingredients: 1/3 cup butter (room temperature) 3 heaping Tbsp confectioners’ sugar 1 egg yolk 2 tsp strong coffee 2/3 cup all-purpose flour Pinch of salt Egg white & granulated sugar for dusting Instructions: 1. Mix the butter and confectioners’ sugar together until creamy.

2. Add egg yolk and mix well.

3. Stir in coffee to mixture.

4. Mix in flour and salt thoroughly until dough becomes a solid chunk.

5. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a cylinder (about 3-4 cm in diameter), then cover with plastic wrap.

Chill for about an hour.

6. Preheat the oven to 360°F (180°C).

7. Lightly brush chilled dough with egg white (start with one egg white, and use another if necessary). Roll dough in granulated sugar.

8. Cut dough into circles about 1cm thick and arrange on lined cookie tray. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

These little jewels are bite-sized and perfect for a late-night snack at McCabe amongst the book shelves or study carrels.

For hiring rules, full job descriptions and to submit an application for Fall 2011: http://swarthmorephoenix.com/hiring THE PHOENIX

September 1, 2011

13

Living & Arts The Silk Road Mummies:

swarthmorephoenix.com

Ancient Secrets and New Findings

Student Activities Fair

Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Pennsylvania

Sunday, Sept. 3 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Parrish Beach

Tuesday, Sept. 6 4:30 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Kohlberg, Scheuer Room

editor’s picks

By Dina Zingaro

Swarthmore Farmers’ Market - vegetables & fruit - mushrooms - meat and eggs from grass-fed animals - crusty bread - artisan chocolate and soap -

Swat’s improv group VERTIGO-GO & Comedy sketch group B.M.T. Saturdays 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

In the municipal building parking lot, across from the Swarthmore Co-op 14

September 1, 2011

s, e s s cla gh? f o ek od lau e w st go r a fi the t need Friday, Sept. 2 r e Aft oesn’ 8 p.m. d o Sci 101 wh THE PHOENIX

Opinions

swarthmorephoenix.com

Staff Editorial

Nutter’s response to flashmobs is ineffective A young woman and a group of her friends walked along the streets of Center City in the fading light of a summer evening.

Suddenly, a band of young men tore through their group, kicking, screaming and eventually breaking the woman’s leg. This young woman, an editor for The Onion, was one of several Philadelphia victims of flash mobs, random violent attacks carried out by groups of youths that has plagued cities since 2003.

This weekend will be the last for Philadelphia’s 9 p.m. teen curfew. Along with a stepped-up police presence, the institution of a volunteer patrol and the reemergence of the mounted police force, the curfew was part of an effort to stamp out the mobs. While Mayor Michael Nutter’s anti-mob initiatives are strict as well as expensive (according to newsworks.org, it costs $56,000 each weekend to enforce the curfew), they are only looking to stop criminals in their tracks instead of seeking out the root of the unrest.

Philly’s problem is not new or unique. Occasional flare-ups have plagued the city for two years, and cities across the globe from London to Chicago have seen similar damover Mayor Nutter did offer age the summer.

S o m e blame Facebook and youth some evening Twitter. The social alternatives ... But this nizations media orgaallowed people is too little too late. to plan surp r i s e events that r a n g e anywhere from Pacific choreographed dance numbers in public parks to large-scale robberies, such as the one that pillaged an Upper Darby Sears store in late June.

Chicago’s response to the problem has been just as lamentably surface-level as Philadelphia’s. The city opted for a stepped-up police presence to be mindful of large groups of teens on trains and to monitor video cameras. They also cracked-down on teen curfew violators.

The police-state-style tactics used in both cities are working under the assumption that youth are always going to want to commit violent acts, and that the city’s role is simply to work harder to catch them in the act, or minutes before the act. The assumption neglects to ask why kids want to harm their own city and its citizens and fails to offer them a reason to want to start protecting these things.

Mayor Nutter did offer youth some evening alternatives, such as a city-sponsored bowling party to kick-off the curfew. But this is too little too late. A young girl was injured after leaving the bowling alley.

In order to truly be led down a different path, youth need to be offered activities that are engaging and sustain their interest. Becoming involved in a longterm project, such as Philadelphia’s laudable Mural Arts Project that is known for reaching out to the homeless and prisoners to engage them in mural-making projects around the city, not only gives youths a place to go but also a reason to want to stay out of detention centers and to respect their city.

A third party candidate for Philadelphia Mayor seems to be headed in the right direction. Diop Olugbala argued that money saved by making cuts to the police budget, such as the $56,000 that has gone to curfew enforcement each weekend, could go towards schools and those who need jobs.

Public schools start after labor day and with classes in session, there’s a school-year curfew. If city officials are lucky, the problem will lie dormant during the upcoming months. But as part of a community of young people who have been offered, or discovered or created on our own, a wealth of activities that excite, engage and inspire us, we have the insight and the experience to suggest alternatives or even to start up our own Courtesy of http://whyy.org projects that empower youth and give Mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter them pride in their city.

THE PHOENIX

Emma Waitzman The Phoenix

Letter, op-ed and comment policy Letters, opinion pieces and online comments represent the views of their writers and not those of The Phoenix staff or Editorial Board. The Phoenix reserves the right to edit all pieces submitted for print publication for content, length and clarity. The Phoenix also reserves the right to withhold any letters, op-eds or comments from publication.

All comments posted online and all op-eds and letters must be signed and should include the writer’s full name.

Letters are a minimum of 250 words and may not exceed 500 words. Op-eds are a minimum of 500 words and may not exceed 750. Letters and op-eds must be submitted by 10 p.m. on Monday, and The Phoenix reserves the right to withhold letters and op-eds received after that time from publication.

Letters may be signed by a maximum of five individuals. Op-eds may be signed by a maximum of two individuals. The Phoenix will not accept pieces exclusively attributed to groups, although individual writers may re-

September 1, 2011

quest that their group affiliation be included.

While The Phoenix does not accept anonymous submissions, letters and op-eds may be published without the writer’s name in exceptional circumstances and at the sole discretion of the Editorial Board.

An editorial represents the opinions of the members of the Opinions Board: Amelia Possanza, Marcus Mello and Menghan Jin. Please submit letters to: letters@swarthmorephoenix.com or The Phoenix Swarthmore College 500 College Avenue Swarthmore, PA 19081 Please report corrections to: corrections@swarthmorephoenix.com Letters, corrections and news tips may also be submitted online to the paper by clicking “Contact” on the Phoenix website.

15

Opinions Switching sides in the immigration debate swarthmorephoenix.com

I’m first and foremost a classical-liberal, which is that fancy, confusing term today’s “conservatives” tend to use when introducing themselves at cocktail parties. I defend limited government, the American Constitution, tradition, and freedom, with a lot of free market arguments sprinkled Danielle Charette throughout.

Over the summer, I The Nascent Neoliberal had the mixed fortune of hobnobbing with some pretty plucky libertarians at several economic and political philosophy seminars. On the one hand, their fervent worship of Frederick Hayek is endearing, while their willingness to gag Uncle Sam in the name of free markets occasionally offended my patriotic sensibilities.

But my new familiarity with the Austrian School of Economics did prompt a U-turn on one important issue: immigration.

Globally, wealthy nations are spending $17 billion every year to stymie immigration. Meanwhile, many Western countries advocate foreign aid, which does nothing to spur new prosperity. Assuming aid is highly efficient (which it certainly isn’t), we’re transferring $70 billion from one pocket in the United States to another in Ethiopia.

In contrast, increasing G-10 labor forces by a reasonable 3 percent would pave a $300 billion wealth increase for poor people, without robbing Peter to pay Paul. By the very economic definition, trade creates wealth.

Many folks get red in the face when they think about immigrants robbing Americans of employment, yet all this invasion-of-the-job-snatchers talk assumes there are a fixed number of jobs in the economy. There aren’t. This might turn some heads, but the fundamental goal of economic activity isn’t to create employment, but to efficiently produce.

If jobs were the be-all and end-all, what’s with all

those machines and cars and computers? Everyone nation cannot sustain both open immigration and state could dig holes or transcribe sea scrolls and we’d have largesse. full employment. Most immigrants are actually filling The ongoing failure to assimilate new populations jobs that wouldn’t have otherwise existed, promoting into German, British and Scandinavian workforces apspecialization and inspiring investment. pears to ratify the observation. I suspect many indiA conference lecturer, Art Carden, used the exam- viduals would even contract to forgo welfare benefits ple of landscaping. There’s really no reason why yard- in return for a legal visa. Passage of the 1996 Welfare owners can’t fire up the John Deer to trim their grass, Reform Act shrank welfare rolls, even as legal and ilbut cheap lawn services, run primarily by immigrant legal immigration rates continued to rise. laborers, have led to a win-win. The landscaper yields As for the nativist anxiety that upswings in immia profit, while economics professors can write more ar- gration will degrade American culture, I make a propticles and avoid a farmer’s tan. erty-rights argument. If you want to send your child Some paternalistically assert that inviting a low- to a private school that sings nothing but American skilled immigrant to work in a factory or flip a burger battle hymns, that’s your prerogative. If the Chinese is unfair and degrading. restaurant down the block chooses to accept only the But doesn’t man assume ownership of his own la- yuan, it’s not my business. Civic culture must arise bor? Hasn’t that immivoluntarily, not by fiat. grant made an informed I’ll admit, there is decision to take the posisomething unnerving tion because it’s an imabout an easily infringed All this invasion-of-the-jobprovement on his previborder, particularly in an snatchers talk assumes there ous toils? My ancestors age of stealth terrorism. fled Britain at the turn Maybe my comrades are a fixed number of jobs in of the century to plugon the Right won’t stop the economy ... there aren’t. away in Pennsylvania’s griping until there really coalmines. I can’t imagis a high and mighty wall ine they’d want to withbetween the United States draw that decision. and Mexico. A wall might There’s very little evidence to support the oft-made be a good idea, but streamlining the immigration proclaim that immigration nurtures a permanent under- cess stimulates a whole lot more good than slabs of conclass. Households beneath the poverty line dropped crete or knots of barbed wire. between 1980 and 2003, at the same time as households I’ve come to see that currently emphasizing my supabove the $100,000 mark rose, suggesting a positive port for more legal immigration is like emphasizing shift, not stagnation. my support for unicorns — it’s just not materializing Moreover, crime rates rolled downward in the in reality. No unskilled worker without an immediate 1990’s even as illegal immigration spiked. All of the relative in this country is ushered in by Lady Liberty, “immigrants commit crimes” hoopla is dramatically with only 5,000 permanent residence visas handed to overblown too. If a person were interested in pillage, low-skilled immigrants annually. he probably wouldn’t have jumped through countless Citizenship for the low-wage employee — however hoops to get into America to work long hours. motivated — is statistically nil.

Perhaps the most salient talking point armed Yes, many of our ancestors took the legal route to against increased immigration is that immigrants are citizenship, but before 1920, that basically entailed a drain to the welfare state. But this seems an easier in- swinging by Ellis Island, confirming they were clear of dictment of government hand-outs than immigration. tuberculosis, and getting on without much fanfare. We Indeed, economist Milton Friedman commented that a can shrink the fanfare once again.

The casualties of vigilantly policing political correctness Toward the end of last year, The Phoenix ran a political cartoon depicting a student being swallowed by a “Great White TuSam Zhang lip Shark”.

Sticks and Stones It was drawn anime-style and the dialogue went like this: “Kid Getting Eaten By Shark: “Auuugh, Help! I’m the victim of a rare Great White Tulip Shark Girl Standing Next to him, Looking Severe: “Kevin, that’s no way to talk!

You’re a SURVIVOR!” The caption read, “Political Correctness at Swarthmore.”

The next week, the cartoonist published a mysterious apology about having offended someone. I was shocked but let it slide, so half a year later, I asked Naia, the cartoonist, for some backstory. She said, “The person in question informed me that some people had interpreted the cartoon as a jab at the rape survivor community. Obviously it wasn’t intended that way — it was more of a joke about how we’re always pressed to choose the

most optimistic or cheerful words to de- that was only intended to be humorous, scribe situations or experiences that we and you can be sure it will affect my crefind unpleasant or painful. ative process in the future.” “‘Survivor’ just happened to be the Creative people like comedians, artfirst example word that came to mind ists, and cartoonists are so valuable ex(not just applying to rape survivors, be- actly because they offend us. They reveal cause there are other groups who use our boundaries in careful ways, and we this terminology). Unfortunately you are forced to confront their criticism. can’t make a joke about something generThe Australian comedian, Steve ic without using a specific to make your Hughes, defines political correctness as point, but in hindsight, I realize that a “the oppression of our intellectual moveless-loaded specific ment so no one might have been says anything anywiser to use.” more just in case The more sparingly and anyone else gets The phrase “rape survivor offended.” Then he wisely offense is community” carjokes, “What if I ries weight. I have say that, and somecalled, the more a visceral reaction one gets offended?” effective its to it. I feel sympaA better crithy and even fear. I teria for judging impact will be. do not want to hurt artwork is its efanyone accidenfectiveness in detally, let alone on livering its mespurpose, and the subconscious threat of sage, rather than its offensiveness. Does their disapproval also weighs on me. So the piece of art bring up something imeven though I want to do good, I want to portant? Did Naia’s cartoon help loosen dismantle the threat of possible censor- up political correctness on our campus? ship as well.

It is a hard question, but more worthy of As Naia said, “On the one hand, you a criterion than, “Am I offended?” don’t want to hurt anyone. But on the Calling offense at the cartoon may other hand, you don’t want to become a have had the opposite of its intended quivering wreck afraid to express your- effect. Instead of being educational, it self for fear of saying something offen- spreads fear. A better tactic is to open up sive. I still feel terrible about having in- a conversation by expressing discomfort. advertently hurt someone with a gesture Expressing discomfort is different than

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September 1, 2011

calling offense. Expressing discomfort opens up dialogue, whereas calling offense has the potential to make insinuations on the offender’s motives, as well as threaten to stop the conversation unless a certain outcome is reached.

If done systematically, calling offense is exactly what we call “fundamentalism,” which is “a movement or attitude stressing strict and literal adherence to a set of basic principles.”

The more sparingly and wisely offense is called, the more effective its impact will be. The goal is not to get students to live in perpetual fear of offending others, but instead to be mindful.

Issues of political correctness aside, I am still disappointed by this because we did not stand up and allow her artwork to judge us.

She made the cartoon only because she felt we had the maturity to handle that kind of humor without finding it offensive. She poked fun at the way we prioritize our labels for experiences rather than the experiences themselves, and people reacted by placing her words into their own mental bins.

For the sake of the record, these are my interpretations of the scenario. In her own words, “I published an apology that time because I felt it was necessary, not because someone else demanded one from me. Political correctness is an empty gesture unless compassion is what drives it.”

THE PHOENIX

Opinions

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The U.S. needs to borrow, spend and create jobs Over the summer, a series of extraord i n a r y events happened. Teaflavored Congressional Republicans brought America to Peter Gross the brink The Principle Progressive of default by refusing to consider raising the arbitrary self imposed debt ceiling. The Congressional Republican Leadership, led by Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, compounded the self-inflicted crisis by refusing to consider marginal increases in revenue in exchange for an unprecedented level of spending reductions and a raised debt ceiling.

A deal to raise the debt ceiling and reduce the debt by at least $2.1 trillion over 10 years was cut at the last minute. Through protracted and ugly negotiations, America just barely avoided the worst self-inflicted policy catastrophe of all time.

None of what happened in this story made any practical or policy sense then,

and it still doesn’t make sense a month after the fact. With Washington’s summer farce in the rear view mirror, we can clearly see the problems that plagued us then still plague us now.

However our primary problem over the summer was not debt. Our primary problem over the summer, and over the past three years has been chronically high unemployment.

Debt and deficit reduction is a perfectly sensible conversation to have when the country is near full employment or facing a solvency crisis in the near to medium run. America has neither of those conditions.

In fact we are just about as far from those conditions as one can get. The official unemployment rate is hovering at 9.1% three years after the start of the Great Recession. The African-American unemployment rate is at 16%. The unemployment rate for young people aged 1624 is a staggering 18.1%.

These numbers are slight improvements from where we were at the height of the Great Recession, but they are nowhere near normal levels. Yet, based on the summer we just experienced from Washington, it appears as if our leaders are willing to accept them as the new normal. The fierce economic urgency of late 2008 and early 2009 has faded, but the subsequent jobs crisis has not, and millions of Americans have been left behind.

letter to the editor To the Swarthmore community: Appointments 101: An introduction to Swarthmore’s Committees Hey guys, I’m Gabby, the Student Council Appointments Chair. I’m the student who was elected to manage and to run the process of appointing students to all of Swarthmore’s committees. And as my title implies I chair the Appointments Committee, which is composed of four other Student Council members and myself; we all select which applicants serve on each committee.

I’m writing this piece as part of a series that will make the appointments process more transparent, because it can seem somewhat confusing from a distance.

Soon you’ll receive an email from me that will attempt to grab your attention with an odd subject line. This email will implore you to put your readings aside and to leave your problem sets for after dinner, beckoning you to submit an application for an open spot on one of Swat’s over 30 committees.

It will commence the age of Fall Special Appointments, which is a time for filling emergency vacancies on committees and happens at the beginning of each semester.

Not every committee will be open, but many will be. If you don’t see a committee that tickles your fancy, don’t worry, Regular Appointments which fills scheduled vacancies is at the end of each semester. It will leave you with limitless committee possibilities.

At this point you might ask: “But Gabby, what are committees?” Well, let me tell you, my little Swattie. There are many different kinds of committees

that are all critical to the college’s policies and operations.

Some are less well known than others, but all of them give the students on them the chance to make important decisions affecting everyone at Swarthmore.

There are two types of committees: College Committees and Student Committees. A College Committee is chaired by an employee of the college and has both college employees (e.g. professors, administrators, staff) and students serving on it.

There are about 25 of them, tackling topics ranging from evaluating Swat’s curriculum offerings to working with the Dean of Admissions.

Then we have about eight Student Committees, which are chaired by students and comprised solely of student committee-members.

Their focuses range from handling student budgeting for groups, individuals and events to organizing movie screenings.

Now you know about the two types of appointments rounds and the two types of committees at Swarthmore. The next piece will talk about how you can apply to be on a committee and will outline the application process.

So … keep your eyes peeled and keep checking your inboxes.

The appointments website is currently in-the-works, but that’s okay because you can still see a rough list of all the active committees: www.sccs. swarthmore.edu/org/appointments/index.html If you have any questions you can email Gabriella Capone ’14, the Appointments Chair, at gcapone1@swarthmore. edu.

THE PHOENIX

If we continue down the path of contractionary fiscal policy, even more Americans will unnecessarily suffer the hardship of unemployment. In order to ensure this doesn’t happen we must reverse course and enact expansionary fiscal policy. The only question then is: can we afford it?

The answer is a resounding yes. Unlike countries driving the European debt crisis, America still has access to ample funds because of investors’ trust in our ability to repay our debts despite S&P’s questionable decision to downgrade US debt from the “risk-free” rating of AAA to the still basically risk-free rating of AA+.

In fact, because of global economic uncertainties, investors are lining up to purchase the most readily available minimum risk investment out there, U.S. Treasuries. This flight to safety has made borrowing money incredibly cheap for the Federal Government. Rates have gotten to the point where the real interest rate for five- and seven-year Treasury bonds is negative, while the 30-year real interest rate hoovers around the astonishingly low figure of 1%.

The implications of a negative real interest rate are amazing. It would be more efficient and less expensive for the government to take out huge debts today and pay the bond holders off with tax receipts five to seven years down the line than it

would be for us to cut back and spend only what we take in now.

Congress should be taking advantage of this golden window of opportunity to make massive public investments in infrastructure and research. The rational thing to do now is to figure out how to maximize the amount of money we can spend on worthy projects and take out as much short-term debt as we can to finance them.

Such an undertaking if done correctly would dramatically decrease the cripplingly high unemployment. Our crumbling infrastructure could be properly maintained and potentially expanded.

We can make great strides towards energy independence through increased research funding.

But instead of doing this, we have done the opposite. We have entered an age of austerity precisely when economic and market conditions beg for Keynesian stimulus. \Our economy will continue to stagnate in the face of anemic growth and millions will needlessly remain jobless as a result of this Hoover-esque policy blunder.

Our leaders should stop fighting for austerity and concentrating on avoiding disasters of our own making. Instead they must aggressively confront the immediate problems facing America because without jobs, nothing else matters.

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Men’s soccer looks to bring home conference title that this team defended in a disciplined fashion... That starts with a very strong, experienced, and disciplined goalkeeper and D’Annunzio is the latest in a long line of fantastic goalkeepers. He is going to be the class of the conference, no question about it, so we start off in a strong position right off the bat,” Wagner said.

But the defense will hardly be the lone strength of the Garnet in 2011. Wagner is eager for the Garnet to evolve offensively from a team that could settle for balls over the top to Langley to a unit that relies on possession and control in the attacking third.

“We need to play for this team in 2011. A lot of guys felt that we used to just default by knocking the ball long to Langley and a lot of teams scouted and said ‘just don’t let them knock it long to Langley,’” Wagner said.

“That wasn’t the way that we were trying to play, but when we got tired or lazy or frustrated, that is what we ended up doing, and it worked a lot. It isn’t going to work anymore, so we are exploring a lot of different options,” Wagner added.

Micah Rose ’11, an All-American midfielder in 2010, believes that possession-soccer will see more players scoring more goals to compensate for the loss of Langley.

“I think, as a team, we will have to maintain possession more to drag teams out of shape, rather than relying on the quick, counter-attacking though balls that Morgan thrived on,” Rose said.

“If we trust each other and bring a more patient, measured style to the field this season I think we’ll be successful and Morgan’s goals will be replaced in bits and pieces throughout the team,” Rose added.

Despite the recent Centennial Conference and NCAA tournament success, the past two seasons have ended at the cruel hands of penalties — to Transylvania in the 2009 Sweet 16 and Medaille in last year’s second round. Though the Garnet enter 2011 ranked No. 8 in the nation by D3soccer.com, Wagner recognizes that the team is only as good as its last game. “We lost our last game, on penalties. We have a lot to prove from that going forward. But this team thrives on pressure and from knowing that the bar is set high, and that just motivates them to continue to overachieve.”

John Pontillo ’13, who will anchor the middle of the Swarthmore back, agrees that the team feels no complacency despite the high preseason rankings.

“We have a good idea of what we would like to achieve this year and hope to be playing into December, somewhere warm … I don’t see this group of players losing

motivation during this season.”

For the Garnet to reach the Final Four in San Antonio this December, they will face several stiff tests in the regular season including matchups with three teams ranked in D3soccer.com preseason Top-25 in Stevens (13), Muhlenberg (15) and Johns Hopkins (18).

“We know that every team we play will be gunning for us,” Rose said. “As defending conference champions we have a target on our backs; each opposing team has circled their match against us on their calendars already.”

In a bizarre scheduling twist, the four 2010 Centennial playoff teams beside Swarthmore will all visit Clothier Field this year where the Garnet has not lost in two seasons.

Still, the Garnet knows that the road schedule will still be a challenge: the last time Swarthmore played at Dickinson, the team lost 1-0 in overtime and the last time Swarthmore played at McDaniel, the team drew 1-1 in a rain-shortened game on an unplayable field.

“Playing on the road is very difficult, period,” Wagner said. “You are away from home, outside your comfort zone, and it makes it a little more difficult. We have to be more focused and more disciplined and I think that it is a good challenge for our guys.

“But it is going to be great having the big teams come in to Swarthmore because we are going to have great crowds and great rivalries in front of our fans.

Ultimately, we want to host the Conference tournament here again.”

In their final season, one of the most talented classes in Swarthmore history will look to add to the their legacy with a fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Forward David Sterngold ’12, who enters the year as the team’s active leader in goals with 15, relishes the opportunity to play with his classmates one final time.

“What I think has happened over the past three years is that we’ve worked hard to become students of the game … At every practice, every game, every team dinner or social event we’re having conversations about how we can be better,” Sterngold said.

“In many ways this is actually a very Swarthmorean process, and it gives us a huge advantage over other programs that don’t have this culture of conscious self-development. I look forward to seeing the culmination of this process this season.”

The Garnet open 2011 play against Immaculata in the 14th Annual Garnet Alumni Classic on Saturday at 7 p.m. Swarthmore will then face Rutgers-Camden on Sunday. Play begins at 4 p.m.

last year, leaving both the school and the team.

Despite these losses, the current members of the Garnet refuse to dwell on the past. “Oftentimes, when In 2010, the Swarthmore Women’s Soccer team suf- a team loses a top scorer, it ignites the group and fered an early exit, missing the playoffs on a tiebreak opens up opportunities for others to fill important as the team went 8-7-2, including a 6-4 mark in Cen- roles,” sixth-year head coach Todd Anckaitis said. tennial Conference play. In 2011, a re-tooled Garnet “I’m certain we have players with this group that are squad looks to take that next step and play its way ready, willing and waiting.”

“While [the Class of 2011’s] to postseason glory, despite losing contribution to our team’s past six seniors, including its top three success is undeniable, I’ve always scorers, to graduation.

Former forward Megan CoThere were moments believed that a team’s success is dependent on the team as a whole, lombo, Class of ’11, represents the when I thought to and not just a select few individuGarnet’s biggest loss. The 2010 Centennial Conference Player of myself, ‘Man, we look als,” said forward Emily Coleman ’12, the team’s senior spokesperthe Year led last season’s version awesome right now.’ son. of the Garnet in goals, with 9, and “I think that this year, more so points, with 20.

Emily Coleman ’12 than any other year, our team has Colombo was also selected to a tremendous amount of depth. the First Team All-Region by the There is barely a talent gap at all NSCAA, and was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III South — I’ve seen moments of brilliance from every player Region Player of the Year. Several other key players on our team,” Coleman added.

The 2011 version of the squad includes six key playalso moved on to post-grad pastures, including midfielder Kirsten Peterson ’11, who was second on the ers returning, including two sophomore forwards, team with 10 points scored and Swarthmore’s all-time Aly Passanante ’14 and Megan Brock ’14, who ranked fourth and fifth on the 2010 team in points scored. Forleader in assists.

Defender/midfielder Hannah Purkey ’11, defender ward Hannah Deming ’12, who is the active program Laura Bolger ’11, forward Kelsey Cline ’11 and mid- leader in goals and points, will provide consistent fielder/forward Elizabeth Mills ’11 also all graduated scoring. Midfielder Alexa Ross ’13 returns after a 2010

campaign that earned her an All-Conference Honorable Mention. The returning players took a preseason trip to Germany, which was a sign of good things to come, according to Coleman. “Germany, above all, showed us that we can compete with just about any team out there,” she said.

“There were moments where I thought to myself, ‘man, we look awesome right now.’ Seeing us play so well together really inspired me.” Swarthmore is ranked fourth in Centennial Conference preseason polling, which would put them right back in the hunt for the playoffs. A promising crop of first-years join Swarthmore’s established elite this season, according to Anckaitis.

“We’ve got a player in the group that has played in a U-17 World Cup and other players that have excelled on nationally ranked club and high school teams, won state high school championships, been named All-State as individuals, were Olympic Development Program players for their state and played the highest level of club soccer,” Anckaitis said.

“As much as we’ll miss our seniors from last season this team comes in with an even better pedigree than that bunch. We’re excited for them to get experience at this level and make contributions to the program.”

The regular season kicks off on September 2, when the Garnet travels to Messiah for the annual Messiah Classic. Swarthmore will face Moravian on the first day of the round-robin tournament. Play is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.

BY victor brady vbrady1@swarthmore.edu

When the Swarthmore men’s soccer team takes the field in 2011, a familiar face will be absent from the starting lineup.

A stalwart up top for the past two seasons, dynamic striker Morgan Langley ’11, who scored 14 goals and 14 assists in an All-American senior season, has moved on to torch defenses at the professional level with the Harrisburg City Islanders.

Despite the loss of the speedy playmaker, Swarthmore returns nine starters from a 2010 team that finished the year 16-1-4 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive season. With an experienced core that has compiled an astonishing 32-3-7 record over the past two seasons — the second-fewest losses in all of Division III over that span behind defending national champion Messiah — the Garnet is confident that it can return the Centennial Conference Championship to Clothier Field in 2011.

When the Centennial men’s soccer coaches voted in the 2011 preseason poll, it was hardly surprising to see Swarthmore, Muhlenberg, Johns Hopkins and Franklin & Marshall atop the rankings. The four teams had controlled the Conference in 2010 and met in the Centennial semifinals on a cold November weekend at Clothier Field last year.

The goaltending resumés that weekend were remarkable. Muhlenberg’s Jason Daniels, 19th in the nation in save percentage. Hopkins’ Ravi Gil, 27th in the nation in goals against average. Franklin & Marshall’s Zack Zameck, 28th in the nation in shutout percentage.

Then, there was David D’Annunzio ’12, Swarthmore’s composed and experienced keeper. With a shootout victory over Johns Hopkins and several solid stops in the championship game over Muhlenberg, he helped lead the homestanders to their second Centennial Championship in three years and cemented his reputation as one of the premier goalies in the nation.

Unlike Daniels, Gil, and Zameck who each graduated in 2011, D’Annunzio returns this year with a 33-54 career record, giving the Garnet a distinct advantage over the top competition in the Conference.

When Head Coach Eric Wagner took over the helm of the Garnet a decade ago, the team had surrendered 82 goals over the preview two seasons. “It was my first priority to shore up the defense and make sure

Reinvigorated women’s soccer eyes postseason by ana apostoleris aaposto1@swarthmore.edu

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Sports What Adam Dunn’s historic struggles remind us swarthmorephoenix.com

And you may ask yourself: Well ... How did I get here?

-The Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime” So now they’ve begun invoking the name of Bill Bergen in order to do justice to the kind of year Adam Dunn is having.

In another set of circumTimothy Bernstein stances, this might have been a compliment; in his Bullet Points day, Bill Bergen was a great defensive catcher, one of the best ever. One day in 1909, he threw out six baserunners, and no catcher before or since has enjoyed a better day. Without a doubt, if the comparison had been brought about on the similarities of defense, the discussion at large would achieve a strikingly different tone.

The problem is that Adam Dunn is the now thirtyone-year-old designated hitter — as in, someone who draws a salary for no other reason than to hit baseballs — of the Chicago White Sox. He hardly ever plays defense these days (occasionally spotting Paul Konerko at first base) and when he used to regularly it was seemingly with no other purpose than to remind everyone that he should stick to doing what he did best — hitting baseballs. And so it is on strictly offensive terms, then, that Adam Dunn’s 2011 season has inspired mention of Bill Bergen. Why? Those doing the mentioning, were you to ask them, would respond by way of an explanation that Bill Bergen’s legacy will forever be that of the worst hitter in the history of Major League Baseball.

And that Adam Dunn’s batting average of .163 is the lowest of any hitter since Bergen himself over a century ago.

Game in and game out, it has been startling and more than a little sad* to watch a player’s production decline so rapidly without warning, like a canoe paddled downriver only to disappear off the edge of a waterfall. The kicker in all of this: how consistently true to himself Dunn has been as a player up to this point. As if he realized from an early age that he would be the man who walked frequently, hit towering home runs at prolific rates, and struck out when he wasn’t doing the first two. *Granted,“sad” might not be the first word to jump to the minds of White Sox fans and that a $14 million annual paycheck can fix a lot of things. All the same, for a player to go through a historic stretch of futility that requires comparison baseball’s to worst-ever hitter and not inspire some sympathy would require him to be a monster of Ty Cobb-like proportions. By all accounts, Dunn’s

teammates seem to like him, and has put with his nickname, “The Big Donkey,” for years now, suggesting that he is at very least a passable human being.

From 2004 to 2010, years all spent in the National League, his home run totals are as follows: 46, 40, 40, 40, 40 (EXACTLY 40 HOME RUNS FOUR YEARS IN A ROW), 38, and 38. In that span, he never drove in fewer than 92 runs or more than 106, and he never struck out fewer than 164 times or more than 195. In an almost refreshing way, there has never been a pretense of mystery or ambiguity when it came to Dunn, no danger of him trying to stretch out of the role into which he had been typecast. On the contrary, his consistency threatened to become almost factual: The sun rose in the east.

Taxes were due on the fifteenth of every April. Adam Dunn hit home runs, drew walks and struck out. Until he came to Chicago.

“A human metronome of power, Dunn is one of the few sluggers who you can all but pencil in for 40 homers, 85 runs and 100 RBIs every year. The 31-year-old would help his cause by reversing a plunging walk rate, but there’s little else stopping him from blasting off on the American League.”

-“MLB.com 2011 Fantasy Preview,” March 2011 Maybe it was easier before. Once upon a time not too long ago, all the fan would need was a back-page article where a couple of scouts could tell us that Dunn was still getting comfortable against American League pitchers, that he wasn’t laying off breaking pitches in the dirt the way he used to, or that some players were meant to thrive in the pressure cookers of New York, Boston and Chicago — and some weren’t. The scouts would give their quotes, the writer might put in a theory of his own, and since that would be all the explanation available to us, it would be all the explanation we could want.

With fewer tools of analysis at the fan’s disposal, the more he would simply have to leave up to speculation.

It was what it was.

Things are different now, or maybe just another version of the same. If you were so inclined, you could point to Dunn’s lower-than-usual .244 average on balls hit in play, which might suggest that bad luck has played a role. You could point to his career-high rate of infield fly balls, and that he has been hitting more pop-ups than ever before. You could even take look at the percentage of pitches outside the strike zone on which he makes contact; this year that number is ten percent higher than it was last year and the highest of his career, meaning … what, exactly? That he’s chasing pitches but, instead of missing them like he used to, he’s instead using them to make outs and push himself closer to the depths of Bill Bergen?

Perhaps, but after delving deep into the statistical chronicles of Adam Dunn’s 2011, one re-emerges with

an unsettling revelation at hand: certain numbers are different, others are the same, but there is no sudden anomaly, no change large enough to even threaten to explain how a power-hitting, on-base machine went to bed one night and woke up unable to play baseball.

Call it the Fangraphs paradox. For every piece of the Adam Dunn Puzzle that sabermetric measures provide — be it BABIP, IFFB or O-Contact % — all the more pronounced becomes the gap between the known and the unknown. Sometimes, it works out better — a player’s decline or resurgence tidily summed up by a couple of stark outliers in key columns where previous generations wouldn’t have thought to look. But when faced with a change of identity as dramatic as the one experienced by the White Sox designated hitter, the advanced statistics do just as good a job as of telling us that the answer doesn’t fully lie in numbers as the rudimentary ones would have. They just have more ways of saying it.

“Everyone can think they know what this is like, but no one in this room knows what it’s like because no one has ever done this.” -Adam Dunn, August 2011 This is not to argue that any kind of new-age ‘Moneyball’ analysis might have provided some sort of saving grace for Dunn, whose badness this season has transcended any and all philosophies. As of this week, his Wins Above Replacement measure stands at a gruesome, league-low -2.4, which is to say that he has been significantly worse than any player the White Sox could have promoted from the minor leagues to replace him.

Through it all, however, it has been the “why” that has managed to elude explanation of any kind, leaving scouts and statisticians alike grasping at their respective sets of straws.

There is the hope out there that Dunn can come back from this, that he will his 2011 will become like a mirage in the desert, a line in his resume that will produce double takes in between rows of 40-home-run, 102-RBI seasons. There is also the resigned belief that this is the beginning of the end, and that what often happens to one-dimensional power hitters in their thirties has exacted itself upon Dunn with extraordinary ferocity.

Taken alone, this season will not provide an answer, though it might hint strongly in one direction. What it does is to remind us of those things in baseball that cannot be measured or quantified by numbers, rationalized or explained by scouts, things that will always be beyond the “why.”

Cynics who don’t cheer for the White Sox can rejoice: apparently there is some mystery left in baseball after all, and all it has taken to rediscover it is one of the most mind-blowingly horrendous performances in the history of the game.

Tim is a junior. You can reach him at tbernst1@ swarthmore.edu

Golf aims to bring strong finish into new season

BY RENEE FLORES rflores1@swarthmore.edu The Swarthmore golf team finished strong last season, managing to break the 18-hole school record, beating all of the teams in the Centennial Conference in a single tournament for the first time ever, and setting the school record for lowest match score at 303 strokes.

Despite these accomplishments, the team fell slightly short of their goal to win the Centennial Conference Championships, finishing fifth overall. However, the team returns all of its players from last year and with such a strong team, there’s the possibility of an equally impressive performance.

Returning player Paul Weston ’12 enters his final season as the team’s co-captain, following his finish with an average of 78 strokes per round in 2010-11.

Weston finished third at the Centennial Conference Golf Championships while leading the team to a fifthplace finish. Fellow seniors Alex Nichamin ’12 and Alex Leichter ’12 return to the team for their final season playing for the college.

The team also boasts a strong sophomore class this year, including Kyle Knapp ’14, Jeff Wall ’14 and Sam White ’14. During his first year on the team, Knapp completed a strong performance, maintaining second place in average of strokes per round with 80.

Knapp and Wall tied with 77 shots each to lead the Garnet in a second-place win in their final home match of the season, tying for Medalist Honors. White led the team to a first-place win against Richard Stockton while being the only player on the team to break 80, making 78 strokes.

“We expect to be better because we did not lose any members of the team from last year. The team members, especially last season's freshmen, will be more experienced,” Knapp said in an email.

Knapp added that the team will also add more depth with three members of the class of 2015. Head Coach Jim Heller added that the team would see a female golfer this year.

The team is going to use last season as a model of success, seeing it as a major stepping stone for going into 2011-12. The team knows that it can make strides in improving based on their performance last year, and expect to do better this year against the competition of the Centennial Conference.

The Swarthmore golf team plays in very competitive matches, including ones against Division I teams Drexel and Pennsylvania State. The competition within the Conference is a hurdle as well, with some of the more difficult teams such as McDaniel, Muhlenberg and Franklin and Marshall.

“McDaniel is the team to beat in the conference,”

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September 1, 2011

Heller said in an email. He is entering his seventh year coaching the golf team.

Looking at the upcoming season, the team has to live up to its reputation from last season. “I feel that I have something to prove and everyone on the team feels that they have something to prove as well,” Knapp said.

The team is keeping its eye on the Centennial Conference Championships , focusing their attention on the attainable goal of being victorious. With the strides made in the past year, the team is close, and with the returning team and some fresh faces, the team is working hard to reach that goal.

“This year we have higher expectations. In the past, we haven't had a ton of success in the conference championships, but we know that we've got the ability to compete with everyone in the conference. We expect to play well, and a trip to nationals is what we're really going for,” Weston said.

With the season beginning in less than a month, the team is gearing up in practice at the Rolling Green golf course to start strong and keep the energy flowing in hopes of recreating and outdoing the 2010-2011 season.

The team will have five matches in the Fall, followed by their full season in the Spring. The Swarthmore golf team plays in its first match on September 19 in the Swarthmore Fall Open. The match is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

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For Volleyball, classic upset just the beginning BY victor brady vbrady1@swarthmore.edu It was the match of the year, a match which dethroned the four-time defending champion, a match in which an upstart program declared itself a contender, a match in which Swarthmore exclaimed to the entire Centennial Conference, “We are here.”

On the home floor of nemesis Haverford in the 2010 Centennial semifinals, facing match point in the fourth set, the Garnet toppled the Fords dynasty taking four of the next five points and dominating the tiebreaking fifth set 15-8 to shock the Division III volleyball world.

All that was missing was the storybook ending. It never came. The following afternoon, Swarthmore fell in straight sets to Franklin & Marshall in the Garnet’s first-ever Centennial Championship match.

In 2011, the Swarthmore volleyball team, led by three seniors, is out to complete its odyssey and claim the throne atop the Centennial Conference.

For seniors Genny Pezzola, Hillary Santana and Lisa Shang, the journey has been remarkable. The trio has led the Garnet from six wins in 2008 to 20 in 2010.

Along the way, Pezzola has become the best player in Garnet history. Entering her senior season, she sits just 135 kills shy of the program record held by Jen Wang ’09 (1171), 60 aces shy of the record held by Emily Conlon ’06 (204) and 380 digs shy of the record held by Erin Heaney ’09 (1560). It is only fitting that she recorded her 1,000th career kill in the thriller over Haverford. Swarthmore returns every starter from last year’s side, and though the emotional leadership of Sarah Lambert ’11 will surely be missed, the returning core of talent matches up with that of any team in the Conference.

The Garnet brings back three first and second team All-Centennial performers in Pezzola (1st team), Kat Montemurro ’13 (2nd team) and Santana (2nd team).

The ten other teams in the Conference return five combined. Defensive specialist Santana recorded 388 digs in her breakout junior season while the pair of Montemurro (332) and Pezzola (228) combined for 660 kills in 2010. Swarthmore ranked second in the Centennial Conference in hitting percentage and third in kills with 12.19 per set.

With a series of skilled recruiting classes, head coach Harleigh Chwastyk, entering her 10th season

at the helm of the Garnet and the two-time-defending Centennial Coach of the Year, has transformed Swarthmore from cellar-dweller to legitimate contender. The seniors have seen both ends of the spectrum and are eager to build not only off the upset of Haverford but the loss to Franklin & Marshall as well.

We definitely have the talent to win the conference this year,” Shang said. “To capitalize on our talent, we need to focus on each point, each set and each match.

The road to a conference championship starts with our first match, and we need to maintain a sense of urgency to win every match we play. We want to outwork other teams and play our hardest, every game and every point.”

Chwastyk knows that the team is “always motivated to beat Haverford because they are our biggest Conference rival and they have been a very solid and talented program.

In that championship weekend, I think that we put everything we had into that semifinal on Saturday and didn’t have anything left for Sunday. We know that there are always better teams than we are and we have to work to play our best and play to our strengths.”

That work ethic and focus has become infectious and inculcated a drive in every player already evident throughout the preseason.

In the Swarthmore Preseason Spikefest on Saturday, the Garnet scrimmaged against Eastern University, ranked No. 7 in the American Vollleyball Coaches Association Division III preseason poll. The Garnet lost three close sets, but the play was a step beyond even the level of last year’s Centennial semis.

“The games against Eastern were great competition. They are a fantastic team, and we don’t have anyone like them in our Conference, so we faced some of our toughest competition very early,” said Brone Lobichusky ’14, who led the team with 68 blocks last season.

Though Eastern attends the Spikefest nearly every year, never before had the Garnet matched them point for point. “They are extremely talented at every position, but we managed to stay focused and push through every point,” Shang said.

“One of our team goals this year is to keep runs for the other team under three points. Even though Eastern did get a few runs on us, we never broke down and always believed that the next point was ours,” Shang

Genny Pezzola goes up for the ball; Kat Montemurro prepares to serve; the Garnet gathers in a huddle.

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added.

In addition to the returning All-Centennial performers, Allie Coleman ’13 will command the Swarthmore attack from the setter position. With 1475 career assists, Coleman already stands third in program history.

On defense, the Garnet registered the second-most digs in the Centennial a year ago. Santana and fellow defensive-specialist Shang combined for 664 while Danielle Sullivan ’14 added 276.

Swarthmore also adds five versatile freshmen, who bring “height, athleticism, and a great deal of talent to our program,” according to Shang. “They fit in with our team really well and … they push the upperclassmen in practice.”

“The freshman class is so talented. They can hit the ball down and they have great ball control. Their work ethic is amazing as well,” Pezzola added. “Having a large team motivates people to work their hardest in every drill, especially when there are 12 other girls pushing [each other].”

Even with the intense individual competition, the players have remained focused on team rather than individual success, which Chwastyk attributes to the close-knit nature of the program.

“We spend a lot of time off the court and behind the scenes talking about the relationships that we have as teammates, friends, classmates, coaches and players.

The foundation on our program is that it is about the team — never about one individual.”

Despite the star-studded roster, the Conference coaches picked Swarthmore to finish third behind both Franklin & Marshall and Johns Hopkins in the Centennial preseason poll. In doing so, they handed the Garnet extra motivation for 2011.

“Just because we made it to the final last year doesn’t mean anything this year,” Chwastyk said.

“You have to do a lot more to continue to earn respect and the team recognizes that the poll shows how others look at us but what is more important is how we look at ourselves and how we are going to train to be the best team that we can be.”

Swarthmore opens the season tomorrow at the Greyhound Premier hosted by Moravian, a tournament which the Garnet won last season with Shang named Tournament MVP. Swarthmore begins play at 4 p.m against Alvernia before battling Centenary (NJ) at 8 p.m.

Jake Mrozerski, Olivia Natan and Eric Verhasselt The Phoenix

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