The Phoenix, April 5, 2012

APRIL 5, 2012 • THE CAMPUS NEWSPAPER OF SWARTHMORE COLLEGE SINCE 1881 • VOLUME 135, ISSUE 11

THE

PHOENIX

Inside: Philly Stands Up hosts consent workshop at WRC Tamagawa brings Taiko drumming to Swat Men’s LAX loses to Gettysburg in heartbreaker

Swarthmore Asks: What Makes a Good Society? p.3

The Phoenix

Thursday, April 5, 2012 Volume 135, Issue 11

The independent campus newspaper of Swarthmore College since 1881.

EDITORIAL BOARD Marcus Mello Editor in Chief Camila Ryder Managing Editor Adam Schlegel News Editor Koby Levin Assistant News Editor Brad Lenox Living & Arts Editor Steven Hazel Assistant Living & Arts Editor Reem Abdou Opinions Editor Tim Bernstein Sports Editor Allegra Pocinki Photo Editor Peter Akkies Webmaster Eric Sherman Webmaster

Justin Toran-Burrell The Phoenix

Taiko drummers and dancers from Tamagawa University performed this Sunday in their annual event for the Cherry Blossom Festival.

News

its abundance of unique clothes, affordable prices, and sensible layout.

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Taiko drum and dance perTEDx talk engages formance celebrates Japan This Sunday, Swarthmore students liscommunity, brings ideas The independently-organized TEDxSwarthmore event was at long last held this past weekend, bringing together notable alumni and professors as well as current student Mary Jean Chan to speak on a diverse array of issues related to the central theme of “what makes a good society?”

tened to the annual concert of Taiko drummers from Tamagawa University in Japan who performed intense, creative pieces that sought to highlight cultural exchange and international collaboration.

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Beer geeks agree: Belgian PAGE 3 Consent workshop brings monks brew some of the collective to campus, best Brad lauds some of the top beers in the world, including Westvleteren XII and increases party safety Last Friday, Philly Stands Up was brought to the WRC to host a workshop on sexual consent in order to create awareness of issues relating to sexual assault prior to the Genderfuck party over the weekend.

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Living & Arts ‘Baltimore Waltz’s’ threeperson cast examines family, AIDS

Michelle Fennell’s Honors thesis direction of “Baltimore Waltz” by Paula Vogel explores the imagination of sibling relationships and the stigmatism of diseases such as HIV/AIDs with a show that mixed humor and emotionally wrenching content.

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At Buffalo Exchange there is little to heckle about At trip to a Philly consignment store called Buffalo Exchange prompted a new love of shopping and retail therapy with

Cantillon, produced by Trappist monks.

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Wesley Stace judges, inspires Swat’s creative writers

Tyler examines President Obama’s recent claim after rough oral arguments at the Supreme Court that ruling Obamacare unconstitutional qualifies as ‘judicial activism.’ He also explores how the independent judiciary is a quintessential aspect of the American government.

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Nuclear security: not so quiet on the Eastern front

Hope that North Korea would denuclearize following the February 29 declaration of agreement sealed between United States and North Korea was smashed when the North announced plan for a rocket launch in the middle of this month. Instead of pursuing the conventional, ineffectual approach of pressuring, Washington can probably fare better if it closely observes the rocket launch and redirect its negotiation efforts to push for more transparency in the satellite program.

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British writer Wesley Stace visited Swarthmore to judge the William Plumer Potter fiction writing contest, but also gave advice to aspiring creative writers and read hilarious passages from his books.

Sports

Opinions

Despite a three-goal lead midway through the third quarter, the Swarthmore men’s lacrosse team couldn’t hold on against the powerhouse Bullets, tacking another year on a long losing streak at the hands of their conference rivals.

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Men’s lax drops 2OT heartbreaker to Gettysburg

Syria, and the problem with PAGE 17 our brief bouts of activism The winter of an empire: The Phoenix discusses the transience of our collective attention not only on Syr- Liverpool Club’s decline ia, but a myriad other world events and atrocities that only manage to momentarily captivate and motivate us.

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Overturning Obamacare is not ‘judicial activism’

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In the shadow of its legacy, Liverpool has seen its fortunes take a turn for the worse in recent years. James looks back at how the Reds went from perennial contender to just another football club.

STAFF Amanda Epstein News Writer Charles Hepper News Writer Yi-Wei Liu News Writer Sera Jeong Living & Arts Writer Samme Sheikh Living & Arts Writer Allison Shultes Living & Arts Writer Chi Zhang Living & Arts Writer Nate Blum Living & Arts Columnist Gabriela Campoverde Living & Arts Columnist Amelia Dornbush Living & Arts Columnist Dylan Jensen Living & Arts Columnist Vianca Masucci Living & Arts Columnist Lanie Schlessinger Living & Arts Columnist Renu Nadkarni Living & Arts Artist Naia Poyer Living & Arts Artist Tyler Becker Opinions Columnist Danielle Charette Opinions Columnist Harshil Sahai Opinions Columnist Shiran Shen Opinions Columnist Emma Waitzman Political Cartoonist Roy Greim Sports Writer James Ivey Sports Columnist Axel Kodat Blogger Julia Carleton Photographer Cristina Matamoros Photographer Raisa Reyes Photographer Holly Smith Photographer Justin Toran-Burrell Photographer Sophie Diamond Copy Editor Taylor Hodges Copy Editor Jaimi Kim Copy Editor Axel Kodat Copy Editor Margaret Lawlace Copy Editor Vija Lietuvninkas Copy Editor BUSINESS STAFF Business Manager Paul Chung Circulation Manager Di Yan Circulation Manager Osazenoriuwa Ebose COVER DESIGN Amelia Kucic COVER PHOTOS COURTESY OF: www.tedxswarthmore.com CONTRIBUTORS Victor Brady, Pendle Marshall-Hallmark OPINIONS BOARD Reem Abdou, Marcus Mello and Camila Ryder EDITOR’S PICKS PHOTOS COURTESY OF: (clockwise from top left) http://tinyurl.com/6pla27j http://tashalewis.info/ http://tinyurl.com/87wr2lp http://tinyurl.com/7rmjr5f 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.

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April 5, 2012

THE PHOENIX

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Events Menu Today Bike Maintenance & Safety Bikes are complex machines, but not so complex that their workings are out of reach for the Average Jane.

Greg Cymbala from CycleFit will be teaching the simple yet highly aesthetic craft of bicycle maintenance at 4:30 p.m. at the Science Center.

A Living Wage Discussion with Cecilia Marquez Six years have passed since Swarthmore students first began to advocate a living wage for College employees. Marquez, a graduate student at UVA, will lead an interactive discussion about the struggle for living wage policy at her current school at 7 p.m. in the Lang Center for Social and Civic Responsibility.

Poetry Reading and Announcement of Student Poetry Contest Winners Poet Denise Duhamel, author of ten volumes of poetry including the intriguingly named “Ka-ching”, will read her poetry and announce the Swarthmore poetry contest champs at 7:30 p.m. in Scheuer.

Tomorrow Alumni Librarians Tell All Swarthmore’s illustrious librarian alumni will return from their bibliophilic utopias at Milton Academy, Duke and Barnard to speak about their careers. Bring questions to Science Center L32 at 2 p.m.

A Child’s View from Gaza A controversial exhibit of drawings by children in the Gaza strip, “reflecting their realities and dreams for the furutre,” is landing at the Kitao Gallery at 7 p.m. SPJP helped bring the illustrations to Swat after they were blocked by a pro-Israel group in California.

Sunday, April 8th Econ Jobs: Uncensored with WISE (Women In Swarthmore Economics) Come to Kohlberg 226 at 3 p.m. to hear about experiences from recent Swarthmore graduates working in economic-related jobs. Snacks will be provided and all questions will be answered.

Monday, April 9th History With A Future: Conversation with Charlie Mayer ’98 Mayer, the director of news operations for NPR, will discuss his rise from intern to in charge, focusing particulalry on the influence his History major has had on his work.

Stop by Parrish 159 at 1:30 p.m. to listen to Mayer’s advice on journalism, radio, and career networking.

Submissions for the events menu may be sent to: news@swarthmorephoenix.com

TEDx talk engages community, brings ideas By koby levin jlevin1@swarthmore.edu After a year of planning, TEDxSwarthmore went off last Saturday without a hitch. With a crew of volunteers in place and a huge TEDxSwarthmore logo crafted by the LPAC crew sitting confidently on stage, the event’s planners and speakers were able to sit back and absorb the ideas being floated around the Pearson-Hall Theatre as 12 speakers — professors, alumni, friends of the college and a student — took the stage to offer their vision of a “good society.”

“By just about any measurement the event was a tremendous success,” Nancy Nicely, Vice President for Communications, said in an email. “LPAC was filled, we had over 800 distinct viewers on the live stream; there was furious tweeting throughout the day; the lobby was buzzing with conversation in between the sessions.”

The constraints on the talks — 18 minutes maximum, answering the question “what makes a good society?” — didn’t limit the breadth of subject matter. In brief, the speakers’ good societies would include “big” government (Mark Kuperberg); the liberal arts (Rebecca Chopp); universal recognition of the importance of missing data in statistics (Steve Wang); and open, “compassionate” communication between the sciences and other academic disciplines (Amy Cheng Vollmer), among other things.

The organizers of the event, in what was perhaps an implicit attempt at answering the question, added music and poetry to the mix. Each taking the stage in the middle of one of the three sessions, Corey Silberstein ’12 performed Chopin’s waltz in A-flat on the piano, the Tri-Co a cappella group Chaverim crooned several folk tunes and Javier Perez ’13 and Noel Quiñones ’15 spit spoken word poetry.

Before Quiñones began his poem, he told the audience he hoped they would take his words with them and put them into practice, a hope shared by the event organizers. “We wanted the ideas [presented in the talks] to be actionable,” Michael Xu ’12, a student planner, said.

John Alston, Associate Professor of Music and the penultimate speaker, met this goal by providing a goal of his own, asking that the audience members build five new schools in

Julia Carleton The Phoenix

Associate Professor of Mathematics & Statistics and President Rebecca Chopp were two of 12 speakers at TEDxSwarthmore.

Chester. He told the story of the Chester Children’s Chorus, a youth organization that he founded, and the new charter school he has been involved with creating in Chester, then called for the support of the Swarthmore community in Chester. His exhortations were met with a standing ovation, one of the most enthusiastic audience responses of the day.

According to Nicely, the conversations generated by Alston’s talk along with the others are a perfect fit for Swarthmore. “It so perfectly embodies the things that Swarthmore stands for and cares about. The opportunity to think deeply, communicate meaningfully, and provide an avenue for all community members to engage in this level of discourse fits our ethos perfectly.”

The conversation was further transmitted across the internet, as a live feed of the talks drew 800 distinct viewers. Much of the event’s $30,000 went to the contractor (the same that does Commencement) that organized the live stream.

Rebecca Chopp: Moral Imagination, Liberal Arts and the Good Society The Kansan used images from her childhood spent under the big sky of the American West along with her experience as an educator to highlight the the role of the liberal arts in the development of a “moral imagination,” which she said is integral to a good society.

Mark Kuperberg: The Case for Big Government: The Case Americans Don’t Want to Hear The graphs flashed across the screen during the economics professor’s defense of proactive governance. He provided examples of market failures on micro- and macroeconomic levels and their potential policy fixes, taking on pollution, perverse incentives in the financial industry and approaches to resuscitating the US economy.

Steve Wang: 180º Is it a good thing that SAT scores are declining nationwide? It is a more difficult question than it seems, complicated by statistical issues like data distribution. The Associate Professor of Statistics argued for a more informed society via a basic awareness of statistics and data.

Stephanie Nyombayire ’08: Marketeers of Misery The Swarthmore Alum and cofounder of the Genocide Intervention Network discussed the business of help – what happens when those trying to help begin to rely on its existence for their livelihood.

Steven Lang ’73: On Beyond Glory: The Architecture of Acting The prominent screen and stage actor discussed “Beyond Glory,” a single-actor play he adapted from a novel and has performed over 300 times. He performed several monologues from the play, which he says was inspired by his conflicted feelings on the war in Iraq.

Donna Jo Napoli: On What Children Need to Read Arguing against the banning of children’s books containing potentially disturbing content – things like rape, drug abuse, various forms of trauma – Napoli, a Linguistics professor and author of children’s books, said that children need to read stories that see that other peoples lives are like, or very different from, their own, and thus develop empathy.

Corinna Lathan ’88: Innovation, Empathy and the Future of Human-machine Interaction Lathan, an engineer, described various ways technology could be employed to “put the person first,” emphasizing that technology is a tool, not an end in itself.

Mary Jean Chan ’12: A Tapestry of Narratives: Conversations through Poetry Reading her poetry and the poetry of others, Chan, the winner of the TEDxSwarthmore Student Challenge, discussed the power and accessibility of poetry as a means of sharing and developing ideas.

Paul Starr: Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform Why is the political right wing of the U.S. challenging the Individual Mandate clause of the ACA in the supreme court when they were the first to introduce it to American politics during the Clinton administration? Starr plotted the strange development of the healthcare debate in the U.S. over the past century.

Amy Cheng Vollmer: Creativity, Communication and Compassion: the Role of Science and Science Literacy Vollmer described a chasm in the discourse between the sectors of the academic community, noting that she could no longer pick up a science journal from outside her own field and understand the research. More accessible language, she argued, would allow for collaboration and greater understanding and compassion within the academy.

Barry Schwartz: Why Justice Isn’t Enough The TED veteran suggested that one feature of a good society is justice, which he defined as people getting what they deserve and deserving what they get. In an example of the change he would advocate based on this definition, Schwartz proposed a random selection of qualified students for admission to Swarthmore.

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April 5, 2012

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Consent workshop brings collective to campus, increases party safety

Week in pictures

space, rather than just showing up and sitting there, unengaged, until the end to get a wristband,” she said.

Last Friday, two members of Philly However, she does think that the isStands Up, a collective of individuals sues surrounding consent and sexual working to confront sexual assault with assault need to be talked about in greattransformative justice in the Philadel- er detail. The Acquaintance Sexual phia area, came to the Womyn’s Re- Assault Prevention (ASAP) workshop, source Center (WRC) to lead a consent which is mandatory for every freshman workshop. during orientation week, is the only forThe moderators guided a conversa- mal discussion Swarthmore students tion among the students that discussed ever have on the matter, and according what consent is, why consent is im- to Feingold, the connection between the portant, what “sticky spots” exist in workshop and Swarthmore’s social life Swarthmore culture that make it hard is often missing. for consent to exist and what the stu“If more people could be part of the dent body can do to change these. conversation, it would be really posiAndrea Jacome ’14, a Womyn’s Re- tive. But I also think that for the people source Center intern, organized the that were [at the consent workshop], it event in light of the rising issue of sex- was probably the best note to start on ual assault on campus and the demand the next day,” she said. for visibility on the matter. Since GenThe increased involvement bythe derfuck took place the following day, it student body at this year’s Genderfuck, seemed like an appropriate moment to however, was also a positive addition to have the discussion, according to Ja- the party. come.

“Students got more involved and ev“Because in Genderfuck last year eryone felt that safety was the number sexual assault became a threatening is- one priority next to throwing a really sue, which almost awesome party,” jeopardized the Feingold said. event this year, I Mazzocchi was decided I wanted I’ve had a lot of seniors also very pleased to bring this event the members ... say that this was the with as a different way of Delta Upsilon, of facilitating conPhi Psi, Not Yet first time that they felt versation on the Sisters, the WRC, that Genderfuck was matter,” she said.

Drug and Alcohol According to Resource Team, really fun and safe.

MC Mazzocchi ’12, Sexual MisconMC Mazzocchi ’12 one of the Genderduct Advisors and fuck planners, last Team, Genderfuck organizer Resource year’s party warwomen’s frisbee ranted concerns and women’s rugabout sexual asby for offering to sault and severe alcohol-related intoxi- help out, resulting in 60 students voluncations. More recently, the hate speech teering at the party. that has been prevalent on and around “I’ve had a lot of seniors come up to campus also caused the event planners me and say that this was the first time to strive for a safe party environment. that they felt that Genderfuck was re“This year we thought that it was im- ally fun and safe ... But why the party portant to have increased accountabili- was so much better wasn’t because of ty in part of the student body. Last year, us five [planners], but because the comwe had maybe 10 PAs, a couple of pub- munity got involved and helped,” Mazlic safety officers outside and that was zocchi said. everyone that was accountable for one Joseph Hagedorn ’15, a Phi Psi and of the biggest events on campus,” Cal- also “Fun Police” member was there to lie Feingold ’12, a Genderfuck planner, observe and ensure that all the students said. “We decided to work on making in attendance were safe. All of the Fun Genderfuck a model party. We wanted Police members received training in to set a precedent for what a safe, fun order to be better able to identify the and sex positive party looks like.” kind of behaviors that could lead to poJacome thinks that the consent tentially troubling situations and how workshop should be mandatory for ev- to respond to them. ery student in order to attend Gender“I have never felt unsafe at a Swarthfuck, or any other big party. more party, or been at a party where I “This is an issue that needs to be felt that others were unsafe, though I revisited outside of orientation,” she understand that not all Swatties feel said. “People don’t really think that it’s this way,” he said. “That being said, I do a conversation that they need to have, think that having sober people who are but consent applies to everything — not willing to help is essential at any party, just issues of sexual assault.” and by systematizing and providing Feingold, who was present at the dis- training, the Fun Police idea definitely cussion, thinks that having a manda- enabled us to be more effective and fatory consent workshop would be hard cilitated providing help to students we to implement. didn’t know personally.”

“I thought that there was a great According to Mazzocchi, no inciturn-out at the consent workshop, but dents of sexual assault, violence or hosit’s hard to tell everyone that they have pitalizations due to alcohol were reportto show up and also be present in the ed to have taken place at Genderfuck.

By amanda epstein aepstei1@swarthmore.edu

Holly Smith The Phoenix

Claire Broad, Madeline Charne, Jessie Cannizzaro and Ben Ellentuck performed in Vertigo-go’s Gigglefuck Show in Mephistos on Saturday evening.

Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix

Last Thursday, approximately 50 students gathered on the steps of Parrish Hall before proceeding to the Ville in a march called “We Are All Trayvon.”

Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix

Kimaya Diggs and Christina Aruffo starred in the One Act Play Festival sponsored by the Drama Board and held Sunday in Sci 101.

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AROUND HIGHER EDUCATION

Studies show women lag in reaching tenure at Yale

BY ANTONIA WOODWARD www.yaledailynews.com, April 4, 2012 Yale has given tenure to significantly more men than women over the past decade, according to data collected by the Women’s Faculty Forum this spring.

The WFF found that women comprise 29 percent of faculty who received tenure since 2000 and remain at Yale, and this percentage rises to 37 percent among the humanities divisions and falls to 19 percent within science departments. Eight tenured female professors interviewed said they think factors such as unconscious discrimination against women have contributed to the gender disparity in tenured positions. “[Yale] is pretty close in hiring [equal numbers of men and women] at the junior level, but when it comes time to recognize the women’s achievements as outstanding enough for the University to make a tenured commitment, it looks to me like unconscious bias kicks in,” said Laura Wexler, former chair of the WFF and a professor of American studies and women’s, gender and sexuality studies. “For whatever reason, women are not seen as fully equal, tenurable colleagues.”

While women hold 38 percent of junior faculty positions across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, they hold 23 percent of tenured faculty positions, according to the data. Still, the data shows gradual increases in the number of women hired to both junior faculty and tenured positions between 2000 and 2012, the period covered

by the analysis. Frances Rosenbluth, deputy provost for social sciences and faculty development, said she thinks the data indicates that women are “disproportionately” leaving academia before they reach higher positions, adding that “women often face negative stereotypes and sometimes even denigrating behavior.”

She said the problem of women “dropping out” of academia is particularly evident nationally in the biological sciences, where women earn 53 percent of doctoral degrees but go on to hold only a quarter of assistant professorships in those fields.

A 2010 study for the National Academy of Sciences, chaired by Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity co-director Sally Shaywitz, found that many fewer women in science, engineering and mathematics apply for tenure-track positions than men, Shaywitz told the News. Rosenbluth said expanding childcare options, particularly for women in the sciences and engineering, and improving the “climate” toward women on campus would help Yale retain female professors. She said in February that the University currently has five childcare facilities, which are filled to capacity, and would like to open an additional one near Science Hill. Yale College Dean Mary Miller said Yale has made efforts to diversify its faculty, such as allowing deans to “press for the inclusion and consideration” of more diverse candidates when they review shortlists of candidates for faculty positions.

The University launched a faculty diversity initiative in 2006 that set targets for

hiring at least 30 new female professors in the sciences and economics by June 2013, though as of earlier this year it lagged behind its goals. In an effort to provide junior faculty with additional support, the WFF began a mentoring group in January, which matches female junior faculty members with senior female faculty, said Allison Tait, a gender equity and policy postdoctoral associate at the WFF. Tait added that about 40 junior faculty signed up and received mentors. Art history professor Carol Armstrong said she believes improved mentoring for junior faculty is particularly important since mentors can help young women perceive their potential as leaders and learn to “publish boldly.” WFF chair Priya Natarajan, who collected the WFF data with Tait, said her analysis centered around the female faculty “pipeline,” which refers to how women progress from an undergraduate degree to a doctorate, a junior faculty position, and eventually a tenured faculty position.

If Yale had perfect gender parity, the pipeline would be flat, with equal numbers of men and women moving through the ranks of academia. The WFF found that the pipeline is nearly flat in Yale’s humanities departments until it reaches tenured positions. The pipeline diverges sooner in the social sciences and sciences, with a drop-off in the number of women hired to junior faculty positions and a second drop-off between junior and tenured positions. Natarajan, Tait and female professors interviewed said they think unconscious biases in hiring and promo-

NEWS IN BRIEF

Diversity symposium held to discuss expanding inclusivity on campus In light of several recent incidents that highlighted a degree of intolerance for diversity among some members of the Swarthmore community, a symposium on diversity titled “Cultivating a Diverse and Inclusive Community: A Diversity Symposium at Swarthmore College” began last Wednesday with a faculty panel presentation on the issue of diversity in higher education. The symposium will continue on Thursday April 5th at 4:30pm with a keynote address titled “Can We Talk About Diversity?” by Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of Spelman College. It will conclude with a lecture by Shaun R. Harper titled “Really, that’s Racist? Preparing Students for Participation in a Racially Diverse Democracy” on Friday April 6th at 12:30pm. Both events will be held in the LPAC cinema.

President Chopp described the symposium as a way to help us “think deeply about the pressing issues, challenges and opportunities in our ongoing effort to advance a diverse and inclusive culture”, and encouraged all members of the community to attend the events. In Swarthmore College’s Strategic Directions, the strategic plans stress the importance of making a clear commitment to diversity and inclusion.

“The symposium serves as a kick-off for our diversity and inclusion implementation process, a facet of the strategic plan. We are currently also in the process of forming a faculty, student and staff committee to develop specific goals related to diversity that will launch in the fall,” said main organizer of the symposium Liz Braun, Dean of Students.

In a joint email interview, Dean Braun and President Chopp said the symposium is a chance to address these issues as well as provide a positive step forward. “Swarthmore has a strong foundation of a deep commitment to diversity, but the challenges and opportunities are constantly evolving, so it is important to provide spaces for us to come together to consider what we need to do to cultivate a diverse and inclusive learning environment,” said Dean Braun.

One student who attended last Wednesday’s faculty panel presentation said he will definitely attend the events in the next two days. “As an international student myself, I hope the college holds more events such as these. I think if every student attended the events such as the one on Wednesday, acts of blatant discrimination like those that happened recently would simply not happen,” said Wu Ti ‘13, from Beijing, China.

BY YI-WEI LIU

THE PHOENIX

April 5, 2012

tions processes, as well as issues that can lead women to drop out of academia such as inadequate childcare, currently inhibit Yale and other universities from achieving gender parity in the pipeline. They said the roughly equal numbers of men and women completing doctoral degrees represent progress from several years ago, particularly in the sciences, where women have traditionally been underrepresented.

But they said the divergence in the number of tenured women relative to men is still disappointing.

Natarajan said Yale does fairly well in hiring male and female junior faculty members but that tenure remains a “pressure point.”

“However you cut it, it’s very clear that the tenure rate for men and women is not the same at Yale,” she said. Physics Department chair Meg Urry, along with several other female professors interviewed, referenced studies that have documented the existence of unconscious biases among both men and women that can cause hiring committees to judge male candidates more positively than females.

She added that efforts to educate people on hiring committees about unconscious biases can help achieve gender parity in the future. For example, she said, studies have shown that having a discussion about what qualities a hiring committee is looking for in a candidate before conducting interviews can lead the committee to make a less biased assessment.

The WFF collects comprehensive data on female faculty at Yale every five years.

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around higher education

Federal funding for Harvard’s regional centers declines By radhika jain and kevin j. wu thecrimson.com, April 4, 2012 Following a nearly 50 percent reduction in federal funding, several of Harvard’s regional centers have been forced to rely on alternative sources of funding — including individual endowments and support from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences — to maintain the quality of the academic and extracurricular opportunities offered to students.

“We’re giving less support to students, and to some extent making it up from other sources,” said Professor Andrew D. Gordon, director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies. “But some people are not getting the funds they need.”

Four of Harvard’s centers for regional studies — the Committee on African Studies, the Asia Center, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies — are recipients of Title VI grants from the Department of Education.

But Title VI grants were cut by 46% for the current academic year after Congressional debates last year.

They will remain at that level for the upcoming fiscal year as well, according to Alexandra M. Vacroux, executive director of the Davis Center. Vacroux said the Title VI grant represented approximately 17 to 18 percent of the Davis Center’s budget—an amount that has since decreased to less than ten percent.

Similarly, the Reischauer Institute, which was receiving about $500,000 dollars of federal grant money a year in the form of Fulbright-Hayes grants and Foreign Language and Areas Studies fellowship programs, saw that funding slashed in half, according to institute director Andrew Gordon.

The cuts in funding have affected language training programs, course offerings, and scholarships, said Professor Ali Asani, member of the Standing Committee on Middle Eastern Studies. Meanwhile, some institutes like the Reischauer Institute have also reduced the number of postdoctoral fellowships and invited fewer guest speakers in order to cope with lower budgets, added Gordon.

“It’s a big issue for international centers across the country,” said William C. Kirby, director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

“The federal government since the 1950s has funded graduate fellowships to train the next generation of professors in international studies.”

Title VI grants, which date back to the Cold War period, are awarded to undergraduate and graduate programs in foreign language or area studies through an application process that takes place every four years. But Kirby said he thinks the federal cuts have been misguided.

“On the one hand these are long — standing grants — it’s understandable if they were to be changed into some new or different approaches,” he said. “But sadly it just seems that they’ve been slashed to be slashed.” Regional centers experienced cuts in federal funding even before Title VI grants were reduced. For example, the Social Science Research Council funded grants for the Ukrainian Research Institute until five years ago, when their funding from the Department of Education was cut, according to Executive Director Tymish J. Holowinsky. “We have maintained the program as best we could,” he said.

The Ukrainian Research Institute, like most of the regional centers on campus, has relied increasingly on its own endowment.

Endowments were first established by individual patrons or private foundations upon the founding of most centers, and include monies brought in by private donors from around the world as well as foreign governments.

The Fairbank Center has even raised its own funds to support titled professorships, “in order to ensure that there would be a permanent cadre of professors in what we believe to be critical areas,” said Kirby.

The reduced financial support from the federal government has meant that centers have had to dip into their own endowments more than usual.

In some cases, the FAS has served as a source of aid, funding tutorials and language courses that would otherwise be cut, Vacroux and Asani both said.

Because centers did not find out about Title VI cuts until early in the summer of 2011 — after they had already finalized budgets for the upcoming year — the FAS went “outside of the normal budget process” to provide support, Vacroux added.

Overall, however, funding from the FAS for regional centers has fallen since the economic crisis in 2008, when regional centers were asked to redirect part of their own endowments to FAS to help close the deficit.

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Around Higher Education

Affirmative action absent in admission process By joe fleming March 28, 2012, www.thevillanovan.com

Even though questions of justice regarding race-consciousness and affirmative action in the college admissions processes have recently been discussed on the national stage, the University is confident that its methodology in recruiting and enrolling prospective students is in accordance with Pennsylvania state laws.

According to Dean of Enrollment Management Stephen Merritt, although using affirmative action in the admission process is not legal in Pennsylvania, underrepresentation is one of several factors the Office of Admission uses to evaluate applicants.

“The Office of Admission meets with the University’s General Counsel each year to ensure that we are in full compliance with state laws,” Merritt said. “We use a number of evaluative factors to try to craft a freshman class that will make the classroom environment as interesting as possible, representing lots of characteristics from all walks of life.”

On Feb. 21, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would review the race-conscious admission policy at the University of Texas at Austin, which could challenge the precedent set by the Supreme Court in the Grutter v. Bollinger decision in 2003 which upheld the right of public colleges and universities to consider race in the admission process in order to provide greater academic diversity.

According to Terry Nance, assistant vice president for Multicultural Affairs, the precedent set by the Grutter decision has been instrumental in helping institutions of higher learning promote more diverse classrooms.

“The University of Michigan is one of the models of doing good in the admission process,” Nance said. “We need diversity in the classroom to take advantage of students’ different perspectives and life experiences in order to interrogate the issues that matter, which is what college is really about. And that is not just Terry Nance speaking, as there is a great deal of academic literature that provides evidence on how diversity improves the classroom environment.”

In terms of the University’s admission process, Merritt stated that after the preliminary review of candidates—in which the Office of University Admission determines which students could best handle the University’s academic workload—the second round of analysis entertains many other non-academic factors including diversity.

According to Merritt, this refers to gender diversity, geographic diversity, secondary school diversity, extracurricular activity and traditionally under-represented groups.

“At Villanova, we use what is called a holistic process,” Merritt said. “That means we assess the candidate based on their entire application and a range of qualities, the most important of which is past academic performance. We’re not picking students based on a specific quality. For example, we can’t have a separate admission process for multicul-

tural students or for students from California—we don’t have quotas or set aside spots for anyone.”

According to Merritt, the Office of Admission is always cognizant of promoting diversity in the incoming freshman classes. According to Nance, however, there needs to be more progress in classroom diversity at the University.

“We need to make sure that we are delivering the necessary skills to all students, not just the ones with a certain melanin content,” Nance said. “That is why we need to improve our numbers. One lone student of color in the classroom needs to speak on behalf of everyone, and that is unfair. It’s too hard.”

Nance acknowledged that although the University does not use affirmative action in the admission process—it is an equal opportunity employer—affirmative action itself has become misunderstood by the general public, mostly because of the way it has been reported in the media.

“The debate over affirmative action has been simplified to fit into the news format,” Nance said. “It has been perpetuated as unqualified black students taking the spots for white students—because there has to be both a bad guy and a good guy—and there is such an arrogance in that statement. It is extraordinary how a statement could be that wrong, though I’m not saying that is what Villanova perpetuates.”

Nance stated that one of the several significant problems with a lack of diversity in higher education is that when such kinds of incorrect information are perpetuated, there are no voices in the classroom to challenge it.

“One of the horrors of the 21st century is that we don’t recognize our biases,” Nance said. “When we are talking and learning together, it disrupts the ideas that we hold so closely as to take for granted. I want to encourage people to read more about diversity in the classroom so we can have more critical answers.”

Merritt stated that the University has been making progress in terms of creating a more diverse campus, as outside firms and accrediting agencies have noted as much in reviewing the University’s enrollment data.

“Even though building diversity is a process of long-term cultivation, we have been encouraged so far,” Merritt said. “To build ethnic diversity, we have purchased names and test scores from the College Board and reached out to those students via email. We are always trying to build additional interest in the University.”

According to Nance, students who have different experiences—for example, students who are the first in their families to attend college or those who are Pell Grant-eligible— can help the University and its students become better.

“It is about taking into account multiple factors for applicants to level the playing field,” Nance said. “Especially at a Catholic university, why wouldn’t we want to be encased in difference?”

WORK FOR ITS! Information Technology Services is now hiring student employees for Summer and/or Fall 2012 positions.

All academic majors and experience levels are encouraged to apply.

If you enjoy working with technology and helping others solve problems, please consider working with us.

Please visit the online job descriptions and applications: http://www.swarthmore.edu/itsjobs.xml THE PHOENIX April 5, 2012

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Living & Arts

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‘Baltimore Waltz’s’ small cast examines family, AIDS By allison shultes ashulte1@swarthmore.edu

From the fluorescence of a hospital room to the streets of Paris, from the lamentation of a diagnosis to the trysts with a bellhop, from the innocence of a childhood bunny to the secrecy cloaking a drug deal, Paula Vogel’s “Baltimore Waltz” whipped audiences from scene to scene with humor, intrigue and the occasional tugged heartstring this past weekend. The Honors directing thesis of Michelle Fennell ’12, the play chased an eccentric sibling pair through the streets (and bedrooms) of Europe, as envisioned by Anna following her brother’s death.

The play is partly Vogel’s tribute to her own brother, Carl. Unaware Carl was HIV-positive, Vogel opted out of a trip to Europe he proposed in 1986. After his death two years later, Vogel created “The Baltimore Waltz,” the romp through Europe she never got to take with him.

The social commentary surrounding HIV/AIDS stigma operates primarily through the projection of a fictitious disease onto an unassuming schoolteacher. In the play, it is Carl’s sister Anna (Alexandra Izdebski ’13) who is diagnosed with the terminal ATD: Acquired Toilet Disease. Anna insists her diagnosis be kept a secret as Carl (Samuel Swift Shuker-Hsines ’14) sleuths his way across Europe, researching alternative medicines and cures to help his sister. The play takes the stigmas surrounding AIDS during the time period and projects them onto a different target group: elementary school teachers, in danger of contracting ATD from their prepubescent charges.

In doing this, Vogel deconstructs some of the negative stigmas and stereotypes surrounding the disease; she allows Anna to be the victim, and she’s careful to have her do no wrong, according to Izdebski.

“Vogel picked a single schoolteacher who’s a very relateable character to go through the sickness,” Izdebski said. “In no way can the audience pinpoint her as a vil-

lain -- she’s constantly the victim. She got it from being a schoolteacher, so she was just doing her job, living her life, and this was put upon her. You don’t see her going out and doing drugs, she’s just living, simply living, and she acquires this disease. In this sense, it’s a period piece .. it’s exploring something that was very pertinent in the ‘80s: the unfolding of the AIDS epidemic -- at first how no one knew what was going on, and how the gay community was targeted and victimized vs. vilified.”

“In the midst of an AIDS epidemic and panic, Vogel wanted … us all to connect with the sick and marginalized through her witty writing and through her completely palatable and ordinary straight female protagonist, acting as a bridge to the denigrated and hurting gay population,” Fennell wrote in her Director’s Notes. “The call for people to treat the ill and ostracized as human beings makes this play timeless and poignant long after this particular fear has receded into the background.”

While the threat accompanying Anna’s terminal illness remained close to the surface throughout the play, other common threads ran beneath the vignettes, threading together what Fennell described as “pearls without a string.” The mystery shrouding Carl and his childhood plush bunny, Anna’s fear and Carl’s mastery of language, Anna’s loneliness and subsequent sexual exploits, and the sinister appearances of the “third man” (Ben Hattem ’12) held the various snapshots together. Additionally, various break-out waltzing scenes offered physical embodiment of emotions and relationships throughout the performance.

The three-person cast successfully created an aura of intimacy, both familial and otherwise. The growing bickering between Anna and Carl as the trip progressed, stemming from conflicts of interest (museums vs. sex), created a believable and relatable sibling relationship.

Hattem, playing a total of 10 different roles, crawls under the covers with Anna four times: as a restaurant waiter,

a little Dutch boy at age 50, a virgin from Munich and a radical student activist.

The European adventure ultimately ends with Carl’s death, after he is pushed off the roof of a building by the Third Man upon refusing to hand over his presumably cash-stuffed rabbit. Promised drugs for his sister, Carl refuses to pay after being told the drugs are a sham, and is thereafter murdered.

Transported back to a hospital from the hotel room where Anna finds — and waltzes — with her dead brother, we discover Carl has been sick all along, and the trip to Europe was scheduled to take place after his recovery.

The two never physically left the hospital in Baltimore; the trip has all taken place in Anna’s imagination; and Carl has died of AIDS. “Anna’s not that complex of a character,” Izdebski said of her role in the play. “She doesn’t want to be alone, she loves her brother, and he’s dying, and once he’s gone she’s truly going to be all alone. That’s why she deals with it through this dream-like state -- because she’s internalizing Carl’s sickness. To take it away from him? I don’t know. So she can understand him better? I don’t know. I think it’s a combination of both. I think she deals with it through this dream to explore what he’s really going through but also to take it on in the hopes of somehow taking it away from him.”

Audience member Nathan Cheek ’15 thought the performance “was great. I thought it was really impressive that they pulled together a full-scale production with only three actors, and how the sets, the lighting, the sounds, and the acting all came together to make a really great show.”

“Michelle was great to work with” Izdebski said of her director. “She’s brilliant. It was really interesting to explore the play with her because she sees the world so complexly, and she’s also very sweet and very caring and very warm.”

Learning to move on from relationships and rejection Ladies and Gentlemen: we are literally in the last full month of the 2011-12 academic year. Sure, you may not have realized it considering the amount of ressure Maximianus Reid pthat you Behind My Shades have been under but its true.

One month left before we all have the opportunity to head to the nearest beach or off to the cool internship you have set up for the summer.

This realization seriously got me thinking about the relationships that have been built this school year. They have been formed nevertheless. For every relationship that has heated or thawed, there are those that never got to come to fruition. There are those relationships that seem bound to occur only to have things unravel between both sides.

It happens, it’s life, but the thing that is interesting is the way one deals with rejection. We’ve all been through those instances in which we cared about someone and developed feelings for them only to find out that that person didn’t feel the

same way. It sucks to have this occur because if you’re into someone and if you have already gotten to know them, it’s hard to let that go. It’s different if you only wanted to hook up with this person at parties but to have it be taken forward is another story. The rejection that I am speaking of hurts and there is not a clear model to getting over it.

Of course, you can go into a shell but that wouldn’t help, as the cliché goes: “there are more fish in the sea.” While this is true, the best advice I believe that can be given is that life moves on with or without that person and that you always need time to get over anything. Take the time out with the understanding that you want to get over this rejection.

Make no mistake; this is definitely easier said than done as it really depends on how much this person meant to you. That’s the determining factor with rejection; exactly how much this person meant to you will determine how long it takes for you to get over it. I have come to realize a lot about the dynamics of rejection and with every rejection or breakup there is a lesson to be learned.

Nothing that has to do with you but the way in which you look at your relationships and choose to engage in them.

It is an interesting thought to consider as we have all been forced to deal with rejection, though some are more accustomed to it than others. The biggest realization that needs to be mentioned is that despite being rejected you cannot put all the blame on yourself or spend time wondering what went wrong. Relationships are genuinely a two way street and what can you do if the other person

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doesn’t want to engage?

There is nothing — you just have accept that and move on. Successful relationships are born between two people who are equally invested in making the relationship work. No matter how much you care about someone, there is no satisfaction in being in a relationship

April 5, 2012

where it is clear that one person does not care as much as the other.

Don’t look at rejection as a referendum on yourself as a person but as a time-saving signal from your partner, who could tell that your relationship will not be successful.

Until Next Time, Take Care.

cartoon by renu nadkarni

THE PHOENIX

Living & Arts At Buffalo Exchange, there is little to heckle about swarthmorephoenix.com

As the wise character that is Rebecca Bloomwood noted during retail therapy, I mean, rehabilitation, “Stores are put there Gabriela Campoverde to enjoy.

The experiSmart Swat Shopping ence is enjoyable. I mean, more than enjoyable. It’s, it’s beautiful. The sheen of silk draped across a manikin, the smell of Italian leather shoes. The rush you feel when you swipe you card and it’s approved, and it all belongs to you. The joy you feel when you bought something and it’s just you and the shopping.”

These past few months I had forgotten about the feeling you get when you finally find the perfect skirt and are not disappointed by the price. I had forgotten about the excitement which comes after you spot a purse from the other side of a store and quickly pace across the floor to check it out and the warmness that wraps you when you find a dress, hold it against you as you look in the mirror, and can’t help but to run to the fitting room. But this past week, I felt the rush the star of Confessions of a Shopaholic describes when I visited Buffalo Exchange in Center City.

It was that kind of trip in which you feel that you are suddenly losing control, you become hungry for every item in sight and end up hoping that the next thing you try on is too big or too small because if it’s just the right fit, you know you’ll end up buying it. To be honest, I almost decided not to write about this place because I wanted to keep it on the down-low, but out of the goodness of my heart, here are my thoughts:

Buffalo Exchange 1713 Chestnut Street (west of 17th St.) (215) 557-9850; buffaloexchange.com This consignment shop sells women’s and men’s clothing and accessories and is part of a larger national company consisting of 41 stores and 3 franchises in 15 states. The privately owned chain originally from Arizona strives to provide a place for customers to buy, sell, and trade recycled and new clothing.

RATING: In New York City, this was my least favorite consignment shop, but the Philadelphia location changed my thoughts about the chain.

The layout of this location is more pleasant than the New YOrk location.

Racks are organized according to type of apparel and separated by size (and when I say separated, I mean I only found two strays in an incorrect rack during my visit). It is perfectly set up so that if you are in need of a blouse, you can go to the blouses section, look up your size and hopefully see something you like.

For a store whose mission is to recycle clothing, I did not expect to discover so many pieces of name brand clothing.

Among other items were a Free People print keyhole dress ($22, usually ranging from $96 to 114), a Club Monaco mini skirt ($22, usually $80). There were also plenty of non-designers pieces at low prices like a gorgeous long sleek black gown with a cutout and mesh detail ($17.50) and a precious pale pink delicately spotted cheetah print blouse ($11).

The accessories section had a wide range of different necklaces including bib necklaces ($11) and sunglasses ($17).

This portion of the store includes both consigned merchandised and merchandise purchased by Buffalo Exchange.

This includes sunglasses, jewelry, hair accessories and tights.

What I found the most surprising is how abundant brand new clothing with tags still intact is here. I ran into an

unused t.l.h. by hype shirt ($16, usually sold for around $65) and Fluxus print harem pants ($23, often sold for approximately $115). Even the shoes seemed untouched and had perfectly clean outsoles. A few examples include Dollhouse leopard print heels ($13, usually $40) and yellow (trend alert!) Nine West cutout strap heels ($11, usually $55).

As much as I hate to say it, Buffalo Exchange had speed bumps. Although I found many items I fell in love with, the store was bustling with people and it became apparent while waiting in line for fitting rooms.

The men’s clothing section is up to date. It has casual plaid buttondowns as well as brighter colored shirts for spring and summer, plenty of bottoms, and even a decent selection of dressy shirts.

However, as far a selection of men’s shoes goes, it is very limited.

Additionally, as far as finding basic solid colored apparel goes, this is not the place to go. You will easily get lost among the wild prints and sometimes

• • • • • •

extravagantly odd patterns.

As with every consignment shop or thrift store, there is fine print. Not every shopping experience predicts how the next one will go. At times, the store may have the perfect combination of merchandise for you and the second time around it can be the total opposite.

Buffalo Exhange provided me with an enjoyable experience. Originally, I thought that living in an arboretum would keep me from constantly thinking about clothing and be therapeutic.

However, as my friends have recently noted, I become, once again, obsessed.

Thank you, fellow Swatties, for allowing me to fall off the wagon. It is a pleasure to shop for someone’s benefit. Until next time, my lovely shoppers!

Dying for me to visit a store before you give it a try yourself? Need me to go on a hunt for a store with a particular style of merchandise? Shoot your suggestions via email.

Gabriela is a first-year. You can reach her at gcampov1@swarthmore.edu.

Consignment Shopping FYIs:

Please, and I beg, please be sure to inspect a piece inside and out before making your purchase. Sometimes, you’ll find a rip or tear and most thrift stores offer either final sales or store credit for returns.

Don’t be afraid to buy something edgy and bold here! Thrift stores should be a place to experiment with colors and prints as well as test grounds with new trendy buys that aren’t as costly as in department stores.

Don’t sacrifice quality. Sometimes even though an item may be priced right, the color is faded or the texture is odd. You deserve better!

Look for accessories! No lie. There are always unique and quirky finds worth buying.

People who tell you that consignment shops sell unwanted clothing are wrong. These shops hand pick items which are in season and attractive to customers.

If like something, don’t let go of it! Even if you’re not sure you’ll end up buying it, you still want to have the opportunity to do so. Remember there’s more than likely only one of everything!

Courtesy of http://tiny.cc/2ge9bw

LIVING IN BRIEF

VEP auctions off lunch with Chopp, mariachi serenades and more Featuring unicycles, hula hoops and cupcakes galore, the Village Education Project’s fourth annual talent auction rocked Alice Paul’s lounge on Friday night with live performances and occasional spurts of high-stakes bidding. The proceeds from the event provide rural villages in Ecuador with scholarship money for children who would otherwise be unable to afford the cost of high school.

Founded in 2005 by Swarthmore student Katie Chamblee ‘07 in collaboration with Ecuadorian educators, the Village Education Project (VEP) sponsors children after providing an intensive 10-week summer preparatory course to ensure students’ success in high school. Student volunteers from the United States run the summer initiative in cooperation with educators in Ecuador. The foundation itself is staffed

by Swarthmore students, who manage everything from volunteer recruitment to curriculum formation from campus. Each scholarship is worth $200 and covers the cost of books, uniforms and supplies.

This summer, the foundation hopes to sponsor 100 children.

Because the organization is so small, members

enjoy a high degree of involvement. Alex Carnon ‘14 joined VEP after participating in the summer volunteer program in 2011, and now helps run the organization. “The group here is known for hosting two big annual fundraisers – Eat for Education, which is casually known as Noms for Niños, and our annual Talent Auction – but the organization does a lot more that’s not really seen by the typical Swarthmore student,” Cannon said. “We’re a small group that more or less runs an organization. In addition to fundraising, we plan events, review applications and conduct interviews for the summer program, develop curriculum, advertise – we talk to career services at colleges across the country. And we’re always talking about things we can do to improve the organization.”

Among the donations from Swarthmore students, faculty and community members on Friday night were private lessons with the Swing and Circus Clubs, a Mariachi serenade, a personalized poem from O.A.S.I.S., a Tex-Mex feast cooked by Admissions Dean Jim Bock, and homemade beer from the Brewing Club. The top-selling item in the live auction — lunch with Rebecca Chopp — sold for $60, with the

THE PHOENIX April 5, 2012

help of cajoling by Chopp impersonator Tom Powers ’13, who donned a dress and flirted with the crowd to egg on bidders.

Isolated from the festivities taking place in the lounge, a silent auction displayed donations from members of the Swarthmore community and locals from Otavlo, Ecuador, where VEP is based. Homemade necklaces, earrings, bracelets and hand-knitted hats hailed from the village’s famous textile market.

Additionally, a variety of ceramics donated by Studio Technician Doug Herren, Professor of Studio Art Syd Carpenter, and Andreas Bastian ’12 brought in large bids. Soomin Kim ’13 contributed two traditional Korean paintings, and Shelly Wen ’14 provided handknit critters, brought back by popular demand.

In total, the auction raised over $1500 for VEP. “It definitely was a success,” Cannon said with a smile.

“And we didn’t go home with as much leftover food as we have in the past. I guess that’s a sign people enjoyed themselves.”

BY ALLISON SHULTES

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senior quad-mates bring decorative touches to worth M DORM DIVE

by Sera Jeong sjeong1@swarthmore.edu

Senior residents Francesca Bolfo, Kate McNamara, Silbia Han and Gabriela Morales occupy the top floor of section M in Worth. Four stand-alone single rooms and a shared bathroom comprise the top floor quad.

For the quad-mates, the decision to live together in Worth was easily reached.

During their sophomore year, Han, Morales, and Bolfo resided in a lodge and therefore were already accustomed to living together. “And I decided to join in on the fun,” McNamara said.

As smokers, the residents found the current indoor smoking policy of Worth M particularly attractive. However the students will be part of the last Worth M residents to enjoy such a perk as the smoking policy is due to change from next year. According to Rachel Head, the Dean of Housing, many factors have contributed to the phasing-out of smoking dorms. “The demand for smoking housing hasn’t matched up with the percentage of smoking housing available for the past few years,” she said. Student feedback has also affected the administration’s standpoint as fire alarms triggered by cigarette smoke, especially those set off during quiet hours, have directed complaints to Head.

The single rooms surround the stairway landing and occupy the entire top floor of the residents’ section, giving the residents a sense of their own space. According to McNamara, “We come together whenever we need a break from work and come up with some distraction.” Bolfo particularly appreciates having her individual space but also the option to coalesce with her quad-mates through activities such as crafting, hanging out, and dancing together.

Upperclassmen predominately occupy Worth, which is often described as the dorm “where the Willets kids go when they grow up.” But by no means does the dearth of freshmen suggest a lack of activity or energy throughout the dormitory, as some of the upperclassmen residents are plenty rambunctious. “College kids will be college kids,” Bolfo said. Intraquad interaction compensates for the absence of a conventional hall life. The quadmates regularly socialize with friends living in other blocks in J and blocks in M so as to not completely miss out on dormitory social life.

For Bolfo, the sentimental value of having resided in the Worth/Lodges complex for three years makes it her favorite place on campus. Aside from the familiarity of the surroundings, Worth’s beauty makes it all the more significant for Bolfo. “Worth in the spring is incomparable. Wharton’s got nothing on us,” she said. From Bolfo’s and Han’s windows pastel-colored cherry blossom trees in Worth’s grass courtyard, currently in full bloom, come into view.

McNamara, a mathematics major, held the highest housing number between the

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April 5, 2012

residents so offered to take “whatever room was left over.” Being the dimmest, smallest room with noise pollution from Chester Road, McNamara’s room was the least desired in the quad. But by adding fairy lights and lamps that emit warm light along with plenty of decorative features, she has captured the cozy, intimate atmosphere of a nook.

McNamara’s decorative features can be described as a collective of her memories and experiences at Swarthmore.

Posters of events she’s attended are arranged along her walls, while an embellished scarlet bra, which she wore to last year’s Genderfuck party, hangs near her windowsill. Displayed above McNamara’s bookshelf is a Crunkfest Manifesto which she made participating in the 2010 Crunkfest, which for lack of a better term, is a student-organized scavenger hunt that takes place during the closing weeks of the spring semester.

International travel has also inspired McNamara’s decoration of her living quarters. A collection of keys sourced from various countries such as Japan, India and France hang from the ceiling above her desk. “I tried to get one from every different country I’ve been to,” McNamara said. Two vintage-style maps of Paris, gifted to her by Bolfo, are posted on the wall above her bed, reminding McNamara of her time spent studying abroad in Paris.

As an art history and history honors major, Bolfo has curated her room with memorabilia from her childhood, her years at Swarthmore and her travels. As sentimental objects adorn most of her wall space as well as most furniture surfaces, her room decor is far from minimalistic.

Bolfo’s affinity for dinosaurs, which she attributes to having grown up next to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, is evidenced in her room.

A hanging dinosaur mobile descends from her ceiling corner and an elongated poster of dinosaurs hangs across her doorway.

Despite the absence of a roommate, Bolfo shares her living space with Eugene, a stuffed dinosaur toy, which she tenderly treats with affection.

Following her semester studying abroad in Berlin, Bolfo is a self-confessed Germanophile, with a particular interest in art. Her wardrobe door is only one of the very many canvases that displays her interest in German art, with an oversized black, white and neon pink poster of a photography exhibit of Marianne Breslaeur, a photographer during the Weimar Republic.

Ornate, elaborate and thoughtfully and sentimentally decorated, McNamara’s and Bolfo’s rooms appear treasured and well lived-in. However, as the end of the semester approaches, these senior residents’ residency in Worth M will soon be coming to an end. “Taking it apart will be a little difficult,” Bolfo said.

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Taiko drum and dance performance celebrates Japan

by Chi zhang czhang1@swarthmore.edu How can one express enthusiasm, appreciation for life or a sense of perseverance? This past Sunday evening at Lang Concert Hall, 44 Japanese students from Tamagawa University brought a taste of their culture to Swarthmore College, with drums and Japanese music. Through a total of ten pieces, they painted a romantic picture of cherry blossom petals falling, revealed the power of wind in the mountains and expressed a strong sense of optimism and positiveness.

“I hope to convey the feeling of energy and spirit,” Isaburoh Hanayagi, the choreogarapher and director of the performance said. Hanayagi believes that especially for the performances in 2012, a year after the Japanese earthquake, it is important for the performers to represent the revival of energy within Japan.

The performance consisted of kumidaiko, “a modern form [of Taiko drumming] developed after WWII as part of a broader mission for many Japanese people to recover a past national identity lost to militarization and Westernization,” said Associate Professor of Dance and Taiko Director Kim Arrow. Arrow had been invited to Tamagawa University to choreograph a contemporary dance work for their dance majors in 2003. Arrow, in turn, invited the group to perform at Swarthmore College and they have been performing here ever since 2003.

Swarthmore College and Tamagawa Univeristy have established a sisterhood and, according to Arrow, there are a number of interactions between the two institutions: a large number of master-classes and workshops presented by Tamagawa Arts Faculty for Swarthmore students in Dance, Taiko, Theater, and Printmaking; a gift of 14 taiko drums was given to the Music and Dance Program; and the creation of “Afri/Japan,” an international project connecting Japan and Côte d’Ivoire, a country in Africa. “They consider Swarthmore College and the Dance Program and Department of Music and Dance as their home away from home,” Arrow said.

This annual performance is presented not just at the college, but also at a number of universities and festivals in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. “There are many reasons that the audience loves this work,” Arrow believes. One of the things that attracts the audience to this performance is its professionalism. A flawless combination of both Taiko drumming and Japanese folk forms of dance, the performance “cannot be considered a school production, but rather a professional one,” Arrow said.

This professionalism comes from not just the performers’ impressive musical skills, but also their intensive practice and hard work. Nagisa Togashi, a dancer for the concert, spoke about the group’s practice hours. In the three months’ preparation, they practiced from seven in the morning to midnight every day. “They, therefore, are able to, and do, compete with professional companies at taiko competitions and consistently come in at the top couple of percentage marks,” Arrow mentioned. Togashi has been dancing ballet since she was four, but didn’t begin to study Japanese dancing until she entered college. Because of her late introduction to this form of dance, to understand what each movement means in Japanese traditional dancing was one of the challenges she thinks many other performers in the team and her all had at first.

Hanayagi also hopes “to convey contemporary and traditional culture of Japan to local audiences” through this performance. He would like the foreign audience who might not have heard of this kind of music before to be able to appreciate it and be impressed by it. From “Eisa,” a traditional folk dance of Okinawa Prefecture, one of Japanese southern prefectures, to “Gunjoh-odori,” one of Japan’s three biggest Bon festivals, a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one’s ancestors, the performers painted a number of pictures through dancing. Through the performances, people can imagine young people parading in their neighborhood to honor ancestors; people living during the feudal period coming to the Bon festival regardless of their social class; and young women dancing to lift the spirits of the villagers during a long and harsh winter. The concert concluded with a piece composed by participating students, entitled “Ren,” which expresses a hope for world peace.

The concert hall was crowded with a large audience that evening. For some, it was their first time seeing the Tamagawa students perform. Ted Fernald, a Swarthmore Linguistics Professor, felt the dancers’ exuberance. “The whole performance was very energetic and the sound was wonderful. I saw some things that I have never seen before,” Fernald said.

For some other audience members, the performance was a more familiar one. Claire Sawyers, the director of the Scott Arboretum, comes to see the performance every year. Sawyers used to live in Japan a long time ago and was very impressed by the costumes of the performers, their professionalism, enthusiasm and creativity. “The one with the ‘umbrellas’ was a very different piece. It seems so strong and beautiful at the same time,” she said.

Yoshiko Jo, a Japanese professor at Swarthmore, believes performers will benefit from the team work, improve themselves through the intensive practice and enjoy the joyful feelings of accomplishment. “They can also experience study abroad and see American culture and people, which will broaden their eyes”, she said.

This sense of energy, professionalism and creation displayed in the performance provides listeners a chance to not only feel this different type of music but also experience Japanese Naia Poyer The Phoenix culture.

THE PHOENIX

April 5, 2012

Justin Toran-Burrell The Phoenix

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Beer geeks agree: Belgian monks brew some of the best This week I decided to take the column in a different direction and focus on a special type of beer that doesn’t get nearly enough coverage from the mainstream beer press or the online beer community — light beer. And that ends the obligatory but belated April Fools’ Day joke.

On a serious note, however, beer geeks are diviBrad Lenox sive, infuriating and often utterly under-informed figBrew’s Clues ures of pure beer fandom that — for better or worse — are an integral part of beer culture. Ever seen someone show up to a pool party with one bottle and a long-stemmed tulip glass because he refuses to drink out of cans? Ever met a loud-mouthed drinker gesturing to a bearded friend about how Dogfish Head was only good when they brewed 10 gallon batches?

Those are the beer geeks that we all love to hate.

Spend any time on forums like ratebeer.com and beeradvocate.com and trends in what the crowd deems to be “quality” in beer will become apparent: Bourbon barrel ageing — good; ABV over 12% — good; delicate and subtle hefeweizens — bad. Extremity is often confused with quality in these environments, where an obsession with numerical rankings has led to a top 100 chart filled almost entirely with Imperial IPAs and Russian Imperial Stouts. Do a Google search sometime and try and prove me wrong.

However, few beers get people storming and stamping the way that the humble Trappist Westvleteren XII — a 10.2% Quadruple, or a “one-upped tripel” — can. Often considered one of “the rarest” beers available commercially, Westy 12 is actually brewed year-round at the Brouwerij Westvleteren, so in comparison to the singlebatch one-offs that American companies often make it is downright common.

That being said, it is extremely hard to find: the monks brew only enough beer to run the brewery and have kept the total yearly production of 12 at 60,000 cases since 1948. Point of sale is limited to the brewery itself and a select few local retailers (in Belgium), and exportation is utterly forbidden, so American beer dorks will have to take a red-eye to Brussels or buy off the black market in order to get their hands on it. Caveat: black

market beer sales are ruining everything for all of us, so in flavor. Much of this tradition is not simply the result of superstition though — most brewing can only take don’t fall to the siren’s call.

This year, luckily, the Shelton Brothers, an American place during certain months because weather changes distribution company, was authorized to sell a special encourage unhealthy bacteria to thrive.

A batch of pure lambic is generally left to ferment gift set, containing two Westy goblets and six bottles.

Don’t get your hopes up though, because pre-sales are for about three years (which is extremely long comparatively) and will taste tart, dry and almost vinous. Over off the charts.

In addition to Westy 12, sour beers are often used in that period of time, those flavors come to dominate the beer dork matches of one-upmanship as the ultimate last beer with even more intensity. Because the beer is kept word. No, there was no typo in that last sentence; there in the original fermenter without the addition of more are sour beers. Brussels, Belgium is the birthplace of one sugar, the final product is served uncarbonated and unof my favorite branches of the beer-style tree — beers nervingly sour.

Due to the intensity of pure lambics, brewers often that taste about as far from “beer” as one can get.

Beer (traditionally) should be sweet; without the in- blend “old” and “young” batches to produce what is troduction of hops, the sugary flavor of malt would be called “gueuze,” pronounced, “goes.” Because the youngoverwhelming. Careful brewers take precautions dur- er beer still contains sugar, gueuzes are carbonated simiing the fermentation process to avoid contamination larly to traditional beer and are more palatable to many consumers. by wild yeasts and bacteria, which travel the air at all Fruit beers avoid blending and instead times. These organisms may impart “off” flavors to the take their sweetness from the addition of difbeer, such as the buttery slickness caused by a dirty taferent varieties of fresh, whole fruit. These pline. However, brewers at places like Cantillon have rebeers are classified according to the type of fined their techniques over centuries to cultivate beers, fruit used: the two most well known varieties known under the umbrella term “lambic,” that take adare “kriek” (with cherries) and “framboise” vantage of the uniqueness of these wild flavors to create (raspberries). Krieks take the “un-beery” taste incredibly challenging and wonderful beers. often associated with lambics and push the flaLambics, which take their name from a region survor envelope even further into wine territory. rounding Brussels, Lambeek, are The best fruit beers will impart an almost brewed in the traditional style by tannin-like tanginess to the already unusual only a few companies, including ballet of tart and dry flavors. the aforementioned Cantillon, Finding lambics in your local liquor store who are considered one of if not is not impossible, but the selection is usually the best in the world. Sour beers quite limited. Lindemans brews examples of are divided into two main subeach major sub-style and are generally easy categories: with and without fruit to locate, but in terms of quality and tradition added. they are often less than desirable -- they use Listening to Cantillon brew masartificial fruit syrup in the place of whole fruit ter Jean Van Roy speak about how in their krieks and framboises. Boon and Bellehis company crafts world-class beers Vue (Warning: owned by In-Bev) are also comreveals an intense strain of superstition mon sights on shelves, but I have yet to have and mysticism that still accompaeither. nies the use of wild bacteria. In 3 Fonteinen and Cantillon make by far order to cultivate the yeast, the the best sour beers anywhere in the world, wort is left overnight in topless and Philadelphia is one of the best places to wooden vats (in contrast to modfind both common and rarer offerings. Monk’s ern stainless steel cylindro-conical Co urtesy o f http://t Cafe, probably the best beer bar in the city, has tanks). Many of these cellars have iny.cc/h 0n9bw even collaborated with Cantillon to produce an remained literally untouched nor extra-hoppy American style gueuze. dusted for centuries; the monks are Brad is a junior. You can reach him at blenox1@ hesitant to disturb even the cobwebs that surround the small cellar windows in order to ensure consistency swarthmore.edu.

‘Undun’ combines talent with focus on storytelling Before delving into The Roots’ new concept album, “Undun,” one should be warned : this album is not for the lighthearted.

Dylan Jensen It is not a modMusic Now! ern-day, Horatio Alger ragsto-riches story. It is certainly nothing similar to the weed-infused Flatbush Zombie releases I reviewed in my last column. No. Rather, “Undun” paints a bleak and pessimistic picture of crack-pipes, dark alleyways, and street violence. A concept album, “Undun” begins with the death of 25-year old Redford Stevens, and then traces the unfortunate lineage that led him to his quick demise.

It’s a statement of tragedy from The Roots, and a statement of doomed ambivalence. But underneath the gloomy exterior and violent facade, “Undun”

features a musical cohesiveness and complexity that deserves at least some appreciation. Though it very easily could have suffered the same painful fate as many other concept albums, it doesn’t. “Undun” inserts just the right amount of down-tempo beats and harmonic hooks for the album to find equilibrium between musicianship and concept, creating a seamless progression from beginning to end.

The 14-track album features 10 beatbased rap tracks, as well as a fourmovement orchestral piece originally composed by Sufjan Stevens that is interspersed throughout the album.

Though this seems like it might make for an unusual composition, when paired with the storytelling lyrics, “Undun” creates a tale that is both easy to follow and easy to understand. Its narrative takes listeners from helplessness to toughness and motivation, and from estrangement to desperation.

Tracks such as “I Remember” provide an introspective aspect to the album, while songs such as “Stomp” and “Kool On” praise the gangster high-life with a ruthless demeanor. Listeners are consequently placed directly in the shoes of Redford Stevens, and walk the very path that led to his death. In other words, as a listener you are taken from

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the coffin to the streets in what seems to be The Roots’ genealogy of Redford.

Despite the logical narrative progression and cohesiveness from track to track, one standout does exist on the album. “Undun’s” second track, “Make My,” offers what is arguably the most optimistic soul sound on the album, and features a fluid and effortless verse from rapper Big K.R.I.T. The guest rapper manages to find a nice pocket for his Southern-drawl between the minimalist drum work of ?uestlove and steady soul riffs that act as a reliable undertone for the track. Verses such as “Too busy lookin’ backwards for jackers to pump my breaks,” suggest that Stevens finds himself stuck in the world of crime, unable to get out, while lines like “I’m contemplatin’ that special dedication, to whoever it concern, my letter of resignation” hint at a resigned acceptance of the street-life Stevens has come to live.

By far the most accessible and musically appealing track on “Undun,” “Make My’s” combines K.R.I.T.’s subtle wordplay with minimalist musical production, creating a single that could easily stand alone without the album’s thematic support structure.

Despite the album’s cohesiveness and the group’s obvious musical talent, “Undun” should not be your introduc-

April 5, 2012

tion to The Roots. Even dedicated Roots followers will have a difficult time approaching it. Though it has received largely positive reviews from magazines and aggregate review sites such as Metacritic, this is an album that does not reveal itself after just one listen.

It is a long and undulating experience for the listener, one that exposes itself to the same problems of other concept albums — boredom and repetition.

For those with the time and patience, however, “Undun” provides much to explore. With its swirling rap verses, classic soul hooks, subtle word play and overall cohesiveness, the album constructs its own world, at times making it seem more like a movie than a record.

This album certainly won’t have any major hits come from it, nor will it likely be considered one of The Roots’ standout records in their lengthy catalog spanning 10-full length releases. But, it goes without saying: “Undun” stands as another example of The Roots musical talent, versatility and originality. In fact, “Undun” adds a new component to The Roots’ already long and impressive resume (which includes being the house band on the Jimmy Fallon show) — storytellers.

Dylan is a junior. You can reach him at pjensen1@swarthmore.edu.

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Wesley Stace judges, inspires Swat’s creative writers By samme sheikh ssheikh1@swarthmore.edu

“I really liked this one, reminded me of a kind of hipster ‘Animal Farm.’”

This sentence was just one among many unexpected and hilarious utterings made by Wesley Stace as he shared some of his impressions on this year’s William Plumer Potter fiction contest submissions. Stace, an accomplished British author currently residing in Philadelphia, was invited by the Swarthmore English Department to serve as judge for this year’s competition.

Last Monday night inside the Scheuer Room, Stace delivered his compassionate and often-times praising musings on the works of Swarthmore students. Before delivering his verdict on the winner and runners-up of the competition, Stace offered compliments that must have emboldened confidence of every writer who participated in the competition.

“I have to say that I teach creative writing at a university that’s not this one, to students much the same age as you,” Stace said in a stage whisper as he addressed the audience, “and you’re much better than they are.”

Though Stace divulged this information jokingly, as he went on about the “clarity of vision” and “consistency of tone,” it seemed that this well-known and well-regarded author was enamored with the work of Swarthmore students.

“You care way too much with God and the devil.

At one point I felt like this was the William Plumer Potter God and the Devil contest or something,” Stace said, poking fun at the tendency towards more serious and grave subject matter he found in the submissions.

“Hey, that’s better than what my students are ob-

sessed with, which is warlocks and magical beings.”

The humor in the Scheuer room that Monday night didn’t only come from Wesley Stace’s clever and flattering musings on the fiction of Swarthmore students.

For a hour and a half before sharing the winning entries of the competition, Wesley read from his own published works and performed some of his music, inciting loud and regular hysterics from those in the audience.

Stace’s first reading was from a novel that he had finished just the night before, providing the audience with a unique sense of intimacy between themselves and Stace’s work. The reading was unique in concept as well, as it was cut from a novel detailing the exploits of a failed New Age band repurposing their sound and image for elementary school aged audiences.

“These guys were way before The Wiggles,” said Stace in a straight face, prefacing the passage.

Another funny reading came from a novel he had already published called Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer. The passage itself served as a selfcontained nugget of sordid humor that didn’t require prior understanding of the plot to elicit laughs.

Stace thinks this is the best way to conduct public readings, “I try to read short passages just so my audience doesn’t get bored.” However, with Stace’s knack for timely delivery and his ability to gauge what an audience wants to hear, he could’ve read a whole chapter and more and no one in the crowd would have complained of boredom. Stace’s gift of performance translates well into the musical, as was visible when he performed two songs he wrote under his alter-ego, John Wesley Harding.

Wesley Stace brought a level of wit and levity to the competition on Monday, making genial and friendly the type of event that can usually feel too charged with

Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix

Novelist/songwriter Wesley Stace recently read passages from his own work and announced the winner of the William Plumer Potter fiction contest in Scheuer Room.

anticipation and, sometimes, even fear.

At this year’s William Plumer Potter contest there was a sense of communal success, as all the contestants felt support from a prolific, gifted, and down-toearth artist. All the other people in attendance had the opportunity to hear some funny stories and funny songs. Everybody was a winner.

‘Copenhagen’ explores Heisenburg uncertainty principle Perhaps the most accurate, though useless, way to view life is as an exploration of uncertainty.

There is a core of uncertainty at the heart of Lanie Schlessinger things, and we interact Bibliobabble with that core every day. We see the way people respond to it and the way they reject it, and we commend them when they appear to overcome it.

“Copenhagen,” by Michael Frayn, is a play about the development of nuclear technology that draws from this core of uncertainty. It uses the uncertainty principle – the principle that the more precisely the position of an object is measured, the less precisely the object’s velocity can possibly be measured – to explain phenomena that occur outside the laboratory.

As soon as we are able to precisely grasp one aspect of an ungraspable event, we forfeit our precise understanding of another aspect. We are forced to choose how we want to understand the world; we cannot understand it in every way.

Frayn constantly highlights the uncertainty principle throughout the play. He proves through various demonstrations that the uncertainty principle applies in the real world, and actually has great value there. The more we know about one aspect of a mystery, the less we know about another aspect. And if we are to then switch and discover more about the second aspect, we will find out knowledge

of the first less accurately.

The structure of the play helps to lend weight to the uncertainty principle by building upon itself in a vague, cryptic way. The characters are dead, and they are speaking from the afterlife, which immediately introduces an element of uncertainty. Additionally, it seems that Bohr, Heisenberg and Margarethe, the main characters, are coexisting, though there are moments in which they are not physically together. They linger around each other in an almost spiritual way. The extreme lack of stage directions provides for another element of uncertainty. This play intentionally suspends the temporal and spatial axes, forcing the reader to focus on the words, on the emotions, on the intense agony the characters endure. A haze of uncertainty surrounds the entire play like a cloud, preventing the reader from truly gaining access to the stage. This distance is frustrating, but it is that distance that makes the play.

“Copenhagen” briefly but meaningfully takes us to Elsinore. It is in mentioning Elsinore, home of Hamlet, that Frayn makes an assertion about human nature, particularly human weakness. Hamlet can blindly implement the ambition and courage he detects in Fortinbras. But ultimately, that blind implementation is destructive because it traps Hamlet in a whirlwind of deceit. Swept up in a performance – in an act – Hamlet becomes almost robotic: he is aware of the actions he must take without being able to rationally think about them. He disables his mind by pretending to be another. For Hamlet, life becomes centered on gore, murder, and revenge.

Hamlet sells his soul to avenge his father’s death. He adopts his father’s mission and then adopts Fortinbras’ persona, transforming himself into Hamlet refocused. Sadly, this altered Hamlet is everything that the original Hamlet was

not. The new Hamlet is a Hamlet without his soul, without his heart, and without his agile mind; he is Hamlet without Hamlet’s defining characteristic. The point of Shakespeare’s most famous play is that the true self is preferable to the fraudulent one. Hamlet is a plea for earnest men to rise up, for our minds are weak, and they fall to obsession too easily, and that is a fatal fall.

There is one passage that I believe serves as a synthesis of the entire play because it carefully links the conflicts and resolutions Heisenberg and Bohr encountered. It reads, “…in the meanwhile, in this most precious meanwhile, there it is. The trees in Faelled Park. Gammertingen and Biberach and Midelheim. Our children and our children’s children. Preserved, just possibly, by that one short moment in Copenhagen. By some event that will never quite be located or defined. By that final core of uncertainty at the heart of things” (94). It is not a pointed passage; it does not serve to synthesize the play’s plot points.

But I believe this is what Frayn wanted to imprint on his readers. While our lives are whirling about, there are these hectic, fuzzy, confusing moments that matter, that affect the world in a dramatic way.

We are preserved by this “core of uncertainty at the heart of things.” Because though there are many moments that we cannot understand or that we know little of, our uncertainty does not preclude our chance of benefitting from those moments. In fact, sometimes, it contributes to the benefit.

For Heisenberg, paradoxes were offputting. For Bohr, paradoxes were beautiful. It was Bohr’s ability to flounder combined with Heisenberg’s resistance to it that became their mutual recipe for success. One physicist could wade through the uncertainty, and the other could force them to work through it. And it is that contrast between the two characters

THE PHOENIX April 5, 2012

that models the vital life contrast: working through the world’s problems can be necessary but also dangerous, and working around them can be necessary but also dangerous. At times, we must embrace ambiguity and paradoxes. And at times, we must work through them. Life is about interacting with this core of uncertainty and determining when we serve mankind best by accepting it, and when we must destroy it.

Characters: A The characters are well constructed and complex. By the end of the play, the reader feels intimately attached to them and as if he or she could predict the characters’ actions.

Language: AFrayn’s writing is direct and concise, with a few beautiful, flowery lines spaced throughout the play.

Plot: C The play is not plot centered at all.

Those seeking a twisting, turning play with exciting scandals lighting the way should look elsewhere.

Ideas: A Frayn explores ideas that are central to human nature. They’re both fascinating and accessible. He is most comfortable writing in the space between answers, and reading material that is produced from a place of complete uncertainty forces the reader to understand and really confront big questions.

Difficulty: A- (A is difficult, F is easy) There is a lot of scientific material included in the play. Frayn strives not to include any such material that he deems irrelevant, but part of constructing the characters is making clear their scientific orientations. These sections are difficult to navigate, especially for someone lacking a suitable background in physics.

Lanie is a first-year. You can reach her at eshless@swarthmore.edu

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Living & Arts

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Spring Musical!

25th Annual Putnam COunty

Tasha Lewis: Naturae Curiosa

SPelling BEE

SAturday, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Upper Tarble

editor’s picks A Child’s View from Gaza

Thursday, April 5 4:30 p.m.

List Gallery

By Steven Hazel

Techno Contra Dance

Friday at 7 p.m., Sat. & Sun. at 1 p.m.

Friday, 7:30 p.m., Upper Tarble

Kitao Gallery 14

April 5, 2012

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Opinions

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Staff Editorial

Syria, and the problem with our brief bouts of activism This past year has shown us regime change — or, at least the toppling of enduring regimes — in countries like Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. It’s also shown us that ongoing resistance in countries like Syria doesn’t incite the same sort of global absorption.

The unremitting internal violence in the country has not only passed its year mark (protests began on Jan. 26, 2011), but it’s also intensified, precipitating thousands of deaths of men, women and children, of soldiers and civilians. The opposition to President Bashar al-Assad and Ba’ath Party rule has thus culminated in a degree of brutality unseen even during the worst moments of the Egyptian revolution.

But it can be safely said that the conflict in Syria is only a segment of the manifold crises that have wounded both America, and the world, in recent. The Arab Spring, Trayvon Martin’s death, Joseph Kony — these are the people and the events that have gripped us in a fleeting fever. On campus and in the cyberverse, we see the extent of our activistesque distress: we organize marches and hold workshops and have conversations in the classroom, over dinner, and on blogs. And then we wake up the next day and some other awful thing has happened and our compassion and indignation is re-reformulated and redistributed to another cause.

In the case of Syria’s turmoil, Swat STAND staged a February call-in — in recognition of the conflict’s year anniversary — where students were invited to make a call to their senators urging them to support the Syrian Human Rights Accountability Act. But beyond this tangible (and literal) call for change, the escalating violence in Syria hasn’t prompted any further reaction from the campus community.

We might say that our short attention spans are the product of the information era. That our unwillingness to invest substantial time and brainpower into one particular issue is thanks to the advent of abbreviating technology like YouTube and Twitter and news aggregators; that the ephemerality of our awareness is not because we don’t care, but because we try to care too much about everything.

We fork our anger and effort in ways that don’t do justice to any one cause. We diverge concern and resources in an attempt to, by some means, tackle those monumental issues facing our country, our cultures and our collective society. The problem with that, however, couples the great problem of our personal attitudes and assumptions and the greater problem of how those issues can be addressed.

The first dilemma points to the somewhat privileged and rooted belief that we are obligated to do something, anything. There is no apparent moral quandary here — as human beings, we should be compelled to contribute to humanity, to ensure that the communal good is realized wherever and whenever possible.

The second dilemma of how we can solve those issues then exposes the faults in that initial obligation — our desire to act isn’t always modeled after the template of human obligation. Rather, it falls prey to our desire to act in order to seem as if we were working off of that model. In other words, we can explain our short attention span (for example, the week in which Google search results for “Kony 2012” peaked, prostrated then plateaued) by acknowledging that the exigency of certain events are not more important than other events; that we simply don’t care enough.

Emma Waitzman The Phoenix

Letter, op-ed and comment policy

We might say that our short attention spans are the product of the information era. That our unwillingness to invest substantial time and brainpower into one particular issue is thanks to the advent of abbreviating technology.

Otherwise, our cursory fascination with Uganda and the use of child soldiers would have manufactured itself as a concrete and genuine endeavor to contribute to the larger discourse on corrupt African politics. Otherwise, our short-lived preoccupation with revolt in the Middle East would have seen a material outrage with the increasing disorder that is devastating Syria.

Our brief bouts of activism are no reflection of the values we claim to subscribe to.

They are no illustration of the people we want to be, or should be. But they exist, and they threaten to disable any real possibility for progress. The initial enrapture with a 140-character tweet about some atrocity in some other part of the world should then be, not just another bit of news, but a mobilizing force in engrossing and inciting us, compelling us to act urgently and wholly. That’s the sort of activism that achieves its goals and leaves a legacy. The sort of activism that makes a real change in the world.

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April 5, 2012

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Opinions Overturning Obamacare is not ‘judicial activism’ swarthmorephoenix.com

What do you do when you are a sitting president, your reelection campaign is just beginning, and there is a high likelihood that the Supreme Court of the United States will overturn your signature piece of legislation (or the most important portion of it)? Apparently, if you are President Obama, you tell the Court it would be overTyler Becker stepping its bounds to rule The Swarthmore the legislation unconstituConservative tional.

This is exactly what the President did on Monday.

Faced with the possibility that his Affordable Care Act would be overturned after oral arguments favored the law’s challengers, Obama came out swinging, accusing the Court of lacking “judicial restraint.”

President Obama called the act of ruling the law unconstitutional a “good example” of the “judicial activism” Republicans have warned permeates our legal system for years. He went further, saying it would be an “unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”

And this is all before the law’s constitutionality, or at least the constitutionality of its health insurance mandate, has been decided by the Court. It is extraordinary for a sitting president to criticize the Court, particularly before a ruling is even issued. The Drudge Report’s headline Monday night, “Did he get a leak? Obama takes shot at Court,” captures just how surprising the President’s comments were, and how severe the situation may be for Obama’s presidency.

The healthcare law is already unpopular with a majority of Americans. According to the latest Rasmussen survey, 54% of Americans favor repeal, while 40% of Americans oppose repeal. The last time a public opinion

poll was released with a plurality of Americans opposing repeal was more than a year ago.

With the general election campaign about to get under way, the last thing the administration wants to talk about is Obamacare and its controversial mandate. Supreme Court oral arguments last week favored the 26-state legal challenge to the law, increasing the possibility that the legislation’s controversial health insurance mandate that requires all Americans to purchase insurance (which the administration argues is essential to the rest of the law) and possibly other portions of the legislation will be deemed unconstitutional. Obama’s comments Monday suggest this very reality.

The administration still insists that the Court will rule the law constitutional. They have no backup plan.

If the Court strikes down the entire law, Obama will be forced to answer questions about the law on the campaign trial. If the Court strikes down just the mandate, the administration will need to decide what to do with the rest of the law. Contingency plans are not in place.

Obama’s team obviously thought a little prodding may help the law’s chances with the Court, but suggesting that overturning Obamacare’s mandate would be “judicial activism” was going too far. The law may be the defining legislation of Obama’s presidency; this does not mean ruling the law unconstitutional would be the Court rooting for the conservative cause.

In a conversation I had a couple of year ago with former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, he said anytime the term “judicial activism” is used, it just means you are upset by the ruling. This is no doubt the case here.

The term “judicial activism” means a judge putting his or her own beliefs before what the law actually says and what the Founder’s original intent was. Conservatives have used the term to describe various rulings, including Roe v. Wade, as decided wrongly, as the rulings required a broad interpretation of the Constitution.

The Court’s possible overturning of Obamacare does not qualify for the term, as there is no clear provision in the Constitution for the government to mandate that Americans purchase a product. If the Court does over-

turn Obamacare, this would be a check on the federal government’s authority, not the Court offering a broad interpretation.

The Obama administration has defended the legislation using the Commerce Clause, arguing that precedent allows Congress to compel Americans to buy health insurance or face a fine. Solicitor General Don Verrilli, Jr. warned the Court of the consequences to the insurance market if the mandate is ruled unconstitutional, but this is not the Court’s problem. The Supreme Court is supposed to check the federal government, not the other way around.

President Obama’s use of “judicial activism” is a gross misinterpretation of the term, and more of a political device to explain why such great legal minds on the Supreme Court would possibly say that the healthcare mandate is unconstitutional. Only a few weeks ago the administration was hoping for the support of Justice Scalia or Roberts to help keep the law from being overturned. Justice Kennedy, usually a wildcard, was seen by the administration as likely to back the law’s constitutionality. Times have clearly changed.

If the Supreme Court does overturn Obamacare, we should celebrate that we have a Court that can prevent the government from amassing too much power. When the Court forced President Nixon to hand over his Oval Office tapes in the early 1970s, it was widely admired that the Court had this authority. In a lot of countries, corruption would have caused a very different ruling in favor of Nixon. America’s independent judiciary is essential to the success of our democracy, and ruling Obamacare unconstitutional would show that the Court still has this independence.

President Obama should allow the Court to complete its ruling, and work on fixing the health insurance market by giving people the ability to purchase insurance across state lines, completing tort reform and allowing the states to decide how to handle healthcare. The last thing we need is more directives from the federal government.

Tyler is a sophomore. You can reach him at tbecker1@ swarthmore.edu.

National security: not so quiet on the Eastern front The hope that North Korea would denuclearize was reignited following the Feb. 29 declaration of an agreement sealed in Beijing between the United States and North Korea.

Shiran Shen On Mar. 27, leaders from The Swarthmore more than 50 Globalist countries and international organizations convened in Seoul to discuss the most pressing nuclear security issues, with North Korea among the issues at the top of the conference agenda. The United States’ concern over North Korea’s nuclear threat is justified, but Washington needs a more nuanced strategy than merely demanding and pressuring the North to forgo its rocket launch plan, which is a strategy worth pursing to break away from the US-North Korea stalemate where the United States has little leverage.

In return for 240,000 metric tons of food aid composed mainly of nutritional supplements aimed at vulnerable population groups, North Korea alleged that it would commit itself to a series of measures toward denuclearization and reestablishment of a bilateral working relationship. Specifically, the North pledged that it would: 1) freeze its uranium enrichment program at its Yongbyon facil-

ity under the monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, 2) impose a moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles for as long as there was an ongoing constructive dialogue, 3) pay due respect to the Korean armistice and 4) honor the 2005 Six-Party joint statement on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and normalization of relations among the parties.

However, two weeks into a hopeful reconnection with the United States, North Korea announced on Mar.16 that it would launch a satellite using a rocket with a design similar to that used in its ballistic missile program. The announcement is not only a blatant contradiction of the understandings reached in Beijing, but also an open defiance of a unanimous United Nations Security Council resolution of April 2009 that forbade the North from undertaking any rocket launch tests using ballistic missile technology. Though disappointing, the North’s breach of its pledge is nothing surprising in light of the North’s previous defiance of nuclearrelated agreements.

There is meager chance for North Korea to delay or cancel its satellite launch, which is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korea’s founding father and Greater Leader Kim Il-Sung.

North Korea’s neighbors are becoming increasingly uneasy about the North’s proactive moves. Japanese defense minister Naoki Tanaka announced that Japan would deploy guided-missile destroyers and antiaircraft batteries to shoot down North Korea’s rocket if it falls toward Japanese territory. South

16

Korea made a similar vow after the South Korean media reported that North Korea fired several short-range missiles off its west coast last week.

The Obama administration decided to enlist help from China. In a blunt, 90-minute long meeting with Chinese president Hu Jintao on Mar. 26 in Seoul before the nuclear summit, Obama demanded that China use its leverage over North Korea to stop the North from pursing a space satellite launch in the middle of this month and declared that the vibrant economy and democracy of South Korea would eventually triumph over the isolation and failure of its northern neighbor.

Despite North Korea’s seemingly steadfast allegiance to China, it is unclear how much Beijing is able to leverage nuclear decision-making in Pyongyang. The Chinese are already very irritated by the erratic and dangerous behaviors of North Korea. Since North Korea’s Mar. 16 declaration of a rocket launch, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has called in North Korean diplomats twice to express its frustration and annoyance. However, the North Koreans were firm that they would not budge.

Disappointed by its lack of leverage over Pyongyang, Beijing turned to Washington to persuade North Korea to continue the negotiation on denuclearization.

The United States is rightly concerned with the North Korean nuclear threat.

Given the fact that North Korea’s two previous nuclear weapons tests followed shortly after efforts to launch missiles, North Korea expert Jonathan Pollack at the Brookings Institution warns that the United States and the international community should not discount the threat.

April 5, 2012

Nevertheless, Washington should switch its policy course. The planned launch has been in the making for a long time, rather than a mere result of internal power struggle or a drive to gain external validation. Given North Korea’s history of colonial rule and imperialist exploitation that significantly shapes North Korean thinking, there is a broader, deeper, strategic motivation than simply the celebration of Kim Il-Sung’s birthday. The North Koreans view becoming a nuclear state on par with other advanced countries as an almost indispensable step towards realizing its longheld dream since the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic. Instead of returning to a stalemate, Washington can closely observe the launch and redirect negotiating efforts to push for more transparency in the satellite program.

The United States should demand for access to actual facilities. This is not a sign of weakness, but a much-needed tactic to get what the United States wants to know the most — what exactly is happening inside the Yongbyon facilities.

It is time for Washington to try an alternative strategy in managing the North Korea challenge.

Closely observing North Korea’s rocket launch while gaining access to critical nuclear facilities can free Washington from the conventional tit-for-tat game where Pyongyang had an upper hand for years. Enhanced nuclear information and monitoring are more valuable to the United States than ineffectual direct pressuring or indirect pushing through China.

Shiran is a senior. You can reach her at sshen1@swarthmore.edu.

THE PHOENIX

Sports

swarthmorephoenix.com

Men’s lax drops 2OT heartbreaker to Gettysburg

BY TIMOTHY BERNSTEIN tbernst1@swarthmore.edu

It was all there for the Garnet, ready for the taking.

A win over the Gettysburg Bullets for the first time in twenty-seven seasons. A deSWARTHMORE 7 feat over a nationally-ranked for GETTYSBURG 8 opponent the only time in the history of the program.

An upset win that could put an up-and-down season on the path to something great. All of it within the team’s grasp. Until it wasn’t.

On a Saturday afternoon in Gettysburg, a threegoal lead in the third quarter turned into a stomach punch of a loss for the Swarthmore men’s lacrosse team, who fell 8-7 in double overtime. Swarthmore (45, 1-2 in conference play) extended its losing streak against the 20th-ranked Bullets, a team it hasn’t defeated since 1985.

On Saturday, however, the Garnet came out of the gate like a team who didn’t know a thing about the streak. Two first-quarter goals from star Jonathan Molloy ’14 gave Swarthmore a 3-1 lead in the first quarter, giving him the team lead with 12. A secondquarter unassisted score from Zach Belden ’12 pushed the Garnet lead to three, but Gettysburg’s Martin Manilla brought the score to 4-2 at halftime with his second goal.

In the third quarter, the teams traded goals twice over, with Belden scoring his second goal for Swarthmore and Manilla his third for the Bullets. With 4:48 remaining in the third quarter, Ian Lukaszewicz ’15 made it 6-3 in favor of the Garnet, putting an upset squarely within range for his team with just under 20 minutes of play left to go. All of a sudden, the Bullets were poised to lose their first conference game of the season, at home, to a team they hadn’t lost to since the Cold War. They needed a momentum swing, and got

Swarthmore last defeated the Gettysburg Bullets in 1985.

one when Ryan Fumai’s third-quarter goal ended the period on a high note.

“The difference during [Gettysburg’s] comeback was possession,” Max Hubbard ’12 said. “A combination of lost face-offs and ground balls, failed clears and rushed possessions on offense left us playing too much defense at the end of the game.”

Courtesy of Swarthmore Athletics

Steve Selverian had two ground balls and a caused turnover.

In the final quarter, Gettysburg struck early and often. Back-to-back-to-back unassisted goals from Henry Tesar, Bijan Firouzan, and Austin Dodson turned a 6-4 Bullets deficit into a 7-6 lead within the first five minutes.

“They had pretty long possessions,” Brendan Conway ’14 said of Gettysburg in the fourth quarter.

“They held onto the ball, got good opportunities, their shots started to fall eventually, and they crept back.”

Gettysburg only had the lead for a short time, however, as Lukaszewicz netted the equalizer for his second goal of the game. It also proved to be the final

Courtesy of Swarthmore Athletics

goal by either team for the rest of regulation as well as one overtime period, in which only Molloy could get a shot off for the Garnet.

It was Tesar, at long last, who broke through with 3:42 to go in the second overtime, when he put the Bullets up 8-7 off an assist from Ian Casella. Just like that, the upset, the streak-breaking victory that the team held in the palm of its hand was gone, replaced with just another loss to Gettysburg.

On defense, Geli Carabases ’14 was a disruptive force for the Garnet, with four turnovers to his credit.

Captain Matt Bowers ’12 led the team in ground balls with six, while goalie Michael Brockway played the whole way through, saving seven shots.

With their victory, the Bullets move to 6-3 on the season with a perfect 3-0 conference record, good for third place in the conference standings behind Washington College and Dickinson.

As bad as the loss felt, Swarthmore couldn’t deny that there was an aspect of the moral victory to it, that simply playing the Bullets as competitively as they did was enough to prove something to themselves.

“It’s upsetting that we lost,” Lukaszewicz said, “but I think [the game] definitely showed that we can really hang with anyone.”

“We have confidence going into the rest of the conference schedule knowing that we can make some noise,” defender Carabases said. “If we stick to throwing fastballs, sticking corners, and playing at the level we are capable of, then I don’t see a team that scares us.”

The Garnet will look to move on from the Gettysburg this Saturday, when they head to Lancaster to take on conference rival Franklin and Marshall. The Diplomats currently sit in fourth place with a 2-2 conference record (7-3 overall). The game is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.

“This is a rebound game,” Lukaszewicz said of the F&M match-up, “but we know that if we play like we did against Gettysburg, if we play inside ourselves and don’t make mistakes, we should get a win on Saturday.”

Courtesy of Swarthmore Athletics

Jonathan Molloy continued a stellar offensive campaign with two goals on Saturday.

GARNET IN ACTION THURSDAY, APR. 5

SATURDAY, APR. 7 (CONT.) Men’s lacrosse at Franklin & Marshall, 1:00 p.m.

Baseball at Johns Hopkins, 12:30 and 3:30 p.m.

Women’s lacrosse at Franklin & Marshall, 4:00 p.m.

Golf, Gettysburg Women’s Invitational, TBA Softball vs. Franklin & Marshall, 3:00 and 5:00 p.m.

Baseball vs. Washington College, 3:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, APR. 11

SATURDAY, APR. 7

Men’s lacrosse vs. Drew, 7:30 p.m.

Women’s lacrosse vs. Muhlenberg, 5:00 p.m.

Track and field, Richard Stock Osprey Invitational, 10:00 a.m.

Tennis at Franklin and Marshall, 11:00 a.m.

THE PHOENIX

April 5, 2012

17

Sports The winter of an empire: Liverpool Club’s decline swarthmorephoenix.com

Liverpool is a sinking ship, and no longer a real contender for the league or Champions League places. I know the statistics: Liverpool has won 18 league titles, 8 league cups, 5 FA cups and European Cups. They won the League cup this season and are going to play Everton in the FA cup semi final at Wembley. They won the Champions League in 2005 and last got to the final in 2007 before losing to AC Milan in a repeat of the 2005 final. But these statistics must make the truth harder to accept: Liverpool just isn’t a top team anymore.

The failure of the Liverpool football club over the past few seasons comes back to two major problems: manJames Ivey agers and ownership. Lets start with ownership. John Out of Left Field Henry, proud owner of the Boston Red Sox, bought the club in October 2010 from two Texans that had nearly bankrupted the club, Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Misters Hicks and Gillett are where the misfortune for Liverpool started. Hicks and Gillett bought a historic football club because that is what cool millionaires do with their money and spare time. They promised to invest money in the club and transform it into a top European power like in the glory days. Instead, they ploughed all their personal and business debts incurred by poor financial management and the American housing crash into Liverpool FC until it appeared that Liverpool was heading towards bankruptcy. Because of Texan stubbornness, the club almost went bankrupt until the British courts decided to sell the club on behalf of the taxman who wasn’t being paid. Henry purchased the club, promising to turn it into a great club (again).

Now here is where the trouble starts again. Henry believed that because he had bought the Red Sox and used the principles of Bill James to win two World Series, he could win with Liverpool. That was the first mistake. Soccer does not run on the same principles as baseball. Soccer also has more factors than baseball crammed into a much shorter season. A run of six losses may worry Boston fans and only get them a wild card place, but in football that can be the difference between tens of millions of pounds and very little. The players aren’t ranked in the same way as in baseCourtesy of dailymail.co.uk ball since they have so many differPortrait of a great franchise in decline. ent roles they need to perform. The

players that Liverpool has bought have not been performing for Liverpool after very good careers elsewhere. Henry has also not solved the problem of where Liverpool will play in the foreseeable future. Liverpool has a small playing ground for such a wellsupported club. Henry proposed moving to a larger ground that would provide plenty of funds for the club through ticket sales and allow the club to play with the big boys like the Manchester clubs. However, the fan backlash was too much for him to face and so Liverpool FC will stay at Anfield with 45,000 fans per game.

The club’s selection of managers has not helped its cause. Rafael Benitez was removed from the job after years of stories about how the club was trying to hire a new manager behind his back. Roy Hodgson was given six months and a few signings to change the entire football philosophy of Liverpool. He was stabbed in the back by Kenny Dalglish, who had not turned up regularly to Liverpool games since holding the manager position 20 years ago and now suddenly appears once again making trouble. Hodgson gets fired, and then does really well with West Bromwich Albion, and is replaced by King Kenny, the Liverpool hero of old. King Kenny, however, has not done any better than either of his predecessors. In fact, he has probably done worse. His signings have been poor. Stuart Downing, Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Jose Enrique were all extremely gifted players last season but are incredibly poor this year. Andy Carroll is not worth £35 million and spending that much money on a player of his quality shows a massive misjudgement. Andy Carroll has five goals in 35 games. Craig Bellamy for a free transfer comparison has scored six goals in 20 games. Craig Bellamy wasn’t even wanted originally but was bought because it was a free transfer and wouldn’t be a big risk because of that. But apart from Bellamy, the transfers over the past year have been disappointing. Luis Suarez, when he isn’t being racist, can’t seem to reach the high levels of last year. He was not worth £22 million. Jordan Henderson and Stuart Downing are not worth £20 million each. These are still good players that should play very nice football but they are not being played to their strengths or given the support in other parts of the pitch that would make the team successful. The midfielders would be better if Carroll could score but every team wishes they had a striker that could score at will (most haven’t paid £35 million for one) This may sound bitter, and it is, but surely common sense must prevail. Liverpool needs a number of years to reform. They need to learn to play their own style of soccer that will win them games and to gel as a team with players that have a high work rate and aren’t overly selfish. They need to spend less money on the players they sign because it only raises the expectations of the fans, board members, and the players themselves. If the players see a high transfer fee and don’t live up to it, then they can bring their own performances down. But most importantly, they need a manager to oversee the transformation of the club, like Wenger, Moyes, or Ferguson and a Chairman that will leave the management of the club alone and be patient. This is a rare form of chairman but there are some: Al Fayed at Fulham is the perfect chairman apart from when he accuses Prince Philip of killing Princess Diana (just google it) and keeps on having his application for British citizenship rejected. It will take time and patience, but Manchester City and Tottenham will come back down and Liverpool can reach back up but only if they bide their time.

James is a sophomore. You can reach him at jivey1@swarthmore.edu.

sports IN BRIEF

Garnet athlete of the week

McDaniel sweeps Garnet softball On Tuesday afternoon, the Swarthmore softball team’s fortunes fell further, as they were swept by McDaniel (16-6, 8-0 in conference) in a home doubleheader. The losses drop the Garnet to 10-12 on the season and still searching for their first conference win.

In the first game, a 12-2 pounding which lasted only five innings, Garnet starter Chelsea Matzko ’15 recorded just one out before she left the game, charged with two unearned runs while allowing three walks. Matzko was replaced by Melissa O’Connor ’14, who finished off what turned out to be a nine-run first inning by the Green Terror. O’Connor, who was charged with the loss to drop to 6-6 on the year, pitched the rest of the way and compiled a gruesome line: nine earned runs on six hits with five walks allowed. O’Connor wasn’t bailed out by her defense, as shortstop Elizabeth Cushing ’12 made two errors.

For the Garnet offense, outfielder Nicole Aaron ’14 provided the only highlight with a first-inning two-run home run off McDaniel starter Caroline Brehm. Aaron’s shot proved to be the only blemish on the afternoon for Brehm, who allowed five hits while fanning ten batters. McDaniel outfielder

Jordan Beans homered off of O’Connor, while outfielder Rachel Sidney added three RBI. The Garnet kept it close in the second game, getting a great pitching performance from Sarina Lowe ’14 but falling once again 2-0. For six innings, Lowe traded scoreless frames with Brehm, pitching her second strong game of the afternoon. Finally, in the top of the sixth, McDaniel broke through on a two-out solo shot from Erinne Warrenfeltz. Then, in the top of the seventh with Swarthmore trailing 1-0, the team’s defense abandoned them once again as McDaniel plated an insurance run off a two-out error by catcher Dani Seltzer ’13.

Brehm was stellar for the second time that day, allowing just one hit in a complete-game shutout in which she struck out thirteen more batters. The Garnet didn’t get a runner past second base all game. Swarthmore, whose losing streak has now hit four, will try to reverse the trend Thursday with a home doubleheader against Franklin & Marshall. The first game is schedule to start at 3:00 p.m.

BY TIMOTHY BERNSTEIN

18

April 5, 2012

Paul Weston

SENIOR, GOLF, WATERBURY, VT.

WHAT HE’S DONE: Weston finished just two strokes behind the McDaniel Invitational champion, as he led the golf team to a third-place finish at the tournament this past weekend.

FAVORITE CAREER MOMENT: “Breaking the school scoring record as a team last year, and then doing it again this fall.”

WHAT HE WANTS TO DO: “Most importantly, to win the Centennial Conference Championships.”

PRE-GAME SUPERSTITION: “I’m not really superstitious, but I always mark my ball on the green with the same blank coin.

I’ve had it for at least 5 years.”

WHAT HE SPENDS THE MOST TIME ON: “Hitting irons on the range, even though it should be putting.”

Cristina Matamoros The Phoenix

THE PHOENIX

Sports Baseball falls to Haverford, splits versus Gettysburg swarthmorephoenix.com

Justin Toran-Burrell The Phoenix Cleanup hitter Tim Kwilos draws a bunt in the Garnet’s recent loss to Haverford. Kwilos leads the Garnet with a .439 batting average.

by roy greim rgreim1@swarthmore.edu

It was a weekend to forget for Swarthmore’s baseball team, as the 16-6 Garnet lost to rival Haverford 9-1 at home on Friday and split a doubleheader with a 7-3 win and a 9-5 loss to conference foe Gettysburg on Saturday.

Fresh off a dominant 12-4 victory at Haverford on Mar. 27, the Garnet had high expectations for Friday’s contest against the Fords. Unfortunately for Swarthmore, however, events unfolded quite differently, with the team bearing little resemblance to the one that had routed Haverford only three days before.

Scoring a lone run, the offense matched its season

low, which occurred during a 12-1 loss to Widener on play at the plate ended the inning for the Garnet with Mar. 14. two runs scored.

“We didn’t come out with the same energy,” shortOn the mound, starting pitcher Zach Weiner ’12 stop Danny McMahon’15 said. “On Tuesday, we came picked up the win, his third of the season, behind six out and were aggressive swinging the bats and manu- strikeouts in 7.2 innings. In relief, pitcher Adam Harfacturing runs and on Friday, we just weren’t able to dy ’12 allowed one hit in 1.1 innings. fight at the plate like we had in the previous game.”

Unfortunately for the Garnet, game two continued “We underestimated them,” left fielder Nicko Bur- the themes of inconsistency and missed opportuninett ’14 added. “After coming out and solidly beating ties, as the team left 14 runners stranded on base durthem, we got ahead of ourselves and assumed a win.” ing the 5-9 loss to the Bullets.

Although the final 9-1 score doesn’t indicate it, In the first inning, the Garnet loaded the bases afmuch of the game was a pitcher’s duel between the ter singles from Burnett and McMahon and a walk Garnet’s Kyle Crawford ’12 and Haverford’s Tommy from Kwilos, but a strikeout by designated hitter Sean Bergjens.

Bryant ’13 ended the frame with all three stranded.

Crawford and the Garnet defense were able to hold The teams traded runs in the second, but the Bulthe Fords to two runs through seven innings, but lets began to pull away after adding three runs off two things took a turn for the worse in the eighth. Behind hits and an error in the bottom of fourth. A sac fly six hits and three Garnet fielding errors, Haverford by Kwilos in the fifth brought home Burnett and the scored seven runs and put the game out of reach with Garnet lessened the deficit to 4-2. a 9-0 lead.

After a scoreless sixth, the Garnet missed an opCrawford’s counterpart Bergjens was in control portunity to regain the lead, leaving three runners all afternoon, striking out 10 and allowing only four on base in the seventh. With one out and the bases hits and two walks in seven innings. On Monday, the loaded, a sac fly by Mike Cameron ‘12 scored Burnett Centennial Conference named Bergjens the Pitcher of and advanced Waterhouse to third and McMahon the Week for his perforto second. Pinch hitter mance.

Bryce Codell ’13 earned The next day, the Gara free pass to first base net traveled to Gettysafter being hit by a pitch [The loss] was definitely a burg to face the Bullets the bases were again combination of a slip in focus and and in its first conference loaded for the Garnet, doubleheader. was only down by a new game ... It’s something we which After allowing a run in one run at that point. A really need to work on. the first frame, the Garstrikeout at the next atnet gained the lead 2-1 bat, however, ended the Zach Weiner ’12 after a productive second inning with Gettysburg inning. still on top.

Walks from McMahon The Bullets responded and catcher Miles Santo ’12 put two runners on base with an offensive outburst in the bottom of the inning, with no outs, and McMahon was driven in after a sac scoring four runs off of five hits, which effectively bunt and sac fly. Second baseman Anthony Montal- put the game out of reach. In the eighth, they added bano ’12 hit a two-out single to bring home Santo and another run as Swarthmore struggled on defensive, complete the scoring for the inning. committing two fielding errors in quick succession.

Gettysburg picked up two more runs in the botThe ninth inning saw some offensive production tom of the fourth and regained the advantage over the from the Garnet, which added two runs from Kwilos Garnet 3-2. In the top of the fifth, however, the offense and McMahon but it was too little too late, as the team responded, scoring the runs that would put the game fell 9-5, splitting yet another double-header. It is the out of reach for the Bullets. fourth time this season that the Garnet has lost the After Burnett was hit by a pitch, singles by des- second game of a twinbill after winning the first. ignated hitter Mike Waterhouse ’12 and right field“[The loss] was definitely a combination of a slip er Tim Kwilos ’13 loaded the bases with one out. A in focus and a new game,” pitcher Zach Weiner ‘12 groundout brought in Burnett and a double from Mc- said. “It’s something we really need to work on, since Mahon scored two more runs for the Garnet, putting unfortunately it’s an early-season recurring theme.” it ahead for good 5-3.

On Tuesday afternoon, the team went on the road In the sixth, the offense added two runs as insur- to Chestertown, MD to face Washington College with ance behind four hits and one fielding error by the the desire to prove itself against the conference leadBullets. ers. The Garnet fell 5-3 in a close contest that was With no outs, the Garnet already had two runners, highlighted by strong performances from pitcher IgCody Ruben ’14 and Trevor Shepherd ’15, in scoring nacio Rodriguez ‘12, who struck out 11 in seven inposition with Montalbano, one of the team’s leading nings, and first baseman Spencer Ross ‘12, who had hitters, at the plate. His single drove in Ruben and a three hits and one RBI on the afternoon. fly out from Burnett on the next at-bat brought ShepThe Garnet will play the Shoremen again at home herd home for another run. A two-out double by Kwi- on Apr. 5 with the opening pitch scheduled for 3:30 los nearly scored Montalbano from first base, but a p.m.

sports IN BRIEF

Women’s ultimate frisbee team competes in tournament for the elite On the weekend of March 24, the Warmothers—Swarthmore’s women’s ultimate Frisbee team—flew to Austin, Texas to compete in Centex, a national tournament hosted by the ultimate team from the University of Texas.

The Warmothers are one of only a handful of Division III teams invited to Centex, a tournament usually reserved for the elite of D-I and D-II. For the team, Centex represents their most important tournament since they attended the National Championships in 2006.

On Saturday, the tournament’s first day, the Warmothers were hard-luck losers in three of their four matches. In their first contest of the tournament, the team fell to Northeastern University in an 11-10 heartbreaker.

Several hours later, the Warmothers fell to the team from Colorado College 13-5. In their third game on Saturday, USC defeated Swarthmore 13-10. However, the Warmothers gained a measure of redemption on Saturday night, beating

South Florida by a score of 11-8.

Swarthmore fared better on Sunday, winning two of its three matches. In the Sunday opener, the team defeated Dartmouth 14-11. While the team suffered a tough 12-6 defeat to Claremont, it rebounded immediately, blanking Wisconsin Eau-Claire 6-0.

“Everyone really was gratified and excited to move forward,” Kara Stoever ’12 said of the team’s attitude following the tournament, “because though we lost games, those games were very competitive, and so to have the challenge and to succeed and score against both teams, I felt like we were in our games for every point.”

THE PHOENIX April 5, 2012

BY TIMOTHY BERNSTEIN

19

Sports

swarthmorephoenix.com

Gettysburg wins, but women’s lax narrows the gap by victor brady vbrady1@swarthmore.edu

In a short Centennial Conference season, there is not much room for moral victories. In every women’s lacrosse season since 2004, no more than one game has separated the final team in SWARTHMORE 8 the Centennial playoffs from the team left at GETTYSBURG 16 first home.

Asking the Swarthmore women’s lacrosse team to go into Gettysburg and come away with a victory over the top-ranked Bullets might have been a little much. Since the formation of the Centennial Conference, Gettysburg entered Saturday 17-1 against the Garnet with 17 consecutive victories.

Indeed, the Bullets came away 16-8 victors, but playing an eight-goal game with perennial powerhouse Gettysburg is not too far from a moral victory: the last time the Garnet visited the Bullets in 2010, Gettysburg pitched a 17-0 shutout and the last time Swarthmore stayed within eight goals was 2004.

It is a clear step in the right direction for a team that looked anything but a playoff contender in the Centennial-opening loss to Ursinus at the end of March.

With a dreary gray sky on the Battlefield, Swarthmore opened the scoring on Saturday with a goal by Annalise Penikis ’13 just under two minutes into the game. After the Bullets took a 2-0 lead two minutes later, Swarthmore’s second-leading scorer Corinne Sommi ’14 leveled the contest on a feed from Beth Martin ’13.

From there, Gettysburg took control of the contest with a run of eight consecutive goals over a nearly twenty minute stretch to open up a 10-2 lead. Sommi scored her second of the day with just under three minutes to go into the half to pull the Garnet with seven but a heartbreaking Bullets goal with just one second showing on the clock in the half extended the lead back to eight.

Gettysburg scored the first three goals of the second half before Swarthmore answered with five of the last eight to close the game. Penikis added a second, Marie Mutryn ’12 scored a pair of her own, and Martin and Sara Lentricchia ’15 each added single tallies.

“I’m definitely really proud of the way we played against Gettysburg,” midfielder Sam Panepinto ’13 said.

“We played confidently and kept our heads together which are some of the most important things when playing a team as good as they are.”

Added Penikis, “What we learned against Gettysburg was that we really are a good team especially in the midfield. We had more ground balls and fewer turnovers

that they did, so we did a really good job statistically in many aspects of the game. That was one of the first games that we really showed hustle and a desire to win for the entire 60 minutes.”

The Garnet was hurt on Saturday by shooting just 1-9 on free position shots despite shooting close to fifty percent on free positions going into the game. In the Swarthmore goal, Michelle Ammerman ’14 and Hillary Santana ’12 combined to limit the Bullets to 3-8 shooting on free positions.

Swarthmore also scores on nearly 50 percent of its shots on the season but was just 8-29 at Gettysburg.

“The Gettysburg keeper is certainly one of the best in the Conference,” Martin said. “But in general, we did not shoot very well and that’s something that we are working on for the upcoming games.”

Building off of Saturday’s strong performance, the Garnet took to the field on Tuesday for the final non-conference game of the year hosting Neumann at Clothier Field. Swarthmore jumped all over the visitors, building up a 12-0 lead before Neumann scored a pair of late goals in the first half to trail at the half by 10. Swarthmore won an astounding 25-27 draw controls for the game, which they won 18-7.

Penikis led the team with five goals, including her 100th in a Swarthmore uniform, and Mutryn led the team with five assists as 13 different players recorded at least one point.

Entering the week, Penikis ranked eighth in the nation with 65 points on the year and 12th in points per game at 6.5. She is also 6th in assists per game, leading the Centennial in each of these categories.

Swarthmore is currently tied for the fifth spot in the Centennial Conference with Ursinus and Dickinson with four of their five remaining games against teams currently in the playoffs or tied for that final spot.

It will be a chance to make a statement to the Conference and play their way into the playoffs beginning on Saturday at Franklin & Marshall against a Diplomats team that has won 11 in a row against the Garnet since a 12-11 Swarthmore win in 2000. Since then, the Diplomats have outscored Swarthmore by an average of nearly 11 goals per game, winning all but one of those 11 by at least eight including a 20-9 victory last year.

“I think we’re all looking to play with the attitude we did against Gettysburg but work towards playing a cleaner game and making better decisions,” Panepinto said.

For Penikis, “We have some strong momentum going into Saturday and I think that we now have confidence that we can get the job done. This is the first time in a long time for this program that we have a feeling that we can beat a Franklin & Marshall.”

Saturday’s match is scheduled for 4 p.m.

Julia Carleton The Phoenix

Julia Denney scored one of the team’s 18 goals against Neumann University.

20

Julia Carleton The Phoenix

Against Neumann, Elizabeth Bachman had an assist.

Julia Carleton The Phoenix

The Garnet’s record currently stands at 9-3.

Julia Carleton The Phoenix

Annalise Penikis’s 100th career goal was a bright spot in a tough loss to Gettysburg.

April 5, 2012

THE PHOENIX