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BY KEVIN CARR

In print | Published January 27, 2005

The search for a name for Swarthmore’s newest building is over.

According to Vice President Maurice Eldridge ’61, a permanent name has been chosen for the building that has until now been referred to as New Dorm. The dormitory will be named to commemorate Alice Paul, class of 1905.

Paul, a longtime feminist activist, is the founder of the National Woman’s Party and author of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Her name stood out as the frontrunner in the name-suggestion process, according to Student Council Co-President Tom Evnen ’07.

An alumna donated $2 million for the gift in September and received the naming rights for the dorm.

She wished to remain anonymous, however, and suggested that students devise a contest to determine the name, as reported in The Phoenix.

Evnen said that the contest was administered by “setting up an e-mail account” and “soliciting suggestions from Swarthmore students.”

Students sent suggestions to the account and the popularity of each suggestion could be determined by looking at its frequency in the special e-mail account.

From that point, Evnen said that the top five suggestions were sent to the anonymous donor the name of Alice Paul was selected.

“The donor is pleased,” Eldridge said.

He noted that this will be the first building on campus to be named for a female. “It’s a reach back into the college’s history to honor a woman,” he said.

“I’m so happy. That’s terrific,” Sasha Grenier ‘08 said, after hearing of the dorm’s new name.

Sabrina Danielsen ’07, a New Dorm resident, expressed mixed emotion on the decision.

“It’s a nice reminder of the past … Alice Paul did great things for women’s rights,” she said. “At the same time, she was a little bit of an elitist.”

Some students had proposed naming the dorm after the late Swarthmore professor of economics Bernard Saffran, who died November 29, 2004.

Joshua Hausman ‘05, who was a teaching assistant for some of Saffran’s classes, argued that there may be substantial support for naming the dorm after Saffran. “They should have named it after Saffran because there are more students in favor of it,” he said.

Hausman recognized that a primary reason why the name did not make the final cut had to do with the timing of the naming competition. “Saffran died after the naming competition began,” he said.

Trude Raizen ’08, who also supported naming the dorm after Saffran, was “slightly disappointed,” though she did express support for the decision to name the dorm after Alice Paul instead.

The dorm will not be officially dedicated until next year because a dedication ceremony for the new Science Center is slated for this spring.

“There will be a dedication in the fall,” Eldridge said.

Until then, students have the opportunity to get accustomed to referring to the building by its new name, a process which could take time.

“It’s going to get called New Dorm for a long time,” Marty Griffith ’05 said.

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