Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
The Daily Gazette
Swarthmore College
Tuesday, March 4, 1997
Volume 1, Number 29
NEWS IN BRIEF
1) Anani Dzidzenyo addresses students
2) World news roundup
3) Lecture by Dr. Joycelyn Elders cancelled
SPORTS IN BRIEF
1) Varsity spring sports preview: golf, track and field
2) Tonight’s and the week’s contests
NEWS REPORT
1) Anani Dzidzenyo addresses students
In the first annual Jerome H. Wood, Jr. lecture, Anani Dzidzenyo spoke
about the African diaspora in the Americas, emphasizing the historical and
nationalistic significance of the crossing of African and American culture,
politics, and religion as result of slavery.
After an introduction by Professor Chuck James, Dzidzenyo built on the
theme of “border crossings,” which James had introduced in relation to the
late Professor Wood’s legacy. Currently a professor at Brown University,
Dzidzenyo spoke in depth about the “conundrum of Africa in Latin America”
and the need to come to terms with the conflicting nationalisms within
Latin American countries due to the different origins of its members.
Dzidzenyo devoted a significant time in his speech to the political and
religious consequences of the crossing of cultures which are felt on a
daily basis. He closed by emphasizing the special status of colleges and
universities as open forums to discuss the “historic, cultural, and
political problematics” so that there is an “ongoing dialogue not only when
there’s a crisis.”
Dzidzenyo remarked on the sensitive nature of the topic, noting that he
attempted to “examine a future without a past; to contemplate post-colonial
identity in ways which have not existed in the past,” such as through
cultural mediums like literature and popular sayings. By examining these
factors, he sought to theorize on “how community links are formed and
sustained in the face of divisive forces.”
*****
2) World news roundup
ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY
The Albanian Parliament declared a state of emergency Sunday after mobs
looted a government arsenal and ransacked the president’s summer villa this
weekend. The army was authorized to shoot armed resisters on sight, a
curfew was declared, and newspapers will be censored until the state of
emergency is lifted. The uprising was a response to failed pyramid schemes
in the impoverished country. Nearly every Albanian lost money in the
schemes last month.
ARKANSAS COPES IN WAKE OF KILLER TORNADOES
A string of 20 tornadoes devastated Arkansas Saturday, damaging hundred of
homes and buildings along a 250-mile path through the state. Police said
the bodies of at least 24 victims have been found so far; over 250 people
are hospitalized with injuries from the storm. President Clinton returned
to his home state this morning to survey the damage, and said he would
offer federal relief to communities struck by the storm. He called the
damage “apocalyptic” and “undescribable.” The same storm system left its
mark on neighboring states, too, with nine people reported dead in
Kentucky, four in Tennessee and one in Mississippi. In Ohio, flash flooding
forced the evacuation of thousands of homes.
The world news roundup is produced by Swarthmore Radio News, which airs
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and midnight on WSRN 91.5 FM.
*****
3) Lecture by Dr. Joycelyn Elders cancelled
At 4:15pm yesterday afternoon, roughly twenty students had gathered in
Kirby lecture hall to hear former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders give
a talk on teenage pregnancy issues. But Dr. Elders never appeared because
the lecture had been cancelled, apparently due to lack of funding.
Oddly enough, an announcement of the lecture was published in the
Swarthmore Weekly News, which the Public Relations office used earlier in
the day to direct a student to the lecture, despite the fact that the talk
was not going to happen.
No one seems to be entirely sure of why exactly the lecture was cancelled,
but lack of funding has been pointed to as the main reason. Sponsored
originally by SASS and the BCC, Dr. Elders’ talk was also to be supported
by the Cooper Foundation as a lecture in the Women’s Victories lecture
series.
Unfortunately, the twenty or so students left the lecture hall rather
disappointed and puzzled after some members of the Biology Department
alerted them to the fact that indeed Elders would not be coming.
*****
SPORTS UPDATE
1) Varsity spring sports preview: golf, track and field
GOLF
The reins of the golfing program at Swarthmore were handed this year to
rookie coach Mark Duzenski, and it is consequently difficult to say exactly
how well the team will do this coming season. Only one of three golfers
from last year, Adam Rashid ’98, is returning this year, but Duzenski has
convinced approximately a dozen others to join the squad. “I’ve got
athletes, I just don’t know yet if they’re golfers,” Duzenski says. He
hopes to qualify five people for the conference championships so Swarthmore
can compete as a team, a feat unprecedented in the last two years of golf
competition.
Their schedule is a challenging one, with five Division I match-ups over
the course of the season, though fielding a team for an average match might
prove difficult. Matches are all scheduled for 1 p.m., a time when many
players could potentially be in lab or class. Duzenski expects to win
about half of the matches he has scheduled, but the future remains to be
seen. The team will play its first match while in Myrtle Beach for spring
break
WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD
Very little bad can be said about the women’s track and field team. Nine
days ago, the indoor team won the Centennial Conference championships, and
the team is expected to do the same in its outdoor incarnation. Very few
point-scoring seniors graduated from last year’s team, and they have
already qualified four athletes for the national indoor meet, four times as
many as in the four previous year combined. The crop of first-years only
helps the team, from Amalia Jerison, a national-qualifying cross country
runner, to Desiree Peterkin, a provisional national indoor qualifier in the
triple jump. The team returns Danielle Duffy ’98, conference champion in
the 200m and 400m dashes, and Catherine Laine ’98, a national indoor
qualifier in the triple jump. Swarthmore was 24th in a national poll at
the end of last season; look for that number to move much closer to the top
ten this season.
MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD
The men’s team graduated three talented seniors: Mike Turner, conference
runner-up in both the 200m and 400m dashes, Scott Reents, All-American in
the 1500m run, and Sam Paschel, a point scorer in everything from the pole
vault to the 4x400m relay. Nonetheless, the indoor team took second to
Haverford in last week’s conference meet and seem firmly entrenched in that
spot for the outdoor season. Ted Dixon, head coach for both men’s and
women’s track and field, predicts that Swarthmore will give closer chase to
Haverford in the outdoor conference meet. “If we run a close-to-perfect
meet and they mess up once or twice, we might take it from them,” Dixon
says.
Haverford has a strong distance squad, bolstered by a few sprinters. They
easily won the indoor conference meet with that combination, but they bring
nothing else to the outdoor season. Swarthmore, on the other hand, only
looks to gain points from events unique to the outdoor season like the 400m
intermediate hurdles (Eric Pakurar ’97 is the returning conference
champion) and the javelin (Eric Walton ’97 is only two feet off the school
record).
*****
2) Tonight’s and the week’s contests
No contests are scheduled for this week.
Look in The Daily Gazette the rest of this week for a preview of varsity
sports teams for the upcoming spring season.
Wednesday: BASEBALL, SOFTBALL
Thursday: LACROSSE
Friday: TENNIS
*****
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The Daily Gazette
Board of Editors
Fred Bush
Kate Doty
Jennifer Klein
David Lischer
Eric Pakurar
Sam Schulhofer-Wohl
Sylvia Weedman
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This concludes today’s report.
Copyright 1997 by The Daily Gazette. All rights reserved.