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
Monday, April 14, 1997
Volume 1, Number 51
NEWS IN BRIEF
1) Student Council highlights
2) Weekend movies canceled
3) Bingo rocks Tarble
4) Engineers’ winning mouse
SPORTS IN BRIEF
1) Wall and Warner win McCabe Mile
2) Laine and Tootell top Division I and II athletes
3) The weekend’s results
4) Tonight’s and tomorrow’s contests
WEATHER FORECAST
Today: Sunny and nice, but very windy. High of 60.
Light jacket, wear a hat.
Tonight: No rain, but cool. Low around 35.
It’s cold. Wear a coat.
Tuesday: Sunny again. High around 65.
NEWS REPORT
1) Student Council highlights
Last night Student Council dealt primarily with proposals of Constitutional
amendments, reports from working groups, and a presentation by students
from the Swarthmore Queer Union (SQU).
Amendments to the Constitution of Student Government were heard from
Co-Chair Sean Barney ’98 and Josh Alloy ’98. Alloy’s amendments, which
included the formal adoption of decision making by vote (as opposed to
consensus) and a specific description of the positions of at-large
representatives on Council, will undergo minor revisions this week and will
be voted upon next Sunday.
Two of Barney’s amendments were slightly more contentious. Intended to
clarify SC’s jurisdiction regarding issues with Budget Committee, they
emphasized the “final jurisdiction of the Student Council over the Student
Activities Fund, [and] specifically its authority to allocate expenditures
therefrom, and create specific endowments therein.”
This sparked a very long, heated discussion, as SC member Chris Seaman ’99
objected on principle to the notion that SC could theoretically overrule
any of Budget Committee’s decisions. Barney and Alloy along with other
Council members pointed out repeatedly that SC is already fully responsible
for SAF money according to its Constitution.
Council also welcomed two members of the Swarthmore Queer Union (SQU) to
the meeting for an update on their efforts to include a queer/queer
friendly question on the housing questionnaire for incoming freshmen. Sonja
Shield ’97 and Josh Freker ’99 explained SQU’s goal of using the housing
form to insure that queer/questioning students do not encounter hostile
rooming situations. SC agreed with SQU’s goal and agreed to draft a letter
to the Phoenix supporting some kind of change in the housing form, but
Council members did not decide precisely what kind of addition to the form
they would support.
In other news, one working group presented a detailed proposal outlining
solutions to recent problems related to campus vans. Among other
suggestions, they proposed that students be required to reserve vans seven
days ahead of time, and be penalized with a late fee if they fail to do so.
During discussion at the meeting, there was consensus that vans should be
available on a first come, first serve basis, with priority given to
SC-chartered organizations, and with the suggestion that non-chartered
groups not reserve vans more than ten days ahead of time.
*****
2) Weekend movies canceled
To the surprise of many students this weekend, neither Friday’s nor
Saturday’s campus movies played as scheduled. According to Movie Committee
head Josh Alloy ’98, the films “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and “Scream”
were accidentally sent back to the company from which the Committee rents
its movies. A student apparently mistook the films for two other films
which were to have been returned last week. As it turned out, those first
films had already been returned.
Because both “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and “Scream” are relatively new
pictures, they cost the Committee about $1500, Alloy said. If it turns out
that there is not time to show them later this semester, Alloy explained,
they will definitely be part of the Committee’s choices for next semester.
*****
3) Bingo rocks Tarble
Having lured in Swatties with dozens of prizes, a Bingo party in Tarble all
campus space Friday night drew an impressive crowd of several hundred.
Sponsored by the Catholic community, SAC, and the Tarble fund, the party
featured prizes donated by the Bean Bag, the College bookstore, and
numerous Swarthmore village establishments.
Working behind a genuine Notre Dame de Lourdes bingo ball machine,
organizer/bingo caller Abram Nussbaum ’97 was a vision in light blue
polyester. He hammed it up in front of an appreciative crowd, calling out
much more than just numbers and letters. Apparently Nussbaum was quite a
novice, telling the Gazette, “though I appear to, I have had no bingo
schooling.”
Among the winners Friday night was Jerry Melichar ’00, who walked away with
a green plastic Adirondack chair almost as good as Parrish beach’s.
Surprisingly enough, he didn’t attribute his winnings to skill either. “I
haven’t been playing much lately,” he told the Gazette. “I’ve been trying
to cut back.”
Despite the crowds, Sarah Wamester ’98 and Eric Walton ’97 actually managed
to win multiple times during the course of the evening. Fortunately, there
was a wide variety of prizes. According to Walton, “I won nine roses and
enough tampons and jolly ranchers to last me the rest of my life, so I was
pretty excited.”
*****
4) Engineers’ winning mouse
Swat Bot, the robotic “mouse” programmed to find its way through mazes by
a group of Swarthmore engineering students, notched more victories this
weekend. The robot handily defeated almost all of its competitors in a
race Saturday at Princeton University.
Swarthmore was not eligible to win any prizes in the contest, since this
race was officially for colleges and universities located in New Jersey
and further north. But Swarthmore’s mouse registered a faster time than
every mouse officially entered in the contest.
The robots had to explore the maze, determine the fastest way through, and
make a quick trip from start to finish. Final scores were a combination of
the time each robot took on its fastest run through the maze, plus a
penalty for time spent exploring.
Unclear rules on how the exploring penalty should be calculated made it
impossible to tell whether Swarthmore had defeated Lafayette College,
another Philadelphia school that was not officially eligible on Saturday.
Swarthmore’s only obvious defeat came against Mitee Mouse 3, which is one
of the world’s fastest robotic mice and was exhibited at Saturday’s contest.
Robots entered in Saturday’s contest came from Merrimac College, the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the University of
Massachusetts at Lowell. Among the entries was a mouse that played music
as it travelled through the maze; it got lost and wandered about the maze
playing the theme song from “Mission Impossible.”
Andrew Brown ’97, Allison Marsh ’98, John Rieffel ’99 and Noah Salzman ’98
programmed Swarthmore’s mouse under the direction of Silvio Eberhardt,
assistant professor of engineering. Swarthmore captured first place in a
March 22 contest at Drexel University.
*****
SPORTS UPDATE
1) Wall and Warner win McCabe Mile
Danielle Wall ’98 and Cameron Warner ’97 won the tenth annual McCabe Mile
in 6:49.1 and 6:26.9 respectively out of a field of approximately 35
students and prospective students. The competitors were paddocked behind
the start line by class year (youngest at the back of the line) and the
18-lap race was started with the slamming of a book. Holding with
tradition, both winners were presented with large rolls of Scott toilet
paper as prizes in honor of Thomas B. McCabe, college benefactor and
reportedly the one-time chairman of Scott Paper Company.
*****
2) Laine and Tootell top Division I and II athletes
Catherine Laine ’98 and Mason Tootell ’99 proved themselves high-caliber
athletes, beating out competitors from all divisions in the Millersville
Heptathlon/Decathlon over the weekend. Laine placed third overall in the
heptathlon with 3800 points. She won both the 200m and 800m by a large
margin, and set personal bests in the 100 hurdles and the long jump.
Tootell barely trailed the first-place competitor going into the last
event, the 1500m run, but ran well enough (4:46) to decisively win his
section of the decathlon with a solid 5780 points. He won the open 400m by
two seconds in 51.5 seconds, and also won the long jump with a 20’2″ jump.
Tootell also set a personal best in the javelin with a throw of 167′.
*****
3) The weekend’s results
BASEBALL
Western Maryland 4, Swarthmore 3
Western Maryland 11, Swarthmore 3
The baseball team played the makeup of its doubleheader rained out from
Saturday. Steve Farneth ’00 allowed no earned runs in the first game while
striking out six. Jeremy Bonder ’97 and Joe Aleffi ’00 each went 3-7 on the
day and scored four runs between them.
SOFTBALL
Allentown 7, Swarthmore 6
Michelle Walsh ’98 led the Garnet with a perfect day at the plate. She went
4-4 with a two-run double.
WOMEN’S TENNIS
Dickinson 5, Swarthmore 4
Neena Shenai ’98 and Wendy Kemp ’99 won in singles. Dickinson forfeited one
singles point and one doubles point.
MEN’S LACROSSE
Dickinson 10, Swarthmore 1
Pat Donaghy ’97 scored the lone goal for the Garnet with :03 left on the
clock to spoil the Red Devil’s shutout.
WOMEN’S LACROSSE
Gettysburg 9, Swarthmore 8
The Garnet couldn’t hold onto a 7-4 lead in wet and muddy conditions on
Clothier Field Saturday afternoon. Betsy Rosenbaum ’98 recorded a hat trick
for the Garnet. The loss ends the Garnet’s hope for an unbeaten conference
season.
WOMEN’S RUGBY
Swarthmore 0 Bryn Mawr 0
Swarthmore 22 American 0
Women’s rugby played a round robin against American and Bryn Mawr. The 4
tries scored in the second game were by Becky Snyder ’98, Alexa Miller ’00,
Amber Halsey ’98 and Andrea Barnett ’97. The 2 point conversion kick was
made by Meghan Brennan ’00. The B-side played a wet, yet consistently
strong game and tied American with no score. The women ruggers are now
5-0-1.
MEN’S ULTIMATE
Princeton Tournament
Saturday:
Cornell 13 Swarthmore 6
Swarthmore 13 Fordham 1
Swarthmore 14 Salisbury St. 12
Swarthmore 13 MIT 3
Harvard 13 Swarthmore 7
Sunday:
Princeton Alumni 13 Swarthmore 6
Through all manner of winds and rain, Swarthmore’s Swarming Earthworms gave
a tremendously spirited showing at this weekends Princeton tournament.
Fighting for every point against such teams as nationally ranked Cornell
and Harvard, and outdistancing opponents Fordham and MIT, the team rose to
its highest level of play yet this season. The crowning moment, however,
was clearly the hard fought victory over Swarthmore’s newest rival,
Salisbury State. The Buzz had eliminated Swat from last weekend’s Spring
Phling, and came out strong again, taking the first half 7-2. But thanks
to impressive hammers by Sasha Claton ’98 and an incredible d-block by Rob
Monk ’97, the Earthworms swarmed back to tie the game 9-9, and went on to
win by two.
TRACK AND FIELD
Swarthmore women’s track and field 72, Johns Hopkins 49
Swarthmore men’s track and field 93, Johns Hopkins 40
Even with a constant rain throughout the meet and without two of their top
athletes, Swarthmore track and field crushed Johns Hopkins in their annual
dual meet. The women’s team failed to capture first place in five of 16
events, while the men lost only four events.
The winners for the women:
Desiree Peterkin ’00 in the long jump and triple jump, and as a leg of
the 4x100m relay along with Danielle Duffy ’98, Jill Wildonger ’97, and
Wonda Joseph ’00.
Allison Schirmer ’97 took the 3000m in 12:11.4.
Stephanie Herring ’99 won the high jump, the 100m hurdles, and 400m
hurdles, as well as helping the 4x400m relay to a decisive victory with
Duffy, Wildonger, and Danielle Wall ’98.
Wildonger won both the open 200m and 400m dashes, while Duffy won the
open 100m in 12.9 seconds.
The winners for the men:
Dave Lane ’97 won the 100m dash and long jump in his first meet of the
season.
Brian Baird ’99 won the pole vault against no competition, as did Eric
Pakurar ’97 in the high jump. Pakurar also won the 400m hurdles.
The ill-fated 4x200m relay team of Reuben Canada ’99, Amber Thompson
’97, Walid Gellad ’97, and Pakurar won their event in a time that would
have set the school record by five seconds, but had the honor taken away
from them by an official’s error.
Thompson won the open 400m; Canada won the 110 high hurdles; Gellad
won the open 200m dash.
Liam O’Neill ’00 won the 1500m run, while Wyn Strodtbeck ’98 won the
800m run and Phil Jones ’99 won the 5000m run.
The 4×400 relay team of Al Molnar ’97, Thompson, Gellad, and Pakurar won
the event easily.
*****
4) Tonight’s and tomorrow’s contests
TODAY
The golf team faces Drexel and Messiah on their home course in a 1 p.m. contest.
The softball team travels to Albright for a 4 p.m. game.
TUESDAY (15 April)
The women’s tennis team hosts Muhlenberg at 4 p.m.
The baseball team travels to Muhlenberg for a 3:30 p.m. contest.
Women’s lacrosse also travels to Muhlenberg for 4 p.m. game.
*****
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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
Weatherman
Rafi Dowty
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This concludes today’s report.
Copyright 1997 by The Daily Gazette. All rights reserved.