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
Wednesday, November 26, 1997
Volume 2, Number 57
NEWS IN BRIEF
1) Group seeks committee on socially responsible investing
2) Bloom promises aid for football team
3) Forum for a Free Press chartered
4) World news roundup
SPORTS IN BRIEF
1) Late results
2) Today’s and this weekend’s contests
WEATHER FORECAST
Today: Partly sunny, windy. High near 60.
Don’t read the weather — it doesn’t matter today. Go home.
Tonight: Becoming cloudier and windier. Low around 35.
Why are you still reading? Go have a great Thanksgiving!
EXTENDED HOLIDAY FORECAST
Thanksgiving Day: Mostly turkey with a chance of scattered gravy.
Friday – Sunday: Widespread sleep likely, then more turkey.
THANKSGIVING HIATUS
Today’s edition of The Daily Gazette is the last before Thanksgiving break.
We will resume publication on the morning of Monday, December 1.
NEWS REPORT
1) Group seeks committee on socially responsible investing
Members of Conscious Consumers met Monday with President Al Bloom to
propose the creation of a committee to oversee the role of social
responsibility in Swarthmore’s investments.
Group member Corey Datz-Greenberg ’00 said the proposed committee, modeled
after one at Williams College, would investigate firms Swarthmore invests
in and would vote Swarthmore’s proxies. It would also serve as a liaison
between the Investment Committee and the community, and in extreme cases it
would recommend selling stocks of companies deemed socially irresponsible
based on Quaker values.
“The community ought to have a say in the College’s investments,”
Datz-Greenberg said.
Bloom asked the students to submit a formal proposal to the Board of
Managers, Datz-Greenberg said. The board is responsible for guiding
investment practices, according to College Treasurer Suzanne Welsh. “The
Investment Committee does not itself make the investment guidelines,” she
said.
Although the College does not currently make social responsibility a
priority in its investment decisions, it has in the past: Between 1986 and
1993, to oppose apartheid in South Africa, the College sold off stocks in
companies conducting business there.
The board has traditionally been hesitant to make social responsibility a
priority, said Welsh, because “anytime you restrict choices on the market,
it should mean that you’ll get a smaller return on your investment.” She
explained, “This affects the size of the endowment …(which) is here to
serve not just present generations of students, but future ones as well.”
“To the extent that students know what our investment strategies are, they
are educated by them,” said Barry Schwartz, associate provost and professor
of psychology. “This is a moral cost that is not being counted. Now I’m not
saying there should be a price on it — I don’t even know how it would be
calculated — but taking it into account will change the debate
dramatically.”
Another key issue is how the College can best accomplish social change,
said Welsh. “I frankly don’t think companies would even know if we divested
funds from them — our holdings are quite small,” she said. “The reason
that the divestment from South Africa worked was because it was part of a
national movement.” She suggested that Swarthmore might be more effective
as a “proactive” shareholder, voting its shares to change company policies.
This is the second article in a series on the endowment. Next week: social
responsibility and Haverford’s investments.
*****
2) Bloom promises aid for football team
President Al Bloom said he and Provost Jennie Keith have pledged to help
the football team break its 20-game losing streak. “I am personally very
committed to doing what I can to insure that we have a strong football team
program,” Bloom said.
An extra assistant will join head coach Karl Miran to help recruit players.
Bloom also expects that in the near future an alumnus will commit to
building a new sports complex with enclosed tennis courts and an improved
weight room.
Bloom became involved with the effort to help the football program after
Keith and members of the football team came to him with their concerns.
Other athletic teams have also received financial help from Bloom and Keith
over the past year. The men’s lacrosse team now has a full-time coach, and
the basketball court got a new floor earlier this semester.
*****
3) Forum for a Free Press chartered
Charter Committee on Sunday created a new student organization, the Forum
for a Free Press, that will oversee funding for student publications,
according to Charter Chair Josh Kramer ’00.
The forum will, among other things, make it easier for new publications to
get started, said Budget Committee Treasurer Vincent Jones ’98, who
proposed the forum along with Student Publications Coordinator Sam
Schulhofer-Wohl ’98. Since costs related to student publications make up
one-third of the Student Activity Fund, it makes sense to put people who
have intimate knowledge of the publications process in charge of the money,
Jones said.
“It’s going to streamline the way publications are chartered and funded at
Swarthmore College,” Kramer agreed.
Of the Forum’s five members, three will be appointed by Student Council,
and two will be elected from the various student publications. As soon as
SC selects its three appointees, an election procedure will be determined,
Jones said.
The group was chartered after a discussion of about an hour and a half,
Kramer said. In the end, no major changes were made to the charter, only
minor typographical and formatting adjustments.
*****
4) World news roundup
COHEN ACCUSES IRAQ OF EVADING INSPECTIONS, POSSIBLY STOCKPILING NERVE GAS
Defense Secretary William Cohen on Tuesday charged that Iraq is spying on
U.N. weapons inspectors to learn in advance which facilities they will
visit, then hiding sensitive equipment from the inspectors. And he said
Iraq may have accumulated 20 to 200 tons of VX nerve gas, enough to kill
every person on the planet. U.N. officials said that Iraq has sufficient
ingredients to make that much nerve gas but that there’s no evidence the
chemical has actually been produced.
EX-BODYGUARD SAYS WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA STABBED TEEN
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of South African President
Nelson Mandela, stabbed a teen accused of being a police informant, one of
her former bodyguards told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on
Tuesday. The boy was found dead after a beating in 1988. The bodyguard,
Katiza Cebekhulu, said he saw Madikizela-Mandela plunge a shiny object
into a body and later realized the body was that of Stompie Seipei. In
1991, Madikizela-Mandela was convicted on charges of kidnapping and being
an accessory to assault in connection with the incident. The commission,
charged with investigating apartheid-era abuses, is holding a week of
hearings on the activities of her bodyguards, the Mandela United Football
Club.
IN OTHER NEWS …
Hours after Teamsters President Ron Carey announced he would take an unpaid
leave of absence, a federal oversight board filed internal union charges
against him; a court-appointed monitor found last week that Carey had
violated campaign fund-raising rules, an allegation the union leader has
denied. … Britons of all political stripes are hissing at one other over
the whereabouts of the nation’s first cat, Humphrey, a stray who turned up
at 10 Downing Street in 1989; Prime Minister Tony Blair claims that the
aging puss has been put out to pasture at the home of an aide, but his
opponents allege that Blair’s wife had the cat put to sleep because she’s
allergic to it and that recent photos of Humphrey are fakes.
*****
SPORTS UPDATE
1) Late results
Results from the Tuesday night contests of the men’s and women’s swim teams
and the men’s and women’s basketball teams were not available at deadline.
Look for full coverage in the Dec. 1 edition of The Daily Gazette.
*****
2) Today’s and this weekend’s contests
TODAY
No contests are scheduled for today.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
Men’s basketball travels to Rochester for the Chuck Resler Tournament.
*****
Interested in reporting or writing for the Gazette? Just want to tell us
what you think? Contact the Board of Editors at
gazette-management@student-publications.swarthmore.edu.
Got a news tip for us?
E-mail gazette-news@student-publications.swarthmore.edu.
Want to contact our sports editors?
E-mail gazette-sports@student-publications.swarthmore.edu.
The Daily Gazette
Board of Editors
Fred Bush
Kate Doty
Aarti Iyer
Karen Lloyd
Lorrin Nelson
Sam Schulhofer-Wohl
Staff Writers
Julie Falk
Jennifer Klein
Trang Pham
Weatherman
Rafi Dowty
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This concludes today’s report.
Copyright 1997 by The Daily Gazette. All rights reserved.