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, February 3, 1998
Volume 2, Number 72
NEWS IN BRIEF
1) Student Council subcommittees report on their activities
2) International Club hosts party to stir up campus
3) World news roundup
SPORTS IN BRIEF
1) Today’s and tomorrow’s events
WEATHER FORECAST
Today: Overcast, breezy. High near 50.
Look sharp in a mock-turtle with matching sweater-vest.
Tonight: Snow likely. Low around 30.
You look good now, but put a coat on before you catch cold.
Wednesday: Snow, mixing with rain. High of 40.
NEWS REPORT
1) Student Council subcommittees report on their activities
Student Council’s Academics, Facilities, and Student Life working groups
gave reports on their progress at the SC meeting Monday night. SC plans to
survey the student body to determine its most pressing concerns.
According to group Co-Chair Ashwin Rao ’99, the Academics group will work on
projects such as placing course syllabi on the College web page and
implementing
a standard test return policy for all departments. The group will discuss the
implementation of a course evaluation booklet, intended to let students see
how
other students have felt about various courses. The group will also examine
ways to improve the class lottery system. Rao plans to meet with Registrar
Martin Warner today to discuss these issues.
The Student Life group will focus on extending hours in McCabe and Kohlberg
Coffee Bar and will attempt to ensure that Sharples remains open until 7:15
for
dinner on weeknights, according to SC member Mariel Acevedo-Diaz ’01. The
group will also work to maintain Tarble’s $3.75 dinner credit after 8 p.m.
The Facilities group is working with Larry Schall, associate vice-president
for facilities and services, on several projects, according to SC member
Brian Burnheter ’01. Some of the projects include placing bins in dorms for
smuggled Sharples dishes and placing ashtrays at all building entrances,
public spaces, and dorms.
In other news, SC is hosting a meeting for students to discuss the ML
morning shuttle. This meeting will be held on Wednesday at 10 p.m. in the
ML lounge.
*****
2) International Club hosts party to stir up campus
On Saturday, February 7th, the International Club will host a “girls ask
boys,
girls ask girls, and boys ask boys…but boys can’t ask girls” party in Upper
Tarble. Unfortunately, judging from Gazette interviews, much of the
Swarthmore male population is still not taken. “No one’s asked me yet so I’m
kinda sulky about the whole thing.” said Tucker Zengerle ’00. Of all the men
polled, only Geoff Anisman ’00, was unconcerned about the rules for obtaining
dates. “It doesn’t make much of a difference for someone like me since women
throw themselves at my feet everyday,” Anisman explained.
In an attempt to assist the many hapless males, IC co-president Ali Erdem ’00
has unveiled a plan to encourage date proposals. The IC will be handing out
“I’m
not taken” signs in Sharples to students who feel they need some help. In
addition, those without dates at the formal need not worry: “matchmaking
services will be provided at the beginning of the party,” explained Erdem.
According to Erdem, the idea for the party originated last semester when a
friend
complained about the monotony of the boys-ask-girls formal process. Some
senior women do not believe that the new plan is very innovative either, as
Allison Marsh ’98 noted “it doesn’t matter because the guys [here] never ask
girls anyway.”
The planning process had some rough edges, however. Josh Kramer ’00, a
member of the Student Activities Committee, was bothered that the IC, after
receiving money from SAC, approached the Budget Committee and obtained
additional money from them as well. “The BC should have listened to its
more experienced members when they [said] that the party should not be
funded [by the BC]. I hope that in the future the BC will realize that
funding parties is SAC’s job,” Kramer said.
Erdem felt that the IC didn’t receive enough money from SAC and was forced to
go the BC as a last resort. “If SAC had given us enough money for a formal we
wouldn’t have gone to BC,” Erdem stated. Both Kramer and Erdem acknowledged
that a factor in SAC’s decision of how much money to allocate was that SAC is
hosting their own formal the following weekend.
*****
3) World news roundup
CLINTON PROPOSES FIRST U.S. BUDGET SURPLUS IN 30 YEARS
President Clinton proclaimed the beginning of an era of federal surpluses
as he
unveiled a $1.73 trillion budget Monday, marking the first US budget
surplus in
30 years. Clinton’s budget plan calls for expanding the federal
government’s role
in providing child care, increasing medical research, lowering the age
limits for
Medicare and helping to hire 100,000 new teachers to reduce class sizes in
the
nation’s schools. Overall, the 1999 budget actually proposes a 3.9 percent
increase from this year’s spending levels. Republicans were skeptical of
Clinton’s plan, believing it to represent a return to big government and
tax-and-spend politics.
OPPOSITION CALLS FOR BOYCOTT IN KENYAN PARLIAMENT
In response to over 100 killings that have taken place in central Kenya in
the last
three weeks, opposition legislators called for a boycott of the Kenyan
Parliament
until the government ends the politically motivated attacks. The 50
opposition
legislators said that, unless the killings cease, they will refuse to swear
in new
members or elect a speaker for the new Parliament when it opens today.
Diplomats, researchers, and other observers of the situation believe that the
political violence is directed at members of Kenya’s largest tribe, the
Kikuyu.
IN OTHER NEWS…
A senior Palestinian official said Monday that Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat
had rejected a plan presented by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for
Israel to turn over 10 percent more of the West Bank to the Palestinians in
three
phases. … Pennsylvania-based Punxsutawney Phil, America’s most famous
groundhog, saw his shadow Monday, a legendary sign of six more weeks of
winter. … Convicted killer Karla Faye Tucker stands to be the first woman
executed in Texas since 1863, after a state parole board and a federal judge
refused Tucker’s last-second plea to commute her sentence to life in
prison. …
Iraq denied Russian reports that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had agreed to
allow UN weapons inspections of eight off-limit presidential sites in Iraq.
… The
“Army of God,” a radical anti abortion group that claimed responsibility for
bombing an Atlanta abortion clinic and gay nightclub last year, has now
declared
responsibility for the recent fatal bombing at a Birmingham abortion clinic.
*****
SPORTS UPDATE:
1) Today’s and tomorrow’s events
TODAY
There are no contests scheduled for today.
TOMORROW
Women’s Basketball travels to Haverford for a 6:00pm game.
Men’s Basketball travels to Haverford for a 8:00pm game.
*****
Interested in reporting or writing for the Gazette? Just want to tell us
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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
Mary Elizabeth Alvarez
Ross Bowling
Massey Burke
Fred Bush
Steve Dawson
Lorrin Nelson
Cathy Polinsky
Staff Writers
Elizabeth Weber
Aarti Iyer
Tamala Montgomery
Josh Bess
Nathanael Stulman
Weatherman
Rafi Dowty
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This concludes today’s report.
Copyright 1998 by The Daily Gazette. All rights reserved.