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 23, 1999
Volume 3, Number 95
NEWS IN BRIEF
1) Mike Wallace visits Swat, talks ethics
2) Allspice goes down, CS department at a standstill
3) “Spring Queering” makes for big week
4) Alarming situation not as bad as it looked
5) World news roundup
6) Campus events
SPORTS IN BRIEF
1) Golf wins season opener with room to spare
2) Men’s volleyball raises record to 3-0
3) World sports roundup
4) Today’s and tomorrow’s contests
WEATHER FORECAST
Today: Mostly cloudy. Highs around 50.
So we have the vernal equinox, and temperatures promptly drop
back down.
Tonight: Cloudy. Lows near 40.
That’s a good thing, in a way…
Tomorrow: Showers with some sun, high in the low 50.
Because now that I don’t feel the urge to bask out in the sun all day,
I can almost make myself go to class.
NEWS REPORT
1) “Spring Queering” makes for big week
A group of students led by the Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) and the Swarthmore
Queer Union (SQU), asserting on a banner to be hung from the Tarble balcony
that “It’s Time to Clean Out Your Closet,” have organized several events and
lectures this week to raise awareness of queer issues.
To celebrate the week, dubbed “Spring Queering,” the cryptic “CQW” buttons and
queer-friendly stickers distributed last fall in the wake of the IC vandalism
will again be available in Parrish. Queer-related speakers on campus this week
include the directors of “Treyf: A Jewish Lesbian Odyssey,” a film that will be
shown Wednesday night in LPAC, and writer Michael Lowenthal who will speak in
the IC on Thursday. The culminating event will be a Saturday evening talk in
the Scheuer Room by the transgender writer and activist Leslie Feinberg. In
keeping with the transgender theme, Tuesday night’s QSA meeting will be a
viewing of the popular French film “Ma Vie en Rose,” and Wednesday night’s SQU
meeting welcomes the whole campus to celebrate and play games.
“We’re hoping it serves a function something like coming out week in the fall,
to raise folks’ awareness about queer issues and get them thinking for a week,
in a fun, thoughtful way,” said organizer Talia Young ’01. Young and the other
students were spurred to create Spring Queering the by the decision of the
Sager Committee not to hold its annual Symposium in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender studies, and instead to focus on establishing a Queer Studies
concentration.
*****
2) Allspice goes down, CS department at a standstill
For at least the next few days, the Computer Science department will be without
its main server while a massive reworking process is underway. This move comes
in response to the multiple recent break-ins to the UNIX systems. Unauthorized
users were able to access files, and in order to remedy the situation, the CS
staff needs to start from scratch–with a twist.
Right now, the system is working just fine, but precautions are being taken to
ensure that whoever broke in the first time won’t be able to do so again. To do
this, everything is being restored from old backup tapes, and all files are
being individually inspected. The efforts are also due to the department’s
desire to ensure that no student files will be lost. The shutdown affects
nearly 300 members of the Swarthmore community, most of whom have no desire to
see their work lost.
Because of the magnitude of the overhaul, which includes nearly 15 computers
overall (the main server, allspice, as well as all its clients), the CS
department has restricted student access to the server for at least the next
few days. Although professors are giving extensions on all assignments, many
students are frustrated at their inability to access their files. However,
some, like Kuan Chin ’02, are not at all disappointed with the shutdown. “This
is cool– now I don’t have to do my work!” he said.
System administrators say that steps are being taken to ensure that this
problem will be solved as quickly as possible, and that the server should be
back up by the end of the week.
*****
3) Alarming situation not as bad as it looked
For those who noticed the two police cars and an ambulance sitting outside
Parrish around noon Monday, you can stop wondering–the situation was a false
alarm of sorts.
Gazette insiders were able to learn only the following information from Public
Safety: the initial emergency was that a Parrish employee fell ill, but the
sickness turned out to be not as much of an emergency as was originally
suspected. No other information was given as of press time, but the situation
seems to be well under control.
*****
4) Mike Wallace visits Swat, talks ethics
Last year, Swarthmore’s Visibility Task Force was created to help increase
campus recognition, among other things. One aspect of the task force is the new
Swarthmore Media Fellows program, which invites one prominent news figure to
visit the campus each semester. Last Thursday, this program kicked off with the
visit of Swat’s first Media Fellow, Mike Wallace.
Wallace, co-host of “60 Minutes” on CBS, was joined by David Gelber, ’64, who
serves as Executive Producer for Ed Bradley. Gelber is a member of the
aforementioned task force and was instrumental in arranging for Wallace’s
visit. He will also help bring future media fellows to Swarthmore, starting
with Tom Bettag, Executive Producer for “Nightline,” who is slated for next
fall.
Wallace spent most of the day on campus interacting with students and faculty.
He started off by visiting a class in Trotter that was discussing Vietnam,
where Wallace served as a correspondent in the 70s. He went from there to a
lunch with selected student journalists, where conversation ranged from
thoughts on journalism as a career to thoughts on Swarthmore as a school ideal
for future journalists.
Wallace’s day got really interesting when he became part of a heated debate
over the decision to show videotape of Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s lethal injection of
a Michigan man dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease during a “60 Minutes” broadcast
that he hosted. The debate took place in Cynthia Halpern’s Ethics and Public
Policy class. Wallace offered in his defense the following question: “Where, if
not on television’s most respected newsmagazine, can life-and-death issues be
explored?”
Wallace’s day concluded with a meeting with four faculty members distinguished
by their pertinent work in the field of journalism, and dinner at President Al
Bloom’s house. Overall, the day was a success for Swarthmore. Wallace said that
he had heard of the school’s prestigious reputation for excellence in liberal
politics, but he came away even more impressed with the students he had the
chance to interact with.
*****
5) World news roundup
NO END IN SIGHT FOR FIGHTING IN SERBIA; MICROSOFT TO BEGIN SETTLEMENT TALKS…
Talks between US envoy Richard Holbrooke and Yugoslavian President Slobodan
Milosevic early Tuesday failed to produce an agreement. NATO may now decide
that military action against Serbia is the only way to end fighting between the
ethnic Albanians and Serbs. Milosevic called the peace talks in Paris a fraud
because the US and its European partners predetermined the content of any
agreement without even consulting Yugoslavia. … By refusing to review two
teenagers’ rights cases, the Supreme Court allowed Charlottesville, VA to keep
its curfew of children under 17 years of age, but refused to reinstate an
Indiana school’s policy of testing all students suspended for disciplinary
reason, regardless of any suspicion of drug use by individual students. …
Tropical Cyclone Vance pounded the west coast of Australia with heavy rains and
winds of up to 140 mph. So far only one death has been reported, but the storm
has caused extensive damage and forced thousands from their homes. …
Microsoft Corp. will begin settlement talks soon with the government in its
anti-trust suit. After months of courtroom fighting the two sides have many key
differences to resolve before an agreement can be reached.
*****
6) Campus events
Unarmed Stage Combat Workshop (or, How-to-Gouge-Out-His-Eye-and-Still
Have-a-Friendship) Workshop, by Bruce Kuhn
Upper Tarble, 4:00 p.m.
Semantics Lecture by Maribel Romero, University of Pennsylvania
Kohlberg 115, 4:15 p.m.
“Beyond Patronage: Emperor Song Huizong (r. 1100-1125) and Art Politics,” by
Patricia Ebrey, Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton
Scheuer Room, 4:15 p.m.
Merrill Lynch Private Client Services Information Session
Bond Memorial Hall, 7:00 p.m.
“Accounts of Luke” by Bruce Kuhn
Upper Tarble, 7:30 p.m.
“Planetary Exploration Using Spacecraft–to Saturn, Jupiter, and Beyond,” by
Dr. William H. Ward
Scheuer Room, 7:30 p.m.
Solidaridad Movie: “Romero”
Trotter 203, 8:00 p.m.
Swing Practice
Upper Tarble, 9:30 p.m.
*****
SPORTS UPDATE
1) Golf wins season opener with room to spare
The golf team’s first match yesterday against the University of the
Sciences resulted in a 345-244 victory. James Dolan ’02 shot a 79, Matt
Kaufman ’01 had 81 and Darby Kopp ’99 had 84.
*****
2) Men’s volleyball raises record to 3-0
The Men’s Volleyball Team traveled to Ursinus last Saturday for their match
against the local college. With a final score of 3-0, the team raised its
season record to 3-0.
After starting out with a strong 15-6 set, Swarthmore — still playing without
a coach — seemed to lose focus a little and surrendered a few points to lack
of concentration. Nevertheless, the team was able to pull itself together and
regain control on the court, finishing the second set with a score of 15-3. In
the final set, Ursinus managed to turn the game to their advantage and Swat
found itself behind 8-14. However, and not only due to a flawless serving
streak by R.J. Berger’s ’02, the Swatties evened out to 14-14 and finally won
the set 17-15.
*****
3) World sports roundup
WOW – NO NBA OR MEN’S COLLEGE BBALL? THERE ARE OTHER SPORTS?
Yes, there are other sports, even other genders. Duke is in the Final Four.
No, I know you knew that already. This time we’re talking about the female
Blue Devils, who upset three-time defending champion Tennessee 69-63 to win the
East Regional. They now travel to San Jose to face the winner of the Iowa
State – Georgia game. …Back two days earlier than expected from neck injury,
Wayne Gretzky was nonetheless unable to help his New York Rangers past the
Tampa Bay Lightning as they fell 6-3, with The Great One held scoreless during
nearly 12 minutes worth of work. …Mike Tyson is awaiting judgement in an
Indiana prison on his future jail time to be served. A judge may reduce the
former heavyweight champion’s one-year sentence for assault in Maryland to time
already served, Tyson would then have to begin serving 60 days for violating
terms of his Indiana probation for a 1992 rape conviction. …Pete Sampras
regained his No. 1 ranking from Carlos Moya with a win at the Lipton
Championships. He is now seven weeks shy of Ivan Lendl’s record of 270 total
weeks at the top spot.
*****
4) Today’s and tomorrow’s contests
TODAY
Women’s tennis visits Washington at 3:00 p.m.
Softball visits Neumann at 3:00 p.m.
Women’s lacrosse hosts Washington at 4:00 p.m.
TOMORROW
Men’s lacrosse hosts Goucher at 4:00 p.m.
*****
Interested in reporting or writing for the Gazette?
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E-mail gazette-news@student-publications.swarthmore.edu.
Editorial Board
Jeff Heckelman
Melanie Hirsch
Claire Phillips-Thoryn
Staff Writers
Jack Borrebach
Ben Geller
Joseph Genereux
Megan Haberle
Lindsay Herron
Alma Ortiz
Jessica Salvatore
Pete Schilla
Contributing Writers
Martin Krafft
Tim Stewart-Winter
Weathercaster
Melanie Hirsch
Online Editor
Lorrin Nelson
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This concludes today’s report.
