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
Friday, October 22, 1999
Volume 4, Number 25
NEWS IN BRIEF
1) Swarthmore to Use Michener Bequest to Strengthen Faculty Research
2) World news roundup
3) Campus events
SPORTS IN BRIEF
1) Field hockey falls to Rowen University
2) World sports roundup
3) This weekend’s contests
WEATHER FORECAST
Today: Sunshine, afternoon clouds. High 60-65.
Don’t worry about the incipient rain!
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, showers likely. Lows around 50.
Worry about your incipient papers due!
Saturday: Cloudy and breezy with showers. High around 50.
Juuuust kidding. Don’t worry at all! Go party! There are enough to choose
from!
Sunday: Cloudy, windy, rainy. High’s in the high 40s, low 50s.
With this weather, the SQU party’s theme is very appropriate: Under the Sea.
*****
NEWS REPORT
1) Swarthmore to Use Michener Bequest to Strengthen Faculty Research
Swarthmore College, the primary beneficiary of the estate of the late James
Michener, is devoting the bulk of the funds to the support of faculty research
and development as a means of furthering the College’s central mission in
undergraduate education.
Michener, a 1929 graduate, bequeathed his residual estate and the rights to all
his literary property to the College upon his death in 1997. As with his
previous gifts to Swarthmore, Michener entrusted the College to determine how
best to use the funds.
Michener, who once called his Swarthmore education his “passport into a wild
and vivid life of the mind,” made gifts to the College totaling approximately
$7.2 million during his lifetime. Before his death, he also named Swarthmore
the beneficiary of his residual estate, which totals roughly $6.5 million. In
addition, he bequeathed the rights to all his literary property to his alma
mater, entitling Swarthmore to royalties on sales of his 43 books, including
such bestsellers as Alaska, Hawaii, and Space. Those royalties are expected to
amount to several hundred thousand dollars a year, depending on sales and other
activity in the marketplace.
Swarthmore will use the majority of the $6.5 million to support faculty
research and professional development through increased sabbatical leaves. The
College currently provides professors one-semester leave from teaching every
fourth year, and a select number are awarded a second semester for particularly
compelling projects. With the Michener gift, Swarthmore expects to increase the
number of full-year leaves awarded annually from eight to 12.
In addition to teaching full course loads and working with students outside of
class, Swarthmore’s approximately 170 professors produce several dozen books a
year as well as hundreds of research articles. “Support of active faculty
scholarship is essential to the finest undergraduate education,” President Al
Bloom said. “Through their scholarship, faculty members offer powerful models
to students of what it means to actively engage the creation of knowledge.
Through inviting students to participate with them in that scholarship, they
transform their students into colleagues in the articulation, testing, and
shaping of ideas. “James Michener’s life and works exemplify the passion for
rigorous scholarly inquiry in the service of a better world that is at the
heart of the Swarthmore tradition. Nothing would give Jim greater satisfaction
than supporting faculty in that scholarly inquiry.”
In addition to supporting faculty research leaves, an amount of $1 million from
the Michener estate is being used to upgrade a position in the Mathematics
Department to retain an extraordinary young faculty member in a tenure-track
position. That professor is Garikai Campbell, a 1990 Swarthmore graduate who
received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Rutgers University in 1998.
*****
2) World news roundup
Rockets slammed into the country of Chechnya today, killing more than 100 and
wounding approximately 400. The Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow denied
responsibility. Chechnya has been independent since 1996; however, the Russian
government’s tanks and army have recently begun moving in on their capital.
…The fully preserved carcass of a 20,000-year-old woolly mammoth has been
discovered in Siberia. The recovery will allow scientists to analyze the fur,
organs and other soft tissues of an animal that has been extinct for 10,000
years; the team hopes to recover DNA or even sperm from the carcass and either
attempt to clone a mammoth or artificially inseminate a modern-day elephant.
…ABC, which once faced the prospect of paying $5.5 million in damages over
its undercover probe of Food Lion supermarkets, yesterday saw the verdict
slashed to a mere $2. …Eighteen months since Clinton became the first
president to visit Africa for more than a refueling stop, Nigeria is on its way
to becoming a democratic nation, much to the happiness of the American
administration. …Julius Nyerere, the founder of the Republic of Tanzania,
died last week; his nation continues to mourn the death of a leader who made
one of the world’s top 25 poorest countries into one the top 25 politically
stable.
*****
3) Campus events
FRIDAY
ICC and SQU Alumni Lecture by Patrick Egan ’92, Assistant Deputy Mayor of
Philadelphia
ICC, 12:30 p.m.
Spanish Table
Sharples Room 4, 12:30 p.m.
Rotaract Club Meeting
Parrish Commons Conference Area, 1:00 p.m.
Telecommunications Open House
Parrish Parlors, 1:00 p.m.
Shabbat Services and Dinner
Bond Memorial Hall, 5:30 p.m.
Contra Dance
Upper Tarble, 7:00 p.m.
Vertigo-go Improv Show
Mephistos Lounge, 7:00 p.m.
Swarthmore Christian Fellowship Meeting
Kohlberg 116, 7:30 p.m.
Film Showing: “Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me”
LPAC Cinema, 7:30 and 10:00 p.m.
International Club Movie Night
Kohlberg 228, 8:00 p.m.
SATURDAY
Film Showing: “Go”
LPAC Cinema, 7:30 and 10:00 p.m.
Mixed Company Concert with guest a capella group the Johns Hopkins University’s
Vocal Chords
Bond Memorial Hall, 8:00 p.m.
Orchestra 2001
Lang Concert Hall, 8:00 p.m.
SUNDAY
Celebration of Mass
Bond Memorial Hall, 10:30 p.m.
Protestant Worship
Bond 2nd floor worship room, 4:00 p.m.
Mock Trial Meeting
Kohlberg 201, 7:00 p.m.
Group Meditation (All Faiths Welcome)
Bond 2nd floor, 9:00 p.m.
Student Academic Mentor Training
Parrish Parlors-West, 9:00 p.m.
*****
SPORTS UPDATE
1) Field Hockey team falls to Rowan University
The Garnet field hockey team lost an exciting non-conference match to Rowan
University on Thursday, with a final score of 4 to 2. After a scoreless first
half, R.U. jumped to a 3-0 lead. Kim Cariello scored the first goal for the
Garnet, assisted by Erika Williams and Kristen English. In the last 7 minutes
of the game, Lindsay VanSciver scored Garnet’s second goal, assisted by Julie
Finnegan. In the last 4 minutes of the game, R.U. scored their fourth goal to
cement their win.
*****
2) World sports roundup
A Boston opthamologist has offered to give free eye surgery to any Major League
Baseball umpire. This comes in response to the recent AL Championship Series
between the Red Sox and the Yankees, when Boston fans, including the doctor,
watched in horror as the umpires admittedly blew three calls over the five
games which eventually led to the Yankees’ victory. …Many members of the Mets
organization are irate at veterans Rickey Henderson and Bobby Bonilla after
their reported actions during Tuesday’s deciding Game 6 of the NLCS.
Apparently, the two players left the dugout late in the game after they were
removed and sat in the clubhouse playing cards while their teammates
desperately tried to keep their season alive. …The starting pitchers have
been announced for Game One of the World Series on Saturday. Atlanta’s Tom
Glavine will face New York’s Orlando Hernandez.
*****
3) This weekend’s contests
TODAY
There are no contests scheduled for today.
SATURDAY
Field Hockey Alumni Game, 12:00 noon
Football vs. Dickinson College, 1:00 p.m.
W. Soccer vs. Gettysburg College, 1:00 p.m.
SUNDAY
There are no contests scheduled for today.
*****
Quote of the day: “That was the problem with reading: you always had to pick up
again at the very thing that had made you stop reading the day
before.”–Nicholson Baker, “The Mezzanine”
*****
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Editorial Board
Jeff Heckelman
Melanie Hirsch
Claire Phillips-Thoryn
Staff Writers
Ilya Leskov
Alma Ortiz
Jeremy Schifeling
Kai Xu
Online Editor
Lorrin Nelson
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This concludes today’s report.