Thursday, February 21, 2002

by Jeremy Schifeling
Section Editor

Meeting for the last time this semester, the Housing Committee
decided on
Monday to submit a proposal to the Deans that called for upgrading
current
co-ed housing options.

Under the Committee’s plan, the Lodges and Worth I/J will
continue to
support co-ed rooming arrangements, while a third residence
area will also
be added to the mix of options. The Committee members recommended
ML
Basement for this role, since it provides a number of one-room
doubles and
is easy to get in the housing lottery if a co-ed room is desired.
However,
if summer renovations of the basement take place and many
of the doubles are
converted to singles, the Committee has selected Palmer as
a back-up dorm
for the third co-ed option.

Additionally, an application process for co-ed housing was
considered, but
ultimately rejected on the grounds that students shouldn’t
be forced to
justify their rooming preferences.

In unrelated business, the Committee created new blocks out
of the Worth J
2nd floor and the Palmer 1st floor quad. Also, blocks in the
east and west
wings of Wharton were removed and a 3-person block on Dana
1st was turned
into a four-person arrangement.

*****

by Shavaugn Lewis
Gazette Sportswriter

February 21, 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated

Malcolm Little was born May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska.
His father was a
minister and spoke out against injustices against Blacks,
making him a
target for white supremacy groups. His father taught him the
value of
education and Malcolm graduated junior high top of his class;
however, after
a teacher told him that a “nigger” could not be
a lawyer, Malcolm lost his
interest in education. Shortly after, his father was killed
and his mother
had a nervous breakdown that put her in a mental institution.
The children
were split into foster homes and Malcolm soon turned to petty
crimes. He
was arrested in 1946, but rather than view his sentence as
a punishment, he
used his time in jail to educate himself further. His brother
introduced
him to the Nation of Islam and, by the time Malcolm was paroled
in 1952, he
had joined the Nation of Islam and adopted the surname X.
A brilliant
leader, Malcolm soon gained recognition as a threat to racism,
which
eventually cost him his life. Before he was assassinated,
Malcolm X had
been a minister and a national spokesman for the Nation of
Islam and founded
his own group, the Muslim Mosque, Inc.

*****

* Israeli Apache helicopters fired two missiles at a building
a few yards
away from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s office on Thursday,
but Arafat
and his aides are reported to be unharmed. The missiles struck
a one-story
guesthouse, which witnesses said was completely destroyed
by the blasts. The
missile attacks, which were the second in two days to target
buildings in
Arafat’s headquarters compound, were launched in retaliation
for the killing
of six Israeli soldiers in the West Bank on Tuesday. These
strikes were only
one facet of an intensified military campaign against Palestinian
security
installations ordered by the Israeli government on Wednesday,
which has so
far claimed the lives of 20 Palestinians. Most of the Palestinians
that have
been killed were security personnel, but at least four have
been identified
as civilians. Israeli officials maintained that the missile
strikes were not
directed against Arafat himself, who has been secluded under
heavy guard in
his headquarters at Ramallah on the West Bank since early
December.

* 370 people were killed early Wednesday when fire swept
through seven
carriages of a crowded night train near Cairo. The blaze,
which is being
called the worst disaster in 150 years of Egyptian rail history,
is believed
to have started when someone tried to light a portable gas
stove, which
passengers often use to make their own tea and coffee during
train trips.
The blaze was then fanned and spread by the wind as the train
continued to
roll for several miles before coming to a halt. The train,
which was heading
from Cairo to Luxor in southern Egypt, was reportedly packed
with passengers
traveling to the countryside to spend the Muslim holiday of
Eid al-Adha with
their families. Health Ministry undersecretary Ahmed Abdulaziz
reported that
recovery efforts had stopped just before sunset on Wednesday
and that, while
they would resume today, officials did not expect to find
any more bodies.

* Former Richland Township treasurer Buffy Guenst was arraigned
on Tuesday
on charges of theft by deception and unlawful use of a computer
after she
allegedly spent $231,000 of local tax money over five years
to fund private
shopping sprees at Walmart, Acme and Aims stores. Though Guenst’s
misuse of
town funds is now believed to have begun in 1996, shortly
after she was
hired as treasurer, officials did not notice that anything
was wrong until
last October, when a charge on the township’s debit card account
appeared
for $85.50 worth of lingerie from Victoria’s Secret. “These
are not things
that the township normally buys. These are not road materials,”
Richland
Police Chief Stuart Woods told the Philadelphia Inquirer when
asked about
the lingerie charges. Guenst, 31, was fired from her position
as treasurer
in November.

*****

“Measuring Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide from Space”
Chemistry Colloquium with Charles Miller, Haverford
Trotter 303, 4:00 p.m.

“The Importance of Theory for Historical Linguistics:
Two Examples from
Indo-European Accent”
by Ronald Kim, UPenn
Kohlberg 115, 6:30 p.m.

Information Session: The State PIRGs
Kohlberg 226, 7:00 p.m.

Hong Kong Movie Night: “Ashes of Time”
SCCS Lounge – Tarble Basement, 7:30 p.m.

Sherman Alexie and Jim Boyd Presentation
LPAC Cinema, 7:30 p.m.

Empty the Shelters Meeting
Kohlberg 115, 7:30 p.m.

Argentine Tango Lesson
Upper Tarble, 9:00 p.m.

———

UPCOMING EVENTS

The Linguistics Department Presents:

Film Showing: In the Land of the Deaf

Monday February 25, 8:30 p.m. Kohlberg 330

Director Nicholas Philibert focuses on the world of deaf
culture and
language in France. He follows Jean-Calude Poulain, a deaf
teacher, a family
who for five generations has been deaf and who are thriving,
and a woman who
is misunderstood and is placed in an asylum for the insane.

French sign language and French, with English subtitles and
closed captions.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

by Pat Quinn
Gazette Sportswriter

In a thrilling upset victory, the women’s basketball team
defeated Franklin
and Marshall 61-56 last night to move on to the Centennial
Conference
championship game. Heather Kile ’02 led the team to victory,
scoring 19
points and hitting the glass for 13 rebounds.

In the first half, the lead switched back and forth several
times, with
neither team pulling ahead early, as F&M had done in their
regular season
defeat of the Garnet. Swarthmore managed an eight point lead
with around
10:00 remaining in the half, thanks in no small part to junior
Ali Furman’s
three point shooting. Furman was clutch from downtown all
night, making
five of seven from behind the arc.

On the first possession of the second half, Katie Robinson
’04 had one of
her trademark steal-to-layup plays, sparking an early drive
that peaked with
a 15-point lead by Swarthmore. However, the Diplomats quickly
caught up,
erasing Swat’s lead.

With a little over 2:00 to go, trailing by one, Swarthmore
brought the ball
down the court. Furman passed to a wide-open Caitlin Ryland
’02. Though
Ryland missed the layup, Kile grabbed the rebound and gave
Swarthmore the
lead with a put-back. F&M made a desperate attempt to
regain the lead, but
it was to no avail, as Kile scored the next four points to
give Swarthmore a
61-56 victory.

In other Centennial Conference action, Western Maryland ousted
favored
Muhlenberg in the Western Division Semifinal. As a result,
Swarthmore will
face the Green Terror at Western Maryland for the Conference
Championship
this Saturday.

*****

* The U.S. added three more golds to their already best-ever
medal showing
in a Winter Olympics. Apolo Ohno finished second in the 1500-meter
short
track but was awarded gold after South Korean Kim Dong-sung,
the defending
World Cup champion, was disqualified for blocking Ohno in
the final lap.
China’s Li Jiajun and Canada’s Marc Gagnon finished second
and third after
the disqualification… The other two American golds were
awarded in the
skeleton, reinstated at the Salt Lake Games after a 54-year
absence from the
Olympics. Third-generation Olympian Jim Shea won the men’s
skeleton race,
with Austrian Martin Rettl and Swiss Gregor Staehli finishing
second and
third. In the first ever women’s skeleton, Americans Tristan
Gale and Lea
Ann Parsley took gold and silver with Alex Coomber of Britain
winning the
bronze… Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won his fourth gold
medal of the
Games when his team won the men’s biathlon relay over Norway
and Germany.
The only other athletes to match this mark were Russian Lydia
Skoblikova’s
four golds in 1964 and American Eric Heiden’s five in 1980.

* Allen Iverson scored 46 points to lead the Philadelphia
76ers to a 114-107
victory over the Golden State Warriors last night. It was
the fifth time
this season and the 38th time in his career that Iverson has
scored 40 or
more points. He shot 14 of 36 from the field and 16 for 20
from the line.
The 76ers also received help from Matt Harpring (25 points),
Dikembe Mutombo
(18 points), and Eric Snow (12 assists, 11 rebounds). Danny
Fortson led the
Warriors with 18 points.

* Former Mets and Yankees pitcher Dwight “Doc”
Gooden was arrested early
yesterday morning and charged with driving under intoxication,
carrying an
open container of alcohol in the vehicle, and driving with
a license that
had been suspended because he failed to pay a traffic fine.
He refused
breath and urine tests but was reportedly cooperative with
police. Gooden
was released on $500 bond.

*****

Today:
Badminton at Albright, 7:30 p.m.

Tomorrow:
There are no contests scheduled for tomorrow.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The cat could very well be man’s best friend but would
never stoop to
admitting it.”
–Doug Larson

*****
.
Interested in reporting or writing for the Gazette?
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Contact the staff at daily@swarthmore.edu

Section Editors: Karla Gilbride
Pei Pei Liu
Jeremy Schifeling
Photo Editor: Casey Reed
News Reporters: Mary Harrison
Evelyn Khoo
Sanggee Kim
Natacha Pascal
Kent Qian
Alexis Reedy
Chiara Ricciardone
Sportswriters: Muhsin Abdur-Rahman
Shavaugn Lewis
Pat Quinn
World News: Karla Gilbride
Campus Sports: Pat Quinn
Jeremy Schifeling
World Sports: Jeremy Schifeling

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