Wednesday, September 18, 2002

by Greg Leiserson
Gazette News Reporter

There’s a new little black book on campus this fall. However, instead of
phone numbers and illicit dates, this tome contains students’ evaluations of
their classes and professors. Intended to aid in the selection of courses by
students, many Swatties feel that it doesn’t yet contain enough data to be
useful, while some students and professors had never even seen a copy by the
end of the add/drop period.

A project initiated by Student Council last year, the book was intended to
“allow the classroom experiences of Swarthmore students to be shared
efficiently and effectively with each other, therefore making the process of
shopping around for classes much easier and [more] rewarding” according to
Brendan Moriarty ’04, who designed and edited the book.

“I don’t think that this year’s [book] was very effective, but I think in
the future it will snowball and become useful,” Chris Keary ’03 said.
Moriarty warned that “for most classes, the number of evaluations we
received was too small to be able to draw meaningful conclusions from the
data.  The idea was really just to put the product out there and increase
awareness that we’re trying to make this work. This certainly can be an
effective tool for students in selecting classes, but ultimately it will
require greater student participation.”

55% of the classes for which an evaluation was received had three or fewer
responses. Approximately 950 surveys were received for the compilation of
the book. Comments that were deemed inappropriate were discarded, although
the numerical data from these surveys, of which there were about 20, were
still used.

Professors generally seemed to approve of the idea behind the book, although
some have yet to see a copy. “I have no problem with it,” said Physics
Professor Peter Collings. While students already confer with each other
about class selection, Collings suggested that the book could eventually
provide more objective course evaluations than the skewed representation
created by discussions with a handful of friends.

A similar project launched at Williams College last spring drew the ire of
many professors at the school because of the negative comments posted in it.
However, the Swat version, although it has some such comments, is generally
filled with more constructive criticism.

Most students had high hopes for its improvement in the future. Dan
Reinganum ’06 suggested, “It’ll be good in two years.”

*****

Four students are running for the open Secretary/Treasurer position on
Student Council.  Their platforms appear here, and voting will be held at
Sharples on Thursday and Friday during lunch and dinner.

Kevin Bovard ’03
——————
If elected Secretary/Treasurer, I pledge to take the most precise notes
you’ve ever seen.  And I’ll do it with style.  As an international man of
mystery, I’ll put the Secret back in Secretary and the Stud back in Student
Council.

Now, if I were to hypothetically win this little election, the one project
I’d like to take on is a streamlining of the Large Scale Event application
process. For those of you new to Swat, the administration basically throws
out $25,000 for a big event in the Spring, but few people actually take the
time to write out quality proposals. By making the process less intimidating,
and by having Council and the Student Activities Coordinator
work together more responsibly, we can hopefully get more quality proposals
on the table.

At the very least, the student body should vote on the acts they’d most like
to see.  Maybe a big-name comedian, maybe a popular recording artist, maybe
even a private aerobics workout with Richard Simmons.

Wee Jhong Chua ’06
———————
Money?  I love money.  I love the smell, the look, and (hell) even the taste
of money.  My name is Wee Jhong Chua, and I am running for the Treasurer and
Secretary position. Once, Swarthmore had an endowment of over 1 billion
dollars, but currently it is only slightly above 900 million dollars. This
is unacceptable.  If you vote for me, I will bring the money to you (all 900
million of it).  One of the main issues that has arisen during the first few
weeks of school involves the McCabe Coffee Bar.  It would seem logical to
allow students to use their meal points to purchase a nice “Cup of Joe”,
when busy studying.  However, this is not the case. With youthful
enthusiasm, I will bring the school back to our previous glory and enable
all students to get their necessary fill of caffeine. VOTE WEE

Ruth Halvey ’06
—————-
I, Ruth Halvey, am running for Student Council Secretary-Treasurer.  I am
quite capable of fulfilling the duties of the position.  As a pass/fail
non-athlete (aren’t you jealous?), I have time to dedicate to Student
Council.  If elected, I’ll tackle all those important issues: vans to
Philadelphia, Course Recommendation Guides, and whatever else needs to be
addressed.  I have had as much student government experience as is possible
at the high school level; I spent a year as my class secretary, two years as
class president, and participated in several leadership programs and
decision-making groups.  I really am competent, I promise.  And I’m a
champion of the masses, too.  Please vote for me.

Anna Morgan ’04
——————
Hello, I am Anna Morgan ’04, and I recently completed my term as Student
Council’s Educational Policy Representative.  Over the past two years I have
participated in several campus organizations including ADVICE, the Diversity
Taskforce, Swarthmore Young Friends and the search committee for the
Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs.  I feel confident that I have
gained knowledge that will enable me to successfully work with both students
and administrators.  During the next semester I hope to work on the
following three agenda items:  1) continue to develop the Class
Recommendation Book so that it is an accurate reflection of student opinion,
2) continue to work on getting syllabi and office hours online, and 3) to
post SC minutes on a network folder, allowing students to easily see what SC
was working on, without being bombarded with email, and also to enable
Councils of the future to refer back to our initiatives and ideas, thereby
making them less likely to reinvent the wheel.  I look forward to the
possibility of serving as your Secretary/Treasurer, and I would greatly
appreciate your vote.

*****

*A congressional committee plans to reveal information on Wednesday that will
show that US spy agencies had information pertaining to 9/11 before the
attacks even happened. The information will be revealed during an open
session of the joint House-Senate Intelligence Committee. The main question
to be explored will of course be whether the attacks could have been
prevented. Already there is evidence that the US government knew that Al
Qaeda was considering using aircraft to carry out its terrorism.

*US weapons inspectors prepared to return to Iraq today, following the
suprise announcement that the dictatorship would once again allow the
inspectors into the country. While Russia and many Arab countries applauded
Iraq’s decision, the US still urged the UN security council to pass a tough
anti-Iraq resolution. It is expected that the council will meet on Wednesday
to discuss the issue, and if all goes well, to hold talks with Iraq in Vienna
at the end of the month. Meanwhile, the US military continues to prepare
itself for a war in the Middle East.

*The cable channel HBO reported on Tuesday that the season premiere of its
mob-drama “The Sopranos” was the most watched program in the history of the
channel. Airing from 9 to 10 pm last Sunday, the program boasted a record
13.4 million viewers. Returning after a 16-month hiatus, the season premiere
dealt mainly with Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, as he attempts to
reconcile his strained home and business lives through therapy.

*****

Sigma Xi Student Research Poster Session
LPAC Lobby, Noon

Grenoble Informational Meeting
Kohlberg 318, 4:15 p.m.

Hip-Hop Concert: Peanut Butter Wolf, Madlib, & Egon
Olde Club, 8:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

by Holice Kil
Gazette Sportswriter

Squinting in the late afternoon sun, around 25 fans gathered at Cunningham Field
and waited
lazily for the game to start. Some took the opportunity to chat and catch up
with friends;
one student sat in the grass to charcoal-sketch; another in the bleachers pulled
out her
seminar reading, highlighter in hand.

Yesterday the Swarthmore Garnet field hockey team took on the Notre Dame (MD)
Gators in a
game that would bring those fans to their feet.

One might have expected the Garnet to have entered the game with their heads
hanging low,
coming off a disappointing 2-game losing streak.  After all, they had made it
through two
weeks of grueling, 6-hour practices in the preseason, only to have a 1-2 record
to show for
their efforts thus far. Instead, however, they came out on Tuesday charged and
eager to even
up the score.

And yet, for the most part, the home crowd seemed indifferent or lost early on.
“It’s a
confusing game,” said fan Camille Kay-Hall. “I’ve been coming out for two
seasons, and I’m
still clueless.” The frequent starts and stops in the game, most of them
seemingly
inexplicable to the novice fan, are a turn-off for many who come out to support
their
friends on the team.

“You don’t have to understand it – you just have to love it,” insisted super-fan
Perry
Grossman, standing up to cheer on a particularly violent and dangerous
challenge. “Miiiighty
MIGHTY!”

Nevertheless, the Lady Garnet are usually forced to be their own cheerleaders in
the absence
of a hockey-savvy home crowd. And normally, the student fans wait patiently for
the game to
end to be able to congratulate their friends on the team. Yesterday was a
different story,
however.

Through scoreless first and second halves, and a tense first overtime period
that also went
by without a goal, energy built up in the stands to urge on the home team.
“Yeah!
Yeah-yeah!” shouted Kay-Hall after a big Swarthmore defensive stop. “That’s the
first time I
‘ve yelled anything at one of these things,” she whispered.

When Swarthmore’s Katherine Athanasiades ’05 received a yellow card with one
minute left in
the first overtime period, a collective groan went up from the bleachers as the
Lady Garnet
had to play a player short for the next five minutes. Unfortunately, early in
the second
overtime period, in the eighty-seventh minute of the game, and while Swarthmore
was still
down a player, Notre Dame’s Dianna Abramowski scored off a penalty corner from
an assist by
Alayna Lawson to allow the Gators to sneak off with the sudden-death victory.

The crowd, which had been ecstatic a moment before, applauded the intense effort
of the home
team anyway. “That was exciting,” said one fan in a surprised voice, as he put
away his book
to congratulate a friend.

Swat: 4 shots, 12 saves (Kate Nelson-Lee ’03), 8 penalty corners
ND (MD): 17 shots, 3 saves, 12 penalty corners

Today:
Men’s soccer at Philadelphia Biblical, 4:15 p.m.
Women’s soccer hosts McDaniel, 4:30 p.m.

Tomorrow:
There are no contests scheduled for tomorrow.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline-it helps if
you have some
kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need
a BEER.”
— Frank Zappa

*****
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