Monday, September 23, 2002

by Siyuan Xie – Gazette News Reporter
additional reporting by Pei Pei Liu

Saturday’s College Day on the Parkway kicked off the Philadelphia College
Festival, and plenty of Swatties were there to enjoy the fun.

With free museum admission for college students, a carnival-like array of
games and booths, and music performances all afternoon long, the
Festival–an annual event–was bigger than ever. Traffic was blocked off
from the Ben Franklin Parkway to accommodate the long stretch of booths
representing companies like Tower Records, local food shops, news and radio
stations, and area colleges from Rutgers to U Penn (Swarthmore, however,
did not have a booth). Free giveaways abounded, as the tabling
organizations and colleges handed out everything from T-shirts to CDs to
Frisbees.

Practical assistance was also on hand in the form of tables dedicated to
financial aid and academic information. An orange truck with televisions,
microphones, an MC, and the word “truth” painted on one side represented
the anti-tobacco campaign and drew one of the largest crowds.

For lighter entertainment, plenty of opportunities existed for students to
horse around or just relieve stress. Representatives from the Fright
Factory paraded the street in head-to-toe makeup, masks, and elaborately
ghoulish costumes. A giant foam cone was set up for imitation
rock-climbing, complete with foam rocks, while others took their chances on
a mock mechanical bull, operated by four men pulling on ropes. A little
further on, Festival-goers donned rubber sumo wrestling suits and went at
each other, or else took part in human bowling.

Music was a large part of the day, with one of the main attractions being
the concert featuring The Roots, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and other
local talent in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Lasting from 2:00
to 8:00 p.m., the concert entertained the enthusiastic crowds with ska,
punk, and indie rock, while a smaller performance area was also set up
farther down the street to keep the city throbbing with music.

All day long, Swatties took full advantage of the free shuttle service
provided by the College to get to the festivities in Center City. Starting
with the first run at 12:30 p.m., the buses were so packed that the planned
pick-up/drop-off schedule had to be scrapped in favor of nearly continuous
bus service until the final trip at 9:00 p.m.

The Student Council special election for Secretary/Treasurer concluded this
weekend with Anna Morgan ’04 winning a close race. Full results are listed
below.

* denotes winner

*Anna Morgan ’04 – 162 votes
Kevin Bovard ’03 – 107
Wee Chua ’06 – 64
Ruth Halvey ’06 – 31

No Preference – 27
None of the Above- 8

Total votes: 405
Margin of Error: 27

*****

by Mary Harrison
Gazette News Reporter

Everyone’s wondering about the new club on campus and what on earth they’re
doing down in Mertz field every Saturday. The Daily Gazette recently sat
down to talk with Anmol Tikoo ’06 and Shiva Thiagarajan ’05, co-creators of
the Cricket Club.

Daily Gazette: What gave you the idea to start a cricket club?
Anmol Tikoo: I saw a photograph of someone playing cricket in a college
publication, so I asked Deshi if I would see any cricket played here. They
laughed.
D.G: Were you worried that you wouldn’t encounter any interest?
A.T: Well, we were planning on teaching it to everyone. The great thing is
that it is a new, totally recreational sport, and that’s why people are so
enthusiastic. They can make fools out of themselves and it’s totally cool.
D.G: What do you see in the team’s future?
A.T: We might buy a mat to make the place where we play more flat. Some
funding, perhaps. We might play matches with Haverford, though not soon,
because they’re very good.
D.G: What’s your personal history with cricket?
A.T: I’ve been playing it ever since I was one. Matches tend to get sort of
competitive at home. But here, you can just relax and play for the heck of
it. I was playing in my hall in Dana. You can play it anywhere.

Daily Gazette: How did the team get started?
Shiva Thiagarajan: A bunch of us like having fun. And we thought it would
be fun. So we started it.
DG: How did you get the equipment?
S.T.: We’re not officially sponsored. The equipment has been here awhile,
probably from an earlier incarnation.
D.G: What kind of people are involved?
S.T:  All kinds. We have 5 Americans, 3 or 4 people from Hong Kong, 1
Canadian, and a Turk. 32 people are on the mailing list.
D.G: Any long term plans for the team?
S.T: Get ourselves to a level where we might pass ourselves off as amateur
cricket players. None of us are any good.
D.G: Any words on the political ramifications of cricket?
S.T: Everyone does better than England. That’s a political statement in
itself. The natives have bested their overlords at their own game.

* Hurricane Isidore pummeled the Gulf Coast of Mexico on Sunday. As a
Category 3 storm, the winds were reported to reach 120 miles per hour in
some areas. The storm has killed at least four people so far and caused
extensive property damage. It is likely that the storm will strengthen to
become a Category 4 hurricane by Wednesday, and will thus affect Louisiana
and Texas.

* The Israeli army has reported that it will stop the nearly three-day long
demolishment of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian compound. The attack, which was
precipitated by back-to-back suicide bombings last week, has destroyed all
but one of the buildings in the compound and killed six Israelis and a
Scottish student. Meanwhile, Palestinian street protests against the attack
also turned deadly for several Palestinians.

* The Emmy Awards, presented for excellence in television, were presented
Sunday evening. The popular NBC series, “Friends,” won its first award for
best comedy series despite numerous other nominations. Also on NBC, “The
West Wing” won for best drama series for the third straight year. The
show’s Stockard Channing was the only person to win two awards, as best
supporting actress on the West Wing and “The Matthew Shepard Story,” which
aired on HBO.

*****

Physics and Astronomy Colloquium
Dupont 139, 4:00 p.m.

Women in Science dinner
Sharples Room 4 (by the cereal), 5:30 p.m.

College Bowl meeting
Kohlberg 202, 7:00 p.m.

Faculty Panel on Iraq and the “War on Terror”
Scheuer Room, 7:00 p.m.

“Senorita Extraviada: Missing Young Woman”
followed by discussion with Mexican film director, producer, and writer
Lourdes Portillo
LPAC Cinema, 7:00 p.m.

Good Schools PA meeting
Mephistos, 9:00 p.m.

SWIL Movie Night: “Yellow Submarine”
Kirby Lecture Hall, 10:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

The women’s soccer team easily defeated the Goucher Gophers Saturday, 2-0.
Katey McCaffrey ’04 put the Garnet on the board early off an Erica Kaufman
’03 assist, and Stephanie Chapell ’05 sealed the deal in the second,
scoring the clincher with help from Shavaugn Lewis ’05. Catherine
Salussolia ’04 made five saves to notch her third shut-out of the season,
snapping the squad’s three-game losing streak. The team is now 5-4 on the
season and next plays Wednesday at Franklin & Marshall.

*****

The field hockey squad earned a third-place finish at this past weekend’s
Seven Sisters tournament, going 2-1 over the course of the competition.
They began the weekend with a bang, scoring a 5-1 victory over Elms
College, in which Meg Woodworth ’03 tallied her first-ever hat-trick and
Chelsea Ferrell ’05 recorded her first career goal. In the next game,
Ferrell passed on the luck, assisting on senior Kasia Koziol-Dube’s
first-ever goal, although Swat fell to Mt. Holyoke 5-1. And then, in
Saturday’s third-place finale, the Garnet defeated Vassar 3-0 to end their
tourney on a positive note.

*****

On a gorgeous day for a race, both the men’s and women’s cross-country
teams were victorious in the annual Ursinus Invitational, held this past
Saturday. The squads will be back in competition next Saturday, in
Salisbury, Maryland.

*****

The men’s soccer team’s Centennial Conference opener against Johns Hopkins
this Saturday wasn’t as auspicious as the squad would have liked, with Swat
falling to the Blue Jays, 4-0. And while the Garnet were outshot 18-3,
frosh goalie Reuben Hayman-Kantor managed to keep the score reasonable,
pulling down 10 saves in net. Swat is now 4-3-1 on the season and next
plays on Wednesday at Neumann.

*****

The volleyball team traveled to Kings Point, NY this past weekend for two
matches, but was defeated in both, dropping the first to William Paterson
3-0 (30-22, 30-13, 30-20) and the second to Kings Point 3-0 (30-23, 30-25,
30-19). Emma Benn ’04 stood out for the Garnet in both contests, notching
10 kills in the first match and 12 digs in the second. Also contributing to
the Swat effort were Emily Conlon ’06 (24 assists against William Paterson)
and Patrice Berry ’06 (11 digs against the Mariners). The twin losses drops
the Garnet’s record to 1-6 on the season.

*****

In a last-day-of-summer doubleheader against DeSales this past weekend, the
softball team dropped the first game of the twin-bill but picked up the
second, 7-4 and 1-0, respectively.

*****

There are no contests scheduled for today or tomorrow.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“What we’re trying to do is to write cricket bats, so that when we throw up
an idea and give it a little knock, it might.travel.”
–Tom Stoppard

*****
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