Wednesday, March 5, 2003

by Charlie Buffie
Gazette Reporter

The announcement of musical artist DJ Shadow as Swarthmore’s 2003 large
scale event was abruptly followed by a number of rumors last week
speculating that the DJ’s performance had in fact been cancelled shortly
after it had been confirmed.  While the act’s cancellation was confirmed
shortly after, details surrounding the cancellation were few and far
between.

The coordination of the event was a joint effort between the Large Scale
Event Committee and Clear Channel Radio, a talent-buying agency that manages
DJ Shadow’s touring schedule.  The Committee was informed by Clear Channel
on February 20th that DJ Shadow would not be performing at Swarthmore as
originally scheduled due to a broader cancellation of all of Shadow’s 2003
East Coast tour.

According to Jeff Traczynski ’04, Chair of both the Student Budget Committee
and the Large Scale Event Committee, the cancellation of Shadow’s
performance was unprecedented.  “The Committee hasn’t been around for very
long,” Traczynski said, adding, “but nothing like this has ever happened
before.”

Since the cancellation of Shadow’s performance occurred so shortly after the
initial agreement to bring Shadow to Swarthmore, no reimbursement was
necessary as no funds were ever exchanged between Clear Channel and the LSE
Committee.

The cost of bringing Shadow to Swarthmore would have been roughly $20,000.
Approximately $12,500 of the amount was appropriated by the President’s
Office, while the remaining $7,500 was put up by the Student Budget
Committee.  At an SBC meeting held Monday with the LSE Committee, it was
agreed that the $12,500 in funds allocated by the President’s Office for
this year’s LSE event would not be spent this year.  Rather, the funds would
be “rolled over until the next academic year for the 2003-2004 Large Scale
Event,” according to Traczynski, creating the potential to possibly attract
more big name talents for next year’s performance.

The fate of the remaining $7,500 in funds appropriated by the SBC is
currently uncertain.  According to Traczynski, a number of potential uses
for the funds in the 2002-2003 academic year are still being considered,
including a relatively serious proposal to use the funds to bolster
Worthstock at the end of this year.  Traczynski also noted that the $7,500,
while only a fraction of the original $20,000 in funds appropriated, is a
“pretty large increase from the usual amount of four to five thousand
dollars [normally appropriated by the SBC for the LSE] in previous years,”
and thus could still hatch an excellent Swarthmore event.

Monday’s meeting also sparked discussion about possible improvements that
could be made in the planning of the Large Scale Event.

“Something was not working well–the application process inherently involves
a lot of delays–the back and forth between submission [of event proposals]
and approval [of events],” explained Traczynski, “This process does not work
well with the music industry.”

Suggested improvements involve internalizing the application process more,
thus minimizing the current delays in order to facilitate the coordination
and negotiation of potential large scale events.

Despite the potential future uses of funds and improvements in the LSE
application process, this year’s Large Scale Event will not be a reality.
Echoing the sentiments of many Swatties, Traczynski admitted, “I was very
disappointed [with news of the cancellation], largely because of all of the
wasted work done by the [LSE] Committee and the SBC.  Shadow was going to be
an event unlike any other at Swarthmore.”

*****

by Greg Leiserson
Gazette Reporter

The case coming before the US Supreme Court later this year regarding
affirmative action at the University of Michigan has sparked concern about
the consequences for the admissions policies of colleges all across the
country. Swarthmore is no exception. “If the Supreme Court further
constrains the use of affirmative action strategies in college admissions,
it will be much more difficult for us to sustain the level of racial
diversity in our student body,” said President Al Bloom in a college press
release.

Maurice Eldridge, Vice President of College and Community Relations, said
the decision to join with the other colleges was made quite easily after
Amherst College President Tom Gerety contacted Bloom. Said Eldridge,
Swarthmore was “already committed to the principles [in the brief] as a
means of ensuring a fully educational setting for our students.”

Gerety, who initially distributed the brief to the colleges in the Five
College consortium in western Massachusetts before doing so on the national
level, said in a press release “diversity adds to what we offer on campus”
and felt that “the liberal arts colleges represented a special case” and
therefore should file a brief on the issue.

In addition to concerns about maintaining diversity in higher education,
Eldridge said the brief also represented a belief that “educators rather
than courts should determine educational policy.”

While he was unsure exactly what influence the individual brief might have
on the eventual ruling in the case, Eldridge was hopeful that the “diversity
of sources [from which briefs have come] and the sheer volume will have an
impact and make it clear that there is not a unanimity in the country.”

The brief is signed by 28 small colleges and universities, Amherst, Barnard,
Bates, Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Carleton, Colby, Colgate, Connecticut, Davidson,
Franklin & Marshall, Hamilton, Hampshire, Haverford, Macalester, Middlebury,
Mount Holyoke, Oberlin, Pomona, Sarah Lawrence, Smith, Swarthmore, Trinity,
Tufts, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan, and Williams.

However, if the court decides against the University it is possible
Swarthmore might have to adjust its admissions policy. According to
Eldridge, “While I think that there may well be things we can do to maintain
the ends we seek, it will be much more difficult to do so. All of us need to
be thinking what, in the worst case scenario, we should be prepared to
undertake.”

*****

from the Office of News and Information

Swarthmore College will host a debate, “How Should We Use Our Power? Iraq
and the War on Terror,” between two leading anti- and pro-war voices: Mark
Danner, an author and New Yorker staff writer, and Leon Wieseltier, an
author and literary editor at The New Republic.

Moderated by Swarthmore political science professor Kenneth Sharpe, the
debate will take place on Wednesday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lang
Performing Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public.

The debate reprises an event – dubbed “The Great Debate” by Salon magazine –
that was held Jan. 28 at the University of California, Berkeley. That debate
featured Danner and former Nation columnist Christopher Hitchens.

At the Swarthmore event, Danner will make the case against war. A professor
of journalism at UC Berkeley, Danner has worked in editorial capacities at
the New York Review of Books, New York Times Book Review, Harper’s, and New
York Times Magazine. He is author of The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of
the Cold War (1994) and two forthcoming books, one on the former Yugoslavia
and another on Haiti. Danner as co-written and helped produce two hour-long
documentaries for ABC News’ Peter Jennings Reports, one of which won both an
Emmy and a DuPont Golden Baton Award. He is currently a staff writer at the
New Yorker and a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. He was
recently awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

Wieseltier, who has been literary editor of the Washington-based journal The
New Republic since 1983, will make the case for war in Iraq. After three
years as a graduate student in Jewish history at Harvard University,
Wieseltier was a member of the Society of Fellows at Harvard from 1979 to
1982. He also attended Columbia University and Oxford University and is the
author of Nuclear War Nuclear Peace (1983), Against Identity (1996), and
Kaddish (1998).

Kenneth Sharpe, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Political Science at
Swarthmore, is an expert on foreign policy, Latin American politics, and
U.S. drug enforcement policies. He is the co-author of Drug War Politics:
The Price of Denial (1996), which examines the ineffectiveness of America’s
narcotics policy and calls for a public health approach that aims to reduce
demand for drugs. Sharpe, who has testified before Congress on numerous
occasions about drug enforcement, has written several books analyzing, among
other issues, the imperial presidency and the relationship between U.S.
foreign policy and constitutional democracy.

*****

Early on the morning of February 27, Sergeant Stufflet arrested a driver for
speeding and driving under the influence.

On March 4, the Delaware State Police contacted Sergeant Stufflet concerning
a robbery suspect held in custody. This suspect was then implicated in the
PNC Bank robbery that occurred on February 13. The investigation is
continuing and charges will be filed.

*****

* The US is planning to send 24 long-range bombers to Asia. The bombers will
leave US bases and head to Guam. From Guam they will move to provide a
presence around the Korean Peninsula. The Pentagon means this to be a signal
to North Korea that the US will not be ignoring the Korean situation even as
it prepares for a possible attack on Iraq. Officials denied that the
movement of bombers had little to do with the capture of an Air Force
Reconnaissance plane last weekend by four North Korean MiGs.

* As the debate on war continues, the Bush administration appeared to harden
its stance against Iraq on Tuesday. Though still in doubt, it seemed to move
closer toward flatly asking for a UN vote over a resolution authorizing the
use of force, even if it was unclear that the resolution would pass.
Additionally, Washington made clear that the standoff with Turkey about
using bases in that country would not affect its final decision on war.

* Party lines were drawn Tuesday on the Medicare issue.  Bush, in a speech
made to the American Medical Association, outlined a plan that would allow
seniors to choose between sticking with Medicare (a government program) or
moving to private plans that allow for more prescription drug coverage.
However Democrats believe that Bush is simply laying the groundwork for
privatizing Medicare completely. They outlined a different plan that would
fold prescription drug coverage into Medicare completely.

*****

Mathematics Colloquium
Kohlberg 116, 4:00 p.m.

Faculty Lecture by Kofi Anyidoho
Kohlberg Scheuer Room, 4:00 p.m.

Alumni Dinner
Bond Memorial Hall, 5:00 p.m.

German Film Series
Kohlberg 328, 7:00 p.m.

Scottish Country Dance Class
Community Center, 7:30 p.m.

Great Debate on Iraq
Lang Performing Arts Center, 7:30 p.m.

Good Schools PA Meeting
Parrish Parlor West, 10:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

Today: Women’s basketball hosts Alvernia – ECAC First Round, 7:00 p.m.

Tomorrow:
There are no contests scheduled for tomorrow.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“If Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at the age of 22, it would
have changed the history of music.. and of aviation.”
–Tom Stoppard

*****
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