Wednesday, April 9, 2003

by Sanggee Kim
Gazette News Reporter

This past weekend, over 150 students, staff, alums, and other entrepreneurs
attended in the largest ever turnout for the fourth annual Jonathan R. Lax
’71 Conference on Entrepreneurship. The Lax Conference is named in honor of
Jonathan R. Lax, a 1971 Swarthmore graduate who was a business executive, a
noted social activist, and founder of the Philadelphia-based market research and

consulting company the Market Audit

The conference began with a keynote address by Mark Reinganum, an executive
and portfolio strategist at Oppenheimer Funds, Inc., and a professor at
Southern Methodist University.  Reinganum is best known as the founder of
the theory known as “stock market anomalies.”  His address, titled “Can
Entrepreneurship be Taught?” attempted to answer why more business schools
do not teach courses on entrepreneurship to their students.  Using a series
of examples, he explained that entrepreneurs are the deviant anomaly who
seeks to break the paradigm, and that trying to teach entrepreneurship is
equivalent to trying to teach creativity.  Thus, he ultimately came to the
conclusion that entrepreneurship cannot be taught.

During the Q&A time and interim sessions, the attendees at the conference
hotly debated whether or not the speaker’s conclusion was accurate.  Some
students felt that he has undermining human creativity, and others pointed
out discrepancies in his arguments.  Still others felt that his talk brought
up many good points about the struggle of being an
entrepreneur.

Dan Reinganum ’06, the eldest of four children to Mark Reinganum and Alison
Fox ’80, felt that his dad did an excellent talk addressing the question of
teaching entrepreneurship.  He told us that his dad later told him that,
“Sustaining a nurturing environment for creativity is also difficult,
because teachers need to ultimately decide and defines which students will
be creative and which are not.”  He felt that many of the
questions brought up during the Q&A session either: 1.were hard questions,
2. reflected the questioner’s ignorance on the talk, and 3. attacked the
speaker’s comments by people who just did not agree with his analysis and
conclusion.

In addition, there were two concurrent panels dealing with “On the
Technological Horizon:  Intertwining Intellectual Property, Finance, and
Technology” and “Biotechnology:  Bridging Science and Business.”  A closing
roundtable  sought to address “Ethical Conduct Versus Profit Maximization:
A Dilemma for Corporate Governance?” especially in light of recent business
scandals.

Although some people thought that the conference failed to address basic
entrepreneurial needs, Wynn Wu ’04 believed that, “It was a great
opportunity for the few of us here [Swarthmore] who possess strong
entrepreneurial spirit.”  Wynn is founding member of Qub, the new student
cafe on campus.

*****

by Evelyn Khoo
Living and Arts Editor

At last night’s Student Council meeting, one of the key issues that Student
Council discussed was a letter from Student Council to the Deans protesting
the bill charged to SAC and Olde Club for damages. SAC was charged $3,500
for the damage to the screen they had used for Screw in Upper Tarble while
Olde Club was charged $700 for vandalism that it incurred last semester.
Student Council argued that this was unjust.

 “The student activities fee (from which this money will come from) is meant
to pay for activities organized by students and since these weren’t acts
necessarily committed by students, the students should not be held
accountable for this. The burden should not be paid by the whole student
body,” said Anna Morgan ’04, Student Council Co-President.
Council members also suggested that it might be the responsibility of Public
Safety rather than the students, since it is their job to ensure the safety
of school buildings. The letter will be sent tomorrow to Tedd Goundie,
Associate Dean for Student Life and forwarded to the rest of the deans.

Council has also been continuing its process of internal improvement and
increasing public awareness of its activities. Council members discussed
changes to the constitution, suggesting amendments be made to its mission
and preamble to better reflect its role as a conduit between students and
the administration. Student Council member and Educational Policy
Representative, Melinda Lee ’04 also put forth the suggestion of a large
chart detailing the exact structure of Student Council.

Finally, Council also confirmed that elections for Student Groups Advisor,
Co-President, Financial Policy Representative, Campus Relations
Representative and Educational Policy Representative. Platforms are due
April 21st.

Student Council also wanted to clarify that the appointments committee
application deadline was this Friday, April 11th, and that the committees
had not yet been appointed, contrary to an implication in an earlier Phoenix
article.

by Roxanne Yaghoubi
Gazette Staff Reporter

The Task Force on Disabilities, which just finished a report on the state of
disabled and special needs students at Swarthmore, will hold a meeting on
Wednesday April 9, 2003. The meeting will be held at 9:30 in Kohlberg 116.
After completing a survey of special needs students at Swarthmore Ryan
Budish ’04 and Dannie Silver, who had been the student representatives to
the Task Force, assessed that many such students wanted to have a support
group formed where older students could give advice and support to the
younger ones who could be facing many of the same difficulties. The group
hopes to plan an event for first-year students in the fall, and to have
support meetings throughout the year. Students with any types of
disabilities or special needs are welcome at the meetings. The disability
can be emotional, learning-related, or physical, and does not need to be
documented.

*****

The debate team of Rob Peterson ’03 and Sonya Hoo ’05 placed second in this
past weekend’s tournament at Rutgers University.  Peterson and Hoo were
defeated in the final round by a Columbia-William & Mary hybrid team, which
proposed the following case: “Marijuana, on balance, is superior to
alcohol.” Peterson earned fourth-place speaker honors in addition to the
team award. Swat’s Amos J. Peaslee Debate Society next travels to Brandeis
University for the National Championship tournament.  Peterson, Hoo, Sarah
Drescher ’03, David Bing ’03, Aviva Aron-Dine ’05, Chris Segal ’05, and
Emily Tredeau ’06 will represent Swarthmore at the championship event.

*****

Over the weekend, the Swarthmore College Bowl team traveled cross-country to
compete in Division II of the NAQT (National Academic Quiz Tournaments)
Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, held April 4-5 at UCLA. The squad,
composed of Chris White ’05, Emily Ullman ’06, and Matt Fowles ’04, was
unfortunately shorthanded due to a last-minute cancellation by one of the
team’s best players.  This didn’t stop them from performing well, however:
The team was 11th out of 32 teams with an 8-5 record, and Chris was named a
tournament All-Star with over 50 points per game, fourth in the division.

The team wraps up its season April 26 at Princeton.

*****

* After an attack on Saddam Hussein by air on Tuesday, it was unknown
whether he was still alive. On the same day, ground forces repelled a
massive Iraqi counterattack, and seized a military airport. The total number
of casualties on both sides is unknown after 4 days of heavy urban fighting.
However, at least three journalists are known to have died on Tuesday, two
of whom after an American tank shot into the Palestine Hotel, where many
Americans are staying.

* The press obtained another audiotape purported to have the voice of Bin
Laden on it on
Monday. Though it is not known if the audiotape is real, it was originally
translated by an Afghani who had worked with the terrorist mastermind
before. The tape also extensively refers to the war on Iraq, which would
seem to suggest that it was made recently. Osama
urged Muslims to engage in revolt against governments which had cooperated
with the United States.

* US officials reported on Tuesday that gas prices were expected to keep
falling. After having fallen nearly a dime over the past three weeks, it is
believed that the prices will fall to $1.56 by the summer months. The low
prices were attributed to the low price of oil and optimism about the war on
Iraq.

*****

Presentation by Chilean writer Poli Delano
Kohlberg 115, 4:15 p.m.

“South Asia: The most dangerous place in the world?”
Lecture by Robert Hathaway
Kohlberg Scheuer Room, 4:30 p.m.

French Film Festival: Marius et Jeannette
Kohlberg 328, 7:00 p.m.

Ask a SAM Advising
Parrish Parlor West, 7:00 p.m.

Lecture: “Signs” as a Pro-faith and Anti-faith Movie
Martin, Kirby Lecture Hall, 7:30 p.m.

Anomalous Picture Show: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Trotter 203, 7:30 p.m.

Talk on the history of Swarthmore
by vice president Larry Schall
Kohlberg 115, 8:00 p.m.

Students with Special Needs Support Group
Kohlberg 116, 9:30 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

With a stunning career high of five goals, Niamh Shortt helped lead the
Garnet to a 16-5 victory. Heidi Fieselmann scored a whopping four goals and
handing out three assists in this non-conference match at Swat.

*****

Today:
Baseball hosts Ursinus, 4:00 p.m.
Men’s lacrosse hosts Muhlenberg, 7:00 p.m.

Tomorrow:
Softball hosts Baptist Bible (DH), 3:30 p.m.
Women’s tennis at Bryn Mawr, 4:00 p.m.
Women’s lacrosse at Bryn Mawr, 4:30 p.m.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater
than that of any other animal.”
–H.L. Mencken

*****
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