Wednesday, September 17, 2003

by Pei Pei Liu
Managing Editor

There’s a new face in the blue-grey train station building that previously
housed W.S. Cumby & Son Construction. Though they are still in the process
of unpacking, the directors of the Eugene M. Lang Center for Civic and Social
Responsibility say they already love their new location.

“It’s symbolically perfect [being at a crossroads],” said Jennie
Keith, Director of the Center, “but it’s also practical, being near campus
but also accessible by bus and train. It’s also very helpful when you’re giving
people directions!”

Previously housed in Whittier Place, the Center opened the doors of its new
space at an open house during Orientation. The handicap-accessible building
contains meeting and storage spaces for student groups, a Resource Room with
computers and informational materials, and offices for the ever-expanding staff.

“The purpose behind the center is to offer more support for different
programs and activities that connect the campus to communities,” said Keith.
“Our overall mission is to prepare students for leadership in civil and
social communities…This includes helping student service and activism groups…[and]
faculty interested in a community participation element in their courses.”

In addition to student groups and academic departments, the Center is currently
working on enhancing partnerships with the Intercultural Center, the Dean of
Multicultural Affairs, the Black Cultural Center, athletics teams and coaches,
Career Services, and Alumni Relations to incorporate service and activism projects
into these organizations. “There’s such an interest on campus,” said
Keith. “We just help to facilitate and channel that interest.”

The Center also aids individual projects and opportunities, working closely
with the Lang Opportunity Scholars program, the Swarthmore Foundation, the Summer
of Service Internships, and the Lang Visiting Professorship. Further, the Center
is looking into strengthening opportunities for students to study abroad in
community-based programs, and collaborated with the nearby Pendle Hill Center
on a year-long series of lectures and panels concerned with peacebuilding.

Beyond setting up new programs and relationships, the Center is also concerned
with “asking long-time student groups, ‘so what?'” said Associate
Director Pat James. “We’re really pushing groups to challenge themselves
beyond service and begin looking at systemic issues.”

“We want to serve programs that have been here for a long time but also
envision ways to go beyond the precedent that’s been set,” added Keith.

Among the ways that the Center is facilitating this development is helping
groups provide more training and reflection opportunities for student participants
and helping longstanding service and activism groups forge connections with
each other. “A lot of these groups have been around forever but they’ve
never talked to each other,” explained James, citing the example of the
former group Digital Bridges working with Chester Tutorial to bring computers
into the afterschool program there.

The Directors also feel that the very existence of a communal meeting space
facilitates dialogue between groups. “There’s a kind of synergy created,”
said Cynthia Jetter, Associate Director for Community Partnerships and Swat
alum. “People just walk in the door and we can send them the right way,
get them started with just a conversation.”

Jetter added that the Center hopes to engage with the town of Swarthmore and
invite visitors from neighboring communities with an open-door policy. “We’re
really looking to create partnerships rather than just collaborations,”
she said. “We want involvement on a deeper level, to create a sense of
sustainability in a community and concentrate efforts toward change.

“It’s important that the community sees Swarthmore not just as ‘that
wealthy college out there,’ but as a neighbor and partner.”

The Center is also engaged with other schools and institutions in a dialogue
over service and activism in learning, according to Jetter. “With a circle
of colleges doing this, we can perform big research projects, host workshops,”
she said. The Center is already a part of Project Pericles, a group of colleges
nationwide focused on the goal of education for civic responsibility.

There are several opportunities currently available for students to get involved
with the Center, whether to obtain support for their own projects or to lend
their help to the Center’s operation. In addition to the Lang Scholarship program,
which gives financial and resource support to sophomores interested in service
and activism, the Center is hiring two student associates to work as liaisons
between the Center and the student community.

“We envision them as being like the peer counselors in Career Services,”
explained James. “They would be knowledgeable students who would be able
to provide info to fellow students.” Depending on their interests, the
student associates would also have the opportunity to design outreach projects
and would have their own office in the Center.

Finally, because of its commitment to providing space and resources for students,
the Center is eventually hoping to be open until 10:00 p.m. every night, and
they will be looking for students to work the desk. Interested applicants should
contact Pat James at pjames1.

———–
Check out tomorrow’s Gazette for photos of the new Lang Center space!

*****

by Saurav Dhital
Sports Editor

Division IV? Swarthmore could be a part of the NCAA’s newest division by January
when 425 Division III schools vote on the issue.

Swarthmore will be hosting a symposium this Saturday on “Current Issues
and Challenges in Division III Athletics.” Over the summer, the Centennial
Conference proposed a splinter in the 30-year-old Division III to ensure that
only schools with the same resources and aims compete. Currently, Division III
consists of around 425 schools whose enrollment size ranges from 400 to 40,000.
So while bigger schools can afford to give numerous athletic scholarships to
strengthen their athletic program, smaller schools are severely limited. Many
prominent small liberal-arts colleges are beginning to feel the heat of competing
with bigger colleges and universities within Division III. Even Williams College,
which has won the Director’s Cup for the past four years, may be a part of the
new Division.

New England Small Colleges Athletic Conference, Centennial Conference, and
North Coast Athletic Conference have held talks about forming a new alliance.
It is believed that there are many other schools thinking along the same lines.
The main reason: the schools are straying from their primary purpose to “educate”
the young men and women. In the June meeting, the Centennial Conference unanimously
voted to implement a reform package. According to the package, the Centennial
Conference will reduce its permissible number of practice opportunities from
18 to 16 and its dates of competition from three to one. The NCAA, on the other
hand, permits a five-week nontraditional segment with one required day off during
a calendar week–a maximum of 30 practice opportunities with no more than six
in any one week. The conference also reduced the maximum number of matches for
the following sports by ten percent: field hockey, soccer, volleyball, tennis
and golf.

“We also recognize that academics are our primary purpose, and thus we
strive to find a proper balance between the life of the mind and the life of
the body,” Tom Tritton, president of Haverford College and chair of the
Centennial Conference Presidents said in a press release. “The changes
to our bylaws are intended to move us toward that balance and also to invite
other Division III schools to join us.”

When asked about whether the symposium aimed to compare the importance of
athletics in different schools, Adam Hertz, Director of Athletics at Swarthmore,
said, “The goal [of the symposium] is not to compare or single out in any
way. We envision a sharing of information. Each of the panelists is going to
discuss an area of athletics that directly affects their program and their efforts
to be competitive. We have all had these discussions individually but this is
the first time a group has gotten together to discuss them. I think what we’ll
see is that the issues are not unique to that institution, but common to all
of us.”

He also denied that either Swarthmore or the Centennial Conference wanted
to “decrease the role of sports” despite the reform package. “The
number of institutions represented by Division III have developed disparities
in their athletic philosophies,” Hertz explained. “We are looking
for a return to the core values of Division III athletics. I think that’s what
we’re headed for–not a decreased role of sports, but a reform to re-associate
the philosophies of athletics programs to those of the institutions.”

The athletic administrators of Bryn Mawr, Colby, Dickinson, Haverford, Macalester,
and Swarthmore will talk about their experiences and views in the Symposium.

*****

by Greg Leiserson
Campus News Editor

In response to concern about the manner in which student parking spaces are
assigned and the dissolution of the parking committee last spring, Student Council
discussed a number of ways to improve the process at their weekly meeting last
night.

The central element of the proposal under debate was a revamped priority system
for determining which students receive parking permits and which do not. First
priority would go to students with disabilities and medical concerns. Students
with off-campus jobs would be in the next cohort. After those two categories
were filled, permits would be given to senior RAs, junior RAs, seniors, juniors,
sophomores, and freshmen in that order.

One factor in the old priority system that was not initially included in the
new system was whether students who cited a club position which required a car
would receive additional consideration in the application process. Documentation
would be required for all off-campus jobs and medical concerns, and the committee
responsible for assigning spaces and permits would be responsible for ensuring
the documentation’s validity.

In addition to revamping the priority system for assigning parking spaces,
Student Council members also discussed the possibility of getting permits from
the Borough of Swarthmore for overnight parking on College Avenue, as well as
expanding the number of permits given for spaces in Cunningham Lot.

Following the discussion, the proposal was to be rewritten and presented again
at the next council meeting, where the next step will be decided upon.

*****

* Despite the threat of President Bush’s veto, the Republican-controlled Senate
voted 55-40 to repeal the Federal Communication Commission’s new regulations
that allow a few conglomerates to dominate ownership of media. This resolution,
called “congressional veto,” has never been successful except when
the Congress and White House rescinded workplace safety regulations under the
Clinton Administration. Major media companies argued that the decades-old regulations
hindered their ability to grow and compete in a market altered by cable television,
satellite broadcasting and the Internet. The changes in regulations will approve
single-company ownership of television reaching half of the nation’s viewers,
combined with newspapers and broadcast stations in the same region.

* Sun Microsystems, Inc. introduced on Tuesday a package of software that
replaces Windows-based programs and announced a new approach to marketing. To
maintain its position in low-cost computing, Sun has adopted inexpensive x86
microprocessors and the open-source operating system Linux. Meanwhile, Microsoft
said it would donate software and $250 million cash for the next five years
to fund education programs in countries around world, in order to pit Microsoft
software against Linux. Japan, South Korea, and China, however, are planning
to develop an alternative operating system to Windows.

* While Israel continued building a barrier between itself and Palestine,
the United States announced on Tuesday that it would reduce loan guarantees
to Israel for expanding the construction. The “road map” plan supported
by the U.S. is in peril with increasing violence in the Middle Eastern states.
While not opposing the fence’s construction entirely, the U.S. aims to stop
Israel’s interference with Palestine and expressed concern regarding Israel’s
taking over any Palestinian territory.

*****

Textbook BuyBack
College Bookstore, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Drama Board Auditions
Kohlberg 116, 4:00 p.m.

Student Art Association Open Meeting
Parrish Parlors, 5:30 p.m.

Cultures of the Middle East Film Showing
Kohlberg 228, 6:00 p.m.

Video Viewing: “Goya en Burdeos”
Kohlberg 334, 8:00 p.m.

Film Society Screening: “Trailer Park”
Science Center 101, 10:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

Today:
Women’s Soccer hosts Richard Stockton, 5:00 p.m.
Men’s Soccer hosts Neumann, 7:00 p.m.
Volleyball at Arcadia, 7:00 p.m.

Tomorrow:
No contests are scheduled for tomorrow

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every
day always just exactly fits the newspaper.”
–Jerry Seinfeld

*****

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