Monday, September 22, 2003

by Josh Hausman
Gazette Weatherman

Summary: Tonight Swarthmore will experience yet more rain, but the rest of
the week is likely to be mostly dry. Highs will be in the 70s with lows in the
60s tonight and 50s thereafter.

For a more up to date forecast (with fancy graphics!) click on this link:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/PAZ070.php?warnzone=paz070&warncounty=pac045
Here is the forecast as of Sunday night:
Monday. Patchy fog possible early in the morning. Otherwise partly sunny. Highs
in the upper 70s. Light south winds increasing to 10 to 15 mph.
Monday night. Showers and thunderstorms likely. Breezy with lows in the mid
60s. South winds 15 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent.
Tuesday. A chance of showers in the morning. Otherwise partly sunny. Breezy
with highs in the upper 70s. Chance of rain 40 percent.
Tuesday night. Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 50s.
Wednesday. Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 70s.
Wednesday night. Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 50s.
Thursday. Partly cloudy with a chance of showers. Highs in the upper 70s.
Friday. A chance of showers into the afternoon. Otherwise partly cloudy. Lows
in the upper 50s and highs in the lower 70s.
Saturday. Partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 50s and highs in the lower 70s.
Sunday. Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 50s and highs in the mid 70s.

Long-Range computer models are predicting below normal temperatures next week.

Philadelphia normal (average temperatures) for September 21: Hi 76 Low 59
Record High: 97
Record Low: 39
For more information on Philadelphia’s climate see: http://tgsv5.nws.noaa.gov/er/phi/clidat.htm#Philadelphia

TODAY’S SHARPLES MENU

Lunch: Chicken fingers, french fries, Asian pasta, Tuscan bean bake, corn,
carrots, nacho bar, baker’s choice dessert

Dinner: Chicken with spinach and feta, basmati rice, tempeh with hoisin sauce,
stuffed peppers, peas and carrots, vegetable blend, cheesesteak bar, ice cream
bar

NEWS REPORT

by Jonathan Ference
Gazette Reporter

Even though the semester is but three weeks old, one campus activist group
is getting noticed for its extremely high level of activity. Members of the
Swarthmore Living Wage and Democracy Campaign (SLWDC), who have been working
since the fall of 2000 for a living wage, are determined to keep pushing forward,
even in the early stages of the new school year.

One already tangible result of the group’s work was the creation of the President’s
Ad Hoc Committee on the Living Wage, a group whose task is to make a formal
recommendation to the College’s Board of Managers on an appropriate living wage.
Student representatives to the ad hoc committee, which is not affiliated with
the SLWDC, held a fireside chat in the spring 2003 semester to familiarize the
college community at-large with their cause.

Yet, the SLWDC feels their campaign is entering a critical time; hence the
table strategically and unavoidably positioned right outside the admissions
office in Parrish last Friday. The goal? A letter-signing drive to applaud and
affirm the ad hoc committee’s progress toward making a living wage a reality–and
to encourage the committee to stick to an important October deadline.

By getting members of the college community to sign these letters, the SLWDC
is hoping the ad hoc committee will complete its recommendation in October–
with enough time to collectcommunity input and allow the Board of Managers to
include the final proposal in next year’s budget. Supporters were asked to sign
notes that said “[the ad hoc committee’s] work has taken more time than
was originally designated” and ended by urging the committee to keep to
its original timeline.

Regardless of the ad hoc committee’s ultimate recommendation for a wage–
the SLWDC is hoping it will be the number it deemed appropriate, $13 per hour–or
whether the Board of Managers accepts it, the “Living-Wagers” are
working to make the college community aware of how close they feel their cause
is to fruition through high visibility campaigning. The size of the pile of
signed letters and Dean Gross’s presence at the table were evidence that, even
if the deadline isn’t met, the SLWDC is working diligently and creatively to
turn the college’s heads in its direction.

*****

by Saurav Dhital
Sports Editor

Swarthmore College hosted an athletic Symposium last Saturday in the Science
Center about the direction intercollegiate athletics was heading. Speakers from
six different colleges discussed the importance of athletics in education and
how to make it possible for athletes from academically demanding colleges to
participate in varsity sports and still provide good competition to their opponents.
Adam Hertz, Director of Athletics at Swarthmore, started the proceedings by
underlining how difficult it was getting for small colleges like Swarthmore
to hold their own against bigger and more athletics-oriented colleges and universities.

Amy Campbell from Bryn Mawr, Greg Kannerstein from Haverford, Richard Whitmore
from Colby, Steve Ulrich from the Centennial Conference, Vanessa Seljeskog from
Macalester, and Les Poolman from Dickinson were the speakers. David Gelber ’63,
executive producer with CBS News, moderated the program.

There was a general consensus among the speakers that specialization in sports
was draining the resources of the colleges. Many colleges now have separate
coaches for each sport, which was not the case 30 years ago. Whitmore, who is
coaching the Colby basketball team for the 34th year, related how much time
a coach was spending on recruiting athletes these days. In general, a coach
would have 200 primary contacts for one student that comes to a college. Even
this recruitment has gotten competitive in the past few years, according to
Seljeskog. She says that a lot of colleges are competing to get the same student-athlete,
which means that you have to contact more and more people to get a certain number
of athletes. She talked about how the football program at Macalester was surviving
on a core roster of 30 players. Since it would not be able to compete within
the conference with such a small roster, their football team is following an
independent schedule. She said that the colleges should aim to reduce the number
of recruited athletes, encourage multi-sport athletes, and reevaluate the scope
and aim of their athletic programs to balancethe athletics with their academics.
Poolman highlighted upon how important, and costly, the construction of athletic
facilities and travel costs in taking their teams to another country was.

Ulrich, who has been the executive director of the Centennial Conference,
said that the Centennial Conference was working with NESCAC (New England Small
College Athletic Conference) and North Coast Athletic Conference to work out
a way so that the colleges in these conferences could with continue their excellent
athletic programs. He said the job was pretty ard due to the different priorities
of the colleges involved.

On the whole the speakers agreed that a Division IV or IIIA was a definite possibility
and would happen in the near future. Whitmore even suggested Division IV schools
should not be allowed to recruit athletes. Small colleges cannot hope to match
the resources of the bigger institutions and, hence, cannot hope to compete
with them. But creating a new division would allow for both types of colleges
to compete meaningfully.

The panel answered questions at the end of the symposium.

*****

Here are the winners of the Senior Class Officers election:

President – Matt Williams
Vice-President – Kristina Pao
Secretary – Njideka Akunyili
Agent – Dale Jennings

*****

* Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, mastermind of the September 11th attacks, told investigators
that the attacks were originally planned to be much larger in scope. The suspected
terrorist said that he first discussed the plans with Osama Bin Laden in 1996,
and that the original plan called for five planes, not three. At a later point
the plan also involved two waves of attacks. However Mohammed denied that he
had ever heard of a Saudi man called Omar al- Bayoumi, who many in Congress
suspect of providing rent money and assistance to two of the September 11th
hijackers.

* The violence in Iraq continued escalating over the weekend. Three US soldiers
were killed in two separate attacks in Iraq on Saturday. One soldier was killed
after an explosive device ripped through his military convoy west of Baghad.
The second incident occurred at Abu Ghirab prison when two mortar shells hit
the complex. The shells killed two and wounded 13, though none of those dead
or wounded were inmates. Also on Saturday, one of three women of the Iraqi governing
council, Akila al-Hashimi was injured in an attack upon her convoy.

* The robotic space probe, Galileo, ended its mission on Sunday by plunging
into the scorching atmosphere of Jupiter. The probe had circled Jupiter and
its planets for eight years, all the meanwhile collecting scientific data. Scientists
believe that some of the data collected from the planet’s moons could point
to the existence of extraterrestrial life there.

*****

T’ai Chi Chih Fall Info Session
Kohlberg 328, 12:00 p.m.

Applying to Law School Info Session
Kohlberg 115, 12:30 p.m.

Science Center Tour
Donstruction trailers at Dupont, 4:00 p.m.

Info Session with UMBC
Bond, 6:00 p.m.

SNEWT VIII Meeting
Kohlberg 202, 7:00 p.m.

Housing Committee Meeting
Parrish 370, 7:00 p.m.

SAC Meeting
Kohlberg 330, 8:00 p.m.

Empty the Shelters Meeting
Kohlberg 226, 8:00 p.m.

SWIL Movie Night: Metropolis
Science Center 101, 8:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

by Alex Glick
Gazette Reporter

The Swarthmore men’s soccer team lost to the Dickinson Red Devils this Saturday
4-0. The game took place in front of a boisterous Homecoming crowd at Clothier
Field. This was also Swarthmore’s first conference match of the year.

The Garnet had a difficult time pulling it together in the first half. The
Red Devils were able to break away past Swarthmore’s defense to score on goalie
Nate Shupe ’05 at 5:59 into the game. Then with 18:18 left on the clock, Dickinson’s
Andrew Rowek made a well placed pass to Carlyle Balfour, who headed the ball
into the goal. Throughout the entire game, players from both teams were physically
very aggressive against each other, and almost all of Swarthmore’s fans became
frustrated after what they believed to be an onslaught of bad calls made by
the referee against the Garnet. An agitated Swarthmore team fouled the Devils
in the box–this allowed Balfour to score off of a penalty shot with 12:52 left,
which made his second goal of the game and sixth of the year. The first half
ended with Dickinson in the lead 3-0.

Swarthmore truly began to pick it up in the second half and played a much better
offensive game. Reuben Heyman-Kantor ’06 replaced Shupe in the goal for Swarthmore.
Heyman-Kantor made 7 saves in the half, most of which involved the goalie’s
diving to stop the ball. Heyman-Kantor allowed one goal with 31:36 left in the
half. The Garnet’s defense was much more solid in this half. Adem Kader ’06
and Vernon Chaplin ’07, among others, hustled to the ball and showed great effort.

Swarthmore, now 2-6 overall, plays their next game at the University of Scranton
on Tuesday.

*****

by Alex Glick
Gazette Reporter

After a long Saturday at Tarble Pavilion, Swarthmore’s volleyball team earned
second place after losing to Elizabethtown College in the finals of the Garnet
Classic. The tournament, held on homecoming weekend, gave Swarthmore, Elizabethtown,
Marywood University, Rutgers-Camden, St. Joseph’s-Patchogue, and Cabrini College
a chance to show their stuff.

Swarthmore defeated Rutgers-Camden with little problem, sweeping them 30-23,
30-20, and 30-17 in their first match of the day. The Garnet Tide played an
excellent offensive and defensive match. In their second match, Swarthmore went
on to defeat Cabrini College. After taking the first game 30-26, the Garnet
lost two in a row 25-30 and 21-30.

Swarthmore rallied to defeat Cabrini in the fourth game 30-19. The fifth and
deciding match was very close and kept fans on the edge of their seats. In the
end, the Garnet emerged victorious 17-15. In the other preliminary bracket,
Elizabethtown defeated Marywood and St. Joseph’s Patchogue, while Marywood emerged
victorious against St. Joe’s. Elizabethtown and Swarthmore, each with a 2-0
record, went on to face each other in the finals.

Swarthmore was not able to defeat Elizabethtown, falling 30-18, 30-20, and
30-24. The Garnet stayed within a few points towards the beginning of each game,
but once Elizabethtown took control, it was almost impossible to stop their
momentum.

Individually, all of the Garnet team members played very well, especially
Emily Conlon ’06, who was in on a number of offensive plays, and Erica George
’07, who was named to the all tournament team. Swarthmore, now with a 7-6 record,
plays at Gwynedd-Mercy this coming Tuesday.

*****

On Saturday the women’s rugby team beat Widener 12-5, bring them one step
closer to the divisional play-offs. Despite the extreme heat and an early score
by Widener, the women perservered against their first real contenders this season,
with Katie Merrick ’05 and Nicole Brunda ’04 scoring the team’s two tries. Brunda
also kicked a field goal for an extra two points, giving Swat a comfortable
and decisive lead against Widener.

The b-side team also won 15-12 with amazing performaces by Liz Buckner ’06,
Reena Nadler ’06, and Liana Lum ’04, who all scored. The women face their next
challenge against York next Saturday.

(Thanks to Kirsten Vannice for providing the results.)

*****

Playing at the Seven Sisters conference at Wellesley, the Swarthmore field
hockey team shut out both Haverford 1-0 and Bryn Mawr 7-0 but then fell 5-3
to Vassar to reach 5th place.

Joanna Hess ’05 scored the Ford game’s lone goal and Karen Lorang ’07 had
7 saves in the Vassar game. Chelsea Ferrell ’05 was named to the All-Tournament
Team.

*****

Out of a field of 43 men and women on the Swarthmore campus course, Jeff Doyan
’00 won the Alumni Cross Country meet with 17:59. James Golden ’05, Lang Reynolds
’05, and Garrett Ash ’05 all tied for second with 18:31, and Adam Hunt ’06 was
next with 18:47. Participants classes ranged from 1970 to 1997.

*****

Today:
There are no contests scheduled for today.

Tomorrow:
Women’s Soccer hosts Franklin & Marshall, 7:00 p.m.
Men’s Soccer at Scranton, 7:00 p.m.
Volleyball at Gwynedd-Mercy, 7:00 p.m.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Life is something that happens when you can’t get to sleep.”
–Fran Lebowitz

*****

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