Wednesday, October 1, 2003

The first Board of Managers meeting of the academic year took place on September
19 and 20. There, the Property Committee debriefed on the college’s construction
plans for the Science Center, new dorm, and Parrish renovations, altogether
culminating in more student living and lounging spaces. The Ad Hoc Committee
on the Living Wage then delivered a presentation on their current investigation
of issues concerning the implementation of a living wage.

A major discussion point of the meeting was the budget and the Capital Campaign,
which has raised $138.4 out of the projected $230 million. The endowment now
stands at $970 million, up from a low of $810 million. The Board also listened
to presentations on issues such as resource distribution, alumni donations,
and expenditure reduction.

Student Council co-presidents and student observers to the Board of Managers
Anna Morgan ’04 and Emiliano Rodriguez ’05 have provided the college community
with a detailed summary of the meeting, its implications for student life, and
recommendations, most notably to the Ad Hoc Committee on the Living Wage.

Board of Managers Luncheon Summary

The Swarthmore College Board of Managers held its first meeting of the 2003-2004
academic year Friday and Saturday, September 19th and 20th. The discussions
held over the two day period not only have relevant impact on student life today,
but also long term ramifications for the future of the College.

The Property Committee centered its discussion on the current construction
the College is undertaking. Within a year, the Science Center and new dormitory
should be completed, allowing for the renovation of Parrish Hall to begin. The
renovation of Parrish should be completed within a year, and will be much more
student-oriented. The current home of the Admissions Office will be converted
into a new post office and student lounge area, and the FMFCU will be moved
from Kohlberg to Parrish 1st. Admissions will ultimately be housed on the second
and third floors of Parrish. There will also be a loss of dormitory rooms on
Parrish 2nd and North. The renovation will include steps to improve fire safety
and elevators to meet ADA compliance.

The Academic Affairs Committee examined the new Intellectual Property Rights
Policy which has already been passed unanimously by the faculty. Most notably,
the liberal policy applies to the entire community, not simply faculty.

The meeting of the Student Life Committee was replaced by a board-wide discussion
of the Living Wage. Vice-President Melanie Young and Prof. Barry Schwartz presented
the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Living Wage. It was noted that the purpose
of the committee was not to determine whether or not the College should adopt
a Living Wage Policy. Rather, the Committee was working to determine how, if
the College decided to implement a Living Wage, it would be carried out. The
Ad Hoc Committee is currently examining issues including benefits vs. wage increases,
wage compression, and means testing. The Living Wage and Democracy Campaign
passed out supplemental materials to the Board due to their dissatisfaction
with the information included in the information packet distributed to the Board
prior to their meeting. After Young and Schwartz’s presentation, the observers
were asked to leave while the Board held a discussion regarding the Living Wage.

On Friday night, Prof. Paul Rablen presented to the Board his comparative analysis
of how Swarthmore and similar small Liberal Arts Colleges distribute resources.
The Board was excited to learn that, in general, Swarthmore provides the same
academic breadth as other colleges, but to a much smaller population of students,
therefore leading to larger expenses. We feel that two distinguishing characteristics
are worth mentioning: Swarthmore tends to hire more leave replacements, and
tends to have a higher percentage of students taking science courses than the
other institutions included in the study.

Regarding the financial situation of the college, the Capital Campaign has
currently raised $138.4 million of the $230 million it expects to raise within
the next three and one third years. As an added incentive, Eugene Lang has offered
an additional $5 million towards that goal only if the Campaign is able to raise
$87 million within the coming three years. Our endowment is once again flourishing
at $970 million, as compared to its previous low of $810 million.

A survey of four hundred alumni has been completed in order to determine how
to make the remaining period of the Capital Campaign most effective. The survey
revealed that while most alumni have a positive impression of the college, many
do not feel that Swarthmore needs their money, and instead, tend to give charitably
to other causes. The Board concluded that the importance of alumni donations
to the perpetuation of the college must be emphasized, and will begin to stress
the Campaign in most of its alumni publications.

In addition to discussing how to increase funds, the Board was concerned with
how to reduce expenditures. The Expenditure Review Committee as well as the
Committee on Educational Policy began looking at cost cutting measures that
could be undertaken by the College. The ERC will focus primarily on how to increase
the efficiency of the College, while the CEP will discuss how to shrink the
budget more directly. Issues to be discussed by the CEP will include: whittling
down on leave replacements thus decreasing the number of courses available to
students, re-examining team teaching and the benefit it can provide when a course
is continually team taught, questioning policies regarding the credits professors
may receive for thesis advising, and using the Tri-College Consortium to maintain
the diverse course offerings were new policies to be implemented. Some Senior
Staff members, as well as members of the Board of Managers expressed the opinion
that it may be important at some later point to discuss whether or not Swarthmore
should continue to remain as small as it is currently.

We, as student observers to the Board, have drawn a few conclusions from this
meeting. First, we would encourage the Ad Hoc Committee on the Living Wage to
provide more of a public forum regarding its work and ideas. Given the importance
of the living wage to many students, we feel that more public access to their
plans would be beneficial to the entire community. We would also like to express
concern as to the confidential nature of the Board discussion regarding the
living wage. It is an issue of extreme relevance and importance to the campus
community, and it would be contrary to the mission and purpose of our institution
if such a discussion was not transparent. Second, we feel that Prof. Rablen’s
study would be even more relevant and beneficial to the college if it included
statistics from schools that we consider to be competitors of Swarthmore, for
example, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Pomona. Finally, we hope that any discussion
regarding increasing student population and/or decreasing the breadth of curriculum
available to our students does not leave the preliminary stages. We feel strongly
that one of the distinguishing features of the college, a characteristic that
makes us truly competitive with schools like Harvard and Stanford is its small
size relative to its breadth of curriculum. We thank the board for the opportunity
to observe the majority of their proceedings, and welcome any questions or clarifications
regarding this statement.

Anna Morgan ‘04
Emiliano Rodriguez ‘05
Student Council Co-Presidents
Student Observers to the Board of Managers

*****

* President Bush said Tuesday he welcomed a Justice Department investigation
into who revealed the classified identity of a CIA operative. “If there’s
a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is,” Bush told reporters
at an impromptu news conference during a trip to Chicago, Illinois. “If
the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.” In a July
column, syndicated journalist Robert Novak named former Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s
wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative on weapons of mass destruction, citing
Bush administration sources. Wilson has said he believes the White House is
behind the leak of his wife’s identity, an act of retribution for his revelation
of flaws in the British prewar intelligence report. Bush cited the report in
his State of the Union address in January. Said Bush in his impromptu speech,
“Leaks of classified information are bad things.”

* North Korea said on Tuesday it was not interested in further talks about
its nuclear program and was beefing up its nuclear deterrent force to repel
a possible pre-emptive attack by the United States. Pyongyang’s comments came
as U.S., Japanese and South Korean diplomats met in Tokyo to discuss strategy
to deal with North Korea’s declared nuclear deterrent, including how to reassure
the communist state about its security concerns. North Korea has been under
pressure to return to the negotiating table ever But South Korean Unification
Minister Jeong Se-hyun said that he believed the North was ready to continue
talks. “Some can interpret the North Korean reaction as its typical tactic
to ratchet up its bargaining chip to gain more leverage in future negotiations.”
He said intelligence agencies in Seoul and Washington had concluded that the
possibility of North Korea formally declaring itself a nuclear arms state and
conducting nuclear and missile tests was low.

* Indonesian lawyers have criticised plans by the Justice Ministry to criminalise
sex outside of marriage and some sexual acts by minors. The ministry is drafting
an amendment to the criminal code to include acts not currently categorised
as crimes but seen as immoral, such as cohabitation and premarital sex. The
move is apparently in response to a clamour by some Muslim groups and political
parties for the introduction of Islamic law.The draft proposes that a couple
found guilty of cohabitation be jailed up to two years, while minors (those
under 18) who engage in sodomy and oral sex could be jailed for 12 years. A
man who impregnates a woman but refuses to marry her could spend up to five
years in prison. A ministry spokesman said that Muslim leaders, including experts
in syariah law, had been consulted over the draft revisions. Indonesia is the
world’s most populous Muslim nation but Islam is not the state religion and
the country in general practises a tolerant version of the faith.

* Thailand’s atomic energy agency has received the go-ahead to construct a
long-planned nuclear test reactor, agency officials said, despite concerns that
the project could be unsafe and harmful to the environment. Officials at the
Office of Atomic Energy for Peace confirmed a report in The Nation newspaper
that a construction permit had been granted for a test reactor at Ongharak district
of Nakhon Nayok province, 90km north-east of Bangkok. The go-ahead was given
at a meeting on Monday of the National Commission on Atomic Energy for Peace.
Deputy Prime Minister Suwit Khunkitti, who oversees the atomic energy office,
was quoted by The Nation as saying that the project was necessary for research
and development. Construction had been delayed by protests by environmentalists
and residents near the proposed site, as well as by policy changes by several
successive governments.

*****

University of Iowa Premed Meeting
Parrish Commons, 12:30 p.m.

Edward Said Memorial Service
Intercultural Center, 5:00 p.m.

Peace Corps Info Session
Bond, 6:30 p.m.

WRC Open Hours
WRC, 7:00 p.m.

SAC Study Break
Parrish Parlors, 9:00 p.m.

Rhythm n Motion Hip Hop Dance Workshop
Upper Tarble, 9:30 p.m.

Film Society Screening: ‘Together’
Science Center 101, 10:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

With an amazing five goals in the first half, Swarthmore turned in a 5-1 victory
over Bryn Mawr Tuesday. Chelsea Farrell ’05, Heidi Feiselmann ’06, Lauren Sippel
’05 , Helen Leitner ’05 , and Emily Sydlowski ’05 by way of Joanna Hess ’05
all scored goals and Jenn Hart ’04 made 4 saves.

*****

On Tuesday, the Garnet fell 3-0 to Muhlenberg, a team ranked 8th in the Mid-Atlantic
region poll. Although they were outshot, the Swat team kept the deficit to one
goal until the second half. Keeper Catherine Salussolia ’04 recorded ten saves
in the game.

*****

Today:
Men’s Soccer host Washington, 5:00 p.m.
Volleyball at Widener, 7:00 p.m.

Tomorrow:
There are no contests scheduled for tomorrow.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Life is a moderately good play with a badly written second act.”
–Truman Capote

*****

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