Friday, November 7, 2003

by Jonathan Ference, Gazette Reporter
and Roxanne Yaghoubi, World News Editor

As part of a college-wide search to find ways to cut back on expenses, the
Expenditure Review Commission (ERC) has asked the Committee on Educational Policy
(CEP) to review how money for certain academic resources, particularly in terms
of faculty, is being spent. The search is necessary because of the large hit
that the endowment has taken in recent years, caused in turn by the nation’s
stagnant economy and the downturn in the stock market. As Paul Rablen’s recently
released study confirmed, Swarthmore invests a proportionally significant portion
of its budget in the academics; thus, when the budget grew tight, the CEP was
asked to examine how it used its funds.

The question underlying the whole study is this: how do professors get to the
five credits they are supposed to be responsible for teaching each semester?
One of the major things that the CEP is looking into is team-teaching, where
two professors together develop and teach a course. Student Council co-presidents
Anna Morgan ’04 and Emiliano Rodriguez ’05 stressed that though the committee
felt that it was worthwhile for two professors to develop a course together
in order to share expertise, there was a concern that to use two professors
to teach one class could be detrimental to Swarthmore’s mission of keeping class
sizes down. Essentially one of the two professors teaching in the team-taught
manner, could instead be teaching another section of the class or another, different
class altogether. Another option would be to share faculty more evenly throughout
the Tri-College Consortium, since it is more efficient for one faculty member
to go between campuses than it is for a whole class of students.

The CEP is also to look at whether tenure-track positions are distributed evenly
across the college. Traditionally, each department has to reapply to get any
new tenure-track positions, each of which cost the college about a million dollars.
Also getting a serious look is the leave replacement system, under which Swarthmore
liberally hires visiting professors at about a 1-1 ratio to replace faculty
who take the leave due to them every four years.

What will this examination of spending policy mean for the average Swarthmore
student? Provost Connie Hungerford hopes nothing. She commented, “We want
to do whatever economizing we do in a way that does not affect the quality of
the academic program–students won’t notice.” Hungerford also wanted to
assure students that just because a course has low enrollment doesn’t mean it
will become a target. The generous amount of leave replacements hired each year
and Swarthmore’s wide course selection are two of the strongest points of the
academic program, both the Student Council presidents and the Provost agreed.
The issue becomes balancing those strengths with a real need to make sure funds
are being used in the absolute most effective way possible.

All parties stressed that the CEP review was a normal part of college procedure
done every couple of years. In order to ask donors for more funds, the college
has to ensure that it will use those funds as efficiently as it possibly can.
Furthermore, President Al Bloom stressed that CEP’s investigation is just beginning,
and so “at this point there have been no specific directions identified
or decisions made.” No matter what the final recommendations are, a better
student understanding of the process is important to all concerned, especially
due to the perception held by some students that the CEP has negative intentions.
In the end, Provost Hungerford said, the committee might just end up “reaffirming
everything that we are doing right now.”

*****

by Evelyn Khoo
Living and Arts Editor

A fan of over-the-top, thrillingly morbid one-liners? Of intricate conspiracy
theories about life, death and strange names? Of excessive black clothing? If
you are, you’ve probably already seen ‘Matrix Revolutions’ (hell, you probably
watched a bootleg copy three weeks ago)….if you aren’t, you should get thee
to a movie theater, any movie theater, so you can go over yet again, the latent
cuteness of Keanu despite his disturbing resemblance to a plank of wood. That
is the top thing on the Gazette agenda this weekend, but we have generously
decided to include a list of other activities happening this weekend for our
not-quite-as-Neo-loving peers. Enjoy!

Friday

Chilling before your evening viewing of the Matrix? Help those hours fly by
by checking out the Ridley High School Drama Group’s production of Rogers’&
Hammerstein’s “Cinderella”. Show dates for ‘Cinderella’ are Nov 7,8,
14 and 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Ridley High School Auditorium, Morton Avenue,
Folsom, PA. Tickets available at the door.

Saturday

Didn’t catch the Halloween Vertigogo show last weekend because you were too
busy putting the finishing touches onto your Trinity costume? Get your improv
comedy fix by heading to The Playground at The Adrienne at 2030 Sansom St to
watch ComedySportz, Philadelphia’s premiere improvisational comedy troupe. Show
times, 7:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., tickets between $12.00 – $15.00.

Sunday

If you still haven’t watched the Matrix yet, shame on you. The sheer enormity
of this omission *almost* led us NOT to tell you about the Puddle of Mudd concert,
at the Theater of Living Arts, 334 South Street at 8:00 p.m. Almost.

CORRECTION: The Puddle of Mudd concert is on Monday night, not Sunday night.
On Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. Phantom Planet with Ben Lee and Cordalene will
be performing.

*****

* President Bush said on Thursday that the US was wrong in “excusing and
accommodating” a lack of democracy in the Middle East. In a speech before
the National Endowment for Democracy, Bush criticized sixty years of US foreign
policy, and said that Saudi Arabia and Egypt had to lead the Arab world toward
freedom. Later that same night, the President signed into law the $87.5 billion
aid package for reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

* Federal judges in New York and California added another wrinkle to the abortion
debate on Thursday by blocking the new ban against so-called “partial-birth”
abortions. The ban was signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday, but the
judges’ ruling means that the law cannot be enforced until it is ruled constitutional
or not. President Clinton twice-vetoed a similar ban while he was in office.
Both sides of the debate expect that the controversy will go to the Supreme
Court.

* The total death toll in the Iraq helicopter crash is now estimated to be
16 soldiers. The death toll rose when one of the injured died on Thursday in
a medical facility in Germany. On the same day, hundreds of soldiers gathered
in al-Assad, a desert base 150 miles northwest of Baghdad, to remember their
fallen comrades. Three more total deaths happened in Iraq that day, including
a Polish soldier and two Americans. The Polish casualty was the first such casualty
from that country since World War II.

* A man who spent six days barricaded upon a construction crane while dressed
as Spiderman finally climbed down on Wednesday. The incident happened in London,
where David Chick said he had performed the act in order to lobby against a
legal system that would not allow him to see his daughter. Spiderman is his
daughter’s favorite comic book character.

*****

Friday:

Speaker James Murdoch of Endless Pools, Inc: Talk about Engineering Aspects
of His Business
Hicks Mural Room, 3:00 p.m.

Discussion: ‘Reflections on the Life of the Spirit’
Parrish Parlors, 4:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Movie Committee Film Showing: ‘Chicago’
LPAC Cinema, 7:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.

International Club Movie Viewing: ‘Run Lola Run’
Science Center 199, 8:00 p.m.

Sixteen Feet Fall Concert — ‘Total Request Live’
Lang Concert Hall, 8:00 p.m.

Anime/Manga Club Screening: ‘Serial Experiments Lain’
Kohlberg 228, 9:00 p.m.

Concert: ‘Prefuse 73/Beans/Dabyre’
Olde Club, 10:00 p.m.

Saturday:

SWIL All-Day Story Reading
Hicks Mural Room, 1:00 p.m.

‘Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in the Matrix’ by Read
Mercer Schuchardt
Science Center 181, 7:00 p.m.

Discovery Weekend Comedy Night
LPAC Pearson-Hall Theater, 7:00 p.m.

Movie Committee Film Showing:’Chicago’
Science Center 101, 7:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.

Fall Formal: Winter Wonderland
Upper Tarble, 10:00 p.m.

Sunday:

Live concert with King Cobra and The Quails
Bryn Mawr College Campus Center, Main Lounge, 2:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

Today:
Men’s Basketball at Eastern (Scrimmage), 7:30 p.m.

Saturday:
Swimming at Widener, 1:00 p.m.

Sunday:
There are no contests scheduled for Sunday.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells
us the truth about its author.”
–G. K. Chesterton

*****

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