Tuesday, November 18, 2003

by Megan Mills
Associate Editor

After spending 10 years enriching the lives of Swarthmore students of all faiths,
Pauline Allen passed away on November 13. She had been struggling with breast
cancer for over a year.

“Pauline was such a strong and vital person that the fact that she could
actually die seemed sort of impossible,” said Meredith Leigh ’04, Swarthmore
Protestant Community steward. “Even seeing her at her very sickest a couple
of weeks ago, she still held out some small hope for the future.”

Allen was the Protestant campus advisor and worked closely with the Swarthmore
Protestant Community. She also worked with the queer community, provided counseling
for students of all faiths, and led retreats and community service opportunities
such as Habitat for Humanity. Before her tenure here, she attended Cornell University,
earned a counseling degree from Harvard, and was a member of the Pendle Hill
Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation.

Many students were touched by Allen’s kind ways and caring attitude. Of her
tenure at Swat, Leigh believes that “she loved all of the students, and
felt truly blessed to be able to minister here.” She further testified
to her personal strength: “She was always someone you knew you could lean
on, and even when she found out she was sick she continued to want people to
come to her.”

On her last birthday just before October break, a cappella group Sixteen Feet
performed for Allen in her home. Said former SPC steward Allen Frost ’04, “She
was in a wheelchair and weak, but she was still talkative. She said ‘I was always
the biggest fan of you guys, and I never missed a concert.’ And she didn’t.
She always came to her students’ swim meets and chorus concerts.”

Though she had recently taken a leave of absence from her work at Swat when
her cancer progressed, students did not forget the things that made Allen a
beloved member of the Swat community. Frost recalled how on one Valentine’s
Day, as with most holidays, she invited some students over for dinner. “There
were heart placemats and candles, and it just so happened that none of us were
in relationships at the time and we asked her if it was ok, and she said, ‘On
Valentine’s Day you don’t need a lover, you just need love. And I love you.’
It was kind of cheesy, but it was heartfelt.”

Even when her struggle was reaching the end, Allen was thinking of others.
According to Leigh, “I feel like at the end she was at peace with her impending
death and did her best to help us be at peace with it. She would want us to
know that she is with God.”

———–
A memorial for Pauline Allen will take place Saturday, November 22 at 3:00 p.m.
at the Willistown Friends Meeting House, 7069 Goshen Road in Newton Square.
An announcement of the details of the campus memorial will be made when available.

In lieu of flowers, Allen asked that donations be made to the Domestic Abuse
Project at 14 W. 2nd Street, Media.

*****

* Mortar and tank fire lit up the night sky over Saddam Hussein’s hometown
before dawn yesterday in a dramatic display of Washington’s changed tactics
aimed at crushing Iraqi insurgents inflicting mounting losses on United States-led
troops. The bombardment of Tikrit, about 190km north of Baghdad, was part of
Ivy Cyclone Two, a show of force aimed at a region north and west of the capital
regarded as a hotbed of anti-American sentiment. The offensive, backed by Apache
helicopters, came after an Arab TV channel broadcast a tape of what it said
was Saddam urging Iraqis to wage holy war. The US military fired a satellite-guided
missile on Sunday, the first since major combat was declared over on May 1,
targeting an island in a river in northern Iraq where US officers said guerillas
had set up a training camp. Faced with a deteriorating security situation, the
US-led coalition has bowed to demands from Iraqi politicians and agreed to speed
up the transfer of power. The new formula, announced on Saturday by the US-appointed
Iraqi Governing Council, calls for a provisional, sovereign government to be
established by June next year. US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer, speaking
from Baghdad, said Iraq was a very dangerous place but US troops would stay
the course. He added: ‘We will stay here until the job is done and until we
have a democratic, stable Iraq.’

* The city turned into Fortress London yesterday amid heightened fears of a
guerilla attack on the eve of a visit by United States President George W. Bush.
At the insistence of a wary White House, traditional events such as a horse-
drawn carriage ride with Queen Elizabeth II will not be included in the four-day
program. The weekend suicide bombings in Istanbul served as a reminder, if any
were needed, that militants could strike at any time. Britain had already moved
to a higher state of alert after warnings of a possible Al-Qaeda attack a few
days ago. Roads were blocked and drivers stopped and searched as police tightened
a security ring around the capital. Security was also heightened at ports and
airports. Tens of thousands of Britons, who opposed the invasion of Iraq, plan
to demonstrate against Mr. Bush. Police snipers on rooftops will line the President’s
route and all rapid response armed units are on full alert. Police have cancelled
all leave and are putting 5,000 officers on duty in the capital’s biggest security
operation. Mr. Bush is staying at Buckingham Palace, and demonstrators are determined
to make their mark. The Stop the War Coalition, which is coordinating the bulk
of the protests, hopes 60,000 people will join the main anti-Bush march through
the city on Thursday.

* China yesterday issued a fresh and stern warning to Taiwanese leader Chen
Shui-bian to stop pushing for independence for the island by advocating a referendum.
Raising the level of its response, the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) issued a
strong statement from its fuzeren, or head of the Cabinet-level agency, slamming
the Taiwan government’s attempt ‘to prepare a legal basis for future referendums
on Taiwan independence’ as a ‘very dangerous separatist move’. Until now, Beijing’s
responses to President Chen’s stopovers in the US and his announcement, on his
return, of a timetable for a referendum and enactment of a new Constitution
had been given by spokesmen for both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
TAO. The statement yesterday called the referendum move an ‘overt challenge
against the ‘one China’ principle’. It said Mr. Chen’s ‘risky’ move breached
Taiwan compatriots’ fundamental interests, ‘dragging them into a dangerous chasm
step by step’. It has been suggested that Mr. Chen had misread China’s restrained
responses until now as weakness.

*****

Career Services Internship Search Workshop
Kohlberg 202, 12:35 p.m.

Panel Discussion on South Asian and African Relations
Kohlberg 226, 5:30 p.m.

“Children of Shatila” Annual Film Series
Kohlberg 228, 7:00 p.m.

American Narrative Cinema Film Screening: “Midnight Cowboy”
LPAC Cinema, 7:00 p.m.

Thomas B. McCabe Memorial Lecture: Clyde Prestowitz ’63, founder and president
of the Economic Strategy Institute and author of Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism
and the Failure of Good Intentions
Science Center 101, 7:00 p.m.

Sexual Health Counselors ‘Film Showing: ‘Chasing Amy’
Science Center 199, 7:30 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

Today:
No contests are scheduled for today.

Tomorrow:
No contests are scheduled for tomorrow.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”
–Oscar Wilde

*****

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