Highlights - Page 46

Swarthmore Queer Union Reorganizes, Takes Aim at Expanding Gender-Neutral Bathrooms

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On Tuesday, Feb. 4, Swarthmore Queer Union hosted its first meeting of the academic year, reviving the organization after a semester-long hiatus. SQU’s new board is looking to expand and re-establish the organization as Swarthmore’s main group for queer and LGBT+ students.  The group was restarted by Hussain Zaidi ’22, who brought members from the previous board together and began making plans for the new semester.  Over thirty people attended the meeting, exceeding expectations. During the meeting, Zaidi and Ray Sidener ’21 introduced the club’s leadership and laid out some of SQU’s goals for the semester. Then, leadership broke the

quit your extracurriculars

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One of my least favorite aspects of wisdom is how difficult it is to acquire. Acquiring wisdom takes time, of course. But it oftentimes also takes emotional difficulty, self-doubt, and, my least favorite of all, soul-searching. I don’t know if people exist who intrinsically possess wisdom without having to acquire it through various ordeals; but if they do exist, I’m definitely not one of them. Frequently, even when someone gives me sage advice, I dismiss it before eventually coming around to it through a process that somehow always involves me making my life unnecessarily difficult. And that’s how it took

MakerSpace Moves to New Location

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As of Jan. 31, the Swarthmore MakerSpace has moved to Whittier Hall Rooms 109-113. Originally launched in 2018, the MakerSpace was previously located on the ground floor of Beardsley Hall.  “We just moved into a space that we will probably permanently inhabit in Whittier Hall,” said MakerSpace director Mike Jones, “The Building Whittier was designed in such a way that the space is flexible, and none of the walls are structural. So the plan is, the summer after, to do a renovation and reconfigure some of the spaces for MakerSpace use.”  The new MakerSpace features a Digital Fabrication Lab and

Celebrating Black Excellence in the Many Forms It Takes: Coleman Powell ’20

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Coleman Powell ’20 is a senior completing an Honors special major in Comparative Racial Politics — a combination of Black Studies and Political Science — and an Arabic minor. As a Writing Associate, Lang Center Associate, and Student Leader working for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Community Development, Powell has a presence all over campus. They can almost always be seen at the front of a room making people laugh or engaging them in a thoughtful conversation.  When I sat down with them, they had just come from an event that they, Lali Pizarro ’20, and Joy George

On Nourishment

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When I was debating whether or not to come to Swarthmore, I called up an alum that I knew through a friend of a friend and asked for the full rundown on everything the school had to offer. We talked for over an hour, but at the very end of the conversation when I asked him what his absolute favorite part of Swarthmore was, he immediately said that it was the food. He was a low-income student like I am, and the idea of getting nearly unlimited meals blew us both away. Growing up, I was fortunate to never be

Candice Signor-Brown Turns Around the Women’s Basketball Program

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Candice Signor-Brown is certainly no stranger to success. A two-time All-American at Marymount University, she led the Saints to the national semifinals of the NCAA DIII basketball tournament in 2002 and finished her career in the 1,000-point club. She has found similar success as a coach. During a ten-year run at Vassar College, she coached four teams that appeared in the NCAA tournament, and achieved an overall record of 159 wins and 106 losses. Her coaching staff was three-times voted as the best in the Liberty League. It is this pedigree that Signor-Brown, who is leading the turn-around of the

Students Receptive to C.A.P.S. Update, But Not Satisfied

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In the first week of the Spring semester, Counseling and Psychological Services sent the campus community an email update on Swarthmore College’s mental health resources. The email, titled “C.A.P.S. Update,” shared how C.A.P.S. will implement changes to more effectively and equitably respond to the broad range of mental health needs of the Swarthmore community. C.A.P.S. highlighted the fact that there have been significant increases in request for services for the past several years, which is the main reason behind the implementation of these new changes. Members of Swarthmore’s community, however, have had mixed feelings about the direction C.A.P.S. is taking.

One Act Festival Offers Disparate Drama

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The annual One Act Festival kicked off in LPAC mainstage on Friday, with a matinée the following afternoon and a final performance Saturday night. The festival consisted of three original half-hour plays, all written, directed, produced, and acted by students. The show offered a wide breadth of themes, performance methods, and atmosphere, an unexpected variety that kept the audience guessing what’s next throughout the twists and turns of the different plays. The festival began with the house lights dimming to reveal the set for “The Dugout,” written by Camryn Slosky ’22 and directed by Jake Chanenson ’21. A few vertical

Director of Residential Communities Isaiah Thomas Leaves Swarthmore

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Director of Residential Communities Isaiah Thomas has taken a position as the Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Education, Housing Services, and Conduct at Occidental College in Los Angeles after spending nearly six years at Swarthmore. On Monday, Jan. 13, Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Engagement Rachel Head informed the community of Thomas’ departure through email.  “It is with mixed emotions that I share that Isaiah Thomas, Director of Residential Communities, has accepted the position of Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Education, Housing Services and Conduct at Occidental College,” Head wrote.  Thomas’

Iran and 2020: What Does Peace Mean?

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From the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani to increased U.S. sanctions on Iran, tensions between the U.S. and Iran are becoming more and more volatile. Foreign policy always carries considerable weight in each election cycle, but is normally treated as completely separate and distinct from the candidates’s views and policies on domestic matters. I will push back on that conception of foreign policy, and instead propose a lens that promotes the unified nature of domestic and international policy. In doing so, I will analyze the role of Iran and U.S. imperialism in the 2020 Democratic primary and the election

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