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Guided by Our Values, We Look Forward

By President Rebecca Chopp

Civility. Respect and tolerance for difference. Consensus-based decision-making. Access. Sustainability. Much to my great delight, not a day has gone by since I joined the Swarthmore community that these values haven’t risen to the fore in any number of settings both on and off campus. At student fireside chats. In seminars. At arts events. In [...]

Splash! A Paralympic Record

By Carol Brévart-Demm

Swarthmore students receive many sorts of accolades, but not too many acquire national reputations as athletes.
Travis Pollen ’12 is one of the few exceptions. An above-knee amputee, Pollen is a member of the Garnet men’s swim team. Remarkably, using only the power of his muscular upper body and his one leg to push off the [...]

The Marauder's Map: Tales from Beyond the Henge

By Padfoot and Prongs

Down from the dome
These marauders now roam,
And the course they chart
Leads deep to the heart
Of the mysterious wood,
Where brave Swatties have stood.
Just as the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts emanates an aura of enchantment and foreboding, so the Crum Woods of Swarthmore has long captured the imaginations of Swatties. Countless students have spent their days contemplating [...]

$300,000 Raised for New Engineering Equipment

By Susan Clarey­

In the coming months, 22 pieces of computerized, state-of-the art equipment will be installed in Hicks Hall, enhancing the precision, reliability, and flexibility of instructional laboratories in the Engineering Department.
The new equipment—including a 1.2 kW fuel cell system; materials, soils, and mechanical and structural testing devices; and a semiconductor device analyzer— will be deployed across [...]

Quakers and Slavery

By Christopher Densmore

In November 2010, Swarthmore College with the support of the Cooper Foundation, hosted one day of the international conference “Quakers and Slavery.” The event was held over three days, with one day each at the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, and Haverford College. More than 30 scholars from the United States, Britain, and , France [...]

Soaring Interest in Arabic

By Susan Clarey

Susannah Gund ’08 was hooked in high school during a summer trip to Kenya. After studying Swahili for two months, she traveled to the island of Lamu, where African and Eastern cultures meet. “I was fascinated by the Arabic greeting ‘asalamu alaykom’ alongside the Swahili, ‘jambo, habari gani?’ to which I’d grown accustomed,” she says. [...]

Holiday Songfest

On a chilly December afternoon, about 40 members of the campus community came together in Parrish Parlor for a spirited holiday sing-along, hosted by the campus Spirituality Group. As faculty and staff members raised their voices, George Lakey, visiting professor of peace and conflict studies and research fellow of the Lang Center for Civic and [...]

Salud, Amor, Y Pesetas. Viva Metzidakis!

By Alisa Giardinelli and Jeffrey Lott

Professor Emeritus of Spanish Philip Metzidakis, who taught at the College from 1968 until a disabling stroke forced his retirement in 1996, died of a cerebral hemorrhage on Nov. 10 at age 79. Metzidakis’ wife, Pauline, also well known to members of the Swarthmore community, passed away in 2005.
According to their son Philip Metzidakis ’79, [...]

Pioneering Scholar and Beloved Mentor Kathryn Morgan Dies

By Alisa Giardinelli

Swarthmore mourns the Nov. 28 death of Sara Lawrence Lightfoot Professor Emerita of History Kathryn Morgan—a pioneering scholar and mentor to countless students and colleagues and a dynamic, generous, and revered member of the College community.
Morgan’s colleagues remember a wise, charismatic woman who intellectually bridged the gap between W.E.B. DuBois and Malcolm X, a militant [...]

Awards and Accolades

The Wister Education Center and Greenhouse of the Scott Arboretum, designed by Archer & Buchanan Architecture to replace an older facility, was designated a LEED gold-certified building by the U.S. Green Building Council. Used for plant propagation, plant display, and public educational outreach programs, it boasts a rainwater-harvesting cistern to irrigate surrounding gardens; a green [...]