The first day of school can be fraught with emotional excitement for children and their families. It’s about anticipation and hope—sometimes mixed with anxiety and fear of the unknown.
On Sept. 4, similar high emotions were also palpable among the faculty, staff, and longtime supporters of the new Chester Upland School for the Arts (CUSA), which [...]

This fall, David Kemp Residence Hall (right), the new 75-bed student dormitory, opened its doors to students of all class years. The 29,000 square-foot, three-story building—a gift to the College from Giles Kemp ’72 and his wife Barbara Guss Kemp in honor of Kemp’s father—consists of single and double rooms including bi-level lofts. It shares [...]

This spring, the Board of Managers approved the promotion from assistant to associate professor with continuous tenure of eight faculty members: Diane Downer Anderson, educational studies; Alan Baker, philosophy; William Gardner, modern languages (Japanese); K. David Harrison, linguistics; Bakirathi Mani, English literature; Steve Wang, mathematics and statistics; Richard Wicentowski, computer science; and Carina Yervasi, modern [...]

This spring, Swarthmore’s Women’s Studies Program reached the end of a long process of reshaping itself and its name—to accommodate the changing needs, requirements, and wishes of 21st-century students. Henceforth to be known as Gender and Sexuality Studies, the program offers a minor in course or honors as well as special major options.
Women’s Studies was [...]

In July, the College community welcomed Abdulla Mizead as journalist-in-residence at War News Radio (WNR), the award-winning, student-run radio program that reports on daily life in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan. He succeeds Ayub Nuri, who returned to Iraq in the spring.
A former staff member in National Public Radio’s (NPR) Baghdad bureau, Mizead was honored with [...]

Retiring, Schuldenfrei Recapitulates Readings
It’s September, and the students are back. Classes begin, but something vital is missing from Swarthmore’s classrooms. Professor of Philosophy Richard Schuldenfrei has retired.
I ask him, isn’t it strange not to be going back to school?
“I’m not consciously disoriented,” he says, scowling first, then smiling. “I feel great, and I’m enjoying the [...]

On Aug. 1, the Garnet soccer team, led by Head Coach Eric Wagner, headed south of the equator for a two-week stay in Argentina and Brazil. Director of Sports Information Kyle Leach accompanied the team on their Latin American adventure and, too tall to sleep comfortably on a plane, busied himself at his laptop, relaying [...]

Among the greatest privileges of being president of this  remarkable institution has been coming to know its alumni, whose number you join today. Their passion for ideas and experience, their personal warmth, their astounding achievements, and their affection and admiration for Swarthmore are constant sources of joy, and of pride. As inspiring, and, perhaps, even [...]

As June 1 dawned, there could hardly have existed a more serene, green, and pristine location for a college graduation ceremony than Swarthmore. The storms of the previous day had swept clear the sky under which the many streams criss-crossing the town now burbled garrulously, and trees lining Swarthmore’s narrow streets rustled gently in reply. [...]

Alberto Mora ’74, former legal counsel to the Department of the Navy, spoke of his vehement opposition to government-authorized use of cruel and inhumane treatment of detainees taken captive in the War on Terror at Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere:
“Cruelty, once held in disrepute, has been astonishingly rehabilitated. What was once unspeakable is now the [...]