The Swarthmore College Bulletin has been honored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) with a national award for best article of the year. “Rock and an Old Place: A Family Farm Rich in History Faces the Relentless March of Natural Gas Drilling” by David Pacchioli received a gold medal in the 2011 CASE Circle of Excellence competition.

With photographs by Michael Forster Rothbart ’94, the October 2010 article looked at the impact of natural gas drilling on communities in northern Pennsylvania—including a historic black-owned farm in Susquehanna County, the property of Denise Dennis ’72 and her brother Darryl Gore ’79.

It also highlighted the work of the Spring 2010 Environmental Studies capstone seminar, which studied hydrofracturing and created a Web resource for landowners and others in the region who are concerned about the environmental impact of this form of gas drilling. Congratulations to the Bulletin staff and to Pacchioli and Rothbart for their contributions to the magazine.