June 1998
Robert J. Gross '62, who for the past year has served as acting dean of the College, has been named dean.
In making the announcement last month, President Alfred H. Bloom said, "We look forward to the extraordinary impact of Bob's wise and humane leadership in furthering the College's ability to respond to the personal and aca-
demic needs and aspirations of students, and in enabling Swarthmore to be a model of an inclusive, generous, and principled community."
Gross had been associate dean of the College since 1991 and became acting dean last June when Dean Ngina Lythcott resigned.
After receiving an M.A.T. and an Ed.D. from Harvard and serving a stint as director of secondary teacher education at SUNY at Stony Brook, he joined the Swarthmore faculty in 1977 as assistant professor of education. After six years Gross left to become head of the upper school at Friends Select School in Philadelphia. He was working on finishing a master's degree from the Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work when the associate deanship at Swarthmore became available seven years ago.
At Parents Weekend last year, Gross talked about his philosophy of helping students develop. "The deans, I believe, play a special role in modulating the balance between challenge and support. Proactively we may design resident life programs. Or we may work with faculty on advising and academic support systems, or work with student groups on diversity training. Or we may react to roommate crises, academic meltdown, or existential angst. But we always try to be sensitive to the developmental process. Thus the Dean's Prayer: 'Lord, give me the strength to afflict the comfortable, the compassion to comfort the afflicted, and the wisdom to know who needs what.'"
Armed with both library and educational computing experience, Peggy Seiden joins the College as the new librarian. She is currently college librarian at Skidmore College.
A graduate of Colby College, Seiden holds an M.A. from the University of Toronto and a master of library and information science from Rutgers.
She has been at Skidmore for the past six years. Prior to that she was head librarian at the Penn State campus in New Kensington, Pa. Seiden also worked at Carnegie Mellon University, where she was librarian for educational computing, reference librarian, and software manager.
She will begin her duties at Swarthmore later this summer.
By Joy Charlton
Professor of sociology
It's been with considerable professional and intellectual interest that I've spent the past year as interim associate dean for academic affairs, working with students in ways that I normally don't as a faculty member and observing aspects of the College that professors seldom see.
When asked about my year in the Dean's Office, I've often replied that I'm having an "ethnographic experience." Ethnographic research - studying social groups by means of participant observation and interviewing - is what I like to do as a sociologist; substantively my research interests have included studying work and organizations. So I've been thinking about some of the same issues involved in my professional research - about work, its meaning, and its challenges - only this time with students' work and deans' work as the focus. Part of the fun of this year has been to sometimes serve as a bridge between faculty, staff, and students. Given the organization of the College and its division of labor, aspects of what we all do remain invisible to each other.
As a faculty member, I think primarily about students' development in the intellectual realm and about my own academic territory. As a dean I've learned more about the richness and complexity of students' lives, which are more complex than I had ever imagined. This year I've observed many students successfully accomplishing 87 tasks simultaneously, working on multiple majors, concentrations, theses, community service, internships, athletics, participation in student organizations, and maintenance of personal relationships. And I've come to see how complex the reasons can be when students are not successfully completing their tasks, particularly the academic ones. Because any student admitted to Swarthmore is, we assume, capable of doing the work here, academic difficulty almost always involves other difficulties that interfere with academic success.
As a dean I have come to more fully appreciate how difficult the first year of college is. Going to college is a central rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood, from family to independence. Our students make this transition in an environment that is, in some ways, benign and protected (as parents hope) but is also fraught and pressure filled (as students fear). Students are rigorously challenged to perform intellectually, even while still unfamiliar with student skills particular to Swarthmore, and they are also challenged to make choices - on their own, to lesser and greater degrees - about their identities, their social relations, their political positions, their sexuality, and their future. And they have to do all of these things at the same time.
Meanwhile some of our students are dealing with extraordinarily difficult personal problems, some of which are at home. It is not uncommon for parents, having stayed together "for the sake of the children," to choose this moment to dissolve a marriage, precisely because the children have now left home. The impact on the college student can nonetheless be profound.
In addition, more students than I had previously understood suffer from clinically diagnosed psychological problems, particularly depression. Why so many American adolescents should be clinically depressed is, I think, a story worth trying to understand; as a sociologist I can't help but think that the way we organize schooling in our society must be an enormous contributor. Some of our students seem to arrive with a sense of burnout already. Having worked so diligently as high school students to get to the college of their choice, some seem to be tired and at a loss once they've made it.
And bereavement. I think of our students as young and their parents as young; however, more students than I would have imagined are coping with the recent or imminent death of a parent or other immediate family member. We as a culture don't provide much in the way of time or rituals to help each other adjust to such losses.
It's often difficult to know whether what's going on with a student - or students, collectively - is normal developmental progress, normal adjustment to stress, or serious abnormal psychological difficulty that requires professional intervention. Deans routinely make judgment calls about how to respond to students, just as faculty members do when they decide whether a student's difficulty calls for extending a deadline or for holding the line in the interest of equity for all students. But I've learned that neither faculty experience nor good instincts alone are enough for doing a dean's job well. Doing the job well requires experience, and not a day has gone by that I haven't asked some member of the dean's staff for information or advice.
Which leads me to something else I've learned: The dean's staff members at Swarthmore College are very good at what they do. As a group, and with the faculty, they work hard, and sometimes invisibly, to support the academic enterprise here. And they work collaboratively in a way that has been a great comfort to me, as I hope it is to students, parents, and alumni.
Spending the year learning about the work lives of students and staff and faculty has led me to greater compassion and respect for all of us.
Two
members of the faculty retired at the end of the academic year:
Robert Bannister, the Scheuer Professor of History, and Frederic
Pryor, professor of economics. Both have been granted emeritus
status.
Bannister came to the College in 1962 as an assistant professor of history. He was appointed to the new Scheuer Family chair in history and the humanities in 1987 and served as chair of the department from 1981 to 1985.
An American history scholar, Bannister specializes in the history of reform movements between 1865 and 1920, the impact of Darwinism on social thought, and the history of social science.
He plans on splitting his time among his homes in Swarthmore, Long Island, and Florida while working on books about women sociologists between World Wars I and II and America in the progressive era.
A specialist in the comparative study of economic systems, Pryor has
been a member of the faculty since 1967. He is the author of 10
books, the most recent of which is Who's Not Working and Why? In his
retirement he plans to do more traveling and to continue research for
a new book on the future of capitalism.
In recent years Pryor has been a visiting scholar with the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, Calif., and with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He has served as research director for the Pennsylvania Tax Commission, as a member of the executive board of the Association of Comparative Economics, and as a member of the board of trustees of three colleges and universities.
Robert H. Wilson '31, a retired banking executive and a former member of the Board of Managers, died March 11.
Wilson was a vice president of Girard Bank (now Mellon) and was also a prolific author, specializing in books about Philadelphia and its leading citizens. His publications include The Official Handbook for Visitors to Philadelphia; Philadelphia, USA; and Philadelphia Quakers.
In addition to his service on the Board (1966 - 70), Wilson was also president of the Alumni Council, Class of '31 president, class secretary, and chair of the Alumni Fund.
In the community he served as a member of the Swarthmore Borough Council and was on the boards of the Moss Rehabilitation Hospital, the United Fund, and the Executives Association of Philadelphia.
For the Soviet government of the 1920s, it was a logical solution for the "Jewish problem": Give Jews who were in desperate economic straits a new start in a new land, and teach them new skills.
It was the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR), located 5,000 miles east of Moscow and popularly known as Birobidzhan, where Communist officials hoped to attract unskilled, poverty-stricken Jews to agricultural work.
The history of this grand - and largely failed - project is the subject of a book by Robert Weinberg, associate professor of history, Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland, 1928 - 1996 (University of California Press, 1998). The illustrated history was published to accompany an exhibition of artifacts of the region, which opened last month in Berkeley, Calif., and will travel throughout the United States over the next two years.
“The creation of the JAR was part of the Communist Party's effort to set up a territorial enclave with a secular Jewish culture rooted in Yiddish and socialist principles," Weinberg said. To this end the authorities established Yiddish schools, newspapers, literary journals, and even issued government documents and publications in both Russian and Yiddish.
Incentives to the Jews included providing migrants and their families with either free or significantly discounted travel and food subsidies. The government also extended credit, tax exemption, and other material benefits to those who engaged in agriculture. “But the authorities did little to prepare the newcomers, most of whom had no agricultural experience, for the hardships in an unknown and forbidding region,” Weinberg said. “Nor did they provide the settlers with decent housing, food, medical care, and working conditions.”
The population, continually searching for viable niches outside agriculture, either left the countryside for life in one of the larger cities in the region or returned home. Moreover, by 1939 Jews accounted for only slightly more than 15 percent of the region’s population, composed primarily of Russians and Ukrainians. “The plan to resettle large numbers of Jews on the land was stillborn,” Weinberg said.
Despite the failure in creating an agricultural utopia, some Soviet Jews remained interested in a Jewish homeland within the Soviet Union, especially after World War II, when “personal loss and a sense of tragedy motivated many prospective migrants to seek new lives in a new venue.”
But by 1948 Stalin began conducting a murderous campaign to destroy all Jewish intellectual and cultural activity throughout the Soviet Union. By the time he died in 1953, the Birobidzhan experiment had been dealt a mortal blow.
Today, says Weinberg, only a small part of the region’s population is Jewish. Many who have left the JAR have gone to Israel, diminishing the pros- pects of revitalizing a Jewish commu-nity.
Says Weinberg: “There is no sign that the official designation of the JAR will be taken away, but the state of affairs strongly suggests that the future of Jewish life in the region is bleak. Notwithstanding a positive turn of events since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the hopes and aspirations that so many of the pioneer Jews placed in the Birobidzhan experiment still have not been fulfilled.”
Wired ... When senior Allison Marsh searched for a way to pique interest in science among school children, she decided to think small. Armed with a $1,000 grant from AT&T and the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers, Marsh wired her childhood dollhouse, modeling the National Electric Code to scale (1 inch equals 1 foot). "I've made this as a teaching tool," Marsh said, "to explain how a house is wired and show how switches interact." The control panel is color coded, with large appliances, such as the oven or clothes dryer, getting their own circuits. Using a computer simulation, she's able to determine which branch outlets draw the most - and the least - in monthly consumption. A double major in history and engineering, Marsh has won a Watson Fellowship, with which she hopes to combine both majors in producing an engineers' guide to Europe.
Catherine Lainé '98 led the women's track and field team to its first-ever Centennial Conference (CC) outdoor crown by earning Performer of the Meet honors. Lainé won the 400-meter run, setting a new CC record of 58.36 seconds, and ran a leg on the winning 4 x 100 relay squad with Danielle Duffy '98, Desiree Peterkin '00, and Wonda Joseph '00. She also finished second in the 400-meter hurdles, long jump, and triple jump. Peterkin was a winner in the long jump and the triple jump, setting conference records in both events. Peterkin topped her own mark in setting a school record in the triple jump with a leap of 37'6.5", just edging Lainé by half an inch. Both athletes qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships. Head coach Ted Dixon was honored as the 1998 USTCA Mideast Regional Women's Outdoor Coach of the Year in guiding the Garnet to a 5-0 record and the CC Champion-ship. At the NCAA Championships, both Peterkin and Lainé earned All-American honors.
The men's track and field team posted a season record of 4-1 and placed fourth at the conference champion-ships. Steve Dawson '00 led the Garnet with a second-place finish in the high jump, a fourth-place finish in the long jump, and fifth place in triple jump. Mason Tootell '99 placed third in the 110-meter hurdles, fourth in the 400-meter hurdles, and fifth in the long jump. George Bealefeld '99 placed fourth in the shot put, and Keith Gilmore '01 ran fourth in the 400-meter run.
The women's lacrosse team qualified for the ECAC Mid-Atlantic Champion-ship for the second consecutive season. The Garnet lost a 12-11 overtime heartbreaker to Drew University in the first round of the ECAC Championships to finish the season at 10-7. The trio of Holly Baker '99, Betsy Rosenbaum '98, and Alicia Googins '00 led the squad on offense, scoring goals in all 17 games. Baker led the Garnet with a career-best 72 goals and 21 assists for 93 points to earn Second-Team All-American, First-Team All-Region, and First-Team All-Centennial honors. Baker now ranks fourth on the Swarthmore career points list, with 155 goals and 57 assists. Rosenbaum scored a career-best 60 goals and 18 assists for 78 points to finish 10th on the Garnet all-time scoring list, with 94 goals and 38 assists. Googins netted a career-best 53 goals and 20 assists for 73 points to earn Second-Team Regional All-American honors. Sarah Singleton '99 was named to the Second-Team All-Region and Second-Team All-Centennial squads, and Jane Kendall '00 earned Second-Team All-Regional and Centennial honors.
The men's lacrosse team posted a 3-12 overall record and a 1-5 mark in the CC. The Garnet Tide snapped a 16-game losing streak, with an 8-7 victory at Shenandoah, and earned their first CC victory since the 1995 season with a 12-4 win over Dickinson. The Garnet players were led on offense by Mark Dingfield '01 and Mike Lloyd '01. Dingfield scored 28 goals and eight assists for 38 points to lead the Tide, and Lloyd tallied 18 goals and 12 assists for 30 points. Midfielder Alex DeShields '98 led the squad with 134 ground balls, and de-fender Aaron Hultgren '98 led the defense with 51 ground balls. Defensive stalwart Tucker Zengerle '00 received CC Honorable Mention recognition. Goalkeeper Sig Rydquist '00 posted 13.33 goals against average while turning away 178 shots and scored a goal.
The men's tennis team reached the NCAA Tournament for the 20th consecutive year, the 24th time in the last 25 seasons. The third-seeded Garnet traveled to Amherst, Mass., to take on the host team in the NCAA East Regional Championships. The Garnet led 1-0 after the teams of Greg Emkey '99 and Peter Schilla '01 and Dennis Mook '01 and Jon Temin '00 were victorious, each
by an 8-4 margin, to capture the doubles point. However, the Lord Jeffs won the first four singles matches to win 4-1. The Garnet sent a contingent of four players to the NCAA Division III Individual Championships. The doubles team of John Leary '00 and Temin, ranking second in the East Regional, bowed out in the round of 16. The Garnet finished the season with a record of 9-9.
The women's tennis team posted an 11-4 overall record and was 8-2 in the CC to finish in a tie for second place. Jennifer Pao '01 reached the finals of the Centennial Individual Championships, where she placed second and was named First-Team All-Centennial. Pao posted a 10-2 overall record at No. 1 singles and went 7-1 in CC competition. Wendy Kemp '99 was perfect in CC play, posting a 7-0 record at No. 4 singles and a 10-1 overall mark, and Krista Hollis '01 reached the quarterfinals of the CC Championship and finished the season with a 9-3 mark. Hollis and Pao teamed to post an 8-2 CC and 12-2 overall doubles mark, earning Second-Team All-Centennial honors. The team of Rani Shankar '98 and Laura Brown '00 reached the semifinals of the CC Doubles Championship. In singles play Brown was 9-1 overall at No. 5 singles and 5-1 in CC play.
The softball team posted a 10-23 mark, capturing its most wins since the 1992 season. Co-captain Michelle Walsh '98 hit .500 (56 of 112), with 52 RBIs, 13 doubles, seven triples, four home runs, and a .848 slugging percentage. Walsh led the CC in overall average, RBIs, and triples and finished in second place in doubles and home runs to earn Second-Team All-Centennial honors. Co-captain Dana Lehman '98 led the CC with 172.1 innings pitched and was second with 68 strikeouts to earn Second-Team All-Centennial honors.
The baseball team started out hot, winning its first three games in Florida, but then lost 22 games in a row before snapping the streak with a 4-2 win at Haverford. The Garnet finished the season with an overall record of 4-25. Josh Roth '99 led the team with a .365 batting average and four triples.
The golf team posted an 8-7 mark to capture its first winning season since 1987. Matt Kaufman '01 led the Garnet with an 82.4 average, recording team medalist honors in six of seven matches including a season best 73 in a victory over Widener University.
The Garnet tied Haverford 9.5-9.5 in this year's Hood Trophy competition, and thus the Fords retain the bowl for another year.
- Mark Duzenski
A biochemistry major, Duffy is also a three-time regional Academic All-America selection. She was also named to the 1997 GTE Academic All-America Fall/Winter At-Large First Team. She will attend medical school at the University of Pennsylvania.
New tennis and fitness center ... Ground was broken this month for an indoor tennis facility that will house three courts and a 4,000- square-foot fitness area. The building, which will be located behind Ware Pool, is expected to open in February 1999. Principal donor Jerome Kohlberg '46 has asked that the facility be named the Mullan Tennis Center, in honor of longtime tennis coach and professor of physical education Mike Mullan. The center will feature championship-caliber court surfaces, lighting, and spacing.
They really like us! ... A record of 4,578 applications for admission were received by the College for the Class of 2002. Of those, 888 students (including 142 notified during early decision periods) were accepted. Based on previous admissions patterns, the College expects to yield a first-year class of 360. More of the admitted students declared "undecided" as their intended major than any other. Next, in order of popularity, are engineering, biology, English, and political science.
And the champ is ... Swarthmore, which bested 45 other colleges and universities to win this year's Nation-al Academic Quiz Tournament undergraduate championship. Members of the winning team included seniors Fred Bush and Joe Robins, junior Ed Cohn, and sophomore John Miller. The tournament is the largest and most active College Bowl league in the country.
To your health ... Of the 45 Swarthmore students and alumni who applied to medical school through the College's Health Sciences Office, 76 percent were accepted for admission last fall. This was an increase over last year's acceptance rate of 63 percent and twice the national rate of 37 percent.
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