Making New Swarthmore Connections In Your City

Swarthmore alums don’t have to live in an area with an “established" Connection group to be able to get together. Ernest “Ernie" Smith ’44 met up with a “young, lonesome graduate student who is a Swarthmore grad,” and it struck him that it was time to have a gathering of Swarthmore alums in Boulder, Colo. So he put one together! Ernie was kind enough to make arrangements for a gathering at his country club and to arrange for entertainment by a bluegrass band. More than 50 alums and guests attended.

Stephanie Hirsch ’92 organized a happy hour for alums of all ages and graduating years living in the Boston/Cambridge area. More than 50 alums gathered at this low-key event. Many thanks to Stephanie for making it happen.

Sara “Sally" Guthrie-Geers ’56 invited fellow alums in the Gainesville, Fla., area to her home to get aquainted and “talk about one of our favorite places." Using Gainesville as the central point, Sally invited alums from Ocala to the Georgia border and from the Jacksonville area to the Gulf.

If you are interested in hosting an event in your hometown, the Alumni Office can help with invitations, mailing costs, and other details. Contact Tricia Maloney in the Alumni Office by phone at (610) 328-8404, or e-mail pmalone1@Swarthmore.edu.

OTHER GATHERINGS

Philadelphia: In March, Swarthmore alums visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art to enjoy an exhibit titled Earth: A Polarized View, created by Austine Read Wood-Comarow ’63, who gave a private tour and an explanation of the technique she uses to create her work. Thanks to Philadelphia Connection Chair Jim Moskowitz ’88 for planning the event.

Metro DC/Baltimore: Connection Chair Sampriti Ganguli ’95 was very pleased with the turnout at a recent informal event held at Search for Common Ground in Washington, D.C. Alums discussed key lessons learned in the area of conflict resolution and reflected on the Swarthmore Quaker tradition pertaining to conflict mitigation. This connection group also attended the exhibition Our Expanding Universe at the Carnegie Institution. Thanks to Sampriti for arranging for these creative events.

SCHWARTZ LECTURES

While other faculty members were catching up on paperwork, Barry Schwartz, the Dorwin P. Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action, spent spring break giving three lectures on the West Coast. He gave a talk titled “Too Many Choices: Who Suffers and Why" for the Seattle Connection and at two events for the San Francisco Connection (in Berkeley and Palo Alto). The talks were well attended—particularly by former psychology majors—with alumni, parents of current students, and other friends of the College participating in highly interactive discussions. Faculty talks around the country and around the world are one way to bring “a taste of Swarthmore" to alumni.

Many thanks to Connection Chair Deborah Read ’87, who arranged for the Seattle event; to Connection Chair Neal Finkelstein ’86 for arranging the San Francisco event; and to Thomas Klein ’85 for arranging the Palo Alto event.

Remembering Susan Snyder

The Department of English Literature is planning a remembrance and reception in honor of the late Professor Susan Snyder on Saturday, Oct. 5. Snyder, a distinguished teacher of Shakespeare and Renaissance literature from 1963 to 1993, was a scholar in residence at The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., until her death last fall. As a part of this campus gathering, alumni are invited to contribute recollections and reminiscences. The department invites expressions of interest from alumni who would like to join in this celebration. Please contact Professor Charles James at (610) 328-8142, or e-mail cjames1@swarthmore.edu.

Back to Class

After more than 40 years away from Swarthmore, Roger ’53 and Lillian Frank Youman ’57 find themselves back in a Trotter Hall classroom. Decades removed from essays and exams, the Youmans have relished their return to academia: “It’s been fun,” Lillian says. “And fun is not exactly the word I would have used for many of the courses I took 40-some years ago.”

As students in the pilot semester of Swarthmore’s Lifelong Learning Program, the Youmans, along with 26 other alumni and local community members, had the opportunity to revisit the academic arena by taking no-credit, nongraded seminar-style courses designed especially for adults. Offerings this spring included Homeric Models of Heroism, taught by Susan Lippincott Professor of Modern and Classical Languages Gilbert Rose; and Aristotle, Galileo, and Einstein: Space-time, Gravity, and Black Holes, taught by Professor of Physics John Boccio.

“I think that there’s a real desire on the part of adults to resume their education,” says Rose, who initiated the Lifelong Learning Program. Rose explains that many adults tend to move away from their academic experience when they begin raising families and developing careers. Many of those enrolled in the program, he says, “feel as though they are being challenged in ways they haven’t been challenged in years.”

“My last academic experience was in 1947, so that tells you something,” said Pat Terwilliger, a graduate of Oklahoma State University and resident of Swarthmore. Although she says returning to an academic setting has been challenging, she considers it to be entirely worthwhile. “My idea is to keep my mind stimulated for the rest of my life,” she says.

Courses last for eight weeks, and tuition is $500. Next fall’s course offerings will include As Imagination Bodies Forth: English Classics From Beowulf to Twelfth Night, taught by Craig Williamson, professor of English literature; Medicine and Society: The American Case, taught by Steven Piker, professor of anthropology; and History and Memory: Perspectives on the Holocaust, taught by Robert Weinberg, professor of history, and Marion Faber, professor of German. For more information, contact the Lifelong Learning Program at (610) 328-8696.

—Elizabeth Redden ’05

Lax Conference means business

More than 150 students and alumni attended this spring’s Lax Conference on Entrepreneurship. Keynote speakers this year were Tralance Addy ’69 and Mickey Herbert ’67.

Alumni panelists who shared their entrepreneurial experience included Eric Adler ’86, Richard Barasch ’75, Caroline Curry ’90, Kevin Hall ’89, Ethan Klemperer ’94, Arnold Kling ’75, Emily McHugh ’90, Seth Murray ’98, Robin Shapiro ’78, Timothy Sibley ’98, Brian Smiga ’76, and Thomas Snyder ’72.