I found the article on computing at Swarthmore ("Digital Dancing," June 1999) gratifying. Kudos (and thanks) to the faculty and staff for their continued work in sensitively--and sensibly--integrating the computer into academic life.
I'd add recognition of the architect of this rich computing environment, Professor of Physics John Boccio. Ten years ago, the concepts of campuswide networking, an Internet connection, universal faculty and student access to computers, and their use across the curriculum were not simply considered novel--they were viewed by many Swarthmoreans as bizarre, overly expensive, and possibly damaging to the liberal arts tradition.
John Boccio saw computing as a fundamental tool, part of an important evolution of that tradition, and insisted that it be made available to all students and faculty. As associate provost for computing, he put together a comprehensive plan to realize this vision and oversaw much of its initial implementation. The infrastructure he built--and the expectations of excellence he set at the time--has enabled the array of activities described in the article.
If it seems strange today that universal computing was viewed with suspicion less than a decade ago, it's an indication of the practical success of this vision. Boccio's contribution to the College may ultimately be as fundamental and lasting as any made to the academic program.
Success like this also comes from details as much as grand visions. I vividly recall the occasion, seven years ago, when John excitedly showed me a new tool he'd just compiled--called an "http server"--and predicted that revolutionary things would come from it. (To set the context properly, at the time there were a total of 17 Web sites worldwide.) He then set about fixing a few bugs in the code. I had as fine an education working for him in the Computing Center as I did in four years as an undergrad. He taught me--and the College--to put visions through the hard tests of engineering reality and real-world use.
Matthew Wall '86
Pittsburgh
It was with great excitement that we opened the June issue of the Bulletin, featuring "Digital Dancing." We had all worked with Sasha Welsh '99 [featured on the cover] on various phases of her choreography and indeed had orchestrated the viewing of her computer piece in the theatre for the Spring Dance Concert.
In an article detailing the work of faculty members Miguel Díaz Barriga, Ann McNamee, Sharon Friedler, and others, I was disappointed to see no mention of the work of the Media Services staff. The staff, Drew Metherall in particular, contributed materially to all of the projects mentioned in the article. Drew did much of the research that led to buying the College's new digital video system. In addition, Drew has spent many hours this year training faculty and students on the system as well as teaching video production workshops to students in a broad range of disciplines.
Many of us work behind the scenes here. That's how we know we're successful--when our work is invisible. But sometimes it's nice to be noticed.
Susan Smythe
Managing Director Lang Performing Arts Center
I read with interest about The New York Times op-ed by Nate Stulman '01 decrying the excessive amount of time wasted on college campuses fooling with computers ("Digital Dancing," June 1999). All I could wonder was: "Don't people play bridge anymore?" Give Mr. Stulman a ride back to the 1960s so he can observe firsthand that even though we lacked computers, we still found incredibly creative ways to avoid studying.
Betty C. Duckman
(Parent of Jamie Duckman '98)
Long Beach, Calif.
Nate Stulman's New York Times op-ed exposing the entertainment-obsessed computing underworld at Swarthmore will surely find a receptive audience among the four-miles-to-school-each-way crowd, but you can count me out. I regret not goofing off more at college. After being ejected into mainstream society in 1995, I've found increasingly fewer opportunities to goof off in the real world.
Rather than addressing the fact of student frivolity, Stulman's critical energies might be better directed toward understanding the root cause and dangerous trajectory of the expression of frivolity at Swarthmore. Have the Tarble pool tables been replaced by workstations because of the Astronomy Department's insatiable techno-lust? Have macroeconomic trends caused a decline in community-building drug and alcohol abuse? Has political pressure moved fraternities to bring up chat rooms and multiuser role-playing games, thus straying from their historic dedication to conviviality and swill?
Alumni have an ongoing responsibility to ensure that these premonitions never come to pass--that within Swarthmore's evolving canon of Chinua Achbe, Immanuel Kant, Naomi Wolf, and William Shakespeare, there's still a place for Jonathan Swift and the movies of Chris Farley. God help us if computer gaming should ever replace that.
Jude O'Reilley '94
Seattle
Ulan McKnight's ['87] letter ["Who Benefits?"] in the June Bulletin offended this old, white alumna. His extreme condemnation of Swarthmore's efforts to increase the number of students of color, unsupported by any evidence, is a gratuitous insult to the College.
He asks: "Why can we not bring our own culture, our own values, our own desires?" Of course, we all bring our own cultures, values, and desires to college. How could we not? But college broadens our understanding of our own culture, adds understanding of other cultures, challenges us to examine our values in light of other value systems, and exposes us to whole new worlds of desire.
The guilt Mr. McKnight pins on Swarthmore belongs to generations of white Americans, but Swarthmore deserves praise for creating leaders of the civil rights movement and many other moral crusades of our time and earlier times.
Judith Grace Stetson '59
Falmouth, Mass.
The letter by Ulan McKnight is a vitriolic attack on a Swarthmore bias toward white males. I agree that the most prevalent bias the world over is toward males of the dominant culture, but I was disappointed by the letter, which instead of providing examples that would give credibility to the accusation, just continued to throw punches. To quote another writer in that issue, Hillary Thompson '99 ("Conservative rebel"): "For [one's] views to be a part of campus dialogue, [one has] to be a member of the community, not attack it from the outside."
Penel Adelman '66
Scarsdale, N.Y.
One merely sets oneself up as a target for obloquy by engaging in any discussion of racial issues, but I rise to the bait provided by Ulan Mc-Knight in his intemperate letter (June 1999) calling upon Swarthmore to proclaim its "guilt" before celebrating advances in the representation of minorities at the College.
It is to be doubted whether the cultivation of guilt ameliorates race relations, for we all find it difficult to reconcile with whom we are held to have wronged. In any case, let the sins of the fathers not descend to their offspring.
It was Malcolm X who stated that the worst crime of the whites was to teach blacks to believe in their subordinate status. It is really impossible to requite such a psychic wound, beside which more objective forms of discrimination, however despicable, seem almost trivial. Yes, American society--including Swarthmore--has much to answer for. It is understandable that an air of self-celebration grates on those who have suffered vilification. But to vilify an institution that is earnestly trying to rectify past wrongs seems perverse.
Peter Dodge '48
North Hampton, N.H.
A decade before Alex Capron '66 heard Dean Susan Cobbs say that extending parietal hours raised her worries about "what you're going to do again" (Letters, June 1999), a similar story circulated. In the mid-1950s, the story was that a student government representative asking that senior women be allowed to stay out one hour later, asked: "But Dean Cobbs, what could they do in the second hour that they couldn't do in the first?" Dean Cobbs' response, in her lovely southern drawl was: "My de-a-r, they could do it tw-i-ce." It won't surprise me if someone comes up with an even earlier version.
Is it just an "enhanced memory," or did Dean Cobbs really tell the freshman women of the Class of 1957 to "draw up the petals of your virginity about you" at our for-women-only orientation?
Minna Newman Nathanson '57
Washington, D.C.
Editor's Note: Egad! Are all the classic Swarthmore stories--the Susan Cobbs tales, the cow in the dormitory, Cass Elliott--merely the College's urban legends, made up by clever undergraduates and foisted on unsuspecting freshmen? No matter; it's fun just to remember and retell them.
Another great issue of the Swarthmore Bulletin: The letters to the editor are truly inspiring, as is the profile of compañera Elizabeth Martinez '46 by Andrea Hammer. I find it ironic that issue after issue the Bulletin veritably douses us with direct and indirect references to Friends Testimonies without clearly identifying them. They are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control. The justice sought by letter-writer Ulan McKnight '87 would be much closer to reality at Swarthmore if the Testimonies were the guides of more Quakerly admissions and student-life policies at the College.
Stephan H. Hornberger
(parent of Ch'uyasonqo Hornberger '97)
Philadelphia
For a study of W.H. Auden's pedagogy, a scholar at Oxford University is seeking to interview Swarthmoreans who studied with or knew the poet during his time at the College, 1942&endash;45. Please write Daniel Varholy, Magdalen College, Oxford, OX1 4AU, U.K., telephone (011-44) 1865-209248, or e-mail danielvarholy@magd.ox.ac.uk.
Faculty member Kemal Nance '92 conducted the dance workshop pictured in the June "Alumni Digest." The caption incorrectly implied that Tamala Montgomery '98 also led the class, which was held during Black Alumni Weekend in March.
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