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Clippings collected March 12, 1999 |
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Headline: A fever for their cartoon culture
March 7, 1999
Section: Suburban
By Walter F. Naedele, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
BODY:
SWARTHMORE -- Saturday morning television has long been considered
a cesspool spawning the idiots and criminals of the future. Now a
Swarthmore history professor has filed a brief for the
defense. "A lot of Saturday morning was crap," Tim Burke writes of
growing up with TV cartoons in the 1970s. "But it's our crap."
Not only does he defend it, but he and his brother, Kevin, have
published their defense in the St. Martin's Press paperback Saturday
Morning Fever: Growing Up With Cartoon Culture. They're not shy about
saying so.
...
Their premise continues: " . . . we're tired of smug folks twice
our age telling us . . . we're going to grow up and turn into demon
spawn because we sat in front of the cathode god like zombies and
never got any fresh air and didn't get out and make our own tree
houses from scratch or didn't sell apples on the street during the
Great Depression or didn't eat bark during long prairie winters or
didn't get dysentery while crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the
Mayflower or whatever."
HEADLINE: In Defense of Looney Toons
March 7, 1999
BY: Timothy Logue
BODY:
Swarthmore &endash; Is your entire understanding of the preamble
of the Constitution based on Schoolhouse Rock? Can you identify any
or all of the following characters: Gleek, Mr. Cogswell, Captain
Caveman, Polly Purebred, Chumley, or Dynomutt? Holy Habitrail Batman!
He's referencing Saturday morning cartoon culture.
That's right Boy Wonder, and now there's a new book, co-authored
by Swarthmore College assistant professor Timothy Burke, that
finally stands up to every crotchety authority figure that swore
kidvid would poison the psyche.
According to Burke, "Saturday Morning Fever," published by St.
Martin's Griffin, has a remarkably simple thesis: "A lot of Saturday
morning was crap," he said. "But it was our crap, and we're tired of
smug folks twice our age telling us their crap was better."
. . .
HEADLINE: Small Liberal Arts Colleges Facing Questions on
Focus
March 10, 1999, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section B; Page 8; Column 1; National Desk; Education
Page
LENGTH: 995 words
BYLINE: By WILLIAM H. HONAN
BODY:
Endowments are up, and so are applications. At the nation's 550
small private liberal arts colleges, times have seemingly never been
better. So why do many educators fear for their future? In the winter
issue of Daedalus, the quarterly journal of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, to be mailed to subscribers this week, several
scholars warn that these institutions face a serious quandary in the
next few years.
One, Eva T. H. Brann, a former dean at St. John's College in
Annapolis, Md. goes so far as to call these institutions "an
endangered species." And Paul Neely, a trustee of Williams College
who is publisher of The Chattanooga Times, writes that "there may
simply be more pure liberal arts colleges than we need."
. . .
At least two-thirds of the 550 colleges are almost unknown
outside their local communities, while a few &emdash; like Williams,
Swarthmore, Haverford, Kenyon, Amherst, and Wellesley
&emdash; are among the best-known names in American education.
HEADLINE: Payday, Title Loan Companies Face Legislative Scrutiny
in Oregon
March 8, 1999, Monday
LENGTH: 2356 words
BYLINE: By Drew DeSilver
BODY:
When you talk about payday loans and car-title loans and what, if
anything, to do about them, you're really talking about folks like
John Mackerell.
. . .
When unexpected expenses -- like, say, speeding tickets -- crop up
and Mackerell needs quick cash, he knows just where to go. Not U.S.
Bank, where he has an account, but Check Into Cash on West 18th
Avenue in Eugene, one of 11 payday loan businesses in Eugene and
Springfield.
...
More and more people, in Eugene-Springfield and other Oregon metro
areas, are patronizing payday loan stores and their cousins, title
lenders, which advance cash in return for a car owner turning over
their car title. Statewide, the number of payday and title lenders
has grown from 13 two years ago to 127 today.
...
Several developments have combined to facilitate the spread of
payday and title lending outside the South, said John Caskey, an
economics professor at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and
author of "Fringe Banking: Check-Cashing Outlets, Pawnshops, and the
Poor." Those factors, Caskey said, include the following.
É
HEADLINE: States' Rules for Payday and Car-Title Loans Vary
Widely
March 8, 1999, Monday
LENGTH: 713 words
BYLINE: By Drew DeSilver
BODY:
From state to state, regulation of payday and car-title loans
varies from barely any at all to rules that all but prohibit the
controversial practices. "It's kind of all over the map," said John
Caskey, an economics professor at Swarthmore College in
Pennsylvania and expert on what he calls "fringe banking."
Idaho and Utah, for example, have no interest-rate caps on either
payday or title loans. South Carolina limits interest to the annual
equivalent of 110 percent on title loans under $ 600, but sets no
limit on loans over that amount; interest on payday loans is limited
to 15 percent for the loan term, which can be no more than 31 days.
Georgia has no law specifically governing title loans, but its 57.68
percent cap on small loans effectively prohibits payday loans.
. . .
HEADLINE: COLLEGES TOSS MONEY AT NATION'S ELITE STUDENTS; FEVERISH
TREND CAN LEAVE THE 'AVERAGE' IGNORED
March 6, 1999, Saturday, ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: Local/State, Pg. 2A
LENGTH: 1052 words
BYLINE: By Gwen Carleton The Capital Times
BODY:
Last weekend, 150 of the nation's top high school seniors flew to
Beloit for two days of tours, interviews and VIP treatment. They
were guests of the Beloit College's Presidential Scholars Weekend, an
event that ended with about 75 students receiving scholarship offers
of $8,00per year plus the possibility of additional aid. Beloit
charges $ 24,096 in annual tuition, including room and board. But
school officials are confident that their offer will persuade about
half of the winners to sign on the dotted line. ''We are cajoling and
entertaining the best students money can buy,'' said Ron Nief,
Beloit's public affairs director. ''These are the best students in
the country, the people everybody wants.''
Always intense, the competition for top students is at a record
high, with financial aid playing a key role.
. . .
But private schools are feeling pressure. Last year several Ivy
League schools announced they were increasing their grant and
scholarship offers, a move seen as an unprecedented attempt to bring
top students back. Smaller privates, from Swarthmore in
Pennsylvania to Beloit in Wisconsin, followed suit.
HEADLINE: College approves policy on minority-only hiring
March 5, 1999,Friday ,CARROLL
SECTION: LOCAL ,7B
LENGTH: 624 words
BYLINE: Andrew Brownstein
SOURCE: albany times union
BODY:
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- A decision by Union College to restrict its
next four faculty hires to minority candidates and loosen the purse
strings to pay them has angered some professors and prompted a debate
over affirmative action on campus. Frustrated from years of losing
qualified minority professors to other schools, the Union faculty
voted last March to exclude candidates who were not black or Hispanic
from the searches.
...
Called "targeted hiring," the policy was approved by a two-thirds
vote of the faculty, but a vocal minority warned of unseen political
and legal ramifications.
...
Until last spring's vote, Union administrators were not allowed
to pay new hires above a scale based on experience. As a result,
minority candidates often were lost to colleges like Oberlin in Ohio
and Swarthmore in Pennsylvania. Hull remembers one finalist
who went to Amherst College in Massachusetts, attracted by a salary
five times what Union offered.
Headline: HEMPFIELD SENIOR WINS CITIZEN BEE
Monday, March 8, 1999
Section: N
Page: A-1
Illustration: CP;PS Marty Heisey
BODY:
A Hempfield High School senior took top honors in the 11th annual
Lancaster New Era Citizen Bee on Saturday. Ajay Sudan, 18, deftly
fielded questions on a wide variety of topics, including Thomas
Jefferson, hurricanes, hiking, and checks and balances, to edge out
23 other students from eight local high schools.
Jonathan Taylor, a McCaskey High School senior, placed second,
while Elizabeth Zell, a Manheim Township High School junior, took
third.
. . .
Taylor, 17, is the son of Dr. Philip and Francine Taylor, 157
Hamilton Road. He is considering a number of schools, including
Swarthmore College and Harvard and Brown universities, and
would like to major in international relations. Taylor's
teacher-adviser is Ann Pinsker.
Headline: ONCE CALLED ''THE MOST PRAYED-FOR MAN'' AT SWARTHMORE,
PATRICK HENRY URGES A ''NO FENCES'' FAITH IN HIS ''IRONIC CHRISTIAN'S
COMPANION.''
Sunday, March 7, 1999
Section: FEATURES LIFESTYLE
Page: G07
By Jim Remsen, LIVING RELIGION EDITOR
BODY:
At Swarthmore College, students in professor Patrick
Henry's religion course had to do their work, and then some. To pass,
he required them to ''say at least one absolutely outrageous thing''
about religion. Henry must have dished it out to his students as
well. A neighbor who befriended evangelical students once told Henry
he had become ''the most prayed-for man on this campus.''
No surprise there. Henry is a liberal Protestant whose polished
mind and kinetic soul abhor settled, self-assured thinking - the sort
of thinking he finds rife in conservative Christianity. Now an
ecumenical activist in Minnesota, he has decided to champion his case
for free-ranging faith in a pithy little volume, The Ironic
Christian's Companion, that Riverhead Books is releasing
tomorrow.
. . .
Henry, director of the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural
Research in Collegeville, Minn., will return to his former church,
Swarthmore Presbyterian, today to lead two discussions about his book
and modern faith.
Headline: Paintings that offer visual surprises
March 7, 1999
Section: Suburban
By Victoria Donohoe, INQUIRER ART CRITIC
BODY:
Persistent concerns with image and surface are at the source of
Glenn Goldberg's persuasiveness in his recent paintings at
Swarthmore College's List Gallery. This New York artist seems
mainly interested in trying to reconcile a flat pattern with deep
space -- something he does with varying success in this show. That
flatness here has been staged -- turning it into an icon of
immediacy, despite a subdued color range.
There's glamour in this work, too. The work suggests something
that goes beyond self-satisfied decoration to the point of rebellion
against the simple acceptance of its flat condition.
So here is a talented artist, a soloist since the mid-1980s and
formerly represented by the New York gallery of Knoedler & Co.,
struggling to link fresh means of making surfaces magical and
mysterious with old labor-intensive ways of assuring their
"substance."
HEADLINE: Retiring Smart
March, 1999
SECTION: REAL ESTATE; Pg. 133
LENGTH: 1662 words
BYLINE: By JENNIFER BAILLY
BODY:
"AGING IS A NEW PHENOMENON," says 79-year-old Knox Singleton,
president of Northern Virginia's Lifetime Learning Institute. He
doesn't mean physically -- Singleton is referring to how seniors are
growing older with a new zest for learning. Those reaching age 65
can now expect to be around another 17.6 years -- and that's a long
time to spend playing golf and bingo in the Florida sun. So when it
comes to a place to retire, energetic seniors are looking for more
than just readily available medical care. They also want continued
intellectual challenge.
Retirement communities are rushing to meet demand.
University-affiliated continuing-care retirement communities are
cropping up in college towns all over the country. Links to nearby
colleges offer residents the educational opportunity and cultural
enrichment that are becoming major perks of retirement.
...
At the Quadrangle in Pennsylvania, a retirement community
developed in part by alumni of Haverford, Swarthmore, and
Bryn Mawr, students at these area colleges enjoy monthly dinners with
the residents, arranged by campus service organizations.
Headline: For alumni who teach in public schools, the pay is low
but the rewards are real
March 10, 1999
Cover story
By Tom Krattenmaker
BODY:
Every year, Susan Dabney Agriopoulos '84 and the other teachers
are assured that they'll finally be getting those computers -- next
year. The dampness in her basement classroom blisters the paint and
slimes the books on the shelf with mildew. The school library has few
books relevant and accessible to her streetwise 13- and 14-year-olds,
so she has assembled an informal library of her own for lending.
. . .
Someone does have to teach the children. While it is hardly a
common career choice of Princetonians over the decades, several
hundred are at work in America's public schools carrying out one
version of Princeton in the nation's service. Their experiences are
as varied as the thousands of communities across the country. Some
teach in upper-income suburbs rich in resources and community
support, where students vie for the Ivy League. Some work in poorly
funded urban schools where little -- not even basic reading skills
and safety -- can be taken for granted. Some teach the three R's to
elementary school children; others lead high school seniors in
discussions of Hawthorne and Thoreau and the intricacies of calculus.
. . .
Tom Krattenmaker lives in Yardley, Pennsylvania, and is the
director of public relations at Swarthmore College.
HEADLINE: Authors head college program
March 4, 1999 Thursday
SECTION: LOCAL NEWS; Pg. B6
LENGTH: 430 words
BYLINE: Justin Facey; SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
DATELINE: WORCESTER
BODY:
Worcester State College, as part of its Third World Alliance
Speakers Forum, presented "Back(lash) Into the New Millenium"
yesterday. The program involved speeches by two authors, question and
answer periods and book signings.
The speakers, Professor Christopher Edley, Jr., a Harvard Law
School professor and former special counsel to President Clinton on
Affirmative Action, and Dr. Julianne Malveaux, an economist,
lecturer, community activist and syndicated columnist, spoke on
issues of race, equality, economics and justice.
Edley, director of the White House Review of Affirmative Action,
spoke about affirmative action. A 1973 graduate of Swarthmore
College, Edley received a joint-degree from the Kennedy School of
Government and Harvard Law School in 1978. He also served in the
Carter Administration as assistant director of the White House
Domestic Policy Staff, with responsibility for welfare reform, social
security, and other anti-poverty measures. He recently wrote a book,
"Not All Black and White: Affirmative Action, Race and American
Values. "
Headline: Templeton Prize awarded to Minnesota professor
March 11, 1999
Section: Metro
By Kristin E. Holmes, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
BODY:
In the world of Ian Barbour, science and religion are not mutually
exclusive disciplines that cannot find common ground. Take his
position on evolution and creation, for instance. "I see evolution as
God's way of creating," said Barbour, 75, of Northfield, Minn. "We
are kin to other creatures, but at the same time, we have very unique
and distinctive properties. I don't think it's either-or."
The emeritus professor at Carleton College in Minnesota has spent
his career staking out the middle ground by advocating dialogue,
mutual respect and compromise. For his efforts, he was awarded the
Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion yesterday, an honor that
comes with a $1.24 million prize.
Barbour, a Swarthmore College graduate, joins the ranks of
the Rev. Billy Graham, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Mother Teresa as a
recipient of the award, which is given annually by the Radnor-based
Templeton Fund. The prize is awarded to a person who has shown
"extraordinary originality in advancing humankind's understanding of
God and or spirituality." Funded by global investment manager Sir
John Templeton, the prize is the largest monetary award for
achievement in any field.
HEADLINE: Professor Wins Religion Prize
March 10, 1999; Wednesday 11:00 Eastern Time
SECTION: Domestic, non-Washington, general news item
LENGTH: 363 words
BYLINE: RICHARD N. OSTLING
DATELINE: NEW YORK
BODY:
Ian Barbour, whose ''Issues in Science and Religion'' influenced
a generation of theologians studying science and scientists exploring
theology, today won the $1.24 million Templeton Prize for Progress in
Religion. Barbour, 75, a professor at Minnesota's Carleton College,
won the world's richest annual award for his work on the dialogue
between science and religion. He has also examined ethical issues
raised by technology.
The Templeton Prize was established by mutual funds entrepreneur
John M. Templeton to cover a category omitted by the Nobel prizes.
Past winners include Mother Teresa, the Rev. Billy Graham, author
Alexander Solzhenitsyn and prison evangelist Charles Colson.
Barbour's pioneering book was published in 1965. His recent works
include ''Ethics in an Age of Technology'' (1993) and ''Religion and
Science: Historical and Contemporary issues'' (1997).
...
Born in Beijing, Barbour is the son of a Scottish Presbyterian
father and a U.S. Episcopalian mother. He studied physics at
Swarthmore, Duke and the University of Chicago, where he did
studied under Enrico Fermi, co-developer of the first atomic bomb.
He also earned a theology degree from Yale Divinity School.
Headline: Robert A. Young Jr., 87, retired U. Darby retailer
March 9, 1999
Section: suburban
By Thomas J. Brady, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
BODY:
Robert Augustus Young Jr., 87, a retired retailer, died of cancer
on Friday at Westminster Village in Dover, Del. Before moving to
Dover three years ago, he had lived in Newtown Square, Pa., for 35
years. Mr. Young, who was born in Cleveland, grew up in Ebensburg,
Pa., where his grandfather was mayor, and moved to Upper Darby as a
teenager.
He graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1928 and from
Franklin and Marshall Academy in Lancaster before graduating from
Swarthmore College in 1934. In high school and college, he won
varsity letters in football, swimming and lacrosse. In college, he
was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.
Headline: LANTZ MAKES BLOOMSBURG LIST
Sunday, March 7, 1999
Section: F
Page: F-2
Column: SCHOLASTIC CORNER
BODY:
...
Earns doctorate at Maryland
Sara A. Ranck, the daughter of Dr. John P. and Henrietta K. Ranck,
1408 Sheaffer Road, Elizabethtown, was awarded a doctorate of
philosophy in plant biology by the University of Maryland on Dec.
19.
She serves as curator of the Desert Conservatory and is engaged in
conservation research at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Her husband,
Dr. Thomas S. Dee, teaches economics at Georgia Institute of
Technology. Ranck is a 1986 graduate of Lancaster Country Day School
and a 1990 graduate of Swarthmore College.
HEADLINE: Meditation, prayer catalog touts wisdom through
sound
March 07, 1999
LENGTH: 480 words
BYLINE: ALIAH D. WRIGHT
SOURCE: Gannett News Service
BODY:
Fifteen hundred years ago, St. Benedict established a method of
work and prayer that monastics continue to follow today. The Buddha
often said that just as the great oceans have but one taste, so do
all the true teachings of the dharma -- the taste of freedom. And in
the Vietnamese Zion custom, carefully selected music and words can
serve as "soothing droplets" to cool a troubled heart.
Such are the pearls of wisdom tucked between the pages of the
Meditation and Prayer Catalog, a new audio and video catalog from
Sounds True, founded in 1985 by a 22-year-old Swarthmore
college dropout. Since then, Tami Simon's vision of spreading
wisdom through the medium of sound has blossomed.
...
Headline: ELIZABETHTOWN BASKS IN GLORY OF BEING WINNINGEST TEAM
EVER
Thursday, March 4, 1999
Section: SPORTS
Page: 83
by Bill Fleischman, Daily News Sports Writer
...
BARRETT ALL-LEAGUE
Rich Barrett, a 6-6 sophomore from Ursinus who led the Centennial
Conference in scoring with a 21.3 average, was named to the
All-Centennial hoops team. Barrett (Central Bucks East) joins
two-time all-conference selection Jim Doumato, of Muhlenberg, on the
first team. Also on the team are Johns Hopkins's Joel Wertman,
Franklin & Marshall's Matt Leddy and Gettysburg's Bill
Davidson.
...
F & M's Alex Kraft, a 6-4 freshman from Lansdale Catholic, was
named to the second team along with Gettysburg's Kevin Carroll (Holy
Ghost Prep). Swarthmore's Tim Schofield (Cherry Hill East) is
a third-team selection.
Headline: ODD COUPLE LEAD DEVON PREP'S RUN
Wednesday, March 10, 1999
Section: SPORTS
Page: B05
By Chris Morkides, INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
BODY:
Devon Prep coach Mike Troy hesitates describing guards Chris
MacMinn and Dave Pearce the way he wants to describe them because he
doesn't want to sound trite. Troy can't think of a better way to
paint a picture of the backcourt that led the Tide to a District 1
Class A basketball title, so he does it anyway. ``I hate to say it,
but they're fire and ice,'' Troy said, ``Chris is the vocal,
aggressive one. Dave is cool out on the court.''
Devon Prep handed Faith Christian, a team that took a 21-1 record
into the game, a 59-54 loss Friday to earn a District 1 title and a
spot in the state tournament. MacMinn scored 14 points. Pearce scored
28, including 10 in the fourth quarter to help stave off a Faith
Christian rally.
...
Pearce, who will play at Swarthmore next year, is
comfortable with his role as Devon Prep's quieter captain. ``Coach
thinks of me as a lunch-pail, get-the-job-done player,'' Pearce said.
``I don't have sudden bursts of energy. With me, it's more of a
gradual thing.''
HEADLINE: Steady Terps emerge as 'new' frontrunners
March 07, 1999, Sunday
SECTION: sports; Pg. C6
LENGTH: 1009 words
BYLINE: By BILL WAGNER, Staff Writer
BODY:
PRESEASON RANKINGS
The 1999 Lacrosse Magazine preseason rankings, compiled by
nation's top lacrosse coaches:
...
Division III Women
...
Others receiving votes: Cortland, Bowdoin, Gettysburg, Haverford,
Colby, Colorado College, Mary Washington, Denison, Washington, Tufts,
Swarthmore, Connecticut College.