A. 2 and 3

In keeping with the Friends' commitment to sexual equality, the first Board of Managers included 16 men and 16 women. Membership in the Society of Friends was required until the early 20th century, although the managers continued to be solely Quakers until 1938.

Answer: g) Sixteen Feet. Founded in 1981, Sixteen Feet is Swarthmore's original a cappella singing group and remains its only all-male group. Here's a brief guide to the others:

• Chaverim is a Tri-College, co-ed a cappella group with members from Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr colleges.
• Cantatrix is Swarthmore's only early-music a cappella group, performing a range of pieces from medieval to (relatively) modern, both secular and sacred.
• Essence of Soul is an a cappella group dedicated to students who enjoy arranging, singing, and performing music from the African Diaspora.
• Grapevine is Swarthmore's only all-female a cappella group and has a mixed repertoire, singing rock, pop, gospel, jazz, and everything in between.
• Mixed Company is Swarthmore's first co-ed a cappella group on campus.
• Oscar & Emily is Swarthmore's only all-jazz a cappella group.

NOTE: Several alumni have brought to our attention the fact that a cappella is a proud tradition at Swarthmore and includes the Swarthmore Madrigal Chorus, begun in 1952, and the Swarthmore College Singers, whose roots date back at least as far as the 1970s.

Answer: (d) First Collection was introduced in 1994 by Andrew Feldman '96, then the student leader of freshman orientation. Although passing of candlelight at First Collection is relatively new, the notion of "Collection" at Swarthmore is not. According to the Friends Historical Library, the Annual Catalog of 1870-1871 mentions a form of assembly at the end of each day for worship, at which readings from Scripture were followed by a period of silence. Over the years, Collection has undergone many changes. Currently, all-campus meetings, still called Collections, are convened to discuss current issues relevant to the College community (adapted from the Swarthmore College Bulletin).

Answer: c. Swarthmore's first class graduated in 1873 and included five women and one man. Among them was Helen Magill, who later became the first woman in the country to earn a Ph.D. Magill was the daughter of Swarthmore President Edward Hicks Magill.

Answer: Edward Hicks Magill. As Swarthmore's second president, Magill focused on moving the College further into the mainstream of American collegiate education. He upgraded the quality of the academic courses, phased out the College's preparatory school, and introduced the practice of awarding honorary degrees.

Answers: William Wordsworth, W.H. Auden, and James A. Michener '29. Visit the Rare Book Room to learn more.

Swarthmore College is named for Swarthmoor Hall, a 17th Century Elizabethan manor house near Ulverston, England. Throughout the 1650s, the house served as the center of the early Quaker movement. It was the home of Margaret and Thomas Fell, who allowed Religious Society of Friends founder George Fox and his followers to use it as a meeting place for worship. After her husband’s death, Margaret married Fox and dedicated her life to the Quaker movement.

Why the different spellings? Swarthmore College was chartered at the height of the American spelling reform movement. It seemed logical to plain-speaking American Friends that a word rhyming with “more” should be spelled “m-o-r-e,” regardless of etymology.

Answer: (c) 7. Saturday's game also gave Swarthmore seniors a perfect 4-0 record against their Haverford rivals.

Answer: a) Edward Hicks Magill, whose daughter Helen Magill White earned a Ph.D. from Boston University in Greek in 1877.

As a freshman, John Braxton '70, H'10 sailed under this flag on The Phoenix, a Quaker ship that traveled to Vietnam on a civilian aid mission during the war. Watch Braxton discuss the trip during the 2010 Commencement and learn more about the mission from the Swarthmore Peace Collection

Answer: d. The Leif Erikson Award is given to the winners of the Crum Creek Regatta. Other prizes for this event include the Christopher Columbus Award for second place, the Crum Crik Cruiser Award for best-engineered boat, the Queen Elizabeth Award for the most artistic vessel, and a special Captain’s Prize for last place.

Learn more about Dirk Schoonmaker '80, volunteer with the Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue in the April 2010 Bulletin.

In fact, all of these departments—and more—offer courses that are eligible for Environmental Studies credit. Check out the full list of Environmental Studies courses in specific disciplines and read more about the College’s sustainability efforts.

(1)   Lucretia Mott

(3)   Martha Ellicott Tyson

(4)   Margaret Hallowell

(6)   Susan Cunningham

(5)   Helen Magill

(2)   Deborah Wharton

Thanks to Christopher Densmore, curator of the Friends Historical Library, for all these facts.

During the 2008-09 academic year, 21 alums taught in 12 departments. Political science and dance tied for the most, with three each, including Keith Reeves '88 (left). This does not include the equal number of alums who worked on campus in various, no doubt also educational, capacities.

The answer is "c." Valentine (1901-1980) was a political science major and, like Mullarkey, a three-sport athlete at the College, earning varsity letters in football, basketball, and lacrosse. According to the Friends Historical Library, Valentine, who married the great-granddaughter of William Lloyd Garrison, had strong Quaker ties. He held master's degrees from Oxford, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale and became president of the University of Rochester in 1935, serving until 1950. Swarthmore awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1937.

Note: Although Frank Aydelotte was a Rhodes Scholar, he did not graduate from Swarthmore. We made that part up.

The answer is "b." In 1870, it was discovered that, under Pennsylvania law, women could not serve as trustees or directors of a corporation. Chris Densmore, curator of Friends Historical Library, explains that Swarthmore's founders - among them women's rights pioneer Lucretia Mott - believed in equality for women. The College was founded as a co-educational institution, with both male and female professors, at a time when educating the sexes together (not to mention educating women at the college level) was still a novel idea to most Americans. Educating women was not illegal, but apparently, allowing them to serve on the Board of Managers - which at Swarthmore was equally divided between men and women - was.

When the problem was discovered, a request to Harrisburg resulted in a revision to the Charter of Swarthmore College explicitly allowing women to be members of the Board. The catch: The legislation applied only to Swarthmore College.