The sesquicentennial-year graduating class basked in a day that was comfortably cool and deliciously sunny June 1. Parents, professors, and friends could be heard repeating the standard line, “What a perfect day.”
Chair of the Board of Managers Gil Kemp ’72 highlighted the College anniversary in his opening remarks: “Today marks the end of the first [...]

Shortly before magazine press time, it was announced that President Rebecca Chopp would become chancellor of the University of Denver, beginning Sept. 1. Constance Cain Hungerford will serve as interim president of Swarthmore, beginning July 14.
In a message to the campus community, Chopp said, “What an extraordinary privilege it has been to serve on behalf [...]

Umbrellas bobbed up and down Magill Walk in the steady spring rain, as the College community and arearesidents flocked to the Lang Performing Arts Center (LPAC) to hear literary great Toni Morrison in April. Soggy visitors who arrived even 30 minutes early were not able to watch from one of the 750-plus seats in Pearson-Hall [...]

Swarthmore’s Quaker founders avoided alcohol and tobacco, music halls, horse racing, election campaigns, and military pageants. What was left? Nature and science, particularly botany. When the Friends’ Social Lyceum visited the campus soon after the College was chartered in 1864, the outing included rambles on the grounds and strolls along Crum Creek. The children amused [...]

Literacy rates among members of the deaf community are some of the lowest in the country, says Linguistics Professor Donna Jo Napoli. The admitted technophobe and author of more than 70 children’s and young adult novels wondered if the digital world could help her introduce deaf children to literature.To move ahead with the idea, she [...]

Hans Oberdiek
Professor of Philosophy
Year he came to Swarthmore: 1965
Areas of expertise: moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, philosophy of technology, environmental ethics
During 50 years at the College, Hans Oberdiek taught courses on the philosophy of law, including key theories of law and implications for the relation between law and morality; [...]

There is a lot weighing on Swarthmore seniors during the final week of classes: impending finals and Commencement, as well as the stress of landing that first job.
While many of her classmates were in McCabe Library preparing for finals, Rose Pitkin ’14 was holed up in the Lamb-Miller Field House with only one focus—finishing a [...]

Many Swarthmore student groups have social and political agendas. But for a new campus chapter of Common Sense Action (CSA), generational equity is the main issue.
“We want to build an advocacy base of students,” says chapter founder and president Jessica Seigel ’16, a political science major and peace and conflict studies and public policy double [...]

Nine nationally prominent alumni/higher-education leaders gathered Feb. 22 to energetically exchange candid views on how the liberal arts can thrive and enrich individual learners and American society as a whole. About 200 alumni, Board of Managers, and community members attended the four-hour Future of the Liberal Arts symposium in the Eugene and Theresa Lang Performing [...]

The dulcet tones of a student string quartet welcomed College community members into the foyer of McCabe Library on the afternoon of Jan. 22. On a draped table, a gigantic cake replicating Parrish Hall stood grandly, replete with details that included not only accurate architectural features of the building but also Magill Walk, Parrish lawns, [...]