Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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1939 President Frank Aydelotte 1 QvQ Germany declared war on France. Con- I UU Wf gress repealed the Neutrality Acts. Franco wrapped up trie Spanish Civil War. And Swarthmore College was 75 years old. Somewhere between 1914 and 1939 Swarth- more passed irom the Rah-Rah College to the First-Rate Educational Institution. Presumably the turning point was m 1921. with the inaugura- tion of Rhodes Scholar Frank Aydelotte as Col- lege President. It was Aydelotte s idea that uniformity and regimentation in the educational system were holding back ability. He proposed to give stu- dents greater stimulus, wider independence, less spoon-feeding, and more scholarships. At the center of his plans was the Honors program. instituted in 1921. in which he expected a stand- ard of achievement comparable perhaps with that which is now reached for the Masters De- gree. He enlarged and strengthened the faculty, as well as the student body, and committed the whole community to a goal of academic excel- lence. Big-time athletics were out ! We have entered frankly upon a policy of playing games for fun. Variegated college life was in ! Our students speak more languages, play more games, and think of more interesting things to do than any group of undergraduates I have ever known. But in the mam. Swarthmore was settling down into a life with some similarities to that of today : In 1939. the first coeducational marriage course was offered. The annual Delta Upsilon Oratorical Contest was broadcast over radio into five states. The College Chest raised enough money to create nine scholarships for Chinese students. And the newest literary mag, the Dodo, was founded, the name being chosen as a con- stant reminder that all literary publications at Swarthmore are doomed to ultimate extinction. Fraternities reached their peak of popularity, with 75 pledges, or 90 c c of the Freshman Class; Kappa Sigma pledged 29. The Phoenix attacked not only fraternities, but library fines and social rules, and it came out strongly for periodic ' co- ed dances to which girls ask men. In 1939. a 900-pound pygmy sperm whale, washed ashore m Atlantic City, was lugged to Swarthmore in a trailer by Professor Enders, as a treat for his Biology students. The Faculty presented a series of lectures on the Problems of War. featuring Professors Pen- nock, Wilcox, etc. A nationally-based intercol- legiate peace poll showed that students thought the German and Italian governments were un- fairly represented in the American press, and 18

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1914 Sophomore Follies ' Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Army, Navy, and To- ronto. The Lacrosse team had been the defend- ing National Collegiate champion. Swarthmore hosted student representatives (all heavily chaperoned) from 23 women ' s col- leges for a meeting of the Women ' s Intercolle- giate Association for Student Government, in November of that year — the largest gathering of its kind ever held in the country. The men found themselves sipping tea with girls from Goucher, Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Radcliffe, Vassar, Wellesley, Wisconsin, etc. Dr. John Miller, Professor of Astronomy, was in 1914 elected Vice President of the College. His acceptance speech, remembered for its compassion, was entitled Determination of the Heliocentric Position of a Certain Class of Co- rona Streamers. Famous evangelist Billy Sunday spoke in Col- lection. After giving his religious song and dance in ungrammatical but colorful English, he led the student-body in singing first the Swarthmore AJma Mater, and then his favorite, Lead Kindly Light. Other Collections featured music, lec- tures, and occasionally moving pictures cast on a bedsheet at the front of the hall. Ruff Herndon in 1914 Women ' s Athletics Men ' s Athletics 17

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Onward Christian Soldiers that they favored non-military aid to Britain and France m the case of war. The Commencement speaker was Dr. Edouard Benes, President of the former Czechoslovak Republic. In 1939, Lacrosse took the state title with an 8-0 record. Willis Stetson was appointed Basket- ball coach. The Swarthmore Fencing team lost to Haverford 22-5. Championship ping-pong was featured in Collection one week. And Kwink gave three shows of their production A Day in the Liife of a Swarthmore Woman, with cast of six, one night in the Dining Room. In 1939, Swarthmore had 600 students, and a faculty of over a hundred. The College plant was the same as that of today, with the exception of the duPont Science Building, and Willets. Fun and Games at 1939 May Day. 19