Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

Page 17 text:

BOOK I... FROM THE PAST

Page 16 text:

Tradition and precedent at Swarthmore — You thin of the Meeting Home or maybe Thursday Collection, But there are other things too. The Phoenix and Halcyon are older than Clothier. And so It is with most of the organizations. Even the newer groups lil{e the Swarthmore Network and the Dodo need only time to make them traditional. You weren ' t the first to phone that story in to the Bulletin or paint your class numerals on the water tower. It ' s all been going on for a long time.

Page 18 text:

THROUGH THE YEARS Superficiall y Swarthmore College in 1943 is a far cry from the institution envisioned by its Quaker founders in the post Civil War days. We are told that their plan was to teach agri- culture to the men and the domestic arts to the women with some emphasis on training in the social graces. Nothing could have been much further from their plans than the engi- neering plant in Hicks or the Zoology labs of Martin. And yet looking beneath the surface we see quickly that the ideals of old Swarth- more are present today not only in the musty chronicle of the college ' s history. ■« » ? ■ .Z We need only look about on the campus. The Quaker meeting house is not a mere museum piece preserving memories of the early days, for each Sunday throughout the year the Swarthmore Meeting convenes here just as it did then. Wednesday collection with its moment of silence at the start is another custom rooted in the founding Friendly Tra- dition. The practical training provided for by the college ' s founders finds its present day analogue in the honors system, in which the student is given an opportunity to specialize and become moderately expert in his chosen field. Reading for honors is Swarthmore ' s big contribution to the academic world, and it too comes to us us from the past. Alumni loyalty is nowhere higher than at Swarthmore as is shown by the large numbers attending the annual homecomings, which are not rowdy reunions but chances for old friends to renew old friendships in the familiar, con- genial Swarthmore atmosphere. And so it goes with one tradition after another; the time honored Haverford rivalry, the May-day celebration, the traditional honor societies, all help to perpetuate the enduring spirit that is Swarthmore. THE MEETING HOUSE