Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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Swarthmore College. It all starts when you send in your fit- teen dollars and they send you the application form.. What book would you write if you could? The answers run the garnet. Oh, I wouldn ' t be so presumptuous as to think J could write a book or How interesting that you should ask; my last book . . . . There are certain things a book about Swarthmore would have to include. It would begin with a loiig discussion of sce- nic beauty (the cursory reader can skip the chapter), of long walks in the .Crum woods, of towers and rosegardens. and trees with names like Liquidambar Formosana Monticola. A discussion of the faculty might follow: Roland Pennock (there to remind one how things used to be); Uw.e Henke (to tell one how they should be); Peter Van de Kampe (to discover solar systems and acconnpany Douglas Fairbanks ' heroics); or Bernie Saffran (to share economics, and ice cream with). Other people also play leading roles: Catherine guarding the passage way to the dining hall with the tenacity of Cerberus — but with much more love and Miss Shero, omnipresent in the business office. When the governance report implied that the Board of Managers and not Miss Shero ran the college, people knew it was a put on. The other sweet women of Par- rish have minor roles. The last four years are very separate chapters. We have hardly been faithful to tradition. One year Mr. Stetson was named homecoming queen. The next year sexual equality received another boost — a smiling Tony Cilento was crowned May queen. Along with the queens, such cherished institu- tions as mandatory collection. Kappa Sigma Phi fraternity, coats and. ties at seminars, a three act Hamburg Show in Clothier and D.U. iniatiation night have fallen by the wayside. Social rules have come tumbling down like a stack of dominoes. Don ' t climb the water tower. That ' s the last rule that rernains. There, was a time (when giants walked the campus) when a woman vvas hot, allowed in a man ' s room. Then a book had to fit between the open door. Then, a matchbook. Finally, twenty four hour open house passed the scrutiny of the Deans. Now sex is rampant. As expected, new institutions have arisen Phoenix-like to replace the old. There is the annual McCabe mile, aone mile race in a four story edifice with, bright red carpets and the remnants of a wrecked automobile hanging from its .ceiling. Kappa Sig .closed, but Cay Lib used its facilities for th ir first mixer. There was the crum regatta. Last year ' s winner forded the rapids in an inner tube. And the Hamburg show took on a ; new look. Chants of out demons out, chicken legs, and a multi-media performance have replaced staid Clothier, the- atrics. There was also Tom Sahagian., ,. : And there was politics. Swarthmore ha always been a. po- litical campus. In the fifties when other campuses revelled in gold fish eating contests, Swarthmore fought, McCarthy. In the early sixties she was a hotbed of liberal concern about rac-,, ism and,, discrimination. However, the last, few years brought politics more to th,e fore. Swarthmore, herself was accused of racism and discrimination, and found guilty. Vietnam and the draft radicalized everyone. ' Cambodia brought it- all to a aettine out of Vietnam we had, invaded another as the almost t , and Right problems of a country. There Wei ' s endless meetings. Th liturgical chant of Open it up ' , ' Get it to on. ' ' There was ' endless discussion:- One oi college ' with 1,OGO high school student cc that everyone is certain he has the final ' v In many ways this has been the year of the post Cambodia blues. It is too early to tell how deeply the blues go, but the evidence, to date suggests more than superficial impact. November 4th -election day— came and went. Swarth- moreans did not race home to campaign for their local favor- ite. We invaded Laos (still trying to get out of Vietnam, we were told) but people seemed to expect it and to shrug it off. May Day in Washington with Jerry Rubin attracted only a few. Earth Day even fewer. Even the reports of FBI surveillance seemed to upset only the Phoenix and those surveilled- Someone drew two eyes above the mailbox (FB eyes, they were labl ed) and everyone else went back to work. It was not a year for long meetings. But the new mood was not merely apathy. Even Time mag- azine sensed a new atmosphere and turned the notion of turning inward into a 1971 cliche. We were all Ali Mc| or Ryan O ' Neils, madly in love, swearing with some regularity, and desperately struggling to find intense relationships. As usual Time was wrong. Ali Mcgraw (tight white pants notwith- standing) was no one ' s ideal mate. While there was personal struggle taking place, it was not the struggle of Love Story. Some of the struggle which did exist found an outlet in cre- ative arts. If politics died (and for the most part it did), then the arts flourished. Dance classes grew in size by, leaps and bounds. The studio arts program for the first time received academic credit and people look seriously the idea of creating something with their hands or with their bodies. Meanwhile the Boardbegan, plans for a new arts building: People also returned to struggling with their books. A college guide included an anecdote which brought it all home: A family came to Swarthmore on a, fall Saturday to watch their son play football. Uncertain as to the location of ,the football field they decided to follow the crowd. They found themselves in the library. . They were not alone.. Once again the library became the central meetitig place replacing the floor of Tarbles or the confines of Bond. People went back to work, with renewed dedication— and even some,:traces of interest. Everything one studied did not have to be relevant. Classical Mythology and Roman History (the latter taught. by Russell ' Meiggs, the mari ,with those, great bushy, eyebrows) attracted large, numbers of ,, students and auditors. , It seemed :,that ' , once! again books had ■become ' the core of Swarthmore life. R,eadin ' g them; not writ- ing them.