Katherine Buttolph ’74
Yuan Liu ’09
Celebrating the Honors Program at 100 years. Illustration by Iratxe López de Munáin.
The World in Our Hands
campbell
The new year is underway as are many changes across campus. The Dining Center was unveiled and the ambitious To Zero By Thirty-Five energy plan is in motion. But pillars of the College remain. We celebrate the Honors Program and the milestone of 100 years of academic absorption. “Something of an Adventure” (p. 20) explores the history of Honors. Groundbreaking when it began in 1922, it continues to shape Swarthmore’s culture. It was the opportunity to become so completely immersed in a subject of study that made it such a life-changing experience, alumni say.
In “Designed to Succeed” (p. 34) Omri Gal ’20 reveals how a passion for soccer led him to create a program for young students in Chester, Pa. Gal helps artists at Stetser Elementary find a vibrant place to voice their emotions in the form of soccer jerseys!
At a time when the world seems to be moving so rapidly, Swarthmoreans kept pace with positive change. Students and faculty attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt; Kilan Tang ’25 created a way to expand voting access to transgender and nonbinary students; and staff member Luis Alvarez received the inaugural Greg Brown Award, recognizing extraordinary contributions in the areas of Campus Services, Facilities Management, and Public Safety.
On a smaller scale, the Arboretum staff held a workshop to make snow globes. Pieces of evergreen and holly placed inside a bottle seemed a simple project. This photo is an evocative reminder that we do hold worlds in our hands. It’s inspiring to imagine that each of us can create new environments in big and small ways, too.
Happy 2023 from Swarthmore in Pennsylvania to Swarthmore across the globe!
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On Our Radar
swarthmore was paradise!
— BARBARA SEARLE ’52, Carlsbad, Calif.
Let’s Organize
— PAUL LAUENSTEIN ’72, Sharon, Mass.
IN DEATH, LIFE
FINDING DIRECTION has always been hard for me. In 2007, I entered Swarthmore thinking I’d major in sociology, or education, or philosophy, convinced I’d know by the end of my first semester who I’d be, what I’d like. After suffering through a dark sophomore slump, it took until my junior year to discover that what I really wanted to study — and what would change my entire life lens — was religion. By my senior year, I’d accumulated enough credits for a religion minor, an educational studies minor, and an English major. Half of me felt like a failure: I’d relinquished applying myself to be part of the Honors program, struggled to write essays despite literature being my main area of study, and had no clue what I wanted to do with my life after college.
But I was also, for the first time in my years at Swarthmore, happy. I’d become known and welcomed as the campus photographer-stalker; I was absorbing the concepts from postmodern religious thought into my being and leaning on them to help me navigate my existence; I’d found, in morsels that became small meals over time, meaning.
studentwise:
Battery Life
The title of Simon Ji ’23’s research poster is daunting: “In-situ investigation of NaFePO4 Coin Cells through Mossbauer Spectroscopy and Galvanostatic Cycling.” But Ji explains it concisely. “In the hunt for more economical and sustainable battery materials, Sodium Iron Phosphate (NaFePO4) has emerged as a promising candidate due to the abundance of the elements that make up its structure,” Ji says. He hopes his research with Assistant Professor of Physics Hillary Smith will help understand this battery material’s behavior under real-life operating conditions, and provide insights to improve its safety, energy density, and longevity.
HOT TYPE: New releases by Swarthmoreans
Carolyn Dewald ’68 and Rosaria Vignolo Munson, the J. Archer and Helen C. Turner Professor of Classics
Herodotus: Histories Book I
Cambridge University Press
In the Histories, the ancient Greek historian and geographer Herodotus tells how the Persian Empire began, grew, and met defeat during his parents’ generation. Book I begins that story by introducing the world in which the Persian imperial war machine began to operate and then expanded. This edition helps intermediate and advanced students read the book in the original Greek and will also interest advanced scholars. The commentary provides information about dialect, grammatical forms, syntax, and other properties of his language.
Laura Markowitz ’85 and Amy S. Cramer
Voices on the Economy, Vol. I: How Open-Minded Exploration of Rival Perspectives Can Spark New Solutions to Our Urgent Economic Problems
Voices On The Economy, Incorporated
Full Circle
Opportunity, skill — and her mother’s devotion — paved the way
“Sometimes you have to step back to take 10 steps forward,” she says. She quickly adapted and did well, but the landscape of higher education in the U.S. was yet another foreign country.
woldegebriel ’02
common good
Ahead, a Carbon-Free Future
“To Zero By Thirty-Five is a bold and exciting articulation of the College’s intentional approach and forward momentum, and it holds us accountable to our goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2035,” President Valerie Smith said.
All of campus will be connected to a central geoexchange plant by 2035, says Associate Vice President for Sustainable Facilities Operations and Capital Planning Andy Feick. The system, powered by renewable energy, works by extracting heat from buildings during the summer for cooling and storing it underground for use in the winter for heating — all while producing zero carbon emissions.
Broadening Perspectives
NEWLY CREATED Asian American Studies Program at Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford will build upon existing courses and programs and create opportunities across the Tri-College Consortium.
“I love the fact that students and faculty will have a space to think, reflect, and learn more about what it means to be a racialized minority in the U.S., a space to explore what it means to be Asian American now, and the ways Asian American immigrant histories relate to global movements of peoples and ideas and cultures in the early 21st century,” says Bakirathi Mani, professor of English literature and co-director of the new program.
The program centers on Asian American perspectives and contextualizes them within the wider field of critical race and ethnic studies, including Black studies, Latinx studies, and Indigenous studies.
New Spaces for Music
HE COLLEGE marked the completion of a yearslong effort to renovate the Lang Music Building in fall 2022. Nearly 200 students, faculty, staff, and members of the Board of Managers gathered for the event, which featured a plaque unveiling and concert by acclaimed organist Mark Loria ’08 on the newly restored Holtkamp Organ.
The renovations have brought new life to the nearly 50-year-old building. In addition to the restored Holtkamp Organ, the space now boasts enhanced acoustics, a new accessibility ramp in the building’s lobby, full updates of the restrooms, and a new egress pathway outside the concert hall.
Adding Something Positive
“I had no idea — I haven’t touched that [part of the website] in 20 years,” says Cheever, the Edward Hicks Magill Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, who retired from the College in May. “To have thousands of people using it was never really my goal, but it’s satisfying.”
In the early days of the site, Cheever would post notes from lectures, as an aid to his students. But the site grew, demonstrating an appeal to a broader community.
“I wanted to make well-written and easily used resources available for all,” says Cheever, noting the prohibitive cost of textbooks. The site still looks mid-’90s; you can practically hear the AOL dial-up squeal. But it boasts an array of tools and tutorials for anyone seeking to master linear physical systems analysis. And the clicks, from as far as India, keep coming. A second subpage, on binary numbers, also cracked the top five in Google searches among all Swarthmore-hosted sites last year.
A Lawyer for the Land
“I’m considered the project manager — that’s a good term for what a land-protection specialist does,” says Buttolph, who’s worked for the Massachusetts Audubon Society since 2016.
Buttolph talks to the experts — surveyors, appraisers, and title attorneys — who are part of the process of a real estate transaction for land conservation. “That also includes the scientists who know the nitty-gritty about a particular parcel, the wetlands, the soils, and plants, and why that property is worthy of conservation,” she says. “It’s basically herding a lot of cats and trying to put together all the facts about a property.”
rediscovering joy
Liu also works at a counseling center and is building her private practice. Her aim is to “help people be more authentically themselves and reach their goals.” She was inspired by her mother, who obtained a master’s in nutrition after arriving in the United States. She had to leave the 4-year-old Liu in China with her father, but the two of them were able to join her two years later. Her mother, who had been a doctor in China, felt that she could find better opportunities for herself as a woman — as well as for her young daughter — in the U.S., Liu says. Liu is seeing the limitations of the American system firsthand, limitations made more apparent by the pandemic. The counseling center has long waiting lists, she says, because more people are seeking help for psychiatric issues, including from the stress of the pandemic.
Something of an Adventure
That hallmark of intellectual intensity is thanks in large part to the Honors Program.
Whether you took Honors or not, Swarthmore’s Honors Program had an enormous impact on liberal arts education across the country and contributed to creating what is quintessentially Swarthmore.
Before Honors: “Conventional and Undistinguished”
Designed to Succeed
Art and sport meld with beautiful results
by Sherry L. Howard
photos by Laurence Kesterson
Designed to Succeed
Art and sport meld with beautiful results
Designed to Succeed
Art and sport meld with beautiful results
by Sherry L. Howard
photos by Laurence Kesterson
The sport quickly became the center of Gal’s life. As a teenager, he traveled across New York and the Northeast for matches and played with the New York Red Bulls Academy team.
Recruited to play soccer at Swarthmore, he felt at home on the team. And when he received a Eugene Lang Opportunity Scholarship in 2018, Gal committed to finding new ways to share his love of the game.
Eventually, he launched Design FC, an after-school program that works with youth to encourage creative thinking and autobiographical storytelling through the design of athletic jerseys and apparel. The program is based primarily at Stetser Elementary School in Chester, Pa.
Digging In
photos by Laurence Kesterson
Over 50 years later, Smith’s observation remained apt: long lines snaking out of the servery into the foyer, tight corners that felt perilous to navigate during peak traffic, limited hours for evening meals, and a lack of natural light all made for a less-than-ideal dining experience.
It was clear that Sharples, originally designed to accommodate around 900 students, could no longer meet the needs of the campus community of more than 1,600 students. Thus, the Dining Center was born.
As part of the larger Dining and Community Commons (DCC) project, the Dining Center brings to campus a reimagined dining experience grounded in Swarthmore’s longstanding values of sustainability, community, and inclusivity.
Eating Green
A Collection Revived
A Collection Revived
HEN KEVIN QUIGLEY ’74 and his wife, Susan Flaherty, donated their collection of Cuala Press prints to the College, they wanted to ensure the community could readily access the art. Their collection includes 73 hand-colored woodblock prints and broadsides created between 1906 and 1968 at the Cuala Press in Dublin. Originally called the Dun Emer Press, it was established by Elizabeth and Lily Yeats — sisters of poet William Butler Yeats — along with Evelyn Gleeson and Augustine Henry.
“A key criteria was to have it be accessible,” Quigley says. So he funded a paid student internship at McCabe Library to catalog and digitize the collection. “It’s really rewarding for me to hear there’s interest on campus,” says Quigley, “ I have a lot of confidence that Swarthmore will take good care of it.”
When Lemuel L’Oiseau ’25, whose pronouns are they/them, noticed a listing for the internship Quigley had funded, they quickly applied. L’Oiseau had spent the previous year working at McCabe’s circulation desk, nurturing an interest in the behind-the-scenes work of librarians — from cataloging and shelving to research and acquisitions.
class notes
Swarthmore in Your City
Join President Valerie Smith in your city to hear updates from campus, learn about current initiatives from faculty and key administrators, and catch up with Swarthmore friends and classmates. Spring dates and locations will be announced in early March. swarthmore.edu/AlumniEvents
Alumni Weekend 2023
Whether you are celebrating a milestone reunion (class years ending in 3 and 8) or simply looking for an excuse to come back to campus, alumni of all ages are invited to Alumni Weekend, May 26–28. Find information to start planning your trip back to campus, including discounted rates at nearby hotels, at swarthmore.edu/AlumniWeekend
Garnet Weekend 2023
Save the date for Swarthmore’s annual Homecoming and Family Weekend, scheduled for Oct. 6–7.
Your support makes a Swarthmore education extraordinary and accessible.
Your support makes a Swarthmore education extraordinary and accessible.
their light lives on
Psychologist Pat, who loved elephants and cats, died Aug. 17, 2022.
She graduated from UPenn in 1956, pursued post-graduate studies at Swarthmore, earned a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Cornell, and later studied at the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago. Pat had a varied career, teaching child psychology at the former College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., working with chemically dependent teens, and practicing as a psychotherapist.
David, a civil engineer, died March 23, 2022.
He attended the College but earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Penn State, served in the Navy Reserves, and was the president of Broscious Building Center (formerly Broscious Lumber Co.). David was a member of Sunbury, Pa., Bible Church and Gideons International, president of the American Institute of Kitchen Dealers, and a volunteer at JAARS in North Carolina.
Morgan, who completed the New York City Marathon at ages 58 and 60, died Aug. 17, 2021.
He enlisted in the Navy during World War II, then attended midshipman’s school at Swarthmore and graduated from Lehigh University. He worked in the garment industry, owning his own fashion business, and joined National Spinning Co., retaining the title of chairman emeritus until his death. Morgan served in many volunteer leadership positions including with Beth Israel/Continuum (now Mount Sinai Hospital) in New York.
LeRoy, an athlete and engineer, died Oct. 31, 2021.
He attended the College and the University of Colorado, and while at Swarthmore was a member of the varsity swimming, track & field, basketball, and soccer teams, as well as participating in the Peaslee Debate Society and the College Orchestra. LeRoy retired as a design engineer for the Pima County, Arizona, Department of Transportation.
Sam, a human resources professional, died Dec. 20, 2021.
He attended both Juniata and Swarthmore colleges prior to his enlistment in the Navy, ultimately graduating from Juniata; worked in human resources at Fischer & Porter Co. for three decades, retiring as national marketing manager; and returned to work in human resources and sales for North Penn Transfer and Keenan Motors and later with several firms in Asheville, N.C. Sam was active in the YMCA as president of the West Bucks County, Pa., chapter; he also participated in church organizations and the Kiwanis Club.
looking back
A 1973 lunch menu laments that inflation has increased the cost of meat, and a patty melt — the most expensive sandwich on the menu — now costs a whole dollar. The menu also boasts a new item, a 30-cent burrito, and lets students know they can have these, and many other foodstuffs, delivered to them between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. nightly.
A story from the May 13, 1973 issue of The Sunday Bulletin revealed that cheese fondue and roast duck used to be available for purchase on campus, as well as a treat called “amoeba cookies,” described only as “brownie-like.”
The story also let readers know that “natural foods,” like yogurt and salads, were now standard fare in the cafeteria.
A PLACE OF COMMUNITY
What drew you to Swarthmore and to this position in particular?
Swarthmore’s small, liberal arts environment, which is very different from bigger institutions. When I came for the campus visit, I got the same kind of energy from everyone here: that it’s just a place of community. I knew right away that there was a different vibe here. And I was right!
MOTION AND LIGHT
Jake Rothman ’23 in Echo, by Bethany Formica Bender.
Fall Dance Concert, Dec., 2022.