If you have trouble reading this e-mail, go to the online version.

The Daily Gazette

       Swarthmore's only daily source for news, arts, and sports

Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Volume 9, Issue 74
http://daily.swarthmore.edu

It's either happened to you or someone you know: standing in line at the bookstore to sell back your old Bio book-the one you paid $130 for-and receiving a pittance in return, even though you know a used copy still sells for around $100. It's not that the good folks at the bookstore are trying to scam you-they deal their used books through a national wholesaler that sets the prices. This semester Student Council has created a new book buying system with the goal of helping students sell their books for more-or purchase them for less.

President Bush announced on Tuesday that he would ask Congress for an additional $75 billion dollars for mlitary operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. The total estimated cost for the war is now $200 billion. President Bush said the new monies would "again make clear to the terrorists that our resolve is firm and we will complete our mission." There is a great need for new equipment and better training.

A crowd of over 40 filled Bond yesterday afternoon to hear Princeton professor Denis Feeney's lecture "Why is there a Latin literature? Greeks, Romans, and Italians in middle-Republican Italy."

Louise Glück, the United States Poet Laureate for 2003, visited the Swarthmore campus on Tuesday for an informal talk with students as well as a reading of some of her recent work. Glück's poetry reading was the first Cooper event of the semester, and students, faculty, and community members showed up in full force, nearly filling LPAC cinema.

Last Saturday, Swarthmore College Bowl sent three teams to brave snow and SEPTA at Penn's annual tournament, traditionally one of the largest in the country.

The Gazette's exclusive compilation of campus events -- more complete than any other listing you can find. To submit your event drop the staff an email with the name of the event, the location, the time, the sponsoring organization, and any additional information you feel is relevant. Listings must be submitted by 9:00 p.m. the day before they are to be run.

Both Swarthmore indoor track teams made the trek to Haverford this weekend in order to participate in the Haverford Open track meet, despite snow that prevented more distant schools from attending.

The women's swim team soundly defeated the Owls from Bryn Mawr on Tuesday 147-56 in Centennial Conference action.

The badminton team's match against Haverford scheduled for Tuesday night was postponed. It has not been rescheduled as of yet.

The best location to find out when and where you can root for your fellow Swatties in their athletic endeavors. To submit an athletic event for inclusion in the listing, contact the Gazette staff with a short description of the event, the place, and the time. As with campus events, listings must be submitted by 9:00 p.m. the day before they are to be run.

Today: Mostly cloudy with scattered snow showers. High in upper 30s.
As compiler, it is my duty to fill this space with the (in)famous weather joke...

Tonight: Partly cloudy. Low around 18.
I can usually manage to come up with something decent, but this time, I fear I can only offer this:

Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. High in lower 20s.
My brain has turned to goo,
So there is no joke for you.

Lunch: Hot roast beef sandwich, garlic mashed potatoes, sunshine burgers, tofu Creole, edamame, corn, specialty salad bar, lemon squares

Dinner: Pork with mango salsa, jasmine rice, lentil stew, pasta with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, pasta bar, apple crisp

New book buyback system aims to leave students with more money

by Lauren Janowitz
News Editor

It's either happened to you or someone you know: standing in line at the bookstore to sell back your old Bio book-the one you paid $130 for-and receiving a pittance in return, even though you know a used copy still sells for around $100. It's not that the good folks at the bookstore are trying to scam you-they deal their used books through a national wholesaler that sets the prices. This semester Student Council has created a new book buying system with the goal of helping students sell their books for more-or purchase them for less.

The basic premise of the site (located at http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/bookbuyback/) is to remove the middleman, so students sell directly to each other. The system was first proposed by Student Council member Jon Fombonne '05, whose initial idea was to create a sort of outdoor book fair at the beginning of each semester. "I realized how unorganized that can be,Ó he noted, and went on to explain: "I saw that my brother was using a similar book buy back system for all the colleges in Montreal, that just connected students to each other based on what books they were selling."

According to Student Council co-president Andrew Gisselquist '05, plans for a system of this sort had been discussed back and forth in the past, but it was only this past semester that they were able to put everything together. Much of the success is owed to ITS associates and webmaster Chase DuBois '07, who worked through winter break in order to get the website out in time.

The book buyback system has its drawbacks, of course-fellow students would likely not care if you dropped your class and no longer needed their books-but on the whole, it seems that the website will be a help in buying books in the future.

Gisselquist agrees, "I was able to sell a book the first day I placed it. It looks like this will be a lasting tool for students to use."

World news roundup

President Bush announced on Tuesday that he would ask Congress for an additional $75 billion dollars for mlitary operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. The total estimated cost for the war is now $200 billion. President Bush said the new monies would "again make clear to the terrorists that our resolve is firm and we will complete our mission." There is a great need for new equipment and better training.

A stampede killed 300 Hindu pilgrims in western India on Tuesday. A total 150,000 pilgrims were on a pilgrimmage to the Mandhar Devi temple. A fire broke out in a nearby roadside stall, causing the stampede.

During a floor debate on Tuesday, Senate Democrats called Secretary of State nominee Condoleeza Rice a Bush administration apologist and a liar. Even though Senators in both parties agree that Dr. Rice's confirmation will most likely sail through tomorrow, the Democrats were trying to make a statement regarding their opposition to the Iraq war.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced the year's Oscar nominees Tuesday morning. The Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorcese movie "The Aviator" led the pack with the most nominations-11 including Best Picture and Best Director. Also nominated for top film honors were "Finding Neverland", and "Million Dollar Baby."

Princeton professor speaks on history of Latin literature

by Lauren Janowitz
News Editor

A crowd of over 40 filled Bond yesterday afternoon to hear Princeton professor Denis Feeney's lecture "Why is there a Latin literature? Greeks, Romans, and Italians in middle-Republican Italy."

Feeney, who spoke as a part of the Helen F. North lecture series, was first introduced by Swarthmore Professor of Classics William Turpin, who listed off Feeney's background: a B.A and M.A from the University of Auckland, followed by a Ph.D from Oxford, and teaching stints at various Oxford colleges and the University of Wisconsin-Madison before landing at his current position. He is also the author of the popular text "The Gods in Epic: Poets and Critics of the Classical Tradition."

Feeney opened his lecture by arguing that the creation of a Latin literature was not an inevitable occurrence-in fact, he sees it as a rather surprising event. He pointed out that other large groups near Rome, such as the Oscans and the Carthaginians, had their own languages and vibrant cultures, but didnÕt possess their own literature.

He then went on to argue that literacy was not a problem in Latin society, and could not be used to explain the length of time before the creation of Latin literature. On the contrary, Latin had been read and spoken for centuries, and most educated Romans were also well-versed in Greek. They also produced numerous legal and religious texts.

Feeney traced the first piece of work that can be called "Latin literature" back to 240 B.C., when Lucius Livius Andronius-a former Greek who learned Latin as a Roman slave-adapted Greek drama into Latin for a celebration known as the Roman Games.

This was a practice that continued for some time: the first examples of drama, epic, or theology written in Latin were all done by native Greek speakers. Feeney goes on to explain this: "He could be the second guy to write a Latin drama, or the 250th guy to do it in Greek." He also pointed out that when the Romans did begin writing history, they chose to do so in Greek, most likely because it was the lingua franca at the time.

Feeney closed his lecture by noting that the writing of Latin literature began to pick up by the middle of the 2nd century B.C., as Marcus Porcius Cato wrote the first prose in Latin in 160 B.C., with Lucius Accius following by writing Latin verse in 130 B.C. An enthusiastic question-and-answer session followed afterward.

Louise Glück visits Swarthmore

by Jen Roth
Gazette Reporter

Louise Glück, the United States Poet Laureate for 2003, visited the Swarthmore campus on Tuesday for an informal talk with students as well as a reading of some of her recent work. Glück's poetry reading was the first Cooper event of the semester, and students, faculty, and community members showed up in full force, nearly filling LPAC cinema.

Nathalie Anderson, English professor and director of the creative writing program, introduced Glück. She identified Glück as one of today's "most compelling poets" and offered a brief discussion of the poet's form, imagery, and willingness to take on tough subjects. Anderson also offered a summary of Glück's many accomplishments, which include publishing eleven books of poetry which have garnered various awards. Among these awards are the Pulitzer Prize, the Bollingen Prize in Poetry, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Poetry Society of America's Melville Kane and William Carlos Williams Awards, and the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry. Glück taught at Williams College for many years and is currently the Rosencranz Writer-in-Residence at Yale.

After Anderson's introduction, Glück took the stage to read selections from her most recent work. Glück read three long poems, offering a brief introduction for each one. The first poem, "Landscape," was a five part narrative in which each portion was representative of various episodes in life. The next poem, "Prison," was divided into twenty brief parts. The poem as a whole dealt with family and the illusion of romantic, perfect love, and it oscillated between serious notes and witty lines that caused the generally silent audience to laugh. The reading ending on a serious note, however, with GlŸck closing with a poem entitled "October." Written after the attacks of September 11th, Glück referred to the poem as a response to the realization that the outside world was as "chaotic and disturbed" as her own life, rather than the safe haven she had fantasized about.

College Bowl results

Last Saturday, Swarthmore College Bowl sent three teams to brave snow and SEPTA at Penn's annual tournament, traditionally one of the largest in the country. The A team of Chris White '05, Arthur Chu '06, and Emily Ullman '06 managed to win third place (and first among teams with no graduate students) with an 8-3 record despite missing a person, while the B team of Micaela Baranello '07, Rachel Winer '06, Scott Blaha '07, and Alex Glick '06 fared respectably at 5-6 and the all-freshman C team of Nathan La Porte, Ben Blonder, Mike Rosenberg, and Katie Santohigashi (none of whom had ever played in more than one tournament before) got lots of close games and valuable experience en route to a 2-9 record. In addition, Chris was the tournament's second-highest scorer with over 50 points per game.

Thanks to Chris White for providing the results.

Campus events

Psychology lecture by J. David Smith
Scheuer Room, 4:15 p.m.

Student Council Meet and Greet
Sharples Big Room, 5:30-7:00 p.m.

Time Management Workshop
Kohlberg 228, 8:00 p.m.

Tri-Co Environmental Coalition
Haverford, 7:00 p.m. shuttle

Film Society: Purple Rain
Science Center 101, 9:00 p.m.
----------
Directing II Comedy Auditions:
"Words, Words, Words" (Ives) & "The After-Dinner Joke" (Churchill)
9 pm, Hicks Mural Room
Contacts: jim1, abradbu1
----------
P A C E S hiring *NOW*
Hiring all positions for Spring 2005. Applications and interview sign-up sheet on SEO Bulletin board, across from the mailroom window. Interviews beginning Jan. 30, so get your applications quickly. Questions? Contact cbarron1 or jzagory1.

Swarthmore track teams compete at Haverford Open

by Ken Patton
Column Reporter

Both Swarthmore indoor track teams made the trek to Haverford this weekend in order to participate in the Haverford Open track meet, despite snow that prevented more distant schools from attending. The schools present included Division I schools Villanova and St. Joseph's, providing solid races as Vernon Chaplin '07 commented in an email, "there was still some really good competition--Haverford's team is very strong this year as always, and Villanova and St. Joe's brought some of their top runners."

On the Swarthmore men's side, Tyler Lyson '06 claimed second place in the 200 with a time of 24.56 followed by Mike Bonesteel '08 in fourth place with a time of 25.08. Lyson also placed sixth in the 400 at 53.99 while Chaplin placed fourth in the 800 with a time of 1:58.58. Swarthmore also place fourth in the 1600 meter relay with a time of 3:33.51. Chaplin also commented about one of the top runners at the meet, "the top collegiate finisher in the mile was Villanova sophomore Andrew "Kippy" Keino, whose father Kip Keino was an Olympic Gold Medalist for Kenya."

The women's track team also did well at the meet, with Elizabeth Gardner '05 placing fourth in the 400 in 1:02.87 as the top Division III runner. Sarah Hobbs '06 also claimed the position of top Division III runner in the 800, placing in fifth overall with a time of 2:26.30. Due to the snow there were smaller heats than normal, but Gardner commented "I personally loved the environment since the meet moved along quickly, yet was still challenging."

Overall, the meet provided good practice for both teams. Through email Chaplin commented "the meet was a more low-key environment than last week at The Armory, but we still ran some really good times and had a chance to see how we match up against some of the best teams from the Philadelphia area." On the women's team Gardner also remarked "I would have wished that there were a few more runners, but there is another meet next weekend, so we think about these meets are building blocks for later meets." Next weekend the Garnet returns to Haverford for the McElligott Invite, starting at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.

Women's swimming blows away Bryn Mawr

The women's swim team soundly defeated the Owls from Bryn Mawr on Tuesday 147-56 in Centennial Conference action. Martyna Pospieszalska '06, Michele Hom '07, Janice Yeo '07, and Jennie Lewis '08 won the 200 medley relay. Lewis racked up another win in the 500 freestyle, while Hom earned another first place finish in the 100 breaststroke. Whitney Nekoba '08 finished first in both the 1000 and the 100 freestyle. Tara Finley '06 and Sarah Cotcamp '07 placed first in the 200 and 50 freestyle respectively. Melanie Johncilla '05 was victorious in the 100 backstroke. Pospieszalska, Yeo, Franny Zhang '08, and Patricia Funk '06 took first in the 200 freestyle relay. Swarthmore now stands at 5-3 overall and 3-1 in the conference. The Garnet will travel to Gettysburg at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday for another conference meet.

Badminton match postponed

The badminton team's match against Haverford scheduled for Tuesday night was postponed. It has not been rescheduled as of yet.

Upcoming contests

Today:
Women's Basketball hosts Haverford, 6:00 p.m.
Men's Basketball hosts Haverford, 8:00 p.m.

Tomorrow:
Badminton at Bryn Athen, 7:30 p.m.

"The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep."

Anonymous

The Daily Gazette is published Monday through Friday by an independent group of Swarthmore College students. The Daily Gazette website is updated regularly, as news happens. Technical support from the Swarthmore College Computer Society is gratefully acknowledged.

Our world news roundup is compiled daily, using a variety of sources, most notably the Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Our campus sports summaries for games without live coverage are derived from information provided by the Swarthmore College Athletics Department.

© The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081