Unfortunately, we can't tell you about every building (those of you who were just dying to hear about the Buildings & Grounds Maintenance Center will be sorely disappointed). However, here's a brief summary of some key locations on campus.


Parrish


Parrish, which contains the Admissions Office, most of the college's Administrative Offices, and the vital Campus Post Office, can justifiably be called the center of campus. It (and some of the dorm rooms on the upper floors) have a beautiful view of expansive Parrish Beach, which is an endless sea of white in the winter. The second floor is home to the Student Resource Center--which serves as office space for many of the student organizations on campus. WSRN 91.5 FM, Swat's very own radio station, broadcasts from the top of the building. Parrish is Swat in a very real sense...it appears on the college's logo and is what most outsiders (who have actually heard of Swat and aren't mistaking it for a women's prep school) think of when they think of the college.

Tarble-in-Clothier


Tarble is the social center of campus (though how that might change with the rumored cafe in under-construction Kohlberg remains to be seen). On the ground floor it has a lounge and Essie Mae's, the snack bar where unused Sharples credit can be redeemed (for far less than is deserved, we have to note. What is supposedly a $5.00 dinner is worth $3.75 to a student if he/she comes at the optimum time. However, this will get you Fingers & Fries and a Coke. Here at Swat we care about nutritious living.) Tucked away in the back is Paces, the student-run cafe that serves excellent refreshment and offers a nice ambience away from the Vivarin-saturated study atmosphere that currounds much of the campus (no, no, it's really not that bad). Paces also offers Thursday night Pub Night (see the social page for more info).
On the top floor of Tarble is Tarble All Campus Space, where most SAC funded dances are held. It's a large room that serves absolutely no purpose outside of large gatherings. It does those very well, however. Moving on...in the basement of Tarble is the Bookstore. Need sweatshirts or t-shirts or stickers to show your affiliation? The Bookstore has them. A personal favorite (shirt): "Swarthmore College: Guilt Without Sex". (no, no, it's really not that bad)

Clothier Bell Tower rings every quarter-hour during the day and every hour (softly) at night. How does one ring a bell softly, you ask? Well, unfortunately there aren't any bells in Clothier--just very large speakers. It's also used for rappelling (come and find out).



The Lang Performing Arts Complex


LPAC Complex is one of the campus' best features. Though its modern appearance is sharply contrasted by the adjacent (old-fashioned stone) Parrish and (new-fangled faux old-fashioned) Kohlberg, it is an excellent facility. It houses the campus Cinema, where movies are shown each Friday night. Beneath the Cinema is the PAC, where performances by visiting artists and Swat's own are held--for large gatherings the wall between the two theatres is withdrawn to form one huge hall. Lang also features practice rooms for Swat's musicians, a revolving stage, and classrooms.

Trotter, Hicks, Papazian, and Pearson


Aside from DuPont and Martin, these four buildings are the main places for academics--classes, professors' offices, and departmental offices. Trotter also boasts the Writing Center, home to the Writing Assistants (WAs): students who are trained to help others with the writing process. Hicks is the center of the Engineering Department (otherwise known as Concentrated Pain Due to Lack of Sleep...no, no, it's really not that bad--and Swat produces excellent Engineers) and Papazian houses the Philosophy and Psychology departments. The third floor has the testing room, where, with the right prisms, glasses, and spinning chairs, a good Psych major can make somebody puke in under 10 seconds. Pearson has no classrooms, but it does have a few meeting lounges, the Modern Language Offices, and the Religion Offices.

Martin and DuPont

Swat's sciences come out of these two buildings--Martin has Bio and Chem and Dupont hosts Mathematics and Physics. Most of Swat's students will at some time undergo amazing amounts of frustration in either of these buildings, as each year's class seems to be compiled of 90% Bio majors and Bio majors take Orgo. Hmm. That's about it for these two. We want you to come here, remember.

McCabe and Cornell...the Libraries

There's far too much to tell about each of these, so we'll leave most of that undone (it's 4 a.m. as I write this). McCabe has blood-red carpet and an amazing Peace Collection. It has limitless cubicles and lounge chairs that demand to be slept in. It has the Tri-College Stack Guide and the ever-popular reserve readings. It looks like a fortress, could quite possibly withstand any kind of attack, and very well might be the safest place to run to (in the entire nation--it edges out NORAD by a small margin) in case of pending nuclear winter. Liberal Arts majors start having their mail delivered there. Cornell is the college's science library. It's a good one. Right. That description suffices.

Lamb-Miller Field House

The Field House is a large facility that houses the indoor track, free-weight and Nautilus rooms, wrestling room, basketball and volleyball courts, indoor tennis courts, coachs' offices, Sports Medicine and the infamous "ice bath", and locker rooms. It is hot and red. However, it does serve quite nicely to satisfy most of Swat's athletic needs...be they casual to intramural to the D-I caliber ***varsity teams*** (heh heh). It is open for general student use, and if one can avoid all the dogs running around, it's pretty easy to get a good workout.

Ware Pool

The home of Swat's very respectable Men's and Women's Swim teams is also possibly the coldest place on the planet. Every student visits Ware at least once to take the mandatory-for-graduation swimming test. If the student can't swim 100 yards and tread a bit of water, he or she is enrolled in Aquatics I and gets to spend a semester in the company of Sue Davis--Swat's swim coach--a unique honor and pleasure otherwise reserved for the amnesiac masochists who make up Swat's varsity swim teams. Like Lamb-Miller, it is open for student and faculty use, though with more limited hours.

Friends' Meeting House

Swarthmore has a Quaker tradition that, while not active (the college is not affiliated in any way with any Church), is still quite popular. The Friends' Meeting House is a small meeting hall that is opened for weekly Sunday Services (in the Friends' open-speaking tradition) as well as special occasions.