The day after Fitzgerald attempted suicide, her friends who had gone to the emergency room with her that night received an email from the Dean’s Office. Somehow, the deans had acquired a list of all of Fitzgerald’s friends who had visited her in the ER. The email told Fitzgerald’s friends that they would face legal repercussions if they spoke about her suicide attempt with anyone.

While Fitzgerald believes that the motivations behind this email were intended to protect her confidentiality, ensuring that information about her suicide attempt would be hers to disclose, the wording of the message frightened her friends. When Fitzgerald’s friends told her about the contents of the email, she felt silenced.

“It kind of made me feel like what happened was something I should be ashamed of and that I shouldn’t talk about,” she said. Fitzgerald doesn’t think that this was the intended message, but the wording of the email strongly suggested this silencing, shaming motivation.

The email incident, in which Fitzgerald was made to feel by administrators that she should be ashamed, guilty, and silent about her suicide attempt last November, is emblematic of the way in which administrators dealt with Fitzgerald and her struggles with mental health issues.

Following her suicide attempt, Fitzgerald left campus for the rest of the semester. Towards the end, at the beginning of December, Fitzgerald began to speak with several deans about returning for the spring semester. First, she met with Director of Counseling and Psychological Services David Ramirez, who Fitzgerald said was nothing but helpful.

Next, Fitzgerald had to meet with her class dean. She said that it seemed as though the Dean’s Office strongly opposed scheduling the meeting. Fitzgerald was told multiple times that the deans were extremely busy and might not be able to meet with her until the beginning of the next semester. Fitzgerald resisted and continued to push for a meeting because she wanted to sort out her housing situation and find out when she would be able to return to campus.

While delaying the meeting further, the deans also told Fitzgerald that they were not only busy, but that other students were in similar situations.

“I was kind of uncomfortable with them just offhandedly sharing that information,” Fitzgerald recounted. “They obviously didn’t tell me the name of the student or anything, but for how obsessive they were about confidentiality with my friends it was kind of strange, and they were almost kind of joking about it.”

Additionally, the way in which the deans spoke about her experience and that of the other student made Fitzgerald feel as though she and other students with mental health problems were a burden on the administrators.

Fitzgerald also grappled with a lack of clarity in her attempts to return to campus. Once she was finally able to schedule the meetings, the deans wanted to know exactly when Fitzgerald would be on campus. She was not permitted to return to her room or to stay in the room of one of her friends.

“It wasn’t really clear to me why that was. They just said that they didn’t feel comfortable with my staying on campus at that time, and that I had to stay off campus in a hotel with one of my parents,” Fitzgerald explained.

While she is sure that her inability to stay on campus was due to issues beyond the control of administrators, possibly related to liability, none of this was explained or made clear to her. Fitzgerald felt rejected by the campus.

“It kind of made me feel like I wasn’t welcome back at that point,” she said.

This unwelcoming feeling only grew after Fitzgerald’s meeting with her class dean. At the end of the meeting, the dean told Fitzgerald to remember that her friends were people too, and that her problems could sometimes be difficult for them.

“I understand what she was trying to say — I think she meant to say your friends should have support too, but that’s not what she said,” Fitzgerald said.

“Then she said — I remember this phrase very clearly — ‘Remember that your actions have impact on other people in the community,’ which made me feel really guilty and ashamed of my suicide attempt,” Fitzgerald remembered.

She felt like she was a burden on others and upsetting to other people, which, Fitzgerald thinks, is probably the number one thing which psychologists would not recommend telling someone with suicidal tendencies.

Fitzgerald’s dean also told her that she wanted to have weekly meetings throughout the spring semester, to check in on Fitzgerald and see how she was doing. The dean has not contacted Fitzgerald once this semester. While Fitzgerald didn’t necessarily want to speak to the dean again, she was troubled by this response, and does not feel as though the administration has reached out either to her, or to the rest of the student body, to discuss issues of mental health.

“It’s upsetting, because unfortunately I don’t think I’m going to be the last student who has a similar experience,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald has spoken with several other students who left campus for a semester or a year and had an extremely difficult time convincing administrators that they should be allowed to return to campus. She feels that the administration’s protocol for dealing with issues of mental health and its communication with students returning from leaves of absence, could drastically improve.

“Hearing about those stories and reflecting on my own story, it just kind of feels like the administration is probably inadvertently sending the message that mental health issues shouldn’t be discussed, and people with mental health issues aren’t really welcome,” Fitzgerald said.

This is especially upsetting to Fitzgerald due to the fact that a large proportion of college-age students suffer from various mental health issues, exacerbated by the transition to college and the difficulty of creating a new social support system. Fitzgerald believes it would be beneficial for the administration to foster a greater number of conversations about mental health, acknowledging mental health as a problem and providing support for community members.

“A lot of the time, it doesn’t turn into a suicide attempt,” Fitzgerald explained. “In severe cases it does, but most of the time if friends and supporters intervene before it gets to that point it can make a world of difference.”

In addition to fostering openness and discussion, Fitzgerald wishes that in her case, the administration had attempted more supportive communication with her friends.

“I think it would’ve really helped my friends because obviously it was a tough time for them too,” Fitzgerald reflected, adding that she was not the only one affected by her depression or her suicide attempt. “It would’ve been really helpful for them to have felt like they were able to go to the deans or been able to talk about what was going on.”

Fitzgerald also wished that the policies about returning or staying on campus for students on leaves of absence were more clear. Finally, she wished that her conversation with her class dean had been more supportive.

“I wish that she hadn’t said some things which focused on the repercussions of my suicide attempt, rather than why it happened or how [the administration] could support me when I came back,” Fitzgerald said.

In terms of how Swarthmore’s culture affected her experience with mental health issues, Fitzgerald believes there could be more openness about struggling with mental health issues on the part of not only the administration but also the student body.

Fitzgerald had a great deal of trouble with being open about her problems. While she knew that her friends wanted to be there for her, and would try to get her to talk, because they could sense that something was off, she found herself unable to open up. Fitzgerald believes that this is partially due to the environment in which she was raised, but also to Swarthmore’s misery-poker-focused culture.

“If someone talks to you about anxiety, I think a lot of times the instinct reaction is to say, ‘Well, I have a lot of stuff going on, too,’” Fitzgerald said. “A lot of people will misinterpret someone saying that they’re stressed as someone trying to play misery poker.” Fitzgerald also believes that there is a great deal of internal pressure at Swarthmore to present oneself as organized and in control of their academic and social situations.

“I feel like there’s just kind of an expectation that you can get done everything that you need to get done, so it was hard to have to say, I can’t do this on my own, there’s something wrong, and I don’t know to fix it, and I was never really able to say that,” Fitzgerald said.

Because her depression was so severe, Fitzgerald is unsure whether her experience would have been different at another school, as she thinks there is a large biological component to her mental health issues.

“It might have been easier for me to ask for help in a different environment, but I’m not sure that any other college I’ve heard about has a much more open environment, at least when it comes to mental health,” Fitzgerald reflected, adding that this silence around mental health problems is not confined to colleges but pervades the culture of the rest of society as well.

On April 18, Fitzgerald published an opinion piece in The Daily Gazette, in which she shed light on her experiences struggling with depression and anxiety and recounted the events leading up to her suicide attempt. Following her piece, old friends from high school and fellow Swarthmore students flooded Fitzgerald’s email and Facebook inboxes with messages of support and solidarity. Nearly every message Fitzgerald received was from someone who had been through similar experiences, not necessarily with suicide attempts but with depression and anxiety.

“It was just kind of shocking how many people kind of came out of the woodwork,” Fitzgerald said. While Fitzgerald was happy that others shared their stories with her, she was floored by the number of those who had had similar experiences. “There are just so many more people struggling than I think any of us realize,” she said.

Fitzgerald was thanked for her piece and told many times that she was extremely brave. While she was happy that many people connected with her story, she wishes that her actions — speaking openly about her own experiences instead of choosing to be silent or ashamed — weren’t so out of the ordinary.

“One of my goals in publishing my story was that in the future it doesn’t have to be such a brave act to speak out about struggling with depression or struggling with anything,” she concluded.

“College is a communal environment,” said Beth Kotarski, director of student health services, “when you have all of these students who eat, sleep, and play together, you see a lot of illnesses passed around.”

The most common reason for a visit, however, is an upper respiratory infection, also known as the common cold, or mononucleosis, an infection of the immune system more colloquially known as mono that can cause fatigue, sore throat and swollen lymph nodes.

“College and mono kind of go hand in hand,” said Kotarski. She also noted that the disease is not always passed around very easily, although it is not difficult to spread to someone with a depressed immune system, like a college student.

According to Kotarski, two of the biggest contributors to a weakened immune system are lack of sleep and alcohol abuse. A drink or two on occasion will not lead to a depressed immune system but consistent binge drinking has been shown to increase a person’s risk of contracting infectious disease. Sleep acts as a regenerative tool, allowing the body to heal and maintain a high level of antibodies and infection-fighting cells.

“I think the chronic problem is lack of sleep,” said Kotarski, who also mentioned that when they tell students they need more sleep, “they look at us and roll their eyes.” The Wellness Center, in fact, has a program dedicated to helping students fit good sleep into their lives.

“It breaks my heart when I talk to students and they aren’t getting enough sleep,” said Satya Nelms, wellness coordinator for health services. But of academic life, social life, personal hygiene, and sleep, students often sacrifice the latter in order to spend more time focusing on the former.

“The easiest thing to do is to maximize sleep that you are already getting rather than trying to squeeze in more time for sleep,” said Nelms, who added that trying to find more time can often increase stress levels, further detracting from a good night’s rest. Nelms recommended that students develop a routine before they go to bed that allows their minds to slow down and their bodies to recognize it is time for sleep. This routine can involve deep breathing, meditation, or non-academic reading, but should exclude extensive use of technology like phones or computers. She also recommended that students aim for a gentle wake up, allowing some time to breathe before getting out of bed and avoiding hitting the snooze button repeatedly.

According to Nelms, napping can also be useful at getting some extra rest, if done properly. Naps are best if they last between thirty and sixty minutes, and end at least four hours before one plans on going to bed. A nap under thirty minutes probably will not be very restful, and a nap over an hour could interfere with one’s sleep cycle later that night.

Nelms also cautioned against extensive caffeine use, warning of the adverse effects of caffeine if consumed within three hours of bedtime. She noted that this number varies person to person, and some people may need to leave a six hour window between the last capuccino and lights out.

Fortunately, one of the most useful wellness techniques is also the easiest.

“I think it’s very important for students to remember to breathe,” said Nelms, who urged students to take the time everyday to observe the campus, take deep breaths and be present.

Being young and tech-savvy also provides an advantage to college students that wish to be healthier.

“Young folks for the most part are very resilient,” said Kotarski. “I think students are more aware of health issues today.” Kotarski attributes this fact to the availability of medical information online (which is not always a good thing) but has helped students better understand their prognoses. “When I first started, students wanted an antibiotic for everything,” said Kotarski, but now they understand that that treatment is not always so conducive to a healthy lifestyle.

Kotarski had advice for students as finals approach to help them deal with the high-stress, low-sleep weeks, “It’s really important to give yourself permission to shut the books, even for just ten minutes, and take a break.”

For SPJP, the purpose of the project was to raise awareness about a less discussed aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ahmad Ammous ’13, a member of SPJP, elaborated on the importance of the project.

“When most people think of the conflict, they think of war, bombings and killings,” he said. “Most people don’t know about the daily obstacles and struggles the conflict brings into citizen’s lives. The project aimed to introduce the campus to the reality of everyday life for most Palestinians, and I thought it did a good job at delivering that message.”

For Ammous, the issues surrounding the wall are not simply political, they are also rooted in personal experience. When living in the West Bank, he used to experience the checkpoints on a daily basis, and his father still has to cross a checkpoint every morning on his way to work.

“I was excited for a project that would be able to communicate the reality of that situation to my fellow Swatties,” he said. “Judging from the reaction of most students I talked to, they were grateful about what they learned for the project.”

Shaban, who was also integrally involved in the project, said that his personal goal was to try to get people to pause and think about what it’s like to not be able to get where you want to go, and to be blocked on a regular basis.

“In June I went through Kalandia, the largest and most difficult checkpoint of them all,” he said. “As American citizens, my family and I were allowed relatively breezy entry, though we were still hassled, because the guards knew we were Palestinian. I walked by hundreds of people on their way to work, to prayer, to life, stuck in the traffic. Some people had been waiting for hours; most had a few hours wait to see if they would be let through, and many would not.”

Shaban cited a particular conversation with Jewish Student Advisor Kelilah Miller as influential and important for explaining why he was so devoted to the cause.

“She asked, ‘With what understanding do you base your simulation of an IDF soldier at a checkpoint?’ Primarily, I try to use my own experience and those experiences of my family and friends. I supplement this with another source, the views of the soldiers themselves.”

A few months ago J Street [the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans fighting for the future of Israel as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people] managed to bring Oded Naaman, a former IDF soldier, to speak to speak at Swarthmore about of his experiences.

“He described to us the psychology of the checkpoint, saying essentially that ‘you can do whatever you want, whatever you feel like doing,’” Shaban said. “‘If you feel there’s a problem with what [a Palestinian has] done, if you feel something’s wrong, even the slightest thing, you can detain him for as long as you want.’”

Miller was impressed with Shaban and others for the transparency and provocativeness of the project. She also thought that the SPJP was very communicative about their plans for their week of events.

For her, the wall installation and the surrounding events represented the opportunity to raise profound issues of identity and community, issues that have particular significance to the Jewish community at Swarthmore and Jewish communities worldwide.

“The installation generated energy among students coming from a variety of backgrounds and political perspectives, including students who do not typically engage with questions of Jewish self-determination and self-sovereignty, personal Jewish identity, Jewish values and ethical responsibilities, and global Jewish community,” she said.

Miller, though, believes that SPJP, as an advocacy organization, has a different obligation than she does. For her, their obligation is to present the Palestinian cause in as persuasive a way as possible, sharply and convincingly. She, however, views the project as a somewhat narrow interpretation of a series of very complex issues, and would have personally presented them in a different manner.

“From my perspective as a Jew and in my role as a religious adviser, I would naturally present the issues in a different frame, and in a different style,” she said. “Were I telling the story of the separation barrier, I would have both the inclination and the obligation to broaden the lens to the larger context, including different Israeli experiences of the conflict, and different understandings of the impact that the barrier has had on the lives of Israelis who are faced with choices that are hard to comprehend from where we sit in North America.  I would talk about my time in Israel and in Palestine, and the variety of (often paradoxical) perspectives that I encountered there.”

Not all students were convinced by the motives of the protest, or moved positively.

Izzy Kornblatt ’16 pointed to the demonstration’s lack of explanation for the wall’s aptitude as a defense mechanism for Israelis from Palestinian suicide bombers.

“A criticism of the wall, such as this protest, ignores the wall’s success in stopping suicide bombings,” he said. “The issue deserves better treatment than this. It deserves real arguments that take all factors into account, not just an emotional appeal to how cruel barriers feel.”

Kornblatt also cited an article written by Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic  in a February 15th edition of the publication. In it, Wieseliter asserts that critics of the checkpoints do not take into account what he believes would happen otherwise.

“A wall between peoples is an ugly thing,” Wieseliter wrote. But he says the alternative is worse. “A massacre—and a strategy of massacre—is even uglier.”

With the campus abuzz on these topics, a discussion was held on Friday, April 26th to discuss the wall, and various other Israeli-Palestinian issues. The meeting was facilitated by Director of the Intercultural Center Alina Wong and Professor of Religion Elliot Ratzman. Miller, the Jewish faith advisor, who was unable to attend the discussion, believes that the dialogue that has taken place in response to the wall has generally been productive, and that students ought to voice their opinions freely.

“It is up to those students who wish to advocate for other positions regarding Israel and Palestine to present their narratives passionately and respectfully,” she said. “In good faith and without apology.”

I made my pilgrimage to the Frick specifically now because the museum was advertising an exhibit called “Piero della Francesca in America,” and as a Renaissance art buff, I knew that I would likely not have another chance to see works by this artist outside of Italy.  Piero della Francesca, one of the masters of the early Italian Renaissance, is known for his serene, meditative, enigmatic compositions and his mathematical use of perspective.  I could hardly contain my excitement as I found my way along 5th Avenue and entered the museum.

While the collection of works is unexpectedly and undeniably fantastic for its small size, my experience at the Frick was ultimately underwhelming.  I viewed the Piero della Francesca exhibit as well as the Frick’s permanent collection, but my enjoyment of the extraordinary works on display was severely diminished by the layout and organization of the collection.

“Piero della Francesca in America” was a smaller and ultimately less ideal exhibit than I anticipated.  Consisting of seven works from various American collections as well as one from Lisbon, the exhibit was focused specifically on recreating, in a sense, the Sant’Agostino Altarpiece, a multi-panel work dating from 1459-69.

Painted for an Augustinian church in Borgo San Sepulchro, the various panels from the now-divided altarpiece depicted individual saints as well as the likely centerpiece, “Virgin and Child Enthroned with Angels.” The gravity and solemnity of the “Virgin and Child,” with its monumental-seeming figures and hushed reverence, was the highlight of the show.  The various works were hung around the Oval Room, along with a computer reconstruction of where these works would have gone in the original altarpiece, crowning the visual experience.  Unfortunately, this exhibit does not really delve into what made Piero so revolutionary and innovative. The majority of the works are small panels with flat backgrounds that do not demonstrate his unique use of space and perspective.

The Frick Collection’s Oval Room is behind the “Garden Court,” an atrium with an indoor fountain and reflecting pool.  It normally holds several works in the permanent collection and is connected to not only the atrium but also to the East and West Galleries.

Why is its location and layout important?  Because unfortunately, due to the open nature of the Oval Room, with its multiple entrances and exits and plethora of foot traffic, the setting for viewing Piero’s works was less than ideal.  With the noise from the substantial number of people going through the Oval Room to get from the East Gallery to the West Gallery to the Garden Court and vice versa, along with the echoing noise from the water in the Garden and the noise from people talking, really took away from the experience of seeing the works by Piero della Francesca.  As a museum lover, I understood the exhibition directors’ goals of increasing foot traffic, and thus interest, in this showing of an artist who lacks the clout with laymen of a Leonardo da Vinci or a Claude Monet.  But Piero’s works seem best observed in a quiet, plain space without outside noise and other distraction.  To exacerbate this problem, the room decor, with its deep green wallpaper and gold molding, takes away from the serenity and calmness of the paintings. It almost drowns them out and transforms what should be a spiritual experience into a pedestrian series of moments.

The Frick Collection itself is, as I’ve stated, extraordinary for its size.  Several of the great masters of European painting are represented, with names like Velazquez, Rembrandt, Turner, Van Dyck, and even Veronese and Vermeer making me continuously turn my head in wonderment.  However, the power of the collection of paintings is ultimately diminished by the way they are organized and laid out throughout the building.  In the East Gallery, I was surprised by the museum’s choice to display a breezy French 19th-century Renoir impressionist painting of a woman and children on the same wall as a dramatically tense Spanish 16th-century El Greco painting of a religious scene.  As I moved along the room and into the West Gallery, my confusion grew.  The Frick Collection does not appear to be organized with a sense of rhyme or reason.  The rooms are not divided by style, time period, provenance, or even subject matter.  There is nothing uniting a 17th-century Flemish Van Dyck portrait and a 19th-century Turner landscape, but at the Frick, they appear side by side in the West Gallery.  In the same room, two huge Venetian Renaissance canvases by Veronese are only a wall away from a Caravaggesque painting from the circle of Georges de la Tour, which were likely painted almost a century apart and in different countries and styles.  A rare Vermeer gem dating from the 17th century, “Lady with her Maidservant Holding a Letter” hangs almost in a corner right next to a Mannerist Bronzino portrait painted in the 1500s. These are only a few examples of the Frick’s curious methods of display and they are only a part of my issue with my experience at the Frick.

To further compound the problems with display, the decor of the vast majority of the rooms in the building threatens to overwhelm the beauty of the works contained within.  The West Gallery is particularly notable in this respect, as the astounding works of art are almost drowned out by the thick pool-table green carpet, the richness of the wallpaper, the wood paneling and the gold-flecked moldings, as well as by the presence of the ornate furniture and small bronze sculptures placed without context right below a work of art.  Fortunately, the paintings are all labeled in their frames and none are hung too high above eye level.

This problem with context and display is taken to its apex in the Living Hall.  I almost gasped aloud at the Bellini masterpiece hung amidst heavy green wallpaper and various distracting furniture, with sunlight streaming in through an open window and reflecting off the surface of the panel.  The work itself, a Renaissance Venetian jewel glowing with color, was completely devoured and swallowed by the liveliness of its surroundings and the dimness of the lighting in the room.  It is hard to appreciate the beauty of the painting.  I could only imagine what the prolonged sun exposure could have done to this fine painting. The issue of context is particularly present in the display of this work, which depicts Saint Francis overcome with rapture.  As it was likely originally painted to adorn a chapel or church, it thus seems extremely out of place in a decidedly opulent home.  Some reference to the original dignity of the surroundings, or at least a setting that did not render the work easily unnoticeable, would have vastly improved the display.

Fortunately, the Library and Dining Room offer a high point amidst some of the surrounding chaos.  These rooms seem united in their extensive collection of fine British art, the portraits mainly by Reynolds and Gainsborough, with a remarkable Stuart of President Washington. While it is difficult to see how a work with religious themes meshes well with the interior decorations of a rich man’s home, portraits do not suffer similarly, because most homes have portraits of some kind or another hanging on their walls.  The landscapes in the Library and Dining room, also by British painters like Gainsborough, also fit in well.  Here the green wallpaper and lavish furniture serve not as distractions, but as lovely complements to the works on display.

Another pleasing display can be found in the Fragonard and Boucher rooms.  I breathed in a sigh of relief as I took in the sweet Rococo works complemented by pale pastel walls and golden details, all of which absolutely suit the works on display.  The Fragonard room is especially successful because the light and frivolous canvases are large enough to cover most of the walls in the room, and because ornamented furniture and the aforementioned wall decorations interact well with the paintings, creating two small oases of rosy pinks, sky blues and puffy clouds.

More confusion abounds, however, in the Anteroom and in the Enamel room.  These two rooms are located at almost opposite ends of the museum, but both display chronologically and thematically similar early religious Medieval, Gothic and Renaissance works, from Italy and from elsewhere, including the Netherlands.  I wonder why these works are not organized, if not in the same room, then in at least adjacent rooms, to create some sense of cohesion while walking through the museum.  The Frick Collection has several marvelous paintings in these two rooms, including tiny panels by Simone Martini, Duccio di Buoninsegna, and Gentile da Fabriano in the Enamel Room and Fra Filippo Lippi and Jan van Eyck’s workshop in the Anteroom.  Each room is tastefully decorated, with only wood paneling on the walls and a dim atmosphere that seems to benefit these religious works.

Moving through the various passageways that connect the main rooms of the Frick Collection, I was also disappointed by the quality of works left to hang without emphasis in these hallways.  A tender marble bust of a young girl by Andrea del Verrocchio, who taught Leonardo da Vinci, sits on a pedestal in a hallway and seems, based on where it is exhibited,  barely to be worth a second glance.  I was also particularly surprised by the placement of two Vermeer works in a hallway, flanking a large landscape by a lesser-known artist.  Why were these Vermeer paintings not located anywhere near the Vermeer in the West Gallery?

The Frick Collection is clearly arranged according to the flow of the fine house where it is located, rather than the organization of a museum, which I believe detracts from the appreciation of the works themselves.   The level of idiosyncrasy in the display of the paintings, as well as the furniture and sculptures, serves to overwhelm the viewer visually and ends up lessening the impact of the individual masterpieces.

I walked away from the Frick Collection with the impression that the museum and the organization of the masterpieces within serve more to advertise the great taste, wealth and largesse of the Frick family, than to focus on the actual great works themselves.  In spite of the disappointing display of the works, however, a visit to this collection is still worthwhile because of the masterpieces themselves.

“On the Road: The Original Scroll” (2007, 408 pgs) by Jack Kerouac.  

Not necessarily a brave pick for summer reading fodder, but there’s a reason it’s a classic of the microgenre: few other novels as well utilize the road novel as a form for expressing the soul-searching and identity transformation of early adulthood.

Since one of the book’s strengths is its unadulterated, raw expression, the Original Scroll manuscript released by Viking Press in 2007 is the novel’s ideal form.  A facsimile of the infamous “scroll” Kerouac created by taping together typewritten pages into one long document, this version maintains the carnal energy of Kerouac’s prose and uses the real-life names of characters like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs before they were replaced with pseudonyms in the final edition.

“The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” (1967, 416 pgs) by Tom Wolfe.

A free-wheeling escapade of what would be called New Journalism, Wolfe’s non-fiction account of the adventures of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters as they pioneered their decade’s notions of counter-culture and experimented with LSD has all the youthful joie de vivre that makes for a raucous beach book.  It thrums with much of the same energy as Kerouac’s “On the Road”, but Wolfe’s outsider perspective gives the book a sober tone that questions whether these people he’s following have really discovered an empowering lifestyle, or have simply lost their minds.

“Leaving the Atocha Station” (2011, 181 pgs) by Ben Lerner.

Ben Lerner is the future.  For a while it looked as if “Shoplifting from American Apparel” author Tao Lin would be leading of any literary movement that would continue in Don DeLillo’s thematic footsteps, but it’s now clear that Lerner will be the leading light of the imnevitable next literary school intent on explaining our hyper-cultured, self-referential, internet-addicted society to itself.  A coming of age novella, “Leaving the Atocha Station” is a based on Lerner’s time in Madrid on a Fulbright as the young author fails to do any research or write much poetry. Instead he spends his time loafing through museums and lingering in unsuccessful romantic affairs. A bombing of the eponymous train station brings the novella to a nuanced examination of terrorism heavily informed by DeLillo, but. with Lerner’s dreamy touch.   The novella’s best section­—a tragic story told through GChat conversation— is a seemingly cloying premise instead realized with poignancy.  Its overlapping segments of text underscore the novel’s larger mediations on the unseen drawbacks of electronic communication and the modern disconnect that spills from all of Lerner’s prose.

In addition to his prose work, Lerner is also a National Book Award-nominated poet who uses his verse to explore many of the same themes present in “Atocha Station.” The best of his three collections is “Mean Free Path”  (2010, pgs 69). Its poems are complicated, weaving together disparate strands of culture and ideology, but that’s not important.  First and foremost Lerner’s verse is stunning, slamming you in the chest with the tongue of revelation.  You don’t need to understand every line to feel the thrum of his language and be diminished to awe.

-Taylor Hodges, Living & Arts Editor

“The Way of Ignorance and Other Essays” (2005, 180 pgs) by Wendell Berry.

Read Berry’s poetry, too.  He is an agrarian writer whose environmentalism is heavily grounded in an awareness of local culture and geography.  He’s challenging for all of us in part because he is a traditionalist whose conservatism becomes a radically progressive critique of our current systems of production and social organization. And he is a bracing writer. Berry would be great reading for the summer if you are taking a little time off to think.  And if you are heading “home,” wherever “home” is, it might be a good time to think about how your environment shapes you.

-Professor Nora Johnson

“The Yellow Birds” (2005, 180 pgs) by Kevin Powers.  

I don’t know his work but I’ve read it’s the best war novel since O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” (which I’ve taught and admire) so I want to check this out as we enter the so-called post-Iraq and post-Afgan war era without actually coming to terms with what has happened in either country due to our interventions then and now.

“Americanah” (to be released May 14, 2013, 496 pgs) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

I admire and have taught her short stories and her TED talk on the “danger of a single story,” so I want to check out her new novel set in Nigeria, London, and New York; it’s gotten stellar reviews.  I’d like to compare it to Zadie Smith’s “NW”, which I also hope to read.

“People of Paper” (2005, 256 pgs) by Salvador Plascencia.

This first novel by a young Chicano author has been recommended to me by two friends of mine on the Swarthmore faculty who’ve taught it, Braulio Muñoz and Luciano Martínez, so I want to turn to it this summer.  It’s experimental and metaphysical as well as many other things, comic and macabre, in the great tradition of Latin Am fiction; it also from what I can tell very much intervenes in current U.S. discourse using terms like “documentation,” “illegality,” “alien,” etc.  I want to read more Bolaño too….

“Anansi Boy” (2005, 336 pgs) by Neil Gaiman.  

The 2008 sequel to “American Gods”, so you know I’m there, though I’m a little late to the party and it’s gotten mixed reviews.

-Professor Peter Schmidt

“Tenth of December” (2013, 251 pgs) by George Saunders.

By now surely everybody has encountered at least one article about George Saunders’ latest collection of stories, and some have concluded perhaps that it surely cannot be that good. But guess what? It is that good. Here a twisted pharmaceutical test slides into nightmare; the comedic inner voices of children belie stunning external dramas; the American Dream, stripped bare, reveals only deranged competitive vacuity. And I’ve barely scratched the collective surface, beneath which lies such compassion for our various sins that to read George Saunders is to be amazed and blessed.

-Professor Gregory Frost

Both Swarthmore tennis teams earned spots in the Centennial Conference playoffs by virtue of their impressive regular seasons. The women blew through the Centennial Conference in the regular season, winning their first nine matches before falling Saturday to Johns Hopkins. Meanwhile, the men’s team earned the Conference’s number four seed.

The women’s team thoroughly dominated throughout much of the season, winning five of their ten Conference matches in shutout fashion, 9-0. The team will play host to Dickinson in Saturday’s semifinal.

Swarthmore had little trouble with the Red Devils the last time the two teams met, winning 9-0 on April 20. The Garnet won several close matches that day, especially in doubles play. Both the No. 1 doubles team of Emily Rosenblum ’13 and Lia Carlson ’14, and the No. 2 doubles team of Katie Samuelson ’14 and Brooke Wilkins ‘14 for the Garnet won their matches 8-6. Stephanie Chia ’13 and Epiphany English ’14 also earned a doubles victory, winning 8-4.

In singles play, Carlson, Rosenblum, Chia and Samuelson all won their matches, while Kelsey Johnson ’13 and Jackie Lane ’16 contributed victories as well. Johnson credited the team’s success in close matches to its commitment to supporting each other, saying that, “Our team has played very well under pressure and has supported each other during tough matches. Having three teammates cheering loudly behind your court can really make a difference”.

While Swarthmore’s season was highlighted by its nine game Conference winning streak, Johnson cited a nonconference win, against The College of New Jersey, as having “helped propel us through the rest of the season”. The win came on April 7 by a score of 5-4 over the then-undefeated Lions, and it instilled an attitude in the Garnet that no match could ever be out of reach. Swarthmore trailed 3-0 after doubles before rallying, winning its final four matches to stun TCNJ. Carlson, Rosenblum, Johnson, Chia and Gayatri Iyengar ’15 were victorious for the Garnet in a win that gave the team the confidence to compete against any opponent.

If Swarthmore wins its match on Saturday, it will likely travel to top-seeded Johns Hopkins for Sunday’s final. The Blue Jays handed Swarthmore its only loss of the season, by a score of 9-0, and the Garnet will look to pull the upset and advance on to the NCAA Tournament.

On the men’s side, Swarthmore battled through injuries and a tough Centennial Conference schedule, posting a 6-3 record. Swarthmore hosted fifth-seeded Ursinus on Wednesday, with the winner traveling to play top-seeded Johns Hopkins on Saturday. Malik Mubeen ’13 said that the team looks forward to the challenge of a rematch with the Blue Jays, saying, “we want to dominate our first round match against Ursinus so we can earn another shot at Johns Hopkins in the next match”.

Although Swarthmore fell, 7-2 to the Blue Jays the last time the teams met, on March 30, Mubeen said, “we’re a different team now than when we played Hopkins a few weeks ago, so we’re looking forward to another potential matchup with them”. Mubeen stressed consistency, saying that, “the main thing we need to improve on is making sure we play consistent, complete matches. We have had a few flashes of brilliance this year that we want to try to channel into the conference tournament”.

Swarthmore’s most recent win came April 24 over Washington College, by a score of 9-0. As usual, Mubeen and James Wieler ’13 led Swarthmore with multiple wins. Anthony Collard ‘14 and Max Sacks ‘15 also won both their singles and doubles matches, while Max Kaye ’14, Christian Carcione ’14, Preston Poon ’14 and Irving Stone ’15 were victorious as well.

In order to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, Swarthmore will need to win all three of its playoff matches. Wieler, however, was undaunted by the challenge, saying that, “we control our own destiny. Win and you’re in.” Wieler also stressed the importance of winning doubles matches, saying that doing so “provides a huge momentum boost going into singles”. Despite being the number four seed, Swarthmore remains confident; Wieler said that, “over the past two years, our team has proven that we can beat any team on any given day when we are playing at our best”.

“The ambition of this club was presented to me by the chairman and the coach and I couldn’t have been more impressed. I have many dreams at QPR, to play well for the fans, the manager, the chairman and myself and eventually finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League, and then one day win the Premier League.” – Julio Cesar on joining QPR

At the beginning of the season I said this would happen. It was too obvious. Remember the Sven Goran Eriksson reign at Manchester City where he tried to buy a team that would get into the Champions League? The difference between his team and QPR’s is that he bought quality players at high prices while QPR just didn’t. It was written in the stars that QPR would be a failure this year: so many players claiming this was going to be a golden age, that the club was moving in an upward direction, nothing could stop them now. And with three games to go in the Premier League season they are down because they couldn’t even beat Reading when it mattered.

“QPR are a club that are certainly heading in the right direction. The ambition to take this Club to the next level was something I really wanted to be part of.” – Junior Hoilett talking about a dream he had, and now he knows the difference between dreams and reality

Not that I’m going to keep on kicking QPR while they are down, but it is worth analysing the wreckage of one of the biggest frauds of all time. QPR was one of the biggest let downs of the season as high spending usually equals some level of success rather than complete failure. A team that was able to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge should not be the same team that loses 9-1 overall against Swansea. Plainly there was some talent in this team but what happened to it?

“The club is getting bigger and bigger, with a new training ground and talk of a new stadium is very exciting. In the time I have been here, QPR’s ambition has changed. Nobody is speaking about what we can achieve but we really want to move up the Premier League.” – Adel Taarabt, where QPR’s early hopes were placed (foolishly)

There have been some suspiscions throughout the season that the assembled squad was there for reasons other than their desire to make QPR succeed. Money may have been a reason for why these players made the move to West London; it may have been considering the rumours that are going around about the wages being given to players. The best example of this is Jose Bosingwa who was being paid £65,000 per week and courted controversy throughout the season: the first incident involved him refusing to sit on the bench against the best team in London, Fulham, which led to Redknapp fining him two weeks wages and a desperate attempt to get organise quick sell (but nobody wanted those wages) and then last week where cameras caught him laughing on his way down the tunnel at the Madjeski Stadium having been relegated. Chris Samba is another great example: signed for £12m in January and being paid ~£100,000 per week he confessed this week that he “wasn’t prepared to come back to the Premier League” so in effect QPR were just throwing money at a problem, their defence, without properly considering how to fix the problem. Some clubs make bad buys (Arsenal comes to mind) and pay players much more than they are worth but for QPR to pick up almost a completely new team in a year and for all of those players to be overpaid, overrated, and underperform is an incredible feat. Their season has been very confusing, they all seemed to be having the same thoughts as Troy Barnes: “I like football but also I don’t.”

I thought I’d finish with my favourite quote that pretty much sums up QPR’s season. After Mark Hughes released himself from his contract with Fulham because he believed he was the cats pyjamas. After being rejected for the Chelsea job, the Aston Villa job and any other job that may have been open in any league anywhere he took the QPR job. Within less than a year he was sacked because QPR started the season with 4 draws and 8 losses. His objectives when taking over the club exemplify the weirdness that has gone on the past two years:

“Other situations and other opportunities I have had in the past, possibly prior to this role, have not matched that opportunity. That’s what I’m talking about when I talk about the ambition that I have and that this club has…We want to get to the point where we are consistently tough to beat and consistently in the top 10.”

]]> http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/hubris-and-soccer/feed/ 0 http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/handling-the-tsarnaevs/ http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/handling-the-tsarnaevs/#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 08:00:44 +0000 Aaron Kroeber http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/?p=8160 Sometimes, the systems that we love in theory seem objectionable when actually put to the test, and we let them slip and fall by the wayside. All too often, when it comes to criminal justice, we are over-eager to forget about our laws and principles in the name of vengeance. It’s easier to assume guilt from a suspect in a violent crime, easier to deny the convicted their rights in the name of security, easier to treat every suspect as an exception. Fortunately, sometimes we get things right.

The case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could have been another dark mark on our history, another case where our worst instincts could have gotten the better of us. From the calls on Fox News for Tsarnaev to be stripped of his citizenship, tortured, and tried by military tribunal, those instincts rang loud and clear. Plenty seemed hungry for blood.

Calmer heads do,however, sometimes prevail. That Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be tried in a civilian court should come as a surprise to no one, and so it’s alarming that there had to be any clarification at all. What about his crime would make it non-civilian? Accused mass-murderers, even bombers, have been tried in civilian courts before, their crimes do not mandate special treatment, and so it is unclear how Tsarnaev’s case is different. Somehow, the words ‘radical Islam’ changes.

This case could have been precedent-setting, a return to the worst of McCarthyism. Citizenship could have become conditional on behavior, civilians could have been subjected to military tribunals for certain crimes, and Islam could have been further demonized. Certainly that’s a goal that some still hold. But they have, for the moment, been defeated.

I’ve been disappointed in many ways by the way the US has handled accused terrorists, but this is not one of them. We killed Anwar al-Aulaqi, a US citizen, in a way that I find horrendously objectionable. We still have far too little oversight over drone strikes, as efficient and effective as they may be. Guantanamo is still open, more than five years after President Obama promised to have it closed. Our failures, as a nation, are many, and our leaders seem disinclined to do anything about it. But this time, on this one case, we haven’t failed.

If anything, this case has shown that our legal system can, and does, work. Already, three others possibly involved with the bombing have been arrested, all without violating Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s rights. It didn’t take torture, it didn’t even take circumventing Miranda. Civilian law enforcement is alive and well, and it can handle domestic crimes.

I hope this translates into better policies across the board, a real commitment to maintaining civil liberties. I doubt it will, but it at least isn’t a step in the other direction. There will still be a similar conversation any time a similar act of terror is committed, and Islamophobia will continue to run rampant, but at least things haven’t gotten worse in the legal system. Due process is still a guarantee, for American citizens at least.

The legal issues around this case may seem small in comparison to other egregious violations of basic liberties, but they are fundamental nonetheless. The objections to killing Americans abroad without trial, to the existence of Guantanamo and other CIA ‘black sites,’ and to torture emanate from our fundamental principles with regards to liberty. Protecting these liberties at every possible instance is absolutely necessary. Protecting them in more familiar situations, at home and in the courts, is necessary for us to project them into the unfamiliar, as in drone strikes in Yemen.

The demagoguery is far from over, even if it appears to be winding down in the Tsarnaev case. This fight will happen again and again; our liberties will continue to be tested. But it is a step. We faced a tragedy and refused to bend, refused to let it bring out our inner demons. An act of terror failed to cause chaos, we’ve shown that it could be contained by our criminal justice system. Liberty and security have been shown to be compatible. By respecting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s rights, by treating him as the American that he is, we’ve shown that our systems, of rights and of law, are stronger than his terror. This has been a victory for our laws and our legal framework, one that we shouldn’t forget.

This phrase, the mantra of a “lifer” at Graterford Prison Michael Lions, framed the closing ceremony of Associate Professor of Political Science Keith Reeves’ course The Politics of Punishment. Featuring the candid testimonies of ex-convicts Tyrone Werts and KJ, Reeves “could not see a more fitting ending to the course” than “hearing from those who have been inside the prison system.” Their testimonies, however, were complex counter-narratives: Tyrone and KJ highlighted their victimization to the “politics of punishment” as much as they unexpectedly depicted prison as a transformative and redemptive space. Seated in a circle in Bond Memorial Hall, Tyrone and KJ also demystified the image of the black male “criminal,” humanizing the people these 16 Swarthmore students had only ever debated as numerical statistics or subjects in theoretical studies.

Werts, an agreeable, eloquent and mature man with salt-and-pepper hair, a beige suit and a cast foot, is often mistaken for a judge, he explains. Under his warm smile and fancy clothes lies a darker story, the story of a man who has to work every day to walk the straight and narrow.

“If the cops get a call that a six-foot-tall black male has robbed 7-11 and I happen to be walking nearby, they will look at me and think ‘well, I don’t think he did it!’” he explained jokingly. “I even use debit cards to keep a record of where I have been,” he said, and he makes it a point to speak with every cashier he comes in contact with.

Despite his light demeanor, what Werts is hinting at is not at all funny; instead, it’s the unfortunate truth of the difficulty ex-convicts face upon reentry. After serving 37 years at Graterford Correctional Facility for being present during an armed robbery that resulted in a murder, Werts is haunted by the prospect of losing his newfound liberty.

Convicted as part of a deal that granted the mastermind behind the robbery a lesser sentence for ratting out the others, Werts refused to take a plea bargain that, in exchange for his confession, would have only required him to serve 8 years in prison.

“How could I plead guilty to a murder when I didn’t kill anybody?” Tyrone asked his audience. Married, 23 years old and bitter, Tyrone began his long and dismal sentence in ‘74 — mandatory life without parole — at Graterford.

At a second-grade reading level at 23 years old, Tyrone is the son of two “good” parents. God-fearing people, they raised him in Philadelphia and attempted to instil in him Christian values. Growing up in the thick of the civil rights, black power and anti-war movements, however, Werts became militant and found in the streets a reprieve from the repression he felt at home. Meeting the wrong people for the wrong reasons landed Werts in prison. Smoking marijuana and drinking, he spent his first days in prison with an altered mind.

However, he cited two events on Monday that he claims got him out of jail. The first, a compassionate man who pushed Werts to pursue a GED program, despite his low test scores on the mandated prison evaluation exams. Noticing his “above-average IQ,” Mr. Bello enrolled him in a night course and mentored him, completely reversing the humiliation Werts felt as a child growing up in elementary school, when one teacher told him he could never be an astronomer because he was “too dumb.” After receiving the highest score on his GED exam ever recorded, the “proudest moment of his life,” Werts went on to get his Bachelor’s Degree at Villanova while still incarcerated.

The second event was the pestering of another “lifer” who introduced him to leadership seminars taking place within the prison. Finding this lifers’ advice  to “consider creating a great life” for himself while there “oxymoronic,” Werts eventually heeded it and his identity changed.

“I had an epiphany. I was so focused on myself that I didn’t even think of the pain my family and the victim’s family was feeling,” Werts said. Taking “responsibility for my own life,” Werts became president of a leadership group in prison. The relationships he fostered within the prison and with government officials contributed to his appeals being heard and his eventual release from the place he thought he would die in. Describing coming home as “bittersweet,” Werts acknowledged those men who mentored him and who he believes deserved to be let out more than he did.

KJ, a 33 year-old, first time offender, was released this September after serving a 40-month sentence for the possession with intent to sell of 60 grams of marijuana.  KJ described himself as the kind of student who was underwhelmed by school, smart but lacking motivation.

“Teachers would tell me, ‘you would get all As if you only did your hw” he explained.

Having lost both of his parents at the age of 6 — his mother committed suicide — KJ was practically raised by his grandmother, who kept him in church. Through his involvement in the church, he discovered his natural talent for the arts, namely acting and music. As a member in plays and on the church choir, KJ began to play the drums, saxophone, clarinet and eventually piano.

His problems began in college. Free of his grandmother’s influence, KJ delved into drugs, making friends with “everybody,” regardless of race. Once out of college, a full-blown marijuana addict, KJ began selling. Using his natural knack for business, KJ approached selling in a professional way, adopting a set of “ethics” with his clients.

One day, his “lucrative” business was cut short. An acquaintance, a Caucasian male, was arrested for suspected involvement in drug distribution. Agreeing to a plea bargain, this man made KJ out to be a “big-time distributor.” When sentenced, KJ was flabbergasted. Comparing his sentence to the case that followed his, namely that of a Caucasian, rich Swarthmore resident with a high-power attorney who received two years for possessing 2 acres of marijuana, KJ felt racially profiled.

While at first frustrated with his arrest, KJ made no excuses. Upon being released, KJ sometimes missed the cell. There, he challenged his own “preconceived notion of what criminals are,” played a lot of chess (the game the “wise” inmates were playing), and sharpened his reading skills, especially with Frederick Douglass’ work. Being incarcerated also brought him in contact with Professor Reeves and the greater Swarthmore community, a relationship he treasures. For KJ, jail was predominantly a cathartic experience: “my body was locked in, but my mind was free.”

What threads both of these men’s testimonies together is the difficulty of re-entering after incarceration and the systematic problems they see within the criminal justice system. Questioning the usefulness of arbitrary mandatory minimums for certain crimes, life without parole as a sentence, biased sentencing, and the $685 million Pennsylvania is dishing out to construct prisons, Tyrone and KJ are grappling with the politics of punishment. Tired of politicians vowing to be hard on crime, these men call for preventative methods and early institutional changes.

“Politics of Punishment” allows Swat students to engage with these sorts of questions, to paint their own picture of the American criminal justice system.

Reeves, who studied Political Science with a concentration in Black Studies and Public Policy while a student at Swarthmore, has conducted on-site prison research for the past decade. He created the course, which is offered in two sections, to “provide both a critical and in-depth exploration of the interplay among American electoral politics, public concerns regarding crime, and criminal justice policy.” Building off of his own research, Reeves asked his students to consider everything from the high population of incarcerated people (2.3 million), the origins of the use of “jails” and “prisons” as “instruments of social and crime control,” the racial and class differences in criminal behavior and incarceration rates, to prison-based “gerrymandering” and the ways in which keeping people incarcerated is a lucrative financial and political franchise.

Not satisfied with just informing his students, Reeves seeks to create dialogue between Swarthmore students and those imprisoned and to instil the educational fervor Swatties feel within the inmates. After two years of tenuous organizing, last spring Reeves launched his first Urban Underclass collaboration course with the Temple-founded Inside Out Program. Once a week, a group of Swarthmore students visited the Graterford prison and engaged in an innovative and dynamic learning experience: comprised of a lecture component and small-group discussions, the inmates and students gathered in a circle and learned communally, analyzing and disputing the week’s assigned reading.

The key word here is “communal.” A native of Chester, Reeves underscores the “reciprocity” of the relationship between Swarthmore and the Graterford inmates. Undeniably, the Swarthmore  students are engaged in civic engagement: they leave the “safe” bubble they are used to and devote time each week to work with the inmates. However, the inmates also provide an invaluable piece: filling in the gaps of research with their lived experience, these inmates force students to question the racially-charged and class-based narratives circulated about criminals. They make visible the impact of policy and theory, concepts that are hotly debated theoretically but rarely experientially.

Interestingly, at the beginning of each semester, Reeves asks his students to read Walter Mosley’s “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned” as their first text. It’s a fictional story about Socrates, a black male convicted felon who experiences difficulty re-entering the world after serving almost 30 years in an Indiana prison. Suggested by Professor Ken Sharpe, Reeves cites his use of the novel as “one of the most significant pedagogical decisions” he has made. The novel “equalizes the playing field” whereas the form of the novel — the beauty of the writing style and the strength of the narrative — attracts the “Outside” Swarthmore students, the content allows the “Inside” students to “see themselves” in Socrates’ character.

For many, the Mosley text is the first new book they have ever owned. Reading and re-reading the text, these incarcerated men memorize the book inside and out, carrying it “around with them as if it’s the Bible,” Reeves explained. In its depiction of the struggle of reintegrating oneself into society, it becomes “a book of empowerment and affirmation” for them.

For both Inside and Outside students, however, the text serves another critical purpose — to develop “our characteristics of empathy … sympathy … and tolerance.” Only once students are convinced they are a part of an environment “infused with empathy, real intellectual integrity” and one that prioritizes not only “hearing what people are saying but also listening” can students begin to grapple with issues like historical and contemporary racism. And as evidenced in the policy projects undertaken by the students of last semester’s “Politics of Punishment,” empathy is the primary ingredient of collaborative political efforts.

Hana Lehmann ’13, inspired by her interactions with the participants in the Inside Out Program, wrote a thesis about the potential of prisons as “transformative spaces.” Hoping to fill in the void of scholarship on adult identity formation and crises, Lehmann examines how “criminalization” incites a process of identity shift, one that forces black male inmates to accept a “compacted negative identity that permanently labels them a second-class citizen.”

She was first drawn to the subject of mass incarceration in Urban Education, and in particular the school-to-prison pipeline literature. Her interest peaked in the two subsequent courses she took, “Urban Underclass” and “Politics of Punishment,” both with Reeves last semester. For Lehmann, only by “knowing what happens in these transformational spaces” is there hope in “stopping the pipeline” and putting an end to the statistics: 1 in every 100 men and 1 in 3 black men are currently incarcerated in the US.

Describing the course as a “humanizing space,” Lehmann worked personally with KJ and others to develop a public policy plan that focused on the Federal Pell Grant: specifically, making it a funding resource for those incarcerated to pursue a college-level education. But as Lehmann shares, this process was anything but painless. “We had to bust our asses to get them what they needed,” she explained. Lacking access to a computer, Swarthmore students would have to print and deliver information needed by the inmates and transcribe drafts of the measure they co-wrote.

Lehmann is happy to know that her work was not be in vain. KJ feels deeply indebted to Lehmann’s efforts; he smiled brightly whenever he spoke of the project and the “tears” that came to his eyes when he realized “how serious they [Swat students]” were about enacting change. In the fall, an advocacy group will also be created on campus to support this initiative.

Three political science majors in attendance, Jeewon Kim ’13, Cristina Matamoros ’14 and Naudia Williams ’14, reflect on the lecture. Kim, a Political Science Major, greatly appreciated being able to hear Tyrone and KJ speak. Struck by the transformative potential of jail, Kim saw the Closing Ceremony as “humanizing.”

Williams, a volunteer at the Chester Youth Court and the apprentice of a public defender, left the lecture believing “that the criminal justice system is in the business of convictions/punishment and not necessarily justice” claiming “punitive policies … serve to marginalize and stigmatize an often forgotten population.”

Matamoros, a Film and Media Studies minor, was inspired to take the course after taking a “comparative politics course” abroad in Sweden and comparing “the Swedish and American punitive systems.” Taking Williams’ take-aways a bit further, Matamoros calls for taking a hard look at the war being waged on drugs, the education system that only reserves the basic “right” of “good education” to “privileged white communities,” and, “most importantly we must make sure that ex-felons are rightly integrated into our community.” Asking us to adopt the Swedish mentality that “regard[s] very highly … that everyone deserves a second chance,” she called for the end of the stigma around black and Latino male convicted felons. Met with unemployment, and plagued by feelings of alienation and rejection, these men are inevitably propelled to the very “underground economy,” as KJ put it, that got them incarcerated in the first place.

What’s unique about the special election to fill the vacant House of Representatives seat in South Carolina is that it features two candidates with national recognition, bringing it a level of attention rarely seen in House elections. Republican Mark Sanford, whose second term as South Carolina governor was marred by the revelation of an extramarital affair and a very public divorce, will face businesswoman Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, who, despite a lengthy resume of her own, is most famous for being the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert.

The election began when Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) resigned his Senate seat to become president of the Heritage Foundation, prompting Governor Nikki Haley to appoint Rep. Tim Scott (R) to the vacant seat in the upper chamber. The special election next Tuesday, May 7 will determine whether Sanford or Colbert-Busch will fill Scott’s empty House seat representing South Carolina’s First Congressional District.

Sanford has represented the district before; he served three terms in the ’90s before winning the Governor’s Mansion in 2002. He was popular while governor, earning a well-respected profile in the Republican party and frequently cited as a possible 2012 Presidential candidate. A tireless advocate of fiscal conservatism, he once brought live pigs into the chambers of the South Carolina House of Representatives to highlight his opposition to pork-barrel spending.

The revelation of Sanford’s affair in 2009 marked one of the more embarrassing and public demolitions of a political career. Under the pretext of hiking  the Appalachian Trail, Sanford snuck down to Argentina to meet his lover, Maria Belen Chapur. After the media broke the story of their affair, Sanford admitted to it. His wife, Jenny Sanford, filed for divorce. To make matters worse, Sanford admitted to using state funds to finance his trip to Argentina, but promised to reimburse taxpayers in full. To this day, it remains controversial whether Sanford broke any laws during the scandal.

Colbert-Busch, by comparison, does not have any major scandals in her past; her biggest disadvantage is running as a Democrat in one of the most Republican states in America. She has sought to identify with South Carolina’s tradition of strong fiscal conservatism by highlighting her background as a businesswoman. She has worked in many positions, in both the public and private sectors, relating to the Port of Charleston and the commerce that flows through it. The economy of the First Congressional District derives in no small part from the port. She currently sits on the board of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, which oversees port operations.

Colbert-Busch’s experience and connection with the port could prove beneficial in South Carolina, which was hit hard by the recession and continues to suffer unemployment above the national average. In addition, her campaign has benefitted from the profile of her brother, who has fundraised with her and brought millions of dollars into her war chest. National Democrats have also taken an interest in the race, seeing it as a prime off-year pickup opportunity and one-step closer to their ultimate goal of House control.

Since this is a special election and no other House races are being run, balance of power is no longer an issue. This race will not tip control of the House, making Republicans more willing to vote for Democrats and vice versa — the polarizing effects of the uncertainty surrounding balance of power are gone in this race, making the outcome a more accurate reflection of voters’ feelings about the candidates. This could prove fatal for Mark Sanford, as he will benefit less from the Republican label in a very conservative state.

Sanford’s best bet, then, is to tie Colbert-Busch with national Democrats, such as Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, who are deeply unpopular in the state. His campaign has pursued this angle — at one point having Sanford debate a cardboard cutout of Pelosi in the place of Colbert-Busch. The money flowing in from national Democrats who want to see Republicans upset on their own turf has helped this argument considerably.

Democrats, though, have their own ammunition to level at Mark Sanford. In the 2012 campaign, Democrats across the nation built a significant part of their messaging on the charge that Republicans were insensitive to women’s issues. Whether that is true or not, this election plays right into that narrative: a former governor who cheated on his wife faces off against a successful woman. The fear of being associated with Sanford, who polls abysmally among women, has led national Republicans to withdraw financial support for his campaign.

Right now, Sanford’s party affiliation and strong tradition of fiscal conservatism are his major strengths. Colbert-Busch has tried to turn that strength into a weakness, drawing attention to her moderate positions on conservative issues such as the national deficit and veterans’ affairs. She has been quick to criticize Obamacare, calling the health care overhaul “extremely problematic.” She also took the opportunity to hit Sanford on his own turf during a debate on Monday night. “When we talk about fiscal spending and we talk about protecting the taxpayers, it doesn’t mean you take that money we saved and leave the country for a personal purpose,” she said, referencing the 2009 scandal.

Whether the moderate image she presents is an accurate representation of her political views or simply a campaign tactic to make her more palatable to South Carolina conservatives is an open question. Judging by the competitiveness of the race, though, her messaging seems to be working.

Still, the First Congressional District is a Republican stronghold. Before being appointed to the Senate, Rep. Tim Scott won in 2012 with 65 percent of the vote. Mitt Romney also won by a wide margin, carrying every county in the district but populous Charleston County, which he lost only narrowly. In order to win, Colbert-Busch must expand Democratic support beyond the urban center of Charleston into more traditionally Republican areas. It won’t be an easy challenge — according to political statistician Nate Silver, South Carolina is one of the least “swingiest” states in the nation, meaning as a red state it is highly unlikely to vote for a candidate of the other party.

A recent poll by the liberal firm Public Policy Polling had Colbert-Busch leading by a nine-point margin. On paper this looks impressive, but poll numbers don’t always translate into election results. The First Congressional District has a sizeable Black minority, which forms the base of Democratic Party support in South Carolina. The problem for Colbert-Busch is that minority voters tend to have much lower turnout rates in off-year elections when there is no Presidential candidate at the top of the ticket. While she may be doing well in the polls, Colbert-Busch will have to actually get voters to the polling stations on election day if she wants to translate her healthy poll numbers into a victory.

At a time that Republicans are trying to improve their poll numbers among women and minority voters, Sanford is not the best standard-bearer for the party. The dead heat that this race has become shows that Republicans can even lose in their strongholds, given the right set of circumstances. This is not a sign of changing politics in South Carolina, but more of weariness with embattled establishment Republican candidates like Mark Sanford. The ascension of young, diverse Republican politicians like Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Nikki Haley in the state demonstrate the beginning of an evolution of the Republican Party, one more appealing to women and minority voters. Mark Sanford is hardly the ideal face of this evolution, which is why national Republicans have run away from his campaign.

On the Democratic side, a Colbert-Busch victory next week would be a major win for Democrats looking to expand their appeal into the deep-red American South. While other Democrats, such as actress Ashley Judd, who briefly mulled a run against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY.) have failed in the South, Colbert-Busch has campaigned on a distinct brand of moderate liberalism with apparent appeal in the region. Her problem, though, will be a competitive election every two years from here on out — and not all her opponents will have the weaknesses of Mark Sanford.

Does it matter who wins next week’s election, which right now is a tossup? It could. The winning party will get bragging rights, of course, but in the end South Carolina will remain a deeply Republican state, and Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, should she win, will become one of those cross-party anomalies that are becoming so rare in the U.S. Congress.