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Your guess leaves out many factors. As EyeVeee noted, we do not know how long the change in the number of essays has been under consideration. I happen to think that Swarthmore should have acted long ago, but once they started to act, it took time to get the ship turned around. As noted above, there were hirings, firings, departures and other changes. It is silly to look at the time needed to make a change and use that as the sole measure of importance of an issue. </p>
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You must not have much experience with town-gown conflicts if you consider this one “ugly.” This is a cakewalk compared to the ones my institution has been involved in. Having said that, I believe you will find that it was a resident who sued to block the liquor license application. Swarthmore had no cause to sue residents. Finally, in addition to housing visitors, the inn will be used for conferences and similar academic events. It is common to have a small reception at the end of a conference program with hors d’oeuvres and wine. It is impractical to make such receptions BYOB. And the only students who were vocal about the project tried to block it. </p>