News

Swarthmore 2020 planning forum attracts crowd, engages in discussion of the college's future

In print | February 14, 2008

Though the initial Powerpoint presentation intended to assist Student Council president Peter Gardner ’08 in explaining the planning process failed to get off the ground, Gardner perservered and continued with an introduction to the planning process as it relates to the Swarthmore 2020 project.

According to Gardner, a large motivation for the 2020 planning in general was the success of the Meaning of Swarthmore capital campaign, which ended earning upwards of $216 million in endowment. The Swarthmore 2020 project is expected to garner hundreds of millions more in funding for the college.

One of the more major planning committees, Gardner explained, is the Steering Committee, which is responsible for deciding how much of the money dedicated to the campaign is going to be spent. Gardner went on to highlight the individual members of that committee.

A large part of the event consisted of students gathering in small groups and brainstorming ideas on paper.

Additionally, student representatives from several of the planning committees were present for dialogue — to answer questions or bounce off possibilities for the committee.

The event ended in a free-for-all fashion, where the floor was opened to an unorganized discussion between attendees and committee members so that attendees could highlight what they felt were the most important issues to be discussed.