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BY AMELIA POSSANZA

In print | Published September 8, 2011

A new dining hall, the creation of an Institute for Liberal Arts in the 21st Century and increasing faculty diversity are included in a draft released for comment by the Strategic Planning Council on Tuesday.

“Strategic Directions for Swarthmore College: Planning Update” is based on a year’s worth of input from over 1500 people, including staff, faculty, alumni and current students. These same groups, along with the Board of Managers, will give feedback in the upcoming months to further refine the plan.
“These ideas come from the community, so the community can now weigh in on it,” said President Rebecca Chopp. Once the final document is approved, hopefully before the end of the year, the college will launch an effort to raise funds for these possible projects.

In a meeting with The Daily Gazette and The Phoenix, Chopp and Dean of Students Liz Braun highlighted both the strengths identified by the committee, called “principles,” and the recommendations for the future.

The draft suggests new facilities for engineering, biology and psychology. Old facilities, such as Hicks, would be refurbished and used by other departments.

It also recommends the construction of a new dining hall and a new fitness center as well as finding a space, new or old, for a media center. Old facilities would be repurposed and used in a new way.

In the academic realm, the plan recommends changing the faculty course-load so that the faculty can give more attention to activities such as advising and scholarship. “The recalibrated course load would be four plus one, with the fifth “course” being used to support teaching, research and artistic production,” the document says.

Chopp said that new faculty members would need to be hired so that the the student-to-faculty ratio would remain unchanged.

The document also notes that the college should increase the diversity of the faculty and staff.

Braun said that while the college has worked hard to create a student body that is diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, socio-economic class and other factors, it needs to turn that same attention to the faculty and staff.

Plans for more student involvement in summer research experience and new ways to encourage interdisciplinary creativity, such as adding new faculty members and more student support, are also a part of the draft.

The final recommendation is for the creation of an Institute for Liberal Arts in the 21st Century. Chopp said that while there are many think tanks devoted to large research institutions, there are currently none that focus on the 2-3% of the American undergraduate population studying at small residential colleges.

The institute would foster scholarly activity, propelled by both Swarthmore and visiting faculty, centered on the future of the liberal arts college.

Many of these recommendations are meant to address the challenges the liberal arts currently face, such as the incorporation of technology in the classroom, the instability of the financial markets and the questions that arise about the relevance of the liberal arts model.

In addition to proposing changes, the draft identifies five of the college’s defining characteristics: academic rigor, a vibrant and robust community, faculty excellence, a diverse student body and a committment to leadership.

The draft does not mention areas such as the creation of new departments, the honors program or the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility because each is controlled by a separate committee. It also does not talk about the cost of these initiatives.

Swarthmore’s previous capital campaign, “The Meaning of Swarthmore,” ran from 1999 to 2006. It raised $245 million, exceeding its $230 million goal.

Community members can read the full draft and submit feedback at http://sp.swarthmore.edu/. The website also has a schedule of meetings that community members can participate in.

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