A little over a year ago, Swarthmore’s administration announced the kickstart of the Swarthmore Forward initiative, which outlines the college’s strategic plan for the future. Just before the 2024-25 winter break, in a letter addressed to students, faculty, and staff, the college revealed the successful formation of the Swarthmore Forward Implementation Advisory Committee. The committee is set to serve as an advisory capacity to President Val Smith, to track progress, and ensure that proper structures are in place to successfully advance the plan.
The initiative’s general mission includes re-examining the college curriculum, expanding the size of permanent tenure-track faculty, reimagining campus infrastructure, and more. While the plan in its entirety is available online, this article provides a brief overview of the core changes and objectives. The Phoenix also spoke with Assistant Vice President for Sustainability & Strategic Initiatives Elizabeth Drake and committee member and Professor of Mathematics Ralph Gomez to gain a better understanding of the committee’s creation and its implementation process.
The plan outlines four primary goals: enhancing Swarthmore’s liberal arts education, educating the whole student, creating and fostering a diverse community, and renewing campus infrastructure.
The first objective, focused on enhancing the liberal arts education, includes key changes to Swarthmore’s current curriculum and academic structure. One major initiative is a plan to review the curriculum by Spring 2025, with an updated curriculum to be implemented by Fall 2027. Some of the objectives in this reevaluation include making studies more interdisciplinary, increasing digital and computation literacy, and assessing both the writing and language requirements. They also plan to examine the honors program, exploring ways to increase enrollment while preserving its intellectual rigor. Another crucial aspect of this section is the plan to increase investment in faculty. The proposal acknowledges the college’s potential over-reliance on visiting instructors and seeks to increase the amount of permanent faculty positions, starting with the addition of ten new tenure-track roles to meet existing needs and support new initiatives.
The second objective, to “Educate the Whole Student,” aims to enhance students’ ability to navigate both college life and the world beyond academics. This section proposes a potential revision to the first-year experience to better prepare students for life at Swarthmore and beyond. One of the proposed solutions is a required first-year seminar designed to introduce students to college life, with the goal of fostering mentorship between faculty and students, familiarizing new students with available resources, and helping them navigate the curriculum more effectively.
The third objective of the plan aims to “Create a Community Prepared for Life in a Multiracial, Multicultural Democracy and the World.” The first objective within this section is to prioritize the continued development of a diverse and inclusive community. The plan issues a few proposals, including college-sponsored gap years and a potential commitment to admit a cohort of 20-25 transfer students from community colleges each year.
This section also introduces the “Swarthmore Promise,” an initiative to expand the availability of curricular experiences to students. The goal is to ensure that every student has the opportunity to participate in an internship, research opportunity, civic engagement, study abroad program, or another high-impact experience before graduating. To make this possible, the school plans to address financial barriers, emphasizing the continuation of programs like the SEPTA card initiative and the Textbook Affordability Program, both of which are utilized by many students.
The fourth and final objective of the plan focuses on improving campus infrastructure. Key initiatives include the completion of Martin Hall, a new academic building to support the Computer Science and Film and Media Studies departments, as well as replacing the Lamb-Miller Field House and upgrading Cunningham Fields. The plan also envisions reimagining certain residential spaces, along with renovations to McCabe Library and Clothier Hall.
Assistant Vice President for Sustainability & Strategic Initiatives Elizabeth Drake plays a key role in the committee’s implementation and the steps moving forward as one of the consulting advisors to the president.
According to Drake, the Swarthmore Forward Implementation Advisory Committee consists of a mix of faculty, staff, and members of President Val Smith’s senior leadership team. The staff serving on the committee were selected by Smith, based on recommendations from her senior leadership team. This selection process focused on individuals with expertise and responsibilities that align with the goals of Swarthmore Forward. Additionally, Smith invited some senior leadership members to serve on the committee due to their important roles at the College and their oversight of divisions and departments crucial to the initiative’s success.
“The process of developing Swarthmore Forward was highly consultative, and we expect the implementation process to similarly involve many members of the campus community, including students,” Drake said.
Professor of Mathematics Ralph Gomez, a Swarthmore Forward committee member, shared that he is serving on a sub-group primarily focused on academic initiatives. One of his main responsibilities is examining Swarthmore’s honors program. “A key aspect of my committee work involves taking a close look at Swarthmore’s honors program to see if the program needs to be modified in some way which increases participation in the program and yet preserves intellectual rigor,” Gomez explained.
Another important aspect of his work involves exploring new ideas to support interdisciplinary teaching approaches, “Another part of my committee work involves trying to help generate new ideas that could support interdisciplinary teaching approaches to the innovative, ethical use and regulation of technology, such as AI and data science,” he said.
Recognizing the scope of these tasks, Gomez acknowledged that the initial stages have consisted primarily of collecting substantial data to assess and inform the committee’s next steps.
In terms of how he became involved, Gomez enthusiastically expressed, “I was invited by President Smith to be on the committee and I happily accepted! It is exhilarating to imagine what a Swarthmore education could look like in the next few decades.”
Excellent coverage, Lily!