2017 - Present
During the 2017-2018 school year, the First-in-Family program that was headed by Dean Karen Henry was renamed to FLI (First-Generation & Low-Income) Office in order to be more inclusive to low-income students. Additionally, Nakia Waters was named as the first program coordinator for the FLI program.
Source: https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2019/10/31/fli-program-continues-to-evolve-to-better-support-students/
In 2019, the Phoenix editorial board published an article outlining the problems with the current systems of support for FLI students titled “Low-Income Students Shouldn’t Be a Low Priority.” Some of the problems that were raised in the article was the food insecurity that students who were unable to travel home faced during fall, spring, and winter breaks. At the time, many students relied on identity centers to provide food, or had to ration out meal points in order to eat. Other problems included the guidelines limiting students’ access to the emergency fund, and the hidden curriculum that existed at Swarthmore that made it difficult for FLI students to find help. SOLIS, a student run organization at the time attempted to address some of these problems by creating a student-run guide and publishing it in Swarthmore Voices.
2020 COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic can be understood as one of the most impactful events in recent FLI history because of how students mobilized to bring to light the issues that were prevalent on campus. Following the official declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), the college responded by moving classes online, and telling students to move back home unless they were unable to. Students could apply to remain on-campus, but many were denied due to unclear criteria for housing decisions.
The Black Affinity Coalition (BAC)* organized alongside other marginalized groups on campus to demand that the college provide them adequate resources in an open letter to the college published in Swarthmore Voices on November 10, 2020. Among the many issues raised in the open letter, was the vulnerability that marginalized students faced during the pandemic related to financial security, mental wellbeing, and academic expectations. Six days later, President Smith emailed organizers who responded by inviting them to an open forum in a piece published in Voices. They held a rally the next day, whereafter the FLI student community alongside many others published letters in support of a strike. In an email to the campus three days later, President Smith declined to meet. On November 25, 2020 the BAC officially suspended the strike writing in for Swarthmore Voices that
“The Black Affinity Coalition is committed to structural change at Swarthmore College. A number of faculty made a written commitment to work with us as we fight for this change. This suspension provides an opportunity for members of our community to partner with us to address the issues that this strike called to attention.”
*A more in-depth timeline of events surrounding the BAC can be read on Swarthmore Voices.
On April 16, 2020 a group of faculty at Swarthmore released an article on Swarthmore Voices titled “Universal Credit is the Most Equitable Grading Policy Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic”
On April 23, 2020 the Phoenix writes an article explains the situation titled “Student Housing Situation Amidst College’s Shift To Remote Learning”
To read more please visit Ramiro Hernandez ’23 thesis.