About

The following project has been created to document the history of FLI (First-Generation & Low Income) students at Swarthmore, and some events in the Bi-Co. Research was completed using the college archives, the wayback machine, and student group records. The project tracks events that have been publicly available, as well as some that I have witnessed firsthand. 

Use of College Archives

In order to conduct my research, I compiled a list of relevant materials that were available for access within the college archive. You can view the materials that I requested here. Of note is that the majority of documents that I requested were all born after 1980 which is what my prior research had concluded would have been a period in the College’s history when the concerns of first-generation and low-income students began to be addressed. As mentioned in the first exhibit, I avoided attempting to duplicate work already done such as with the 1969 Black Liberation archive. Additionally, notice that a few materials were labeled as restricted. In the case of these materials, I formally requested access to the documents with an explanation of my interest in these documents however the presidents office ultimately denied my request for access. 

Use of Wayback Machine

When I found it helpful, I used the Wayback Machine (also known as the Internet Archive) to look at historical snapshots of Swarthmore College’s websites. These snapshots were helpful for me in pinpointing sections of time where I would have expected college policies to have changed or evolved as was the case when the first-in-family program changed names to the first-generation and low-income program (FLI).

Use of Student Group Records

As a member of the FLI (First-Generation & Low-Income) student council, I accessed historical meeting notes and communications that occurred between previous members and college administration. I used these meeting notes to inform recent developments (2018-2023) in FLI history.