With both gratitude and excitement, I am pleased to share with you Swarthmore Forward: A Plan for Our Future. Approved by the Board of Managers in December, Swarthmore Forward marks a pivotal moment for the College. Informed by extensive collaborative efforts and thoughtful reflections by members of our community, the plan charts the College’s future and asserts our collective aspirations and dedication to academic and community excellence.

Swarthmore Forward sets forth initiatives that will further enrich our academic offerings; deepen our community connections; and reinforce our commitment to inclusivity, sustainability, and well-being. It is our promise to foster an environment where intellectual curiosity thrives and meaningful connections are nurtured.

Your involvement has been critical to this journey, and your participation was instrumental in shaping a plan that is both ambitious and attainable. As we transition to the implementation phase, your ongoing engagement will be crucial to bringing this plan to life.

In the weeks, months, and, indeed, years ahead, we will provide regular updates on the progress we make toward the goals articulated in the plan, including on the Swarthmore Forward website, which will evolve as our work continues.

Thank you for your dedication and commitment to our mission of ensuring that all who share in our community flourish and contribute to a better world. Together, we will move Swarthmore forward, embracing the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead with confidence in our ability to shape a brighter future for the College and, in turn, for the world around us.

Warm regards,

Val Smith
President

In 1866, during a celebration of the cornerstone laid at Swarthmore College’s first building, President Edward Parrish spoke of a higher mission for Swarthmore students. “It should fit them for life, with all its possibilities.” For more than 150 years since, stewards of this great institution have come together to chart new paths with destinations that meet President Parrish’s aspirations. We are driven by a collective passion for discovery, creativity, and curiosity. Bound by a shared commitment to a society made better because of the contributions of Swarthmoreans the world around, the community has come together, again and again, to reestablish the College in ways that stay true to its enduring values and adapt to and anticipate the challenges and opportunities ahead.

This is one of those moments; Swarthmore is poised to forge a path forward.

For the past 18 months, members of the Swarthmore community have studied, deliberated, and envisioned the College’s future. Swarthmore Forward is the road map that has been distilled from that work and will guide our journey. It is shaped by our unwavering, unapologetic belief in the liberal arts and our commitment to intellectual rigor, creative exploration, and the pursuit of the common good. It seeks not to redefine who we are, but to strengthen the transformative learning environment we provide, ensuring our educational experience aligns with emerging global opportunities that are as exciting as the challenges are daunting. Swarthmore Forward builds on our history of fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration, and it provides a path to enhance our ability to prepare learners to be thoughtful, ethical leaders in a diverse, rapidly changing, and increasingly complex world.

We begin this venture from a position of strength. Swarthmore enjoys a standing as one of the world’s most respected liberal arts colleges, and for good reason: We boast a talented faculty of dedicated teacher-scholars; an intellectually passionate and engaged student body; loyal alumni who have made extraordinary contributions to every field of human endeavor; committed staff members who support all aspects of our residential learning environment; and a beautiful and inspiring campus just miles away from the richly diverse cultural hub of Philadelphia. We also benefit from abundant, carefully stewarded financial resources; we will continue to be judicious and intentional in how we direct those resources to support the priorities within the plan.

Swarthmore Forward naturally starts at the heart of all that we do: academics. The plan calls for a reexamination of the College’s curriculum, which will inform how we evolve our liberal arts education to meet the demands of the 21st century. Every day, Swarthmore faculty engage students in the kind of creativity and discovery that sparks innovation and passion. A review of the curriculum will create an infrastructure that more intentionally connects that extraordinary work to the challenges that face us as a nation and as a global community, while also ensuring students are introduced to Swarthmore’s breadth of academic offerings across the arts and humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and interdisciplinary studies. Swarthmore Forward commits to the allocation and addition of resources necessary to advance these academic interests, including the expansion of the size of the permanent faculty. This commitment will allow us to enhance areas of traditional strength, invest in emerging fields, and ensure the close faculty-student relationships that are a hallmark of a Swarthmore education continue to fuel intellectual curiosity and a love of learning.

Swarthmore Forward also underscores our steadfast belief in educating the whole student. At a time when students require growing support for mental and emotional health and wellness, this plan emphasizes holistic development, integrating advising and academic excellence with opportunities for personal growth, recreation, civic engagement, and joy. In an effort to connect students’ experiences within and beyond the classroom and to cultivate class unity, we will create a suite of required first-year, first-semester seminars to introduce students to the College and its resources; encourage career exploration throughout all four years of a student’s experience; and find new ways to nurture students’ physical, emotional, and social well-being.

We are a residential liberal arts institution committed to the value of diversity across all measures — from race, ethnicity, and religion to gender, sexuality, ability, and diversity of viewpoints. During a time of polarization on campuses and across the wider society, Swarthmore must model the meaning and the possibilities of inclusive excellence. We will establish the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to develop a strategic vision for this work. We will foster greater experiential diversity by creating a gap-year program and increasing the number of community college transfer students. We will review and develop policies and practices that advocate for and prioritize a campuswide culture of health and wellness. And in the spirit of equity, the plan introduces the Swarthmore Promise — a commitment that all students will have access to experiences that will equip them with the skills and resiliency they need to thrive in an uncertain future. In this way, Swarthmore Forward directs resources to expand diversity across campus and foster an environment where every member feels valued and empowered — where individuals and groups from disparate backgrounds and views find space for rest, reflection, joy, and flourishing, and where equity and inclusion are not just ideals but lived experiences.

This plan acknowledges that the physical space in which we learn and grow is critical to our ability to live fully into our values. It includes the continued renewal and reimagining of our campus infrastructure to align with and support our strategic goals. Doing so involves creating spaces that foster health, wellness, and community engagement alongside investing in a sustainable and technologically advanced infrastructure. These physical transformations will include completing our commitment to zero carbon emissions, significant investment in our Athletics and wellness facilities, and other initiatives spawned by a master plan for the College. They are symbolic of our broader commitment to a future that is sustainable in every sense — environmentally, socially, and financially.

Swarthmore Forward offers a vision of a future where our community members thrive, where our values are lived, and where our impact is felt far beyond the boundaries of our campus. Let us embrace this moment with optimism, courage, and a shared sense of purpose.

To achieve this vision, Swarthmore Forward sets four ambitious priorities, interweaving all aspects of college life:

Goal 1: Enhance the Swarthmore liberal arts education for the 21st century.

Goal 2: Educate the whole student.

Goal 3: Create a community prepared for life in a multiracial, multicultural democracy and the world.

Goal 4: Renew our campus infrastructure to achieve our strategic goals.

As one of the world’s leading liberal arts institutions, Swarthmore is committed, first and foremost, to intellectual and creative excellence. Swarthmore stands out for the breadth and strength of its offerings in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences and engineering. Teaching, learning, research, and creative production all thrive in the small, liberal arts environment that encourages collaboration and the exchange of ideas between students and faculty and between students themselves. Grounded in their area of academic emphasis, our students develop a strong sense of social responsibility; transferable intellectual and practical skills (such as communication, analytical, and problem-solving abilities); and the capacity to apply that knowledge in real-world settings.

To prepare our students to learn and flourish in an uncertain world, we must invest in our traditional areas of strength as well as in emerging fields that often lie at the intersection of disciplines. In a period of great technological disruption in which many students are drawn to the creative possibilities of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), we have the opportunity to support their interests from the strength of the liberal arts, ensuring that all students, whatever their areas of specialization, develop digital fluency and are exposed to the uses, possibilities, and challenges of data science and artificial intelligence. At the same time, we must ensure that students comprehend the inherent value of the arts and humanities in a world characterized by great change. These are the fields that help us navigate the future by teaching us about the past, that cultivate critical understanding and creative production, and that foster engagement with those whose experiences and perspectives differ from our own.

This plan proposes a review of the curriculum, an expansion of the faculty in accordance with strategic priorities, access to experiential learning opportunities for all students, and greater investment in our teaching and learning resources.

To ensure that our academic program remains true to our core values while providing our students with the range of knowledge and skills they will need to thrive as global citizens in an uncertain world, we will undertake a review of our curriculum. The curriculum review will:

• Ensure that students engage with the breadth of curricular offerings and benefit from the value of studying the arts and humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and interdisciplinary studies.
• Develop expertise in digital and computational literacy across the curriculum.
• Evaluate the College’s writing requirement and the teaching of expository writing and related genres.
• Consider whether the College’s language requirements adequately prepare our students to navigate the global environment they inhabit now and will enter more fully after graduation.
• Build the capacity of the Teaching and Learning Commons, the Office of Global Engagement, and the Office of Sustainability to support the curriculum’s goals.
• Revise the Honors Program to retain its distinctive association with intellectual rigor while ensuring its continued success.

Interdisciplinarity plays a prominent role in a liberal arts education. Interdisciplinary approaches enable more nuanced understandings of complex phenomena. Interdisciplinary collaboration fosters creativity and innovation by bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise to develop novel solutions. We cannot fully avail ourselves of future opportunities or adequately address the grand challenges of today and tomorrow from the perspective of a single discipline; doing so requires the insights, approaches, and techniques honed through interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

Over the years, Swarthmore has created numerous interdisciplinary programs which have evolved differently over time. This plan proposes a multifaceted approach to strengthening interdisciplinarity at Swarthmore in acknowledgment of the different goals of various initiatives.

• Expand interdisciplinary teaching through a “Seeds of Change” initiative, which will support periods of collaborative study and course preparation among groups of two or more faculty from different departments.
• Support interdisciplinary teaching approaches to the innovative, creative, and ethical uses and regulation of technology, such as artificial intelligence and data science, by creating the Arts, Culture, Technology, and Society (ACTS) initiative.
• Strengthen select existing interdisciplinary programs, such as Black Studies and Environmental Studies, to support their goal of becoming new academic departments. Explore the growth of Native and Indigenous Studies as an area of focus in Environmental Studies, to complement existing faculty and student interest and to acknowledge the centrality of Indigenous nations to land management, the preservation of biodiversity, and the mitigation of climate change.

Our faculty members are dedicated teachers and distinguished scholars who engage students in research and creative projects both in and outside the classroom. The resulting close faculty and student relationships fuel the intellectual curiosity and love of learning that are hallmarks of a Swarthmore education. These relationships transform the lives of our students, enhance their potential to contribute to their chosen profession and to their communities, and, in many instances, extend long after our students graduate. As such, they anchor the connections our alumni feel to the College.

Due to a variety of factors, including the growth of student interest in STEM disciplines and economics; the expansion of the student body; the shift to a four-course teaching load for faculty; and the increased reliance on visiting faculty, Swarthmore’s treasured high-quality teaching and learning environment is under unprecedented pressure. Research conducted in 2021-22 by the Council on Educational Policy (CEP) pertaining to faculty size and teaching load showed that, over the prior decade of planned enrollment growth, the attendant planned growth in tenure-track faculty has not kept pace. While our visiting faculty make a critical contribution to the quality of teaching and diversity of perspectives in the classrooms, overdependence on them places additional burdens on current tenure-track faculty to maintain the College’s academic quality.

To retain and build on the College’s reputation for academic excellence and the transformative experiences of previous generations of students, we must invest in the faculty. We will build the capacity of our faculty to provide the close-knit intellectual engagement that characterizes the academic community, and we will examine and rebalance the proportion of visiting faculty to tenure-track faculty.

• Increase the size of the permanent faculty, with a first phase of 10 tenure lines to meet existing needs and new initiatives. Subsequently, align existing and additional faculty capacity with the framework provided by the curriculum review.
• Strengthen opportunities to reinforce faculty research by increasing the number of second-semester leaves the College makes available to support sabbaticals.
• Promote connection, production, and dissemination of the faculty’s scholarship and creative work.

Expanding educational opportunities beyond the classroom will better prepare our students to address the needs and opportunities of the rapidly changing global environment. After all, the world itself is a dynamic learning environment with lessons that complement the knowledge students gain in the classroom. To better prepare our students for a lifetime of personal and professional success and impact, we will develop deeper collaboration across departments, expand high-impact curricular and co-curricular programs, and provide additional opportunities for experiential learning, ensuring that every student has access to transformative experiences beyond the classroom.

• Invest in and develop curricular/co-curricular collaborations similar to the President’s Sustainability Research Fellows and Inclusive Excellence Fellows programs, allowing students to apply what they are learning to projects that affect the College and surrounding areas and acquire skills such as developing ideas, collaborating with peers, managing a project, and communicating findings to an audience of specialists and non-specialists alike.
• Create residential academic programs with internship components in other cities, both within the United States and across the globe.
• Provide all Swarthmore students with a funded beyond-the-classroom experience, such as an internship, summer research project, academic year abroad, or summer study abroad opportunity. (See the “Swarthmore Promise” below.)

Institutions like Swarthmore are obligated not only to explain and demonstrate the value of the residential liberal arts model, but also to prepare students to adapt to an uncertain future. Education that reaches beyond the rigors of the classroom will enable students to develop competencies in areas such as civic engagement, emotional intelligence, and resilience.

To lay a strong foundation for living and learning in the Swarthmore community, we will provide opportunities for students to build on skills introduced in New Student Orientation and to apply them to their lives within and beyond the classroom.

• Reimagine the first-year experience in a way that extends the core principles of orientation — such as adaptability, self-care, and reflection — throughout the year.
• Consider creating a required first-semester, first-year seminar that introduces students to the College; strengthens first-year advising; provides guidance on navigating curricular opportunities, locating available resources, and connecting with campus community members; and creates a cohort of the whole among first-year students. Taught by members of the faculty, these seminars would also engage members of staff as mentors and campus partners.
• Foster skills such as cultivating meaningful relationships, active listening, embracing differences, and engaging meaningfully with those with differing viewpoints and perspectives.
• Provide opportunities to learn about our individual, community, and global impacts, including strategies for living responsibly and sustainably.

A successful Swarthmore education provides access to opportunities for all students, regardless of their socioeconomic background. By removing barriers and ensuring access to curricular and co-curricular opportunities, Swarthmore will educate the whole student, enabling students to graduate with a major, a career path, and the tools and experiences needed to lead fulfilling lives after college.

• Expand the advising role in partnership with the faculty to engage multiple offices and channels and connect inside and beyond the classroom experiences.
• Integrate career development into the Swarthmore experience through early engagement, competency development, and purposeful employer connections.
• Prepare students to reflect on and present their learning outcomes effectively.

The College is committed to respecting diverse identities and experiences, including those shaped by race, gender, sexuality, religion, ability, and national origin, among others; helping community members understand changing political, economic, and social dynamics; and fostering an ethos of collaborative self-examination. In President Valerie Smith’s inauguration speech, she spoke about the transformative power of engaging across our differences:

To realize these “highest ideals,” we must reimagine what it means to live in community, and we must encourage new pathways to and through Swarthmore for all. We must also commit to an expansive view for students, faculty, and staff of well-being, broadly conceived as support for physical, mental, and emotional health; work-life balance; social life; and a greater sense of inclusion, trust, and belonging. Such a commitment will strengthen a more sustainable community where individuals and groups from disparate backgrounds and views find space for rest, reflection, joy, and flourishing.

Our community provides the opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to learn, practice, and model how to live and work with others who are different from each other. We value the enrichment of our community through the engagement of diverse experiences and perspectives. We will prioritize opportunities to recognize expertise in all forms and build pathways to develop and support learning and engagement within and across groups. We are mindful that our community extends to neighbors (e.g., in Chester and Philadelphia) as well as higher education more broadly, and we will build partnerships that allow us to share expertise, resources, and mutual learning.

• Establish the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to develop a strategic vision of inclusive excellence for the College. Foster competencies necessary for productive, respectful communication across diverse viewpoints and experiences under the auspices of the new vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion and in collaboration with campus partners.
• Establish a College-sponsored gap year for a cohort of newly admitted students, fostering greater experiential diversity within the student body and the College community.
• Admit an annual cohort of up to 20-25 transfer students from community colleges while maintaining the current size of the student body. Provide appropriate resources so these students receive the academic and social support they need to thrive.
• Ensure that the centers that serve our diverse community receive appropriate levels of resources. Develop greater collaboration between these centers and relevant academic programs.
• Build opportunities to support staff that foster better integration and engagement in the community, such as recognizing multiple forms of expertise and growing pathways for mentoring and professional development.
• Enhance and promote programs such as Learning for Life to strengthen relationships between staff and students on subjects of mutual interest.
• Institute common readings and other collective activities to connect students, faculty, and staff in shared learning.
• Invest in our civic partnerships with Chester and the surrounding communities, including the Chester Children’s Chorus.

The College offers numerous beyond-the-classroom experiences, such as academically adjacent internships, externships, funded summer opportunities, research fellowships, study abroad, travel embedded within courses, and more. These opportunities are provided by different programs across the College whose staff have worked together to coordinate communications, streamline the application process, and help students navigate financial and other potential barriers that might limit participating in these experiences. We must intentionally provide students with equitable access to these experiences. Doing so requires that we create an infrastructure to improve the integration of these and other high-impact programs, identify new opportunities, and provide sufficient funding for all students to benefit from them.

• Ensure that every student is able to participate in an internship, a research opportunity, or a civic engagement, study abroad, or other high-impact experience during or between semesters by the time they graduate by addressing financial and other barriers that might limit exploration and experiential learning options. Support all students in connecting these curricular and co-curricular experiences with career opportunities.
• Remove financial and other barriers that limit exploration and experiential learning opportunities so that every student can participate in an internship, research opportunity, civic engagement, study abroad, or other high-impact experiences by the time they graduate.
• Promote a culture of career exploration and preparedness for all students by reviewing and revising, as needed, options for career-connected learning.

While we enjoy and prioritize academic pursuits, in order to remain healthy as individuals and as a community, we must guard against overscheduling and build in time and space for rest, recreation, joy, reflection, and connection.

• Review and develop policies and practices that advocate for and prioritize a campuswide culture of health and wellness, building on initiatives such as the Swarthmore Coalition on Well-Being, BeWell, and Garnet Day.
• Dedicate spaces in renovated Athletics facilities and elsewhere on campus to support health and wellness opportunities for all campus community members.
• Manage central calendar, scheduling, and communication to promote work-life balance for faculty, staff, and students.
• Develop community-building and mentoring opportunities for faculty, staff, and students across extra-curricular interests, clubs, and associations.
• Explore the possibility of providing child care services on campus.

To build a constructive community where all have the opportunity to flourish, we need to be open to learning from others, understand our own and others’ boundaries, develop clear governance structures, and engage in civil and sustained conversation.

• Create guiding principles for how all community members learn, teach, live, and work together, focusing on honesty, mutual respect, collegiality, collaboration, and acceptance of diverse perspectives.
• Review governance practices and protocols to clarify decision-making among and between faculty, staff, and students.
• Clearly communicate our community’s fundamental values and incorporate them into our physical plant and digital presence.

We must continue to renew our campus’ physical infrastructure so that campus buildings and systems support the College’s vision. Since the release of the last strategic plan in 2011, the College either renovated or built several facilities, including the Matchbox; Whittier Hall; Palmer, Pittenger, and Roberts Apartments; the Lang Music Building; Maxine Frank Singer Hall; and the new Dining and Community Commons. These facilities have enhanced the student experience and the College’s academic enterprise. Campus renewal will remain an essential pillar of our strategic vision. It will support the objectives outlined above, advancing our liberal arts mission and building a cohesive and sustainable community.

The College’s efforts to renew our physical campus will continue in earnest. To Zero By Thirty-Five is the linchpin of our plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. By 2025, Martin Hall will open as an interdisciplinary hub and the new home for the Computer Science and Film & Media Studies departments. Furthermore, we are actively planning to update our Athletics and well-being facilities to benefit the entire community. These investments will enhance the experience of all Swarthmore students, faculty, and staff members.

• Complete the To Zero By Thirty-Five energy program and Zero Waste Plan to realize our carbon-neutral future.
• Upgrade campus facilities and living spaces to improve the quality of existing buildings, extend their life, and create environments that promote teaching and learning, health, wellness, sustainability, and community.
• Complete the renovation of Martin Hall as the new home for the Computer Science Department and the Film & Media Studies Department, creating a state-of-the-art media center, screening room, teaching labs, film production studio, and other spaces, allowing for new programming and interdisciplinary connections between students, faculty, and staff members.
• Replace the Lamb-Miller Field House and upgrade Cunningham Fields to accommodate varsity sports and opportunities for well-being for all community members.

To fully realize the potential of Swarthmore Forward, we will develop a comprehensive campus master plan that will guide our investments in enhancing our physical infrastructure, making sure we use them effectively and efficiently in support of our strategic goals. The priorities for the master plan will include:

• Understand how to use all of our spaces on campus more efficiently,
• Guiding enhancements to facilities for performing arts, a reimagined McCabe Library and Clothier Hall, and residence halls improvements,
• Explore and expand child care options for our campus community members.

We will realize our strategic vision in the next decade when we complete, or are on the path to completing, these key capital projects and can intentionally implement a more efficient use of all campus buildings.

The vision of Swarthmore Forward is appropriately ambitious. Swarthmore is one of the preeminent liberal arts institutions in the world, and we will continue to grow and evolve to meet future challenges. Realizing this vision will take diligence, planning, and evaluation over the next decade. Some of the recommendations outlined above are already underway; others can likely be implemented in the short term. Following the Board’s approval of the strategic plan in December, the implementation phase will begin in earnest in Spring 2024. The good work undertaken by the community in developing the plan provides a trove of foundational resource materials for the implementation process. These include an analysis of the broader environment of higher education; records of community consultations; surveys of peer practices; working group notes, research, and analyses; inventories of College activities and initiatives; and an excellent report from the working group co-chairs, which synthesized findings into not just strategic priorities but well-developed ideas and suggestions for specific initiatives that will help us to realize them.

Transforming a strategic vision into reality requires resources. The strategic plan is a healthy mix of visionary thinking about how to best position our community to be effective in the world in which we live, proposed programs we plan to undertake to meet our goals, and the consolidation and alignment of existing programs. Our vision will require a combination of reorganization and reprioritization of existing programming; a commitment of new funds in our budget; a focused, intentional fundraising effort to fund key initiatives; and intentional financial planning that balances the day-to-day pressures we face with the need to evolve into the future.

While we have outlined ambitious plans, we do so with an eye toward affordability and financial sustainability. Some initiatives critical to our vision are ongoing (such as the Textbook Affordability Program and the SEPTA Key Access Program) and will not require additional resources. Other initiatives are enhancements of existing programs. For example, many students have access to an experiential opportunity at Swarthmore; however, some students do not take advantage of these programs for various reasons, including barriers to funding. Our vision is to expand these opportunities so that every Swarthmore student has a chance to connect their academic program to real-world problems and applications.

Finally, several initiatives will require additional resources, such as instituting a College-sponsored gap-year program for newly admitted students, establishing Swarthmore programs in other cities, and adding new tenure-track faculty. As we enter the implementation phase of the strategic planning process, we will evaluate the cost of implementing new or expanding existing programs and initiatives and determine the best financing mechanism to achieve our goals.

Swarthmore Forward will equip our diverse, intellectually curious student body with the confidence, compassion, and discipline necessary to contribute to a better world. Our success in this shared endeavor will empower our students to begin their lives after Swarthmore with a deep knowledge of their field of study; the ability to think critically and communicate effectively; the intellectual openness required to interact with those from differing backgrounds holding different perspectives; the skills necessary to manage life after college; and the nimbleness, adaptability, and courage to persevere through the challenges of lives and careers we have yet to imagine.

The plan articulates a bold vision of our future together. It imagines a Swarthmore rooted in our traditions and strengthened by our investment in infrastructure — both literal and metaphorical — allowing for the ongoing and continuous development of initiatives and programs necessary for us to live more purposefully into our mission. As we forge our path forward, it provides a road map to a stronger Swarthmore, unwavering in our commitment to empowering all who share in our community to flourish and contribute to a better world.

The College’s strategic planning process fully engaged with the broader community to assess the current context of higher education and liberal arts, examine practices from across and beyond higher education, and consult with members of various campus constituencies to learn more about the major challenges we face and bold and innovative ideas for the future.

President Smith invited a wide range of diverse community members, including faculty, staff, students, and members of the Board of Managers, to join three working groups charged with producing recommendations based on various factors. Their work included a review of current College practices and policies, engagement with the campus community, analysis of practices and innovations across and beyond the landscape of higher education, as well as other considerations.

Working Group 1: The Future of the Curriculum and Pedagogical Practices

Working Group 2: The Student Experience Within and Beyond the Classroom

Working Group 3: Leadership in a Multiracial Democracy and the World

Each group integrated into its work three cross-cutting themes and commitments foundational to the College’s mission:

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Sustainability (in all forms)
• Community Cohesion

Community consultations took place from September 2022 to May 2023, including community pop-ups, student and faculty surveys, over 30 focus group-style community conversations, SwatCircle workshops with centers and offices on campus, guest workshops, and a full faculty retreat to discuss core curricular and pedagogical considerations.

Throughout May and early June 2023, the working group co-chairs wove the groups’ individual interim reports into a joint report. The report proposed eight strategic priorities:

1. Investing in the Faculty
2. Liberal Arts Approach to Technology and Data Science
3. Strengthening High-Impact Educational Experiences
4. Reimagining the First-Year Experience
5. Community Cohesion and Well-Being
6. Educating the Whole Student
7. Advancing Racial Justice and Social Equity
8. Global Engagement

During the summer and early fall, President Smith, in collaboration with a subset of senior staff and steering committee members, distilled the work into a draft of the final plan. She then shared the draft with the campus community and provided opportunities for representatives of constituent groups to provide feedback both in writing and in 13 in-person sessions.

*Please note that the names below include members of the campus community who participated in the planning process, regardless of whether they are still at the College.

Sarah Willie LeBreton**
Provost and Dean of the Faculty; Professor of Sociology and Black Studies

Corey Mulloy ’94
Board of Managers

Stephen O’Connell
Gil and Frank Mustin Professor of Economics

Tomoko Sakomura**
Interim Vice President for Student Affairs; Dean of Students; Professor of Art History

Anne Schuchat ’80 H’05
Board of Managers

Robin Huntington Shores**
Assistant Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness; Assistant Secretary of the College

Ameet Soni
Associate Dean of the Faculty for Diversity, Recruitment, and Retention; Associate Professor of Computer Science

Jim Terhune**
Vice President for Student Affairs

Tiffany Thompson
Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence

Dominic Tierney
Professor and Chair of Political Science

**Current and former members of President’s Staff

Dawn Philip
Interim Associate Director, Equity and Inclusion Clinical Supervisor

H. Vincent Poor
Board of Managers

Katie Price
Senior Associate Director, Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility

Andrew Ruether ’94
Director of Academic Technology

Robin Huntington Shores
Assistant Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment, Assistant Secretary of the College

Kristen Smith
Registrar

Ameet Soni
Associate Dean of the Faculty for Diversity, Recruitment, and Retention; Associate Professor of Computer Science

Monica Vance
Director of Student Disability Services

Eric Wagner
Head Men’s Soccer Coach

Patricia White
Professor and Centennial Chair of Film and Media Studies

Gianluigi Zaninelli ’24

Eva Logan ’23

Star Longoria
Director of Residential Communities

Sue MacQueen
Campus Engagement Coordinator, Scott Arboretum

Terri Maguire
HR Manager, Work Life & Employee Recognition Programs

Erin Massey
Director, Employer Connections & Assessment

Kabod (KJ) Mauwong ’25

Jen Moore
Course Content Accessibility Manager, Information Technology Service

Kristen Moore
Director of Services, Financial Aid

Matthew Mulvey ’25

Ariza Nanji ’24

Joseph Derrick Nelson
Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Black Studies

Ashley Netanel
Health & Wellness Educator

Keith Reeves ’88
Professor of Political Science

Megan Ruoff ’23

Colby Stoddard ’23

Carl Sveen
Associate Director, Center for Innovation and Leadership

Barbara Thelamour
Assistant Professor of Psychology

Bryan Wolf ’84
Board of Managers

Felicia Yi ’26

Jonathon Kim ’24

Claire Klieger
Assistant Vice President and Executive Director of Career Services

Cindi Leive ’88
Board of Managers

Jason Martin
Associate Director for Institutional Analysis and Assessment

Branley Mmasi ’25

Cat Norris
Associate Dean of the Faculty for Academic Programs and Research, Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience

Jasmine Owens
Assistant Director of First-Gen & Low-Income

Asahi Pompey
Board of Managers

Nayla Punjabi ’26

Pamela Shropshire
Special Assistant for Presidential Initiatives

Lee Smithey
Professor of Peace & Conflict Studies and Sociology

Tiffany Thompson
Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence

Feven Yared ’23

Chair: Denise Crossan
Director of Community and Strategic Initiatives; Director of the Social Innovation Lab

Katie Clark
Assistant Dean of Integrated Learning and Leadership, Director of the Center for Innovation

Nimesh Ghimire ’15
Senior Fellow in Social Innovation and Engaged Scholarship

Rachel Head
Associate Dean and Director of Student Engagement

Terri Maguire
HR Manager, Work Life & Employee Recognition Programs

Max Miller
Assistant Athletic Director for Recreation, Wellness, and Physical Education

Star Longoria
Director of Residential Communities

Ashley Netanel
Health & Wellness Educator

Jasmine Owen
Assistant Director of First-Gen & Low-Income

Dawn Philip
Equity and Inclusion Clinical Supervisor

Michelle Ray
Associate Dean and Director of Case Management

Ben Shalk
Assistant Director of Student Activities and Leadership

Carl Sveen
Associate Director, Center for Innovation

Co-Chair: Robert Goldberg
Vice President for Finance and Administration

Co-Chair: Ellen Magenheim
Centennial Chair of Economics

Renee Atkinson
Associate Vice President, Advancement

Catherine Crouch
Professor of Physics; Chair, Physics & Astronomy

Varo Duffins
Director of Financial Aid

Anthony Foy
Associate Professor and Chair of English Literature

Kim Fremont
Senior Associate Provost

Frank Grunseich
Managing Director of Investments

Sam Handlin ’00
Associate Professor of Political Science; Program Coordinator, Latin American & Latinx Studies

Dorothy Robinson ’72
Board of Managers

Steve Sell ’89
Board of Managers

Alice Turbiville
Associate Vice President for Finance & Assistant Treasurer

Ernie Wright
Budget Director

Miao Peng ’23
Narimen Zorgui ’25