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BY MARIA KHIM

In print | April 19, 2007

Scott Storm ‘08, who comes from a rural town in northeast Pennsylvania, described the “culture shock” he experienced upon arriving at Swarthmore, where the upper-middle-class culture is in the majority. Office hours? Those are actually intended for you to go to and talk to the professors? Really? Asparagus and cauliflower? Agency and hegemony? "It was like learning another language. I learned to say ’I feel like’ and ‘that way in which’ and it wasn’t just about learning the world but learning the particular way of talking and the culture," Storm said.

At Swarthmore, the diverse student body comprises students of various backgrounds. Alongside race, gender and sexual orientation, class is an issue on which many students don’t see eye to eye. Considering that Swarthmore is amongst the most selective colleges and is accompanied by an expensive private-school tuition, class and socioeconomic background are particularly pertinent to our campus.

Questions related to class arise at the very beginning of the college’s admission and financial aid process and continue to affect students in their residential life, academic environment and social activities. Through financial aid and various equalizing programs, the administration seeks to relieve any economic pressures that may impair a student’s range of opportunity or quality of college life — to make class as invisible on campus as possible.

But at the same time, students are bringing issues of class into the public eye, attempting to raise awareness of socioeconomic issues and erase the taboo that surrounds them.

Admissions and Financial Aid

Cost is a major issue in the college-choosing process, both in admissions and in the final decision of where to enroll. Additionally, financial issues may present obstacles to an individual’s continued attendance at an institution. In the admissions and financial aid offices, administrators work to reduce the pressures of cost and maintain economic diversity amongst the student body.

Javier Camacho ‘09 said he had taken money into serious consideration when he applied to college. “Swarthmore was one of the most expensive institutions I applied to,” he said. "I got financial aid and obviously it worked in my favor. Need-blind admissions at Swarthmore works in everyone’s favor and even if you don’t have the money, you still have a chance to come here."

The Swarthmore admissions office is aware that cost is an important factor in the decision-making process and strives for a working philosophy aimed at alleviating cost-related issues by providing need-blind financial aid for admitted students.

“Family class is not a factor in our assessments of our students’ needs for our financial support. Rather, the facts of a student’s family financial situation help us to measure the family’s ability to pay. Income, assets, family size and standard living expenses inform us,” Director of Financial Aid Laura Talbot said. “Expenditures that may be seen by others as measures of class differences - for example, higher rent and mortgage, newer cars, or children’s enrichment programs - do not affect our decisions.”

In addition, the financial aid office considers extra needs of families who may not have employer-provided health insurance or retirement, face child care and elder care expenses, are affected by illnesses or job losses and or struggle to make ends meet.

A student’s financial need does not at all influence admissions decisions and, after the college determines what is fair for the student to pay, full financial aid is guaranteed to provide for the difference between that amount and the actual college tuition.

“One of my concerns is that many of the neediest students are not aware that the most selective and most expensive schools can actually be the most affordable,” Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Jim Bock ’90 said. “Through our need-based financial aid policy, we try to maintain an affordable education.”

This philosophy is common among accredited institutions. The real way that “need-blind” pays out is through financial aid distribution.

Each year, Swarthmore spends about a third of its draw from the endowment for that year on financial aid. This is part of the college’s effort to provide the opportunity for a similar college experience at Swarthmore to students across all different backgrounds.

This school year, 52 percent of the student body received financial aid, and the average financial aid award was $30,176, consisting of loans, campus job opportunities and scholarship funds. Additionally, the college spent a total of $18.4 million in scholarships, an average of $24,162 amongst the students receiving financial aid.

The college spends such a significant part of the endowment on financial aid in order to extend the opportunity of a Swarthmore education to a wide range of students, especially by granting the opportunity to those who normally would not be able to afford such an expensive education on their own.

It is important that the college not only admits students regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic background but, once students are admitted, makes it possible for them to attend regardless of changing financial needs.

Diversity has always been an issue of interest at a college that seeks to maintain a high level of diversity within the student body. In terms of economic diversity, Swarthmore has just recently become partners with Questbridge, an outreach program for high-achieving and high-need students. Questbridge’s aim is to “increase the percentage of talented, low-income students attending the best universities, and excelling beyond” by linking them with a wide range of scholarship opportunities at some of the most selective colleges.

“Historically, we have always provided scholarships to needy students, and in more recent history, there has been a real push to diversify racially.” Bock said. “We remain concerned not only about access for underrepresented students of color, but also students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The Questbridge program is one of our new efforts to reach high-achieving, low-income students.”

Swarthmore has accepted Questbridge students in prior years, but this year was Swarthmore’s first year in the program as an official partner of Questbridge. Many other colleges, such as Williams College, which shares a similar philosophy to Swarthmore, also take part in this outreach program.

“When you consider racial or gender diversity, it’s easy to tell in many cases. But economic diversity is much more difficult, and as we are becoming more aware of these issues, we don’t want students to have to make difficult choices or be sacrificing part of their college experience because of their financial situation,” Associate Dean of Williams College Stephen Sneed said. “They should be a part of the campus and be able to takefrom this wonderful community and education that is offered.”

As part of the Questbridge program, Williams College guarantees a full scholarship to Questbridge students upon their admission and decision to enroll.

Student Life

The way in which the administration addresses issues of class is reflected not only in admissions outreach and financial aid awards, but also in its attempts to support some amount of equalization of class in student life.

The college’s effort to offer equal access to the full Swarthmore experience to all students and normalize class in student life is shown in many different aspects such as the free campus events and the equal cost of different meal plans and housing options. It is a process that lessens the economic pressures that may negatively affect a student’s participation in events or choice of room and board.

Student activities are funded through multiple budgets, including the student activities fee budget and the college budget. The student activities fee budget, also known as the SAC fund, is money that is allocated specifically towards supporting student activities on campus such as parties. This budget is handled by the Student Budget Committee, an entirely student-run body. The college also often supports large scale events as part of the larger college budget. Invited entertainers this academic year included the band The New Pornographers and comedian Wanda Sykes.

In addition to college-funded student activities, the college also provides different meal plan options and housing that remain equivalent in cost.

“It’s a health and wellness issue. We don’t want people to eat less to save money or because they can’t afford it. We want to make sure that money is not an issue for poor students,” Dean of Student Life Myrt Westphal said. “At Swarthmore, you don’t need money to do things and participate in campus events, which is a wonderful selling point for Swarthmore.”

At other schools, it is common for students to have different meal plans and housing costs that force students to make decisions and, in some cases, sacrifices, based on their financial situations. But at Swarthmore every room have the same cost, as do all the different meal plans. No student is forced to compromise his or her room or board, as long as the blanket cost can be paid.

“When I came here, I didn’t think class was going to be a huge issue because Swarthmore does a lot of amazing things in order to ensure everyone has access by making things from printing to student events free,” Scott Storm said. “Swarthmore is leaps and bounds ahead, but we can still be more self-reflective. With Class Awareness Month and the new class activist group, things have been really supportive and hopeful.”

Class Awareness and Activism

Many students agree that class issues are hardly discussed at Swarthmore and have become to an extent a taboo subject. In the opinions of some, Swarthmore students do not wear their wealth and students rarely carry around money.

“At Swarthmore there is no dress-to-impress culture that creates a situation where class doesn’t seem there. Having concerts and parties free and the fact that people don’t carry around cash is great, a step in the right direction. Class still exists on a subtle level but is often tabooed and not brought to the forefront,” Madeleine Case ’09 said.

In a way, this campus environment is a result of the administration’s conscious efforts to prevent economic pressures from interfering with a student’s ability to get the most out of the college experience. Need-blind financial aid in addition to the funds that allow campus events to be free of cost, all contribute to this atmosphere in which money rarely presents itself as an issue.

This can be seen as beneficial in that it allows all students, regardless of their class or financial situation, to take full advantage of the college experience. However, at the same time, this does not solve all issues of class that nevertheless continue to exist. At times, students feel that this environment silences the open discussion of class and socioeconomic issues.

“Swarthmore is open in so many ways, but once we start talking about this one thing, people shut up and close up inside. I always have to wonder, who freezes up more — those who are financially well-off, or the opposite, those who aren’t financially well-off?” Camacho said.

As a response to concerns that class issues are rarely part of an open discussion at Swarthmore, there has been a recent push for increased awareness across campus.

Last November, the Class Awareness Month Committee organized the second Class Awareness Month that consisted of a series of lectures, discussions, open forums and movie screenings pertaining to issues of class. This committee began two years ago, and the first Class Awareness Month was held in November of 2005 for the exact purpose of increasing both awareness and open discussion of class-related issues on campus.

This semester another student group pertaining to class issues, the Class Activists, was founded as an effort to push for the further inclusion of class in discussion at Swarthmore.

“A lot of people felt that socioeconomic class issues were discussed for that month and put on the back burner for the rest of the year, so students wanted to have a group that could do long-term projects on issues of class and host events throughout the year,” Case, who is a member of the CAM committee, said.

Currently, the two major projects underway are a resource guide and oral history project. The resource guide is oriented towards students who come from working-class backgrounds and is a compilation of resources on campus, from academic resources to a list of students and professors who identify as having a working class background.

“The purpose of this project is to provide additional resources especially for students of working-class backgrounds and also to discover where the holes exist in academic resources,” Case said.

The second project is an oral history project, which was actually started two years ago during the first Class Awareness Month. The CAM committee tape-recorded a series of anonymous stories that will be transcribed and released as a small publication.

Just recently, on Wednesday, guest speaker Suniya S. Luthar, professor of psychology and education at Columbia University, gave a lecture titled “Overdrive in Ambition to Achieve: Risks Among ‘Privileged’ Youth and Their Families” dealing with elevated problems of substance abuse, anxiety and depression occuring amongst the privileged class. Not only do class issues exist for the students from working-class backgrounds but they exist among all class groups and thus, concerns all students.

Even with the efforts of the administration to reduce any economic barriers that may compromise a student’s college experience, class remains an ever-present issue on campus. While the college seeks to increase economic diversity in extending opportunities and bringing in students from many different classes and socioeconomic backgrounds, students are dealing with the aftermath that comes about in the discussion of class issues, or lack there of.

Ultimately, there appears to be a collaborative effort within the college to create a healthy environment, without discrimination based on class, while still encouraging the discussion of class issues.

_Additional reporting by Jack Keefe _

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