Swarthmore College Student Strike Suspended
Photo courtesy of The Phoenix, Swarthmore College’s newspaper.
Members of the Black Affinity Coalition, which organized a student strike that began November 16, suspended the strike on November 26.
Approximately one third of the student body joined the action, which protested what the coalition calls the college’s complicity in violence against Black and Indigenous students and students belonging to other marginalized groups. The group held three community town halls to discuss their concerns. College administrators declined to attend these sessions, in part because the organizers remained anonymous, college president Valerie Smith wrote in an open email to the community on November 19.
In an Instagram post announcing the suspension (Instagram handle @nolongermindingthelight), the coalition reported that “a number of faculty made a written commitment to work with us as we fight for this change.” The coalition expressed its desire to work with college faculty, staff, and administrators to change college structures to better support marginalized students.
