Swarthmore College Students to Stay Off Campus, Commencement Will Be Virtual

Parrish Hall at Swarthmore College. Photo courtesy of Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College President Valerie Smith contacted faculty, staff, students, and families on March 17 to announce that the college would continue educating its students remotely, through online classes, through the end of the semester. The disruption to residential college life is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The college’s original plan had been to extend spring break for an extra week to give faculty and staff time to prepare to teach remotely temporarily, then have students return to campus starting April 6.

Smith cited the unprecedented nature of the global health crisis as the crux of her decision. “Though we know this is the right thing to do for the health and safety of our community, and society more broadly, it is no less heartbreaking.” She pledged the college’s continued dedication to teaching and community, to supporting students who have financial burdens, and to providing housing and food to students with no safe place to go.

Commencement, too, will be affected. “All of us were looking forward to gathering together under the canopy of tulip and white oak trees,” Smith wrote. A planning committee will develop a “creative virtual alternative” to be held, in all likelihood, on the already scheduled date of Sunday, May 24.

All campus activities will be canceled through at least May 31.

Students, mostly home with their families, are trying to absorb the information. “The school didn’t have to go about this the way they did,” said senior Abigail Goodman. Although Smith’s email promised that college would provide housing and meals for students without safe homes to return to, Goodman’s experience tells her otherwise. “I know so many low-income students, and kids from homes of abuse, who have been left out to dry.” She said it was disheartening not to have graduation or senior week rescheduled. 

Gina Goosby, also a senior, thought the college’s decision was overdue. When she first heard that students would be returning to campus April 6, she believed the date was likely to be revised. “Am I bummed out over commencement?” she said. “Sure. I’ll miss Last Collection and taking sweaty photos in my gown and stuff. But I know it’s in the interest of public health.”

Senior Alexis Davis feels the virtual graduation is a slap in the face, especially for first-generation college students “who have overcome tremendous things to get to this point. We deserve to be celebrated,” she said. 

Smith ended her email by quoting the motto of Swarthmore’s class of 1918 — the year the Spanish flu swept the country — which is inscribed in stone near Parrish Hall. “Non nobis sed omnibus,” it reads. “Not for ourselves only, but for all.”