Hello, I was recently accepted into Swarthmore, and I am heavily leaning towards attending. The question I have, to either alumni or current students, is how intense are political movements in Swarthmore, and how much do they coincide with daily life? Because I honestly don’t want to be attending a class, then have some divestment group barge in and protest.
Are political movements a large part of the Swarthmore experience?
Nah, they don’t barge into classes and disrupt professors and students. Every year the “political” movements come and go. Some are pretty intense, but certainly no one is forced to be involved. They may be noisy, but they don’t take over the whole campus.
I live on top of the divestment sit in. They don’t bother me, and I say hi to them on the way to class. No one has ever confronted me about joining their cause.
You can make it as large as you want it to be, honestly. I like talking about these issues but I have plenty of friends who don’t.
I agree, but some political movements are prominent. Most of these interactions will depend on your friend group. Some friend groups stay out of Swarthmore politics while others seem to talk about it all the time. If you’re against being around activists, Swarthmore might not be right for you. That being said, they aren’t (usually) in your face. There are exceptions to every rule, but I think being around such passionate individuals has made me more passionate about the things that I care for.
Also – some professors are vocal for causes they are close to. For example, one religion professor is a strong divestment advocate so I have heard he is vocal in his classes. Other professors tend to stay out of the limelight. It really depends.