A RETURN TO THE IVORY TOWER

“When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful. A miracle, oh, it was beautiful, magical”

                                                                        Supertramp

My alma mater, Swarthmore is a small liberal arts college along the main line outside of Philadelphia. I graduated in 1973. This past weekend was our milestone 50th class reunion. My spouse and I were returning home from the Delmarva Peninsula and decided to drop in on the celebration. We joined an invigorated group of seventy-somethings catching up after half a century.

Founded in 1864 by Philadelphia Quakers, Swarthmore College was one of the first coeducational colleges in the country. While the religious affiliation was discontinued years ago, the Quaker spirit continues to permeate the college community.

An ivory tower is defined as “a state of privileged seclusion that provides a separation from the facts and practicalities of the real world.” Present-day Swarthmore College is the embodiment of this definition. The seclusion is unmistakable once you leave the congested Baltimore Pike and turn onto the tree-lined village of Swarthmore PA. Crum Creek, its meadowland, and woods surround the college. The campus is a nationally recognized arboretum with a large staff to attend to the diverse natural setting.

 Modern-day Swarthmore College is organized with a singular goal in mind, to provide an environment for academic excellence with no outside interference. Every possible student need is addressed from dormitory room maid service to allowances for all diet/food preferences to free academic books for underprivileged students. Over the course of four years, there is no need to leave the campus. For those that want to escape for a day into the Center City of Philadelphia, train passes are provided.

The College now has 1650 students and a low student-faculty ratio of 8-1. It is an elite academic institution that recruits a diverse student body from around the world.

Each year the admissions staff cobbles together an academically sound, diverse freshman class, regardless of financial need. To accomplish this goal, Swarthmore has one of the largest small college endowments of over $one billion. The college meets 100% of the determined need of all admitted students. Ninety percent of the students attend professional schools after graduation. Swarthmore’s alumni have attained prominence in a broad range of fields, including five Noble prizes.

 Those attending the reunion reminded me that our class had broken the mold of the monastic Swarthmore academic life. When we arrived on campus in September of 1969, some of us were veterans of the turbulent 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, others of the divisive Vietnam War. A number of freshmen (myself included) had attended the Woodstock music festival the month before classes began. The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were fresh in our minds. The civil rights movement and the Vietnam conflict were in full swing. Our thoughts were oriented outward toward a nation in turmoil.

The campus itself was in disarray following the January 1969 takeover of the Swarthmore Admissions Office. Black students were protesting a lack of black faculty and few black history or culture courses.  In the days following the takeover, nine hundred students and faculty gathered to express their support. On the eighth day of the takeover, College President Courtney Smith suffered a massive heart attack and died. No permanent replacement was found during our time as students.

For our first year, the Swarthmore ivory tower did not exist because of the campus and outside disruptions. All classes were pass-fail for the only time in school history. The Kent State shootings occurred in March of 1970. Classes were canceled when the Nixon administration invaded Cambodia in April 1970, which permitted students to participate in the Washington DC anti-war marches.

Domestic issues settled down, and the ivory tower returned for our final three years at Swarthmore. After graduation, many of us did not remain politically active and turned to mundane lifestyles, professional careers, and families. I was curious to see what our four years at Swarthmore had wrought fifty years after the fact. In addition, I was interested in how the college community had changed. I left the reunion with some interesting impressions.

First, members of our class utilized their liberal arts education in unique ways. Dance and drama students applied these talents to become better lawyers. English majors started successful nonprofits. Science majors became entrepreneurs in the dot-com era. A political science major joined the Jimmie Carter White House before he was 25.

Second, many in our class of 1973 are now in retirement mode trying to wind down from rigorous professional careers. The liberal arts education Swarthmore provided has become an excellent segue into new pastimes in the arts, history, philosophy, and literature.

Third, the college seems more self-centered than I remember and overly smug about “doing the best right thing.” Just because Princeton University has installed an expensive geothermal energy system does not mean that Swarthmore needed to follow suit by digging up much of its campus to install a carbon-neutral heating structure.  Less invasive technologies will soon be available.

Finally, the college’s President Valerie Smith honored our class with a luncheon address. She is Swarthmore’s second female and first African American President. She is also a distinguished scholar of African American literature. Without question, the last half century has produced important social progress since a former President, also named Smith, suffered that fatal heart attack while negotiating with Black students.