Swarthmore College was incorporated in 1864, when the Civil War in the U.S. was raging still. Today, our campus community is one among many institutions across the country on the front lines of a discordant political moment and under the weight of intense national scrutiny. That is a truth. “Polarization isn’t just happening ‘out there’ — it’s happening to us, too,” says Associate Professor of Economics Syon Bhanot. “And if we don’t create academic spaces where ideas can be exchanged, even counter-attitudinal ones, we in academia risk further marginalization from broader society.”
Barbara Stubbs Cochran ’67 is doing her part. “The First Amendment is the unique American innovation to codify freedom of the press as part of our Constitution,” says Stubbs Cochran, who is leading efforts to build a monument to honor fallen journalists. “You’ll read the words, and then you’ll look up and see the Capitol dome rising above this glass wall, which symbolizes journalism as a pillar of democracy, and also the role of journalists as watchdogs over the government.”
Watchdogs in science are crucial as well. You don’t make money studying Tuberculosis, says molecular biologist Elizabeth Campbell ’92. “It’s not profitable,” she says. “The patient population can’t afford expensive drugs, and they tend to be neglected.” But Campbell, the Corinne P. Greenberg Women & Science Professor at Rockefeller University, is working to defeat the disease and is committed to advancing diversity in science. “When I would go to seminars and meetings, a lot of times, I was the only woman of color,” Campbell says. “So I’m trying to see if we can fix that, too.” Other stories of alumni, students, faculty, and staff who seek light — who work for it — include World Wildlife Fund’s Andreas Beckmann ’90. “I have learned that it is important to find your meaning, to live in truth,” Beckmann tells us. “We need to do what we think is important, to do what gives our fleeting lives meaning. For me, that truth is to treasure nature — because it is wonderful, awe-inspiring, and because we depend on it for our very well-being and existence.”
Newly graduated Dylan Scollon ’25 — the first in his family to attend college — found his path through a summer internship: “I want to bring greenery to urban spaces where it’s been systematically removed or underappreciated,” he says. “It’s about reconnecting people with nature for their own sake and for the benefit of the environment.”
Language is the keeper of memory, Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o said. We’re cautious with our language now. What and how much we say. How we say it. Who we say it to. A bracing academic culture that thrives on engagement, debate, and discourse is wary. But read this issue and know that Swarthmore here — and afar — remains steadfast in its support of free academic inquiry, equity, and pursuit of the light that knowledge brings to us all.
Kate Campbell
Editor/ Editorial Director
