Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff Members,

On behalf of Board of Managers Chair Harold "Koof" Kalkstein ’78, I write to share a summary of the May Board meeting. The full Board met on campus on May 1-2. My thanks to Student Government Organization President Abby Guise ’26 and Vice President Luca Campiani ’26, as well as Associate Professor of Art History Patricia Reilly and Women’s Head Soccer Coach Todd Anckaitis, for serving as student and faculty board observers.

The meeting covered a wide range of topics. On Friday, Director of the Center for Innovation & Leadership Susannah Fishman and Assistant Vice President and Executive Director of Career Services Claire Klieger provided an overview of the work their offices are doing to help students navigate the challenges and uncertainty of today’s world and help prepare them for long-term personal and professional success.

The Board also met with faculty members on the Academic Freedom Task Force about updates to the College’s Academic Freedom Policy, which the faculty approved last month. Informed by the conversation, the Board will bring the policy for approval in the fall. My thanks to the following members of the task force, both for attending the meeting and engaging in the discussion, and also for all of the good work they’ve done to develop the policy:

• Tia Newhall, Centennial Professor of Computer Science and Task Force Chair 
• Giovanna Di Chiro, Professor of Environmental Studies
• Bruce Dorsey, Professor of History
• Tamsin Lorraine, Professor of Philosophy
• Nsoki Mamie Mavinga, Professor of Mathematics
• Jedidiah Siev, Associate Professor of Psychology 

Most of the College’s newly tenured and promoted faculty spent time with the managers during lunch on Friday; several managers shared that it was among the highlights of the weekend. After lunch, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Rich Wicentowski offered the Board some reflections on his first year in the role.

Board Membership

The Board thanked five managers who are concluding their service: Liz Economy ’84, Antoinette Sayeh ’79, Tom Spock ’78, Sujatha Srinivasan ’01, and Bryan Wolf ’84. Each of these individuals volunteers an extraordinary amount of time and energy to the College. On behalf of the entire community, we are grateful for their contributions and look forward to their continued engagement as dedicated alumni. 

The Board elected Lauren Glant ’83 as its new vice chair. Lauren, who joined the Board in 2021, will assume her new position on July 1. The Board also approved three managers to join the Board on July 1: Jeremy Brest ’90 and Colin Convey ’97 are first-time managers, and Thomas Hartnett ’94, P’26, will rejoin the Board after previously serving from 2011 to 2023. We will share more on their backgrounds and connections to the College as their appointment draws near. The Board also approved two emeritus members: Leslie Jewett ’77 and Salem Shuchman ’84.

We appreciate all of these individuals for agreeing to volunteer their time and energy to the College.

Finally, this was Koof’s final meeting before his term as chair concludes on June 30, and Gustavo “Gus” Schwed ’84 begins his appointment as chair. The managers recognized Koof for his steady, thoughtful, and strategic leadership. On a personal note, I’d like to thank Koof for being an extraordinary partner these past four years. Koof will remain on the Board after his term as chair, and we look forward to his continued contributions.

Financial Landscape

The Board continues to spend most of its time focused on the College’s financial challenges, as it has over the past several meetings. We continue to see our largest cost drivers grow faster than our revenue. Those include programs such as financial aid, salary and benefits, and building and facility improvements. We are fortunate that the strength of our endowment enables it to support nearly 60% of our operating expenses each year. But as our costs grow, the endowment spending rate has reached the upper limits of our spending policy, which is designed to maintain the endowment as a source of intergenerational equity, ensuring that the Swarthmore community of the future enjoys the same level of investment and opportunity that we experience today.

These financial realities have led to budget deficits in the past several years, which we’ve had to cover using reserve funds. For the current fiscal year, we projected a $5.5 million budget deficit. Absent any changes, if we continued with business as usual, we’d face an estimated $12.2 million deficit in fiscal year 2027, and that would grow to a projected $36 million by fiscal year 2031. Obviously, that trajectory is unsustainable.

Fortunately, and as I’ve shared in the past, we are operating from a strong financial position relative to most colleges and universities. That affords us time to address these challenges over the next several years. To be clear, we will continue to strengthen the student experience and invest in our campus community members. We are not facing acute austerity, but we must curb spending to slow the growth of our expenses.

2026-27 Budget

The fiscal year 2026-27 operating budget includes modest growth of 3.7% over last year, and includes investments that are core to our mission. For instance, we are increasing our financial aid budget by 7.4% to more than $71 million, and we are increasing faculty, staff, and student pay (see below for more details).

We are also investing in the College’s strategic plan, Swarthmore Forward, in various ways, including by: 

• Funding two new tenure-track faculty positions that were approved in 2025, and approving three additional tenure-track lines, which the Committee on Educational Policy will allocate in the 2026-27 academic year. 
• Expanding our partnership with the Constructive Dialogue Institute to help strengthen our ability to engage in dialogue across differences.
• Joining the Transfer Together Program, a 12-day immersive program hosted by Bryn Mawr College aimed at preparing community college students for life at a residential liberal arts college. 
• Expanding internship opportunities sponsored by the Center for Innovation & Leadership and adding a staff member in Career Services. 
• Moving forward with the Well-being Everywhere initiative, including adding a full-time counselor in Counseling and Psychological Services and a new director of health promotion to lead the implementation of Well-being Everywhere. 

Given the financial realities described above, these strategic investments cannot be strictly additive to the budget; we must offset them, as well as other rising costs. We are taking several steps to do so. For instance, we are again making modest budget reductions in areas such as travel, catering, professional development, memberships and subscriptions, and equipment purchases. We are extending the time between computer replacements for employees. And we are updating how overtime pay is calculated, using hours actually worked rather than factoring in paid time off. The Human Resources Office will be in touch with supervisors to share more information on that adjustment.

Our SEPTA programs for students, faculty, and staff are both popular and successful, and we are committed to continue funding them, with some small modifications. The student SEPTA Key Advantage UPass program will be in effect for nine months rather than 10, running from September through May. We are also increasing the copay for the Faculty and Staff SEPTA Key Advantage UPass program from $35 to $40 per month, effective Jan. 1, 2027.

Salaries and Benefits

Our costs to provide employee healthcare have grown dramatically, and we made modest adjustments to our cost-sharing model in the fall. We plan to do so again this year, and we will provide more details as we get closer to the open enrollment period. We will continue to cover close to 90% of these costs this coming fiscal year. Moving forward, we will need to continue evaluating our cost-share model. Future changes will be informed by both our financial circumstances and peer benchmarking data to ensure we continue offering highly competitive benefits. 

The Board recognizes that rising costs are taking a toll on many of you and your families and has accepted our recommendation to move forward with pay increases for faculty, staff, and students this coming fiscal year.

Staff Members: Effective July 1, staff members hired before April 1 will receive a 3% pay increase. Staff members hired between April 1 and May 31 will receive a prorated increase based on their hire date. 

Faculty and Instructional Staff Members: Benefits-eligible faculty and instructional staff members on continuing appointments from the 2025-26 academic year will receive an increase between 2.1% and 4%. These increases reflect the College’s long-standing commitment to pay faculty 102.5% of the average of our peer institutions. The Provost’s Office will communicate more details directly to department chairs, and faculty will be notified of their specific pay increases when salary letters become available this summer.

Student Workers: Effective July 1, all hourly student wage tiers will increase by 25 cents per hour*, resulting in a student worker minimum wage of $15.75 per hour. The majority of student workers will earn between $16.50 and $17.25 per hour, based on the position responsibilities.

Moving Forward

A liberal arts education teaches us to meet complex problems with curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to work across our differences. Our ability to do so will serve us well in the years ahead as we face a challenging financial landscape amid an unpredictable future. Working together, we will emerge stronger and better positioned to advance the College's mission.

With gratitude,

Val Smith
President
Roy J. and Linda G. Shanker Presidential Chair

*While the hourly student wages in President Smith's original message were accurate, the stated increase should have read "... all hourly student wage tiers will increase by 25 cents per hour ... ," rather than .50 cents per hour. The message has been updated to correct the typo.