For my project, I wanted to look more closely at the relationships within these student organizations and learn more about how Swarthmore students act on what they know, together. Returning to one of my initial research question of how young people build political cultures, I wanted to know about students’ experiences of political/advocacy groups on campus and how these groups’ presence (or lack thereof) contributed to their sociopolitical development.

Swarthmore’s Political Culture

Culture within student groups

People had generally positive things to share about the culture within their respective organizations, describing their groups as:

• inclusive
• enthusiastic
• chill
• passionate
• welcoming
• and communal

This makes sense as for many students who decide to join a student club, it’s meant to be a reprieve from our schoolwork and offer us the things listed above and more. Other patterns that arose from the data include:

• Members experiencing considerable exhaustion and burnout.
• Some groups have leaderless, collaborative structure while others operate within a hierarchy- shaping members’ experience of the group enough for them to mention it.

In the interviews, participants shared how much time they pour into their student organizations, while another participant shared their hesitation about bringing up issues to a club’s executive board, and frustration with a student group’s lack of inclusivity. And ultimately, the culture within the groups is reflected in the larger campus culture.

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Campus Political Culture

Respondents were asked to “describe Swarthmore’s political or activist culture”, whether they belonged to a political student organization or otherwise. The following are the key findings:

– About 50% of respondents describe activism on this campus as “performative” and insincere.

The topic of performance came up again in this part of the data. Respondents described the activism that many students pursue as “performative”, lacking follow-through and ineffective. Respondents also explained that their peers seem more-so concerned with building a resume than solving the problem. Many respondents also said that activist culture on campus is “non-existent” or “vacant”.

– Swarthmore’s political culture is reflective of Swarthmore’s overall culture.

Swarthmore as an academically rigorous institution demands a lot of its students, to the detriment of their well-being. Many of the negative aspects students use to describe the political culture (“burnout”, “toxic”, “exclusive”, “elitist”, “surface-level”) can also be said of the College’s academic/work culture, social culture, etc.

“I think that my “all or nothing” mentality developed after coming to Swarthmore College, so I would say that the political culture here reflects that mentality as well. I also feel like sometimes, the political culture here is simultaneously too deep and too shallow at the same time.”

survey respondent

– The pandemic devastated the transfer of institutional knowledge and students’ capacities to practice activism.

Again, the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the transfer of knowledge to incoming class years. Because of this, coupled with burnout from the ongoing pandemic, & the different ways students have to rely on the institution, etc., Swarthmore’s political culture, according to respondents, has been repressed.

We used to have a super activist culture (I’m thinking the frat sit-in), but covid really cut off that cultural history from the current student body in a way that was super intentional so it feels much less like people practice or understand activism and their own political power. 

survey respondent

– Unsustainable, sporadic, disorganized, & isolated

Many respondents described groups being isolated from one another, and their actions being “disorganized” and ever-changing as students graduate and new students join. According to respondents, the political culture at Swarthmore is being maintained by a small few – who take on the incredible amount of the labor.

“In some ways I think the standard is very high, in other ways I think it is very low, and the distinction depends on your social circles. In some spaces attending an action or posting once in a while on social media can get you a reputation as an activist, and in others people don’t consider you committed enough unless you can give as much time as they can. It’s confusing and can be discouraging. I think the goal shouldn’t be to gain the title of activist, it should be to do as much as you can while still feeling happily balanced in how you spend your time.”

survey respondent

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Commitments

Lastly, I asked students about their commitments, what their commitments mean to them and how they try to live them out.

How important is it to you to be working for social justice?

49% of respondents answered “Very Important”, 37% answered “Important”, 12% answered “Important” and 2% answered “Not Important”.

When asked “how does this commitment show up in your everyday life”, respondents answered that it shows up in:

“I try my best to attend to my personal and interpersonal relationship as the most important reflection of my social justice work – If I can’t show up for my people most immediately in my life, how can I be expected to do the same for those I claim to being fighting for?”

survey respondent

Several respondents haven’t integrated their commitment to social justice in their lives. Some intend to after college. Others do not or cannot.

“I think I try to do what I can on an individual basis, but the culture around and in social justice organizations deter me from actively getting involved.”

survey respondent

“It doesn’t show up that much, school takes a lot of my time/attention”

survey respondent