The next morning, College staff members discovered vandalized property at the encampment; the Big Chair was covered with graffiti containing abhorrent statements celebrating violence and promoting hate. As the protest continued, the number of individuals involved varied, ranging from 8-10 at times, and growing to approximately 50-60 individuals. Many remained fully masked and refused to provide identification when asked. The College began issuing interim suspensions to those students who could be identified.

As the protest carried into a third day, an increasing number of faculty and staff members as well as other students — including non-U.S. citizens — expressed concerns about the ramifications of the encampment.

SJP continued to promote the protest on social media, drawing the attention of law enforcement agencies, who urged the College to bring the encampment to an end as quickly as possible.

With rising concerns about safety and security on campus, a continued and growing presence of individuals unaffiliated with the College, and no signs that protesters were willing to engage in conversation that would bring the encampment to an end, President Valerie Smith made what she described as the “terribly difficult” decision to call local law enforcement for assistance.

On May 3, approximately 35 police officers, led by Swarthmore Borough Police, arrived on campus. Police and staff from Student Affairs offered protesters one last opportunity to leave or face trespassing charges. Ultimately, police arrested and removed nine people, only two of whom — a current student and a former student — were affiliated with the College.

“As painful as this moment is, I hope it can also serve as an inflection point — a chance to return to the principles that have long defined our community,” Smith wrote in a message to the community following the arrests. “We can choose to engage across our differences with openness and curiosity, to challenge one another’s assumptions with both conviction and respect, and to lead with care and compassion, even in the most trying times. In doing so, we can build upon what binds us together, and foster a more resilient and inclusive future.”

The statement, published in April by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, came weeks into the administration’s mounting campaign against higher education, and hours after Harvard University became the first school to sue the government over threats to its funding. Harvard is one of several institutions hit with huge funding cuts and demands they relinquish significant institutional autonomy.

In part, the statement reads: “As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses.”

“This is an example of a much bigger challenge,” U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen ’83, H’14 (D-Md.) said of the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. “Because my view is when you start picking on the most vulnerable people, and you push and push and push, and you get away with it, then you take the next bite.”

“The world we lived in was dismantled overnight.”

he College community gathered in jubilant celebration on May 2 as the long-standing Black Studies Program was officially recognized as an academic department with a major. Held at the Black Cultural Center (BCC) and Singer Hall, the event marked a turning point in the College’s academic and cultural life — decades in the making.

The celebration began on the BCC’s front porch, where faculty, students, staff, alumni, and supporters gathered to honor those who built the foundation for this moment. Among the speakers were President Valerie Smith; Joseph Derrick Nelson, chair of Black Studies; Brooke Vick, vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion; Clement Cottingham Jr., the first director of the Black Studies Program; and several of the co-authors of Seven Sisters and a Brother, the landmark 2019 memoir chronicling Black student activism at Swarthmore in the 1960s.

Nelson welcomed the crowd to this “historic celebration,” and stressed the decades of collective effort that led to the department’s formation, especially the work of the Black Studies faculty committee and those who helped craft the formal proposal. “Without our collective effort, this day would not have been possible,” he said, giving credit to many professors, past and present, across the disciplines who helped to shape the department.

“These early professors were fierce advocates for change, beloved teachers, and mentors who left a lasting imprint on this campus and on generations of students,” Smith said.

Her remarks were followed by those of Vick, who offered a powerful address contextualizing the national climate surrounding Black Studies and DEI work.

“History-making change doesn’t happen all at once, nor is it linear,” she said. “Forward steps, especially in the march toward racial justice and liberation, are often met with backward steps, frequently driven by a backlash rooted in fear.” Vick called the establishment of the Black Studies Department “all the more meaningful” in this era when institutions elsewhere are dismantling similar programs.“They want people to believe that diversity work is about exclusion,” Vick said. “But this is what it’s about. It is about creating spaces where representation not only matters but is delivered. “Today is for Black joy,” she added, “and I’m thrilled to be sharing it with you.”

The ceremony also honored 12 graduating seniors pursuing Black Studies, including Brandon Archer, Journey Moore-Prewitt, and Akeyia Nichols, who combined Black Studies with majors in English, biology, and educational studies, respectively. Several Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows also attended, five of whom — Archer among them — are headed to prestigious Ph.D. programs this fall, the most ever for both Swarthmore and the fellowship program.

Several co-authors of Seven Sisters and a Brother shared reflections, including mention of Professor Emerita of History Allison Dorsey’s Black Liberation 1969 project that prompted their interest in documenting their story. Marilyn Holifield ’69 informed the crowd that she and her co-authors had donated all of the royalties from the book to the College.

Holifield then jubilantly announced that she and her co-authors had recently succeeded in raising more than $100,000 to endow a College fund named for their book. The fund will benefit Black Studies, Holifield noted with great emphasis, “in perpetuity.” — RYAN DOUGHERTY

Once, shooting hotels required traveling with 10 cases of precision equipment. Setting up for a portrait could take up to two hours. Camera phones, with all the options at one’s fingertip, “freed me up,” he says, for spontaneous shots like this one. After all, “the real instrument is the eye,” Aubry says. A former teacher of photography, “I’d teach now that equipment is very secondary.” One exercise he used to give to students: Go into a church or other intriguing spot with only a pad and pencil — not your camera — and in 15 minutes, jot down what you would shoot. “No one ever came up with the same subject matter,” he says.

Aubry and daughter Valerie have been brought closer together with Valerie’s “daunting task” of digitizing 30 years of her father’s photos and creating a website, DanielAubryPhotography.com, of the most iconic. Aubry calls his son-in-law, Jay Heubert ’73, professor emeritus of law and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, “a great educator.”

More than any art class or lecture, the 90-year-old credits the conceptual thinking he learned at Swarthmore with honing his award-winning technique. “I was making pictures, not taking pictures,” he emphasizes. “I’d see the picture in my mind — think it through — then go out and create it.”

— ELLEN RYAN

In doing so, the team booked a ticket to the opening round tourney of the national championship, but they missed going to the national finals by a whisker.

What makes the Swarthmore victory so unusual is that the team is student-run, with no official faculty mentorship, and no well-heeled, in-house law school behind it for advice and support. These happy few, this band of future barristers, do it on their own. Mock trial competitions are highly structured simulations of what students might eventually face as attorneys in a courtroom.

For the AMTA events, the organization releases a packet of files containing all the materials for a single case that will be argued in all competitions that year, except the national finals. The teams compete in head-to-head fashion, one team as plaintiff and the other as defendant, with team members playing the roles of attorneys and witnesses as well. At the February Regional Tournament, held at American University in Washington, D.C., the Swarthmore A team topped rival schools that are perennial contenders at the national championship each year.

— CHRIS QUIRK

— CARA ANDERSON

Alexia, a first-generation American, graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in economics and political science. After graduation, she began her career as a legal intake specialist at the Rian Immigrant Center in Boston. Most recently, Alexia worked as a paralegal in the pro bono initiative unit at MetroWest Legal Services in Miami. She had planned to attend Harvard Law School this fall.

Jared, originally from Weston, Mass., graduated with a B.A. in economics and political science. He was a four-year member of the men’s basketball team and contributed to squads that won a Centennial Conference championship and reached the NCAA Division III National Championship game for the first time in program history.

He most recently worked as a paralegal at DW Partners in New York City and planned to attend law school in the fall.

Michael was a neurosurgeon and the executive medical director of neuroscience at Rochester Regional Health. He and Joy, a pelvic surgeon and founder of Boston Pelvic Health and Wellness, met while training at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Their survivors include their daughter, Anika, who was not on the plane with the family. Swarthmore will celebrate their lives when and in ways that their families feel are most meaningful. “Please join us in sending them peace and light,” Smith said.