<p>The concensus among students on the Swat Live Journal site is that pot smoking is not particularly widespread. [I would guess that is particularly true in the last month or so, since Swat’s only known campus pot dealer was put out of action earlier this semester!]</p>
<p>This view seems to be supported by the federal campus crime stats. For the most recent three-year period from 2001-2003:</p>
<p>Swarthmore had 3 drug law arrests and 7 drug law disciplinary actions.</p>
<p>Grinnell had 1 arrest and 27 disciplinary actions.</p>
<p>Amherst had 8 arrests and 27 disciplinary actions.</p>
<p>Williams had 29 arrests and 78 disciplinary actions.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is more than twice the size, so factor that into the numbers. It had 41 drug law arrests and 68 disciplinary actions.</p>
<p>In the federal crime stats, colleges with large numbers of alcohol sanctions also tend to have the most drug law sanctions.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is like any other college campus. Kids drink. Kids smoke pot. But, neither is a notably heavy part of the social scene. Drinking is much more common than pot smoking. This is probably a change from my generation, when Swat was a counter-culture campus and pot smoking was extremely common at all of these schools. </p>
<p>Back in the late 60’s/early 70’s, Mary Lyons was the dope-smokers dorm at Swarthmore. Before that, in the late 50’s/early 60s (when Dean Gross lived there), it was the “beatnik” dorm. Now, it’s the science fiction/role playing gamers dorm. These days, if you want to smoke pot, Hollowell is probably your best bet since it’s just about the only dorm that allows smoking, period.</p>
<p>I read the description of Swarthmore you are referring to on the Dartmouth board. Suffice to say, that it wasn’t terribly accurate. I haven’t seen any accounts of flags being burned at Swarthmore in recent decades, although it sounds like something that occurred on many campuses at the height of the anti-Vietnam War days. More than likely a few bras were burned back in the day, as well.</p>