I would like to hear from any families with current Jewish students at Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Williams, or Amherst. There has been talk on here in the past of an athlete/non-athlete divide at some of these schools in what is an already small campus. Are there any palpable divides around the situation in the Middle East and how is it manifesting itself on your child’s campus? Is there respect for different points of view on this topic? How is the general (before Oct. 7) classroom environment around differing opinions on any topic; is there a feeling that there is groupthink and a predominant way of thinking about literature or history for instance? If possible I would like to hear from current parents and if you’re willing maybe I could send a PM. Thank you.
There are a couple Facebook groups that have discussions about this. I think one is Mothers Against College Antisemitism and one is MOT parenting older teens and beyond. I will say that for every college you will have varying opinions from current students and parents. My understanding is that protests have been more peaceful/less disruptive at LACs (except maybe Claremont Colleges?). My uneducated opinion is that outsiders have been drawn to bigger and better known colleges to amp up chaos and LACs aren’t worth their effort.
Thank you. I am familiar with those. I still wish to hear from current families with Jewish students on these campuses because first-hand opinions can be helpful. Thanks.
This survey-based information offers aggregated opinion on the tangential aspect of “race/class interaction”:
From your group, only Bowdoin appears in the site.
I’m Jewish but my kids do not consider themselves Jewish. I asked my clueless Haverford student about Swarthmore since he takes classes there and he couldn’t even tell me if there was an encampment there. I follow many different Instagram accounts for colleges D25 might apply to. I was a little disappointed that the Amherst queer account was promoting protests.
Highly recommend joining MACA (Moms Against College Antisemitism) on Facebook.
You may want to repeat the same question here since this topic already has some people tracking it:
Thank you. Just did!
There is an encampment at Swarthmore. Here’s a link to the school paper following it. Though it’s been radio silence the last few days, maybe for exams. Live Updates: Students Occupy Parrish Lawn in Support of Palestine - The Phoenix
I know I’m chiming in late but if you see this, absolutely join this group. There are many parents of Jewish students who will tell you what is truly going on at the campuses their children are at and have even offered to put people in touch with the students to find the real deal. From what I’ve seen, administrators, faculty, etc. will not tell you the truth. A lot of campus, including Swarthmore, have been reported as having many antisemitic incidents (not ‘just’ anti-Israel), and this is something you need to take seriously (note I don’t have any personal experience at Swarthmore or any other school, I’m just going by what I’ve read which may have been countered by others, so don’t take anything as gospel truth).
But from what I understand though the situation is BAD is many or most schools, although of course some are worse than others. You are absolutely right to look into this and decide whether the current levels of racism are something you can tolerate or get around. This may be easier in large schools - my daughter went to Northeasatern which has a number of incidents when she was there, however because she was a business major, only went occasionally to the Student Union (there was a dining hall closer), and didn’t live in any of the three dorms that were targeted, she never encountered any problems. In a small LAC, it won’t be as easy to get away. Also note that some campuses have very loud people shouting about things that 90 percent of students ignore, so their reputation may be worse than the actuality. On the other hand there are some colleges that have been very affected, and you should check carefully so you know what you’re getting into.
There’s also other FB groups including one called Anti-Zionism on campus, but believe Mothers Against College Anti-Semitism is the one most focused on student experiences.
Thank you. We are familiar with that Facebook page and have found it very helpful. (I just wanted to post here because I think the conversation on here is also very thoughtful and sometimes it seems easier on here to be more focused with one’s inquiries.) Totally agree with you that a campus’ reputation can be worse than reality, and it really helps to have insiders providing the observations. Swarthmore is one that I would like to know more about, so if anyone reading this has a student or recent student there with specific observations, please send a PM or reply to this post. Thank you again.
Yes and there is also a pure numbers thing at play. Let’s say 1% of a college’s student population consists potential hard core, obstructionist protestors. That’s 270 people at Columbia and 20 at Amherst. (I am including grad students because the average age of people arrested at Columbia was not 21, it was like 26.)
You’re completely right, although as stated a few very vocal people or groups can have an outsized effect in terms of reputation. It also depends on the student and what kind of people they are likely to meet given their major and extracurriculars, and also how much anti-Israel/anti-semitic protests affect them. I wrote that my daughter, a business major who spent much of her time at the business school which is a distance from where the protests take place, whose extracurriculars involved business topics, and who tends to ignore things that don’t directly affect her or that she finds unpleasant, didn’t have any problems even though her school is well-known, in this area at least, as having many issues around anti-Israel protests and incidents involving both students and administrators. If she were a political science major interested in social justice and hip-hop, she would have a completely different experience.
I also have a relative who graduated from Oberlin, which also has a reputation for being very anti-israel, about 6 years ago. When I asked him about the situation on campus, I was surprised to hear him say that they were a small but very loud minority of students and that the vast majority disagreed with them. Both students were brought up with a strong sense of Jewish identity, attended Hebrew School, had bar/bat mitzvahs, participated in Jewish programs at high school, etc., so they weren’t ‘cultural Jews’ who often wouldn’t recognize an anti-semitic statement if it fell on them. I’m sure the situation is different and much worse now, but it shows how different reputation can be from reality, and how two students could perceive the same school differently depending on their major and extracurricular activities.
More than 2,900 people have been arrested on campuses nationwide for participating in pro-Palestinian encampments, according to a tracker from the New York Times, as universities let campus, city, and state police use varying degrees of force.
Swarthmore College's pro-Palestinian encampment disbands after 4 weeks
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.