Social Responsibility

Committee Members

  • Sabrina Martinez, Chair
  • Ben Berger**, Vice Chair
  • Jenny Hourihan Bailin****
  • Way-Ting Chen*****
  • Thom Collins
  • Janet Erlick ****
  • Emily Gasser**
  • Eleanor Joseph
  • Lucy Lang
  • Cindi Leive
  • Aashish Panta '26**
  • Dawn Porter
  • Pam Shropshire**
  • Martha Spanninger****
  • Lina Verghese '25**
  • Brooke Vick**
  • BoHee Yoon*****

**Non-board member
***Former board member
*****Former Alumni Council

Committee Charge

The Committee on Social Responsibility is charged with reflecting upon the College's commitment, in association with the fulfillment of its institutional mission, to prepare and motivate students to engage issues of social responsibility facing our communities and societies and to set their own paths as responsible citizens toward shaping a more inclusive, just, and compassionate world. The committee will suggest, encourage, evaluate, and facilitate the development of internal community practices, educational programs, and institutional outreach initiatives, which build on the distinctive strengths of the College in meeting these ends. As the College's work in these areas progresses, the committee will likewise reflect upon what the College and it have achieved - the objectives it has defined and related problems and accomplishments - and prepare accounts of that experience that might be helpful to other institutions with similar goals.

The Committee shall be composed of Managers, Officers of the College, members of the faculty of the College, members of the staff of the College, students of the College, and representatives of the Alumni Council, the number of members in each category to be determined by the Board from time to time. The Committee will report its deliberations and recommendations to the Board, to other committees of the Board as appropriate, and to the campus community.

 

Telling Our Stories: Amplifying Indigenous Voices In North America

Connie Walker (Cree), an award-winning investigative journalist and host of the acclaimed Gimlet Media podcast Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s joined in conversation with Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Adrienne Benally (Navajo) at a virtual event at Swarthmore. Her work has exposed the crisis of violence in Indigenous communities and the devastating impacts of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian Residential Schools in Canada and the U.S. In 2022, Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s was named one of the best podcasts of the year by The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and Vulture.

(Re)Imagining Public Education Post-Pandemic: A Focus on Equity and Racial Justice with Dean Noguera

On November 10, 2022, Pedro Noguera, the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of the Rossier School of Education and a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Southern California, joined Associate Professor of Educational Studies Joseph Nelson for a conversation about how to address racial inequalities in K-12 education exacerbated by the pandemic. As schools (re)open for in-person learning, this conversation intends to offer insights that chart a more equitable future for public education.

Additional Past Events

This committee, in partnership with the President’s Fund for Racial Justice, presents events that continue its efforts to provide opportunities for the community to explore challenges to this country's multiracial democracy and to the role of the liberal arts in preparing students as citizens.

Past events also include a conversation with Eric H. Holder Jr., the 82nd U.S. attorney general, and Professor of History Allison Dorsey in May 2021, and a panel discussion “Youth in the System: Why Juvenile Justice Needs Reform” in February 2023.