Welcomed by magnificent fall foliage and autumnal weather, more than 860 alumni, families, and friends came to campus to celebrate Garnet Weekend 2024, Nov. 1–2. Visitors enjoyed a full schedule of events including open houses, tours, panels, affinity events, and lectures. Perennial favorites such as the Garnet Tailgate and the President’s Reception rounded out a joyful homecoming and family weekend.
Kicking off the weekend’s festivities was a special Garnet Day celebration of To Zero By Thirty-Five (20X35), the College’s ambitious energy plan. Attendees enjoyed festive fall treats and music, in addition to behind-the-scenes tours of the new geoexchange plant, which will provide carbon-free heating and cooling to campus buildings.
On Friday evening, the College inducted the eleventh class into the Garnet Athletics Hall of Fame during a ceremony held for the first time in Kemp Family Commons in renovated Sharples. The Garnet spirit continued into Saturday as student-athletes took on Haverford and Johns Hopkins in matches throughout the day. Women's soccer secured the No. 5 seed in the Centennial playoffs with a draw against Haverford, while men’s soccer ended their season with a dominant victory over Haverford.
The weekend featured memorable lectures from notable experts, alumni, and faculty. The Cooper Series hosted “James Baldwin for Our Times: A Centennial Celebration,” which featured a lecture by Eddie Glaude Jr., the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in African American Studies at Princeton University, on Friday evening followed by a symposium on Saturday.
Matthew Goldstein ’04 gave this year’s McCabe Lecture, “Life Inside the Punnett Square.” During his lecture, Goldstein offered an intimate and experiential view into his important work in the field of preventative genetics, drawing upon his family’s own story of love, loss, and reframed identity.
Sukrit Venkatagiri, assistant professor of computer science, gave this year’s faculty lecture, “How Generative AI is Reshaping Society, and What Can be Done About It.” During his lecture, Venkatagiri presented research that his lab, the Collective Resilience Lab, has conducted at Swarthmore with the goal of better understanding the societal impacts of generative AI. His studies examine issues surrounding “deepfakes,” specifically how they’re being used to cause relational, financial, and societal harm.
Affinity and volunteer groups gathered throughout the weekend, with events, receptions, and programming planned by the Swarthmore Black Alumni Network (SBAN), the Young Alumni Ambassadors Program (YAAP), the Garnet Club Advancement Council (GCAC), the Council on Presidential Initiatives (CPI), and the newly formed Family Ambassadors.
Thoughtful programming and phenomenal fall weather offered Swarthmore community members meaningful opportunities to celebrate, connect, learn, and gather on campus for a memorable Garnet Weekend.
