Resources for Advocates & Allies

Two female professors smile in front of conference registration tables

Associate Professors, Sangina Patnaik (English Literature) and Elaine Allard (Educational Studies) co-hosted the inaugural SUCCESS Convening at Swarthmore in 2022.  

Advocates and allies are invited to keep up to date about the legal landscape impacting undocumented students in higher education, including the changing status of DACA and on effective practices for supporting undocumented students at the college level. Swarthmore is a proud member of the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education & Immigration, which develops educational resources for students and advocates. Their Higher Ed Immigration Portal-- linked below-- offers policy briefs and tools for examining state-level policies on admissions, financial aid, and professional licensure.

Advocates in the Swarthmore College community have also created many of our own resources. Explore the Undocumented in Higher Ed Lib Guide, "Sanctuary in Practice," a short student-created documentary, and materials from the 2022 SUCCESS Convening, below. For information on College protocols for interactions with law enforcement, immigration and other officials and their requests for information, see the General Counsel’s webpage.

Higher Ed Immigration Portal

Digital platform that integrates data, policies, and resources about DACA and undocumented, other immigrant, international, and refugee students to support immigration reform and federal policymaking, fuel change at the state and campus level, and build a diverse movement of partners and stakeholders advocating for these students.  

empty lecture hall, Photo by Nathan Dumlao for Unsplash

LibGuide: Undocumented in Higher Ed

This research guide, created by Roberto Vargas and Simon Elichko at the Swarthmore Libraries, represents an ongoing effort to gather current research on how colleges and universities support and think about undocumented students. The guide includes scholarly articles and books as well as student-facing materials created to support this student population.

SUCCESS Convening

The  inaugural SUCCESS Convening at Swarthmore College brought together over 200 students, staff, faculty and administrators from around the country to share promising practices to support undocumented students' college and career equity. 

Sanctuary in Practice

Educational Studies seminar students conducted research on the meaning of sanctuary at Swarthmore in 2018. The film they produced showcases how faculty and staff put the spirit of sanctuary in practice in their everyday work at the College.