FLI students are tethered to financial, emotional, and familial weights that are unique to FLI student experience alone. These weights can be categorized into 6 spheres
The College began recording and documenting data on first-generation students in the past 6 years. It is only in the past decade that higher education institutions are recognizing these cohorts of students and fathoming the immense inequity they face when they arrive at college campuses. Need-blind admission processes and identifying first-generation students in the admissions process is leading to the gradual rise of first-generation students at Swarthmore. Between 2009 and 2018, the percentage of first-generation students within the student body increased from 14% to 20%. Data on low-income students is ambiguous due to privacy mechanisms that prevent financial information from being released. Although many students self-report as low-income and can be cross-checked as such by the Office of Financial Aid, a significant number of students do not know they are low-income. With this being said, given that Swarthmore’s student population is about 1,600, the constituency of the FLI Council is conservatively 320+ students; this figure is not inclusive of low-income students. The FLI Council is the exclusive student governing body that may speak to the needs of first-generation and low-income students.