Bryn Mawr students gathered in the Campus Center on a muggy Sunday evening for Bryn Mawr College’s Self Governing Association’s (SGA) semiannual open forum meeting, commonly known as Big Cheese. Held on April 21, the forum gives students the opportunity to ask a panel of administration, staff, and faculty questions regarding college processes, administrative decisions, and any other aspects of Bryn Mawr College life.
On the morning of Big Cheese, Bi-Co Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Bryn Mawr College’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held a demonstration disrupting an admitted students day event in Goodhart Auditorium to “demand divestment from genocide,” resulting in an interim suspension being placed on both organizations.
Shortly after the demonstration, President Wendy Cadge, who was scheduled to appear on the panel, canceled her attendance via an email to SGA. The questions intended for her were either answered by her in writing, or posed to different faculty members on the panel.
This year’s panel was composed of Access Services Director Joanna Timmerman, Dean of Student Life Tomiko Jenkins, and Provost Tim Harte. In the gallery were other members of faculty and staff, including Dean of Student Success Richard Gebauer, Dean of the Career and Civic Engagement Center Katie Krimmel, Provost Beth Shepard-Rabadam, Campus Safety Executive Director Lillian Burroughs, and Student Engagement Coordinator Mia Harvey.
The event opened with a series of nine prepared questions for the panelists, and moved on to an open Q&A session later in the evening.
The first question, directed at Provost Harte, inquired about the college’s plans to protect the large community of international faculty with the current state of the political climate posing dangers to non-citizens. Harte affirmed that this matter has been a significant concern of the provost office, specifically regarding worst case scenarios in which international faculty leave the United States for the summer and are unable to reenter the country in the fall to teach. Harte’s proposed solution to this issue revolved around potentially introducing Zoom lectures, offering an opportunity to faculty stranded in their home countries to continue teaching for Bryn Mawr.
Dean Jenkins was then asked about how the College was working to protect the Impact Center and other institutionally-sanctioned cultural programming that has the potential to be endangered by the Trump administration. Jenkins explained that the College is meeting with vulnerable communities on campus and discussing inclusive programming and resources with the Impact Center. She also expressed that the College fully intends to uphold its diversity and inclusion values and guarantee support programs and resources that center DEI. “We, as an institution, have decided that DEI work is a value and the way that we hold space as a community… This is who we are, in terms of creating belongingness and community at Bryn Mawr,” she concluded.
Provost Hart was later asked about how the College plans to protect the recently added Power, Inequity, and Injustice (PIJ) requirement in the face of retaliation against diversity initiatives from the Trump administration Harte affirmed that the College has no plans to decenter DEI initiatives from its curriculum, stating, “it’s a red line for us that we aren’t changing our curriculum for the Trump administration… Heaven help us if we start changing our curriculum… for the Trump administration.”
In response to a question about how the college intends to build community in recent trying times. In her response, Dean Jenkins highlighted the Bi-College Israel-Palestine dialogue organization, Atidna, announcing that she attended a recent event of theirs. She expressed appreciation for such groups, claiming that community-based dialogue is important for maintaining unity within the Bryn Mawr community.
The remaining planned questions were intended for President Cadge, and while one was answered by Timmerman, Cadge’s brief pre-written responses were read aloud for the audience.
Transitioning into the Q&A section, Lori Ackerman ‘27, Jai Abbott ‘27, and several other students inquired separately about the morning’s events, specifically the suspension of JVP and SJP. Ackerman expressed concern over the actions the College has recently taken against student activists, which were pursued “[somewhat arbitrarily] outside of the bounds of the Honor Code”, and asked how the College will be informing students more clearly about violations of Honor Code policies without banning student groups, as this goes against the “spirit of dialogue.” To this, Dean Jenkins responded that the College does not and will not talk publicly about current matters and investigations, consistently directing students throughout her many responses to her and Cadge’s office hours to discuss concerns in more detail. She explained that the decisions the College makes are conditional, and outcomes are dependent on the people present when issues are being discussed. She also asserted that the College welcomes student action, but will only welcome it if it does not violate College policies and disrupt College operations.
Further questions were posed to the other panelists regarding accessibility on campus and the broadening of smaller majors, to which the panelists responded with optimism for bettering College services and providing more opportunities for students at Bryn Mawr. Students were frequently encouraged to visit faculty office hours if they ever run into specific issues.
As Big Cheese concluded, students were left with many unanswered questions, with the meeting highlighting gaps in the clarity of the Honor Code and the issues students face when trying to receive full transparency from administration.
