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Bryn Mawr College

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
101 N Merion Ave
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010
Phone
(610) 526-5000
Email address
admissions@brynmawr.edu
School Information
"Bryn Mawr is a distinguished women’s college, located on a beautiful residential campus just outside a major metropolitan area. Two distinctive coed graduate schools and a post-baccalaureate premedical program enrich the College community and offer opportunities for advanced study. "At Bryn Mawr, students choose from a wide array of majors in the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. The College is a leader in academic innovation, with a particular focus on putting learning into action through research, fieldwork, community and social justice engagement, and internships. Bryn Mawr further expands students’ options to learn and explore through long-standing partnerships with Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as through the cultural and social resources of Philadelphia." Additionally, the college has over 60 undergraduate fields of study and nine graduate fields of study. (Source: https://www.brynmawr.edu/about) (Source: https://www.brynmawr.edu/academics/fields-study)
General Information
Bryn Mawr College administrators caved under student activist pressure after students demanded that a "reparations fund" be created for indigenous and black students. As demanded, the fund will likely double the allocation of funds to the Dean's Emergency Fund, now to be called the "Dean's Student Assistance Fund". Additionally, it will require the Dean to appoint a committee to administer the fund, with representation of BIPOC staff and faculty. No mandatory Critical Race Training sessions are yet required of students. However, see developments below:

Actions Taken

Admissions Policies
  • On October 31, 2022, the college issued a statement regarding the upcoming Supreme Court admissions case and stated, "Along with 32 other colleges and universities, Bryn Mawr signed onto an amicus curiae brief that was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, which supported the legality of race-consciousness, as just one of the many components in the admissions process as schools strive to diversify their communities."
Anti-Racism, Bias, and Diversity Training
  • The Teaching and Learning Institute at Bryn Mawr offers a "Summer Syllabus Workshop Sequence" which "presents the opportunity for new and existing faculty to enhance their focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in the context of attending to specifics of institutional cultures."
  • The Career & Civic Engagement Center at Bryn Mawr provides professional development in the areas of "Cultural Competency" and "Social Responsibility."
  • The Teaching and Learning Institute at Bryn Mawr has a program called "Pedagogy Circles for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion," which is a student-led conversation "designed to support cross-constituency dialogue around developing inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist approaches to teaching and learning across campus contexts (within and beyond classrooms)."
Political Actions and Support for Anti-Racism
  • Bryn Mawr assistant professor and director of Africana Studies, Chanelle Wilson has appeared on C-SPAN and conducted numerous workshops and webinars “fighting for Critical Race Theory in Universities.”
Program and Research Funding
  • College administrators caved after students demanded that a "reparations fund" be created for indigenous and black students. As demanded, the fund will likely double the allocation of funds to the Dean's Emergency Fund (now to be called the "Dean's Student Assistance Fund". Additionally, it will require the Dean to appoint a committee to administer the fund, with representation of BIPOC staff and faculty.
  • The school’s Pensby Center for Community Development and Inclusion is offering a funded research opportunity for a Summer 2022 Fellowship to “building equity, inclusion and anti-racism” impacting the Bryn Mawr College community.
  • The college's Digital Scholarship Summer Fellows Program took place from May 30 - August 4 of 2023, and was a "paid, full-time summer internship opportunity for Bryn Mawr students to learn digital research and publication methods and gain professional experience by collaborating on public-facing digital scholarship projects." The college "particularly" encouraged applications from students who are "Black, Indigenous, people of color, or from other underrepresented groups."
  • The purpose of the Summer 2023 Careers in Library and Information Science Program is to "introduce students (especially from underrepresented groups) to the field of library and information science, and to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in the profession."
Resources
  • As part of the school’s equity, inclusion, and anti-racism plans, the second phase of the “Who Built Bryn Mawr?” exhibit showcases the “1960’s students confronting race.”
  • The school’s “Pensby Center ​for Community Development and Inclusion ​implements programs and activities ​that address issues of diversity, power, and privilege​.”
  • The school provides anti-oppression “resources for student activists and protestors” with numerous books, articles, videos, and podcasts including Ibram X Kendi’s Anti-Racist Reading List.
  • Bryn Mawr Assistant Professor of Education "advocates across campuses nation-wide for Critical Race Theory in Education" and has published an article titled "Revolutionizing my Syllabus: The Process," which describes her "syllabus revision and decolonization process."
  • Bryn Mawr's Teaching and Learning Institute provides an Anti-Racist resource page which includes: "Anti-Racism in Higher Education: A Model for Change," "Okun, Tema: White supremacy culture in organizations," and the "Anti-racist pedagogy reading list."
Symbolic Actions
  • The school had an internship “to diversify the offerings in Bryn Mawr’s libraries.”
  • The school has Pedagogy Circles for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion open to faculty, staff and students “to explore how they are acting on and working toward anti-racism, diversity, inclusivity, and equity within and beyond classrooms.”
Last updated November 16th, 2023
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