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Foi man comp i who i According to the Swarthmore Alumni Census, Thuf mor( retui i t 1 - conti The typical 1 "• i year: Swarthmorean is... E | stror amoi total “I recently spent a day The typical Swarthmorean is likely to have as those above, do emerge about Swarthmor Cens at Swarthmore and, come from Pennsylvania, to live there now, alumni from an analysis of the informatioi Of allowing for all the change in undergraduate and to have spent four years at Swarthmore. provided by 6,080 alumni or 52.8% of t! half appearance and life He/she is likely to consider himself profes total 11,519 who received the questionnain en- M styles, coed dorms, etc., was impressed, gratified sional and to be involved in some aspect of Classes represented were 1901 through 197 ^ and quite enormously education. He has at least one degree granted and 1973. The other seventies classes willb pleased that so much of elsewhere than Swarthmore. He is active in a the Swarthmore included during the year of their first lil m ambience and attitude professional organization, in a nonpartisan, sequent reunion. pans and manner still political education group (like League of The biographical information is being use P°SS] prevailed. Not only did they prevail, but they Women Voters and Common Cause), in the not only to give the College a better idea« hr obviously attracted and Parent-Teachers Association, in a political what its alumni are thinking and doing bu sei were being sustained by party, and in organizations concerned with also to produce a new alumni directory, t ^Plc an undergraduate group that is an entire peace, or conservation and ecology, or social find good matches for the Extern Program ^rom generation younger than service. His family income is $24,533. and to find alumni to help in its admission here mine. It’s encouraging to encounter the continuity This profile emerges from the data culled program in various parts of the world. It i en^ 8 of those qualities that from the ten-page 1974 Swarthmore Alumni anticipated that new uses will develop in thi ^ asi made Swarthmore Census, mailed last October (with follow-ups future. ^ra* unique and in January and April). The data were put on What, then, are some of the data fron s^a^f meaningful.”—’45 the computer and then analyzed. There is, of which this crude picture of a typical Swarth course, no such being as the typical Swarth morean emerges? An analysis of the dati morean, and yet certain characteristics, such by classes is seen in the chart below left. ]y[( From this table we see that the returns « received from the Census, when looked at asiRank Total Number of Returns in Classes by Decades proportion of those in class decades, werf ^ fairly evenly distributed. The heavy weight ^ Presidential as % of as % of ing of representation after 1940, seen in thf ^ Reigns Decades All Returned Decade column "% of All Returned,” reflects thf ^ Birdsall (98-02) growth in the size of the College over the last Swain (02-21) 1901-1909 .6 51 three-quarters of a century, as well asi 1910-1919 3.8 48 larger percentage of survivors in, say, thf r Aydelotte (21-40) 1920-1929 9.0 49 Class o f ’70 as opposed to, say, 1901! 1930-1939 13.4 52 Since, obviously, returning the question Nason (40-53) 1940-1949 20.0 55 naire indicated feelings of involvement witl ---- 1950-1959 23.0 55 the College, respondents are not necessaril) Smith (53-69) 1960-1969 24.0 56 wholly representative of the alumni body. ^ Cross (70-72) 1970,1973 5.0 49 Others* 1.2 2 This article was written by Betty Nathan Eisler ’50, as 3 100%(6080) sistant director of development, with assistance frot a Edgar R. Mullins, director of computer education am ~ ^Special students, graduate students, activities, who established the datafile, and Gudmundl Navy students, and Chinese Naval officers Iversen, associate professor of mathematics, who helped analyze that file. SWARTHMORE ALUMNI ISSUE OCTOB For example, of respondents, 27.5% were New Jersey, then Maryland, Illinois, Mas married to another Swarthmorean. This sachusetts, Ohio and Connecticut. compares with 17% of the whole alumni body Of those who answered, 75% spent four “It was a tearing years at Swarthmore; about 25%, fewer; and experience, both , who are known to have a Swarthmore spouse. glorious and Thus being married to another Swarth about 2.5%, five or six years. horrible.”—’67 Of those who answered the question (75%), morean increased the likelihood of one’s "My relationship with returning the Census form. 82.6% said they over half consider themselves professional the College, because of - contributed at least once to the Alumni Fund, while a little more than 10% in each category my girls who have while the average annual percentage of consider themselves respectively top man attended Swarthmore, is agement, middle-management, self- very good, and seeing it donors to the Alumni Fund in the last ten from the inside, as it i years was 46%. Half said they give every employed, and "other.” We will consider our were, I have been most I year. So apparently, being a donor to the typical Swarthmorean, then, a professional, pleased. Under some Alumni Fund was strongly related to the most likely to be married to a professional very difficult circumstances, the likelihood of returning the Census. The (28%), or not to have answered that question College has acted in a j strongest positive relationship we found was (43.7%). The occupation claimed most often is way that 1 can only say among Alumni College participants: 143 of a "homemaker” (16.5%), with professor rank could not have been improved uponM-’38 total 145 who have attended returned their ing second at 12%. A few other top rankings noi Census forms! were "managers and administrators” (9.3%), “My dearest friends for tj0; Of those who answered, a little less than physician (5.7%), engineer (4.4%), lawyer the past 54 years have u half were men, and slightly more were worn- (4.1%), secondary school teacher (4%), scien been my Swarthmore friends.”—’20 en. (Among all alumni, the opposite is true.) tist (3.4%). All our categories received some ^97 This analysis of the survey data did not representation. The coders of the census "I think positive, practical career HI take into consideration the heavy weighting noted that there was considerable diversity counseling needs to be _ 1 of numbers biased towards youth, but com of opinion on the part of respondents and part of each student’s parisons will be made by decades wherever their spouses as to the proper classification of college experience. ^ possible. "homemaker.” It was described variously as Women in particular need to plan around the ,a j From these returns, we found it interesting "top management,” "professional,” "self- somewhat conflicting , ^ to seek a "typical” Swarthmore lifestyle. Our employed,” or "other.” Several respondents choices they face with as | typical alumnus/a is most likely to have come commented that the questionnaire gave no much foresight as ,ail from Pennsylvania as a student and to live opportunity for him/her to describe a life of possible. ”^’58 j0I1 here now (next states most popular for pres- non-paid but serious activity. There was, Tf | ent abode are New York and California, then however, a category for "volunteer worker,” ^ Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maryland.) and this drew 2% of the responses. Broken Trailing way behind Pennsylvania, home down by decade, most frequently professed 11 states were most likely to be New York and occupations are shown in the following table. roi J irth lati 1 MOST FREQUENT OCCUPATION BY PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS IN EACH CLASS DECADE s i ank 00’s % 10’s % 20’s % 30’s % verf 1 Homemaker 23.3 Homemaker 34.3 Homemaker 29.8 Homemaker 24.4 ght 2 Secondary Teacher 16.7 Secondary Teacher 11.1 Mgr/ Administrator 9.8 Mgr/ Administrator 13.3 . th( 3 Social Worker 10.0 Mgr/Administrator 6.1 Secondary Teacher 7.8 Professor 8.2 thf 4 Engineer 6.7 Elementary Teacher 4.5 Engineer 6.9 Engineer 4.7 last Owner/Partner 4.5 Owner/Partner 4.7 as i Professor 4.5 thf 5 Other occupations Librarian 4.0 Office Worker 4.1 Volunteer Worker 4.1 represented by ion only 1 respondent vitl irilj 40’s 50’s 60’s 70’s ly- 1 Homemaker 14.6 Homemaker 16.9 Professor 18.9 Student 37.5 2 Mgr/Administrator 10.5 Professor 15.2 Homemaker 9.8 Secondary Teacher 5.1 0,as 3 Professor 10.0 Mgr/Administrator 9.0 Physician 7.6 Lawyer 4.4 frot 4 Physician 6.0 Physician 7.3 Student 6.9 Physician 3.8 < ad 5 6.7 Civil Servant 3.4 ridR Engineer 5.4 Engineer 4.7 Lawyer elprt Elementary Teacher 3.4 Scientist 3.4 ISSUB OCTOBER 1975 1 Since 4% responding are students, 12% first Swarthmore degree was a master’s), 31 Time professors, 7.1% various kinds of teachers, are honorary degrees, and 1,311 are "other, and l "I entered college and 2.3% school or college administrators, it which, in 535 instances, meant a Bi jm younger than most of my peers, and very shy and is not surprising that the educational estab earned elsewhere than Swarthmore. To< immature. Added to the lishment is the "industry” most represented. From this graph we see that until the mil g e active sorority system forties, most alumni did not hold advance ge which excluded me, it was Manufacturing came in second, with legal devastating.