Swarthmore College Advocacy Training Group Project Records

The Advocacy Group Training Project was originally founded in 1986 by Swarthmore College’s Equal Opportunities Officer, Patricia Whitman. The program's primary purpose was to train students in conflict resolution and peer mediation. The project also focused on consensus building, problem solving, active listening, de-escalation and creating a supportive environment for students to examine complex ethical issues. The Advocacy Group Training Project facilitated two hour long sessions every week broken up into two week cycles. The first week would be discussion and active listening around a moral issue, topic or problem, then students would spend the second week reflecting on communication styles, group dynamics and how the previous week’s conversation could have been better mediated. By the early 1990s over three hundred students had participated in Advocacy Group Training Project sessions. Despite high student interest the program struggled for funding. In 1993 the position of Equal Opportunities Officer was cut from a full time staff position to a part time one, which is also called the program’s survival into question. Student’s petitioned for its continued funding and were able to secure funds from alumni and eventually administration. Recent Swarthmore alumni, Michael Pfeiffer, was hired to coordinate the program and oversee the peer facilitators. Under Pfeiffer’s leadership two special interest groups, the Gay, Bisexual, Lesbain Group and the Intercultural Men’s Group, were formed in 1993 to focus on conflict medication for students in in these specific communities. Likewise the Advocacy Group Training Project also worked closely with the Jewish student group and several student groups engaged with racial justice issues on campus to train students in meditation and conflict resolution. Peer facilitators within the Advocacy Group Training Project were also heavily involved with AIDS and HIV awareness and advocacy at the time.