Para-SWIL
From SWILwiki
Para-SWIL is the most common term used these days to describe groups of Swarthmore students who are to some degree involved in SWIL, SWIL events and socialization with SWIL non-members, but have not proven sentience themselves. Other, similar terms in the past have included "Dark SWIL", "SWIL II", and so on. These terms, however, usually denoted more specific sets of people (such as, in the case of SWIL II, the set of ML residents who were involved in the SWIL Election schism of 2001), while the term "para-SWIL" most commonly is used as a collective term for all people who fall into this category.
Members of SWIL can appear to be para-SWIL by eating at SWIL table, participating as a monster in the Pterodactyl Hunt, running or frequently attending events on the fun list, attending Post-Puckers or other gaming events, having lots of friends in SWIL, or simply by living in ML or being a linguistics major.
The term can also take a broader meaning, especially when used in its individual form, para-SWILlie. Just as the term SWILlie is often used to describe people highly involved in SWIL regardless of whether or not they have actually proven sentience (including some examples of well-known SWILlies who didn't prove sentience until their senior year, surprising many underclassmen who had assumed them to be non-members), "para-SWILlies" often includes people whose level of involvement or identification with SWIL has dropped below a certain level, or whom the speaker doesn't think fit into the defined culture of SWIL despite a high degree of interaction with SWILlies. Of course, this is a purely relative classification.
The derived adjective para (compare: meta) is used by some to describe how far from the core of SWIL the speaker believes someone to be. (As with other such terms, which "direction" the adjective "para" points is ambiguous -- that is, one common phrase, "vaguely para", may both describe someone who is very far from SWIL or someone very close to it, depending on context. The same could be said for "strongly para", though the "strongly para" person's attitude toward SWIL will always probably be more strongly held than the "vaguely para" one.) An active SWILlie who stops attending Meeting and/or stops attending most SWIL events can thus be said to have "gone para".
Thus, to take two random examples from the class of 2005, Alex Flurie '05 was, strictly speaking, not para-SWIL (since he was, in fact, a non-member) but for the latter part of his college career, after he stopped attending meetings, definitely a para-SWILlie at best. In contrast, Viva Horowitz '05 was, strictly speaking, para-SWIL right up until she finally proved sentience just before graduation, but had been rapidly shedding her para status throughout her senior year, such that by spring semester many SWILfolk and Campusfolk casually referred to her as a SWILlie, or at least "vaguely para". Other examples include Chris White '05 (dismembered at the same meeting despite a long history of SWIL participation), or the other non-voting, non-meeting-attending non-members besides Alex who were Remembered in the 2005 Remembrances).
