Not I, nor anyone else, would dare to call Smith College a party school. It is not an overstatement or bad faith criticism to say weekends on campus are sometimes, perhaps often, dire. The underwhelming party scene is widely recognized and, for this very reason, also not particularly compelling to analyze. We already know: Smith parties are bad, and many have formulated their own explanations as to why this is the case — small liberal arts school situated in the middle of Western Massachusetts, homogeneous and monolithic population and an administration that infantilizes an already infantile student body. Besides, many have expressed a looming and inescapable sense of overwhelmingly bad vibes at times.
Still, I had to ask. Recently, I sat down with the original owner of the Instagram account “Scshenangians,” who decided to remain anonymous for this interview and who might be the driving force behind whatever little party culture Smith has. In the interest of readability, we will refer to them as “S” throughout the article. When I talked to S in the middle of the Compass Café earlier this semester, it was pretty clear that they also did not think of Smith’s “party problem” as something worthy of scrutiny. For them, it is simple enough to warrant an unexciting solution that doesn’t require Smith to turn its campus into fraternity basements, “people should just have fun, and help each other have fun.”
“Scshenangians” is now present in most students’ Instagram following list and its name (most likely) forever embedded on the zeitgeist. It all started more than two years ago. On Oct. 31, 2021, “Scshenangians” posted for the very first time, urging students to “dm [them] your weekend events” for “coordinated social gatherings.” Its username was funnily, but not intentionally, misspelled. “It actually annoys me when people spell it correctly,” they noted during our conversation, “it was not intentional but I’d like to think there was some divine intervention in it.” “Scshenangians,” quickly gained momentum and, as its original owner stated, “basically started running itself.”
The account was born the semester Smithies got back to campus after the pandemic, and this was no coincidence. “I am not sure if Smith ever had much of a party culture even before COVID,” stated S, “but Fall 2021, coming back from COVID, people had to remake what was established for social life at Smith.” In late 2021, people were unsure of whether the pandemic was over or not, and coming back to campus meant there was a need to regain normalcy, so “people were gathering regardless of anything, what ‘Scshenangians’ did was just sort of coordinate gatherings that were already happening.”
I inquired with S about the pandemic-era party scene, to which they responded, “People would wear masks and all of that, it’s not like nobody was being careful. I think what was important at that time was the sense of trust we had in each other. People at Smith are often paranoid about parties and getting caught, so the feeling that only certain people knew about the parties and that we were helping each other have fun was a huge part of it, I think.”
Smith’s patronizing administration and extensive campus safety presence are frequently cited as reasons for the underdeveloped, if not non-existent, party culture at Smith. “Is Smith really looking out for its students, though?” inquired S. In the fall of 2023, Gardiner House hosted their annual “Fetish” party, a fixture of Smith’s modest Halloween traditions. That semester, “Fetish” took place in the Carroll Room, located on the upper level of the Julia Child Campus Center. However, due to the overwhelming turnout, the ceiling collapsed an hour into the event, leading to the temporary closure of the Campus Center cafe as a precaution. Following this incident, students relocated the party to Morrow House, only to have it shut down by Campus Safety. Coinciding with the Fetish mishap, the day before saw a scene where inebriated students dangerously crowded onto the sidewalk at the PVTA bus stop, as retold by a contributing writer on The Sophian.
“I think people can be a little paranoid about Campo [Campus Safety], still,” S stated, “but I also definitely understand that the presence of Campo is not positive. I have been at parties shut down by Campo and nothing bad really happened, but I get that that’s not everyone’s experience. Even if nothing happens and they don’t take your ID or whatever, of course you would think, ‘What is the point of throwing [a party] if you know it is being shut down at 11:00 p.m. by campus safety and everyone has to go home?’but I feel like that fear is kind of holding us back, really.”
“It’s not just that, though.” answered S when I asked if this was what made the social scene so discouraging, “Because firstly, I think it is not that bad. I have been at some good parties, some awful ones. I get why people often say that parties here suck and why they are discouraged from attending. Like, yes, people are really annoying, the music can be bad, but if we get stuck at ‘Yeah, Smith parties are bad’ and that’s it, it’ll just stay that way. Smithies should just start dancing more, even if they don’t know the lyrics to a song, if you know what I mean.”
I asked S if people maybe felt somewhat surveilled by others at Smith, i.e. due to the presence of the Smith Confessional on campus, an anonymous forum for Smith students, which many consider to not be a ‘safe space online.’ “Yeah, definitely, Smithies can be pretty judgy and just stiff in their way of thinking and behaving, which is why the ‘vibes’ are bad. We should let others just have fun, honestly. I also get that Smith is a pretty white place and it’s never been fun to go to a party and have Taylor Swift playing.”
S is no longer in charge of “Scshenangians,” and doesn’t “really know who is running it right now, and I also don’t really care, it kind of belongs to everyone now.” I asked S what the legacy of “Scshenangians” is, or should be, to which they answered, “I guess there are four like, institutional core values: no NARCS allowed, ACAB, we help each other have fun and, party, I guess?”
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