Katherine Hazen ‘18
Editor-in-Chief
After a year away, I had nearly forgotten about some annoying aspects of Smith life: The lengthy B43 commute; the pang of hunger at 10 p.m. because you ate dinner five hours earlier; and people forgetting their laundry while you’re trying to do your own, to name a few.
In my last year, however, I just see these as the quirks of collegiate life that will soon be gone, and I know I will soon miss free public transportation, dinner being made for me and in-building, relatively inexpensive washers and dryers.
One of the more annoying problems resurfaced this past week as I tried to enjoy my last “Halloweekend” in college. As my friends and I tried to find some fun, I was reminded that the lack of physical space to socialize and the harsh enforcement of party policies persistently hinders social events at Smith College.
There is little to no space on campus that does not need to be registered to have an official party, and little space that can actually host more than 20 people, besides the Caroll Room.
Even the Paradise Apartments parties can only have 10 to 30 people in and must be over by 1 a.m., according to the website. Once you have more than ten people in your room, it’s considered an “unregistered party.” There are the occasional basement parties in the Quad, but they often get shut down.
I feel guilty complaining about the lack of social options, and obviously when I chose to come to Smith College I was not looking for a school that hosts “ragers” and “Thirsty Thursdays.”
Yet, I also can’t help but wonder if we would all be a little less stressed and sad at times if we had adequate social options on the weekends without a lengthy B43 ride or having to pay for an Uber. I know at some particularly stressful imes in my Smith career, I would have very much appreciated that.
I also appreciate and understand that Smith wants us to be safe and healthy and of course has to discourage underage drinking.
However, the combined lack of space and harsh policies do and will continue to push students to seek fun in potentially less safe places.
In the past few years, in the wake of widespread sexual assault, many researchers have pointed to an inherent power dynamic that occurs on college campuses, in which men hold access to alcohol.
Though this dynamic is usually blamed by the National Panhellenic Council’s rules that forbid sororities from hosting parties with alcohol, I think we could see a similar dynamic working between Smith and our neighboring co-ed campuses which have far, far fewer restrictions on parties in both policy and practice.
I hope Smith loosens restrictions on socializing and works to ensure there are spaces for that to happen.
