Located past Elm Street tucked behind Cutter-Ziskind House, a warm white and canary yellow building known as the Davis Center houses Smith College’s Mwangi Cultural Center. This small space on campus is the primary hub hosting and running programming for students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
Posts published in “Features”
Content Warning: Anti-Indigenous Racism, disrespect of human remains
All across Smith’s campus, buildings bear the names of people who have, in some way or another, contributed to the college. While the type of namesake ranges from former professors to famous alums to donors, these names — and especially the names of residential buildings — are instrumental to building the sense of community Smith prides itself on. But when examining some of these namesakes more closely, a darker undertone begins to emerge.
It’s February 2016 at a music center in the Bronx, and Pablo José López Oro, who is currently a Smith professor of Africana Studies, attentively gazes at a group of Garifuna folks rhythmically swaying across the stage. The beat of militant drums echoes across the room as the dancers, dressed in a traditional attire that predates their existence, swing their hips and fervently chant in their native Garifuna language rooted in Carib-Arawak syntax — Carib-Arawak Indians, they claim, are their ancestral origins.
For many students, the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life (CRSL) conjures up an image of the Helen Hills Hills Chapel. But the CRSL is more than that striking white steeple–it’s a subsidiary of the Office for Equity and Inclusion that offers a wide variety of resources to the student body, regardless of religious affiliation.
The Sophian spoke with Dano Weisbord, former director of the Center for the Environment, Ecological Design and Sustainability (CEEDS) and former Associate Vice President for Campus Planning and Sustainability. After 14 years working at Smith College, this October Weisbord began working at Tufts University as the Executive Director of Sustainability and as chief sustainability officer.
In an era where many marginalized groups fear their fundamental rights being stripped away, Carrie N. Baker’s role as a feminist, advocate for social justice and public writer has become indispensable.
A Capella is central to Smith culture. With seven a cappella groups in total, they all bring a different niche to the stage and negotiate their histories with their present to create vibrant communities.
When Lily Phillips ’25 arrived at Smith and discovered that the French Club was defunct, she knew she had to change that. Phillips recently inherited a charter for the club on the Smith Social Network that the previous leader had tried to get recognized by the SGA. She decided to take action to have the club officially reinstated. She is acting as president, eager to begin planning for the future of the club.
This article was originally published in the October 2022 Print Issue.
Virginia Hayssen, Mary Maples Dunn Professor of Biological Sciences at Smith, is the co-author of “Reproduction in Mammals: The Female Perspective.” In her 2017 book, Hayssen writes about the shortcomings of the language used when describing reproductive biology.