Decades of Demands Still Waiting to be Met at Smith College

The fight for justice within our institution

By Aoife Smith in collaboration with Charlie Diaz, Ramona Flores, Lexi Luckett, Lauren Holland and Lucía González

In April 2019, Smith students dressed in red turned out en masse to join a protest led by Students For Social Justice and Institutional Change (SSJIC) against racism and discrimination towards students of color, undocumented students, low-income students, trans students and other marginalized students. Standing on the front steps of John M. Green Hall, surrounded by avid listeners, SSJIC members presented a list of the 28 “most basic and most immediate concerns” separated into categories such as space, admission and recruitment and facilities and accessibility. One protest flyer passed out and posted around campus ahead of the event featured an archival photo of Smith students participating in a College Hall sit-in in 1990. Blazoned across the front of the flyer was the message “Smith College will be held accountable,” a rallying call for change. 

SSJIC’s 2019 list of demands expanded on decades of student demands that had still not been met by the Smith administration, including those of the 1990 College Hall sit-in and of student protests led by the Black Students Alliance (BSA) in 1969.  During the latter protest, the BSA demanded that Lily Hall—which currently houses the school for social work—be designated the Black Cultural Center; this demand was echoed in 2019 demands for making the entire Davis Building into a space for marginalized students. 

While the Davis Building currently houses the Mwangi Cultural Center, previously known as the Afro-American Cultural Center, the entirety of the Davis Building is not dedicated exclusively for use by marginalized students. In addition, the Mwangi Cultural Center and Unity House, where identity-based organizations can meet, were closed for a large portion of the pandemic — a time when unity spaces have been sorely needed. Furthermore, the Assistant Director of Multicultural Affairs, Whitley Hadley, transferred to a different college during the pandemic. While staff and faculty turnover is typical, it happens at much higher rates for staff and faculty of color, making it even harder to create safe spaces for students of color. 

Why do student demands go decades without being met? There is no one answer. The workings of the upper administration, including the board of trustees, as well as President McCartney and her cabinet, are largely unclear to the majority of students. 

The administration’s continued practice of decision making behind closed doors is entangled with their refusal to take accountability for past and present racism and discrimination towards students of color. The administration’s inaccessible and unclear exchange of information with students when meeting demands makes it difficult for students to hold them accountable. 

A central issue is the student body’s rapid turnover rate compared to administration. Students average only four years at Smith and without institutional reminders, memories tend to fade quickly. Even now, a large number of the student population does not remember the 2019 protests—the memory of it left with the students who participated.

Even when the administration does communicate plans to move forward with demands, holding the administration accountable is a long-term, time-intensive commitment. In response to the 2001–2002 protests by the Students Grassroot Organizing Group (SGOG), the administration issued a list of responses to student demands that would be met by or during the Fall 2002 semester. A letter from the Dean of the College at the time, Maureen A. Mahoney, promised that by or during Fall 2002 there would be “a counselor experienced in issues of gender and sexual identity available at least for drop in sessions a few times a week.” My personal experience shows that this is a nonexistent or incredibly inaccessible program. While the Wellness Services website shows they offer drop in sessions, Wellness Services and Counseling Services are separate entities. Counseling services only provides scheduled appointments and the counselors of marginalized identities book up incredibly quickly. This leaves marginalized students to choose between care from a therapist who does not understand their circumstances, or no care. 

In 2019, President McCartney agreed to meet SSJIC demands for the funding of learning disability testing for low-income students, but time and time again students get turned away from the Schact center without medication because the bureaucracy is out of students’ hands. While there is undoubtable progress forward, it is often too little. Mwangi occupies only the ground floor of the Davis Building — above is the Davis Ballroom which regularly hosts large events. The demand for the entirety of Davis to be made into a space for marginalized students by expanding Mwangi to both floors of the building still has not been fully met. 

The Smith administration needs to create a transparent system easily accessible to the Smith student body, to serve as a tool for checking on administration progress and actions.

We envision something like the Towards Racial Justice Plan, but instead of allowing the adminstration to choose the benchmarks of progress, the community would raise concerns or goals they would like met and administrators would build a plan to meet them, communicate their progress and take community feedback. 

Such a system would create opportunities for clearer dialogue between students and administration. If instated, the formation of this system should itself be a collaborative process between Smith community and administration. Students and faculty involved in the process would be compensated for their labor in this collaboration, as Smith College also often asks BIPOC and marginalized students and staff to speak on panels, advocate for themselves and mediate conversations around racist incidents in lieu of hiring paid mediators.

Here is a link to our proposed transparency model, and we welcome comments/additions/concerns. 

What you can do: Look over this list of historical demands and add any information you have about if these demands are unmet

Take this survey and let us know what you want to demand of Smith College

Look over current student demands generated by this survey here

Here is a Jandon Center Resource  about elevating your activism! 

Send a letter advocating for increased administration transparency and accountability, as well as urges to meet existing demands, can be posted to College Hall or emailed to:

Kathleen McCartney, President of the College — presidentmccartney@smith.edu 

David DeSwert, Vice President for Finance and Administration —ddeswert@smith.edu

Alison Overseth, Chair of Board of Trustees — boardchair@smith.edu

Elena Palladino, Secretary of the Board of Trustees — epalladino@smith.edu

Baishakhi Taylor, Dean of the College — btaylor44@smith.edu

Adela Penagos, Associate Dean of the College — apenagos@smith.edu 

Do more research on the history of student demands, which can be accessed in person at the Smith College Archives on the 3rd floor of Neilson, in the Special Collections Reading Room,  or online with the Weaving Voices Archive. If you’d like to contribute material related to student activism on campus, contact specialcollections@smith.edu. Recently, Smith’s archival team has been trying to create a larger record of student activism and demonstrations on campus. Here is a list of interesting boxes to look at there! 

Here is a document that talks about the kinds of organizing techniques used at Smith! 

Here is a link some of the primary documents we loved from the archives

Here is an email template