On Thursday, Feb. 27, Smith College students celebrated Rally Day, an annual tradition where seniors don their graduation regalia for the first time topped, of course, with a silly hat in lue of their graduation cap. The day includes a ceremony honoring professors, faculty and staff with the College’s highest awards. The tradition began in February 1876 as social dinners on George Washington’s birthday, but has evolved into the longer, livelier celebrations we see today.
Rally Day began with the seniors’ parade through the Julia McWilliams Child ’34 Campus Center. Many underclassmen lined the second floor to watch the exciting procession. Zoe Neil ’27, said “I’m with my other junior friends, and we’re all waiting for the seniors that we know. We’re enjoying all of their hats. It’s lovely to see everyone’s creativity!”
And there was plenty of creativity on display: Muppets holding hands, stacked soda cans, a carousel made from scraps and even a hat made entirely of human hair. The maker of the hair hat — who requested anonymity out of fear of ‘Googlability’ — said this project started in their first year as a pre-new-hair-dye joke of: “‘Hey, can I have a lock of your hair?’ to which they answered yes. “I wore it pinned to my shirt to a social function because it was funny, because it was a good joke, and everyone at the function offered me their hair. At that point I was faced with a question of who I would become for the next three years of my life. And so for three years I’ve been collecting hair,” they said. The project culminated in a top hat made entirely of human hair.
The fun doesn’t end there; every student took their hat in a different, lively direction. Lily Braun-Arnold ’26, a graduating English major, made a hat depicting Snoopy from the Peanuts at a typewriter. “I’m a big snoopy enthusiast. He’s typing a paper for his feminism class, which felt pretty Smith College.”
Janet Spingarn ’26, a psychology major, donned a “carousel of friendship and love,” which she made “entirely from scraps from all of the different maker spaces around campus.”
Along with just having fun with their hats, many students took them as an opportunity to commemorate their time at Smith or look forward to the future. Grace Netti ’26, an art history major, folded a “bunch of paper cranes made up of old syllabi and class worksheets from my classes. I was sort of going for the Japanese legend that the person who folds a 1000 paper cranes can be granted a wish. And my idea was that all my hard work will add up into a wish.”
On the topic of graduation, Shannon Metterville ’26, an Ada Comstock scholar, describes her feelings around graduation as “excited, pensive, and ready to go out there and make this world better,” a sentiment shared by many in the Campus Center.
The procession advanced to John M. Greene Hall, where the administration announced the recipients of the Faculty Teaching Awards and Elizabeth B. Wyandt Gavel Award based on nominations submitted by students. Winners of the Faculty Teaching Award included professors Andy Rotman, Tanya Lama and Casey Bohlen, while Carl J. Bak and Amy Putnam received the Gavel Award, all to energetic applause.
Rally Day also recognizes alumni who receive the Smith College Medal for their “contributions to their communities and the world,” as per the Smith website. This year, the recipients are Wendy Brown Dean ’87, Lori L. Tharps ’94, Theanne Griffith ’08 and Elim Chan ’09.
In May, the college will welcome to campus three commencement speakers: Carol Hillman, who combines environmental stewardship with child education, Dawn Staley, a women’s basketball coach who has reshaped the league and Chizuko Ueno, Japan’s leading sociologist known for her feminist theory.
Until then, President Sarah Willie-LeBreton encourages the class of 2026 to “rally for Smith, rally for each other and rally for the future you all are going to create.”
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