Kathleen McCartney, President of Smith College, Floyd Cheung, Smith’s newly appointed Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Susan Etheredge, Dean of the College and Vice President for Campus Life, sent out an email to students, staff and faculty members on September 5, 2019. The email summarizes their “reflections on, and plans for, deepening Smith’s commitment to equity and inclusion.”
The email starts by defining what inclusion is at Smith College. The authors claim that inclusion is an “intentional, intersectional and ever improvable” dynamic process, in which the inclusion of new voices will fundamentally transform Smith College. Then the email introduces a timeline of changes regarding equity and inclusion happening this academic year.
The timeline includes program improvements, new or modified staff positions, new or improved spaces, training and development and events that will work to improve equity and inclusion at Smith College. The email highlights staffing changes; specifically, six staff positions are being added to Equity and Inclusion, the Counseling Center and the Lazarus Center for Career Development.
Finally, the email lists ways in which members of the Smith College community, especially students, can participate in improving Equity and Inclusion at the campus.
According to the email, the school is looking for input regarding the enhancement of existing spaces, like the Resource Center for Sexuality and Gender, and the development of new spaces for historically underserved affinity groups. Students can also participate in improving equity and inclusion through the Student Government Association or Science Center Committee. They can also be part of five action teams: Identity/Representation, Education/Learning, Communication, Engagement and Justice, all created by the Office of Equity and Inclusion. These five action teams work to directly develop recommendations from last spring’s Inclusion in Action conferences.
The email also includes ways in which faculty and staff, represented respectively by the Faculty Council and Staff Council, are participating in improving equity and inclusion.
The email ends by looking forward and underscoring the commitment to Equity and Inclusion held by the authors. The authors highlight Otelia Cromwell Day, happening November 7, whose theme this year will be “Acknowledging Injustice and Practicing Anti-Racism.”
The email is most likely written in response to the adverse responses that the “Inclusion in Action” conference received as well as the student protests following the conference, which the email characterizes as “engagement.”
