The views expressed herein belong to the authors, in their capacity as individual scholars and teachers, and do not represent or claim to speak for the institution.
You are the reason we are here. You are the reason we stay.
All of you — The trans students; DACA students; the first gens. The cis students; the US citizens; the international students; the third-generation Smithies. Queer, trad, working class, working parents, generationally wealthy; older and younger. Whoever and wherever your ancestors were. However your brains and your bodies work. Who you are now, and who you are becoming. Mathy and artsy and nerdy and sporty and too-cool and all of the other aspects of you that make you our students — learning and changing, intellectual and embodied persons; passionate, committed, funny, kind and generous individuals. There is no Smith College without you, our students.
The “they” you fear (and who fear you) will have to come through us first. We teachers pledge to do everything we can to ensure that you have a future, that you are seen, that you are loved. Love, as our own teachers — Freire, hooks, Jordan and others — remind us, is not only an emotion, not just sentiment. It is also action, method and educational practice. Believe us when we say we love you. All of you.
