Smith College Top Questions

I would say that Smith is an extremely supportive and accepting community. As a queer person, I had no problem with coming out to friends or coworkers. The community was so diverse in this respect that I found a lot of support. However, race and class issues are abundant, but subtle. Smith has a programs during orientation that are geared toward international students and "students of color" that emphasizes how to find support, academic help, and introduces students to diversity clubs on campus. These orientation groups are fantastic in helping students find support and familiarity, however, I think that the idea is fundamentally folly. The orientation program geared toward "women of color" automatically calls attention to "otherness" rather than encouraging integration, awareness, and bridging cultural and racial gaps. Class issues are frequently brought up in discussions of inequity, but the college hardly does anything to help students with financial difficulties. Class and privilege are hardly discussed campus wide, but students tend to be more aware of this than the administration.

The student body has its groups and cliques like every other campus, however the Smith cliques I believe are a bit different than most of other colleges. There is a large population of lesbians at Smith, including those Smith dubbed LUGS or lesbians until graduation. There is a small but growing trans-gender community at Smith. There are a small group of conservative or Republican students on campus. Generally, the school is a liberal one (may 90 to 95 percent). The different groups can blend and interact together fairly well with the exception of where politics are involved. The school is extremely politically active and aware and the different opinions can create conflict.

Smith is, by the book, very diverse (sexuality, race, socio-economic class). I don't think any student should feel out of place at Smith--however, I do think students should be aware of Smith's history as it pertains to certain groups and know what incidents may have happened on this campus in the last few decades. Smith is always trying to improve itself, but the campus community should be aware of what we are trying to avoid and work away from. We are also a predominantly political-left campus. However, we do have a healthy and active Smith Republicans student organization. As for class, there is a very wide spectrum, so expect to see students from all different times of socio-economic backgrounds.