Smith College

Smith College

Smith College Logo
Motto	Ad sanctimoniae, conscientia
Type	Private women's college
Established	1871
Endowment	$1.125 billion
President	Carol T. Christ
Academic staff	285
Undergraduates	2,600
Location	Northampton , Massachusetts , USA
Colors	white, blue, gold
Mascot	Pioneer
Website	smith.edu

Smith College, located in Northampton, Massachusetts, is the largest women's college in the United States . Smith admits only female undergraduates, but admits both men and women as graduate students.

Smith is private, non-denominational, and one of the Seven Sisters. Smith is also a member of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its students to attend classes at four other Pioneer Valley institutions: Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This provides a unique exception to the women only at undergraduate level, as men attending any of the Five Colleges are allowed attend classes at Smith and Mount Holyoke, and are admitted to 95% of all available classes with the main exception being team sports.

History

Smith College campus center

The college was established in 1871 by a bequest of Sophia Smith. It opened in 1875 with 14 students and six faculty. In 1915-16 the student enrollment was 1,724 and the faculty numbered 163. Today, with some 2,600 undergraduates on campus, Smith is the largest privately endowed college for women in the country. The campus was planned and planted in the 1890s as a botanic garden and arboretum, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The campus landscape now encompasses 125 acres and includes more than 1,200 varieties of trees and shrubs.

The college began its second century in 1975 by inaugurating its first woman president, Jill Ker Conway, who came to Smith from Australia by way of Harvard and the University of Toronto.

Academics

Smith College is the first and only women's college in the United States to grant its own undergraduate degrees in engineering. The Picker Engineering Program offers a single Bachelor of Science in engineering science, combining the fundamentals of multiple engineering disciplines.

The Ada Comstock Scholars Program is a bachelor's degree program for non-traditional students.

Smith also has special one-year graduate programs for international students. One of such programs, the American Studies Diploma Program, was founded by prof. Daniel Aaron during the early 1960s, one of the hottest periods of the Cold War, to serve as a counterweight of international misunderstanding and violence. More than half of Smith's juniors study overseas. Students can design specialized majors and minors with the approval of the College and related departments. Individuals may also enroll as nondegree students by registering for one or more courses.

Graduate degrees and study options

Smith's graduate programs are open to both men and women. Each year approximately 100 men and women pursue advanced graduate work at Smith.

The Smith College master of social work (M.S.W.) degree is nationally recognized for its specialization in clinical social work and puts a heavy emphasis on direct field work practice. The program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. The school also offers a Ph.D. program designed to prepare MSWs for leadership positions in clinical research education and practice.

The college has a limited number of other programs leading to Ph.D.s, and is part of a cooperative doctoral program co-administered by Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Traditions

Colors and mascot

Smith College does not have college colors in the usual sense. Its official color is white, trimmed with gold, but the official college logo is currently blue and yellow (a previous logo was burgundy and white). Athletic teams have competed in blue and white (or blue and yellow, in the case of the crew team) uniforms since the 1970s, and selected Pioneers as the official name and mascot in 1986.

Smith has a rotating system of class colors dating back to the 1880s, when intramural athletics and other campus competitions were usually held by class. Today, class colors are yellow, red, blue and green, with incoming first-year classes assigned the color of the previous year's graduating class; their color then "follows" them through to graduation. Alumnae classes, particularly at reunion, continue to identify with and use their class color thereafter.

Residential culture

Smith requires all first-year undergraduate students, as well as most other undergraduates, to live in on-campus houses. This policy is intended to add to the camraderie and social cohesion of its students. Unlike most institutions of its type, Smith College does not have dorms, but rather 36 separate houses, built in the style that was popular during the time they were constructed (Sophia Smith stated in her will that each house be constructed in the style of the period). The campus also houses a Japanese tea house, a traditional rock garden and an exotic greenhouse with many examples of tropical plants. Chapin House was the inspiration for Tara in Gone with the Wind. Margaret Mitchell lived in Chapin during her time at Smith.

A novelty of Smith's homelike atmosphere is the continuing popularity of Sophia Smith's recipe for molasses cookies. These are often served at the traditional Friday afternoon tea held in each house, where students, faculty and staff members and alumnae socialize.

Sources: http://www.smith.edu/about_justthefacts.php (Scroll down to see "Housing" description.)

Academic year events

Mountain Day is observed early in the fall semester. The President of the College selects a crisp, sunny, beautiful autumn day when the leaves are in full color, and announces the cancellation of classes by having bells rung on campus at 7:00 AM on the chosen day. The eager anticipation of Mountain Day leads to intense speculation and an abnormally high interest in meteorology by students in the weeks leading up to the surprise announcement. Traditional observance of Mountain Day by students might involve New England road trips or outdoor pursuits, and college dining services provides box lunches to be taken off-campus.

Otelia Cromwell Day, named for Smith's first African-American alumna, began in 1989 to provide students with an in-depth program specifically addressing issues of racism and diversity. Afternoon classes are cancelled, and students are invited to participate in lectures, workshops, symposia and cultural events centered around a different theme each year.

In February 1876, the College began an annual observance of George Washington's birthday. In 1894, a rally became part of the day's events, and the focus of the celebration became primarily patriotic rather than exclusively social—though always with a women's college twist. Students that year staged a mock debate on the subject, "Does Higher Education Unfit a Man for Domestic Life?" In 1906 the celebration was first referred to as Rally Day (although the name was not used officially by the College until 1992). In 1944, seniors made Rally Day the first public wearing of their graduation caps and gowns; since then, mortarboards have been replaced by wacky, often homemade hats. Today, the Rally Day Convocation is centered around a historical theme, and features a distinguished keynote speaker and the awarding of Smith College Medals to accomplished alumnae.

Rally Day is observed in the Spring; an all-college gathering honors distinguished alumnae, and a musical is held depicting life at Smith.

Reunions and Commencement events

The Alumnae Association of Smith College hosts official class reunions every five years, plus a special two-year reunion. All alumnae from all classes are welcome to return in any year; "off-year" alumnae attend campus-wide events as the "Class of 1776".

Traditional reunion and Commencement events are linked, and celebrate the close ties between Smith's alumnae and its graduating seniors and their families. At the conclusion of final exams, most underclasswomen leave the campus, while seniors remain in their houses for a week to celebrate and prepare for Commencement. Alumnae arrive for reunions later in the week, and many alumnae arrange for official accommodations in the campus houses, right alongside senior residents.

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Ivy Day

Ivy Day, the day before Commencement, is the high point of reunion and a significant event for seniors as well. Junior ushers lead a parade through campus, carrying vines of ivy to be planted by the departing seniors as a symbol of their lifelong connection to the college. Alumnae (and, often, their children), dressed in white and wearing sashes in their class color, line up in reverse order by class along both sides of the route. Seniors line up nearest the end of the parade route, wearing traditional white dresses and each carrying a single red rose. All cheer each alumnae class as it marches past, then fall in to join the end of the parade. Many alumnae classes carry signs with humorous poems or slogans, or hold balloons or wear hats in their class color. Ivy Day festivities conclude in the Quad, where the seniors plant their ivy and speakers address alumnae on the progress of fundraising and the state of the college.

Illumination Night, beginning at dusk on the evening before Commencement, is a beautiful celebration of the campus and a send-off of sorts for graduating seniors. Throughout central campus, electric street lights are replaced for one night by multicolored Japanese-style paper lanterns, lit with real candles. These hang on both sides of every walking path and cast a soft glow over the buildings and lawns. Student acapella singing groups and improv comedy troupes roam the campus, stopping occasionally to entertain the crowds. A jazz band, hired by the college, turns the science buildings' courtyard into a dance floor. Seniors, alumnae, faculty and their families spend the evening on walking tours of the illuminated campus and Botanic Gardens. The major official event of the night is the Senior Step Sing: seniors gather on the steps of Neilson Library, where they are serenaded by members of the Sophomore Push committee, then are physically pushed off the stairs and "into the real world".

Until the early 1990s, all alumnae reunions were held during Commencement weekend. However, as the number of returning alumnae grew beyond the capacity of the campus, reunions were split into Reunion I/Commencement Weekend and Reunion II, held the following weekend. "Significant" reunions (50-, 25- and 10- year, but also 2-year) and the earliest reunion classes (65-year and prior) are assigned to Reunion I; "lesser" reunions (5-, 15-, 20-, 30-year, and so on) are assigned to Reunion II. Although the AASC sponsors an Alumnae Parade (in place of Ivy Day) and a second Illumination Night, these events are far less festive as the seniors and their families have long since graduated and left campus.

Campus folklore

Smith has numerous folk tales and ghost stories surrounding the campus and historical events. One such tale holds that Sessions House is inhabited by the ghost of Lucy Hunt, who died of a broken heart after being separated from her lover, General Burgoyne. Another tale tells of a girl who haunts the basement of one of the houses near the river, after a tunnel which led down to the pond collapsed as she was sneaking out to meet a lover.

Notable alumnae

Main article: List of Smith College people

A number of Smith alumnae have gone on to become notable in their respective fields and endeavors, including author Madeleine L'Engle, feminist Gloria Steinem, and first ladies Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan. In 2006, 15 Smith graduates won national fellowships for graduate study. The Alumnae Association of Smith College considers all former students to be members, whether they graduated or not, and does not generally differentiate between graduates and non-graduates when identifying Smith alumnae.

Smith in popular culture

• The 1967 movie Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the 1993 movie Malice were both filmed on the Smith campus.
• Scooby Doo: A long-cherished, but since-debunked urban legend held that the main characters of the 70's cartoon are based on representative archetypes of the Five Colleges [1].
• I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can: an episode of The Simpsons where Lisa Simpson is tempted by the Siren-like representatives of the Seven Sisters (and George Plimpton), who offer a free ride to the Sister school of her choice (and a George Plimpton hot plate) if she will throw a Spelling Bee [2].
• Running With Scissors: This memoir by Augusten Burroughs details how the author and his foster-sister, Natalie, used to take walks on the campus.
• Sex and the City: The character Charlotte York is a Smith alum, which she mentions in the Season One episode "Valley of the Twenty-Something Guys."
• The webcomic Questionable Content mentions the college as the place where one of the main characters, Marten, is employed as library staff, and one of the minor characters, Ellen, studies marine biology.
• The webcomic Minimalist Stick Figure Theatre is set in the town of Northampton, and features multiple female characters who are students of Smith College.

References

• Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993 (2nd edition).

External links

• Smith College
• l NewsSmith, Smith's newsletter
• The Sophian - Smith's student newspaper
• The Smith Daily Jolt
• Smith College Admissions Video on CollegeFair.tv
• Five College Bus System
• Smith College Democrats
• The Smith Republican Club
• Feminists of Smith Unite!