May 1, 1989
All-college meeting held, demands presented
President Dunn held an all-college meeting to discuss the flood of hate notes received over the previous week and weekend. At students’ request, she made the meeting mandatory. At the meeting, the heads of Smith’s eight cultural organizations presented a short list of demands that they had originally planned to present to the Committee for Academic Policy before this latest crisis. The demands were the expulsion of those responsible for the notes, a four-credit class on racism being required to graduate, mandatory racial and cultural awareness workshops in student houses, more office space for the cultural organizations (who all currently occupied the Mwangi Cultural Center), and a statement from President Dunn about the progress of the investigation. A student in the audience suggested that the student body vote on the demands, launching the room into debate until Affirmative Action Officer E. Shelton Burden announced that the vote would take place the next day via ballots during lunch and dinner. President Dunn responded to the demands and called on each Smith community member to make a contract with a partner to learn more about the people and culture of someone of a different race. She said that the meeting brought about many good things but that “the end didn’t bring that sense of catharsis that people like.”
The special Sophian edition “Racial Tension at Smith” from May 4th, 1989 can be found here (1, 2, 3, 4).
[Last updated on October 31, 2018]