October 26–November 2, 1990
UNITY orgs hold rally, College Hall sit-in to protest for space
Supporters of Smith’s cultural organizations, calling themselves UNITY, met on the back steps of College Hall to start their protest. These students silently linked hands and proceeded through College Hall in single file, wearing yellow armbands to represent the peaceful unity of people of all colors.The heads of UNITY then spoke to an assembled crowd of students, reporters, and administrators from Lilly Hall’s steps. They expressed a deep sense of alienation and frustration with the administration’s unresponsiveness around the space issue. They said that the College used their images in publications in order to attract more students of color, yet they weren’t even being given office space from which to run their organizations. After the rally, students filed back into College Hall to start their sit-in. Although the sit-in was originally planned for the weekend, the protestors voted to extend it to a full week, ending it only when the heads of UNITY drew up a contractual agreement with Ann Burger, dean of the college.
Sophian articles on the sit-in can be found here, here, here, and here.
Sophian letters to the editor can be found here, here, here, and here.
A New York Times article on the sit-in can be found here.
A summary of the sit-in and the results it produced can be found here.
[Last updated on October 31, 2018]