February 18, 1997
Free speech discussion held in response to Sophian letter
King House held a two-hour discussion on free speech following the publication of head resident Carey Shaffer’s controversial letter to the Sophian. Shaffer started off the discussion by explaining her stance—namely, that Smith was only open to select opinions, not all opinions—and talking about how she had felt personally attacked when she had spoken at the Campus Climate Working Group (CCWG) meeting. From there, the discussion became broader, covering a variety of topics such as white privilege, reverse racism, and campus climate. Some students agreed with Shaffer, one saying, “I do believe being a heterosexual, white, upper middle class woman at Smith is hard.” Other students talked about how people of color felt uncomfortable every day at Smith, and that perhaps having white women experience the same feelings would be valuable. Students mostly agreed, however, that the current atmosphere at Smith made it difficult to discuss such things, and they worked to brainstorm some concrete ways to change that.
The full Sophian article on the discussion can be found here (1, 2).
[Last updated on October 18, 2018]