Are Women’s Colleges a Relic of the Past?

02Jun09

A recent op-ed from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, a local paper in Northampton, Mass., states that women’s colleges have no reason to exist anymore:

True, 150 years ago when women were excluded from male academies, colleges and universities, affirmative action was needed to create these special schools. We owe a debt of gratitude to women’s colleges for taking an early stand to fight discrimination, raise awareness of gender issues, and crack the glass ceiling in government, business and even academia itself.

But today, schools like Smith and Mount Holyoke, Wellesley and Mills, are hypocritical in their fight against gender discrimination since they are among the few remaining U.S. institutions allowed to exploit a federal loophole that permits them to segregate their own admissions on the basis of sex…

[There is no] empirical evidence that today’s young women do better in the classroom when set apart from more aggressive and assertive males. This might have been true in the past but it’s not true now, according to Wendy Kaimer, a women’s issues expert. Today’s women are thriving at coed colleges and in their careers.

You can read the whole article online (if you pay), or in full for free at the Smith Alum.net forums. Mildly put, the whole thing’s pretty outrageous. Both of us (Sarah and Amanda) are relatively recent alums, and I (Sarah) think I speak for both of us on this: Even 150 years after Seneca Falls, women’s colleges are very, very relevant.

Reading this, I thought, “Well, the author’s a man, what does he know about it!” I mean, he’s been living in the land of male privilege. Without some serious self-awareness, how could he know the benefits of a Smith education? But who’s this Wendy character? Why doesn’t she get it?

This is where it gets awkward: There’s no Wendy Kaimer, as far as Google and Amazon can say. However, there is a Wendy Kaminer. And she’s a Smith College alumna, class of ‘71. So which is it: A noted “expert” that never wrote a book or article? Or a Smith College graduate whose words are being used against her alma mater?

Wendy? You out there? Anywhere?

While we wait on Wendy (apologies about the alliteration… again), what did you enjoy most about attending a women’s college?

Filed under: News   |  2 Comments
Tags: '71, male privilege, Mills College, Mount Holyoke, single-sex education, smith college, Wellesley, women's colleges

Congratulations, Class of ‘09!

17May09

…And welcome to the world of Smith Alums. We’re thrilled to have you.

If you’re an ‘09 with a blog and you’d like to have it listed here, let us know!

Congrats also to Smith Alum Blogs founder Sarah, who receives her MBA today.

[Photo: From the archives, via Smith College Archives blog.]

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Tags: '09

Swine Flu & Smith College

06May09

Quote of the week, from a Smith alum’s boyfriend: “So if Hamthrax gets bad, it’ll be an aporkalypse?”

From Smith’s page on Swine Flu:

May 2, 2009
A Smith student with mild flu symptoms has been identified as among the close contacts of one of the Amherst College students with probable swine flu. Samples are being sent to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for evaluation. The student has been placed in isolation with her own kitchen and bathroom facilities, and her classroom and residential contacts are being notified.

May 5, 2009
A Smith student with mild flu symptoms who was recently placed in isolation has tested negative for H1N1, also referred to as swine flu. The student has been advised that she may return to her normal activities. The college continues to consult with health officials at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on the department’s evolving recommendations for testing and treating H1N1.

Basically, some poor Smithie went through all the craziness of being isolated, getting scared, and freaking out everyone around her before finding out… nope, she just has the regular flu.

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Tags: H1N1, smith college, swine flu

A Very Honest Proposal

03May09

We are amused by Sarbani Hazra ‘05 in this piece:

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Tags: comedy

Student Voice: Cuts to the Libraries

24Apr09

It seems that everyone lately wants to contact blogging Smith alums. We received an email from Sarah Mischner ‘10, asking us to spread information about the proposed cuts to the Smith College libraries to alumnae. You can also follow the online conversation in the independently-run forums at Smithalum.net.

To my fellow Smithies!

As you may have heard, the administration of Smith is proposing serious budget cuts, one of which is the closing of the Werner Josten Performing Arts Library to consolidate into Neilson. I’m spearheading a group of current Smithies who are very concerned about this proposal, and are reaching out to fellow students, alums, and other friends to try and get support.

• This proposal will result in the already over-crowded main library needing to buy new shelving, place large portions of the collections into storage, convert existing rooms into listening rooms, and buy new equipment so  students can listen to and watch materials.

• The plan proposes to convert the performing arts library space into additional classrooms, a costly venture which would negate the cost benefits of consolidation.

• The administration believes that dividing and re-sorting the nationally renowned collection from Josten would result in a fully functional and accessible collection, but, as students, we have determined that this would make the collection very impractical and much less accessible. In addition to a completely different manner of organization of materials, the loss of three specialized staff librarians who are an incredible resource would make the distribution into Neilson even more confusing and incredibly hard to navigate.

• The administration has proposed that many materials may be placed online in order to save space. However, many of these resources, including scores and scripts, would be unusable in a virtual format due to the necessity of having a physical score from which to learn.

Josten is the only performing arts library among the Five College Consortium, and a large number of Five College students use the space. In considering of how many people utilize Josten, Smith’s administration has only counted the number of music, theater, and dance majors, without including the huge number of people involved in musical ensembles, theater productions, and dance programs. Please help us communicate these thoughts to the administration, Trustees, and President of Smith College in an effort to change the plan. You may write your own letter or use whatever part of this post you deem necessary. With some effort, I believe that we can make our voices heard and hopefully provoke a change.

If you would like further information, or to discuss in more detail what kinds of effects will result from these changes, please feel free to contact me. If you would like to do more than send a letter, we have a petition which I would love to add your names to! If you would like to be added, please send me your name, major at Smith, and graduating year.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Sarah Mischner
smischne@smith.edu, smischner@gmail.com, 609-947-0780

To contact President Christ: cchrist@smith.edu

Rebecca Lindsey, Secretary to the Board of Trustees and Assistant to Pres. Christ: rlindsey@smith.edu

For contact information of trustees: http://www.smith.edu/trustees/Biographies.html

Proposed reduction plan for the libraries: http://www.smith.edu/president/financial/proposedplan/libraries.php

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Career Webinars & Blogs

16Apr09

We recently received an email from the Alumnae Association asking us to help bring the recently announced Barbara Reinhold’s career webinar “to the attention of other alumnae however you can.”

This email was interesting for two reasons. One, because it linked to a “blog” by Barbara. Unfortunately, the “blog” is actually just a page open to commentary, not one that hosts recurring posts. Still, this marks the second time we have seen an Alumnae Association-sponsored blog (note that the blog we link to in that post has since been taken down).

But much more interesting is that we were clearly included on a mass email to designated “Alumnae Leaders!” This, in combination with the Alumnae Association’s venture into Facebook, seems to point towards a change in how the AA communicates with alums. Could a Twitter account be far behind?

While we doubt we’ll post regarding all emails directed to us as “Alumnae Leaders,” we’ll admit that we’re tickled to be considered as such, and look forward to passing on information we feel is relevant to Smithies in the blogging world.

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Ada Comstock Program

31Mar09

This posts marks the beginning of a series of lengthier discussions around the issue of how Smith is dealing with the recession. For this post, blogger alum opinions were solicited via email. Other comments were taken (with permission) from an online Smith forum. We welcome further comments at smithalumblogs@gmail.com.

At the beginning of March, Smith College announced cuts to the Ada Comstock Scholars Program as part of the effort to reduce the college’s budget by millions of dollars in response to the troubled economy:

• Local public radio story (3/3/09)
• Smith Sophian article (3/5/09)
• Greenfield Recorder article (3/5/09)

While this blog cannot serve as a comprehensive debate on the subject, we present here a variety of different opinions by alums, some Adas (as noted by the AC before their class year year) and some traditional students.

Mary AC ‘06 is deeply disappointed in the cuts to the program, saying, “it has changed my life in ways that I had not even imagined.”

It allowed me to explore avenues of study and a study abroad travel opportunity that the state schools could never have provided. I learned to look at everything from a different perspective, evaluate all aspects of my life in a constructive manner and to broaden my views tremendously. Smith, and more importantly the AC program, believed in me, gave me encouragement and support, and made me believe in myself. Now, I get up each day and in the back of my mind, I think, “how can I continue to be the person that Smith intended me to be?”

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Tags: ada comstock, smith college

Gloria Wants You to Be Outrageous

25Mar09

Gloria Steinem is turning 75 (if you can belive that— the woman looks fabulous). In her honor, the Ms. Foundation is starting a social change campaign called “Outrageous Acts for Simple Justince.” Apparently Gloria started urging people to be outrageous years ago:

If each person in the room promises that…the very next day she or he will do at least one outrageous thing in the cause of simple justice, then I promise I will, too. It doesn’t matter whether the act is as small as saying, “Pick it up yourself” …or as large as calling a strike…. [Watch the video here.]

I (this is Sarah writing) think this is a fabulous idea, very much in keeping with the Smithie spirit.

So what’s my outrageous act? Well, it’s going to be right here: I’d like to come out on this blog. Yep, I’m queer and a Smith alum. I sometimes feel as if I have to censure my queer identity when I’m promoting Smith—ostensibly because there is a “reputation issue”—but that’s bogus! If there’s one thing that Smith taught me to have, it’s confidence—in myself, in my mind, and in my potential. So here I am: Out and proud and a Smith alumna. And if that gives the college a “reputation,” then it’s one it should celebrate.

What’s your outrageous act?

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Tags: coming out, gloria steinem, ms foundation for women, msfoundationforwomen, outrageous acts, outrageousacts, smith college

Mathematics Quickie

12Mar09

You’ve probably heard that Smith has a relatively new post-bac program at its Center for Mathematics. Here’s a great blog post by a professor at a large research university extolling the virtues of the program’s concept:

As a graduate advisor at a large university, I would be very interested in an applicant who had successfully completed such a program. In addition to the excellent experience gained via coursework and research, a student who spends an intense year on such an endeavor has demonstrated motivation and commitment. These are essential elements for success in graduate school, but are among the most difficult things to guess about applicants to a graduate program just based on application materials.

Wouldn’t I be at all concerned that a student had needed an extra year to get ready for grad school and hadn’t known since she was 4 that she wanted to study math? No, I would not be concerned at all. Not everyone knows what they want to do with their life, even when forced to declare a major in college. Not everyone gets the courses they need when they need them. A program like this could well have an impact on the number of women who choose and succeed in math-related careers.

To those who worry that women who receive their training in math or science at a women’s college and who therefore might not be prepared for “the real world”, I will repeat my usual response to this: Do you think women need practice being discriminated against?

If a young woman spends a semester, a year, or 4 years being treated with respect as a scholar, this will make her more — not less — prepared to deal with the so-called real-world.

There’s quite a lot of comments on the post about what a women’s college education can do—What do you think about it? Did a same-sex environment give you a special edge in your career? How did it impact your job searches?

(Thanks to Christie ‘00 for pointing this out to us!)

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Tags: math, mathematics, same-sex education, smith college, women, women's colleges

Smith. It’s what’s for dinner.

03Mar09

College students as a demographic are not usually known for eating well. When not scarfing down ramen or instant dinners, they struggle to scavange healthy, delicious meals from the dining halls.

However, Smith has a slightly different reputation. While meals prepared en masse are hardly comparable to home- or restaurant-cooking, Smith’s Dining Services usually does a pretty great job of whipping up a meal that will appease everyone from a ravenous, carnivorous crewbie looking for to carbo load to the kosher vegan with a gluten allergy.

Once, after working on a group project together, I brought a Hampshire student as a guest to lunch at Cushing. It was soup and sandwich day, which I thought was tasty but not necessarily extraordinary. He, however, was blown away. “This is amazing!” he exclaimed. “It makes me want to sneak over here every day!”

While the recent dining changes provoked a lot of outcry among students and alums, the fact remains the Smith’s dining is probably still a cut or two above even the best of collegiate dining. AH ‘08 of Coset the Table reminded me of this in her recent post about has a brilliant scheme for getting dinner inspiration: checking the Smith dining menus! Whenever she’s stumped for ideas and the internet feels too overwhelming, she checks the Smith College Dining Services menus.

When I checked the menus, I was immediately transported back to some of my favorite Smith meals: grilled cheese & tomato soup (a perfect classic on a cold day), pierogies at brunch, making taco salads at tex/mex night, and of course, mud pie. (Of course, in my day, we didn’t have sushi nights, but I imagine that would’ve been a favorite of mine, too!)

What are some of your favorite Smith dining memories and meals?

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Tags: college, dining, food, smith college