"Students of Color" weekend?

SmithieandProud
Wed, 04 Apr 2007 22:37:03 +0000

Okay, well I am a student of color at Smith so maybe I can give a little perspective here. I would say that I chose Smith in part because of the liberal arts New England college’s I looked at, Smith seemed the most committed to Diversity. After being here for almost two years (wow, I can’t beleive it), I can say that I’m fairly happy with diversity on campus. The Unity orgs (Black student union, Asian American students, Nosotras (latina women’s club), etc) are very active if that’s your thing, and by the numbers were are economically and racially diverse for a college of our size, type, and location, though the reality of living life as a student of color is not always like an admissions office brochure.

Students of color are well received, though you are probably going to run into one or two people who have never really encountered a person of color of their own age (my roommate came from a town with one black family), though you will find that at many schools I think.

One of the bad things about having so many active Unity orgs (and there are a lot), is that students tend to join them and then just hang out with their unity org friends (similar to how rugby players hang out with rugby players, or theatre majors with theatre majors). It’s not a clique, per se, but I do see a lot of groups of black students, latina students, asian students, caribbean students, african students, and not as much mixing as I would like to see, and I think that the unity orgs contribute to that. Also, the desire to find something or someone familiar to hang onto when you’re a minority as students of color inevitably are at Northeast LACs.

Bottom line, remember that being a student of color in any college is just one of the things that you are, and try to keep your friends as diverse as you want your school to be.