Dear Council Leadership and SSW community,
I am writing in acknowledgement of the below memo from both the outgoing and incoming leadership of the Council for Students of Color to President McCartney and me. The letter reiterates and expands on the demands of June 5, urging SSW to make systemic changes that address systems of white supremacy within SSW and academia.
The call to suspend SSW's AR commitment: Action item
The faculty and other Deans and I have heard the call to withdraw the Anti-Racism Commitment. We are in the process of discussing this call and have not yet reached a decision. We will communicate more once a decision is made.
Responding to specific letter demands, articulations in listening sessions, and the recommendations from the Zanzig and Grey report
Workgroup to articulate core values to guide actions
Since the start of Term 1, a group of resident and adjunct faculty, and students have been meeting weekly. This group has been charged by the faculty with identifying the key principles, values, and elements that would comprise any new commitment, principles that speak directly to reducing and addressing harm to Black faculty and students, and to develop a process by which our larger community could provide input. In the upcoming weeks, there will be an update on this group’s work including the key principles they have drafted and their recommendations for the next steps we will take in this work.
Workgroup to identify timeline of actionable items
I am composing a Priorities Workgroup of resident faculty, adjuncts and alums of color that will be charged with identifying the most impactful actions we can implement immediately, and over a specified timeline, to reduce and address harm to Black faculty, students and staff and to build institutional and personal systems of accountability. It will be important that their work be closely tied to the key principles and values being drafted above in hopes that we make the more foundational changes that are required. The group will work from Council’s most recent list of demands, the June 5th letter from Erin Matthews and Council for Students of Color, and the full list of all demands and recommendations the faculty and I have received since 2015 from students, alumni, adjunct faculty, Sotomayor Fellows and from the external consultants Ann Zanzig and Jim Gray.
It is my intention that by September and through the year and beyond we will begin to make the fundamental shifts that are necessary to proactively counteract racial inequities that harm BIPOC members of our community and to build personal, programmatic and institutional accountability to realize these goals.
With hope,
Marianne R.M. Yoshioka
July 20, 2020
Dear President McCartney and Dean Yoshioka:
We are writing to follow up on the open letter sent on June 5th. In that letter, we included specific demands that (1) a search begin immediately to fill Dr. Corbin’s absence with a full-time, Black resident faculty member; (2) that there be more Black supervisors in the field; and that (3) more Black FFAs be hired for the 2020-2021 field year. We demanded that, if all of these demands were not met, the Anti-Racism Commitment be removed from the program by the end of this summer.
It is now July. Since receiving that letter, Smith SSW has held two listening sessions, ostensibly for SSW community members of color to repeat what we have been saying for years: Smith has not been honoring the ARC and needs to examine and deconstruct its white supremacist structure and practices. We reiterate the demands above, while recognizing that they are not enough to address the systemic racism inherent to the organization of Smith SSW. In addition to the aforementioned demands, we call for the institution of the following initiatives:
- Full scholarships for every Black student
- Having a space just for Black students. Both physical and in terms of an affinity group
- Allowing personal time off for trauma experienced by students of color
- Hiring more Black faculty, Black FFAs, and Black administrators with demonstrated commitments to anti-racism and Black liberation
- Active vetting of field placements for anti-Black racism
- Transparency around the disappearance of Black faculty
- Establishing and maintaining a collective network for Black SSW students and alumni
- Establishing and maintaining a Black mentorship program
- A 50% tuition discount for Council for Students of Color executive board members
- Spanish-based classes for Spanish-speaking social workers, with the intention of expanding this to SSW courses in languages other than English and Spanish, to support diverse client populations
It is our intention that providing Smith College and Smith SSW administration with this list of clear demands gives the administration the feedback that it seeks through these listening sessions and other bids for community input. Representation will never be enough. The demands in the June 5th letter by Erin Matthews and the demands listed above are not suggestions; they are concrete goals that are urgent and necessary for the transformation of Smith SSW.
For now, we demand that the Anti-Racism Commitment be withdrawn until a more honest, radical, and impactful declaration of action is in its place. The current Commitment causes harm to those in our community who are most marginalized, as it is an empty promise. This is our last collective action as the outgoing 2019-20 Council Executive Board, and we offer this letter so that continued transformation is sustained and so that the SSW community may hold the institution accountable to that transformation.
In Truth,
Outgoing Council Executive Board
Allegra Kartha A’20, Former Co-Field Representative
Chris Ferrari A’20, Former Faculty Liaison
Grace Wong A’21, Former Co-Representative to Student Org and Incoming Co-General Meeting Coordinator
Lindsey Harrington A’20, Former Co-Representative to Student Org
Jamez Ahmad A’21, Former Co-Social Chairperson
Latisha Rocke A’20, Former Treasurer
Maricelis Abreu A’20, Former Co-Social Chairperson
Michelle Humbert A’20, Former Co-Social Chairperson and Co-Faculty Liaison
Selena Brazley A’20, Former General Meeting Coordinator
Jordan Alam A'20, Former Curriculum Representative
Lauren Adams A' 20, Former Co-Field Representative
Naomi Johnson A’20, Former Historian & Interim Secretary
And In Solidarity,
Incoming Council Executive Board
Asaelle Mendez A’21, Co-General Meeting Coordinator
Anairis Boror A’22, Co-Student Organization Representative
Felicia Kanu A’22, Co-Social Chairperson
Mayra Garcia A’22, Historian
Tracy Estrada A’22, Co-Faculty Liaison
Annie Want A’22, Co-Curriculum Representative
Laura Rubio A’22, Secretary
Kristin Woods A’22, Co-Field Representative
Sarah Coleman A’21, Co-Student Organization Representative
Clara Wagner A’21, Co-Field Representative
Beth Luvisia A’22, Social Co-Chairperson
Allegra Wyatt A'22, Co-Faculty Liaison
