On the evening of April 19, students watched Weaving Voices, an event featuring the stories of 21 seniors of color. Mostly presented as spoken-word poetry, the seniors’ words expressed the pain, anger and disappointment too often associated with being a person of color at Smith.

In a 2003 study of students who attended Berkeley, sociologist Troy Duster found that white students tended to view race as an individual experience, often citing personal anecdotes, like “I have a best friend who is black!”  in order to suggest that racism was not a problem at the university, whereas black students were more likely to define racism as definitely present and definitely structural, as well as built into the institution itself.

This past Saturday, the Korean American Students of Smith (KASS) hosted their annual Korean Culture Day. The activities, which took place in the afternoon, were intended to increase awareness of Korean culture in the Pioneer Valley community. The group began the celebrations by introducing Korea’s traditional customs and cuisine.

  “Other Muslims assume I’m not Muslim because I’m white”; “People assume I’m straight”; “People think I’m shallow because I’m pretty.” These are all assumptions that have been posted on large colorful pieces of construction paper in the Campus Center as part of the SGA Diversity Committee and House Presidents’ Association project, “The Assumptions Project.

  This evening at 7:00 p.m. in John M. Greene Hall, Gloria Steinem ’56 and Ruchira Gupta will give the keynote address to introduce a two-day symposium at Smith entitled, “Trafficking Sex: Politics, Policy, Personhood.” This will mark Steinem’s second trip to Smith this year, as the famed feminist and activist graced JMG with her presence in early February in honor of the Smith Archives and in a move to promote awareness and activism within the community.

  This year, the Curriculum Committee has been working on a number of endeavors, most notably two social justice curricular iniatives. The Committee’s first proposal was to create an inventory of all courses that engage with social justice taught at Smith, followed by a proposal to include social justice as a distribution in Latin Honors.

  After several weeks of terse ticket sales and anticipation, CNN news anchor and host of Anderson Cooper 360°, Anderson Cooper made an appearance at Smith on April 14, where he partook in a conversation with Dean Jane Stangl on everything from journalism as a field to juggling private and public life.

  On April 6, UMass, Amherst celebrated this year’s Asia Night 2013: Year of the Snake at the UMass Fine Arts Center. Cambodian-American rapper Lil Crazed (real name: Alexander Ou) and Korean-American singer Clara C (of YouTube fame) jointly headlined this year’s event.

  The Smith College House President Manual for the 2012-2013 academic year defines hazing as “any activity in which students feel social pressure to participate, whether this pressure is stated or implied,” and goes on to say that “common examples at Smith are scavenger hunts, senior breakfasts, and middle of the night trips to diners.