Last week’s “Respect Existence or Expect Resistance” march protested recent attacks on minority students and demanded a change in Smith culture. With tensions rising on campus, some students have begun to look to the past for a sense of perspective.

During the 1980s, Smith increased its efforts to improve diversity on campus, admitting record numbers of students of color. While many students welcomed the change, the campus was rocked by racially-motivated incidents during these years.

From 1985 to 1987, 17 separate episodes of racist, homophobic and classist incidents occurred. In the spring of 1985, a swastika was painted in menstrual blood in a bathroom stall.

“We cannot wipe it away or rationalize [this] as a single unrelated action of a very sick woman,” wrote Susan Nebelkopf ’86 in a letter to the Sophian. Nebelkopf was the student who discovered the swastika.

“The knowledge that we harbor such anti-Semitism here undermines everything we want to do and be at Smith College,” wrote President Mary Maples Dunn in the same issue. Though a full investigation was launched, no culprits were found, and the investigation was dropped.

In 1986, a student wrote a Letter to the Editor in which she complained that swastikas were a cause for investigation, yet Confederate flags were allowed on campus. Following the publication of the letter, racial slurs and orders for minority students to “stop complaining” were spray-painted on the steps of Lilly Hall. An all-college meeting was held in which President Dunn condemned the acts, but the investigation was eventually dropped.

The 1988-89 school year opened with the publishing of the college’s Civil Rights Policy, aimed at protecting the rights of students. Following this publication, six racist notes were sent to a student in Wesley House. This prompted the college to publish guidelines to deal with incendiary notes.

However, in an anonymous letter to the Sophian the harassed student stated that the administration was unhelpful, and “more concerned about guidelines about note passing than racial incidents as a whole.”

Over J-term that year, two racist and homophobic notes were sent to a student in Tyler House. In response, the college admitted that two other previously unannounced notes had been found earlier in the semester, containing racist, homophobic, ableist and religiously offensive material. The college launched another investigation, employing the help of a handwriting expert, to no avail.

On April 25 of that year, it was announced that the investigation had been dropped due to lack of evidence and material. On April 27, four racist notes were sent to students in Chapin House, with three additional racist and homophobic notes sent to students in additional houses.

Students responded with a protest and a list of demands “vital to the existence” of women of color on campus. They included expulsion of the culprits, a mandatory class before graduation on racism in the United States and an expansion of the Mwangi Cultural Center.

“It affects not only the person to whom the note is given, but it affects the entire community of people that are potentially victims,” said Wambui Mwangi ’90, representative for Concerned Students of All Colors, in an interview with the Sophian.

“We are all responsible for not listening for the hate that is manifesting itself in these notes,” wrote Karen Libsch in an editorial.

In a speech at an all-campus meeting on May 1, 1989, President Dunn addressed the culprits, saying, “You hate without cause, and therefore you are my enemy and I will find you.”

She urged students to enter into a contract of accountability with each other to educate themselves about other cultures. “The enemy you know, you can lick,” she continued. “But the enemy you don’t know is a lot more difficult to deal with.” This investigation, like the ones before, was dropped.

Students continued to protest the administration’s lack of support in the following years. In 1990, students occupied College Hall to demand more space for the cultural organizations on campus.

“If you use our face, then give us space!” was one slogan used by protestors, who felt Smith pushed diversity but did not provide adequate resources for its students of color once they were admitted.

Tensions rose again in the early 2000s, when a Muslim student’s daily ablutions water bottle was stolen and defaced. This attack came after Muslim students expressed fears of discrimination following the Sept. 11 attacks. In 2002, students in Gardiner were the targets of racist notes on multiple occasions.

Following more protests and meetings, newly-appointed President Carol Christ said, “I will do everything I can as President to make sure that racism and homophobia have no place in this community.”

Students, however, remained unsatisfied with campus meetings and responses.

“The focus was on diversity, but there didn’t seem to be a sense of what exactly we were going for,” wrote alumna Sharon Bowers ’77 in a letter to the Sophian.

The latest incident to spark widespread campus discussion happened in 2007, when a student and her male companion arrived at a party in blackface. When she was confronted, the student claimed ignorance and washed off her makeup, saying she hadn’t realized the implications of her costume. The costume sparked heated discussion on the Daily Jolt and Facebook, with some students claiming that campus was “too sensitive.”

“Students are sick and tired of dialogues because the same people show up and the administration ends up preaching to the choir. We need more action, more consistency and more accountability,” said Amanda Kammerer ’09.

In an e-mail following the incident, President Christ wrote, “We all need to ask ourselves hard questions about a campus culture that seems to license anonymous, ignorant, prejudiced and hurtful comments of this sort.”