Pearls and Cashmere

As a student body with a strong sensibility towards social justice, we believe it is our responsibility to show Ms. Spurzem exactly what the Smith student body is like. Work together, Smithies. Let's send a message.
This is what a white, Fairfield County, prep-school attending Smithie looks like sitting for a portrait 3 decades on. Sorry, no pearls that day, but I’m wearing my great-grandmother’s pendant, so I hope that will be upper-class enough (whatever that means) for you, Ms Spurzem. I come from a long line, on both sides of my family, of mostly old money, prep schools and Ivy League colleges (though the old money didn’t trickle down quite to my generation, so I was a scholarship student, too). I went to Smith right about when you did, (Class of 78), but I don’t even start to recognize the white-privilege, country club school you seem to remember with such fondness. If, when I was looking at colleges, Smith had presented an array of cookie-cutter rich white women like your ideal, instead of the brilliant, magical, challenging mixture that I encountered at every visit and prospective student party, I would have run as fast as I could in the other direction. But it didn’t and doesn’t, thank Sophia! And I am unspeakably proud to be part of such a remarkable sisterhood of accomplished, articulate women of every color and age and walk of life. As for you, dear Ms Spurzem, you might want to get your myopia looked at. Perhaps venturing beyond the gated neighborhoods and the country clubs would help.

This is what a white, Fairfield County, prep-school attending Smithie looks like sitting for a portrait 3 decades on. Sorry, no pearls that day, but I’m wearing my great-grandmother’s pendant, so I hope that will be upper-class enough (whatever that means) for you, Ms Spurzem. I come from a long line, on both sides of my family, of mostly old money, prep schools and Ivy League colleges (though the old money didn’t trickle down quite to my generation, so I was a scholarship student, too).

I went to Smith right about when you did, (Class of 78), but I don’t even start to recognize the white-privilege, country club school you seem to remember with such fondness. If, when I was looking at colleges, Smith had presented an array of cookie-cutter rich white women like your ideal, instead of the brilliant, magical, challenging mixture that I encountered at every visit and prospective student party, I would have run as fast as I could in the other direction.

But it didn’t and doesn’t, thank Sophia! And I am unspeakably proud to be part of such a remarkable sisterhood of accomplished, articulate women of every color and age and walk of life. As for you, dear Ms Spurzem, you might want to get your myopia looked at. Perhaps venturing beyond the gated neighborhoods and the country clubs would help.

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