How to Really Celebrate Collaborations? Cancel Classes.

Lilly Butler, Sandra Li, Hannh Macpherson, Amelia Charland (left to right) presenting their research at Collaborations. Photo Courtesy of Kevin Shea

From Mountain Day to Cromwell Day to Rally Day, one of the most beloved aspects of Smith is the unique days we have off classes. These days invite students to celebrate, to reflect, and to be in community with each other. They are concrete manifestations of the values that Smith holds as an institution. It is time to add Celebrating Collaborations to this canon of Smith tradition.

Celebrating Collaborations, Smith’s annual undergraduate research symposium, is held on a Friday afternoon in the spring. Currently, cancelling class for Collaborations is optional at the discretion of the professor. Many professors do not cancel class, which means that unlucky students with Friday afternoon classes are unable to attend all or part of Collaborations.

Students should not have to choose between presenting on their research and attending class. Smith distinguishes itself from many other institutions with the abundance of opportunities it offers undergraduate students to conduct in-depth, meaningful research. We should take time to highlight this research and the students who do it. 

Students should all get the chance to share the work they’ve invested so much energy and care into. They should also all get to take advantage of the opportunity that Collaborations offers to practice presenting their work to the public, a critical skill for anyone conducting research.

Additionally, because classes are not canceled for Collaborations, many students who aren’t presenting on research don’t even realize that Collaborations is happening. If it were to live up to its name, Celebrating Collaborations would not just be for the people presenting their research; it would be for everyone to get the chance to learn about the breadth of work being produced across campus.

Smith brings together an extraordinary group of students whose interests and skills are wide ranging, but who are united by the intense curiosity, creativity, and passion with which they approach their work and their world. We should have a dedicated time to come together as a community to explore the power of the liberal arts at Smith and find joy and inspiration in each other’s work.

Celebrating Collaborations could be so much more than it is now. The research presented at Collaborations this year covered corsets, queer communists, ancient amoebas, and DNA origami exoskeletons. If that isn’t a cause for celebration worth canceling an afternoon of classes for, then I don’t know what is.

By Ada Fiala