MA College Removes 'Field' From Program Name Due To Racial Connotations

NORTHAMPTON, MA — Smith College's Office of Field Education will be renamed the Office of Practicum Learning in the school's efforts to keep "with our values and our commitment to anti-racist work," the Smith College School for Social Work announced in a message to the community last week.

"SSW's Core Principles encourage us to center the lived and historical experiences of Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color," the message, shared by Smith SSW Practicum Learning team members Katya Cerar, Arianne Napier-White and Marybeth Stratton, continued. "We recognize that language is powerful and that phrases such as 'going into the field' or 'field work' may hold negative associations."

While the Cambridge Dictionary lists the primary definition of "field" as "an area of land used for growing crops or keeping animals, usually surrounded by a fence," the dictionary also acknowledges the word's use to describe "a place where you are working or studying in real situations, rather than from an office, laboratory, etc."

The message shared by Smith reiterated that the school's Toward Racial Justice Plan "asks us to consider that Smith was not originally designed for the diverse students, staff and faculty that we have now, and calls us to reflect on our past and present to build a more just and inclusive future."

"While this change may seem small, it is an action among many others, to keep us accountable to our values, to our students, and to our Smith SSW community," the message said.

The Office of Practicum Learning program assists students at Smith College School for Social Work as they complete two supervised internships, applying and integrating knowledge from their coursework into real-world experiences.

The school shared a language key with 14 suggestions of other ways for students to describe their experiences in the program without using the word "field." For instance, the school recommends that students use the term “social work profession" rather than “social work field."

"We recognize that adopting a new name for our office can be challenging, and we expect this will take some time," the team wrote. "But we hope that you'll join us in this effort to be intentional and inclusive and to stay open and actively engage with change."

Opened in 1875, Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite women's colleges in the Northeastern United States.

For years, there have been mutterings of tensions between Smith College students, staff, and administrators around issues of racial justice and the college's diversity training. In response to New York Times reporting in 2021 covering the alleged tensions, which included claims that the training was "psychologically abusive" and the culture "deeply hostile and fearful," the college's president Kathleen McCartney issued a flat denial and said the staff is "content and are embracing [the training.]"

Patch reached out to Smith College for comment.