Tyler E. Barnett: Smith College must uphold its motto

I wholeheartedly support Reed Mitchell’s April 11 letter [“Northampton Public Schools deficit shouldn’t be an issue”], and want to offer some additional perspective.

I grew up in Ithaca, New York, graduated from Cornell Law School, and still follow town/gown politics there. Cornell recently agreed to make $4 million yearly PILOT payments (80% of which are unrestricted) for 15 years, along with separate $650,000 yearly payments directly to Ithaca’s school district. Cornell’s endowment is five times larger than Smith’s, but its enrollment is almost 10 times larger and it has a larger budget as a proportion of its endowment (it has to operate both an ag school and a particle accelerator, after all).

Here is a quote from Cornell President Martha Pollack, taken from the Cornell Daily Sun (Aug. 31, 2023): “We are pleased to be able to provide this additional support for the Ithaca City School District’s important operations. By increasing and extending assistance to the district, we are helping to mitigate ongoing, significant demands on the district’s budget and helping to ensure a strong school system, which is vital to the larger community, including Cornell.”

There is no excuse for Smith College not to fund Northampton and NPS at similar levels for similar reasons — I’ve even provided them with a ready-made PR quote to use when they do the right thing. I urge Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra to use her alumni status to pressure Smith into upholding its motto (“To Virtue, Knowledge”) and fully close the school budget gap by any means possible.

Tyler E. Barnett

Northampton