My alma mater Smith College betrayed its own professed love of its honor code by writing and then publicizing its letter accusing Evelyn Harris of plagiarism in her acceptance speech for her honorary doctorate. Smith College hastily, with a singular goal toward shuffling unwanted negative publicity away from itself, chose to deliberately humiliate Evelyn by telling the world that she violated Smith’s academic standards by borrowing some of the words of others to encourage the new graduates to live their lives authentically. But Smith College deliberately and hypocritically omitted facts that would have painted a very different picture.
I personally know Evelyn not only submitted her speech for approval to Smith College weeks in advance and received an edited version back from them in tacit and overt approval for her to give that speech, but she also asked them for guidance or restrictions for what she could say and write before she even began the process of composing her speech, thus giving respect and sensitivity to Smith’s public reputation. I have yet to see Smith clarify these critical details to the public at all in their haste to shift blame onto Evelyn. That is hypocrisy. Smith College claimed to the public a moral high ground of honesty, but lies of omission about its own responsibility in this situation are still, in fact, lies. And these lies are not without consequence because Evelyn’s legacy is her reputation.
Evelyn did not earn her honorary doctorate as an accomplished and published scholar, because she is not an academic. She was honored for her many years of transformative activism, inspiration of others, and international acclaim to her own established truth-telling about the very real history and power of music in the face of oppressive systems. Evelyn’s entire career is based on honoring the words and music of others through repetition and performance, without the academic rigors of citation. She absolutely earned this honorary degree which had nothing to do with academia, and her speech had nothing to do with how she earned that honor.
Smith College owes Evelyn an apology as public as they chose to humiliate her. And Smith College needs to immediately return her well-deserved and well-earned honorary doctorate because they made the right decision to honor her with it in the first place. Her speech was and is irrelevant to her honorary degree. I imagine, however, that Smith’s shrugging cruelty and own academic dishonor in this situation tarnishes the sheen on that degree, much in the same way that it tarnishes the sheen on mine.
Tolley M. Jones, Smith College Class of ‘95 and a Gazette columnist, lives in Easthampton.