Southern Student Exchange Program

The Student Government Association in 1961 initiated the Southern Student Exchange Program, which lasted through 1968. The program provided an opportunity for Smith students to visit colleges in the South for one or two weeks with a reciprocal visit by Southern students, both African American and white. Each year 6 to 12 students partcipated in the program. The experience had a profound effect on the women who participated. Their stories can be found in the pages of the Smith College student newspaper, The Sophian.

After 1968 the Student Government Association stopped funding the program. The Black Students Alliance attempted to fill the void by proposing a semester-long exchange with historically black colleges during the 1969-1970 academic year. Unfortunately we cannot confirm from archival evidence that the program ever got off the ground. A faculty exchange program also was suggested, and in 1969 Professor Kenneth McCartney of the Economics Department spent a semester at Spelman College.