Smith College controversy highlights struggles schools face in making racially equitable campuses
By Taylor Romine, CNN In the summer of 2018, Oumou Kanoute read a book and ate her lunch in a common room area of a Smith College residence hall that required keycard access. Since she was in a program teaching high school students over the summer, she was able to access it. That simple moment became a national story when campus police arrived a short while later, and the officer told her that an employee reported a Black person “demonstrating suspicious behavior.” She posted the incident on Facebook, then the school, in the face of significant backlash during a year