Smith College Students Revolt Over Rumors The School Will Turn All-Vegetarian

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — The rumor that Smith College was going entirely vegetarian, and that it would only buy food from local growers, started a ruckus on the school's Massachusetts campus.

There were protests and counter-protests last week at the prestigious women's college in Northampton, slogans pro and con written on walkways, and personal criticism of the manager of dining services.

It turns out it was a hoax, cooked up by two professors as part of their introductory class in logic.

Professor Jay Garfield tells The Boston Globe () the prank was a way to liven up a dry topic. He and professor Jim Henle have started false rumors in the past. http://bo.st/tqfDGO

Smith President Carol Christ added to the exercise, saying Monday Garfield and Henle had been fired. That, too, was a hoax.

Comments

[Joseph Schmoe]

07:43 AM on 10/27/2011

All that rug-munching...I already thought Smithies gave up eating meat at least until graduation.
;-)

[Brother Atticus]

09:08 PM on 10/26/2011

A hoax within a hoax! Hoaxception.

[notoriusbrut]

08:41 PM on 10/26/2011

"awesome prank Farva"

[alferrer]

06:57 PM on 10/26/2011

Dictatorship of the left.
Next: Students must exhale into a bag.

[FiredUpRTG]

12:26 PM on 10/26/2011

Cross them off my list; I thought this was a school for smart kids. Anyone could've seen through that ruse.

[tullydad]

11:13 PM on 10/25/2011

Jay Garfield was my thesis advisor many moons ago.  I never knew he had it in him.

[cyoohoos]

09:17 PM on 10/25/2011

I would love it if my college had been all vegetarian. I wouldn't be struggling to be one now.

[morphine507]

03:15 PM on 10/25/2011

Becoming environmentally friendly, ending animal suffering, promoting good health, and buying local caused them to get upset?? Ugh, dumb humans. Major. Fail.

[CapsFan1988]

04:53 PM on 10/25/2011

yes, but paying thousands upon thousands of dollars to go to school, and then told to only eat certain things, how is that logical, or right?

[VirgoLinnea]

05:57 PM on 10/25/2011

Have you never been to a college dining hall? Most of them already have limited choices. Mine used to have a night per week that served mostly seafood. It was either starve, or head to the other dining hall where you had only crappy wraps or chinese food to suffer through instead. Some colleges do manage to create the illusion of a large amount of choice to their students, but even still, the meal choices are limited.

[DanSc]

05:31 PM on 10/25/2011

Yes, everyone mus be just like you, oh Great White One.