Accusations of racism fly at a Northampton college after a student shows up in black face at a school-sanctioned party.

The controversy began at a theme-party held last Friday at Smith College, a private women's college. The theme: celebrity rehab. A student and her male guest, came in black face, dressed up, as Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.

"In retrospect, it doesn't seem like an appropriate theme for a party," says Student Government President Emily Taylor, who did not attend the event.

No pictures of this event accompany this story because minutes after the couple entered, other party-goers told her to wipe it off, and she did.

After the party was over, is when the controversy really started to heat up. Accounts of the events were posted on Smith's Daily Jolt message board.

"Hundreds of postings, back and forth, offensive on both sides," Taylor says.

Postings flooded in over the weekend.

Some say the small campus, of less than 3,000 was polarized this morning, and that's when the college knew something had to be done. The school voluntarily contacted CBS 3 Springfield about the party in hopes to clarify the situation.

"It was definitely not her intention, to be hurtful and it was an ignorant act and she's learned from this, but I think the whole campus community needs to learn from this," Taylor says.

Smith College President Carol Christ released a statement reading, "Because we are colleges and universities, we all need to share in the responsibility to educate ourselves about racism...and work together to change our culture."

The student at the center of this controversy has apologized. It does not look like she will be punished. The school will be holding a variety of cultural diversity meetings in the coming days and weeks.

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