Academics

The readjustment: students return to Mount Holyoke after gap years and semesters

The readjustment: students return to Mount Holyoke after gap years and semesters

Like many colleges and universities around the United States, Mount Holyoke offered almost exclusively remote courses during the 2020-2021 academic year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This turn of events prompted some students to choose to take a gap year or semester instead of attending online classes. Mount Holyoke students who took one semester off were able to remain a part of the class year they entered college with. However, some who took a full year off are adjusting to a social life in flux and sometimes to a new class color and mascot, which has complicated the return to the College.

Students speak out with “Mount Holyoke Doesn’t Teach Me” photo project

Students speak out with “Mount Holyoke Doesn’t Teach Me” photo project

Mara Kleinberg ’22 holds a sign reading “Mount Holyoke doesn’t teach me any other music for vespers besides Christmas carols which violate my faith.”

Hunar Anand ’21 holds a sign reading “Mount Holyoke doesn’t teach me about my religion — Sikhism.”

Lynn Shen ’19 holds a sign reading “Mount Holyoke doesn’t teach me non-Euro-American centric environmental issues/actions/histories.”

Sophie Vincent ’22 holds a sign reading “Mount Holyoke doesn’t teach me the histories of acts of violence committed against ethnic minorities outside the U.S.A.”

BY GABRIELLE SHANG ’22

Representatives from six student organizations organized a photo campaign at Blanchard Community Center called “Mount Holyoke Doesn’t Teach Me” on Nov. 1. The goal of the campaign was to promote the representation of people of color — and many other marginalized identities — in liberal arts education. Students were provided a dry-erase board and a marker to respond to the prompt “Mount Holyoke Doesn’t Teach Me.”

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