Declan Langton
editor-In-Chief • Executive Board Member
News
In a recent faculty meeting, the Academic Priorities Committee announced new proposals to the class meeting time schedule for the 2022-2023 academic year. According to documents obtained by Mount Holyoke News, these schedule adjustments center on changes to the Tuesday and Thursday morning class meeting times.
“I might be loud and vibrant and outspoken. However, that does not give you the right to put up hate signs against me,” an anonymous resident of 1837 said. The student, a member of the Jewish community, was the repeated target of antisemitic graffiti at Mount Holyoke College in fall 2021.
As previously reported by Mount Holyoke News, a Nazi swastika was found drawn on the mirror of the single stall bathroom on the third floor of 1837 Hall on Oct. 6. Since then, two further incidents of antisemitic vandalism have occurred on this floor, all explicitly targeting this student.
Mount Holyoke will begin the spring 2022 semester with two weeks of remote learning, according to a Jan. 13 letter to the community from President Sonya Stephens. The period of remote teaching and learning will take place from Jan. 24 to Feb. 5, with in-person classes resuming on Monday, Feb. 7.
On Tuesday, Nov. 30, senate convened in the Great Room to discuss the 2021 Student Conference Committee survey results. The meeting opened with a land acknowledgment read by Viveca Holman ’22, the PR Officer of the SGA Executive Board. The E-Board then updated senate on “Spirit Week” events, namely Small Business Saturday, where students can gather in the Great Room to sell products from their small businesses or their own clothes. This event still has sign-up slots left.
“I blink, and I still see my reflection in the mirror with a [Nazi] swastika on it,” a Jewish resident of 1837 Hall said. On Oct. 6, the student came face to face with the hate symbol while on a routine trip to the single stall bathroom on the third floor of 1837. The room, as they described it, was a pleasant “safe haven.” But while washing their hands, they looked up to see a “line” drawn on the mirror. At first, they were confused.
Mount Holyoke has decided to extend its no-guest policy in residential halls through the end of the fall semester. On Oct. 6, the Office of Residential Life sent an email to all residential students providing an update to their guest policy. In the email, a guest is defined as anyone who does not live on campus.
A Nazi swastika was found drawn across the bathroom mirror in the third floor single stall bathroom in 1837 Hall on Oct. 6, just after 6:30 p.m., according to a letter to the community from the Jewish Student Union board. Shortly after it was found, the symbol was removed by Public Safety and Services.
Mount Holyoke changed its school-wide meal plan for the 2021-22 academic year. Starting August 26, the Dining Commons will be open from 7:15 a.m. until 10 p.m. on weekdays and until midnight on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Late night will now begin at 8 p.m. The dining hall will no longer be closed from 4-5 p.m. In previous, pre-COVID-19 years, the dining hall was open until midnight each night.
In a letter addressed to the Mount Holyoke College community on July 29, Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall announced that Mount Holyoke has partnered with Hampshire College to provide housing for those displaced by the Mead fire on July 17.
Environmental
The beauty in ghost-hunting is its simplicity — and the wide availability of the technology it relies on. Take the case of the temperature gun: on a dark, cold night in the spring of 2019, I paraded around campus with a group of students from my Campus Sustainability course. Our mission was to identify buildings on campus that leaked heat due to insufficient insulation. In the tiny window of the temperature gun, we observed spine-chilling temperature changes around window frames and in the mortar between bricks where heat was escaping. The lack of energy efficiency in the College’s ancient buildings was not paranormal, but it certainly gave us a fright. With some extra time and the power of scientific discovery in our hands, we visited the famed “ghost room” on the fourth floor of Wilder Hall.
Features
On Wednesday, April 13, 2022, Bagel Therapy graced the Gettell Amphitheater stage for the first time. Spotlit by a hot sun and fanned by a cool breeze, the band — comprised of Mira Zelkowitz ’22 on lead guitar, Mav Leslie ’23 on guitar and vocals, Jenny Yu ’24 on bass and Sofia Lopez Melgar ’24 on the drums — started their set around 5 p.m. With flaring drums and driving guitars, the group began their first song: a cover of “Percolator” by alternative group Charly Bliss.
On April 23, the Mount Holyoke Review, a literary magazine out of Mount Holyoke College, held a virtual publishing party for their second completed publication. With 51 attendees, the Zoom session featured nine of its published writers who read their work aloud. While the readers performed, the Zoom chat function was used by some to encourage and praise each other.
Photo courtesy of Mary Estretta ’19
The newest literary magazine at Mount Holyoke, the Mount Holyoke Review, published its first issue on Nov. 12. In celebration, the organization held a publishing party on the same day, during which the editors and founders of the Review spoke and some students read their work aloud.
“We are a place for Mount Holyoke students to submit their writing,” Morgan Sammut ’22, one of the fiction editors of the Review, said. “We mostly do creative works, so a lot of poetry, prose, and we have discussed if we would take essays. We haven’t gotten any of those yet, but we now have things to look forward to.”
Mount Holyoke’s student-run art and literary magazine, Open Call, is taking advantage of the current circumstances of the Coronavirus crisis and the creative output it will inspire, putting together what they call a “quarantine issue” for their sophomore publication.
“The Big Broadcast!,” an annual variety show based on commercials, radio stories and music from the 1940s, has been bringing Mount Holyoke back to the age of swing for over a decade. Mark Gionfriddo, director and founder of the Mount Holyoke Jazz Ensemble and creator of “The Big Broadcast!,” worked with his student production team (Chris Cassidy ’20, Megan Ferrara ’20, Mara Kleinberg ’22, Anna Morris ’20 and Julia Sienkiewicz ’20) to bring this year’s show to life.
South Hadley’s Nate Therien has been an academic his entire life. But, after recent retirement, he has decided to try his hand at an elected position on the town’s Planning Board. He is running unopposed as a write-in, and exudes the confidence that one might expect from someone nearly guaranteed a position. Nevertheless, he continues to drive home his goals and plans for the town.
Leading up to Valentine’s Day, professor of dance Charles Flachs was in his office finishing a day’s work, while his wife, professor of dance Rose Flachs was at home, feeling under the weather. Illnesses have been sweeping throughout campus this February, but despite the stress and sneezing, the professors still found time to share their love story.
Over the past weeks, students at Mount Holyoke have received emails from members of the Residential Life staff about upcoming health and safety room checks. The emails included basic time and date information, as well as a lengthy list of items not allowed in the residence halls or apartments. Inspections took place between Nov. 7 and Nov. 15.
In spring 2019, the film studies and theatre arts departments announced a tentative merger to create a new major. Faculty and students gathered to discuss concerns with the majors and ideas for a new path of study. This semester, the two departments announced that the plan is in the works and awaiting final approval from the faculty board.
Some on-campus perspectives about Trump and impeachment.
The title of a “women’s college” is heavily debated. On its website, Mount Holyoke uses the term “women’s college.” Most prominently, it is found on the College’s “About” page, where the College describes itself as “a women’s College that is gender diverse,” going on to say, “we welcome application from female, transgender and nonbinary students.”
Katherine Walker, a new visiting lecturer in English, loves Shakespeare and is bringing her love of the Bard’s words to Mount Holyoke.
Seniors were encouraged to invite a member of Mount Holyoke’s faculty or staff to join them in the rose garden behind Talcott Greenhouse on the evening of Friday, April 12, for the class of 2019’s first Faculty & Staff Appreciation event. With this event, the Class Board of 2019 kicked off the beginning of their end-of-senior-year events.
The first of the “Be Well, Be Ready” lectures kicked off in a room full of Mount Holyoke seniors, anxious at the prospect of the upcoming year. Local realtor Reisa Alexander was there to help.
BY ANNAMARIE WIRE ’22
Originally located in the Art Building media room, Mount Holyoke’s Makerspace was created to encourage interdisciplinary learning and foster creativity on campus.
“I wake up in the morning … I see the sun rising behind the buildings and the outline of the College, and I think, ‘What will I do today to advance Mount Holyoke,’” College President Sonya Stephens said.