By Katie Goss ’23
On April 16, the Mount Holyoke College administration hosted a virtual town hall meeting for students, focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on the College and the broader campus community. Speakers included two members of the Student Government Association (SGA), Maya Sopory ’22 and Lauren Fuller ’22, as well as members of Mount Holyoke’s Senior Policy Group. These members included President of the College Sonya Stephens, Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall, Vice President for Advancement and Acting Vice President of Communications and Marketing Kassandra Jolley, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Shannon Gurek, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer Kijua Sanders-McMurtry, Vice President for Enrollment Management Robin Randall and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Jon Western. Students who signed up to attend the virtual meeting were able to submit questions beforehand as well as during the meeting.
Pre-submitted questions for each category were asked first before moving onto questions posed during the live meeting.
Academic questions were answered by Western. Topics discussed included student transcripts and contingency plans for the fall semester. Western said that options are currently being discussed should students not be able to return next semester.
“This is a scenario that is very difficult to predict at the moment, given the tremendous uncertainty. As you all know in Massachusetts, and much of the country, we are on stay-at-home orders,” said Western. “So as soon as we have more information about what we think we might move towards in the fall, we will let you know.”
Western assured students that the College has formed two ad hoc committees, both of which include students, that will make final decisions regarding major issues. The first, the Academic Planning Group, which has added a COVID-19 Academic Planning Emergency Response Team, is made up of faculty, staff and students and is chaired by Western. The second, the Financial Review Group, is made up of members of the Faculty Planning and Budgeting committee, the Operations Policy Council and faculty and student representatives from SGA and the College Planning Committee. The Financial Review Group is chaired by Gurek.
Randall said that the Financial Review Group will determine whether flexibility surrounding payment plans will be enacted before the first payment for the fall semester is due in August.
Because a group of new students commits to Mount Holyoke every semester, one audience member asked if there have been any dips in enrollment or retention ahead of the fall semester. Randall said, “In terms of first year commitment for fall 2020, we have not seen any reduction in the number so far. As [current students] have many questions, they too have many questions.”
Regarding students’ transcripts for the spring 2020 semester, Western said that with colleges across the world going through the same difficulties, “pass/fail” grades will not count against students. “Graduate schools and employers are aware that this is a special case and are looking at students’ entire college transcripts and not just one semester,” Western said.
“We’re hearing universally, from all of the individuals we’re talking to, that graduate schools and employers fully understand that this is a unique moment in higher education,” explained Western. “But the reality is that ... graduate schools and employers are telling us they’re looking at the holistic piece of the transcript. So the entire body of work of the students over the course of their entire career at Mount Holyoke, not just the spring of 2020.”
Gurek answered students’ questions dealing with credits and refunds. As of now, the College will not refund students’ tuition for the spring semester; their focus is on helping students finish out the online portion of the semester successfully.
The Mount Holyoke News asked whether students could expect to see an emergency increase in tuition or corresponding decrease in aid due to the financial burden the pandemic has placed on the College. According to Gurek, since the Board of Trustees voted at their annual meeting on Feb. 27 to raise the cost of tuition, room and board prior to the evacuation of campus, the College does not expect to add an additional tuition increase. The Financial Review Group will be involved in decisions about additional aid for students, according to Gurek.
“This has just been a major crisis for everyone. And what we can do around our aid policies that will help to support families as we move forward. So no, [there is] no extra tuition planned and no reductions in aid planned,” Gurek said. “What we are thinking about is how we can structure our policies to be as fair and equitable as we can. And it’s hard to know exactly what that looks like given the current scenarios, but we’re working through those issues currently and hoping to have a little more information and structure around that shortly.”
Gurek assured students that the College plans to provide essential programs, such as faculty to teach, staff to support students and food from Dining Services. Information on this topic will be sent out as more official plans are made closer to the fall semester.
According to Gurek, faculty and staff salaries will remain the same for the duration of the semester. At this point, none have been reduced. Beyond that, the needs of the campus will be evaluated and any changes will be reviewed by the Financial Review Group.
Hall spoke on student housing. She said that the College is developing a plan for any students who are still on campus who cannot return home in May. Overall, any policy decision made will be discussed between the Senior Policy Group and subgroups of the Emergency Response Team. However, since each student’s situation will be different, the leadership team in the Division of Student Life and the staff in Residential Life will help evaluate situations.
“The short answer is we are going to work with students if they can't get home,” Hall said. “We are going to do something.”
An official plan for summer housing was announced in a COVID-19 update email to the campus community on April 21. Unless a plan is worked out with Residential Life to find alternate housing for the summer, students currently on campus must leave by May 6. Students not currently on campus are not permitted to reside on campus this summer.
A student asked if the College will follow Hampshire College’s lead and open up some of its residence halls to provide housing for homeless people who have tested positive for COVID-19 but are not sick enough to be hospitalized. Jolley said that Mount Holyoke has helped the community in other ways and has not been asked to open its dorms.
“Mount Holyoke has done quite a bit to help the community, from donations of PPE equipment to some other activities,” Jolley said. “The reality is we haven't been asked yet to participate in that way. If asked, we will certainly explore our options, but we have not yet been asked.”
Another issue raised regarded quarantine procedures should a student currently living on campus test positive for the virus. If a student tested positive or was presumed to have the virus but did not need to be hospitalized, they could be quarantined on campus, according to Hall. Only about 290 students remain on campus — living in single rooms or with roommates — and there are plenty of empty dorms students can be moved to should they need to be isolated.
In order to keep everyone in the area as safe as they can, Western mentioned that Technical Lead and Design Mentor for the Fimbel Maker and Innovation Lab Kris Camp had designed a prototype for making 3D printed masks that has been uploaded and shared online. Camp is currently working out a plan to produce masks using the Fimbel Lab in Prospect Hall.
There were some concerns and questions raised on issues during the transition weekend, specifically as to why Campus Police were involved in enforcing physical distancing measures and why dorm rooms were locked by residential staff and volunteers on the evening of March 13. Hall explained that, due to students needing the flexibility to make a plan and get home, there was no student staff to help with dorm checkouts, so volunteers helped — but accidentally locked dorm room doors. Campus Police was asked to help unlock all of the doors to ensure that students did not have to wait to get into their rooms.
“We had two problems going on at once. We had physical distancing where there were parties happening — lots and lots of parties — that were exceeding the recommended amount of gathering space, and then we had lockouts that were happening,” explained Hall. “Essentially Campus Police was asked, at my request, to come in and to help us, but with the same sort of ethos around ... this is really about care and support for the community.”
According to Sanders-McMurtry and Hall, counseling and support services are finding ways to provide students, faculty and staff with resources from afar. Counseling Services has been working to set up video counseling for students to use via Zoom, but due to licensing regulations, the College’s counselors are not able to work across state lines unless a person has insurance that has reciprocity with Massachusetts. Students also have the option to call Counseling Services to come up with a plan to receive support and referrals for care.
Affinity-based support and counseling sessions for Asian and Asian-American students are also available. On Wednesday, April 15, Erica Weathers and Shirley Yuanrui Li of the Counseling Center held a virtual Zoom meeting to discuss the racism and xenophobia that has resulted from the spread of the virus. Sanders-McMurtry also mentioned that a similar program is being created for faculty and staff.
Sanders-McMurtry reiterated Stephens’ previous statements regarding racist reactions to the impacts of the pandemic. “The physical and emotional toll of COVID-19 extends beyond the infection itself. Fear is a normal reaction to new health concerns and contagion, but we must not translate that fear into xenophobia, stereotypes and distrust of one another, or into targeted bias against people of any racial or ethnic group, particularly those most affected by this outbreak,” Stephens wrote to the campus community in a Feb. 14 email. “Here especially, on Mount Holyoke’s campus, we must resist misinformation and challenge incidents of bias, responding to both with ever more inquiry, integrity, and compassion.”