By Liz Lewis ‘21
News Editor, Publisher
Ailey Rivkin FP ’22 and Gaby Barber ’23 began circulating a petition to reverse the College’s decision to raise tuition by $5,520 on the morning of Wednesday, April 7. As the authors of the petition, Barber and Rivkin wrote, “We … find it unacceptable that Mount Holyoke College has chosen, in the midst of a global pandemic, to raise the comprehensive fee — which consists of room and board, tuition, and the student activities fee — to $73,098.”
The petition consists of a seven-page document currently circulating as a PDF alongside a Google Form for signatures. Through her work as a senator for the Student Government Association, Barber was aware of the SGA’s official process for petitioning — a process Rivkin and Barber are set on following. “We will be submitting it to the student government E-Board for conversion to a resolution, so we need 200 constituents of the SGA to sign it,” Barber said.
Rivkin connected with Barber over Instagram and has partnered with her in authoring and promoting the petition. As a Frances Perkins scholar, Rivkin has been a direct witness to the rising tuition over a longer term, having started her Mount Holyoke experience in 2015 and resumed it as a current member of the class of 2022.
According to the petition, a meeting hosted by the Mount Holyoke senate will be held on April 15 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. EDT to address the rise in the comprehensive fee. The meeting is open to the Mount Holyoke student community.
The petition outlines four demands from Rivkin, Barber and its signers. The first is that the College reverse its decision to raise the comprehensive fee and instead match it to that of the 2019-2020 academic year at $67,578.
The second demand, presented by the authors as an alternative option, is that the College “will provide tuition and room and board reduction grants to all students, sufficient enough to bring the comprehensive fee down to $67,578.” The third demand, should the College fail to comply with demands one and two, is that the College will prepare a statement explaining how it plans to use additional funds from the raised comprehensive fee, and “how the College will ensure that a Mount Holyoke education will be affordable to students as they begin or continue their undergraduate years.” Lastly, the petition demands that the College leadership team will “comply with any requests made to meet by the [Mount Holyoke s]enate.”
Barber also clarified that, as there is no way to represent all viewpoints within the petition, the authors have created a section on the signature form allowing any signer to add their own comments. The petition accepts signatures from students’ family members as well. “We’ll also be taking signatures from parents or family members who have a direct connection to a student that’s at the College, as well as alums, so we can have this be a petition of the Mount Holyoke College community and not just the student body,” Barber said.
For Rivkin and Barber, the College’s decision reflects an ethical issue as much as a monetary one. “I know over 10 students whose families are taking second mortgages out on their homes. That is insane,” Rivkin said. “This is not a time where there is prosperity in our country. This is a time where people are hurting.”
This sentiment is reflected in the petition itself, which reads, “Mount Holyoke College is a beautiful place that should not be only accessible to those who can afford it.”
“Raising the tuition will cut down on the diversity of the student body,” Rivkin said. “By raising it, you are creating something that’s only available to those who can afford it. That is not right and that is not the reflection of a college I want to represent.”