Students have been protesting the removal of the mask mandate since earlier this fall, but the protests have been manifesting physically since October. Photo by Rosemary Geib ‘23.
By Paige Comeau ’26 & Tara Monastesse ’25
Staff Writer | News Editor
In response to Mount Holyoke’s administrative decision to make mask-wearing optional in all indoor campus spaces as of Oct. 14, a group of students, identifying themselves as MHC COVID Safety Now, has initiated a protest effort to invoke change in the College’s approach to their COVID-19 policy. Through campus disruptions, such as hosting a sit-in outside administrative offices in Mary Lyon Hall and posting their demands throughout academic and residential buildings, the collective has strived to push administration toward more vigorous COVID-19 safety precautions. While the College has yet to make any change to its current “masks welcome” policy, announced in an Oct. 5 letter to the community, administrators have formally acknowledged the presence of the student group and have sought to reinforce the reasoning behind their decisions. At the time of publication, several of the group’s demands have been met by adjustments to campus policy — however, the protest is still ongoing as the current masking policy has yet to be altered or recalled.
Origins of the movement
“When we saw that the mask [mandate] was going to be removed, [we were] really upset because it’s an easy way to keep people safe,” Soli Guzman ’24, a member of MHC COVID Safety Now, said in an interview with Mount Holyoke News. “If you don’t see what you want in the world, you have to [be] it.”
Starting in September, Guzman and others took action against the College in the name of COVID-19 safety. As previously reported by Mount Holyoke News, a group of students created a petition on change.org to ask that the College revise its approach to COVID-19 protocol, which currently has over 500 signatures. The students behind this petition would eventually launch a coordinated protest effort to negotiate with administrators after the indoor mask mandate was made optional. Guzman explained that they had seen the success of previous petitions on the platform and hoped for the same sort of support, but it did not take off. It was not until the collective realized that the mask mandate was going to be dropped that they chose to mobilize. “That is when people started to freak out. … We got a flood of people starting to ask us [about it], and that’s when we decided to organize.”
This effort would evolve into MHC COVID Safety Now, a group that seeks to bring a safer, more inclusive COVID-19 climate to campus. Their goals include making the campus a better environment for disabled and immunocompromised individuals through a more proactive COVID-19 policy.
“I’m fighting so hard because my livelihood and my existence matters more than [the] comfort [of] other people,” Guzman said. Like most members of MHC COVID Safety Now, Guzman is disabled.
In order to ignite action behind their words, the group decided that they needed to form some sort of protest. The group eventually settled on a sit-in, “We [were thinking], what is the best possible option if we do a protest? If it’s outside, people are going to [remove] their masks,” Guzman said. “That could be a super spreader — we can’t have that. Then [we] came to the final decision, which is a sit-in, because it is something that can be done safely. … When you occupy space, they can’t ignore you.”
On Oct. 19, at 5:30 p.m., MHC COVID Safety Now began their sit-in at Mary Lyon Hall, a protest still ongoing at the time of publication.
“A lot of us would like it to end sooner rather than later, but I’m also ready to see if this will take us two to three weeks,” Guzman said. “We’re ready. We’re planning. Realistically, we’re planning to be there as long as we physically have to.”
The group has provided a list of demands, accessible on their various social media platforms and in flyers distributed across campus. Initially containing eight demands, the list was revised and narrowed to seven following feedback from fellow students on the group’s stated goals. Among these are the calls to reinstate PCR testing twice a week, provide a transparent, public COVID-19 dashboard of positive cases on campus while bringing back contact tracing and provide isolation housing and support for those with COVID-19, according to their Instagram, @mhccovidsafety. To ensure student representation when making decisions on campus COVID-19 safety, another goal revolves around creating transparency in the COVID policy decision-making process by allowing at least two or more student representatives at each health and safety committee meeting and reinstating mask mandates in classes, lectures and large gatherings.
Other students have expressed a range of reactions to these demands.“I believe while it would be nice to have required testing back on campus, administration is not likely to conform to them due to pricing and staffing. However, I do believe handing out a quota of rapid tests per student can help bridge the gap between proper testing,” an anonymous student from the class of 2025, who is unaffiliated with the group, wrote in an email interview with Mount Holyoke News.
“As for reinstatement of the mask mandates in classes, I believe that should be a given as we should be securing everyone’s right to an education, including immunocompromised students that are unable to attend classes where people are unmasked,” the student continued. “Isolation housing for those with roommates is the absolute bare minimum that the administration could provide, and it’s [absurd] that it wasn’t happening at the start of the semester.”
Current College policy states that individuals may receive masking accommodations in their classes through Health Services. Guzman explained that these accomodations can be incredibly difficult to obtain because they require documentation from licensed medical providers.
“There are disabled students that want those accommodations, but are in the process of being diagnosed with their disability.” Guzman said, “Because … it takes a while to get diagnosed with a disability, it can take … years.” Additionally, out-of-state students face additional obstacles when attempting to obtain doctor’s notes.
Guzman explained that the reasoning behind many of their largest demands was to safeguard the health of disabled and immunocompromised individuals.
The organization’s decision to revise their demands, made after heavy deliberation, came as a response to student dialogue and internal restructuring of the group’s priorities. One of the major revisions was shifting the initial demand from maintaining the mask mandate indefinitely to reinstating the mask mandate in classes, lectures and large gatherings.
“Our [Residential Advisors] and our [Residential Fellows] [were] expected to enforce [masking] anytime someone doesn’t wear a mask in their hallways, … and we’re very against that. We do not support students policing other students,” Guzman said. “In the dining hall, we’re all eating there [in] the first place, we’re removing our masks and eating there. No matter what, [COVID-19] will be spread there, even if it’s when people are walking around, [COVID-19] will be spread. So that’s something we also considered and realized.”
Administrative response to student demands
On Oct. 21, Interim President Beverly Daniel Tatum acknowledged the group’s sit-in and policy demands in an email to the College community..
“As you may be aware, a group of students has come together as the MHC COVID Safety Now Collective to express concerns about the College’s current [COVID-19] policies,” Tatum wrote. “Consequently, I thought it would be useful to restate what our current policies are, and what modifications we expect to make. Though members of our community do not currently agree on what the best course of action is, I recognize that we all share a deep concern for everyone’s well-being.”
Tatum introduced two changes in policy that would be undertaken in response to the student protests. The first, beginning in November, would require students who do not live in single occupancy rooms and do not have access to a single bathroom who test positive for COVID-19 to move to campus isolation space. The second change was a commitment to working with the Student Government Association to add a student representative to the College’s Health and Safety Committee in the future. The current policy regarding masking in indoor spaces, however, was maintained.
“We are and will remain a ‘masks welcome’ community,” Tatum wrote.
In response to this, MHC Covid Safety Now issued a press release that evening expressing dissatisfaction with the email’s stated compromise.
“President Tatum’s message was misleading and meant to placate popular opinion about their (lack of) [COVID-19] policies by throwing us the bone of isolation housing and a single student representative,” the release reads. “Furthermore, while isolation housing is certainly a significant demand, it is only one of seven demands that we have. … Our demands are far from being realized, and we will remain in Mary Lyon Hall until the administration provides substantial proof of actionable steps they will take to meet them, to be checked on periodically.”
On Oct. 24, MHC Covid Safety Now held a town hall meeting for community members to engage in dialogue with the students organizing the protest effort. The location of this town hall was kept confidential until 15 minutes prior to its beginning, according to their Twitter. This attempt at obfuscation occurred in the wake of unanticipated Public Safety and Service presence following a public announcement of the time and location of a previous consensus meeting on social media. The group discussed this conflict in a press release issued Oct. 23, writing that “campus police and members of the Division of Student Life attempted to prevent us from holding a meeting with the Mount Holyoke community, standing at all the entrances of Mary Lyon Hall and intimidating us. … The very attempt to dictate the grounds in which we conduct our business is directly antagonistic to our efforts — this is a student-run action and we have the right to assemble and organize as we see fit.”
The town hall included discussions of previous interactions with administration and ways in which the group can engage more effectively with the community.
In an effort to reach a level of understanding with the student body regarding the College’s COVID-19 policy, Dr. Cheryl A. Flynn, medical director of Health Services, attended the Oct. 25 SGA Senate meeting to answer questions about COVID-19, both those previously submitted by students through a Google Form and those asked by students attending the meeting.
Flynn noted that concerns about disability justice were a common theme among students, estimating that approximately 27-30 percent of the questions submitted in advance inquired about it.
“Students have access to accommodations related to compromised immune systems,” Flynn said during Senate. “Students who are eligible for accommodations can register and require that the classes they are in are fully masked, … every member of the class, including the professor.”
Flynn also provided data regarding the rate of infection since the beginning of the semester, explaining that nearly 220 students had tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the fall semester. When asked why this information was no longer available to the public through the now-defunct COVID-19 Dashboard, Flynn indicated that current case counts can now be found in the weekly email newsletter Mount Holyoke This Week.
After the conclusion of the Senate meeting, an email issued by SGA Chair of Committees Shanthini Ragoonaden ’24 to the community announced that positions for two student representatives within the Health and Safety Committee would be open for application until Nov. 1, following “popular demands from students.”
Current campus COVID-19 policies
At the time of publication, the indoor mask policy remains “masks welcome.” The College’s official COVID-19 Health and Safety page, last updated Oct. 14, notes that masking is not required indoors unless a person has tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 10 days, has been exposed to someone known to have COVID-19 or is experiencing potential COVID-19 symptoms but has not yet received a negative test. Additionally, those entering the Health Center and the athletic training room within the Kendall Sports and Dance Complex are still required to wear a mask.
In an Oct. 5 letter, Tatum announced the Oct. 14 end of the Collegewide indoor mask mandate and the administrative reasoning behind it.
“As discussed in previous communications, the widespread availability of vaccines, boosters and medications have taken us to a new phase of dealing with COVID-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the new tools available to us for reducing COVID-19 severity, there is significantly less risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death compared to earlier in the pandemic.” Tatum wrote. “As we shift from a pandemic to an endemic phase, we also need to shift from institutional responsibility for COVID-19 protections to individual responsibility and make our own decisions about whether to remain masked in public spaces or not, both on campus and off.”
Vaccination requirements have remained unchanged. Both staff and students are required, per CDC advisory, to have received a primary COVID-19 vaccination series, as well as one booster; they are also encouraged to “stay up to date” and “receive further boosters when and if necessary,” according to the COVID-19 Health and Safety page.
There is no required COVID-19 testing on campus, although regular testing is encouraged. Students exposed to COVID-19 and experiencing symptoms may make testing appointments via College Health Services. Those who test positive should report their results through the Positive COVID-19 test report form on Embark, found on the Health Services webpage. Students who are asymptomatic and wish to test may obtain one on their own or, as described in the Sept. 30 edition of the Dean’s Corner, pick up a free rapid COVID-19 test via the Division for Student Life in Blanchard Hall, room 205. Additionally, overnight guests staying on campus must either be vaccinated or have received a negative test result. Disabled students seeking accommodations should contact Disability Services, while other questions are directed to the dean of students, according to the COVID-19 Health and Safety page.