Dining unveils various new programs at March town hall

Photo by Emma Quirk ’26

Dining went over many new programs with Senators on March 10, 2026 during a town hall, answering questions about food preparation and disposal.

BY SARAH ANN FIGUEROA ’28

STAFF WRITER

The SGA Senate town hall on March 10 hosted three senior members of the dining staff at Mount Holyoke, who shared exciting new additions coming to the Mount Holyoke dining experience. 

Adorning their signature white chef jackets embroidered with the College’s logo, Shawn Kelsey, associate director of culinary operations, Peter Haas, director of dining services, and Dino Giordano, campus executive chef, all attended Senate for the monthly town hall meeting.

Beginning with what has already been implemented, Kelsey announced the creation of the Dining Ambassador Program. Inspired by the language tables that used to exist in individual dining halls before the creation of centralized dining in 2018, the purpose of this program is to bring meaningful, authentic meals to dining. The dining ambassadors are current students of Mount Holyoke College who represent the diverse communities that exist on campus. They are meant to be accessible for every student to voice their concerns and feedback for dining.

Through these ambassadors, dining staff will learn more about how the dining program can be improved to better serve the needs of our campus. Note that this is not a replacement for preexisting ways of communicating with dining. The QR codes posted around Blanchard Hall are still valid, as well as the MHC dining email, dining@mtholyoke.edu.

Kelsey addressed that everyone at dining really appreciates the positive feedback they receive from the community. “It does genuinely mean a lot to us,” he said. He further added that any high praise given gets printed out and posted around the different stations in the dining hall for staff to see, creating a motivating and encouraging environment.

One of the first dining ambassadors is Cedar Xiao ’29. In an interview with Mount Holyoke News about her perspective on the new program, Xiao said “I feel like I'm really contributing to my community.” Another major component of the dining ambassador role is to provide dining with new recipe suggestions, and Xiao shared how her experience with that aspect of the role has been. She had received feedback from many of her fellow Chinese international students that the meals served at the Wok station are too sweet compared to how they are traditionally made. The fix to this problem isn’t as simple as adding less sugar, as all recipes served in dining are prepared months in advance, and chefs must follow them to the ounce. 

“What I got to do was I found recipes online for other universities in China, and I translated that into English,” Xiao said. “We just did a taste testing yesterday afternoon for more authentic Chinese recipes.” Having invited her friends to provide feedback, many approved of the new recipe.

Hopefully, students can anticipate the quality and authenticity of dishes served in dining to increase with this program. Recounting this taste testing session during the town hall, Giordano noted, “When we get to sit down and eat a meal together, it’s a wonderful and meaningful thing.” If anyone would like to join the dining ambassador program, they should reach out to Shawn Kelsey at kelsey@mtholyoke.edu.

Anyone who has been in the dining hall this semester will have noticed the new dish drop, which was changed over the 2025-26 winter break. Dining shared that the new dish return system is a major improvement for those on the other side of it. 

“It's really helping out the dish room staff,” Haas said. “They are smiling, and the floors are clean, and they're not getting piles of dishes.” It was noted that there are a few technical components in the back of the house that are not yet operational, which may explain why there has been a buildup of dishes during the popular meal time rushes.

One student during the town hall brought up how many students with mobility aids have expressed that the new dish return system is not accessible to them. Kelsey said that the new dish drop is compliant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, however, they are willing to talk with individuals facing challenges to see what they can do to improve the system. 

In terms of other back of house updates, the kitchen now features a new walk-in fridge. This allows for better, more sustainable food storage, and will open up more opportunities for different meals. The expansions to Blanchard Hall in 2018 were not designed with enough storage space for food. As a result, a large refrigerated truck has been parked in the back of the building on weekends to store dairy, produce, and other highly perishable items. With the new fridge, the truck will no longer be needed.

The last new addition to Dining Services is the Grab & Go donation system. Uneaten leftovers from the Grab & Go stations across campus are now being shared with the Food Recovery Network, and sent to Kate’s Kitchen in Holyoke to be distributed. As of March 10, 34 meals have been donated already. These leftovers will be picked up every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Kelsey, Haas and Giordano also unveiled many things that are to come to Dining Services in the near future, the first being a collaboration with the Miller-Worley Center for the Environment. At the Frances Perk cafe, located in the Williston-Memorial library, students will soon be able to check out and return USEFULL cups. Any drink that is ordered with a USEFULL cup will come with a 15 cent discount.

Following spring break, raw fish will enter the sushi program once a week. The first raw fish included will be Ahi Tuna. The program will start slowly and gradually be built upon. Ahi Tuna will be included in premade poke bowls on Tuesdays and premade sushi rolls on Wednesdays, alternating every other week, to be served at both the Sushi station and the Grab & Go stations. 

Another announcement that had many Senators excited was the new smoothie bar to come to the Cochary Pub & Kitchen. The bar will replace the espresso machine, and operate in the same fashion as everything else in the Pub does. Smoothies will be available for purchase via cash, credit or dining dollars. It will be a build your own style experience, with a wide variety of fresh fruit, vegetables, yogurts, smoothie bases and other toppings to choose from. 

Finally, a small yet significant piece of news to come out of this town hall is that food waste across campus is reducing overall, and Dining Services will be doing what they can to continue this trend. It was disclosed that they use an AI program centered around food waste management solutions known as Leanpath to track post consumer food waste leaving our college, and will be taking the usage of it a step further. 

With the Leanpath Spark Program, all of the food coming off of students' plates will be weighed in real time, as workers in the dish room dump all uneaten food into a bin atop a scale. A screen that will be installed in the dish drop area will display and live update the scale’s measurements. Leanpath’s AI will compare the numbers with important metrics, such as how many people could have been fed with the food that has been wasted.

Though there may be something contradictory about using artificial intelligence, a known energy waster and massive consumer of resources, to track food waste in our college, dining made an effort to focus on the positive aspects of this program. 

“It's the right thing to do,” Kelsey stated. “That's why our mission is to reduce that food waste. Not because it's going to save the college money, but because it's the right thing to do. It's something that we can do as a community to help with the global warming issue that we're dealing with.” 

Quill Nishi-Leonard ’27 contributed fact-checking.

Mount Holyoke students walk out in protest of Trump's Campus Compact

Photo by Sarah Ann Figueroa ‘28

Sunrise MHC organized a walkout in front of the College’s gate on Friday, Nov. 7 in protest of President Donald Trump’s proposed Campus Compact.

BY SARAH ANN FIGUEROA ‘28 & ANNA COCCA GOODMAN ‘28

STAFF WRITERS

On an average Friday, Mount Holyoke College’s campus tends to be quiet. There’s the usual cawing of geese and the wind rustling through the trees, students reluctantly shuffling out of their dorms to get a late breakfast, and sometimes a South Hadley resident walking their dog. 

But not on Friday, Nov. 7.

There was a slight chill in the air when just past noon, a small crowd of students stood at the College’s front gate, holding up blindingly yellow signs with slogans like “Melt Ice Not The Planet,” “Step Up For Students Or Step Aside” and “Our Future Is Not Negotiable.” As the size of the group grew, chants of “The people united will never be defeated” and “When democracy is under attack? What do we do? Stand up! Fight back!” rang out alongside honks from passing cars and cheers from the crowd.

The rally at the gates was just one of many student walkouts happening all across the nation on Nov. 7. Organized by a new youth-led group known as Students Rise Up — also called Project Rise Up – students and workers at over 100 universities walked out to protest President Donald Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. The campaign is built on three pillars: Freedom for students to engage in activism, security for all students — especially international and transgender students — and affordability of higher education.

One of the primary sponsors of Students Rise Up is the Sunrise Movement, a climate activist organization. Members of Sunrise were encouraged to join the day of action, with each chapter — referred to as “hubs” — organizing their own walkout to participate. The hub at Mount Holyoke College also participated.

Students walked out of classes on Nov. 7 in protest of a policy proposal rolled out by the Trump administration known as the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, also referred to as the “Campus Compact.” The Compact was originally sent to a handful of universities on Oct. 1,, and later extended to every institution of higher education in the United States. The contents of this proposal, which demands universities “limit international undergraduate enrollment to 15 percent of the student body,” and “define and interpret ‘male,’ ‘female,’ ‘woman’ and ‘man’ according to reproductive function and biological processes,” as explained by Katherine Knott of Inside Higher Ed, is in direct conflict with the pillars of Students Rise Up.

Though the consequences of a university rejecting the Campus Compact are vague, the wording makes it clear that the rejecting university is at risk of losing access to federal funding. Even a private college like Mount Holyoke could be affected by this, as most schools, regardless of whether or not they are administered by the government, receive some amount of federal funding.

With the extreme stipulations of the College Compact and their potential to greatly affect education across the United States looming large, the Students Rise Up walkout on Nov. 7 commenced that afternoon. The  participating students at some universities urged their administrations to explicitly reject the College Compact and promise to protect their students.  Students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst did exactly this, orchestrating a march that culminated in a meeting with Chancellor Javier Reyes.

At Mount Holyoke College, Sunrise organized a group to gather by the gates at 12:30 PM. For an hour of fervent chanting and passionate cheering, participating students at the College united over a shared love of education and belief in the freedom of it.

Speeches were given by the board members of Sunrise MHC throughout the event. Hub Coordinator and Chair Keira Gillin ’26 spoke first, stating, “We'd like to see our administration continue to stand with students in a strong stance against the Trump administration, and what they've been doing to attack academic institutions across the country.”

Stepping away from the action for an interview on why they showed up to the rally, Secretary of Sunrise MHC Yan Hernandez ’28 told Mount Holyoke News they were protesting “because my parents are immigrants and nearly all of my family in the United States had to fight to come here. And so being here today really means standing up for not only myself but for my family and for so many other children of immigrants and for other immigrants as well.” With over 20% of its student body composed of international students, Mount Holyoke College would be devastated if the terms of the College Compact were accepted.

When asked if they thought the walkout would make a change, student Addie Schlegelmilch ’28 said, “I think that on its own this probably won't, but as a whole there's a lot of different schools walking out. I know that Smith and UMass are both walking out today, and I'm sure there's others across the country. So I think the fact that it's so spread out and there's so many is more important than just focusing on the one.” 

This walkout marks the beginning of many more demonstrations to come. Students Rise Up aims to coordinate an act of “mass non-cooperation” in May 2026 to push back against what Professor Mary Renda of the College’s history department has called “an authoritarian takeover” from Trump. Renda stated that she showed up to the walkout that day because “we need organizing everywhere we can have it, [and] students are a huge part of that.”

“The Compact is a next step to try to take down a major institution that is central to democracy,” Renda said in an interview with Mount Holyoke News. “When institutions like universities and colleges go along with this authoritarian takeover under whatever excuse that comes, that is how fascism gets established … Every time we can stand up together and say no to that, it's essential.”

The rally concluded at 1:30 p.m., with most of the participating students returning to their Friday afternoons. A few, however, kept the momentum going even after the event formally wrapped up, heading over to the Stone Shelter outside of the Williston Memorial Library and hopping on the 38 Pioneer Valley Transit Authority bus. These Mount Holyoke College students, along with students from Smith College also partaking in the walkout, joined the action over at UMass Amherst to support their march. 

Over 200 strong, the Sunrise Movement hubs of the Pioneer Valley sought to prove that students have the energy to make a change together. Their movement, according to an informational slideshow by Sunrise MHC, is “on a mission to put everyday people back in charge and build a world that works for all of us, now and for generations to come.”

Angelina Godinez ’28 contributed fact checking. 

LITS and the Office of DEI celebrate Banned Books Week 2025

Photo by Sarah Ann Figueroa ’28

Library, Information and Technology Service set up a display in the library atrium to celebrate Banned Books Week, themed “Censorship is so 1984.”

By Sarah Ann Figueroa ’28

Staff Writer

On the night of Sunday, Oct. 5 in Dwight 101, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion sponsored the screening of “Banned Together,” a documentary that exemplifies the core of this year’s Banned Books Week at Mount Holyoke College.

A tradition that dates back to 1982, Banned Books Week is an annual event sponsored by various organizations around the world with the united goal of fighting for accessible education and against censorship in our public libraries and schools. Every year educators, librarians, writers and readers come together during this week-long event to celebrate literature that has been banned from classroom curriculums and library shelves. The 2025 Banned Books Week was from Oct. 5-11, with the theme “Censorship Is So 1984 — Read for Your Rights.” This year, Library, Information and Technology Services has organized several events throughout campus and the local community to celebrate and “help the MHC community get engaged with the freedom to read,” one of these events being the screening of the documentary “Banned Together.”

Held on a warm Sunday evening, accompanied by pizza, popcorn and free banned books for attendees to take, the screening of “Banned Together” opened with DEI Fellow Emma Quirk ’26 giving a brief welcome and land acknowledgement before starting the film. The documentary follows the students of Beaufort County, South Carolina and their fight against the sudden banning of nearly 100 books from their schools’ libraries. Their journey leads them to meetings with members of both their local and state government, and conversations with authors whose books are among those banned from their classrooms. An all too prevalent issue throughout our nation today, the topic of censorship holds a weight of undeniable urgency that “Banned Together” does not shy away from.

At the conclusion of the screening, the floor was opened up for the audience to share their thoughts. Many expressed concerns about the state of democracy in our country, and the implications that come with such intense book bannings. Others, in a moment of vulnerability, shared their personal stories dealing with censorship in their schools and communities. By and large, a sentiment about the importance of libraries was shared throughout the conversation, echoing a powerful statement made by Isabella Troy Brazoban in the film, “What you cannot find in the history books, you will find in the library.”

Within Williston Memorial Library, a place that is arguably the heart of campus, a display sits at the front of the atrium each year throughout Banned Books Week. From children’s graphic novels to young adult fiction to significant literary works of our time, every book featured in this display is currently banned. Students are encouraged to pick these stories up as they pass by, and educate themselves on the facts of book banning. Informative graphics accompany the display on either side, sharing the most current statistics about the state of censorship in the United States, including how many individual titles are either banned or under intense review throughout schools. Among the most challenged books of 2024 are “All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto” by George M. Johnson, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins.

Along with the “Banned Together” screening, other events such as a banned books trivia night and a public library card sign-up took place throughout the week. Prizes were awarded to the winners of trivia night, and those who signed up for a library card won the most invaluable prize of all: Access to knowledge. Uniting over the common goal of standing up against censorship, everyone at LITS and the Office of DEI worked hard to bring the community together this Banned Books Week.

The importance of Banned Books Week can be best summed up by a brief quote from Kijua Sanders-McMurty, vice president for Equity and Inclusion. Sanders-McMurty played a large role in facilitating the events of the week, and they took the time to share with me their feelings on the importance of the cause. “Books truly saved my life when I was younger as I struggled in academic environments and dropped out of multiple high schools. Reading liberated me and helped me continue to learn even when I had limited access to formal schooling. I immersed myself in stories by other people - my favorites were A Wrinkle In Time, Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl, The Bluest Eye, and The Color Purple. All of these books have been banned or challenged. When I first learned of book bans, I was deeply discouraged. Then, I found out about Banned Books Week and became deeply inspired by the activists who refused to give in. I love that people across generations and various identities can build coalitions and speak up for the Freedom to Read!”

Sophie Francis ’28 contributed fact-checking.

Editor’s note: Emma Quirk ’26 is a features editor for Mount Holyoke News.

Dean Marcella Runell welcomes students at the first Senate of the Year

Photo by Sarah Ann Figueroa ’28

Cordelia Athas ’26 sits on stage with Dean Marcella Runnell at this autumn’s first Senate meeting.

By Sarah Ann Figueroa ’28

Staff Writer

On Sept. 23, at the first Mount Holyoke senate meeting of the 2025-2026 academic year, Dr. Marcella Runell, vice president of Student Life and dean of students, came to talk about her work and spark excitement for what is to come this semester at the Division of Student Life.

The meeting began with a welcome from Cordelia “Coco” Athas ’26, the chair of Senate, who gave the new and returning senators an amiable welcome to the first senate of the year. The group went over the standard flow of Senate gatherings, and it was announced that President Danielle Holley will be next week’s guest speaker for the Senate’s Town Hall. Athas also shared that Town Halls will be more condensed going forward, with emphasis on only asking “relevant and respectful questions” to keep time from going over. Then, Runell was introduced to speak in a sort of mini-town hall, where she was asked to share what she does at Mount Holyoke College’s Division of Student Life, and answer questions.

Athas started by asking Runell, “What is your role at Mount Holyoke College?”

Runell brought up the weekly “Dean’s Corner" emails which are sent out to the student body every Friday, as she felt that they “really encapsulates” what her job is.

As a leader in Student Life at Mount Holyoke, Runell plays a key role in facilitating the day to day experience of students, and creating a more positive and inclusive community. The Dean’s Corner Newsletter provides direct links to various resources and upcoming calendar events, along with highlighting moments in the community via photo collages. In her own words, Runell described her role as being about “communicating between and among all the different stakeholders on campus that are responsible for the student experience,” as well as community building with students directly.

Later, Athas asked what Runell feels students should know about the College’s MHC Forward Strategic Plan. Starting by providing context on this plan’s importance, Runell commented, “There are so many things that were in the last strategic plan that have radically changed Mount Holyoke.” She specifically highlighted the expansion of Blanchard Hall’s Community Center and its centralized dining in 2018, saying that, “It’s hard to imagine where we would be if that hadn’t been the vision in that last plan,” and, “There was no space for students to all be together except for the library.”

Runell then listed some of the College’s divisions that will undergo changes with the current strategic plan, adding that many of these decisions came directly from student feedback about what they wanted to see in the future. The three major areas that Runell mentions will be touched upon in the current Strategic Plan are supporting students’ career development, providing better “residential education” for students, and the new Mount Holyoke Commitment to financial affordability.

During the Q&A portion of the Town Hall, one student asked about the decision to move Disability Services from the Office of Academic Deans to the Division of Student Life. Runell first stated that it is standard among most higher-ed institutions to have such services “report into Student Affairs or Student Life, because accommodations are not just academic.”

She further explained, “In an ideal scenario, we would really be thinking about the whole student experience in terms of accommodations … That’s one of the reasons [Disability Services] sit in Student Affairs, because it is meant to be broad and encompassing.”

Runnell also addressed the aspect of the physical space where Disability Services is currently located, asking herself aloud, “Can we find a better space than the third floor of Mary Lyon Hall, which is not one of the most accessible places on campus.” She immediately answered her own question, stating,, “We have Student Life spaces all over campus,” solidifying the advantages of rehoming Disability Services to reside under the Division of Student Life.

To wrap up, Athas asked Runell, “In your opinion, is Bigfoot real?”

Runell’s response was, “I’m gonna say there’s a good chance.” Ending with casual chat amongst the two on stage, and plenty of laughter from the senators in the crowd, the first Senate of the year concluded at just under 40 minutes.

Fact checked by Madeleine Diesl.