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Attorneys Present New Arguments in Hachiyanagi Case

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In a hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 8, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Thomas filed a motion to obtain the employment records of former Mount Holyoke Professor of Art and Studio Art Chair Rie Hachiyanagi based on the advice of an unidentified third party. According to Hachiyanagi’s defense attorney, Thomas Kokonowski, the anonymous third party is also employed by Mount Holyoke College.

As previously reported by the Mount Holyoke News, Hachiyanagi was charged with multiple counts, including attempted murder, following her alleged assault on a fellow Mount Holyoke faculty member sometime between Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, 2019, to which she has pled not guilty. She has been in custody since December 2019.

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Two Students Mistakenly Given Positive COVID-19 Test Results

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On Oct. 20, Karen Engell, director of Health Services, and Paul S. Kandel, Strategic IT Project Management Lead and COVID-19 Testing and Tracing Project Manager, sent a message to the Mount Holyoke community about two falsely reported COVID-19 tests. Both students involved were told they had tested positive, but had in actuality tested negative for COVID-19. The mistake was made between Oct. 16 and Oct. 17, and the corrected reports of these two tests were issued within 12 hours of the false reports being sent out.

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Mount Holyoke Tentatively Prepares to Bring 60 Percent Student Capacity to Campus in the Spring

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President of the College Sonya Stephens wrote a letter to the Mount Holyoke community regarding the College’s preliminary plan for the spring 2021 term on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Stephens wrote that the College is preparing to welcome up to 60 percent of the student population to campus in the spring.

“Our goal is to safely accommodate as many students wishing to return as we possibly can, and to continue to ensure that those for whom Mount Holyoke is their permanent address or who need to be on campus can remain in residence,” Stephens said in the letter.

Hortense Parker Celebration Keynote Speaker Calls for All To Be a ‘Permanent Fixture’ in Activism

“Don’t just bring in speakers, make real change,” said Patrisse Cullors, this year’s keynote speaker for the College’s 11th annual Hortense Parker Celebration. Cullors visited Mount Holyoke to honor the legacy of Hortense Parker, the first Black student to graduate from Mount Holyoke in 1883. This celebration was started in 2009 by graduating seniors Ahyoung An and Camila Curtis-Contreras to raise awareness of the history, struggles and achievements of women of color at Mount Holyoke.

Physical Education Program and Equestrian Center Face External Review

Physical Education Program and Equestrian Center Face External Review

In a Sept. 17 financial update, College President Sonya Stephens and Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Shannon Gurek announced the discontinuation of the College’s varsity golf team and stated that the Equestrian Center and physical education program will be undergoing external reviews.

Director of Athletics and Chair of Physical Education Lori Hendricks said these external reviews are a normal procedure for academic departments, centers and other offices on campus, and they are typically held once a decade. The reviews aim “to assess the operations of the area and alignments with broader organizational priorities, identify future opportunities and needs and think about the strategic investment of resources.”

College Named First-Gen Forward Institution

The Center for First-generation Student Success recently named Mount Holyoke College a First-gen Forward Institution, a national honor recognizing the College’s commitment to advancing first-generation college student success.

Sarah E. Whitley, senior director of the Center for First-generation Student Success, welcomed the College into the 2020-21 cohort of First-gen Forward Institutions. “Through the application process, it was evident that Mount Holyoke is not only taking steps to serve first-generation students but is prepared to make a long-term commitment and employ strategies for significant scaling and important advances in the future,” Whitley said.

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College Update on Finances

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On Thursday, Sept. 17, the College provided an update on the financial situation and announced permanent structural changes. In a statement by College President Sonya Stephens and Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Shannon Gurek, it was announced that “the pandemic has created both short-term and longer-term challenges to our operations, negatively impacting the College’s financial outlook.” This letter was a follow-up response to an Aug. 19 statement in which Stephens and Gurek announced furloughs and budget reductions.

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Former Professor Rie Hachiyanagi Has Been Held Without Bail Since December 2019

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Former Mount Holyoke Professor of Art and Studio Art Chair Rie Hachiyanagi has been in custody since December 2019. She will continue to be held without bail until her trial, which is scheduled for November 2020.

Hachiyanagi was charged with multiple counts, including attempted murder, following her alleged assault on a fellow Mount Holyoke faculty member some time between Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, 2019. She has pleaded not guilty on all charges.

Students Launch MHC Votes! Campaign

Students Launch MHC Votes! Campaign

According to a Tufts University study from the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement, 94.6 percent of eligible Mount Holyoke students registered to vote in the 2016 election, but only 73.2 percent of that group actually voted. Members of MHC Votes!, a new student initiative hoping to increase voter participation on campus, seek to address this disparity.

MHC Votes! was officially launched in June but started recruiting new students during the fall 2020 semester. The group gained momentum after two of its co-founders, Kate Murray ’22 and Jaxzia Perez ’22, participated in a student internship program with the nonpartisan organization Massachusetts Public Interest Research Groups.

Mount Holyoke Implements New Chosen-Name Policy

In August 2020, the College implemented a new Chosen-Name Policy, allowing Mount Holyoke community members to administratively change their names from their given name to their chosen name. This new policy is an effort to introduce more gender-inclusive policies that support transgender and gender-nonconforming community members at the College.

Before this policy, transgender students could still change their deadname — their birth or former name — to their preferred name or “nickname,” by contacting the Office of the Registrar. However, if not completed before the beginning of a semester, not every document would automatically change, such as professors’ rosters.

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