The difficulties science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors face, including courses with time-consuming labs and problem sets, have been long subjected to debate from students and faculty. This debate includes how much is being assigned and how many credits such courses should be worth.
Leading up to Valentine’s Day, professor of dance Charles Flachs was in his office finishing a day’s work, while his wife, professor of dance Rose Flachs was at home, feeling under the weather. Illnesses have been sweeping throughout campus this February, but despite the stress and sneezing, the professors still found time to share their love story.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has rewarded Jessica Maier, an Art History professor at Mount Holyoke, a fellowship for her work. The NEH is an independent federal agency that provides grants to various institutions and scholars for works of great importance in the humanities. Submitted proposals are subject to independent review.
Students and faculty milled around the lobby of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum on Wednesday, Jan. 29, as poems and soft music played from a speaker. Some gathered around a table filled with snacks while others looked at the different exhibits lining the walls. Still, others wrote on sticky notes, either describing their own version of the apocalypse or sharing bits of hope on another section of the wall.
Over the past weeks, students at Mount Holyoke have received emails from members of the Residential Life staff about upcoming health and safety room checks. The emails included basic time and date information, as well as a lengthy list of items not allowed in the residence halls or apartments. Inspections took place between Nov. 7 and Nov. 15.
In spring 2019, the film studies and theatre arts departments announced a tentative merger to create a new major. Faculty and students gathered to discuss concerns with the majors and ideas for a new path of study. This semester, the two departments announced that the plan is in the works and awaiting final approval from the faculty board.
The title of a “women’s college” is heavily debated. On its website, Mount Holyoke uses the term “women’s college.” Most prominently, it is found on the College’s “About” page, where the College describes itself as “a women’s College that is gender diverse,” going on to say, “we welcome application from female, transgender and nonbinary students.”
BY SABA FIAZUDDIN ’21
Every year, the month of March is marked with anxiety for students awaiting admissions decisions from their top colleges. For many students, this time of year is a culmination of standardized tests, all-nighters spent finishing college essays and hours devoted to extracurricular activities. The experience, however, doesn’t just wear down students; it can also be stressful for admissions officers who must read hundreds of applications in a month and make decisions that will affect students for the next four years of their lives.
BY MADELINE FITZGERALD ’21
There is a predictable rhythm to starting college. Scan department store lists of dorm room essentials. Check Rate My Professor. Check the Facebook group. Check everything, then load the car and leave home. For Caroline Castonguay ’20, however, there was one more necessary task to complete. Castonguay, who has cystic fibrosis, a chronic and debilitating illness, needed to meet with AccessAbility services, the office that provides students with disability accommodations.
BY MIA PENNEKAMP ’20
I suck at being still. I’m the girl who bounces her leg up and down — shaking the table. I’m familiar with the feeling of hands landing on my thigh, and mouths telling me to please “be still.” I tap my pen, play with my hair, adjust my shirt. Chapstick and lotion, apply and reapply. I’m the girl who does calf stretches in the subway station. I rise up on my toes, relevé, plié, tendu. Dancing on my own. I suck at being still, and have for most of my life. I likely lack the discipline. What I do know: I’m intently, intensely curious. Anxious sometimes, always searching and scanning. Perhaps it was this curiosity, or perhaps my expensive and insatiable Sephora habit, that led me to a Mount Holyoke figure drawing class.
BY SHEBATI SENGUPTA ’19
The first faculty show was held over 100 years ago. In earlier years, it was used as a fundraising tool for the College, to benefit anything from the health center to a scholarship fund and the tradition has continued almost uninterrupted every four years since. It operates on a volunteer basis, with a group of interested staff and faculty coming up with ideas, writing scripts and participating in skits. The writing, planning and the faculty band are prepared in advance. The comprehensive rehearsals, however, start the Monday before the show. This year some of the cast, such as psychology professor KC Haydon, participated for the first time. The longest continuous volunteer, Dawn Larder, coordinator for the economics department, has been part of faculty show since 1976. Regardless of experience and commitment level, all the faculty interviewed reiterated that the show is, first and foremost, supposed to be fun.
BY FALGUNI BASNET ’21
It’s that time of the year when rising sophomores, juniors and seniors at Mount Holyoke participate in the housing lottery. The process can be stressful, and students often worry about who they are going to end up sharing a room with and whether they will get into their desired residence halls or living learning communities (LLCs).
BY SHEBATI SENGUPTA ’19
There is currently a campaign running which, on the surface, seems counterintuitive. The senior gift campaign asks graduating Mount Holyoke students, who as of yet are still college students and not yet earning significant amounts of money, to make a donation to the College. According to Rebecca Hughes ’18, one of two head class agents for the senior gift campaign, the gift “is not a physical gift…it is a sum of money that the senior class fundraises in their senior year which is given to the Mount Holyoke fund.” This fund consists of money “which gets spent on campus the next year,” said Hughes. “You can think of the endowment as the College’s savings account, and the Mount Holyoke fund as our checking account.” The senior gift campaign is only a small part of what goes into the fund, but it can be integral.
BY FALGUNI BASNET ’21
The Nice Shoes, one of Mount Holyoke’s a cappella groups, was founded in 1992 by women who wanted to have an intentionally feminist a cappella group. “Their goal, at that time, was to perform music that was by women and for women, which they felt was lacking on campus,” said Leanna Bonafini ’19, who has been a member of the Nice Shoes for four semesters.
BY SHEBATI SENGUPTA ’19
With the opening of the new Dining Commons in January, the College set out to build community through food. Reflecting the diversity of Mount Holyoke’s students, the Commons features new stations such as the Global station, the Wok station, the L’Chaim (Kosher) station and the Baraka (Halal) station. The latter is undergoing changes as the College works with students to create a more inclusive dining experience.
BY EMILY BERNSTEIN ’18
“1,800 women is a hell of a lot of problems,” said Professor Suarez-Galban, in a Choragos-sponsored discussion group among faculty and students in November 1969. The discussion, which began as a dialogue on campus drug use, ultimately turned to the availability of counseling services at Mount Holyoke, or the lack thereof.
BY SABA FIAZUDDIN ’21
When Sofia Rivera ’18 first arrived at Mount Holyoke College in the fall of 2014, she was thousands of miles away from her vibrant community in Puerto Rico and, like most students, felt anxious about being in a place so culturally different. Her anxiety soon subsided as she realized that Puerto Ricans make up almost 50 percent of the population in Holyoke. She instantly felt an affinity for her new home and soon became involved in movements to solve the political issues which affected her community.
BY FALGUNI BASNET ’21
As the daily lunch rush begins, a crowd of people come flooding in to Mount Holyoke’s newest addition — the Dining Commons, popularly known as SuperBlanch. This is a chaotic hour for students, especially during the weekdays, as they hurry to find good seats, line up for food and then return to classes. There are piles of utensils on the dishroom conveyor as student workers and staff members rush around to keep things in order.
