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 FIGUERA ‘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.