Senate: Residential Life staff discuss new on-campus party policy

Photo by Genevieve Zahner ’26

At the October 9 Senate, Residental Life staff explained the new campus party policy, which allows for some kinds of alcohol at registered parties.

Coco Athas ’26 opened with the Mount Holyoke land acknowledgment, then noted the events of the week, which included “Honoring the Ancestor, Gloria Anzaldúa: Todo Viene del Corazón/All Comes from the Heart” on Wednesday Oct. 8 at 12 p.m. in the Unity Center, the Smith College job and internship fair on Thursday Oct. 9 at 3:30 p.m. Transportation was provided to this event by the College. As well as a public library card sign up on Thursday Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. in the Williston Memorial Library Atrium.

The new party policy instated by Student Engagement in the Division of Student Life requires students to register parties with the area coordinator and on the Event Management System, as well as complete a responsible host training prior to registering. Previous party policies state that alcohol is not permitted, unless working with student involvement to employ trained bartenders, but these new rules attempt to allow students to gather and drink together in a responsible manner, as will be discussed below. Hosts cannot charge for any aspect of the event, and events cannot exceed the 50 person maximum. All guests must have received invitations, and outside guests must be accompanied by a Mount Holyoke Student in accordance with the existing guest policy.

The representatives noted that “unsanctioned, large scale-gatherings happen regularly” in the same locations, impacting specific members of the community. Mandelle Hall was mentioned as being a popular party space. Concerns included alcohol and substance misuse, medical emergencies, fire safety, impact to the community, and inconsistency and inequities in enforcement. Enforcement of the College’s previous policy included shutting down all unsanctioned gatherings that occurring in residence halls and common spaces. To avoid this, they created a new policy that will allow for sanctioned gatherings that “align with expressed students' needs and wants.” The ResLife staff looked at other schools such as Smith College and Amherst College for what policies they are enforcing to create the new Mount Holyoke policy.

Their goals for the new policy are to provide clear expectations and guidelines — especially in regards to alcohol and enforcement — through education to center student autonomy and agency with minimal professional staff intervention. These policies aim to “promote values of accountability, responsibility, and respect for one another and our physical spaces” and additionally ground the expectations in community care and well-being. Creating interstudent dialogue in regards to solving problems and taking care of the resident hall spaces was also an important aspect of this new policy.

Key changes include requiring hosts to undergo safe party host training, implementing a formal registration process through EMS, establishing norms and regulations for hosts regarding cleanup, check-ins from public safety at the beginning of parties, the normalization of calling for help if needed, and the permitting of alcohol in accordance with guidelines.

Hosts will be held accountable if damages or violations to policy occur. Hosts must also be responsive to community concern, including calling for help, upholding capacity, being in communication with residents to manage concerns and ending parties at the start of quiet hours at 1:30 a.m.

Further, according to the alcohol guidelines, “alcohol can be present but cannot exceed certain quantities.” There may not be hard alcohol or mixed drinks, guests under 21 years old cannot possess or consume alcohol, non-alcoholic beverages and snacks must be provided, and there may be no sale of drinks. The representatives noted that what students drink before parties is not part of the policy. Additionally, no open containers are permitted outside of the party space.

Senate was then opened for questions. Attendees voiced concerns about the party policy. These questions allowed for ResLife staff to provide more information, such as the role of party hosts and how communication between residents and party hosts will be possible, which is still being determined by ResLife staff.

Age restrictions will be enforced by the Public Safety and Service department, and if underage students choose to drink before the parties that choice is not to be blamed on the hosts under the new policy. There is a medical amnesty policy in place for those who are underage and need medical attention due to drinking. Different types of violations to the policy will be handled based on circumstance, but the goal is community understanding of why the policy is in place, and emphasizing community safety and wellbeing.

The new policy will go into effect on Monday, Oct. 20, and all events must be registered starting on Oct. 24. All unregistered events after this date will be shut down.

Senate ended with announcements, which were about events held by clubs and student organizations.

Bellatrix is hosting “Get Your Geek On” on Oct. 31 at 10 p.m. and the International Relations club is hosting a “Brown Bag Lunch” on Oct. 16, where Associate Professor of International Relations and Politics Christopher Mitchell will talk about his research with catered lunch from 12-1:30 p.m. in Skinner Hall, room 202.

Asexual Awareness Week is Oct. 19-25. The Coalition for Asexual/Aromantic Awareness is hosting a zine workshop Saturday, Oct. 18 from 4-5 p.m. in the Jeannette Marks House. They will be tabling Thurs. Oct. 23 from 5-7 p.m. about the history of asexual awareness.

Active Minds is hosting a “run club” every Sunday at 10 a.m. Running and walking is welcomed, and those interested should meet outside Kendall Sports and Dance Complex to do an Upper Lake loop. The Student Government Association Springie Committee is seeking springies of all classes who are interested in participating in a Big/Little program for incoming spring admits. The club squash team is hosting a “sugar and screams” fundraiser and will be tabling Monday and Friday evenings.

There was no Senate on Tuesday, 10/14 due to Fall Break.

Quill Nishi-Leonard ’27 contributed fact-checking.

The College introduces Google AI chat feature, Gemini

Graphic by Mari Al Tayb ’26

By Emma Quirk ’26 & Genevieve Zahner ’26

News and Photos Editor | News Editor

On Aug. 20, the College announced the introduction of Gemini AI, Google’s AI chat application in an MHC: This Week email. Gemini, Google’s AI chat application, can be used “to explore ideas, draft or summarize writing, create content and images, and support research or creative projects.” In a follow-up email, this information was reiterated, with a reminder for students to “follow the guidelines set by faculty in their individual courses, and be transparent about the origin and process used for their submitted work.” Additionally, there was a note for all users to follow the Mount Holyoke College Guidelines for the Ethical Use of Generative AI.

These guidelines exist “to ensure the ethical, secure, and responsible use of AI, fostering a culture of critical engagement with technology in line with the College’s mission and strategic vision as we navigate these changes as a community.” They go into detail about various aspects of AI usage, including ethical use, culture of critical engagement, professional integrity and responsibility and data privacy and security. At the bottom of the page, it states that ChatGPT was used to create these guidelines, with “substantial editing” by Mount Holyoke faculty and staff.

LITS has been at the forefront of investigations about AI usage, as well as the integration of Gemini and other generative AI tools on campus. The LITS Advisory Committee, College Compliance Committee, Leadership Council, a faculty forum, and the Student Government Association Senate were all part of the decision to introduce Gemini. However, because of the focus on “the foundational technology environment, privacy, and information security of the College, I, as Chief Information Officer, made the decision,” Alex Wirth-Cauchon told Mount Holyoke News.

Multiple factors influenced this decision, including issues of privacy, equity and educational access. A significant concern was about AI tools mining information. “Sharing non-public information ... with such tools puts the community’s privacy and personal information security at risk,” Wirth-Cauchon said. “Our contract with Google prevents Gemini from using our information to train their model, advertising, or other uses.”

This became more pressing when Google started allowing college students to freely access Gemini for one year. However, this access “is not covered by the College’s contract that provides limits to what Google can do with the data submitted to Gemini,” Wirth-Cauchon said. “Additionally, we were concerned about the inequity created in a year when charges would begin for those accounts.”

There was interest from faculty and staff to have access to generative AI, either for course materials or various work as part of the College. Wirth-Cauchon stated, “Granting access to Gemini addressed this need without additional cost to the College, those departments, or the staff in those departments.”

In an email from President Danielle Holley on Sept. 3, she announced that there would be an AI Working Group sponsored by Provost Lisa Sullivan and Wirth-Cauchon. This committee will be split into sub-groups, including one connected with the Association of American Colleges and Universities — AAC&U — Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum. The AI Working Group will have faculty, staff and student members. Wirth-Cauchon said the purpose of this group is to “help us to broaden and deepen the community’s critical engagement with the impact of generative AI for the mission of the College.”

Vanessa Rosa, co-chair of critical race and political economy and associate professor in Latine studies, is part of Mount Holyoke’s AAC&U Institute on AI team. She attended a conference hosted by AAC&U over the summer, where she learned more about AI and about the Institute. The Institute is essentially a year-long mentorship program. “Each institution puts together a team that will go through this kind of structured program to really think through AI for their campus,” Rosa said in an interview with MHN. “Who is Mount Holyoke? What is our mission? What are our values? And how do we need to be thinking very carefully about AI in relation to those things.”

She spoke about the importance of learning about AI to understand it. “I think it's our responsibility to be educated and understand what AI is, what it does, and to interrogate what we don't know yet,” Rosa said. “My major concerns around AI are intellectual property, equity, [and] the environment.”

Angie Gregory, sustainability program manager for the Miller Worley Center for the Environment, is also focused on the environmental impacts of AI. Gregory recognizes that there are ways for AI to be useful, but encourages people to do their own research to learn about the consequences. Looking at studies from CNBC, University of Massachusetts Amherst and the United Nations can put the impacts into perspective, from “land use acquisition and development for the buildings that need to house these servers, to the amount of water that's used to cool these servers.”

“I think we as consumers of these technologies need to think about what the demand side is saying to those industries,” Gregory said. “So we can reduce our demand side and be intentional with when and how we use it.”

Despite some of the harmful consequences for people and the environment, she is not pessimistic about the future. “It can all feel really overwhelming and outside of our control,” Gregory said. “[But] we are on this campus together in an enclosed, kind of tight community where we have the opportunity to connect with all these individuals in real time ... I think there’s opportunity in that.”

Alex Moskowitz, an assistant professor of English at Mount Holyoke College, spoke in an interview with Mount Holyoke News about his thoughts of where AI fits into an English classroom, stating, “One of the things that distinguishes an English classroom at Mount Holyoke from an English classroom at other institutions like UMass, is that we have really, really small classes.” Most English classes at Mount Holyoke are capped between 16-18 students, creating a more personalized learning environment, as well as being primarily discussion based learning models. “One of the things you can do here is … you read the text, you come up with your ideas, and you speak about them in class, and you speak about them with your classmates, you speak about them with your professors. This is the work that is possible here. AI has no role,” Moskowitz said.

Moskowitz also spoke on how generations of knowledge for English students comes from reading, writing and discussion. He says speaking about literature with classmates offers new perspectives and brings up new ideas one never considered before, and AI prevents students from learning anything new. He additionally spoke about his policy in the classroom surrounding AI, and how he personally considers it to be a form of plagiarism. “I tell students they are not allowed to use it for whatever purpose … I want you to learn this thing, and you can't learn it through the use of AI … So it doesn't serve a pedagogical purpose in my courses, therefore don't use it,” he said.

Moskowitz also commented on the idea of Mount Holyoke trying to become more carbon neutral with efforts such as the geothermal project, but then adopting AI tools which are known to use immense amounts of energy. “Go look up the articles about what those data centers do to the communities that they're in, they're incredibly destructive, like the air quality, the water quality, everything. They destroy the immediate surroundings. And those communities are often Black and brown communities where those data centers are built,” he said.

Moskowitz wrapped up by encapsulating his philosophy on AI by saying, “There's more I could say, but there are these political and ethical and environmental reasons that AI is really, really deeply problematic, and so I'll say to students, don't use it, because pedagogically, it doesn't make sense.”

Mount Holyoke News also reached out to Mara Breen, a cognitive scientist and professor of psychology, to ask about how fields such as hers who use computational models of AI are working around the development of generative models. “So starting from the 1970s we had this term AI, artificial intelligence. Now what did it mean in 1971, [is] probably a little bit different from how we conceptualize it today,” she said, drawing the distinction between newer models such as ChatGPT and models used in labs. “I use various machine learning algorithms, which some people would call AI, but that's very different from these generative AI models like LLMs.”

Breen also spoke to how these models are used as learning tools. “As a cognitive scientist, I'm deeply interested in computational models as a tool of study, where we say, here's what we know humans do. What do computational models do?”

She explained how AI has a place in her classroom as computational models, however her thoughts on generative models in the classroom are slightly different, stating “The value of a scientific paper is not the abstract, right? Usually it's not. We're not reading a paper because of the abstract, we're saying, okay, but how did they operationalize their variables? What is the method that they used? What were their results? How did they interpret it?”

She also emphasized that the “potential benefit is not worth the cost” of using a generative model for simple tasks such as searching for an old email or redesigning a class.

Breen approaches AI in her classroom through education, and explaining to students how AI works and what exactly it is by comparing it to neural networks and models to help students grasp what she means. Additionally, she explains to students how the models they use in her field are helpful for offloading specific mathematical or experimental tasks, such as marking boundaries in research, but also teaching them about the harms of generative AI such as the labor exploitation and energy used in data centers. “We make the joke that [the brain] runs on, you know, coffee and Flaming Hot Cheetos, and GPT runs on all of the electricity in Texas,” she said.

Breen advises that before using AI, people should “make sure it's a reasoned choice,” and not to use it as a replacement for Google, or doing research by yourself, and to get educated on what exactly AI is and the effects.

Madeleine Diesl ’28 contributed fact checking.