Drag Ball to be hosted by FAMILIA
Professor Kate Ballantine wins environmental award
BY NICOLE VILLACRES '18
Clean Water Action, a national environmental group, has awarded the Environmental Ground-Breaker Award to professor Kate Ballantine for her work with the Restoration Ecology Program. The program was created in 2012, when Ballantine and her environmental studies students noticed that Upper Lake had a severe problem with algae blooms caused by excessive nutrient pollution. One facet of the program is the Project Stream restoration site, which is focused on restoring the wetland and stream that feeds into Upper Lake, so that the nutrients would be naturally filtered out.
Math professor’s election comments incite debate
Sajia Darwish ’18 builds library in Kabul, Afghanistan
BY NICOLE VILLACRES ’18
With funding from Afghan Girls Fi-nancial Assistance Fund, Sajia Darwish ’18 opened the Baale Parwaz Library this summer in Kabul, Afghanistan. Although a native of Kabul, Darwish has been in the United States since she was 13. The idea to build the library came out of a conversation between Darwish and the co-founder of AGFAF, Joseph Highland. AGFAF supports Darwish’s education at Mount Holyoke through financial assistance.
Trump’s “locker room talk” criticized by Amherst College athletes
BY BRONTE BRECHT '19
Senior David Lander of the Amherst College men’s soccer team made waves across the internet recently with a Huffington Post article that garnered over 39,000 shares on social media. The topic in question was “locker room talk,” a phrase presidential candidate Donald Trump used to dismiss his boasts about touching women without their consent in the 2005 videotape released by the Washington Post.
Emet Marwell ’18 sparks discussion of trans athletes
Deborah Cohen leaves AccessAbility Services
BY NICOLE VILLACRES '18
In the aftermath of Director of AccessAbility Services Deborah Cohen’s resignation, Mount Holyoke plans to change the organizational structure of the department from having a singular director to two accommodation coordinators. Cohen, who spent four years at the College as AccessAbility director, will work her last day on Oct. 28.
Black Lives Matter Movement founders speak at Smith College
Dr. Dyar receives award
BY JULIA DOYLE ’20
Dr. Darby Dyar was recently awarded the 2016 Geological Society of America’s G.K. Gilbert Award for her achievements in the field of planetary geology. The G.K. Gilbert Award, named after the scientist who “recognized the importance of a planetary perspective in solving terrestrial geological problems,” is an award for “outstanding contributions to the solution of a fundamental problem(s) of planetary geology in its broadest sense,” according to the Geological Society of America’s website.