BY MERYL PHAIR ’21
The only animals allowed within Mount Holyoke residence halls are fish contained in a tank or bowl of five gallons or less, according to Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Rachel Alldis. In an email outlining pet policies that was sent out to the Mount Holyoke student body on Jan. 30, Alldis explained that the only exceptions to this rule are emotional support animals (ESAs) and service dogs or animals.
BY MERYL PHAIR ‘21
“This series is meant to signal not just the immediacy of the now, but the permutations of past and future, negotiated by boundaries and borders that are never fixed,” said Kimberly Juanita Brown, Chair of Gender Studies and Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies at Mount Holyoke College as she introduced a new speaker series hosted by the gender studies department on Thursday, Jan. 24. Brown went on to introduce Courtney Desiree Morris, the first in the six-part ‘Black Feminism Now’ speaker series to the audience gathered in Cleveland L1.
BY MELISSA JOHNSON ’20
To kick off the first senate meeting of the semester on Tuesday, Jan. 29, SGA held a town hall meeting with Vice President of Finance and Administration and Treasurer Shannon Gurek and President Sonya Stephens. The meeting’s focus was on the distribution of Mount Holyoke’s budget on a yearly basis.
BY ELIZABETH LEWIS ’22
President Miriam Nelson of Hampshire College announced the school’s decision to seek out a long-term partner to ensure their financial sustainability on Tuesday, Jan. 15. Hampshire’s leadership is also “carefully considering whether to enroll an incoming class this fall,” according to the official statement released by their senior administration. Nelson insisted that while change is underfoot, Hampshire has no intention of closing its doors.
BY ANNA KANE ’20
The longest partial government shutdown in the history of the United States is now over. President Donald Trump signed a short-term spending bill on Jan. 25, funding the government through Feb. 15 without the $5.7 billion he had originally demanded for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
BY LIZ LEWIS ’22
The final Senate meeting of the fall semester began with cheerful chatter and cookies, and quickly moved into a discussion with dining staff representatives Mike Helm, Chris Kostek and Richard Perna. Helm is a chef from the Cochary Pub & Kitchen, Kostek is a chef from the Classics section of the Dining Commons and Perna is the Director of Dining Services.
BY EMMA RUBIN ’20
On Nov. 13, in the John Quincy Adams Residence Hall at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass), a student’s door was defaced with homophobic and transphobic slurs as well as a swastika. The University of Massachusetts, Amherst Police Department (UMPD) investigated the event and the school sent out an email denouncing the act.
BY MERYL PHAIR ’21
“I feel like so often we’re supposed to have everything figured out,” said Leah Penniman, a black Kreyol educator, farmer, author and food justice activist to the audience gathered in Hooker Auditorium on Thursday, Nov. 29. “But the first step in healing and making change is to admit that we don’t know everything.”
BY ANNA HASSON ’21
Several new courses are being offered at Mount Holyoke in the upcoming spring semester. Many of the new course offerings are interdisciplinary, while others were developed specifically for first-year students. The new classes are being taught both by visiting lecturers and tenured professors. Many professors have adapted their material to fit inside the ever-changing world of academia.
