BY MERYL PHAIR ’21
In an email sent out to the student body on Feb. 1, Rachel Aldis, assistant Dean of Students and director of Residential Life, announced that three new Living Learning Communities (LLC) will be added to Mount Holyoke housing at the start of the 2018 fall term: the Mi Gente LLC, for students who are of Latinx descent, the Interfaith LLC and the Outdoor Adventure LLC. Proposals for these LLCs were submitted by Nov. 10.
BY EMMA RUBIN ’20
When Mount Holyoke first made the decision to transition from six dining halls to a centralized dining system, the question on many students’ minds was whether there would be the same number of work-study opportunities in the new Dining Commons. Until now, Mount Holyoke Dining Services has provided the bulk of jobs for first-year students, and the new dining system marks a dramatic shift in student employment.
BY AVA BLUM-CARR ’21
Daisy Vargas, a graduate student at the University of California Riverside, visited Mount Holyoke last Thursday to present a lecture on the criminalization of Mexican religious symbolism within law enforcement, border patrol and legal proceedings in the United States. The talk, which was held in Skinner Hall, was sponsored by the religion department.
BY ANNA SHORTRIDGE ’19
In the early morning hours of Saturday, Dec. 2, the U.S. Senate voted in favor of the Republican tax bill, “Tax Cuts and Job Act” 51-49. The bill focuses on cutting taxes for businesses, including lowering the tax rate for big businesses from 35 percent to 20 percent. Also, according to the Washington Post, the bill will make large changes to health care that may lead 13 million Americans to drop insurance, open up more land for drilling in Alaska and alter the treatment of state and local taxes, affecting local government budgets. The House of Representatives passed their version of the tax bill on Nov. 16.
BY AVA BLUM-CARR ’21
In early November, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) publicized a cache of over 13 million confidential documents, all relating to the offshore — meaning tax-exempt — investments of world leaders, politicians, and corporations. Included in these entities are over 100 colleges and universities.
