Update on the College’s financial situation and identifying permanent, structural changes

September 17, 2020

Dear members of the Mount Holyoke community,

We are writing, as promised, to share an update on the College’s financial situation. As noted in our letter of August 19, the pandemic has created both short-term and longer-term challenges to our operations, negatively impacting the College’s financial outlook. To address these challenges, we need to identify permanent, structural changes that enable us to direct our resources both effectively and strategically, and to ensure that our current staffing is aligned with available work.

Furloughs

The consequences of the pandemic and the decision to be fully remote this semester mean there is less campus-based, in-person work to be done. As a result, some furloughs that began in the summer will be extended through the end of the calendar year. This includes 24 staff who are on a full furlough, and 10 who are partially furloughed. In addition to extending these existing furloughs, we will now be placing a further 119 staff on furlough, 92 of them full and 27 partial. This means that 116 of our staff are fully furloughed through December 31, while 37 are partially furloughed. The areas most impacted are Dining, the Willits-Hallowell Center and Event Services, Facilities Management and Student Life. All furloughed employees remain a part of the Mount Holyoke community and continue to be covered by our health insurance. We are in the process of developing an Employee Safety Net Fund to support employees experiencing financial hardship and will share more information about that in October. Employees should please follow the links to our furlough policy and additional COVID-19-related employee information. 

Structural and Programmatic Changes

As we continue to plan for the future and to steward our resources, we will be guided by our strategic priorities, by our core mission, by institutional effectiveness and by the core principles previously articulated. This means that we will be engaging in further study of a number of areas. We have already made some decisions in four divisions of the College, and will be engaging in further discussion about others noted below.

College Dining and Campus Services

By reorganizing Dining, and bringing into a newly-constituted organization the Willits-Hallowell Center, Events Services and Auxiliary Services, we are able to consolidate a range of closely related activities under one leadership team, with two strong, existing department leaders working together. The new division will be led by Rich Perna, with Imad Zubi continuing to direct conference and event services and supporting Rich in leading the new department and its services. This also enables us to consolidate other activities, such as:

• Menu planning, food preparation and ordering.
• Cross training and employee development. 
• Transportation and event planning. 
• Promotion of conference, catering and events opportunities.

It is anticipated that this consolidation will, over time, also generate cost savings as a result of the streamlining of operations.

College Relations

The consolidation of Advancement and Communications into a new division, College Relations, creates an opportunity to build upon existing synergies, and to invest even more deeply in the important work of telling the Mount Holyoke story beyond the College gates, while also serving our goals of transparency and engagement internally. The first step in this reorganization is to concentrate these efforts under a single vice president. Kassandra Jolley, who currently serves as vice president for advancement and acting vice president for communications and marketing, has agreed to lead this new division as vice president for college relations. As this reorganization moves forward, there will be other resource alignments to increase our capacity in, and support for, a rapidly evolving communications landscape.

Department of Physical Education & Athletics

Over the last two years, we have spent considerable time focused on Athletics, its staffing, facilities and impact on the life of the College. The April 2018 program review, and the subsequent strategic plan for Athletics, call for a review of the 14 intercollegiate sports supported at Mount Holyoke with a focus on supporting athletic performance, enhancing recreation and the overall student-athlete experience.

As a result, we have made the difficult, yet necessary, decision to discontinue golf as an intercollegiate sport. This decision resulted from an extensive review, and took into consideration many factors, including declining student interest, indoor practice needs, the competitive season and our climate and alignment with the sports supported by our conference. 

The home course for the Lyons, The Orchards Golf Club in South Hadley, remains one of the premiere golf courses in Western Massachusetts. Mount Holyoke College students, employees and alums will still be able to access The Orchards in the same ways they always have. Our intention is to work with the Orchards to increase student access to the course through recreational and intramural opportunities. 

As a direct follow-up to the strategic plan for Athletics, we will also be undertaking  a comprehensive review of our Equestrian Center and initiating an academic program review of physical education. 

Library, Information, and Technology Services (LITS)

Our colleagues in LITS are also looking to the future, working with the Administrative Technology Steering Committee and the Senior Leadership Team to define a study that will examine the business processes, application and data environment with an eye toward focusing staff time and other resources on the areas that most closely align with and advance the College's mission. This study will inform the use of technology and data at the College over the long term. 

LITS has already responded to the demands for increased support and the expanded teaching schedule by restructuring its front-line support model and has merged two departments to streamline staffing. This has resulted in a search for two frontline positions to support the new model, and has allowed for several vacant positions to be held open for the foreseeable future.  Much of the work of the College would be impossible without the support of our colleagues in LITS who have met the challenges of our new remote teaching and work models with their exceptional professionalism, creativity and grace. We extend our special thanks to them for their ongoing work in support of us all.

We are grateful to all faculty and staff for all that you do to support our students, and to advance the work and mission of Mount Holyoke College.

Sonya Stephens
President, Mount Holyoke College

Shannon D. Gurek
Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer, Mount Holyoke College