Welcome to the fall 2024 semester

Dear Mount Holyoke community,

Welcome to the fall semester! The campus is alive again with that intellectual energy that can only mean one thing: our students are back! Mount Holyoke was busy this summer, and I am excited to share some updates with you.

Our community

At 2024’s glorious Convocation, we (loudly and joyfully) welcomed 532 new students. Seven are Frances Perkins Scholars and nine are transfer students. The new students come from 39 states and 38 countries around the globe.

This semester, we also welcome 11 new faculty in Anthropology, Architectural History, Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Dance, English, Mathematics and Statistics, Philosophy and Physics. They are joining a dedicated body of scholars that is engaged in path-breaking research and preparing students to lead purposefully in an ever-changing world.

We also welcome a new chair of the Board of Trustees, Sally Durdan ’81. Sally is a distinguished financial services expert and a devoted alum. She joined the Board in 2020 and previously chaired the Finance Committee. Other excellent news in College leadership: Provost and Dean of Faculty Lisa Sullivan has signed a new, renewable contract through 2027. And our Library, Information and Technology Services (LITS) has moved out of the Division of Academic Affairs and is now a stand-alone division under the leadership of Chief Information Officer Alex Wirth-Cauchon. I look forward to working with Lisa, Alex and the entire College leadership team as we embark on Mount Holyoke’s next chapter.

MHC Forward

Last week we launched MHC Forward: the audacious strategic plan for Mount Holyoke College. I invite you to take a look at this far-reaching plan, which sets forth an ambitious blueprint to magnify the College’s role as a leader in inclusive liberal arts education for the next decade. This plan is the culmination of hours of discussion within our talented community of students, faculty, staff and alums. It gives me such joy to be a part of a community that comes together earnestly and voluntarily to imagine the future.

There will be opportunities for community members to get involved in this year’s work: operationalizing MHC Forward. For 2024-25, I have created four working groups and one presidential task force that will lay the foundation for five initiatives in the spheres of “advancing innovation and inclusive academic excellence” and “enhancing the student experience on and beyond campus.” They are:

• Student Outcomes Working Group;
• Career Readiness and Exploration Working Group;
• Strategic Enrollment Plan Working Group;
• Graduate Program Working Group; and
• Presidential Task Force for the Trans and Gender Non Conforming (TGNC) Community.

The College’s current Affirming Practices for Trans and Gender Non Conforming People Working Group will pause for one year, resuming in fall 2025. The Presidential Task Force for the TGNC Community, including all the permanent group’s members, will take up the work for 2024-25.

10 years of trailblazing admissions

This year marks a very special milestone: the 10-year anniversary of Mount Holyoke College’s inclusive admission policy. This policy makes explicit that women and transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people are welcome to seek admission at the College. Our inclusive admission policy is the twenty-first century expression of our founding mission to provide a rigorous education for individuals who have been marginalized on the basis of their gender, gender expression or gender identity. We are rightly proud of the intellectually rich atmosphere and supportive community that inclusion engenders. Mount Holyoke will continue to lead boldly on this issue, especially at a time when the lives and livelihoods of TGNC people are at significant risk around the world.

Part of the work of the Presidential Task Force for the TGNC Community is “TGNC10: Commemorating TGNC Inclusion at MHC.” TGNC10  will be a yearlong celebration of our inclusive community at MHC. It is being planned by the TGNC10 Planning Advisory group, with faculty members Amy Martin and Adeline Mueller, Vice President for Student Life Marcella Runell, and Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Kijua Sanders-McMurtry serving as project advisors. I am grateful to Lily E. Rood ’27 for devoting her Lynk-funded individual research project this summer to this work. My sincere thanks as well to the faculty, staff and students who are serving or will soon serve, including Lily, DEI Fellows Raven Joseph ’25 and Emma Quirk ’26, and Lauren Gaia.

Campus updates

The College is in the final stages of selecting a planning and architecture firm to kick off the Comprehensive Campus Plan project. During this academic year, the firm will engage the community, intersecting the planning and utilization of the College’s physical assets with the College’s curriculum, majors, student residential life, student experiential life and staff and faculty experience, within a framework that embraces accessibility and sustainability. The plan will enable the College to make both current operational decisions and long-term investment decisions around infrastructure.

Mount Holyoke has also entered the second phase of its ambitious and bold geothermal energy project. Conversions from steam to hot water have been completed or are nearly completed in several buildings, with distribution piping continuing from Skinner Green. I am happy to say that Skinner Green is on its way back to normal, and will be open for use again in October with improved drainage and landscaping.

We’ve seen other significant infrastructure developments over the spring and summer, with improvements to several parking and pedestrian areas, Ham Hall renovations, Science Center upgrades to fume hood controls and labs for new faculty in Reese, with more to come. I am grateful to our outstanding facilities team under the direction of our associate vice president for facilities management, Karla Youngblood FP ’99.

The Science Center renovations coincide nicely with an exhibition opening later this month, “Clapp and Concrete: 100 Years of Clapp Laboratory,” curated by Peregrine Basich Whitney ’25, Asya Anna Begovic ’24, Tara Castellano FP’24, and Becca Moses ’24. The opening reception will be on September 19 at 4 pm in Archives and Special Collections, Dwight Hall.

Another historic project in the works is the upcoming construction to 0 Park, otherwise known as “the Phoenix.” The building, once home to the nation’s first all-female fire brigade, will undergo historic preservation of the exterior and adaptive reuse of the interior to make it a low- embodied carbon architectural art studio. This project was spearheaded by Five College Professor of Sustainable Architecture Naomi Darling.

2024 elections

More than 70 countries and territories are holding national elections this year, including the United States on November 5. I hope everyone who is eligible will register and vote. In a time of great geopolitical unrest and widespread activism, the vote remains one of our most powerful tools. Voter registration resources were compiled by MHC Votes! and are available through the College. I encourage you to learn how to make sure your voice is heard and how to help others reach the ballot box. Participating in the democratic process and a peaceful transfer of power is a right hard won and easily lost.

This fall, Mount Holyoke is offering a variety of programming and events for our community regarding voting and democratic participation. I look forward to participating on October 22 in “What to Expect from the 2024 US Elections,” a panel organized by the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives. Details about this event and others will be available on our events calendar in the near future.

It has been an incredible summer and it will be a rewarding semester. Guided by our core values of academic excellence, active engagement, inclusive learning and purposeful leadership, we are moving forward as a community to create positive change on campus, with ripples throughout the world.

Sincerely,

Danielle R. Holley
President