The College announced changes to its COVID-19 and fall break guidelines in a Sept. 22 email detailing the recent shift in operating levels from “Semester Launch” to “Operating Level One.” This new operating level is described as “normal COVID-19 operations,” where transmission is controlled and cases are low on campus.
Mount Holyoke ranks high in college rankings
Students struggle to fill schedules after several courses were cancelled with little notice
As the start of the semester drew near, many students were left scrambling to find new courses after some classes were canceled within weeks or even days of the commencement of the fall semester on Monday, Aug. 30. At least one cancellation was directly related to Mount Holyoke’s return to in-person classes.
Mount Holyoke suffers staffing shortages
Mount Holyoke College is facing the same staffing shortages that have been affecting the rest of the country since the start of the pandemic. Employment in the United States is down nearly 3 million jobs from March 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with about half of those jobs coming from the food industry. The 1.5 million workers who have not yet returned make up about 12 percent of the food industry’s workforce.
COVID-19 policies vary across the Five Colleges
As students return to in-person classes and campuses across the country, colleges and universities have implemented COVID-19 measures to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff. Mount Holyoke College updated students before the fall semester with new measures to follow — several of which are subject to change depending on the situation in the area and on campus. The other colleges and universities within the Five College Consortium also released their new COVID-19 policies. Although many of the same measures are followed across each of the five campuses, there are some differences between the schools.
Kijua Sanders-McMurtry joins Lowery Institute as board member; brings new opportunities to Mount Holyoke students
When Kijua Sanders-Murtry, Mount Holyoke College’s Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, was first invited to join the board of directors for The Joseph & Evelyn Lowery Institute for Justice & Human Rights in Atlanta, GA, their first instinct was to decline the opportunity. They were afraid that this new position would interfere with their ability to connect students with opportunities at the Institute.
Amber Douglas named dean of the College
COVID-19 sends 7 students into isolation
When Mount Holyoke College announced its return to the first in-person semester since March 2020, they did so with substantial expansions to the Community Compact. Among other requirements, the College mandated that all students, staff and faculty receive a COVID-19 vaccination either on or before move-in day.