AccessAbility Services changes name to Disability Services

Photo by Tzav Harrel ’24.
Disability Services’ office is in Mary Lyon Hall.

By Arianna Peña ’25

Staff Writer

Content warning: This article mentions ableism.

What is the best way to serve and affirm disabled students on campus? This question has been posed by students, fellows and staff at the newly-named Disability Services office, some of whom hope that this name change alters the perspective of students across campus regarding the use of the word disability.

 On Sept. 1, 2022, the Disability Services team sent an email to students across campus with updates regarding office and staff email communication, staffing, drop-in hours, making appointments, note-taking and accommodations for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year. The first part of the email announced the recent name change of the office from AccessAbility Services to Disability Services. 

In the email, team members C. Ross, Emily Dean and Zemora Tevah addressed that “over the years, the office staff, students, staff and faculty raised questions about the office’s previous name, AccessAbility Services.” They continued by explaining that in Spring 2022, the office staff partnered with Dean of the College and Vice President for Student Success Amber Douglas and “engaged in conversations with students and campus partners about alternative names that reflected the work of the office and communicated [its] commitment to support students with disabilities on campus.”

As described on their website, “Disability Services works with students to provide reasonable accommodations for those that have documented disability, and/or disability-related needs.”

While the Disability Services office provides accommodations, assistive technology and support to students with documented disabilities or disability-related needs, as stated on their website, it also works to provide those who need accommodations for religious purposes.

Earl Wren ’24, a Disability Services fellow for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years, was part of the name change process that began last year. “The name change was proposed by the 2021-2022 disability fellows and I believe I was actually the first fellow to mention it. We were able to fit the name change in at the second semester I believe, and focus groups were held in the same semester open to all students registered with the office … to express student opinions on what the new name should be,” Wren said.

Karis Knoll ’25 attended these focus groups. As someone who has used Disability Services since their first semester, they were very interested in the name change process. “We talked through why ‘AccessAbility’ as a phrase wasn’t a good phrase, because it insinuates … that a student who uses ‘AccessAbility’ services needed to access ability, that there was something inherently inferior about the student that they needed help accessing something,” Knoll said.

“They — wider society, not just MHC — are trying to say that disabled people can do just as much as non-disabled people, which [is] a statement that, on a surface level, sounds progressive but when you dig deep, it is rooted in ableism and disability erasure,” Wren said.

Knoll and Wren, who both identify as disabled, agree that ‘disabled’ should not be viewed as a bad word. “My many debilitating disabilities do limit what activities I can do and what kind of life I can live in, and that’s okay. Some people believe admitting disability equals admitting the disabled person is lesser, but that is not true — it only reflects the person and society’s attitude towards disability, not the inherent worth of the disabled person,” Wren said.

While some students have mentioned that the change in name may further isolate students who are disabled from students who are not, Grace MacIntyre ’25, a fellow for Disability Services, added that “words and phrases like ‘AccessAbility,’ ‘differently abled,’ ‘special,’ etc. further reinforce in people’s minds that disability is a bad word that should be avoided and, by extension, disabled people too. This is primarily for the comfort of abled people, who don’t want to actively interact with the complexity of disability,” MacIntyre said.

Wren and MacIntyre also explained that while the change to Disability Services reflects how the office staff seek to affirm disabled students, it was also changed for clarity and ease. Students seeking accommodations or support from the Disability Services will now have an easier time searching for the offices as the purposeful misspelling of “AccessAbility” often made it harder to find the office online, a sentiment shared by Wren, Knoll and MacIntyre. Wren added that when they were a newly accepted Mount Holyoke student, the title “AccessAbility Services” made them nervous and hesitant to reach out.

“I personally feel like Disability Services correctly communicates what the actual services are and helps students know where to go to get their disability needs met,” Knoll said.

Overall, Wren, Knoll and MacIntyre are happy with the name change, citing that they hope it sparks conversation among nondisabled students and the Mount Holyoke community at large about why disabled is not a negative word. MacIntyre adds that they “hope with this name change, disabled students feel more supported and understood and nondisabled students will start to learn more about the Disability Justice Movement.”

For any student who may feel like they need the services provided, Disability Services can currently be reached by email at disability-services@mtholyoke.edu or in their office on the third floor of Mary Lyon Hall, which their website states is wheelchair accessible through the entrance on the ground floor. Open hours are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 1-2 p.m. while the College is in session.

Students fight for stricter campus COVID-19 regulations

Photo by Carmen Mickelson ’24.
Pictured above, the COVID-19 Testing Center, which isn’t currently operating. While students were required to test twice a week during the last school year, they are not required to test at all this year.

By Rebecca Gagnon ’23 & Jesse Hausknecht-Brown ’25

Features Editor | Managing Editor of Layout & Features Editor

Content warning: This article discusses ableism.

Petitions, signatures, demands and fear are just a few of the reactions that arose in the Mount Holyoke community when the announcement of relaxed COVID-19 regulations were heard.

After three semesters of required twice weekly testing for COVID-19 in addition to masking in virtually all public indoor areas, the College has now determined that these regulations and procedures will be removed for the 2022-2023 academic year. 

On July 28, 2022, Interim President Beverly Daniel Tatum distributed a newsletter to the community about the new expectations in place for the upcoming semester, under which COVID-19 regulations were loosened. In the newsletter, Tatum wrote, “While we have not yet reached a point where we can officially say that COVID-19 has moved fully from a pandemic stage to an endemic one, strategies are shifting, locally, nationally and internationally, toward policies that help us live with COVID-19 as an ever-present part of our daily lives. To that end, we are aiming to return to pre-pandemic operations as much as possible, with some additional precautions in place for the launch of the semester.” 

Under these new guidelines, students were required to have a negative COVID-19 test before arriving on campus. However, weekly testing is no longer required for students throughout the school year. Instead, only those who are symptomatic may receive a test through College Health Services. Employees faced the same expectation of arriving on campus with a negative COVID-19 test, and have been asked to obtain their own tests locally. 

“I remember reading [the new guidelines] and being like — we could do better. We can do better. Why aren’t we doing better? Since then, it’s kind of become my goal, my mission, to do better because if the school can’t do it,
I can do it.”

— Soli Guzman ’24

As for masking — contrary to the Spring 2022 semester when students were required to wear masks in any non-dining, indoor public space at all times — mask mandates for this semester tentatively end on September 30, as announced by the College’s Health and Safety Committee on Sept. 14. Another change is that visitors are now welcomed back to the College at any point. All guests are asked to self assess symptoms while overnight guests must be registered and fully vaccinated. 

After reading the newsletter, students, faculty, staff, alums and parents of the Mount Holyoke community have expressed concerns about the new guidelines and their ability to keep people safe.

“I was really frustrated about it because I felt like in the past couple of years, … this was kind of a bubble that was safer,” Sophie Coyne ’24 expressed. “That was something that made me feel a lot safer … being on campus and more comfortable, at times relaxing my own [COVID-19] restrictions because I was aware of what the [COVID-19] rates on campus were like, or if the people around me were getting tested.”

For Soli Guzman ’24, the new policy did not meet the needs of vulnerable students in the College community. “I remember being extremely angry because the school is constantly saying that ‘We care about our students, we care about our trans students, we care about our disabled students’ and they pull shit like this,” Guzman stated.

Coyne feels the new policy is potentially dangerous for the health and safety of disabled and immunocompromised members of the Mount Holyoke community. “Also, generally — as somebody who is potentially immunocompromised or at least chronically ill — it’s really scary,” Coyne said. “I know for other chronically ill and disabled students on campus this can be very much a life or death thing. But also … [COVID-19] can disable anyone.”

From these concerns arose an idea to begin a petition demanding that the College return to its previous guidelines to keep the entire community safe. This petition was started by Coyne and Guzman on change.org and circulated to a variety of members of the Mount Holyoke community throughout the summer of 2022.

“I remember reading [the new guidelines] and being like — we could do better. We can do better. Why aren't we doing better?” Guzman said. “Since then, it’s kind of become my goal, my mission, to do better because if the school can’t do it, I can do it.”

Coyne expressed a similar idea as to why they chose to begin the petition. “We were like, ‘If we’re going to email [the College], it will look better if there are more people on that side.’ It also gets the word out to students who, coming into the year, weren’t thinking about how [COVID-19] might be on campus, since there is [such] broad support, at least, for testing. Also for continuing masking if there’s no testing, because people liked the peace of mind of it.”

In the introduction of the petition, Coyne and Guzman call to all students, faculty, and staff to truly think about the guidelines for the upcoming year and if they keep the community safe. The document states, “Previous relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions led to increased cases on campus, particularly toward the end of spring semester 2022, and it is deeply concerning that [COVID-19] precautions that proved effective this past year are not going to be available this upcoming semester.” 

To this extent, Coyne and Guzman asked for the reinstatement of mandatory asymptomatic testing twice a week for all students and staff, that mask mandates remain in indoor facilities — especially classrooms — to reduce the risk of the spread of airborne diseases and a call for “a more detailed action plan” on the emergent monkeypox virus.

At the commencement of the Fall 2022 semester the petition had accumulated 346 signatures. In addition, several of those who had signed it were inclined to comment on their reasoning for returning guidelines to their previous state.

“Without required asymptomatic testing it’s impossible for anyone to make informed decisions — also rendering it impossible for the College to make changes if there were (and with conditions as they are, this is very likely) a large-scale break out on campus,” an anonymous Mount Holyoke junior wrote in the comment section of the petition. “No required asymptomatic testing = no information. If no changes are made to the current plan in time for the semester to start, student, faculty and staff safety is going to be actively undermined.”

After returning to campus, the aforementioned student’s worries have only gotten worse. They described feeling like they know COVID-19 is going around campus and are scared that there is no way to know the full extent of the problem without regular testing. “As recently as this week, I’ve spoken to an RA who told me that their residents have come to them, panicking, when their roommate has [COVID-19], not knowing what else to do,” they said. “One student has even gone as far as to sleep in the common room to try and avoid infection.” 

Community members, not just those physically on campus currently, are concerned about the College’s new policies. Anneke Craig ’22 added a comment on the petition which read: “I’m a ’22 grad. Last year, MHC’s exceptional COVID policies kept me, my fellow students, and my loved ones — including immunocompromised and health care worker family members — much safer. Without the testing program and masks, my parents and sibling would not have been able to see me graduate. I urge the college to reconsider this decision and restore the testing and masking policies for this year. Protect disabled students, faculty, staff and community members now!”

Another alum, Lauren Fuller ’22, stated, “I signed the petition because I support the Mount Holyoke community, and I believe that everyone in our community deserves to access our spaces with minimal risk. I feel we have an obligation to minimize [the] risk of contracting COVID-19 wherever possible. … Mount Holyoke was the only place I lived in where I had the assurance that everyone in my community was not only masked, but tested frequently. I think it was the only place I've experienced during the pandemic where I was not very worried about contracting it.”

“Also, generally — as somebody who is potentially immunocompromised or at least chronically ill — it’s really scary. I know for other chronically ill and disabled students on campus this can be very much a life or death thing. But also ... [COVID-19] can disable anyone.”

— Sophie Coyne ’23

With the signatures and concerns from fellow students, alums, faculty and parents from the petition in mind, Conye and Guzman brought their efforts to the school’s attention in an email sent to Dean of Students Amber Douglas, Health Services, Medical Director Cheryl Flynn, the Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculty and Disability Services.

In this email, Conye and Guzman brought up the three main points in their petition, expanding their reasoning. They remarked on the impacts of relaxing guidelines last year and the effect it had on students, including an uptick in COVID-19 cases. They went on to state that students who catch COVID-19 not only will be unable to make it to class, fall behind and potentially lose academic standing, but they run the risk of passing it on to other students, especially if they are asymptomatic. In addition, both Coyne and Guzman emphasized in their email that this virus, doesn’t just affect disabled students but can cause disabilities as well, citing a Time article which states, “A study posted online in June as a preprint (meaning it had not yet been peer-reviewed) found that reinfection adds ‘non-trivial risks’ of death, hospitalization and post-COVID health conditions, on top of those accumulated from an initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Organ failure, heart disease, neurologic conditions, diabetes and more have been linked to SARS-CoV-2 infections.” 

The anonymous student echoed this sentiment and explained that they feel unsafe as a chronically ill, high risk student. They stressed the fact that all students — including able-bodied ones — are at risk of severe health complications. “Even if one believes that they will not get severely ill if they contract [COVID-19], more and more studies are showing the incredibly dangerous, long term impacts of this disease, even [in] mild cases. … The risk of all of this is known to only increase with each repeated infection.” 

Without free testing provided by the College, Coyne and Guzman are concerned about the inaccessibility of COVID-19 tests. Pioneer Valley Transit Authority buses and shuttles are offered at times that may not align with local business hours to obtain testing. In addition, a great number of pharmacies are now prioritizing drive-thru testing, which makes it difficult for students without access to a car to get tested. Coyne and Guzman’s email also reflects on the impact that insurance may have on one’s ability to obtain a test and the effect purchasing a test would have on low-income families.

In their email, Coyne and Guzman also mentioned the effectiveness of masking, drawing attention to a Boston University study published by the American Medical Association that demonstrates the importance of masking in a classroom.

To conclude the communication, Coyne and Guzman reminded the College about the importance of providing accommodations for the students most at risk from COVID-19 and ensuring that all students feel comfortable and safe returning to the campus for another semester.

“As a school that claims to be so progressive, we should be on the forefront of protecting disabled students and protecting students from becoming disabled, potentially,” Coyne stated. “I don’t want to wait until we have a student die of it, because that would be horrific. Luckily, nothing like that has happened yet, but you shouldn’t have to be forced to walk into a classroom where you might catch a deadly illness, and none of your classmates are potentially protected from it either.”

Guzman is passionate about fighting for this issue because they have seen that other students are worried about the new policies as well.

“I think our biggest push was seeing disabled students on Instagram complaining and being like, ‘I don’t feel safe.’ On top of that, seeing people on Twitter being like, ‘This doesn’t feel good for us,’” Guzman stated. 

Speaking from personal experience, Guzman went on to point out that it is not possible to know which community members may be impacted by shifts in COVID-19 restrictions. “I’m disabled [and] I don't look it. … I already have an autoimmune disease and for me — as someone who took an entire year online — the most important thing is for me to have a normal college experience. I have worked too hard to get here and not have that.”

Although Coyne stated that they had low expectations for their email to the College, they and Guzman did receive a response from the Health and Safety Committee. In their response, the Committee stated that vaccinations are still “one of the most effective ways to limit spread and severity” of COVID-19 and to that extent, “The College will continue to require all students and employees to receive a primary COVID-19 vaccination series and one booster for the 2022–2023 academic year.” In addition to this, the email also expressed that, since the CDC changed their guidelines to reflect that an asymptomatic person who has not knowingly been exposed to COVID-19 does not need to be tested, the College would not mandate it. However, every student may obtain a test through College Health Services. 

In addition, the Committee stated that they plan to monitor Hampshire County’s COVID-19 levels and make determinations based on their statistics. Finally, if any students wish to mask, they may. Immunocompromised students can contact Disability Services to discuss any accommodations that may be made in the classroom or help them through these guideline changes. 

After receiving this email, Conye and Guzman responded again to the Health and Safety Committee asking questions for clarification such as, “Does Mount Holyoke intend to increase or create shuttle services to locations providing PCR tests?” to help lower-income students and students without their own transportation on campus; “Will Health Services be providing PCR tests or rapid antigen tests to students with symptoms?” since PCR tests are the ones that are more likely to identify COVID-19 and “We ask: why is Mount Holyoke unable to offer optional, asymptomatic testing for students who may want it? If cost is a barrier, can you give us evidence that all COVID-19 mitigation funding the College received from the government has been used?” In addition to their questions, Coyne and Guzman stated that if testing was no longer an option available this academic year, mandatory masking in classrooms is the most effective alternative proven to keep students, faculty and staff safe. 

In the final email sent by the Health and Safety Committee, they once again stated their determination to monitor cases and indicated that Health Services would be available for testing for symptomatic or recently exposed individuals, additionally stating that masking was always welcomed in the community, even if not mandatory. 

This response was not satisfactory to Coyne or Guzman.

“They responded,” Guzman stated. “They responded to us like we didn’t read their email and [like] we didn’t read the current [COVID-19] policies. … Their response was basically sending us everything [they had already sent].” 

Guzman went on to state that although the Committee cited the CDC and stated that they were going to enforce vaccinations and boosters, the College hasn’t sent out any reminders of those things, which further upset them.

“I think what was frustrating was, it felt as if they didn’t really read our email or consider what we said, particularly in the second email they sent us. It genuinely looked like they hadn’t even read what we’d written,” Coyne expressed.

Members of the College administration could not be reached for comment by Mount Holyoke News. 

Although Coyne and Guzman have not responded to the last email the Committee sent, they do not plan to stop here.

“We are now considering what other methods could be potentially [used],” Coyne stated. “Maybe going through SGA or something like that to continue to raise the concern since it’s clear that the email route isn’t really working.”

Both students feel as though student voices are not being heard under the COVID-19 guidelines and wish to keep pursuing the matter. Coyne and Guzman want to stand up not only for their concerns, but also the concerns of parents, alums, faculty and other students who do not feel able to stand up for themselves.

“I want the student body to fight for this,” Guzman finished. “My biggest worry is that we’re just [going to] give up and people are gonna get sick. … We’re saying this because we want to live, and we’re not going to be able to live without caring about other people. It’s just a simple form of humanity, and that’s why I think we need to get [testing and masking] back.”

A Timothée Chalamet and Mary Lyon love story comes to campus

Graphic by Lauren Leese ’23.

By Arianna Peña ’25

Staff Writer

At 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 21, a crowd of roughly 50 students gathered around Mary Lyon’s grave to witness a brand-new, one-time-only show, “Going Places I Shouldn’t be Going.” 

Performed by members of the Write Here, Write Now creative writing club, this satirical one-act followed ex-actor Timothée Chalamet as a new professor at Mount Holyoke College. After his career takes a drastic turn for the worse, Chalamet lectures at a college where he is mistreated and gawked at. There, he wonders why the school founder is buried on school grounds and why the Film, Media Theater department is led by the same woman who chairs the German studies major. Chalamet is then transported back in time by Jorge, who seeks to generally terrify and torture him, to the early days of Mount Holyoke, when Mary Lyon was still president. Now in the year 1847, Chalamet manages to show the young women of the seminary there is more to life than the Bible. Along the way, he falls in love with the College president. Eventually, Chalamet returns to the present day, heartbroken that he has been separated from his true love, but determined to carry on her legacy as a professor at the school. 

“I think this was born out of Zoom insanity,” Olivia Wilson ’24, the writer and director of “Going Places I Shouldn’t be Going,” said. “It was at the end of our second meeting on Zoom, I remember this very vividly, and we were talking about bad fan-fiction — as you do in a creative writing club — and we were playing this little game of ‘What is the worst thing we can come up with?’ And we landed on Timothée Chalamet and Mary Lyon.” 

“We kind of got to talking about it more and said, ‘Oh my god, wouldn’t it be so funny if we put on a play?’ … I remember saying, ‘I have directing experience and playwriting experience, so if you guys work with me to put it on, I will write it,’” Wilson said.

And they did. Wilson, along with many other members of the club, helped create the production. Everything, from the costumes to the live violin player to the various promotional posters plastered around campus, was done by members of Write Here, Write Now.

Lauren Leese ’23, co-president of Write Here, Write Now and the Narrator of “Going Places I Shouldn’t be Going,” is no stranger to building creative outlets for students. 

“[In] my freshman year, my friend Rebecca [Kilroy ’23] and I met each other at orientation and we went to the involvement fair to try and find writing-related clubs because we both loved creative writing. And there was Mount Holyoke News, I think at the time there was a poetry society, but there was no creative writing club. And so we said, ‘Well then, we’ll make one,’” Leese said.

While Leese and Kilroy — the other co-president and founder — tried to finalize the club’s official founding, their plans were derailed when the pandemic hit in 2020, and the club remained both small and unofficial for a year. However, in 2021 the current juniors were able to secure Student Government Association Ways and Means funding to make Write Here, Write Now an official club at the College. They aimed to give students who enjoy non-academic writing a space to write freely and creatively with no judgment and full support.

“When you’re in college, it’s really hard to write creatively, especially if you’re working on a long-term project or if you’re just trying to be consistent about it. That can make you feel really guilty, that you’re putting other things above your creative expression. So, we thought that having a set meeting time every week where we set a timer for 30 minutes and everybody [gets] to work on the creative project they couldn’t get to earlier in the week, that’s the kind of thing we think creative writers on this campus really need, so that’s what we want to provide,” Leese said.

“[That’s] the core of what we are, a place where people can write when they don’t have time the rest of the week,” Leese added.

While Write Here, Write Now seeks to give students the space that they need to write whatever they desire. Wilson believes there is something almost cathartic that comes with putting effort into something “bad.” 

“I find it really liberating … [writing] ‘bad’ fanfiction, and not caring about quality or the nitty-gritty and just being like ‘How can I tell this crazy story in 15 minutes? … How can I make people laugh [and] how can I torture my fellow board members?’” Wilson said.

Samantha Pittman ’23, who played Jorge, agreed that there is relief that comes with being creative simply for the sake of being creative. “It’s super easy [to be] dragged down by all the work you have to do [at the end of the semester,] but to have an hour or half an hour where you are just goofing off and doing this silly amazing fanfiction, … it was a great break mentally,” Pittman said.

While there are no promises that Write Here, Write Now will put on another Timothée Chalamet-themed production in the future, the leaders of the organization seek to support writers who have a passion to create.

Editor’s note: Olivia Wilson ’24 and Lauren Leese ’23 are members of Mount Holyoke News.

Bagel Therapy band showcases cover songs and collaboration

Photo by Ali Meizels ‘23. Left to right: Mav Leslie ‘23 on guitar and vocals, Jenny Yu ‘24 on bass guitar and Mira Zelkowitz ‘22 on lead guitar. Drummer Sofia Lopez Melgar ‘24 (not in picture) is the fourth musician in the band.

By Declan Langton ’22

Editor-in-Chief

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022, Bagel Therapy graced the Gettell Amphitheater stage for the first time. Spotlit by a hot sun and fanned by a cool breeze, the band — comprised of Mira Zelkowitz ’22 on lead guitar, Mav Leslie ’23 on guitar and vocals, Jenny Yu ’24 on bass and Sofia Lopez Melgar ’24 on the drums — started their set around 5 p.m. With flaring drums and driving guitars, the group began their first song: a cover of “Percolator” by alternative group Charly Bliss. 

According to Lopez Melgar, the band was Leslie’s creation. 

“I was in Vocal Jazz last semester, and we had a rehearsal with the jazz ensembles, which is where I originally saw [Zelkowitz] and [Lopez Melgar],” Leslie explained. After seeing them, Leslie recalled thinking, “They’re amazing. I need to play music with them.” Later, Leslie approached Lopez Melgar in the Dining Commons. They exchanged phone numbers and the trio started playing together soon after. 

At the start of this semester, Leslie, Lopez Melgar and Zelkowitz realized they needed a bass player. Yu came into the picture after seeing a post on the Instagram page @mhc_crushes asking if there were musicians on campus. According to Leslie, Yu commented on the post explaining that she played bass. Leslie then reached out and proposed the idea of starting a band. 

“From there, we just started meeting up and sharing music that we wanted to play together,” Leslie said. 

Rehearsals at the start of Bagel Therapy were casual, Lopez Melgar described. “We didn’t even worry about if it was perfect, [we were] just having a good time,” she said. 

“Zombie” by The Cranberries is one of Bagel Therapy’s strongest covers. The vocals fall comfortably in Leslie’s range, with just enough room for them to holler and croon in the repeating choruses. 

Zelkowitz believes there is a collective excitement present when they play “Zombie.” There’s “a lot of the energy … there,” she said. 

Something Bagel Therapy is still working out, though, is this song’s ending. “We don’t really know how [the song] ends, … like how many times the chorus repeats,” Lopez Melgar joked. 

Yu explained that it comes down to glances and timed eye contact. “I remember looking at [Lopez Melgar], and I was like ‘now!’” she said, demonstrating the moment by bobbing her head forward. 

The night before the performance, Leslie was thinking about their final vocal entrance, which comes at the start of the last chorus. Before that moment is an extended instrumental section and short guitar solo by Zelkowitz. “I texted [Zelkowitz] before we played that show … [and] was like, ‘Can you please look at me when I’m supposed to come back in? Because otherwise I will not know when,’” Leslie explained. Looking toward Zelkowitz, they added, “We’re gonna look at each other so hard.” 

Bagel Therapy prepares for first show

The day of the show involved setting up the amphitheater following a day full of classes and other activities. Lopez Melgar and Leslie both came from a seminar class that ended less than an hour before the concert started. 

As a college band, Bagel Therapy has a certain amount of home-grown charm. Leading up to the performance, Leslie practiced their singing entrances in their head. Instead of reserving the amphitheater for the band, they made the assumption that no one would be using it on a Wednesday afternoon. Some of their instruments and supplies came from the College — most notably, the drum kit. 

Before the show, Lopez Melgar pushed a cart with the drums from Pratt down the lower campus road to the amphitheater. “When we had to go up[hill], it was great,” Lopez Melgar said sarcastically. 

After the show, Leslie was tasked with returning the drums. “It was more downhill than I realized. I was trying to steer [the cart]. I was like, ‘I’m in Mario Kart,’” they explained, laughing. Turning serious, they added that the drums were returned in top-shape. 

Musicians talk favorite cover songs

Zelkowitz’s favorite song is a cover of BØRNS’ “Electric Love,” an upbeat dance pop song about sweet infatuation. The song was proposed to the group by Yu. 

“When she suggested it, I immediately thought of one of my favorite guitarists, Kiki Wongo, who is just this amazing metal guitarist,” Zelkowitz explained. “She did this cover of ‘Electric Love,’ but [made] it metal.” Zelkowitz learned Longo’s riff and added it to the Bagel Therapy cover, giving the song an edge. 

Playing those riffs, Zelkowitz’s guitar reached out of the amphitheater and around the Mount Holyoke campus, pulling in spectators. She heard after the performance that their concert could be heard from as far away as Kendall Sports & Dance Complex, where the Rugby team was practicing. 

Bagel Therapy showcased two other songs during their first performance. “Tungs,” a catchy vocal-driven song by The Frights, was used as their soundcheck and was performed later in the back half of Bagel Therapy’s set. With the repeating lines “Do you like my style/Have you seen my shoes,” Leslie’s stage presence shone. Wearing bright green Converse high tops, they kicked their foot out at the audience, giving a wide grin. 

Lopez Melgar’ current favorite Bagel Therapy cover is “A Certain Romance” by Arctic Monkeys. As they explained how much they liked the band, they took off their backwards hat. On the front side was the Arctic Monkeys’ signature logo in its all-caps wavy font. 

The song was the closer at their amphitheater performance. Leslie enjoys the song because it gives all the instruments time to shine with small solos and stand-out moments. “I really like getting to have moments where I get to watch each of you really wail on your instruments,” they said to their bandmates. “It’s so fun.” The song starts with a fast, heavy drum solo and builds into dueling guitars and cymbal crashes. Zelkowitz then takes it away, with a picking guitar solo backed by Yu’s steady chord progression. Finally, after nearly a minute, Leslie’s vocals begin. 

In “A Certain Romance,” Bagel Therapy’s stage presence was dominating. Leslie’s vocals in particular exuded confidence. Throughout the song, they shrieked, yelled and sang in all parts of their range — all while dancing around in the sun. 

Leslie’s vocal training background is in musical theater, but when taking guitar lessons at Mount Holyoke, they started working on their tone and honing a more indie rock sound. “I started focusing on the singer[s] that I like, like Eva Hendricks of Charly Bliss [and] Jake Luppen of Hippo Campus,” Leslie said. “I like singers who have very unique voices.” 

Leslie explained that they are working to unlearn the choral group mindset that all voices have to blend together. In their performance, they seemed to succeed at this goal. Their voice had angles and sharpness, with a whimsical delivery that added a flair of fun to intense songs like “Zombie” and shines on groovy tracks such as “Tungs.” 

The performance in the amphitheater was Bagel Therapy’s first official show, but throughout the weeks leading up, they had a handful of open rehearsals. One, in the Pratt Hall fishbowl room, turned into an impromptu concert for a group of prospective students, their parents and a Mount Holyoke Admissions tour guide. At around noon, according to Leslie, the tour group was greeted by the sound of their screaming voice as the band rehearsed “Percolator” in preparation for their amphitheater performance. 

“We had some windows open and there were some people walking by,” Leslie said. Lopez Melgar described a group of older women who passed by and flashed them all the “rock on” hand sign. “It was amazing,” Leslie said. 

Band looks toward next semester

At the end of this semester, Zelkowitz is graduating from Mount Holyoke, vacating the guitarist spot in Bagel Therapy. Despite her impending absence, the band hopes to continue playing and performing together.  

In their future performances, Bagel Therapy hopes to expand their catalog to include some original music. “I really want to bring in songs that I’m writing myself and have us work out how to play it in a full band,” Leslie said. Turning to the group, they added, “Y’all know your instruments really well. And I want to bring these ideas to you and have us build them together.” 

The collaborative work of Bagel Therapy continues as they prepare for their next performance. On Friday, April 29, the band is playing in the amphitheater alongside local acts Trash Rabbit and Bent Spoon as a part of WMHC’s annual Radio Week. 

Right now, though, the group seems to still be basking in their first performance. With a smile, Leslie reflected on the few times while performing that they could make out faces in the crowd. “I wanted to make some kind of connection with everybody who’s here today because I love that feeling when I see other people playing live music,” Leslie said. “I love having that connection.” 

Editor’s note: Jenny Yu ’24 is a member of Mount Holyoke News.