The full length of Ramadan will be celebrated during the academic school year this spring for the first time in many years. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and use this time to focus on and explore themselves both within and outside their religion for 30 days.
On the evening of March 7, students convened in Blanchard Hall’s Great Room to watch, learn from and discuss the Anti-Defamation League’s Never Is Now 2021 panel titled “Confronting Anti-Black Racism to Fight Antisemitism.” The discussion was led by Associate Dean of Students for Community and Inclusion Latrina Denson and Chaplain to the College and Advisor to the Jewish Community Amelia Ender. After a land acknowledgment by MoZone Peer Advisor Emi Wilson ’23, the second event in this series centering anti-Black racism in solidarity with religious communities began.
On Sunday, Feb. 27, students gathered on the steps outside Blanchard Hall to protest Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attacks on Ukraine. Many from the campus community attended to show solidarity with Ukrainian citizens and condemn the war. The protest was organized by Maïha Klymenko ’23, who is from Ukraine, Anno Kostava ’24 and Mariam Gabidzashvili ’24, who are from Georgia and Ella Jacob ’24, who is a Czech citizen.
Updates to the spring semester guest policy were sent to the Mount Holyoke community on Feb. 18. Due to the College now operating at a Level One status in regards to COVID-19, guests are now allowed on weekends as of Feb. 25. From Fridays at 10 a.m. to Sundays at 10 p.m., students are allowed to have one guest visit. Overnight guests are allowed.
The night of Sunday, Feb. 27 marked the penultimate event of the Association of Pan-African Unity’s Black History Month programming: a gala hosted in Mary Woolley Hall’s Chapin Auditorium. Approximately 100 attendees donned red, black and green — the colors of the Pan-African flag — and gathered in Chapin Auditorium to celebrate Black joy with a night of music, storytelling and dance.
“If I [had known] they weren’t going to keep Arabic, I honestly wouldn’t have come,” prospective Arabic minor Sofia Nojaim ’25 said.
Nojaim is one of 13 students currently enrolled in the second semester of first year Arabic.
According to Safiyah Bey ’23, an international relations major, on Feb. 16, the members of the first year Arabic class were informed that intermediate Arabic classes would no longer be taught on the Mount Holyoke College campus.
