Mount Holyoke's RA Collective votes 65-0 to unionize
Residential advisors and fellows gathered in Chapin Auditorium alongside other community members on the evening of Nov. 9 to determine the future of the Mount Holyoke Collective and their union status on campus. Officials from the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459 chapter read aloud the individual votes to the hushed room. The silence was broken by applause when it was announced that the student workers had voted unanimously to formalize their union membership.
Maura Healey wins Massachusetts governorship
Maura Healey made history with her win in the Massachusetts gubernatorial election on Nov. 8., making her Massachusetts’ first woman elected to the position, Associated Press News reported. Along with Governor-elect Tina Kotek of Oregon, Healey will be one of the two first openly lesbian governors in the U.S.
Senate welcomed senior leadership to answer questions about COVID-19
During the Nov. 8 senate meeting, the Student Government Association conducted a conversation with Interim President Beverly Daniel Tatum, Provost and Dean of Faculty Lisa Sullivan and Dean of the College Amber Douglas about COVID-19 and the College’s policy surrounding it. The senior College administration leaders presented a timeline of the COVID-19 policy, discussed the reasoning behind the decisions and explained the current policy that they’re working on before taking questions and comments.
College responds to Supreme Court affirmative action cases
The way Mount Holyoke College and other colleges across the country implement policies toward diverse enrollment could experience a large shift at the hands of current Supreme Court cases. On Monday, Oct. 31, the Supreme Court heard two cases both raised by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as listed on the Supreme Court calendar. SFFA has argued that the current affirmative action policy is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, as reported by The New York Times.
2022 midterms results slowly trickle in after elections
he 2022 midterm elections took place on Nov. 8, 2022. There has been a lot of lead up to this election, with several prominent officials such as President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA-D) claiming that “democracy is on the ballot,” as noted on Al Jazeera and Warren’s Twitter page. Numerous news outlets, including The Hill, predicted that the slim Democratic majority would fall. It is common for the party in power to switch in the midterm elections, but, as the Daily Kos explains, there have always been exceptions.
Senate meeting discusses parking shortage, dining services
The Nov. 1 senate meeting began with a land acknowledgment from Chair of Halls Serynn Nowlin ’25, as well as an announcement that a donation link would soon be made available to support members of Indigenous nations. The evening’s agenda featured E-Board updates, as well as open-floor discussion between commission members and senators. This meeting was the first of the academic year to follow a typical senate schedule, as most of the previous meeting was dedicated to a Q&A session with Health Services Medical Director Cheryl A. Flynn.
