Graphic by Trinity Kendrick ‘21
By Ansley Keane ’23
Staff Writer
Since March of this year, uncertainty about the future has become more inescapable than ever. However, in late October, Mount Holyoke students began to gain some clarity on what the spring 2021 semester could look like. On Oct. 28, Mount Holyoke College President Sonya Stephens announced in a letter to the community that up to 60 percent of the student body would be invited to return to campus — or arrive for the first time — for the spring semester, slated to begin in January 2021.
On Nov. 11, interim Dean of Faculty Dorothy Mosby and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall communicated the complete spring 2021 plan to Mount Holyoke College community members. At the time of the announcement, about 50 percent of Mount Holyoke students applied to live on campus in the spring. Currently, this means that all students who wish to live on campus in the spring should have the opportunity to do so. Additionally, the College anticipates that most courses will be delivered remotely, though faculty will be able to hold some in-person components to their classes if they choose. Despite the partial return to school, a pandemic-era Mount Holyoke will be very different from the campus most students left in March.
In order to provide a safe living environment for students, many aspects of campus life must change. These changes and restrictions are not without apprehension from students who will be returning to campus in January for the first time since March.
Rebecca Kilroy ’23, who plans to live on campus this spring, shared her perspective and thoughts on the College’s spring 2021 plan. “It was a hard decision to make to go back,” Kilroy said. “I think that health and safety are actually going to be okay. A lot of other colleges were able to have a fairly safe fall semester, especially if they were small and in an isolated area like Mount Holyoke.”
Though Kilroy noted that it would be difficult to live under the restrictions, she explained that taking classes at home “doesn’t feel like college.” “I spent most of [the fall] semester living with friends, so I wasn’t living at home,” she said. “I was living with some other students, and I got almost like a normal experience. Now that I’ve been home a little longer, I think that I definitely want to get back to being with other college students,” she elaborated.
Julia Berestecky ’23 has chosen not to return to campus, in part because of the challenge of living under the restrictions. “It’s an understandable plan. I understand where they’re coming from in the decisions they made. On the other hand, I think some of the decisions they made are going to be rough on the students,” Berestecky said.
Berestecky noted that she does not want to live on campus this spring because “being isolated on campus … [and] not being able to see my friends in the Five Colleges and visit their campus[es] would be very hard. It would not be good for my mental health. Not everyone I know would be going back, so that would also be pretty stressful.” Berestecky added, “If I was going to college during a pandemic and living on campus, I would need a really strong support system.”
While some students have chosen to take gap years or leaves of absence, Berestecky and Kilroy both decided that continuing to take classes was the best option for them.
“I’ve needed classes to give me something to do and give me purpose and connection,” Kilroy explained. Berestecky added in a similar vein, “I love learning; that’s my thing. It gives me something to do. It helps take my mind off the pandemic if I’m learning.”
For students who are considering living on campus this spring, Emily Carle ’21 and Maddie Migliorino ’23 created a Facebook group to give them a chance to weigh the pros and cons of campus living, both to get a sense of who else would be there and to serve as a resource to better understand the plan for the spring semester.
Carle spoke to the formation of the group, saying, “[Migliorino] actually reached out to me. … She knew that I had the gusto and guts to create … [and] promote it. I didn’t mind putting my name out there and having it attached to it,” Carle said.
Discussing her ideas for starting the group, Migliorino said, “ There are a lot of people on campus that are acquaintances that I would otherwise not reach out to. Seeing them in the group is like seeing someone across Blanch.”
Currently, according to Carle, she and Migliorino envision this Facebook group as a way to mitigate the confusion surrounding all of the new rules and regulations pertaining to on-campus living this spring. Once students are on campus, “the Facebook group will take on a new role than it has at the moment. Spring 2021 is unusual because we will all still be students, yet not all on campus together. None of the other student Facebook groups account for that. This means the group can function to address on-campus issues, concerns [and] questions. … I hope it can unite the student body since we will otherwise be stuck in our rooms,” Migliorino explained. Both Migliorino and Carle plan to return to campus this spring and wonder what living on campus will actually be like.
For students curious about what on-campus living this spring will be like, Rachel Alldis, associate dean of students and director of residential life, shared in an interview what she wants students to know and what they can expect.
“We’re really excited to have students back,” Alldis said. “With that, and given these uncertain and constantly changing times, it’s going to be really important to read the spring Community Compact,” she added.
Alldis explained that a challenge for Residential Life that may not always be clear to the college community is that “those guidelines and information that we’re hearing is always changing and we have to change things [accordingly]. … We don’t want to send info out too early and then make [many] changes.” Though some students are understandably nervous about feeling lonely or isolated on campus, Alldis noted that if “we can keep our physical distance, we keep our masks on [and] we do all the things the doctors are telling us to do, our campus will create a community that is safe and secure for one another.”
For students concerned about loneliness on campus, Alldis offered a piece of advice: “Give it some time.” While Alldis cannot guarantee anything, she anticipates that after the on-campus quarantine period, residential students will be able to participate in some small in-person activities. “We still value that Mount Holyoke community, and our goal in Residential Life is to give you that space to enjoy that community,” Alldis said.
While there are still many unknowns about the reality of the spring semester and students’ perspectives on the plan may differ slightly, there appears to be an understanding among students that returning to campus at the current moment is challenging. As a result, campus life will look very different. Despite this, those students planning to return seem excited about the prospect of feeling that sense of on-campus community once again.