Rushing against the crowd of the Dining Commons during the busy lunch hour, the search for a familiar face or simply a place to sit causes anxiety to slowly build in the pit of your stomach. Then, you see your holy grail: one student in the dining hall has a colorful sign stating “You’re Welcome to Sit with Me.” You build up your nerve and take up their offer, resulting in a new friend and a relaxing lunch period before your next class.
Following months of negotiations with the Mount Holyoke College administration, and a lapse in contracted work, Facilities Management and Dining Services workers on campus have come to a consensus with the College. These recent agreements have resulted in across the board incremental wage increases during this fiscal year and over the rest of the three-year contractual period, according to a press release from the 32BJ chapter of the Service Employees International Union.
Whether you’re a first year stepping onto campus for the first time or a senior experiencing waves of nostalgia while walking around the Mount Holyoke campus, there are new experiences to discover as the College welcomes back the full capacity of students for the new academic year. Although a majority of students seem glad to be back, some feel anxious about returning. Opinions vary widely on how the school is handling the COVID-19 pandemic and the protocols that should keep our community safe.
Photo by Ali Meizels ‘23
By Tishya Khanna ’23
Features Editor
It’s a fall afternoon. You’re wearing a light sweater, cool breeze blowing through your hair. Your classes have ended and now you have a day to yourself. You’re tired but you have time on your hands, so you lie on the Skinner Green for a while and read your favorite book. But it’s fall, and now it starts to get dark at 4:30 p.m., so you relish the short hour you had outside on the grass and decide to go to the Community Center. Let’s take a walk through Blanch together.
You climb the brick stairs and enter the building from the main entrance — suddenly the cool breeze has disappeared and you’re engulfed with warmth and chatter of a Great Room event. You peek in from the second floor and head right back on your way. There’s a new exhibition at the Art Gallery — new students showcasing their wonderful art. You recognize the names of the artists mentioned from classes you’ve taken and the meetings you’ve attended and savor the sweet surprise of finding out their talents.
You want to get some work done, so you decide to go upstairs to the third floor, home to the rooms of various student organizations and departments. There are people all over — some intently working on their assignments, some lying with their heads down on the table, some goofing off in the study rooms, some drawing and writing all kinds of things on the whiteboards.
You bump into familiar faces and sit down for a light chat until everyone has to tend to their million deadlines. You find a comfortable spot and get to work. There’s a certain quietude around — the particular taste of the 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. hour at Blanch when the Dining Commons is closed. At 4:50 p.m., there’s inevitably a long line to get dinner tables. Friends are gathering around, calling each other to come over, saving spots for one another. All the while, you’re on the third floor, immersed in an assignment that just won’t end.
After a while, you decide to go downstairs to eat and call your friends to ask if they want to have dinner together. You go to the first floor, which is glimmering with lively chatter. There are people sitting around the Scrabble boards. One group is actually playing it! The other board has the tiles arranged in curse words — you can hear the giggles, see the mischievous smiles of the people passing by. The event in the Great Room has ended and a new one is being set up. You notice that the Cochary Pub & Kitchen is playing some good music and your friend is sitting in one of the booths, equally frustrated with assignments. The familiarity dissolves the tension into easy smiles and warm, tight hugs. You spend some time in the cuddle puddle and both decide to finally grab some food together. You gather your things and walk into the Dining Commons. You grab a booth, browse through the hundreds of rotating menu options and then sit for a good meal to end the day over the usual banter.
Arriving at Mount Holyoke is incomplete without visiting the beloved Community Center. The three floors hold the essence of the community — all kinds of people coming together to do all kinds of things. From random whiteboards where people leave lists of their favorite LGBTQ+ movies to the colorful couches that are good for naps no matter how loud it gets, Blanch is often what keeps all of us together — holding us on tired days, offering junk food and giving us a space to show all our wild colors.
When they arrived on campus in the fall of 2017, the members of the class of 2021 became the last to experience Mount Holyoke’s traditional dining arrangements before the renovated Dining Commons opened in Blanchard Hall in January 2018. Before this, Blanchard served several different purposes for the College.
