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.
By Rebecca Gagnon ’23
Staff Writer
Throughout the fall semester, Mount Holyoke created an array of virtual events in an effort to bring its community together online. One of the College’s new ways of creating community has been the formation of the Virtual Cohorts.
“Our Virtual Cohorts were really just intended to bring students together in virtual ways so they still felt that sense of community,” Associate Director of Students and Director of Residential Life Rachel Allidis said. “We do have data that shows students feel a greater sense of community in the Living Learning Communities than when they live in a residence hall.”
Some of the Virtual Cohorts’ themes are based on past LLCs, like transfer, first-year, art, outdoors and more. These are made to foster a greater sense of community in a time of need. There are also Virtual Cohorts based on students’ current geographical regions.
Lexy Lee ’23, the Virtual Community Ambassador for the arts cohort, shared the story of “someone who said, ‘What if we had pen pals but with artwork?’”
“Because there are people who are interested in all different types of artwork,” Lee explained, “we kind of just want to create a place where we can just make … a lot of different types of art and share.”
A Virtual Community Ambassador is similar to a Community Advisor in residential halls, in that they are the leaders of the different Virtual Cohorts. The VCAs were chosen out of the students who were already hired in the spring of 2020 to work for ResLife as CAs in the fall.
“They are able to do a lot of things your CA would do,” Alldis said. “They are having one-on-one conversations with the students, they are trying to bring together these smaller groups that are based on either what our LLCs are based on or regional ones. … I think it is off to a good start.”
Helen Roane ’23, the VCA of the Transfer Cohort, said, “I really wanted to be a part of trying to make the [Mount Holyoke] community still exist in the virtual setting, because it is a lot harder.”
“I know that it is really, really hard for people to find a community right now, especially for the people who are living at home,” Delaney Fowler ’21, the VCA of the Outdoor Adventure Cohort, said. “I know a lot of people are living either with friends in an apartment or some people on campus … and there is a community in both of those things in a way that there really isn’t when you are at home, so I really wanted to reach out to those people and try to help them feel some sense of community because it is such a big part of Mount Holyoke.”
Because of the transition to remote learning during the CA hiring process, there were a lot of uncertainties about the outcome of the application timeline. In the process of becoming a CA, one has to submit an application and complete both a group and individual interview. Normally, results would appear around February or March, but with the pandemic, the results took longer.
“We [went] through [the CA hiring process] and then the pandemic happened,” Alldis stated. “Then everyone left campus and we were a little delayed on letting people know who we wanted to hire and who we didn’t, but we sat down and we figured it out. We were then ready to make offers to people and then we were like, ‘Well, we want to offer you this position but we don’t know really what is going to happen.’”
“It was kind of stressful not knowing what was going on,” Lee said. “There was a period of time when I wasn’t really sure if I had the job anymore and it was a little hard. I understand that the people who were working in the offices, of course, had a lot of stress they were dealing with trying to figure out probably as well if we all had jobs still,” Lee added.
Even with all of the struggles, jobs were given and received and there is now a new community available to students if they so choose.
“I feel like the virtual community is really fun anyways but they will be more fun as more people want to join,” Roane said.
“I think that if people are interested in joining a cohort they absolutely should,” Fowler said. “None of it is mandatory — it is all sort of like you opted in. Even if you join it and you choose not to come that is fine, but I think that people shouldn’t be afraid to join just because they think they don’t have time because when you do have time, you can join. I think it might feel a little less isolating.”
The deadline for joining the Virtual Cohorts was Friday, Nov. 6, but there are other ways to stay involved in the campus community.
“We want the students to stay as connected as they want to stay,” Allidis said. “I really hope that they realize that Mount Holyoke is in their corner all the time. I know it doesn’t always feel that way but I wish that some people could sit in on some meetings that we have been to so they would know how much we talk about how this would impact the students and how hard it is to give them this positive experience. I just want them to know that we really are trying to do everything we can to make their lives easier and to provide the support [and the] resources that they need, and we miss them — so much.”
Photo by Ali Meizels ‘23
By Ansley Keane ’23
Staff Writer
At Mount Holyoke College, there is a particular emphasis on the idea of community. The College has a Community Center rather than a student center and Community Advisors rather than residential advisors. These sentiments are in line with the introduction of the new Office of Community and Belonging.
In the Oct. 16 edition of “The Dean’s Corner,” Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall’s weekly newsletter, Hall announced the construction of a new Office of Community and Belonging within the Division of Student Life. In her email, Hall noted that the Office of Community and Belonging was created “in [an] effort to further Mount Holyoke’s commitment to building a greater sense of community and belonging for students.”
Associate Dean of Students for Community and Inclusion Latrina Denson and Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life Annette McDermott serve as co-directors of the Office of Community and Belonging. In a joint statement, Denson and McDermott explained that the Division of Student Life decided to create the Office of Community and Belonging during the summer of 2019. “During this time, we [began] working with an outside consultant to reimagine our work and conceptualize an integrated model for the Mount Holyoke College students,” the statement read.
The Office of Community and Belonging webpage states that “you can find your place at Mount Holyoke” and that creating a “beloved community” is a central goal of the office. Hall’s email and the office’s webpage both emphasize the importance of inclusivity and social justice on campus.
While the idea of a “beloved community” may seem relatively abstract at first, Denson and McDermott shared what it means to them. In a statement written by both deans, they explained that American author “bell hooks writes that a ‘beloved community is formed not by the eradication of difference but by its affirmation, by each of us claiming the identities and cultural legacies that shape who we are and how we live in the world.’”
They continued, “hooks’ understanding is one lens that gives us both inspiration and helps us pay attention to our campus engagement and student experience and see how we can encourage all of who you are to be — we want to celebrate and make space for the whole person who chooses Mount Holyoke College.”
The Office of Community and Belonging is acting on the idea of a “beloved community” by “provid[ing] programs that support social justice education, dialogue, celebration and identity development including intersectionality, as well as increasing understanding of the role that liberatory consciousness, religion, ethics and spirituality play when working toward reconciliation, racial healing and transformative justice,” according to the webpage. As co-directors, Denson and McDermott shared that they hope this office will mark Mount Holyoke as a place where “every student who enters the gates of MHC will see themselves as part of the community and over time [feel] a deep sense of belonging,” in a joint statement.
Denson shared that she is especially excited “about engaging more students of color affiliated with the cultural centers in spiritual identity development and the intersections of their cultural and spiritual identities.” She is also looking forward to “the opportunities to continue expanding the Intergroup Dialogue Program here at MHC in collaboration with not only our integrated areas, but Academic Affairs and our visiting lecturer, Molly Keehn.” Denson noted that her “role has been and will continue to be focused on social justice education and training, identity development, and the facilitation of dialogues across different experiences, beliefs, values, and identities. This role, as we reflect on the state of our global community and its impact on our diverse community, is more important than ever before.”
The Office of Community and Belonging is a collaboration between the Office of Community and Inclusion and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life. Denson explained that “Community and Inclusion provide opportunities for identity exploration, education, and celebration.” Meanwhile, the Office of Community and Belonging will “[integrate] the model with Religious and Spiritual Life to place intentionality on an intersectional framework. It’s a frame that connects the curricular and co-curricular,” according to both deans. The Office of Community and Belonging will include “a frame where students will learn, grow, and feel like they matter,” Denson said. “We are not only creating an inclusive student community, but a community in which every single person can learn from each other, grow, and develop while feeling that they belong and matter,” she added.
Cultivating a lasting sense of inclusion and acceptance is not without its challenges, and students are a part of this work. The cultural centers, which are designed to serve as sanctuaries for and support students, the MoZone Peer Education Program, a student-led social justice education program and Intergroup Dialogue, a program that teaches students how to bridge cultural differences, are all part of the Office of Community and Belonging programming. While it is a very new office, it is already attempting to ensure that all students feel welcome at Mount Holyoke by providing a secure space for education and growth.
“The Office of Community and Belonging seeks to create a student culture of belonging throughout the campus that embraces inclusivity, diversity, and equity and celebrates all of who we are,” Denson and McDermott said in their shared statement. “Our programs and services are oriented toward meeting this goal of building a socially just community.”
“We want the students to know that Community and Belonging is a place where we not only encourage students to ask questions but to embrace their authentic self,” they continued. “A place where they do not have to leave one of their identities at the door, but bring their whole self, to practice, engage with [them] across differences to learn and grow.”
