Photo by Trinity Kendrick ’21
On-campus Board of Trustees meetings are held in the New York Room in Mary Woolley Hall. The next in-person Board meeting is currently set to take place in fall 2020.
By GILLIAN PETRARCA ’23
According to an email sent to members of the College community on March 30 by President of the College Sonya Stephens, the Mount Holyoke College Board of Trustees met in New York from Feb. 27-29 for their annual retreat. The Board discussed tenure and retirement of professors, voted on the awarding of degrees on March 6, 2020 for 68 seniors and appointed new Trustees.
The Board also voted on room and board tuition prices for the 2020-2021 academic year, which is “customary at its winter meeting” according to the Board’s summary.
The total cost for the 2020-2021 academic year will be $70,420, with tuition set at $54,400, room fees at $7,860 and board at $8,160. This is a $3,060 increase from last year’s total price of $67,360.
“We recognize that changing economic conditions will affect many families, as well as our own financial situation,” wrote President Sonya Stephens and Board Chair Karena Strella ’90 in their joint summary of the meeting. “And, as always, we take seriously our responsibility to contain costs while continuing to provide an exceptional educational experience for students from a wide array of backgrounds.”
According to the Comprehensive Fee FAQ page of the College website, the Board of Trustees set the price for the 2020-2021 academic year by taking into consideration all revenue sources based on the cost of operations for the College. The Trustees also consider peer institutions when deciding how to raise the price of tuition. Schools that were considered include Amherst, Barnard, Trinity and Wellesley Colleges, all of which cost above $73,000 per year.
Mount Holyoke students receiving need-based aid should see an increase in their package due to this increase in tuition.
The College website states that these increases will cover “investments in world-class faculty, improving the student experience through enhanced support services and in new and enhanced programs laid out in The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2021.”
After 300 students participated in a Feb. 13 climate strike and walkout put on by the Mount Holyoke College Climate Justice Coalition (CJC), questions arose over whether the Trustees would discuss divestment at their next meeting. While it is not evident from the email that divestment was on the meeting agenda, the Trustees are “planning for longer term projects in support of carbon neutrality, including a major comprehensive study of the College’s future energy needs and alternatives.”
The email update concluded by notifying students that Ana Yankova ’97 began her role as Mount Holyoke’s first-ever Chief Investment Officer (CIO) on April 1, 2020. According to Institutional Investor, an international business publisher focused primarily on international finance, Mount Holyoke has been searching for a CIO since mid-2019. Yankova will be responsible for the management and oversight of the endowment. Previously, Yankova worked at a global investment firm called Cambridge Associates and was a senior financial analyst at the Yale University Investments Office.
Yankova is currently working toward ensuring that the College’s endowment has enough liquidity to support operations and is well-positioned to support future generations of students. She says that engaging students in dialogue about investing is a key reason she chose to return to her alma mater, and she is “happy to engage over email” with students in the coming months.