Mary Lyon Hall
Photo by Megan MacQuarrie '19
By LILY REAVIS ’21 & DECLAN LANGTON ’22
Throughout the days following College President Sonya Stephens’ announcement of Mount Holyoke’s closure, emails poured into student inboxes, detailing developments and updates to the College’s plans to clear students from campus. Updates from Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall included updated timelines for moving out.
As students packed their dorms and made arrangements to leave campus, members of the College administration fast-tracked the finalization of an emergency fund, which Hall says was in progress for implementation later this year.
“We very quickly, with the help of Latrina Denson in Community Inclusion and Annette McDermot in Religious and Spiritual Life and some other colleagues across campus … were able to get an application up and running and we basically asked students to let us know what they needed emergency funds for,” Hall said.
The emergency funding application was open from March 11 until March 14, during which $115,000 was allocated to students in need, according to Hall. On March 27, the form reopened until April 10. Students are encouraged, according to an email from Hall, to apply for funding as soon as possible. Applications will be reviewed immediately and students will be notified of the decision within 72 hours.
“It wasn’t like we had existing funds available for that, so we worked with the alumnae association and advancement to ask if they could help set up a fund for us, which they very graciously did,” Hall said.
Administrators also launched a petition for students to remain on campus after the closure, which was open between March 11 and 13. All applications were reviewed by March 14, at which time nearly 350 students were approved to continue living on campus. According to Hall, 309 students accepted the offer and are currently living in single-occupancy dorms on campus, dispersed across eight residence halls.
Despite these efforts at communication, some students were left feeling rushed to evacuate campus by the administration. Chisato Kimura ’22 took to Facebook on March 21, making a post in her class page group to, “provide some updates [and] ask for some help reaching out to admin about the problems that the students left on campus are facing.”
Hall said that Auxiliary Services, the Office of Residential Life and Facilities Management offered students remaining on campus help with moving, though Kimura pointed out accessibility-based concerns around the short moving period.
In her post, Kimura outlined students’ issues with moving out of their residence halls and into new rooms in a two-day timeframe, how “incredibly difficult” it has been to be “limited in my study [and] living areas” and remaining questions about student employment.
On March 23, during the extended spring break period, the Student Employment Office announced a transitional allowance for all students who had been employed on campus. Jenny Watermill, senior associate director of the Student Employment Office, wrote in an email, “Work-study eligible student workers who had been working during the spring semester are invited to apply for a transitional allowance of $420.”
The message continued, “As long as you are work-study eligible and were employed at MHC this spring semester, your application will be approved.” The application for transitional funding was open between March 23 and 25. All submissions were reviewed by Friday, March 27.
“Ultimately, the goal there was to create equity in the student employment program,” Hall said. “[The student employment working group] did an average accounting of students in different work-study positions, what the average hours would be and paid that out for five weeks of pay.”
Since the announcement of this transitional funding, several students have voiced concern over the disparity of hours worked among student employees. Under Massachusetts work-study law, students may only work up to 20 hours per week on campus while taking a full course load. At Mount Holyoke, student employees work anywhere between four to 20 hours per week, depending on their job.
“I want a comprehensive solution for work study students immediately,” Kimura said in an interview. “[The $420 allowance] is not enough for the students who worked over 6.5 hours per week. There aren't answers for the international work study students who can only work on campus, but do not have access to jobs or income right now, and I think that needs to be addressed.”
On March 20, Hall announced, along with Vice President for Finance and Administration Shannon Gurek, Vice President for Enrollment Robin Randall, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer Kijua Sanders-McMurtry and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Jon Western the long-awaited student refund policy for room and board charges.
The email read, “All students who moved off campus by March 20, 2020 will receive a 45 percent reduction of semester room and board fees” in the form of a credit. The possibility for a refund could be requested in the case that the refund creates a credit balance on the student account. Students are currently able to apply for refunds, which the administration says will be processed after April 10.