Photo by Lily Reavis ’21
By Anna Kane ’20, Casey Roepke ’21 & Lily Reavis ’21
As remote learning ends for the current academic year, colleges across the U.S. are considering their options regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic for the fall 2020 semester. On April 29, Mount Holyoke announced new planning measures being taken in preparation.
“The College will host a full academic year in 2020-2021 and we hope to resume our normal on-campus instruction as soon as possible,” read the College’s COVID-19 web page. “Nonetheless, in the event that COVID-19 continues to disrupt in-person, on-campus instruction, we are exploring a variety of rich and exciting alternative models, including virtual experiences, changes to the academic calendar and focused cohort experiences for new and returning students.”
The plan currently proposed to faculty follows a model presented by Beloit College in mid-March, in which each semester would be divided into two seven-week halves and students would take two courses per half-semester.
“We’re hearing a lot from students about how valuable synchronous experiences are and how if, should we have to be online or should some of our students be unable to return to campus, they really miss the synchronous experience,” Professor of English and Director of the Weissman Center for Leadership Amy Martin said. “But we also heard from students that some students find the synchronous experience tasking or difficult, or it conflicts with other needs in their family or in their life, and so the idea is that we will have to increase synchronous contact but we’re working on expanding what ‘synchronous’ means and trying to work creatively so we can balance a desire for synchronicity with a desire to be inclusive.”
Dannye Carpenter ’20 is a student representative serving on the Academic Planning Group (APG) task force. For APG, the priority has been to ensure that the voices and perspectives of all students are shared.
“It's been difficult to sit on the committee and be responsible for representing all student voices though, so we try to get as much perspective as we can,” Carpenter said. “Speaking to [students] about their experiences now informs me on what impacts might be out there for next year… The faculty and staff representatives on the group are understanding, and often raise student concerns as well.”
Elizabeth Markovits, a professor of politics and the director of the First-Year Seminar Program, emphasized that remote learning in the fall would look vastly different than what she described as the “emergency, traumatizing evacuation” which Mount Holyoke community members endured this year. Even so, many students have expressed discomfort with the current remote learning model, which has led to growing concern about the possibility of another online semester.
“I have heard many students planning on deferring if there are online classes,” Lili Paxton ’21 said. “The College should know how many students would even enroll before making a decision.”
Mount Holyoke News conducted a survey of 171 students from the classes of 2021, 2022 and 2023 regarding their attitudes toward online learning and upcoming plans, should the campus remain closed throughout the fall semester.
Of those surveyed, 31 percent (52 students) said that they would defer their enrollment if Mount Holyoke remained closed after this semester. Another 38.7 percent (65 students) said that they would consider deferring in this case, though they had not yet made a decision. Only 30.4 percent (51 students) said that they would definitely not defer should remote learning continue into the 2020-2021 school year.
Celia Mulcahey ’21 said that she would continue her enrollment even with online classes because she does not want to delay her graduation.
“I want to graduate according to plan,” Mulcahey said. “It’s my way of keeping some normalcy.” While she has committed herself to the possibility of maintaining a full course load online, she said that she would register for different classes if she knew that the College was using an online learning model.
Paxton stated that she would choose to defer should remote learning continue into the fall semester. “I have been abroad for the whole academic year and so far my experience[s] with online classes have not been positive,” she said.
Paxton’s concerns were echoed by several other students who anonymously wrote in to the Mount Holyoke News. “Working from home has proved to be enormously inefficient and stressful,” one student said. “I don’t feel as though the tuition we pay as students equals the education we get through online classes.”
As administration and faculty consider the possibilities for continuing education in the fall, several professors noted the difficult situation they’ve been placed in. “If a whole bunch of students defer … we can only accommodate so many in the fall of 2021,” Markovits said. “So then, do we not have a class of 2025 that we allow in?”
It is unclear whether Mount Holyoke will make a joint decision with the Five College Consortium on fall semester logistics. Nevertheless, other institutions within the Consortium have released their own information regarding contingency planning for the next school year.
On April 22, Amherst College President Biddy Martin hosted a virtual town hall for students, in which she laid out the directions the College may take in the fall. “[Biddy] Martin outlined a number of possibilities for what the fall could look like: staggering when students return to campus and pursuing a hybrid model of online and in-person classes were among the options the college is considering, along with a continuation of full remote learning,” according to the Amherst Student, the college’s student newspaper.
Biddy Martin noted that a return to the Amherst campus in the fall would be different than in past semesters. Amherst College intends to abide by Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, which include practicing social distancing, administering frequent temperature checks and wearing face masks and gloves. Biddy Martin also noted that upon students’ return to campus travel would be restricted, including to classes at other schools within the Consortium. Amherst hopes to have a better understanding of which plan it will likely adopt by early June.
University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswarmy wrote in a message to students on April 30 that the university will offer classes in the fall, although it remains unclear whether those classes will be held in-person, online or in another arrangement. The statement introduced the idea of a transitional return to campus, in which some classes would be offered in-person before others. UMass Amherst is also offering remote instruction as an option for students for the entire fall semester.
Hampshire College, which faced severe economic uncertainty as recently as the 2018-2019 academic year, has voiced concern over its financial stability should social remote learning continue into the fall semester.
“If we’re looking at remote learning in the fall,” Hampshire College President Ed Wingenbach told The New York Times, “I think it’s more likely students will take a gap year or semester, and that will have a different impact on revenue.”
On May 5, Wingenbach issued a statement to the Hampshire College community, which stated that the College intends to resume residential learning in fall 2020. “As long as the State of Massachusetts allows colleges to open, which seems likely, Hampshire fully intends to welcome students to campus in the fall,” the statement read. Wingenbach cited the College’s small size, ability to house students in single-occupancy rooms and surplus of quarantine housing as reasons for his confidence in the decision.
In a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on April 9, the American Council on Education predicted that “college enrollment for the next academic year would drop by 15 percent, including 25 percent for international students from countries like China who often pay full tuition.” At Mount Holyoke, international students comprise 27 percent of the student body, according to the College’s website. This drop in enrollment would be at least partially caused by international travel restrictions.
When asked about the possibility of residential campus reopening in the fall — including concerns regarding all students moving into single-occupancy rooms, the opening of common spaces and dining hall operations, College residential life officials were unavailable for comment.