Photo courtesy of Ali Meizels ‘/////
By Rose Sheehan ’22
Managing Editor of Layout
In an Oct. 22 email obtained by Mount Holyoke News, Rachel Alldis, associate dean of students and director of Residential Life, officially announced to all students currently living at Hampshire College that they would be moving to the Mount Holyoke campus for the spring semester. The email confirmed that Mead Hall, the residence hall struck by lightning in August, will open in January for student housing.
Students living in Merrill House who were originally assigned to live in Mead this past fall were given the opportunity to be reassigned to their original Mead room for the spring semester. If a student did not wish to move back into their fall assignment, or was originally in a residence hall besides Mead but had chosen to live in Merrill House, they were required to complete the room change/housing request application on Mount Holyoke’s housing selection website by Dec. 1. Students who filled out the room request form will likely receive their assignment in early January, according to Alldis.
Students who were originally going to live in Mead but received on-campus housing were also offered the opportunity to move into their original Mead assignment, according to Alldis. Any student doing so would need to take home or store their items over break.
Any student who is moving from Merrill House to Mead and is staying on campus over December break will have to move more than once. Since Mead will not be ready for housing until January, those students will be temporarily housed in a different residence hall. Boomerang Moving and Storage will move all belongings to a student’s temporary room, and the student will be responsible for moving to Mead in January.
Mount Holyoke partnered with Boomerang to move students’ belongings from Hampshire to Mount Holyoke. Students will pick up moving boxes, tape and labels at Hampshire, and must pack and label all their belongings before they leave for winter break. Boomerang movers will then move all boxes and labelled oversize belongings, such as fridges or bikes, from the student’s fall room to their spring assignment on campus.
“I didn’t want people to feel like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I [have to] take this all home with me, and then bring it back again, or find my own storage,’ or do anything like that,” Alldis said, explaining the choice to partner with Boomerang. “I wanted to make this process as easy as possible.”
Multiple students living at Merrill House expressed appreciation that the school was assisting with the moving process.
“Mount Holyoke is home to me,” Hannah Dube ’22 said. “I definitely feel like this semester, I missed a lot of being with my friends and just that kind of casual, ‘Oh, let’s grab dinner.’ I’m really excited to be back.”
Dube will be returning to their originally assigned room in Mead next semester.
At the same time, students were frustrated and confused by communications during the transition process. Olivia Rhodes ’22 was in the Merrill Lounge, a room on the third floor of Blanchard Hall designated for Mount Holyoke students living at Hampshire, when the Oct. 22 email came out. According to Rhodes, the energy in the room transitioned quickly from excitement to worried speculation.
“Everybody [was] like, ‘What if I want a single again? What if I want to be with this person?’ It wasn’t clear in the email,” she said.
In the email, students originally assigned to Mead were told, “You will receive a separate email with your Mead assignment and that will be your spring placement.”
Rhodes and her roommate, Georgia Colson ’22, said the phrase “Mead assignment” made it seem as if they would be randomly placed into a room. The phrasing added to the stress for multiple Merrill House students, according to Rhodes.
Dube agreed that the plan was unclear, and while they understood that the department was low on staff, they were also frustrated by the limited communication after the Oct. 22 email.
“They go radio silent for a really long time … I have emailed [Residential Life] a lot,” Dube said. “I think they’re really tired of me.”
Colson received her room number on Nov. 4, nearly two weeks after the initial email.
“As we start to prepare for spring housing, I wanted to reach out to you as a student who was assigned to Mead Hall for the fall semester but is currently living at Merrill House,” the email, provided to Mount Holyoke News, read. It then confirmed Colson’s reassignment to her original Mead room for fall 2021.
Colson said the email was an immense relief. Her only wish was that she had known sooner.
“They don’t really tell us anything,” Rhodes said, echoing this sentiment.
“I really do believe the school didn’t do enough for the students that are at Hampshire,” Dube said. “I know they really tried. Maybe they couldn’t have [done more] but … it just really sucked.”
Alldis acknowledged that if they had a chance to do the semester over again, ResLife would have tried to do more for the Merrill students.
“We’re short a couple of positions that could have devoted more time to doing more community-building up there, and other opportunities for them,” Alldis said.
Alldis said that she will be “really, really happy to have [students from Merrill House] back.”