BY KATIE GOSS ’23
STAFF WRITER
Starting at the beginning of April, newly admitted students have been allowed to come onto campus for a self-guided tour with two guests at most. Upon arriving for their tour, admitted students must provide either a negative COVID-19 test result from within the last 72 hours or a vaccination card showing they have been fully vaccinated at least two weeks before their visit. Additionally, their temperature must be under 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, and they and their family must wear a green lanyard that has their name on it as well as the date and time of their tour. Every incoming student and member of their group must be wearing a mask at all times.
According to the Dean of Admission Leykia Nulan, the Office of Admission had received a dozen or more emails a day from newly admitted students asking if there was a way they could see the campus. With the campus still closed to the public due to the pandemic, they wanted to create an opportunity for students to see the campus before officially enrolling in May.
“We had already seen people visiting campus on their own, and we knew that was happening, and we had no authority to stop it. … We thought this would be a really good way for us to actually help mitigate some of that and manage at least a few of the folks that you see,” Nulan said. “Another piece of it was also just knowing that we wanted to provide a safe way — a safer way — for guests to come to campus.”
In an April 14 email to the community, the College reiterated that “the Mount Holyoke College campus is still closed for health and safety reasons.” All on-campus community members, “including residential students, approved commuters, faculty and staff” are required to wear their OneCards on lanyards which are non-transferable to guests or other individuals. As admitted students are welcomed to campus for short tours, they are also required to wear lanyards and masks as health and safety measures.
“The campus closure is a necessary and reasonable action in support of the health and safety of students and employees who live and work on campus,” the email stated. “Since students aren’t able to have visitors to campus, it follows that other visitors not be allowed as well. While we all look forward to the day when our beautiful campus can be reopened, it is extremely important that we commit as a community to these restrictions for the foreseeable future.”
Still, the exception for admitted student tours has meant that new safety measures were implemented in the campus visit process. Once students and their families get to the Office of Admission, they must call before coming into the building. After they go through their health screening and provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test or vaccination records, they are given a bag and a green lanyard with a badge before being let onto campus. In total, Nulan said that students and staff working in the Office of Admission come into close contact with the visitors for no more than three minutes.
Although this is a way for new students to see the campus, the green lanyards are also meant to help determine who is really allowed on campus. Even though the campus is not open to the public, people have still been entering the property.
“Campus is not open to the public, period. So if you see people wandering around without a mask, or people wandering around who aren’t current students, staff or faculty, and they don’t have a green lanyard on, then they are likely not supposed to be there unless they are a vendor or contractor working on campus,” Nulan said. “None of us can control strangers [and] community members feeling like they have the right to walk around.”
Additionally, another reason for allowing students to take tours of campus is to keep a record of outsiders who are coming into the community.
Nulan added, “In terms of newly admitted students, … we have provided this opportunity for them to let us know that they’re coming and to do it in a safe way. So we have pushed out a lot of communication to say, ‘We want you to register because it helps maintain the safety of our community and to help us keep a record of who all is coming and to show to our community that you are a temporary registered guest allowed to be on campus.’”
Newly admitted students have until May 1 to officially enroll and pay their deposits. Nulan also said these tours are to help them decide if Mount Holyoke is where they will want to stay starting in the fall.
“We definitely hope that a sense of belonging is something that they get out of it and that they feel like Mount Holyoke can be their academic home for the next four plus years … [and] somewhere they want to be this fall,” Nulan said.