Photo by Max Paster ‘25.
Miller Worley Center Guest Speaker, Angie Gregory, discusses her work on campus.
By Paige Comeau ’26
Staff Writer
Senate on Tuesday, Oct. 17, began with the SGA senate team reintroducing themselves. The team consists of Linden Wade ’26, the chair of special interests, Serynn Nowlin ’25, the chair of halls and Julia Madonick ’24, the chair of the senate. Then, the group stated the agenda for the evening, which consisted of E-Board updates, a community guidelines workshop and open floor. The meeting also featured a presentation by Angie Gregory, the sustainability program manager at the Miller Worley Center for the Environment.
During E-Board updates, the senate leaders urged hall senators to take their first Newsflush of the year — a monthly newsletter posted on the doors of every bathroom stall in every hall. For the sake of conserving resources, the leaders asked that each senator keep track of how many stalls there were and report that number to the team. This way, they could print exactly the right amount of newsletters from this point forward.
As mentioned during the previous meeting, the senate team will highlight a new Native nation at the beginning of each month in an attempt to take action toward the mission described in the Mount Holyoke College land acknowledgment.
This month, the SGA highlighted the Nipmuc Nation, a community of nearly 600 members located throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. In the PowerPoint presentation sent to every senate member, the team linked different resources for supporting the Nipmuc. These resources included the nation's Instagram, official donation site and early history database.
Next, the senate moved on to a community guidelines workshop. The senators brainstormed values and guidelines for the senate sessions in order to ensure each person felt comfortable voicing their opinions. Many students pitched their ideas, including guidelines such as active listening, no interrupting and being respectful of everyone’s opinions and backgrounds.
The senate asked that students keep these ideals in mind before moving onto open floor, a portion of the meeting that allowed the students to voice their opinions, concerns, questions and announcements.
Many representatives and senators, such as the senator for North Creighton Hall and the representative for WMHC, spoke up on different topics. These ranged from the lack of straws in the Kendade Grab ’n Go to the SGA Ways and Means Committee budget cuts.
Around halfway through the meeting, senate leaders introduced Gregory, who spoke on the recent construction around campus. This construction, Gregory explained, is a part of the geothermal energy project, a venture that will transition Mount Holyoke’s campus from carbon energy sources to geothermal energy over the next seven years.
Gregory divided her presentation into two parts to explain why Mount Holyoke is carrying out the project and how it works. She cited a Massachusetts state law passed in 2022 that set a goal for net zero carbon emissions by 2050 to show how Massachusetts is a leader in state sustainability practices.
Mount Holyoke itself has a carbon neutrality goal by 2037. Carbon neutrality, or net zero carbon emissions, means that a state or institution emits only as much carbon as they remove or store. The current geothermal energy project aims to place Mount Holyoke on the track to meet its 2037 goal in the most cost-effective way possible.
The geothermal energy project works like a battery placed underground, except the battery is actually a rock, Gregory described in her presentation. Through pipes placed in the ground, the school will funnel warm or cool water into the earth, which will, in turn, warm or cool the rocks. The heat or cold trapped in the rocks will then be used to warm or cool the buildings.
This system is unlike other renewable energy sources, like wind power, because it does not depend on specific conditions to work. Interestingly, Gregory revealed that when excavating Skinner Green this summer, they found a piece of the original foundation belonging to Mount Holyoke’s original seminary building. Coincidentally, this piece of the foundation belonged to the boiler room.
Gregory took questions, the senate team thanked her for coming and then the meeting was adjourned.