Nashalie Vasquez and Rachel Alldis present in person with Kate Molloy and Julia Madonick (on Zoom) at Senate on 2/20 by Annette Darpoh '27
By Paige Comeau ’26
Staff Writer
Student Government Association Senate opened its meeting on Feb. 20 with a reading of the Mount Holyoke College Land Acknowledgement and the meeting agenda. The agenda included E-Board updates, open floor and a special town hall with Residential Life and Disability Services to discuss the housing process.
Before beginning the agenda, however, the senate leaders welcomed their new chair of halls, Nathania Amadi, who then briefly introduced herself. Amadi, who was voted into the position a few weeks ago, thanked the senators and representatives for granting her this position and promised to serve responsibly.
For E-Board updates, the senate leaders updated the students on an issue discussed at a previous meeting — the LaundryConnect laundry trackers. According to the leaders, laundry tracking in 1837, Abbey and Rockefeller Halls has been fixed to ensure time accuracy. Moreover, corkboards were installed in all laundry rooms over J-Term that students can use to post communications about laundry.
Open floor kicked off with announcements and updates. Several senators mentioned upcoming cultural and artistic events for organizations such as the Accessibility Justice Club, AWAZ, Association of Pan-African Unity and Mount Holyoke College Model United Nations. They advised checking Instagram and Embark for more information.
For campus questions and concerns, several students brought up worries about residence hall living, such as mentioning that the garbage was being collected too early, disrupting students and asking that residents be aware that smoking cigarettes and marijuana may bother others.
The senate then welcomed representatives from Residential Life and Disability Services to discuss the housing process. First, a representative from Residential Life showed a presentation on the housing process. For the housing lottery, everything happens in the Residence portal, which can be found as a quick link on the Residential Life web page. To get into the portal, log on with your Mount Holyoke credentials.
Once the lottery opens on March 19, students can see which lotteries they are eligible for on the front page of Residence. If you are accepted into a Living Learning Community, for which applications were due Feb. 22, you will be placed into that specific lottery. Note that you can not opt into more than one lottery at a time.
When you go to select a room in Residence, you can search by several factors, such as attribute, floor, hall or availability. To create a list of favorites, which will allow you to easily find the rooms you are interested in, select the star next to the room’s profile. All the rooms that have already been selected will disappear from your favorites list. If you hope to get an apartment or suite, you must apply with enough people to fill every bed.
Selection times for each housing lottery will be released at 7:00 p.m. the night before housing selection. All selection times will be in Eastern Standard Time, although you can select housing from anywhere with a viable internet connection. Each lottery has a different set of selection times, and students will be placed accordingly. On the day of the lottery, the roommate landing page will display your lottery selection time and the amount of time left to pick a room.
To select a room, you must click on the button that says “Finalize selection.” Once this is done, a small gray window will pop up confirming this choice. Once you click “Okay,” a green pop-up box will appear showing your selection. Once a room is selected, it cannot be changed, so make sure that you are clicking on the right room at every step.
Then, the representative moved on to how to create a roommate group. If you do not know who you want to be roommates with, you can search profiles anonymously based on the criteria outlined in the roommate survey. If you find someone you’d like to be roommates with, you can send a message or request through Residence. Any roommate requests can be seen on the top right of your Residence homepage. If you know who you would like to room with, you may utilize their roommate code to search for and match with that person.
Roommate groups consisting of two or more people have a “leader” who is in charge of selecting the room. This person will also have the best selection time of the group. The roommate leader may be changed in Residence; however, it must be done by the current leader.
After the presentation, the representative reminded everyone that all housing deadlines can be found on Embark.
Next, Residential Life and Disability Services took questions from the senators.
In response to a question from a student, the representative explained that Disability Services does two rounds of housing accommodations. The first round opened in January with the Housing Accommodations Request Form. From here, Disability Services decides whose needs can be met through a lottery and who needs to be pre-placed into a room. The second round happens in the summer for room changes and incoming freshmen. It should be noted that the senior singles lottery takes place before the accommodations lottery does, so there are limited options.
Another student asked about the availability of singles for juniors without a junior singles lottery. The Residential Life representative stated that while there was no specific junior single lottery, juniors who find an available single are welcome to take it, even if the room is in an LLC.
A third student wondered which lottery they should pick if they had multiple options; for example, if they applied for an LLC, were a senior and had accommodations. Residential Life advised that students wait until they hear if they have gotten into an LLC before worrying, but that more instructions will come in the following weeks.
Another senator then asked about the accommodations process for incoming first-years. This process, Disability Services explained, was quite similar to all other years, with a few exceptions. All the necessary paperwork is posted on the my.mtholyoke Disability Services web page, as well as a step-by-step guide for first-years to follow. The representative admitted that while they try their best to meet every student's needs, sometimes a lack of rooms available can make accommodations for first-years difficult.
A final student questioned the housing process for those studying abroad. Residential Life noted that while students who plan to study abroad are discouraged from entering the housing lottery, if they are truly unsure about their possible placement, they are welcome to err on the side of caution. Disability Services chimed in, explaining that if a student has accommodations, they should fill out the HARF regardless.
Should a student study abroad, their housing process will begin in October with an email from either Disability Services or Residential Life. Most students will be placed in a room by Residential Life based on their accommodations and requests.
Following this final question, senate leaders thanked the administrative staff for coming and dismissed the meeting.