Photo by Emily Tarinelli ’25
The College installed new security cameras in Blanchard Hall in January over the winter break.
By Jesse Hausknecht-Brown ’25
Staff Writer & Podcast Producer
On the afternoon of Jan. 24, 2025, students sitting on the third floor of the Blanchard Hall watched as a security camera was partly installed above the doorway on the east-facing staircase. The new camera, one of several installed in the building, came as part of Mount Holyoke College’s plan to expand its security camera program throughout the year.
Students were first informed about the installation of security cameras in an MHC This Week email sent on Aug. 28, 2024. Two days earlier, on Aug. 26, 2024, the College published a letter to the Mount Holyoke community titled “Summer 2023 Campus Safety and Security Assessment,” which outlined the College’s engagement with an external consultant to evaluate campus safety and security.
The letter linked to a web page detailing the College’s new Security Camera Acceptable Use Policy, laid out the processes that lead to the policy’s creation and identified priorities for the fall semester. It was signed by Vice President for Student Life Marcella Runell, Provost Lisa Sullivan, Vice President for Finance and Administration Carl Ries, and Chief Information Officer Alex Wirth-Cauchon.
During the summer of 2023, the College hired GoodIvy Safety & Security Consulting, a firm that largely works with educational institutions, to assess the safety and security of the College’s campus. As per the Aug. 26 letter, this was a “proactive decision to review our systems, structures and policies.” GoodIvy’s founder and Chief Safety Officer Dr. Matthew Colpitts toured campus, reviewed “countless” documents and interviewed “multiple departments” and stakeholders including student leaders.
This review led to a report from GoodIvy received in November 2023 which, as described in the Aug. 26 letter, “confirmed what we know … Mount Holyoke’s campus is a safe place located in a secure community and that there are areas that would benefit from enhancement and strengthening.” When asked by Mount Holyoke News, Runell stated that the GoodIvy report could not be made available but that its recommendations would be reflected as action steps taken by the College.
Runell, Sullivan, Ries and Wirth-Cauchon stated in the Aug. 26 letter that they “want to acknowledge that [they] heard from many [students] last year about the desire for more systems in place to support ongoing campus investigations, and this work will attend to that.”
“We also know community members reported to [GoodIvy] that our attempts to investigate violations of our Code of Conduct were hindered many times by a lack of cameras in public areas,” Runell said in a statement to Mount Holyoke News.
Kaylee Barnett ’26 echoed this sentiment, pointing to the lack of consequences after a racial slur was found in the hallway of Pearsons Hall in the fall of 2023. “It was really upsetting that there wasn’t a bigger investigation into that … But I think it would have been hard to do anything [or] have a more solid consequence for anyone that they might have accused of doing [that] without cameras,” Barnett said.
On Oct. 30, 2024, the College published a letter to the community titled “Security camera installation” informing the College community that security camera installation would begin within a few days of the date of publication and that the installations would adhere to the guidelines set out by the Security Camera Acceptable Use Policy. One such guideline is the presence of signs stating “Security Cameras in Use” in any location monitored by a security camera.
As per its webpage, the policy itself was founded during the summer of 2024 through the Office of Public Safety and Service and the Office of Library, Information and Technology Services. Notably, this policy does not apply to College-sponsored webcams, recordings of live events or ATMs equipped with monitoring hardware.
Part of the policy states that the security cameras will be used to address “security interests” such as, but not limited to, “protection of individuals, property and buildings; investigation of criminal activity; investigation of alleged misconduct and policy violations, whether or not rising to the level of a criminal offense; monitoring of access control systems; confirmation of security and safety alarms; situational awareness of property happenings and events; [and] incident response.”
Mount Holyoke News provided Runell with a list of questions over email, including a request for an example of a non-criminal policy violation that would be investigated with the use of security cameras. Runell did not address this question.
The footage captured on the security cameras will not be stored in the long-term and audio will not be recorded unless the person being recorded is explicitly told.
“As part of our commitment to privacy, the College will follow best practices for footage retention, which includes deleting footage after 32 days, unless it is being used in an active investigation,” Runell said in a statement to Mount Holyoke News.
Valentino Tafuri ’25 expressed concerns about surveillance and security cameras on campus given that, as he sees it, most violence or harm done within the Mount Holyoke community happens out of sight of security cameras.
“The reality is that much of the violence that we experience on campus is in private,” Tafuri said. “It is domestic violence, it is racism, it is transphobia, and that kind of interpersonal violence is never something you’re going to see on a security camera in public spaces.”
Tafuri explained that students have the “responsibility to be in confrontation with the institution,” and the right to protest and hold the institution to “the highest moral value that they see fit.” He is worried about how the presence of security cameras will impact student organizing on campus.
“[Holding the institution accountable] means breaking rules, and that means being in spaces that the institution administration doesn’t want you to be in,” Tafuri said. “It might mean potentially accidental destruction of property or the interruption of business as usual. And the only time I’ve had to think about specifically security systems — like cameras and OneCard access — it hasn't been with a sense of any kind of cloak of safety, but in order to avoid detection or to be conscientious about direct action that occurs on campus. And it has deterred and interrupted certain acts of protest, which is only in the interest of the administration.”
The policy itself does not say anything about facial recognition software. In her statement to Mount Holyoke News, Runell guaranteed that the security cameras do not have facial recognition software.
“Footage can only be viewed by a designated individual and is not used for surveillance at any point,” she said. “Our cameras do not presently use facial recognition software nor are there any plans to have facial recognition software installed.”
Security cameras will be placed in “parking lots, campus entrances, public spaces, roads and walkways and building entrances and exits” over the course of the spring and summer, according to Runell. The security camera policy states that “when security cameras are in use they shall be placed in public areas, except as specified in the definition of private areas, with viewing angles set to meet security and law enforcement requirements.”
The policy defines a public area as “an area of Mount Holyoke College property at which there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. This includes, but is not limited to, exterior locations on property, common areas of academic and administrative buildings, common areas of residential buildings and areas of surrounding streets. It does not include private rooms or suites in residential buildings, locker rooms or restrooms in any facility or private offices in administrative or academic buildings.”
Conversely, private areas are “areas such as private offices; student residence hall rooms; employee apartments and residential units; bathrooms; showers; locker rooms; [and] changing rooms (or other areas where individuals might reasonably change clothing).”
The policy states that “Unless the use of a camera has been authorized for investigation purposes, monitoring by security cameras in private locations is generally prohibited. The only exceptions are cameras used to safeguard College money, documents or supplies from theft, destruction or tampering.”
Runell did not give an example of what an “exception” might be. This leaves room for interpretation regarding security cameras’ presence in residence halls. The policy states that “except as otherwise provided herein, security cameras may not be established to view or monitor employee computer screens or workstations or other areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, nor will cameras be directed or zoomed into the windows of any private residential buildings, including residence halls.”
Barnett interpreted these sections of the policy to mean that cameras may be placed in residence halls. She recognized the potential benefits of this, again citing the lack of repercussions after a racial slur was written in Pearsons residence hall in fall 2023, but also expressed concern about privacy. While the College has made no definitive statements about plans to install security cameras in residence halls, Barnett lives in Torrey Hall and expects to see security cameras being installed in Torrey’s common areas, areas that she assumes to be considered public, in the coming weeks.
“I live in Torrey, and I'm on the [main] floor, and so … with cameras being there, it makes me a little nervous because my room is right in the main hall; [what] if I'm coming out in a towel to go to the showers?” Barnett said.
In response to a list of questions emailed by Mount Holyoke News regarding the camera program, Director of Public Affairs and Media Relations Christian Feuerstein stated that “there will be signs in buildings that have cameras. We will not publish a map with camera locations because of safety issues.” Feuerstein did not confirm whether cameras would be placed in residence halls.
More broadly, Barnett was not surprised by the news that the College would be installing security cameras. Upon arriving on campus, she assumed that security cameras and video surveillance technology were already used within the College community.
“I also understand that people are coming from a lot of different places, so the idea of security cameras might be really scary for some people. For other people, it might be normal. I live in a neighborhood where it’s weird if you don’t have a ring camera on your doorbell,” Barnett said. “It’s not as worrisome or bothersome for me. But if you’re not from a community like that, that’s a really big shift and change. And since we’re not a community like that for a really long time, I think it’s a big shift that we’re making.”
In her statement to Mount Holyoke News, Runell said that more information regarding the security cameras will be shared with the community “very soon.”
“I encourage all students to share their feedback, questions and comments with me in order to make sure we are all on the same page as a community,” Runell said.
Madeleine Diesl ’28 contributed fact-checking.