President Holley reflects on her first semester in office and teaching a new class
As the second semester of the 2023-2024 school year starts to pick up speed, President Danielle R. Holley has started teaching her first class, titled The Supreme Court, in the politics department at Mount Holyoke College. The course focuses on landmark cases settled by the Supreme Court of the United States since 1803.
Students march to President Holley’s House in support of Palestine
Community reflects on Danielle R. Holley’s inauguration ceremony
“This was the right place for me”: Danielle R. Holley inaugurated as the College’s 20th president
With the start of the 2023-24 school year comes a new era for Mount Holyoke College, as President Danielle R. Holley begins her term as the College’s 20th president. Her official inauguration ceremony took place this Thursday, Sept. 21. In an interview with the Mount Holyoke News, Holley spoke on how she hopes to use her education and legal backgrounds to lead Mount Holyoke to a brighter, more progressive future that continues to empower students through their education.
President-elect Danielle R. Holley to begin term in July
By Tara Monastesse ’25
News Editor
On Tuesday, Feb. 7, Mount Holyoke College announced that professor and legal scholar Danielle Ren Holley had been unanimously elected by the Board of Trustees to serve as the College’s twentieth president. The appointment was announced following an intensive selection process which began last March after nineteenth president Sonya Stephens stepped down from the position to serve as president of The American University of Paris.
“The board’s unanimous decision is the culmination of a thoughtful, thorough and inclusive search process that was conducted over the past 11 months,” chair of the Board of Trustees Karena V. Strella ’90 wrote in an email to the community. “We owe our deepest gratitude to the presidential search committee for its incredible efforts to bring the search to a successful conclusion.”
An inaugural celebration was held in Blanchard Hall’s Great Room the same afternoon as the announcement, during which President-elect Holley addressed the College community for the first time. Holley drew on her own childhood experiences of having academics for parents, as well as her time spent pursuing a B.A. in history at Yale University, to describe what a liberal arts education meant to her.
“It helped me to understand how studying the past, especially studying the Civil Rights Movement, meant that for me the central part of my life would be opening the doors of opportunity to education for other people.” Holley said. “Education is liberation, education is freedom, education is opportunity. And I knew for the rest of my life that I would spend all of my time opening the doors of education to other people so that each one of you can open the doors for someone else.”
Holley is currently a professor of law and dean of Howard University School of Law, a position which she has held since 2014. Holley’s leadership led the Howard University Law School to new heights, including moving the school into the top 100 in the U.S. News and World Report, as well as the introduction of a six-year BA/JD program. Holley is also a leading scholar of impeding Supreme Court decisions regarding race-conscious college and university admissions, whose expertise on civil rights and equity topics are often sought by members of the press and others, according to a press release issued by the College.
Holley’s appointment will make her the first Black woman to serve as Mount Holyoke’s permanent president, as well as the fourth Black woman in history to lead one of the original Seven Sisters colleges. She will begin her term starting on July 1, 2023. Until then, Interim President Beverly Daniel Tatum will continue to serve in the position.
“I want to add my congratulations to President-elect Holley and to Mount Holyoke College,” President Tatum said following Holley’s address. “It truly is a perfect pairing.”