BY KATIE GOSS ’23
STAFF WRITER
On April 11, the College announced it would renew Visiting Lecturer in Classics and Italian Martino Lovato’s contract. Lovato will remain at Mount Holyoke in his current faculty position.
“[This] means that his position is as vulnerable as it was before,” Ombretta Frau, chair of Romance languages and cultures and a professor of Italian, said.
This decision also means that the Italian department will not have to shut down its major and minor programs, a possibility that the department was worried about when they were originally told a few weeks ago that Lovato’s contract would not be renewed.
Three faculty members — Lovato, Frau and Lecturer in Italian Morena Svaldi — make up the Italian department. Lovato’s dismissal would mean that the Italian program would no longer be able to sustain itself, as a department requires three full-time faculty members. From that point, the program would phase out, as the College had not filled the position. Following the announcement, the three faculty members in the department advocated that Lovato’s contract be renewed to the dean of faculty.
Frau expressed how happy the decision has made the department. “We can use the time to start working to create a path forward and to engage with new conversations with the dean of faculty’s office,” Frau said.
Frau also noted that the support from the Mount Holyoke community played a huge role in the decision.
“This is the most amazing part for us,” Frau said. “I am sure that without the students and without many faculty members’ support, this would not have happened. We asked for help and the community responded.”