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Italian professor’s departure would mean end of program ademic rigor and creativity at Mount Holyoke College [are] respected and taken as an example not only in our When the Mount Holyoke College campus but also in North America and Italian department learned that Mar- beyond,” Svaldi said. Currently, the department is in distino Lovato, visiting lecturer in Italian and classics, would not have his con- cussion with the dean of faculty to advotract renewed for the upcoming aca- cate for a renewal of Lovato’s contract so demic year, his fellow faculty members that he may continue teaching and the Italian major and minor programs will were distraught. “It is heartbreaking to imagine the remain. The department hopes to allow future without Prof. Lovato,” Morena Lovato to teach under a “wider umbrelSvaldi, lecturer in Italian and faculty la” of subjects at the College while also director of the Language Assistant pro- keeping him in the Italian department. In addition to Italian, Lovato speaks gram, said. Italian students and faculty will English, French and Arabic. He is also a comparatist expert of not only miss Lovato’s the Mediterranean and scholarship and teacha film studies scholar, ing but his departure, “It is heartbreaking according to Frau. if finalized, may very to imagine the future “He is a very eclecwell mean the end of the Italian major and without Prof. Lovato.” tic scholar. He is the global scholar that minor programs at the we are always talking College. - Morena Svaldi about at this college,” “Not renewing [LoFrau said. “We will not vato]’s contract means simply and sadly not having an Italian give up so easily, but obviously, there is only so much that we can do.” major,” Svaldi said. “[Lovato] taught very creative interThe Italian department was notified by the dean of faculty’s office that Lova- disciplinary courses at different levels to’s contract would not be renewed at and all with great success. He has been very active with the Five Colleges and the end of March. “There was no email from the school beyond, publishing and working at the to [Lovato],” Ombretta Frau, chair of international level,” Svaldi said. The decision not to renew Lovaromance languages and cultures and professor of Italian, said. “The email to’s contract, according to Frau, was in question was sent to the chair of the brought about by budgeting decisions [Italian] department [Geoffrey Sumi]. made by the President of the College … The email did not mention [Lovato]’s Sonya Stephens, along with the Board name, and I thought that was very in- of Trustees. Dean of Faculty Dorothy sulting, to be honest. He has been at Mosby is responsible for making decithe College for five years, and I believe sions about visiting lecturers and faculany employee deserves to be let go with ty based on the given budget. “If you look around at universities something more than that.” Currently, the Italian department that have to downsize because of financonsists of three faculty members: Lo- cial reasons, the language programs vato, Frau and Svaldi. According to both are always the first to be cut,” Frau said. Svaldi and Frau, the department needs “This is really a trend, and we are conat least three full-time professors to sidered disposable and … less importsustain the Italian program — any few- ant. I think part of it is because adminiser, and they will be forced to close their trators do not understand what we do.” “What I find particularly painful in major and minor programs. The loss of the Italian major and mi- this case … is that both our president nor programs would have a significant impact on the Mount Holyoke commuCONTINUED ON PAGE 4 u nity. “The Italian program and its ac-
BY KATIE GOSS ’23 STAFF WRITER
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5 A&E: A queer analysis of ‘MONTERO’
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Photo by Kate Turner ’21 In March of last year, the class of 2020 organized an impromptu Laurel Parade before students left campus. The class of 2021 will not receive a similar ceremony, as their Commencement will be entirely virtual.
College announces a virtual Commencement for class of 2021 BY LIZ LEWIS ’22 & SOLEIL DOERING ’24 PUBLISHER, NEWS EDITOR & STAFF WRITER
“Every student waits for this moment,” Clarissa Soma Goncalves Cordeiro FP ’21 said. “It’s not just a simple graduation. It’s a rite of passage.” On March 22, graduating students and their families received an email informing them that the College would be holding a virtual commencement ceremony for the Class of 2021 on May 23 at 10:30 a.m. EST. The email explained that while some celebrations and traditions would occur between May 12 and 15 and would be open to students living on and off-campus, no graduating students would be permitted to be on campus during the May 23 commencement ceremony. Following the College’s announcement, many students expressed their frustration with the commencement plans, specifically regarding how the College is treating the Class of 2021 compared to the Class of 2020. When the pandemic forced students off campus in March 2020, the graduating class was left to cobble together makeshift versions of traditions
such as Commencement and the Laurel Parade. They did, however, receive assurance that there would be in-person versions of these events at their two-year reunion. The College did not indicate any plans to do the same for the Class of 2021. Anna Braman ’21 noticed this discrepancy. “Last year, the Class of 2020 was promised a redo of graduation during their reunion in person, so it’s weird to me that they’re not doing the same thing for 2021,” Braman said. “I was heartbroken,” Soma said. “I thought that some way for the Class of 2021 to have an in-person graduation would be arranged. Maybe not in this moment but in the future.” As Soma expressed, being a member of the Class of 2021 has been disappointing in more ways than one. “It’s not just commencement,” Soma said. “We missed every event. We missed our entire senior year.” On March 23, Massachusetts announced that in-person graduations would be permitted, and set specific guidelines for those events. Three other CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
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6 BOOKS: Kylie Gellatly FP ’22 to publish book u 10 OP/ED: Grading scales during COVID-19
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EVENTS
April 8, 2021
Mount Holyoke News Mount Holyoke News is an independent student newspaper written by and for Mount Holyoke College students since 1917. VISIT US: www.mountholyokenews.com www.facebook.com/themhnews www.twitter.com/mtholyokenews_
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. Mount Holyoke News
Event Highlights Saturday, April 10
2021 Women of Color Trailblazers Leadership Conference (WOCTLC) Business Expo: Enriching our Communities by Supporting POC Businesses Join the 2021 WOCTLC Business Expo to celebrate POC entrepreneurs and learn more about building, sustaining and supporting POC-owned businesses with our keynote speaker, Tayllor Johnson ‘15, Founder of Sisterhood (VERB). 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. EDT Registration is required through Embark.
Sightlines Tour: The Art of Remembering: Nostalgia as Feeling and Experience in Art
In this Museum tour, we will investigate the feeling and experience of nostalgia. We will explore paintings and prints from a wide array of places and periods to discover how nostalgia can come in many forms, from personal feelings to collective experiences. 1:30 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. EDT Registration is required through Embark.
Senior Spring Bash
Attention all seniors! Join your classmates for a celebration of our senior class! There will be live music, a photo area, goodybags, and most importantly a chance to reconnect and hang out with all your classmates before graduation. Please make sure to pre-register, reserve your spot today! We will have a discord server set up for virtual students and on campus students to chat with each other and reconnect with your class. 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. EDT Registration is required through Embark. All in-person activities are limited to students currently residing on campus.
Berkey Concert Series presents HEROINE
Join us for this concert and Q&A with Indie Pop Duo HEROINE (Bridget Linsenmeyer and Ines Nassara). 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. EDT Registration is required through Embark.
Monday, April 12
Book Talk: The Fever Poems by Kylie Gellatly
Come join the Mount Holyoke Review in celebrating the upcoming publication of The Fever Poems by Kylie Gellatly! Kylie is an FP, Class of 2022, and a Poetry Editor for the Review. The event will include a reading by Kylie, a brief interview by the Editors in Chief of the Review, and a Q&A session. 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. EDT Registration is required through Embark.
April 8, 2021
NEWS
. Mount Holyoke News
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Students, faculty petition in support of Italian department, cont’d u
nized that the College has taken no further action. There has been no plan to and our current dean of faculty are so- replace Lovato and no plan for current called ‘language people,’” Frau contin- Italian majors and minors. Frau beued. “Sonya Stephens was a French pro- lieves the College will try to “phase out” fessor before becoming the president. the program, a process in which she and Dorothy Mosby was a Spanish profes- Svaldi would continue teaching current sor. So that this is coming from col- students in the program to allow them leagues is even to graduate, but more painful no new students “If you look around at universities and even more would be acceptthat have to downsize because of discouraging.” ed into the maSvaldi also jor and minor financial reasons, the language reflected on the programs. programs are always the first to be impact of this “The school cut. This is really a trend, and we are has not … decision. “Not renewing [Lotouched upon considered disposable and … less vato]’s contract [the question important. I think part of it is bemeans taking of] ‘What is gocause administrators do not underaway so many ing to happen academic opporto the students stand what we do.” tunities for our who are already students that I committed to - Ombretta Frau have a hard time Italian?’” Frau comprehending said. “That is it. When you accomplish so much, you something else that I find very discoursee your students flourish and accom- aging because this has not come up yet.” plish wonderful things in their lives, Still, Frau made it clear that she at many levels, you start thinking that and Svaldi would “never abandon the all the sacrifices you have made were students who are committed” to the deworthwhile,” she said. “Everyone has partment. the desire to be recognized and valued Though the Italian department is for their hard work, so the news we re- small, it has provided an inclusive comceived of not renewing Prof. Lovato’s munity for both students and faculty at position was heartbreaking and left us the College. All students can take classhopeless.” es in the department regardless of their Although Svaldi and Frau are at- major or minor. For some students, like tempting to keep Lovato on staff for as Sandra Popadic ’22, it was the reason to long as possible, they have both recog- stay at Mount Holyoke. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
“There is something special about the Italian department in the way that they care about [and remember] the students they had in one elective course five years ago,” she said. Popadic’s older sister was a Romance language major at Mount Holyoke. During her sister’s Commencement Weekend, she experienced the Italian department community for the first time and already felt connected to them before enrolling as a student. In her first year, she had originally wanted to transfer out of Mount Holyoke but ultimately decided to stay because of the Italian department. She was able to engage with Italian students and staff and attend events every week, and that alone made her want to remain at the College. “I felt so connected to them, even though I could not take classes [with them] yet,” Popadic said. “I started to love the department even more when I started to study with [Lovato] last fall.” Frau mentioned that many students consider the Italian department a space for discussing issues beyond classroom questions, including personal challenges and, as in Popadic’s case, debates about transferring. She said the department is able to provide this kind of communication and community. “Pre-pandemic, we would take walks and go for coffee and talk [to] try to find solutions,” Frau said. “We offer this one-on-one service to our students that many other large departments cannot, or will not, offer.”
Carolena Galvin ’24 said she was even more excited to attend Mount Holyoke because it offers an Italian program. She started learning Italian before college and has already taken two Italian courses at Mount Holyoke since matriculating in the fall. “I understand that the College has to make difficult choices, … but I do think the Italian department is not something that can be taken for granted just because it is very specific, and it definitely attracts students who have a specific interest in Italian,” Galvin said. She said that if the Italian major and minor were phased out, it could affect future students’ decision to attend Mount Holyoke. In response to a Mount Holyoke News inquiry, the College’s Director of News and Media Relations Christian Feuerstein said, “The College does not comment about personnel matters.” Students and faculty have sent the administration letters of support for Lovato over the last few weeks, outlining the professor’s importance to the program as well as the Italian department’s value to the school. “It comes without doubt that the College is facing budgetary challenges, but we in the Italian program have a vision. What we ask is the opportunity to pursue it,” Svaldi said. “We owe it to the millions of Italians that left Italy more than a century ago to find a better life in the U.S. We have the moral responsibility to promote and protect our language and culture.”
College’s upcoming tuition increase causes stress, student protests BY LIZ LEWIS ’22 PUBLISHER & NEWS EDITOR
Ailey Rivkin FP ’22 and Gaby Barber ’23 began circulating a petition to reverse the College’s decision to raise tuition by $5,520 on the morning of Wednesday, April 7. As the authors of the petition, Barber and Rivkin wrote, “We … find it unacceptable that Mount Holyoke College has chosen, in the midst of a global pandemic, to raise the comprehensive fee — which consists of room and board, tuition, and the student activities fee — to $73,098.” The petition consists of a seven-page document currently circulating as a PDF alongside a Google Form for signatures. Through her work as a senator for the Student Government Association, Barber was aware of the SGA’s offi-
cial process for petitioning — a process Rivkin and Barber are set on following. “We will be submitting it to the student government E-Board for conversion to a resolution, so we need 200 constituents of the SGA to sign it,” Barber said. Rivkin connected with Barber over Instagram and has partnered with her in authoring and promoting the petition. As a Frances Perkins scholar, Rivkin has been a direct witness to the rising tuition over a longer term, having started her Mount Holyoke experience in 2015 and resumed it as a current member of the class of 2022. According to the petition, a meeting hosted by the Mount Holyoke senate will be held on April 15 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. EDT to address the rise in the comprehensive fee. The meeting is open to the Mount Holyoke student community. The petition outlines four demands
from Rivkin, Barber and its signers. The first is that the College reverse its decision to raise the comprehensive fee and instead match it to that of the 2019-2020 academic year at $67,578. The second demand, presented by the authors as an alternative option, is that the College “will provide tuition and room and board reduction grants to all students, sufficient enough to bring the comprehensive fee down to $67,578.” The third demand, should the College fail to comply with demands one and two, is that the College will prepare a statement explaining how it plans to use additional funds from the raised comprehensive fee, and “how the College will ensure that a Mount Holyoke education will be affordable to students as they begin or continue their undergraduate years.” Lastly, the petition demands that the College leadership team
will “comply with any requests made to meet by the [Mount Holyoke s]enate.” Barber also clarified that, as there is no way to represent all viewpoints within the petition, the authors have created a section on the signature form allowing any signer to add their own comments. The petition accepts signatures from students’ family members as well. “We’ll also be taking signatures from parents or family members who have a direct connection to a student that’s at the College, as well as alums, so we can have this be a petition of the Mount Holyoke College community and not just the student body,” Barber said. For Rivkin and Barber, the College’s decision reflects an ethical issue as much as a monetary one. “I know over 10 students whose families are taking CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
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NEWS
April 8, 2021
. Mount Holyoke News
Holyoke police officer is suspended after alleging corruption BY ELLA WHITE ’22 STAFF WRITER
On March 7, Holyoke police officer Rafael Roca posted a video on YouTube alleging racism and corruption by the Holyoke Police Department. As of March 9, Roca has been suspended from the department due to his violation of a rule prohibiting officers from criticizing the department on social media platforms. In the almost 45-minute video, Roca recounted favoritism, covering up lost and stolen weapons and other instances of corruption. According to Roca, supervisors in the department have lied on the stand. He says he was consistently singled out for vocalizing his opposition to the police chief, made to repeat pieces of training and attacked via email for not supporting one supervisor’s protest against police reform. Roca claimed that Manny Febo, the first Latinx police chief in Holyoke, has targeted him and other employees by refusing them positions and recognition for their work. He alleged that he was
Photo by Kate Turner ’21 Roca posted a video on YouTube detailing the alleged corruption. It has been viewed over 50,000 times.
denied a job with the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus police at the request of his police chief and that when he saved the life of a white state trooper, the state trooper was rewarded over himself. Within the department, he said he had been shamed. “When you are someone who speaks up about injustice and about corrupt police officers, they label you as a liar, they label you as a dirty
police officer, they label you as someone who is untrustworthy,” he said. Despite the high Puerto Rican population in Holyoke, Roca said there are not enough police officers from the community. He attested that state troopers consistently call him to translate for them, as they do not have enough Spanish speakers on the force. Febo responded with a statement that noted that, of the total 29 minority
officers on the force, there are “roughly 75 [percent] of minority officers with [eight] years [of experience] or more” who focus on “specialized assignments.” Of non-minority police officers with eight years or more of experience, 53 percent focus on specialized assignments, according to Febo. Febo said that Roca misportrayed some examples of lost or stolen weapons. He added, “I want to [assure] the citizens of Holyoke that they can continue to have confidence in the men and women of the Holyoke Police Department and the great work that they do every day.” Roca’s video has reached over 50,000 views. Roca said he hopes the Massachusetts government will audit the department. He expressed frustration that former Mayor Alex Morse did not do enough to address issues of racism during his tenure. “There are white people who try to make it difficult for us, make it difficult for the people who have done the right thing, make it difficult for the people who want to stand up for what’s right,” he said.
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The letter explicitly states that the students behind it are not asking for colleges within the Five College Con- in-person graduation. Instead, they are sortium announced that they would be only requesting a “commitment to the holding in-person commencement cere- class of 2021 that was made to the class of monies. 2020: a graduation ceremony, and senior “Smith is doing it in person, UMass traditions, at our two-year reunion.” is doing it in person, Amherst College is Braman participated in the larger doing it in person […]Why isn’t it pos- email campaign and wrote her own sepsible for Mount Holyoke?” Soma said. “I arate email to the administration. In this can understand if it’s email, not possible, but I need she statto know, and I believe I ed, “Our “Bigger universities that aren’t as have the right to know; class is community-oriented as Mount Holy- prepared Wwhy not?” oke are doing things for their seniors, to promOn Wednesday, March 31, students moto so the fact that Mount Holyoke isn’t ise bilized by taking part not conis making me question the integrity in an email campaign tribute of their values and things that they and signing a petition financialorganized by an anonyuse as selling points for the school.” ly whatmous group of students. soever Seniors advocated for a (to the - Anna Braman ’21 future in-person graducollege as ation ceremony at their alumnae) two-year reunion in 2023. The letter, which if we are not recognized.” was sent to the administration, detailed “I think they should take that threat how this segment of the graduating class seriously,” Braman said. According to the felt the administration had mishandled Mount Holyoke website, the College reCommencement and what they believe ceived 28.1 million dollars from alumnae would be a good solution for a graduation donations in 2019, making up over 80 perceremony. cent of their total FY20 donations. “They
Photo by Kate Turner ’21 The 2020-21 academic year will be bookended by virtual ceremonies, with a virtual Convocation in September and a virtual Commencement in May. Convocation in 2019 was MHC’s last schoolwide in-person event.
said a lot depends on financial support from alums and generous gifts … so risking an entire group of people’s support will have an impact.” For many students, including Braman, this all comes back to Mount Holyoke’s commitment to community. “Mount Holyoke talks about being a community-driven place, and we have all these traditions that are so important to us, so it was surprising to me that they’re getting rid of those things,” Braman said. “Bigger universities that aren’t as community-ori-
ented as Mount Holyoke are doing things for their seniors, so the fact that Mount Holyoke isn’t is making me question the integrity of their values and things that they use as selling points for the school.” “Mount Holyoke is powerful and important,” Soma said. “It’s not just our college, it’s our community, we become family here. I’m not angry with Mount Holyoke. I am disappointed. Because I love Mount Holyoke, I’ve loved my experience, and I wanted to be beside my friends for this moment.”
April 8, 2021
. Mount Holyoke News
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
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A queer analysis of ‘MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)’ MARIAM KEITA ’24 & ROSE COHEN ’22 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITORS
Ever since the openly gay Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Montero Lamar Hill, better known as Lil Nas X, released the official music video for his hit single “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name),” everything from accusations of plagiarism to legal troubles has followed in his wake. Inside Eden The three-minute video opens with a voiceover from the singer, who tells us that we are in Montero, a fictional place where we do not have to banish the parts of ourselves that we do not want the world to see. He sits alone under a tree, sporting long brown hair and wearing earth tones as he strums a sparkly pink guitar. The scene appears to place a steamy, modern twist on the biblical human origin story of Adam and Eve. Notably, no “Eve” figure accompanies Lil Nas X. However, as he sings the opening lines of the tune, a distinctly phallic snake-like figure with whom he shares a face slithers down the tree just out of sight. Unlike the biblical Eve, who engages with the serpent in her story, the “MONTERO” singer takes off in the opposite direction, abandoning his instrument, after locki n g eye s
know we promised to never come out publicly, i know we promised to never be ‘that’ type of gay person, i know we promised to die with the secret, but this will open doors for many other queer people to simply exist.” These words provide viewers with a framework for evaluating the rest of the video. In the Bible, the snake represents temptation and sinful desire, convincing Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of forbidden fruit. In the music video, the snake seems to act as a proxy for the singer’s sexuality. Additionally, Lil Nas X appears to have condensed Adam and Eve’s roles into one singular, gender-nonconforming figure. The Trial In the next scene, we see the singer, now clad in pink, being led into the middle of a colosseum by two guards, both of which are different renditions of him, dressed in blue. Once there, we watch him be shackled and placed on trial before a panel of blue-clad judges (also him). This color-coded dichotomy between the many figures of Lil Nas X, who act as the prosecution, and the lone version, who acts as the defense, should not be overlooked. The blue figures might be a symbol for the performance of masculinity, placing the sole pink figure on trial for failed gender performance. In addition to the judges, hundreds of sculpted onlookers, all bearing his face, watch from the stands. One of the judges wags a finger at him to indicate guilt b e -
with t h e snake. As he runs, he is unable to escape the snake-like figure, who shapeshifts into a fluffy pink cloud, then a blossoming flower and finally a tree. Eventually, the snake figure emerges from the grass and overcomes him. The two share a moment of intense eye contact before falling to the ground and locking lips. The singer, not the snake, initiates the kiss. On his website, the singer explains where the inspiration for “MONTERO” comes from in an open letter to his younger self: “dear 14-yearold montero, i wrote a song with our name in it. it’s about a guy i met last summer. i
fore t h e crowd of angry spectators stones him to death — very tonguein-cheek, considering the spectators are also made of stone. Lil Nas X has played the judge, jury, executioner and the accused. The following scene appears to show Lil Nas X’s soul ascending to the heavens. As his non-corporeal form floats up above, a winged shadow figure whose face cannot be made out flies just above him. This is the first time in the video that viewers are introduced to a character whom we cannot immediately identify as Lil Nas X. Is the figure an angel or a devil? Is it Lil Nas X again? Could it be God himself? We never find out because Lil Nas X never reaches the paradisaical realm. CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 Photo courtesy of Flickr
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BOOKS
April 8, 2021
. Mount Holyoke News
Kylie Gellatly FP ’22 heats up Arctic with new book ‘The Fever Poems’
Photo courtesy of Kylie Gellatly FP ’22 Gellatly is the author of the upcoming collection, “The Fever Poems.”
BY FLANNERY LANGTON ’22 MANAGING EDITOR OF CONTENT
Kylie Gellatly FP ’22 isn’t one for a backstory or explanation. “I’ve never even attempted to do this,” she said in regard to summarizing over a decade of time that led her to Mount Holyoke and the publication of her first book. For Gellatly, this is best summarized through her art and creative process. When speaking at the FP Monologues on March 23, instead of talking about her journey to Mount Holyoke or a key event in her life that led her to who she is today, Gellatly shared a handful of poems, all to be published July 16 in her book “The Fever Poems.” “The Fever Poems,” a volume of 38 poems in three parts, is the poet’s first collection. Gellatly’s collection is made entirely of found poetry, with words sourced from the book “The Arctic Diary of Russell Williams Porter.” The diary is a recounting of Porter’s explorations within the Arctic Circle. Gellatly spent the spring and summer of 2020 cutting up the book and rearranging the words and drawings around one another to create an entirely different story. Despite being made from someone else’s words, “The Fever Poems” is entirely Gellatly’s creation: a combination of hard work and creative labor to meld Porter’s adventures into an abstract recounting of the last year. Gellatly is originally from Connecticut, but in the last 10 years has moved up and down the East Coast. After graduating high school, she moved to Richmond, Virginia, where she worked as a chef and butcher while playing music. “I was in a few bands,” she said. “A band for my own music [in which] I was the guitar player and songwriter and singer. And then I did backup vocals and lead guitar in a different band, then played bass and backup vocals in another one,” she explained. It was during this time that Gellatly met some of the modern legends of the Richmond music scene, including indie rocker Lucy Dacus, who was the opener for Gellatly’s band’s final show. Music, though, wasn’t the creative outlet Gellatly wanted.
“My parents are both artists, and so I was raised under the notion that’s like, ‘You have to figure out a way to speak your language and create your own language,’” she said. “I tried a number of different things. I started as a dancer, I did painting, I did photography. Music felt like it was maybe what was going to click,” she said. But, “It didn’t click.” Around the time she started becoming “jaded about music,” Gellatly realized she had never read a book by a woman. “I just started reading books only by women for like the next two years. And, you know, poetry is a place where women really have a voice and do some really badass things,” Gellatly said. The freedom of poetry enticed Gellatly. “I also didn’t have a good education. So poetry, with all the ways of, like, breaking rules … and the experimentation and how visual it is, too, felt like a really natural place for me to kind of land,” she explained. This took Gellatly out of Virginia and up to Vermont, where she became involved in the Vermont Studio Center. “I moved there because I was like, ‘I don’t want to be a cook, I want to be a writer.’ And ‘I don’t want to play in bands, I hate music,’” she said. Her three-year art residency in Vermont reintroduced her to academia. Most of the writers there also worked as professors. “I was kind of encouraged to pursue the academic thing,” she called it. “I had been doing self-curricular self-teaching that whole time, and then I’d gotten to a point where I didn’t really have any mentorship at all and I didn’t know how to ask for that,” she said. “I’ll just go back to school and that’ll be interesting,” she recalled thinking. Gellatly first started college at Northern Vermont University. She also began working at the college’s literary journal, the Green Mountains Review. But she was still looking for a community of students closer to her age. Research led her to the Frances Perkins program at Mount Holyoke. “It just called to me,” she said. Now, at Mount Holyoke, Gellatly is an English major and a poetry editor at the Mount Holyoke Review. It was the months before coming to Mount Holyoke –– the summer of COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter protests and a head injury –– that gave Gellatly the space to write “The Fever Poems.” “Last January, I was prescribed a month of rest after a head injury and I completely cut out screens and, like, all communication with people because it was, like, a very rigid kind of prescribed rest,” she recalled. Instead of communicating with friends over Instagram as she usually did, Gellatly turned toward disposable cameras and letter-writing. “That’s how I started doing collages,” she said. Gellatly’s month of rest also changed how she edited her poetry. Instead of being able to edit a document on her computer, she began cutting out the words she was writing and moving them around physically on her desk. “The whole thing happened quickly and without any intention,” she explained. This technique rapidly transformed into her creative process and gave way to “The Fever Poems.” The first “Fever Poem” was created in April 2020. “The Arctic Diary of Russell Williams Porter” was a book given to Gellatly that she originally kept for sentimental reasons. When preparing to move last spring, Gellatly found the book among her shelves. “I
Photo courtesy of Kylie Gellatly FP ’22 Gellatly created each poem at her workspace, seen above, cutting and rearranging text from “The Arctic Diary of Russell Williams Porter.”
didn’t want to carry it around anymore, so I decided I would cut it up and make something else out of it. And then it just became another book,” she said. Though her head injury healed and she was able to go online again, Gellatly maintained her poetry-making work ethic. The summer continued to be a transitional time, both for her as she moved, but also for the U.S. as the nation was engulfed in Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd. Watching this transpire, “I was just sitting at my desk every day cutting up and writing poems,” she said. The bulk of the poems took Gellatly just a day to write. “They were easy; they were, like, automatic. You know, I didn’t feel like I was really in control of that whole process. That was just happening, really quickly,” she said. Toward the end, the pieces started taking longer to come together. One poem, “the arc light,” caused Gellatly particular difficulty. “I had it off to the side, and when I say that, you have to imagine … the scraps of these tiny little pieces over on the side of my desk,” she said. Behind her, across the room, tiny scraps were still visible on the side of her desk. But “the arc light” was eventually finished. The poem came out more narrative than any other in “The Fever Poems.” “I was trying not to write a myth, I guess, but on day three or something, I was like, ‘Okay fine, be what you want to be. I don’t care.’” The time spent grappling with this piece, however, has paid off. “the arc light” shines in Gellatly’s collection for its storytelling, including the exploration of the history of a place and female connections within that location. The poem, found in part one of her book, discusses a vague but absorbing narrative of women emerging from shadows in the middle of the night with the narrator, finding the difference between “death and dawn.” The poem “Miranda was to die,” which closes the second portion of the book, also took on a more narraCONTINUED ON PAGE 8
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Mount Holyoke holds 98th Glascock Poetry Contest on the virtual stage BY AMELIA SCARPONI ’23 STAFF WRITER
Mount Holyoke held the 98th Kathryn Irene Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Contest from March 25 to March 27. Normally held in Gamble Auditorium, this year’s competition was held virtually on Zoom due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first day of the event was dedicated to a conversation with the judges. The event was intentionally set to “meeting” instead of “webinar” style, allowing the poets to better connect with the audience as they answered questions. The competition was established at Mount Holyoke in 1923 and became open to other colleges in 1924 to honor Kathryn Irene Glascock, class of 1922, a published poet and member of the Mount Holyoke News. Glascock died of pneumonia shortly after graduating. This year’s Glascock Committee included several faculty members: Assistant Professor of English Andrea Lawlor, Assistant Professor of English Anna Maria Hong, Associate Professor of English and Chair of Critical Social Thought Kate Singer and Visiting Lecturer in English Samuel Ace. The committee also consisted of six Mount Holyoke students. The committee decides which schools will be invited to participate, selects the judges and introduces the judges and contestants at each event. Each year undergraduate students are nominated by faculty members to submit their poetry, which they then read aloud for a panel of three poets. Some past judges include William Carlos Williams, W.H. Auden and Audre Lorde. This year’s judges included Kay Gabriel, a poet and essayist who co-edited “We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poets”; Fred Moten, a poet and professor in the department of performance studies at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts; and Cameron Awkward-Rich, author of two collections of poetry, “Sympathetic Little Monster” and “Dispatch.” Awkward-Rich is also the assistant professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The competitors were Mount Holyoke’s Alejandra Cabezas ’21; Julia Kudler, a senior at the University of Washington at Seattle; Meredith Luchs, a senior at Hampshire College; Felicia Payomo, a senior at Mills College; Wafa Shaikh, a sophomore at Houston Com-
munity College; and Tovah Strong, a senior at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Before the judges introduced the poets, Hong invited everyone to join her in a moment of silence for victims of gendered, racialized and gun violence. Cabezas was the first poet to take the virtual stage, introducing her poems “What My Name Sounds Like” and “Pillbox,” among others. According to the competition’s website, “her work is concerned with family histories, the Mayan cosmovision, and movement across Mesoamerica.” The judges noted that her performance was “theatrical, tangible, loud and in real time.” In addition to writing poetry, she is a wildlife advocate who is actively working to save sea turtles and yellow-naped parrots along the Salvadoran coast. Cabezas graduates from Mount Holyoke this spring with a double major in English and ancient studies. Payomo, the second poet, read poems including “Lost Year” and “Between Sheets of Sand.” In her competition biography, she revealed that her poetry is an exploration of the self and hopes her work will help readers feel seen. Awkward-Rich commented on Payomo’s poems, noting, “You are — and know that you are — a poet of the self, a poet who deeply feels and writes beautifully toward that vexed relation between yourself and the world.” Kudler read next, capturing the audience with a poem detailing the California wildfires, appropriately titled “California Is Burning.” She has loved stories and language since her childhood and has spent most of her life constructing and sharing narratives. Members of the audience erupted into silent applause during her final piece, “On Entropy,” in which she read, “The earth is nothing more than the memory of dead stars.” Moten said in praise, “These poems are daring and sure in their voicing and arrangement.” Luchs, the fourth reader, took to the virtual stage, saying, “I’m so nervous, I didn’t know my heart could beat this fast.” One of their poems, “Crude Habitat,” an ode to nature, struck a chord with multiple audience members who commented in the chat about the line “life just wants something to gather around.” The judges appreciated their impeccable poetic architecture. “You are clearly a poet who watches carefully, who listens with their whole body,” they noted. Luchs is currently working on a book-length collection of poems focused on living in the era of climate change and
Photo courtesy of the Glascock Poetry Contest Tovah Strong was the winner of the 2021 Glascock Poetry Contest.
will be starting their MFA in poetry at Warren Wilson College next winter. The next poet, Strong, began by reading “My Mother’s Orchestra,” captivating the audience with her word choice and use of alliteration in lines like “body bent long, like a half bowl, pink sweater bright like tail feathers.” She pronounced each word softly with careful precision. Strong is studying creative writing with an emphasis on poetry but writes prose as well. Her work has appeared in the Tribal College Journal, Searchlight New Mexico and other publications. Shaikh, the sixth and final poet, gave a content warning for sexual assault and incest in case some audience members preferred to mute their device during her reading. Her poem “Dirty Dishes” dealt with those themes in a raw and honest manner. Moten commented, “Your lyricism is bravery.” Shaikh is a creative writing major who helped start her campus’s literary magazine HTX LIT. She is also the president of her college’s creative writing club for the 2020-2021 school year. Her first publication is in Defunkt Magazine. On Saturday, March 27, the final day of the event, the winner was announced live via Zoom after the judges read several of their own poems. The winner was Strong of the Institute of American Indian Arts. Lawlor was the first to congratulate Strong, while members of the audience gave a loud round of applause by unmuting their mics. Strong expressed her thanks through the chat function, writing, “Thank you, everyone, I don’t have words!”
The Mount Holyoke LITS liaisons are here for students, even remotely BY ELLA JACOB ’24 STAFF WRITER & COPY EDITOR
To celebrate National Library Week and National Library Workers’ Day, literary events that take place from April 4 to April 10, let’s take a look at the history of Mount Holyoke’s Williston Memorial Library, also known as Library, Information and Technology Services, and the people who run it. The Williston Memorial Library, named in 1917 after Asahel Lyman Williston, a trustee and treasurer of the College, has long been a studious place of comfort for many students. With a donation of $50,000 (a little under $1.5 million today) from Andrew Carnegie in 1903, the library was fully built in 1905. The interior
was meant to resemble Westminster Hall, the oldest building in the British Parliament. In 1990, a 30,000foot wing was added, with an atrium modeled after the Medici Library in Florence, Italy. In addition to the distinctive architecture, the library’s atrium boasts American glass artist Dale Chihuly’s sculpture “Clear and Gold Tower,” a 12-foot artwork created specifically for the College. The sculpture has over 450 hand-blown glass pieces and glimmering gold leaves. The library is home to various Mount Holyoke traditions and displays of college spirit. For example, you must walk up the staircase in the atrium that correPhoto courtesy of Ali Meizels ’23 Williston Library, also known as LITS, is run by dedicated librarians.
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sponds to your class year, and there is a superstition that if you don’t, you won’t graduate. Seniors have the opportunity to choose a carrel, a small cubicle that they can claim and personalize for whenever they want to work in the library. Mount Holyoke students can freely peruse the stacks, a rarity compared to other colleges that require students to order books and have someone else retrieve them. M&Cs held during first-year Orientation take place in the library. And lastly, Jorge, the infamous campus goose, is the LITS mascot. The library would not be able to function as well as it does, acting as both an “oasis of learning,” a saying represented by the College’s seal on the stained glass window of the Reading Room, and a place of comfort for students without the help of the Mount Holyoke LITS liaisons. These people are research librarians and subject specialists that students can contact for research assistance, library instruction, help with projects or access to library resources and collections. Without them, many students would be much more stressed when completing research assignments. The Mount Holyoke News reached out to three of these liaisons to better understand all that they do. Beth Bidlack is the manager of Research Services who specializes in Africana studies, anthropology, gender studies, Jewish studies, music and religion. She has worked in many libraries and served on reaccreditation visiting teams. She has a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. James “Jim” Burke is a research and instruction librarian. He specializes in economics, education, English, entrepreneurship, organizations and society, mathematics and statistics, psychology and sociology. Lastly, Leslie Fields is the head of Archives and Special Collections and specializes in archives and Mount Holyoke College history. After completing doctoral work in economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and working as a research economist at the U.N. in Switzerland, Burke taught as a visiting professor of economics at UMass Amherst while also teaching a one-semester course at Mount Holyoke. “I was approached about a position at Mount Holyoke in the academic technology team of LITS to support the use of research data and statistical analysis tools for student and faculty research. I was intrigued by the opportunity to support a wide range of research projects and to become part of the Mount Holyoke community,” he explained. “Not long after I joined LITS in 2001, I became part of a merged team of research librarians and academic technologists. I soon became very interested in learning and teaching about the CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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Photo courtesy of Kylie Gellatly FP ’22 The cover of Gellatly’s poetry collection plays with ice and sea imagery.
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tive format. Gellatly mentioned that this poem feels as though it is part of the same story as “the arc light.” “Miranda was to die” is the companion poem to the opening piece of section two, “Miranda.” Each poem centers around a character she created based on Porter’s first boat, Miranda. “She wasn’t actually the ship that, like, got them to the Arctic,” Gellatly explained. “I don’t remember the name of that one.” In the poems, “Miranda” is often in italics, which makes the name stand out, almost as if it was designed to be a main character. Gellatly explained that this typography was a result of the name’s frequent appearance in the captions of drawings in Porter’s diary. Porter’s book provided “The Fever Poems” with its focus on sea images, such as fog and water. It also introduced the word “fever” into the vocabulary of Gellatly’s writing. “Fever” here, in its main usage, comes from Porter’s frequent discussions of Arctic fever, which is the obsession with the Arctic that often drove explorers to the extreme north. It’s a feeling Gellatly shares with Porter. “I’ve had [it] for a long time, [it’s] the reason that I was given this book in the first place. I had this fixation on the Arctic,” she said. “‘The Fever Poems’ is kind of my swan song to that because I’m done with those narratives.” Gellatly continues to repurpose the word “fever” throughout her collection. She touches on actual Arctic fever, but then strays into the other literal interpretations of the word. She thought back to her two months of hives during the COVID-19 pandemic. This amounted to what she called “physical paranoia.” “Fever” dipped into metaphor as well. Gellatly said it was “more coming from depression and trauma.” Adding, “The last 10 years, I’ve been obsessed with reading books. The Arctic was definitely kind of an escape for me. … I came to understand, too, that there’s a relationship between the impulse to go to the Arctic and this survivor kind of mentality.” Gellatly was not alone in connecting her mental health and the Arctic. Throughout the past few years, she has come across multiple books by other women, who are survivors of various traumas, who are also drawn to the Arctic. “It’s like, if you can be there, you can be anywhere. There’s a resilience to it,” she said. Gellatly then became engulfed in the idea of the
Arctic. “I had been kind of living with a fixed narrative for a while. And I just wanted to repurpose it and see it be something else and sort of take control of that and change it and move on. It was really healing in a way,” she said. Repurposed words are a common element in Gellatly’s poetry. In particular moments of strength throughout her book, she transforms nouns into verbs, creating familiar but jarring imagery. Gellatly said she found power in this manipulation. “It’s so surprising and when it’s happening on my table, it’s really exciting,” she said. It’s “working the limitations [of language] and trying to communicate through them,” she added. The format of her poems is also unique, as many sprawl, wave and form shapes across the page. “[Format] is the one thing that doesn’t feel like an option when I’m writing,” she said. “So in a way, I don’t have to worry about line breaks.” She held up a piece of cutout paper to demonstrate this: a snippet cut out with an X-Acto knife from a page of Porter’s book. There are a handful of words remaining on each line. Above her desk, these cutouts can be seen glued to their respective art pieces. They hang on the wall as if in a small gallery, giving platform to collages of paper, black charcoal and brown paint. The knife was another key creator of “The Fever Poems.” She related how she used Porter’s book to how she, in her previous employment as a butcher, used animals. She employed the idea of “the book as a body and butchering parts to make ingredients to make something new,” she said. Gellatly works with the idea of whole animal butchery, saying, “You have to use as much of it as possible.” She held up her first copy of Porter’s book. Across the fading brown cover were faint white streaks. “The cover of the book is my glue pad,” she said. The visuals accompanying some of the pieces are a part of this concept as well. All drawings are clips from Porter’s observational sketches, and the windows cut into the paper to look at those drawings are made from the pages Gellatly cut words from. This semester, Gellatly is continuing the same creative process as she works on her next book. At Mount Holyoke, she is working on an advanced project with Assistant Professor of English Andrea Lawlor and an independent study with Associate Professor of English Nigel Alderman. “They’re both about this new project I’m working on, which is the same process, butchering the book, but a deep dive into the concept,” she explained. “I was a butcher and I’m really embracing the metaphors of that, so I’m cutting up cookbooks.” “It’s just really interesting to be staring at a metaphor,” she said. “The whole metaphor of book as body that I used to do ‘The Fever Poems’ and how different it is in this experience because in [‘The Fever Poems’], the words came first and the images were incidental. I’m trying [now] to be deliberate with both.” “The Fever Poems” will be published on July 16. Copies can be pre-ordered on the Finishing Line Press website at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-fever-poems-by-kylie-gellatly/. Editor’s note. Flannery Langton ’22 is also a member of the Mount Holyoke Review.
April 8, 2021
. Mount Holyoke News
FEATURES
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Phexxi, a new form of birth control, hits the market ously with condoms. According to Planned Parenthood, Phexxi is 93 percent effective at preventing unwanted pregnancies For those of us who use birth control, it can feel if applied perfectly. However, accounting for human as though we are constantly on the hunt for the per- error, Phexxi’s realistic effectiveness is about 86 perfect form of contraception to suit our needs. While cent, which is roughly the same prevention rate as some feel hesitant about the more invasive forms of condoms. According to Zeitlin, that percentage still birth control, there are some options that can meet leaves about 1 in 6 Phexxi and condom users at risk for your comfort level. On May 22, 2020, the U.S. Food and unwanted pregnancy. The idea of a perfect application Drug Administration approved Phexxi, making it the sets an unrealistic standard for users, which allows first non-hormonal, on-demand contraceptive that the brand to market their effectiveness higher than regulates vaginal pH levels. Phexxi is manufactured what is actually feasible and create a false rhetoric of by Evofem Biosciences, located in San Diego. Accord- security for its users. While condoms are essential to ing to Phexxi’s official website, Evofem Biosciences is safe sex and birth control is important as well, being devoted to developing innovative healthcare solutions aware of your body in the weeks after intercourse is that put women “in control of [their] sexual and repro- equally important to stop unwanted pregnancies. ductive health.” Zeitlin heard about Phexxi through the brand’s Phexxi is a hormone-free contraceptive that uses social media marketing campaign. “I had been getting active ingredients like lactic acid, citric acid and po- a lot of ads for it, actually,” Zeitlin said. “It’s been poptassium bitartrate to maintain the vagina’s pH at lev- ping up a lot; I’ve seen it on TV [and] I’ve seen a bunch els between 3.5 to 4.5, creating a toxic environment for of OB-GYNs and midwives that I follow posting about sperm. Phexxi is similar to a spermicide in the sense it. It seems really interesting.” These commercials adthat it is a gel inserted into the vagina prior to inter- vertise Phexxi as a “revolution in birth control” since course. However, there’s a key difference between it is hormone-free and only needs to be used prior to Phexxi and spermicides. According to the National intercourse, breaking away from the tracking method Women’s Health Network, of the pill. Like many marketthe only FDA-approved spering campaigns for these prodmicides contain a detergent Yet, most forms of birth control are ucts, the commercial features called nonoxynol-9, which women smiling amid bright damages the cellular memflashes of color as the voicea privilege in the United States, branes of sperm. But proover hurries through the list of and Phexxi is no exception. longed use of N-9 spermicide side effects. can damage cells in the vagina As is the case with all birth as well. Thus, Phexxi provides control, Phexxi’s side effects a safer option for those interested in gel contracep- are important to note. By managing the body’s pH levtives since it doesn’t contain N-9. els, Phexxi can increase UTI risk, vaginal burning, bacPhexxi’s position as the first contraceptive of its terial vaginosis and yeast infections. Though Phexxi’s kind speaks to the larger issue of slowed contracep- website notes that in clinical trials, only about 2 pertive production. Prior to Phexxi, Planned Parenthood cent of users stopped using the contraceptive due to outlined that there are 12 major forms of birth con- the side effects, those who experience frequent UTIs trol: sterilization, the IUD, the implant, the shot, the are discouraged from using it. Planned Parenthood vaginal ring, the patch, the pill, condoms, emergen- warns that Phexxi can also cause discomfort in the cy contraception, spermicide, cycle-tracking and the genital areas of the user and their partner, indicating “pull-out” method. Over half of these available forms that one of them may be sensitive to the contraceptive. are hormonal and, as a result, are not suited to every- Compared to side effects from other forms of contraone’s needs. ceptives, Phexxi’s appear to be mild and localized to a According to JoJo Zeitlin ’22, co-president of particular region of the body. Mount Holyoke College Planned Parenthood GeneraAccording to Zeitlin, Phexxi could prove to be a tion Action, the innovation in science and technology neutral avenue for contraception. “I think it’ll be kind surrounding birth control continues, while its prof- of like a middle-ground birth control if you will. It’s itization gums up the processes of approval and pro- definitely not going to be the pill, it’s not going to be duction. Still, Phexxi has persisted, becoming one of condoms, but it also isn’t going to be spermicide or Nuthe newest hormone-free options and speaking to con- vaRing or the patch, even,” Zeitlin said. “I think it’ll cerns surrounding the effect of hormones on mental probably [be] a middle ground. Some people will use health. “My opinion is that a lot of people on hormon- it, but it’s definitely not going to be good for everyone.” al birth control don’t realize that their mental health However, social media will definitely be significant to symptoms have changed until they’ve gotten off of the public reception of Phexxi. birth control, and, unfortunately, that can take up to a “There’s a lot of social media influence around decade,” Zeitlin said. birth control, and a lot of anecdotal experiences being If you’re like me and have no idea how much gel put out there that are really influencing the general you would need to insert to avoid pregnancy, Phexxi population’s opinions, feelings and thoughts,” Zeitlin is a few steps ahead. According to the FDA, the user mused. “The idea sticking out to me, in particular, is administers Phexxi vaginally through pre-filled plastic that there are horror stories about [birth control] all applicators containing 5 grams of the bioadhesive gel. over the internet. The actual likelihood of anything … Up to one hour before sex, the entirety of the applica- going wrong is extremely low, but you’re gonna hear tor’s gel should be inserted and can be used simultane- about it because it’s terrifying when it happens.” BY ZOË FARR ’21 MANAGING EDITOR OF WEB
Photo courtesy of Pixaby Phexxi, like condoms, has a pregnancy prevention success rate of about 86 percent. The two contraceptives can be used simultaneously.
This particular comment struck a chord with me, as I have Kyleena, a hormonal IUD that I don’t need to replace until 2025. Prior to receiving my IUD, I was bombarded with stories of IUDs gone wrong, of individuals ending up in emergency rooms or pregnant despite going through the ordeal that is IUD insertion. It felt like everywhere I looked to learn more about the IUD, someone was there with a warning sign telling me how it could all go wrong. While the insertion process wasn’t exactly the time of my life, I believe that, in the long run, it has been an important measure to stop something I really wouldn’t enjoy: being pregnant. Yet, most forms of birth control are a privilege in the United States, and Phexxi is no exception. An individual hoping to use Phexxi would have to rely on a general physician or gynecologist for a prescription, making Phexxi inaccessible to all class brackets in the country. According to GoodRx, the list price for a box of 12 Phexxi applicators would be $267.50, a high price for uninsured individuals. Planned Parenthood notes that spermicides are sold over the counter despite the fact that they can increase infection and make individuals who use them more susceptible to STIs like HIV. This contrast between availability and risk opens a dialogue on the inaccessibility of safe contraception for everyone. “There aren’t enough … options for everyone, and it can take a lot of trial and error to find your best option,” Zeitlin said. “This assumes a certain level of privilege — that you can continually try and test various methods until you find one that’s right for you, which requires more doctor’s visits, more trips to the pharmacy and more prescriptions you have to pay for.” “The fact that Phexxi is not [available] over the counter is weird to me, but I do have a feeling that it will be … at some point. Since it’s still new, they’re still testing it,” Zeitlin explained. In the meantime, Phexxi opens up an avenue for new birth control production in the 2020s, expanding the available birth control market and diversifying options for birth control users. If you’re interested in trying Phexxi, reach out to your local clinic, your general physician or your gynecologist to give it a shot. To learn more about Zeitlin and MHCPPGA’s advocacy for reproductive health rights and resource distribution for the Mount Holyoke College community, check out their page on Instagram, @MHCPPGA.
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OPINION/EDITORIAL
April 8, 2021
. Mount Holyoke News
Let me judge you: Criticizing women in power is still important BY ANNABELLE MACKSON ’23 STAFF WRITER
This notion has been brewing for some time: that women cannot criticize a woman in power, whether she is a CEO or someone in a political office. If we do, we are not supportive of women’s rights and cannot call ourselves feminists or advocates for equality. This could be seen in the run-up to the 2016 election with Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Many women found that Sanders’ proposed policies were more appealing than Clinton’s, but as Abi Wilkinson states in a New Republic article, “various Clinton surrogates attempted to frame backing Sanders over her as an inherently sexist act.” Feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem even claimed that women were only supporting Sanders for male attention. It is misogynistic and heteronormative statements like these that have made many women, especially LGBTQ+ women and women of color, deeply critical of mainstream feminism. This issue arises when the strength of women in power — what it took to get there despite gender-based obstacles — is conflated with the quality of their policies and actions. In May 1979, Margaret Thatcher, nicknamed the “Iron Lady,” became the first woman to hold the office of the British prime minister, maintaining the position for 11 years. No reasonable person would claim that Thatcher was not a strong woman,
but her economic policies left the British working class floundering. Thatcher’s achievement as the first female prime minister is a universal inspiration to young girls; it shows that women have the ability and potential to reach the same great places she did. However, what many people do not understand — a large proportion of whom call themselves feminists — is that we can acknowledge strong women’s accomplishments without endorsing their actions. Thatcher gaining a position of power that no woman had achieved before is impressive and inspirational, and it is not an attack on her accomplishments in a male-centric field to criticize what she did to the United Kingdom while she was in office. This issue isn’t limited to the political sphere. In fact, much of the problem is seen in the corporate world. Women at the top of their respective industries are attempting to pass off their strategies for getting there as a feminist action, as if they are doing other women a favor by teaching them how to be successful. Rather than encouraging women to strive to dismantle the systems that make success nearly impossible, these female executives are telling women to bend to the demands of the system so that they can be the empowered individual who “made it.” An excellent example of this belief in practice is Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg. While she assumed the position of COO in 2008, what really brought Sandberg into the limelight was her 2013 book “Lean In:
Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons Sandberg attends the World Economic Forum annual meeting in 2011.
Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” which addresses gender inequality in politics and business and provides strategies and encouragement for women still trying to make their mark in male-dominated fields. “Lean In” was a huge mainstream success that sold more than 1 million copies, but those praising it as a great feminist feat suffer from the same narrow-mindedness as mainstream feminism in general. Sandberg’s success story only applies to white middleto upper-class women with access to a great education CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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Conventional grading systems hinder students during COVID-19
Graphic by Lily Reavis ’21
BY KAVERI PILLAI ’23 STAFF WRITER
As I sit in front of my laptop at an ungodly hour attending synchronous classes, I cannot ignore how different my college experience was a year ago. A swift shift from in-person classes to what we now call “Zoom school” has reconfigured our ideas of what school means to us. However, while some things have dramatically changed for me as a sophomore, there are other components of my academic routine that have remained the same — and not for the best. While around 250 million college students consider the four walls of the classroom their second home,
the pandemic has resulted in a displacement of the regular learning process. The establishment of online school comes with a new set of rules and features, many of which consist of learning strategies for navigating remote learning. However, a number of students around the world, including myself, have found themselves questioning the efficacy and relevance of a lot of the in-person features being replicated online. One of those key features is the grading system. With the world changing so rapidly around us, sticking with conventional grading and learning programs is counterproductive to students’ online school experience. The inception of the traditional A to F letter grading system can be traced back to the 1940s. A practice that is still — shockingly enough — being used by schools globally, it essentially gives extra importance to high-stakes submissions, like final exams and research papers. Still, many believe that, with the already stressful and unpredictable changes caused by the pandemic, student anxiety about the impact of letter grades on their GPAs is unnecessary and avoidable. In 2020, Best Colleges released an article touching upon some of the alternate grading schemes that professors are testing out this academic year, many of which have gotten great student responses. “Epic finales” act as final exam replacements during which students are encouraged to work on reflection essays. In terms of grading, importance is given to group discussions and projects rather than time-intensive final essays. The pass/fail grading system is another popular strategy adopted by many institutions that acknowledge the emphasis on learning rather than the
final product. Specification grading marks whether a task has been completed and gives students the opportunity to incorporate feedback and make revisions, thereby eliminating the traditional one-time submission rule. Some Mount Holyoke professors, like Assistant Professor of Geography and International Relations Serin Houston, have adopted this method. “The spec grading system immediately resonated with me because it allowed me to be attentive to the profoundly challenging realities of our times, acknowledge the work students were doing within this context, offer extensive feedback to support learning and foster equity within my online courses,” Houston said. In an article titled “Scores of students are getting F’s: What’s the point of failing them during COVID-19?,” USA Today highlighted the many changes that the distance learning program has to acknowledge that go beyond a student’s school life. When the pandemic first hit in 2019, families across the globe were left to fend for themselves, whether that meant working alone to ensure health and financial stability or taking care of loved ones in crisis. Domestic responsibilities increased for many students who have spent the last year at home, and some of them are burdened with additional financial duties. For these students, doing well at school right now is just another obstacle. While schools must ensure academic success and rigor even in these stressful times, many believe that institutions’ approaches to achieving this goal has to change. The need to revolutionize the grading system to match with these changing societal circumstances is another important duty that schools need to take seriously for the sake of student welfare.
April 8, 2021
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OPINION/EDITORIAL
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Rihanna’s history of cultural appropriation should not be ignored BY JAHNAVI PRADEEP ’23 STAFF WRITER
Rihanna is a cultural icon of the 21st century. Her list of successes is practically limitless, garnering her credentials beyond the titles of singer and actress through her pursuits as a businesswoman, philanthropist and humanitarian. Rihanna has been named by The New York Times as one of the 100 most influential people in the world twice, in 2012 and 2018. In particular, her Savage X Fenty lingerie line, as well as Fenty Beauty, her cosmetics brand, have received notable recognition. A New York Times article dubbed her lingerie line a “body-positivity bash — now with men’s underwear and a meditation on sexuality.” The article went on to discuss how her lingerie shows marked a move toward embracing diversity: “The Savage x Fenty show ushered in a new era of lingerie, replacing the airbrushed fantasy of Victoria’s Secret sexiness with a forceful display of inclusivity.” However, Rihanna’s cultural icon status is something of a paradox. Her embrace of diversity is accompanied by actions that contradict her ideals. Rihanna, on numerous occasions, has been a perpetrator of cultural appropriation, especially with her beauty and lingerie lines. While we can laud her for her progressive approach in terms of size, color and sexuality, we must not let this obscure her otherwise problematic position regarding Orientalism and cultural appropriation. Rihanna’s forays into cultural appropriation could be seen back in 2020, when she came under fire for using Hadiths as part of the music for her lingerie show. “Doom,” created by Coucou Chloe, remixed a Hadith that talks about Judgment Day. This song played in the background while models strutted down the runway in
their lingerie. Hadiths are sacred and religous texts in Islamic cultures containing the actions and words of Prophet Muhammad. They are not decorative words or lyrics to be used as an aesthetic during events like lingerie shows. They do not reflect Rihanna’s reach toward diversity and the inclusion of all voices. Following great outrage, Savage X Fenty and Rihanna released a statement of apology and replaced the song track. According to CNN, they stated, “We have nothing but the utmost respect and love for the Muslim community. All Fenty brands have been founded on the notion of inclusivity and respect to all, and this was an unfortunate mistake on our part. We will be vigilant going forward to ensure this is never repeated.” The irony of the statement was that this sort of mistake was indeed repeated — more than once. In March 2021, Fenty Beauty released a new shade of red highlighter called “Geisha Chic.” Geishas, as per Japanese tradition, refer to women who work as professional entertainers. The brand’s casual usage of this phrase for a highlighter ignores the history behind it and the meaning it carries in Japanese culture. The resulting outcry from members of the public pointed out that the term erases the oppressive history of geishas and caters to Western palettes. Fenty Beauty issued an apology, with Rihanna herself making no statement this time. Rihanna’s attempts to be inclusive often come in the form of taking advantage of someone else’s culture. It appears as though her efforts at inclusivity are still catered toward Western audiences with little regard to the actual cultural weight of the people she is attempting to include. This surface-level attempt only ends up being disrespectful and racist. Similarly, in February 2021, Rihanna herself posed topless while sporting a Ganesha pendant on her neck.
Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons Rihanna performs at the 2016 Concert for Valor in Washington, D.C.
Ganesha, an elephant-headed Hindu deity, is largely worshipped in India as the remover of obstacles. Along with many other Hindu symbols, Ganesha has long been culturally appropriated by the West: Beach shirts, tattoos and other merchandise often include these symbols. Rihanna’s move only furthers this history and works to sexualize a sacred god in Hindu religion. This time, there was no apology at all. The main problem here is that, while Rihanna purports to be a champion of inclusivity and diversity, her actions fall short of many of her claims. Additionally, her dealings with cultural appropriation have not just been one-off occurrences, but a long list of repeated actions. When we dub her a cultural icon of inclusivity and progress, we accept her actions as embodiments of this goal of progress, which they are not. This is why, while we laud Rihanna, we must equally talk about her shortcomings, working to ensure she is not allowed to indulge in cultural appropriation again without ramifications.
The gun control conversation is more complicated than you may think BY KATE MURRAY ’22 STAFF WRITER
Content warning: This article contains discussion of racism, gun violence and hate crimes. In the wake of several mass shootings last month, including the anti-Asian hate crimes in the Atlanta area, conversations about gun violence are resurfacing in political and personal circles alike. Having witnessed an exorbitant number of deaths from mass shootings in the past few decades, many Americans are still scratching their heads and wondering why the United States can’t seem to adequately address gun violence. For me and many others, the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 was the point of no return. If a mass shooting resulting in the deaths of 20 small children wasn’t enough to persuade politicians that we need stricter gun laws, it’s difficult to fathom what will. This prompted me to do a deeper dive into the gun control debate in America, attempting to get to the root of why our country is so hesitant to embrace gun control measures and, as a result, witnesses significantly more gun-related deaths than most other wealthy nations. The answer is more complex than it appears.
My curiosity first led me to investigate our Second for different reasons. “Guns are, in part, an equalizing Amendment right to bear arms, including its histori- force,” she told me. Just like early Americans wantcal context and how it has come to be a talking point ed to protect themselves against powerful outsiders, of modern right-wing groups to justify a lack of gun groups throughout history, like the Black Panther Parcontrol legislation. Just like I remembered learning ty in the 1960s and ’70s, wanted the right to possess in grade school, the newly independent Americans in weapons as a means of self-defense against their opthe late 1700s wanted to insupressors. According to Daily, late themselves from tyranny their rationale was, “We need as much as possible after sufarms because we have to take At the heart of this conversation are care of us. As long as [the pofering decades of oppression under the British monarchy. lice] have guns, we need to fundamental questions about politThey wanted to ensure that have them too.” ical rights: what they are and how citizens had a right to protect In thinking more about the they can be infringed upon. themselves from foreign invadright to bear arms, I began to ers who may try to seize their see how the gun control debate property. Thus, they wrote in is about much more than just the Constitution, “The right of the people to keep and weapons. At the heart of this conversation are funbear Arms, shall not be infringed.” damental questions about political rights: what they For more context on how the Second Amendment are and how they can be infringed upon. Those who has been interpreted throughout history, I spoke to claim that legislations such as universal background Mount Holyoke Visiting Lecturer in Politics Anna checks are unconstitutional believe that simply makDaily, a political theorist and professor of the Ameri- ing it harder to purchase a firearm is a violation of can Political Thought course. Daily explained that the their liberties. On the flip side, gun control advocates “right to bear arms’’ has been lauded by both the poCONTINUED ON PAGE 12 u litical Right and Left at different moments in history
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Investigating the roots of gun control legislation, cont’d
Illinois at Chicago writes in “Narratives of White Male Citizenship and the American Debate Over Guns,” “Guns are potent political symbols, and many people, believe that they have the right to be protected from especially white Americans, view guns as a defining mass shooters who are unquestionably unfit to wield component of political membership.” I also believe this to be a manifestation of white protectionism — the a deadly weapon. belief that whites are a threatI also noticed how you ened, marginalized group and can’t analyze the issue of gun deserve protection. For many violence and the right to bear The pervasiveness of gun violence white citizens, supporting the arms without acknowledging right to bear arms may be their the ways they intersect with cannot be adequately addressed response to the growing raother topics like race and without considering many intercial and ethnic diversity of the mental health. The Washingsecting factors, including American country, which they view as a ton Post found that there is a threat to their dominant racial strong correlation between history, patriotic symbolism, racism caste position. race, gun ownership and a perand mental health stigma. In recent decades, mental son’s beliefs about guns. White health has also been at the Americans are much more forefront of the gun control likely than other racial groups to own guns and oppose gun control legislation. Many debate. Stigmatizing rhetoric has been a key strategy of them view gun ownership as integral to their na- of right-wing groups in the wake of mass shootings, tional identity and a necessary possession for a good turning the conversation about gun control into an incitizen. As Dr. Alexandra Filindra of the University of dividual rather than institutional problem. When the
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(Sandberg attended Harvard). While she has likely experienced discrimination as a Jewish woman, Sandberg’s lack of awareness regarding the difficulties women of other financial or ethnic backgrounds face in the workplace does not lend well to her credibility. Additionally, she didn’t have to fight her way up the corporate ladder to get the position of COO; it was offered to her by Mark Zuckerberg. Recently, as Facebook has come under fire for its questionable security practices, Sandberg’s credibility has been under scrutiny as well. In an article about the Lean In Foundation, the New York Times journalist Nellie Bowles said that it was hard for her “to reckon with the idea that we have taken life and career advice from someone who could be building something that’s not good for the world.” Whether we are considering political leaders or high-powered businesswomen, we have to be allowed to speak our opinions without ridicule. Calling the practices of a woman in power into question is not an attack — it is not stating the belief that they are a bad person or that they are not inspirational. In fact, it is our civic duty to question the people we put or want to put in power, regardless of their gender. Doing so is not misogynistic, nor is it pandering to men, and it is shocking that some of the loudest proponents of women’s rights believe that is the case. If mainstream feminism continues in this way, its advocates will end up demonizing the very people they claim to be helping. Shooting yourself in the foot won’t help you raise your fist any higher.
gunman is young and white, they are typically labeled as a “troubled youth” plagued by mental illness. Not only is it extremely problematic to be weaponizing mental illness, but framing the issue of gun violence in this way allows politicians to remain unaccountable for these atrocities. Daily agrees with this point, saying, “The tools we have access to influence our actions. They’re not separate relationships.” By deflecting the blame onto the individual and pathologizing people with mental illnesses, the root cause of gun violence — a lack of gun control regulations — is left unaddressed. The U.S. has a troubling track record of inadequately responding to incidents of gun violence, including mass shootings and hate crimes. Many more innocent lives, close to 40,000 a year, will be lost as our politicians continue to debate this issue. The pervasiveness of gun violence cannot be adequately addressed without considering many intersecting factors, including American history, patriotic symbolism, racism and mental health stigma. Perhaps analyzing the issue in a more holistic way will result in substantive change.
amazing breadth of library research tools available to student and faculty researchers,” Burke continued. “With professional development opportunities, curiosity and the guidance of my library colleagues, I have been able to develop an expertise in library research that has allowed me to broaden my skills in supporting researchers at Mount Holyoke.” Bidlack shared a similar sentiment: “I love teaching and learning; being a librarian means that you’re learning new things in a variety of disciplines every day. Librarianship is a very interdisciplinary profession that requires an understanding of many different methodologies and approaches to research.” Fields, whose work primarily centers around the Mount Holyoke Archives, also shared her story. “I became interested in working as an archivist thanks to an assignment I had as an undergraduate. I was taking a research methods class that included a class visit to the college archives and a project with archival materials. When I started to read a diary from a student in the 1920s who lived in the same dormitory that I was living in, I was hooked. Here I was reading someone else’s diary — who knew you were allowed to do that?” she said. “And then I looked around and saw that there were people working in this space, whose job it was to work with all of these people and stories of the past, and I wanted to do that too,” concluded Fields. As the head of Archives and Special Collections,
Fields’ liaison work focuses on “introducing students to archives and archival research for the first time.” She especially enjoys when “students make a direct connection between the past and the present, and use what they learn in the Archives to engage in activism and change right now at the College and in the wider world,” she said. Bidlack works as a liaison and manager of Research Services, where she “teach[es] class sessions on information literacy and research, provide[s] support for faculty for research assignments and course materials, consult[s] with students and select[s] materials for the library collection.” Similar to Fields, Bidlack also enjoys connecting people to resources that can then connect them to other people. Bidlack noted that “doing research is often like working a puzzle. Both involve finding the right piece — or source — at the right time and shifting your perspective … as needed throughout the process.” Burke emphasized that “the best part of working as a library liaison is the opportunity to learn about and discuss the research ideas and projects of faculty and students. It’s interesting and enjoyable to help them think about ways to structure their questions and get the materials or data they need to be successful. I enjoy being part of the Mount Holyoke community. It’s exciting to be part of the professional community of academic libraries across the world.” Making things work during the pandemic has added some difficulty, but the librarians are still hard at work. “Even though we’re working remotely right now, Research Services and my LITS colleagues are here to support students,” Bidlack said.
April 8, 2021
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ENVIRONMENTAL
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What are the environmental implications of the Suez Canal blockage? BY ABBY WESTER ’22 STAFF WRITER
On March 23, the 1,312-foot-long container ship Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is a human-made waterway in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean and Red seas, providing the shortest maritime route from Asia to Europe. The Ever Given blocked the canal for six days, leaving more than 400 ships stranded. An average of 50 ships pass through the Suez Canal daily, moving about $9.6 billion worth of goods. This blockage’s impact is expected to continue reverberating throughout supply chains, affecting prices and delaying the arrival of products. Along with its effects on the global economy, this crisis has also had an impact on the environment. With the passageway blocked for nearly a week, some ships anchored in the surrounding waters while waiting for the Ever Given to be freed. Others opted to shift trade routes to sail around the southern coast of Africa. The BBC estimated that the usual shipping route from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, would take about 25.5 days using the Suez Canal. The route around the southern coast of Africa takes 34 days. The shipping industry emits 1 billion tons of greenhouse gases each year, and the longer shipping route will result in higher emissions, adding to environmental harm. Investigations into why the Ever Given became stuck in the Suez Canal are ongoing, but early theories suggested that strong winds were a contributing
Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons A large container ship called the Ever Given sat stuck in the Suez Canal for six days, which could have long-lasting impacts on global trade.
factor to the ship’s grounding. According to Business Insider, Egypt is currently at the beginning of the 50day season called the khamsin, which results in powerful dust storms blowing in from the Sahara. While investigations have not concluded that winds were the cause of the Ever Given running aground, writers at the Maritime Executive state: “The historical frequency of powerful crosswinds blowing across the canal needs to be examined and evaluation needs to estab-
lish whether climate change would increase the future frequency of such winds.” Global shipping networks and the health of the environment are highly interdependent. As humans produce, demand and ship more goods, the environment and global economic supply chain become more strained. The grounding of the Ever Given is a reminder of our increasing globalization and reliance on the natural world.
‘Our Voices, Our Platforms’: Weissman Center hosts a Green New Deal virtual town hall with Senator Edward Markey and Carmen Yulín Cruz
Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons Senator Ed Markey, a passionate climate advocate, spoke virtually alongside former Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz at Mount Holyoke Wednesday.
BY MERYL PHAIR ’21 ENVIRONMENTAL EDITOR
Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey and Carmen Yulín Cruz, former mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and current Harriet L. Weissman and Paul M. Weissman distinguished fellow in leadership at Mount
Holyoke College, met in conversation for a virtual we- it became clear to her how climate change isn’t taken binar-style town hall on April 7 at 11:30 a.m. EDT. The seriously. “We are talking about people’s lives,” she town hall was the second of the “Our Voices, Our Plat- emphasized. forms” series, created through a collaboration of the She stressed that those who are disadvantaged Weissman Center for Leaderexperience the worst impacts ship and the Miller Worley of climate change. Turning to Center for the Environment Markey, Cruz asked when his “Cruz spoke of her experience with turning point was regarding with co-sponsored support from the McCulloch Center for the impacts of climate change. Hurricane Maria in 2017 as the Global Initiatives and the DiviMarkey remembered Cruz’s mayor of San Juan, describing it as sion of Student Life. The event remarkable leadership during the moment when ‘climate change included questions from curthe Hurricane Maria crisis. rent Mount Holyoke College He recalled how his own vishit the island of Puerto Rico.’ Cruz students. it to Puerto Rico opened his described how after the hurricane, After introductions from eyes to the magnitude of the it became clear to her how climate Director of the Weissman Cendamage wrought by climate ter for Leadership and Profeschange-induced disasters and change isn’t taken seriously. ‘We sor of English Amy Martin, breadth of aid needed to are talking about people’s lives,’ she the Director of the Miller Worley recover. emphasized.” Center for the Environment Markey spoke about his and Associate Professor of childhood in Malden, MassaEnvironmental Studies Olivia chusetts, where he lived four Aguilar and Mount Holyoke blocks from the Malden River. College President Sonya Stephens, Cruz started the His mother would often warn him not to swim in the conversation. river because of the pollution. Nearby coal companies Cruz spoke of her experience with Hurricane Ma- had come to use the river as their own sewer, turning ria in 2017 as the mayor of San Juan, describing it as the moment when “climate change hit the island of CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 u Puerto Rico.” Cruz described how after the hurricane,
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Governor Charlie Baker commits state to net-zero emissions by 2050 BY MERYL PHAIR ’21 ENVIRONMENTAL EDITOR
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed a new climate bill committing the state to a net-zero carbon emission target by 2050. The new law, called “An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy,” is the most significant change in the commonwealth’s climate policy since the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2008. It was signed on Friday, March 26, ending a months-long debate over the bill, which included an initial veto by Baker this past January. The new law sets ambitious climate goals for the state besides the 2050 target. The law outlines a drop of 50 percent from statewide carbon emission levels set in 1990 by 2030 and a further reduction of 75 percent by 2040. The bill also requires emission reduction in six key priority sectors: electricity, transportation, commercial and industrial buildings, residential buildings, industrial processes and natural gas distribution. Previously, environmental justice policy in Massachusetts was solely created through executive orders, which were reflective of changes within new administrations. Now, environmental justice definitions and processes have been placed into law. The state has defined what constitutes an environmental justice community and initiated new processes for public participation through the establishment of an environmental justice advisory council to work with the Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs secretary. The law has updated Massachusetts’ “stretch codes,” optional mandates for municipalities to set requirements for energy efficient buildings. Cities will
now be able to require net-zero buildings. Other requirements of the bill include updating priorities for the Department of Public Utilities which regulates Massachusetts’ electric and natural gas. These new priorities include increasing renewable energy resources, reducing regulations and financial risks to boost utility companies’ experimentation with clean energy technologies, setting new energy efficiency standards for household appliances, creating targets for electric vehicles and charging stations, prompting solar power and increasing opportunities for clean energy job training programs. The bill will also increase the annual budget of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The budget increase will allow for more clean energy workforce development with additional job training opportunities for minority groups, residents of environmental justice communities and fossil fuel workers. There will also be more available grants for minority- and women-owned small businesses. “By signing this bill, Governor Baker has taken the first step in addressing this injustice, giving communities of color and low-income communities more effective tools to protect their health and environment from pollution,” Sofia Owen, a staff attorney for Alternatives for Community and Environment, a Massachusetts-based environmental justice group, said in a statement. The new law is a significant step for Baker in terms of climate action. During his 2010 campaign for governor, when he lost to Democratic incumbent Deval Patrick, he evaded confirming his belief in climate change. The Republican governor now considers climate change an urgent challenge that requires direct
Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons The newly introduced laws are a win for Governor Charlie Baker, who originally campaigned on a platform of environmentalism in 2010.
action. “This legislation will reduce emissions in Massachusetts for decades to come while also ensuring the Commonwealth remains economically competitive,” Baker said in a press release. “We are proud to have worked closely with the Legislature to produce bipartisan legislation that will advance clean energy sources and secure a healthy, livable environment for future generations.”
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the waters black. Markey says that this story of an urban polluted environment is true for community after community across the country. He spoke about how this experience showed him the importance of engaging in actions to clean the planet because pollution will impact those who are most vulnerable. Cruz then asked what sparked the interaction and collaboration with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the formation of the Green New Deal, noting that she would love nothing more than to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. Markey explained how two weeks after Ocasio-Cortez had been elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018, he called her and asked if she would like to have lunch. “We talked for over two hours about the ability to create a Green New Deal,” Markey said. He spoke about how the formation of the Green New Deal was so much more than infrastructure legislation but inspired the creation of a political movement of young people. “What we were attempting to create was a political climate crisis army that would arrive for the 2020 elections,” Markey said. The Green New Deal has laid much of the groundwork for Biden’s current infrastructure plans, and Markey considers it one of the most successful political movements in American
Photo courtesy of Joanna Chattman and Mount Holyoke College Carmen Yulín Cruz recently joined Mount Holyoke’s Weissman Center.
history. Cruz posed the question of what environmental justice really means, to which Markey used the example of Chelsea, Massachusetts, a community with a large immigrant population. The city, located near Boston Logan International Airport, stores all the oil used by Massachusetts. When COVID-19 hit, Chelsea was one of the most impacted communities within the United States because the respiratory illness reacted with underlying issues within the community, such as asthma, created by environmental conditions. Markey spoke to the essential need for funding from the Green New Deal to focus on those who have borne the brunt of pollution from the fossil fuel industry’s strategies over the last century. “That means putting front-line communities at the front of the line for the new jobs,” Markey said. Cruz then turned questions over to Mount Holyoke students. Robin Kerr ’21 posed a question about how the Green New Deal was centering uplifting Indigenous voices. Hareem Khan ’20 asked how the Green New Deal addresses food justice. Isabel Wholin ’21 asked about what role college and university campuses play in reaching the Green New Deal’s carbon neutrality goals. Cruz concluded with a note for Mount Holyoke students that what happens on Mount Holyoke’s campus reverberates everywhere.
April 8, 2021
. Mount Holyoke News
ENVIRONMENTAL
Study finds bottom trawling is a major pollutant
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Weekly Climate News April 8, 2021
Flooding in Australia has forced over 20,000 people to evacuate and over 150 schools to close down. Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons Bottom trawling, an invasive fishing practice, was recently found to have carbon dioxide pollutant levels as high as some passenger airplanes.
BY HELEN GLOEGE ’23 STAFF WRITER
The ocean covers over two-thirds of the Earth’s surface and acts as a major heat and carbon sink. Despite the role it plays in mitigating climate change, it bears the brunt of our warming planet, with impacts heavily felt by marine species and ocean ecosystems. A recent study published in the scientific journal Nature found that bottom trawling emits as much carbon dioxide annually as airplanes. Bottom trawling is notorious for causing damage to ecosystems, as various forms of marine life are caught unintentionally in nets. The trawlers also release carbon dioxide emissions into the ocean by disrupting carbon-rich sediments when raking the sea floor. Marine sediments have the largest pool of carbon storage in the world. The study found that, as of 2016, 1.47 gigatons of carbon a year were released by trawling, more than Japan’s annual emissions. After trawling occurs, the area isn’t immediately depleted of carbon. Instead, emissions are released for up to 400 years at a rate of 40 percent of the initial year’s emissions as new layers are disrupted. This means that even if trawling were to stop, carbon dioxide would still be emitted for the next 400 years. The study recommends that countries document ocean emissions along with land-based emissions. This inventory will hold the trawling industry accountable and prevent future illegal trawling. To stop 90 percent of seabed emissions from trawling, it was estimated that only 3.6 percent of the ocean would need to be protected. The study also mapped out areas of the ocean that, if given adequate protection, would assist in solving current climate, food and biodiversity crises. Only 2.7 percent of the ocean is strongly protected against human activity, and 7 percent of the ocean is under some form of protection. With stricter ocean protections, a greater percentage of the ocean could contribute to producing healthy seafood and provide a cheap, natural solution to address climate change. Focusing on these specific areas would safeguard over 80 percent of endangered species habitats and increase fishing catches. The study also analyzed the world’s unprotected ocean waters based on threats by human activity. While the study doesn’t provide a single map for ocean conservation, it offers a framework for countries to address ocean protections based on their priorities.
A vast majority of recommended locations are within 200 miles of Exclusive Economic Zones in coastal nations and additional areas in the high seas where the waters are governed by international law. Ocean life has been declining worldwide due to overfishing, habitat destruction and climate change. As of 2017, about one-third of fish stocks were fished at unsustainable levels, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. It is predicted that sustainable fish catch could drop as much as 25 percent by the end of the century. Fishing is the primary source of protein and income for many island and coastal regions. With rising temperatures, fish populations are projected to plummet and even disappear in various regions, particularly in the tropics. Fisheries are often overlooked by researchers and policymakers, as they tend to focus on land-based agriculture as a primary food source. The loss of fish as a protein source will increase pressure on other ecosystems. A large proportion of released carbon dioxide ends up in the atmosphere while some remains in the ocean. Oceans absorb over one-third of annual carbon dioxide emissions, but this is expected to slow down, and emissions not absorbed by the ocean will end up in the atmosphere. Trawling emissions are responsible for increasing ocean acidification, lowering oxygen levels and having devastating effects on the world’s coral reefs. As a result, shellfish won’t be able to develop shells, harmful algae blooms will grow and cut off fisheries and populations of fish will move toward cooler waters, leaving behind communities and economies that have depended on them for a long time. As the ocean warms and loses oxygen, animals’ bodies will reduce in size, and the distribution of fish will change the surface production of phytoplankton that fish rely on for food. The study added that if countries valued biodiversity and fish stocks equally, it would protect 45 percent of the ocean. This would lead to a 71 percent increase in maximum biodiversity benefits, a 92 percent increase in possible food benefits and a 29 percent increase in carbon benefits. The algorithm developed in the study aimed to identify regions where safeguarding would deliver the greatest benefits across the world. World leaders are expected to convene in Kunming, China, in May of this year at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, which will be the most significant biodiversity negotiation in a decade. A leading group of nations is currently calling for the conservation of 30 percent of lands and 30 percent of oceans by 2030.
The journal Geophysical Research Letters published a new study that shows summer in the Northern Hemisphere is lengthening. As a result of climate change, by the end of the century, summer could extend by nearly six months. Pope Francis made an appeal for humanity to face climate change by quoting Shakespeare, writing, “To see or not to see, that is the question.” Human activity is currently responsible for degrading two-thirds of Earth’s tropical rain forests. A NASA study has confirmed that human activities are shifting Earth’s energy budget, as more energy from the sun is being trapped than can escape back into space. A recent experiment found that coffee pulp, left over from the coffee making process, can aid in the regrowth of forests. The Biden administration announced an expansive offshore wind plan that would install enough wind turbines on the East Coast to power 10 million American homes.
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GLOBAL
COVID-19 globally: April snapshot includes vaccines
April 8, 2021
. Mount Holyoke News
Senegal erupts in protests after arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko BY MADHAVI RAO ’24 STAFF WRITER
Content warning: This article discusses rape allegations and police brutality.
Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons Map shows global distribution levels of vaccines in countries with COVID-19. Darker shades represent more vaccines.
BY SOPHIE SOLOWAY ’23 GLOBAL EDITOR
There had been 132,775,013 cumulative cases of the COVID-19 virus across the world as of April 7, 2021. The United States continues to lead this number with 30,907,352 confirmed cases — the highest in the entire world. As vaccinations become more accessible and cases continue to rise, inequities in treatment and testing continue to exacerbate the health crisis. Brazil and India follow the U.S. with the highest number of cases in the world, each having about 13 million cumulative cases as of April 7. Both countries are countering these rates with vaccination rollout. India has the third highest number of doses given; 0.8 percent of the country is fully vaccinated. Brazil is currently increasing its rollout, with over 2 percent of the country having already received the vaccine. The U.S. currently has the greatest number of vaccinations administered in the world, with over 60 million citizens — approximately 18.7 percent of the population — already vaccinated. Mainland China follows, with 145,920,000 doses administered. There is little data available to detail how many Chinese citizens have been fully vaccinated. An estimated 4.6 percent of the world is currently vaccinated. Unequal access to vaccinations on a global scale has blocked several countries from administering any vaccinations to their citizens. Some international health organizations — like COVAX, which has set a goal to vaccinate one-fifth of select populations — have begun to purchase and administer vaccines in an attempt to counter this inequality.
In the past few weeks, protests have spread across Senegal, spurred by the arrest of the opposition party leader Ousmane Sonko. Sonko was arrested for rape, a charge many consider false and politically motivated given that the current head of the Senegalese government has a history of creating legal charges to suppress opponents. Despite this, In 2019, Senegal was categorized as one of the most democratic countries in Africa by the Economist Intelligence Unit. On March 3, Sonko was detained by police on the Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons way to his court hearing concerning allegations of Politician Ousmane Sonko’s arrest due to allegtions of sexual violence rape. The victim, a woman who works at a massage resulted in human rights protests across Senegal over the past weeks. parlor, stated that Sonko was a frequent visitor of her The protesters, mainly Senegalese youth, also obparlor and that he propositioned her, attacking her when she refused, according to The New York Times. jected to the lack of job opportunities in the country, As protests surrounding the detainment began, Sonko economic issues exacerbated by the poor handling of was arrested on charges of insurrection, reported Am- the pandemic and a president they consider dictatorinesty International. Sonko has denied the rape allega- al, according to The New York Times. The protests are tion, stating that the charges were politically motivat- also aimed at French companies that seem to be profiting from Senegalese markets ed. According to BBC News, he while domestic companies accused President of Senegal struggle, reported Al-Jazeera. Macky Sall of removing his op“This message of economic ponents before the upcoming “In a country where [about 60] independence resonates very election in 2024. percent of the population is under well with the youth in Sene“There is genuine fear 25 and remain[s] chronically ungal who believe that France’s and [a] widespread percepinvolvement in Senegal’s econtion among the populace that employed, the arrest of Sonko was omy stifles locally owned busi[Macky] Sall is deliberately usa spark in denouncing the governnesses and contributes to their ing old tricks to silence possiment’s mistreatment of this group.” unemployment,” Owinga said. ble opponents in the 2024 elec“Economic problems in Senetions … as [in] the 2019 general gal have also been exacerbated elections,” Visiting Lecturer in - Soukenya Abbott ’20 by the COVID curfews, which Politics at Mount Holyoke Bonhave forced many small busifas Owinga explained. nesses to close down and negIf convicted, Sonko would be imprisoned for up to 10 years and banned from atively affected the informal economy, which supports participating in the 2024 election. This, according to the majority of the population.” The largely peaceful demonstrations were met Bloomberg, is what happened to Khalifa Sall, the former mayor of Senegal’s capital city Dakar. Khalifa with harsh police crackdowns, resulting in the deaths Sall was widely expected to run for president during of at least five protesting individuals, according to the 2019 elections. Moreover, Bloomberg reported Al-Jazeera. “We reiterate our call on the authorities to that there are some in the opposition who worry that launch impartial investigations into the circumstances Macky Sall plans to amend the country’s constitution, of these deaths, and we urge them to ensure people allowing presidents to remain in office for more than can safely exercise their right to peaceful assembly, the current two consecutive terms. BBC News stated as protected under the country’s constitution and inthat Sonko would have been Macky Sall’s only remain- ternational law,” Director of Amnesty International’s West and Central African chapter Samira Daoud stating challenger in the upcoming election. “I think the youth see Sonko as a shift [away] from ed. In response to the deaths, Macky Sall announced a the current president and the political climate in Sen- national day of mourning on March 11. “As a Senegalese abroad, it was scary to hear egal. Sonko is one of the politicians who has loudly denounced France’s heavy economic involvement in Sen- about all the protests because the police were being egal,” Soukenya Abbott ’20, a Mount Holyoke graduate pretty violent, and at one point they had shut down from Senegal, explained. “In a country where [about YouTube and WhatsApp audio messages, … photos 60] percent of the population is under 25 and remain[s] and videos,” Abbott explained. “I think overall the chronically unemployed, the arrest of Sonko was a whole situation showed a shift in Senegalese politics spark in denouncing the government’s mistreatment and the youth showing the current government that they will not be ignored.” of this group, especially since the pandemic began.”
April 8, 2021
GLOBAL
. Mount Holyoke News
17
Murder sparks conversation on anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in Belgium BY ZOË FARR ’21 MANAGING EDITOR OF WEB
Content warning: This article contains mentions of domestic abuse, assault and homophobia. Early in the morning on Saturday, March 6, the body of 42-year-old David Polfliet was discovered in a park in Beveren, Belgium. According to a report in the Flemish newspaper De Standaard, a 17-year-old turned himself in to the police, who later arrested him, a 16-year-old and a another 17-year-old as the perpetrators of Polfliet’s murder. The group used a dating app to lure Polfliet to the park. It remains unclear at this time if the trio intended to murder Polfliet or to physically abuse him. While the assumed motive for the crime is homophobia, the public prosecutor has said that the investigation is still open and they have not as of yet labeled Polfliet’s murder a hate crime. Should the motive be found to be anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, this would be Belgium’s first hate crime homicide in nine years since the murder of Ihsane Jarfi in 2012. According to Out magazine, Polfliet was an out student from a village near Sint-Niklaas while the suspects were allegedly part of a group known to attack members of the LGBTQ+ community. On March 9, in response to Polfliet’s murder, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo tweeted in support of the LGBTQ+ community, saying, “In our country, there is no place for hatred. Love wins.” Additionally, the rainbow flag was flown outside De Croo’s office. This is not the first time De Croo has denounced anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment as prime minister. In November 2020, De Croo spoke out against anti-LGBTQ+ violence in Poland after far-right Polish nationalists marched in Warsaw and attempted to burn a rainbow flag with fireworks, causing a fire to break out. In response to the incident, De Croo contacted the Belgian Embassy in Warsaw and began compiling a response with other European countries. According to The Brussels Times, De Croo hoped to bring the spirit of change to Belgium. “If you want to change the world, you have to make sure that you start at home,” he said. Despite De Croo’s actions, Belgium has been dealing with anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment for years, as seen with Polfliet’s murder, Jarfi’s murder and many other cases. In December 2020, a young gay man identified only as Eric was punched in the face and called slurs while walking in Charleroi, Belgium. Despite being attacked in broad daylight, Eric told TÊTU, a French LGBTQ+ magazine, that he felt he couldn’t report the incident to the police due to his experience with the police, who he said were dismissive of a previous abuse complaint of his own. Polfliet’s family has cautioned against labeling his murder a hate crime prematurely, as the investigation is still underway. According to The Brussels Times, the family released a statement through their lawyer, Laurent De Clercq. The statement reads, “Let us first wait for the investigation. The family feels tremendously supported and comforted by the deep compassion from society, but the fact that [Polfliet] is now being portrayed as a martyr does not help their cause. … Gay-bashing is a major social issue and should cer-
Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons David Polfliet’s murder, which occurred in Beveren, Belgium, has not yet been labeled a hate crime, though homophobia is the suspected motive.
Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo denounced homophobia once again following Polfliet’s murder, after years of similar sentiment.
tainly be debated, but only if there are elements that indicate this. At the moment the family mainly asks for a little more serenity so that they can start the grieving process.” According to the 2021 ILGA-Europe’s Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex people in Europe and Central Asia, throughout 2020, there was a multitude of crimes perpetrated against LGBTQ+ people in Belgium. In September 2020, a young woman was physically assaulted after kissing another woman in Brussels. There is an ongoing investigation into this issue. According to the 2020 Annual Review, in May 2019, the Brussels Secretary of State for Equal Opportunities stated that nine out of 10 LGBTQ+ individuals “have been targeted by verbal or psychological abuse.” In August 2020, an investigation into Criminal System, a Telegram group chat that promotes hate speech and violence against the LGBTQ+ community, began. The group chat came under investigation after a video recording of a young person’s abuse went viral. The ILGA-Europe reviews detail the efforts to address bigotry in Belgium against the LGBTQ+ community. In May 2018, the Belgian federal government launched its second “Action plan against LGBTI-phobic discrimination and violence,” a 2018-19 plan that included 115 steps to combat discrimination and violence. The first plan expired in 2014. In 2020, the Flemish Parliament began mandatory education for high school students on gender and sexual identity. There have also been reforms added to the legal gender recognition law, a coalition agreement that allows all Belgian citizens to determine their own gender identity.. In 2019, there were several pride parades in Belgium, including the first queer Pride parade in Ghent and the first POC Pride parade in Antwerp. Even though Belgium has begun to publicly celebrate queer people and people of color in pride parades, attacks on out queer individuals are still prevalent. In the December 2020 attack, Eric felt he couldn’t utilize the legal system due to homophobia within the police department. According to Netherlands News, the suspects in Polfliet’s murder had carried out robberies on gay men before, choosing these victims due to the suspects’ belief they would not report the crimes to the police. According to gender studies major Evelyn Kirby ’21, the appearance of declining anti-LGBTQ+ senti-
ment is centered around who in the LGBTQ+ community is able to integrate into preexisting social norms. “I think that the appearance of a decline in anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment has a lot to do with the assimilationist push within the gay rights movement that distanced white cis gay people in particular from queer identities that are less palatable within heteronormative society,” Kirby said. “The national legalization of gay marriage is a really prominent example of homonormativity being the main narrative of progress for LGBTQ+ people, which excludes people whose bodies and relationships present more of a problem to the dominant social order.” This thought process can be seen in Belgium’s governmental treatment of trans citizens. In 2020, two trans men were denied reimbursement for a pap smear and a morning after pill due to Belgian law solely providing health care coverage for those whose legal gender is female. In an attempt to create symbolic gestures of governmental support for LGBTQ+ citizens, the repercussions of these actions were overlooked. “That’s a hazard of lawmaking, … that you haven’t necessarily thought through all the consequences of the law until you see it in action,” Assistant Professor of International Relations and Politics at Mount Holyoke Christopher Mitchell said. “This reminds me of, in particular, when Vermont enacted the civil unions law. Prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Vermont, they created a legally equivalent but not so named married civil union,” Mitchell said. “But they forgot to include a divorce provision for non-Vermonters. While non-Vermonters could get married in Vermont, there was no legal way to dissolve a civil union. The Vermont legislature had to scramble to tack on a civil union divorce provision for out-of-staters. These are the sort of things that have unforeseen consequences.’” After the Netherlands, Belgium was the second country in the world to legalize gay marriage in 2003. In a 2012 interview, Elio Di Rupo, the first openly gay Belgian prime minister, stated his belief that Belgium had become less tolerant over the years. Should Polfliet’s death be found a hate crime, it would be further indication of the continuing prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community that exists in Belgium. It is uncertain at this time whether or not the suspects in Polfliet’s murder will be tried in juvenile court. If the nature of Polfliet’s death is confirmed as a hate crime, the suspects could be tried as adults.
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COMMUNITY
Lil Nas X blends Christian and queer imagery, cont’d u
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
Among the Flames Before Lil Nas X can complete his ascension to the heavens, a pole shoots up from below and slides into his right hand. Suddenly, he undergoes yet another transformation, sporting thigh-high stiletto heels and artfully gliding down the pole. His hair is now in bright red waist-length braids. The lower he travels, the stronger the glow of red lights becomes. Eventually, it becomes clear that the singer has entered hell. Rather than falling or stumbling into the inferno, he makes a grand entrance via dance pole. This part of the video bears a strong resemblance to a scene from FKA twigs’ music video for the song “cellophane.” After the English singer contacted Lil Nas X to point out the similarities between their projects, the artist acknowledged that his creative team had taken inspiration from her work. The two even had the same choreographer for each video. Without an escort, we then see Lil Nas X strut his way into Satan’s palatial den. He seems to know exactly where he needs to go. We never see him knock, nor does anyone greet him along his journey. Despite this, the palace doors seamlessly open and close for him as if someone, perhaps the devil, is expecting his arrival. He whispers into the ear of the devil himself before climbing onto his lap for a dance. Eventually, standing behind the throne, he trails one hand down the devil’s chest before violently snapping his neck and seizing his crown. The instant the crown touches his head, a large pair of black wings unfurl from his back, identical to those that had appeared on the shadow figure earlier. Having reached his final form and embraced his sexuality, Lil Nas X usurps his greatest enemy and takes over as the king of hell.
Tuition raise, cont’d u
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
second mortgages out on their homes. That is insane,” Rivkin said. “This is not a time where there is prosperity in our country. This is a time where people are hurting.” This sentiment is reflected in the petition itself, which reads, “Mount Holyoke College is a beautiful place that should not be only accessible to those who can afford it.” “Raising the tuition will cut down on the diversity of the student body,” Rivkin said. “By raising it, you are creating something that’s only available to those who can afford it. That is not right and that is not the reflection of a college I want to represent.”
April 8, 2021
. The Mount Holyoke News