Mount Holyoke News — April 22, 2021

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SGA holds ad hoc senate meeting about tuition increase

BY LIZ LEWIS ’22 PUBLISHER & NEWS EDITOR

Concerned members of the Mount Holyoke community gathered at the open senate meeting this week seeking clarification on the tuition increase for the 2021-2022 academic year. On Thursday, April 15, the Student Government Association called a special ad hoc senate meeting to address the decision to raise the comprehensive fee. The meeting, a Q&A session with several members of the administration including College President Sonya Stephens, was open to the entire Mount Holyoke community.

Since early April, a petition to reverse the College’s decision to raise the comprehensive fee to $73,098 has been circulating within the Mount Holyoke community. The petition, which was written by Ailey Rivkin FP ’22 and Gaby Barber ’23, demands that the College lower the comprehensive fee to match that of the 2019-2020 academic year at $67,578. If the administration is unable to comply, the petition requests a detailed statement explaining how the College plans to use the additional funding accumulated as a result of the rise in tuition.

As part of this mobilization effort, Barber, Rivkin and the SGA executive board arranged an open senate meeting to address the concerns of the student body. The meeting was coordinated and organized by Chair of Senate Jane Kvederas ’22 and moderated by Chair of Halls Phoebe Murtagh ’21. Stephens, Vice President for Finance and Administration Shannon Gurek and Vice President for Enrollment Management Robin Randall served as panelists. A couple dozen students were in attendance, as well as several other members of the administration.

The meeting functioned largely as a Q&A session. Murtagh presented the panel with questions which had been submitted by students through an open form on Embark prior to the event. The questions concerned the comprehensive fee increase of over $5,000 from the 20192020 academic year, including how the administration arrived at that decision,

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whether or not the student body was consulted or considered in the process and what factors made this decision financially necessary for the College.

Gurek came prepared with a series of PowerPoint slides about the College budget. The charts she presented detailed the College’s sources of revenue, expenses and endowment.

“Gurek and … Stephens certainly came to the meeting with all of the pertinent technical information prepared,” SGA President Maya Sopory ’22 said. “I had concerns about how the increase in the comprehensive fee would affect low-income students, international students and students whose financial situation has been significantly impacted by the pandemic, all of which were addressed by Gurek and Stephens. However, despite their specific acknowledgment of the impact on these groups, I still walked away from the meeting feeling confused and worried for my friends and peers.”

According to Gurek, while needbased aid will be adjusted on a case-bycase basis, merit-based scholarships will not be. Gurek encouraged students to reapply for need-based aid if their financial capabilities have changed significantly during the pandemic. Randall noted that, because of the pandemic, the College has not been enforcing the typical financial aid application deadlines, meaning that students should apply as needed.

Furthermore, the panelists indicated during the meeting that there is significant pressure on Mount Holyoke to remain in competitive standing with other private liberal arts colleges and that this may have played a role in the decision to increase the comprehensive fee.

“I found their claim that tuition was raised partly because other colleges have done the same to keep MHC in a competitive position particularly problematic since Mount Holyoke prides itself on promoting diversity when this decision will make Mount Holyoke more exclusive and therefore less diverse,” Kvederas said. “Such decisions should

9 GLOBAL: Opinion on French hijab ban

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Photo by Trinity Kendrick ’21 The College’s comprehensive fee has risen over $5,000 since the 2019-20 school year, prompting concern.

ResLife increases student staff duty hours for S/CAs, but not pay

BY KATIE GOSS ’23 STAFF WRITER

Beginning this past school year, the hours worked by community assistants and resident advisors increased substantially without a corresponding increase in their stipend. Prior to this year, CAs and RAs were required to serve on a weekend duty rotation “a minimum of five times per semester,” according to the 2019-2020 CA job description. These duty hours were from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and the CA or RA on duty had to stay in their residence hall during this time.

In the 2020-2021 CA job description, these duty hours were increased to “a minimum of two times a week per semester.” The new duty hours are from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays. The new RA job description for the 2021-2022 academic year mentions these same increased duty hours.

The Mount Holyoke News spoke to a student currently working as a CA, who requested anonymity for job security. “I’d say that the increase[d] duty nights have been a big time drain for me because I find it hard to study or work in a produc-

12 ENVIRONMENTAL: Earth Day spread

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tive way if I’m always walking around or if a resident wants to talk,” the CA said.

Although there has been an increase in duty hours for CAs and RAs, there has not been a corresponding increase in their pay. Before these changes were made to the duty hours, students petitioned for a pay raise for these positions.

“This has definitely been an ongoing issue, even before COVID. I remember in my first year of being a CA, my sophomore year, when there was a petition going around to increase our compensation,” the CA said. “Since then, the compensation has been going up steadily, but it’s still nothing compared to [University of Massachusetts Amherst] RAs.” At many colleges and universities around the country, RAs are not only compensated for their position, but also given discounted or entirely free room and board. At UMass Amherst, RAs get a partial room and board discount as well as hourly pay.

On top of the pandemic still putting stress on everyone’s personal lives, some CAs feel that these additional work hours have added to their mental burdens.

The school did hold a “CA/RA AppreCONTINUED ON PAGE 3

14 PHOTOS: An essay on nature

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EVENTS

April 22, 2021

Mount Holyoke News Mount Holyoke News is an independent student newspaper written by and for Mount Holyoke College students since 1917.

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Event Highlights Thursday, April 22

Sightlines Tour: The World Outside My Body: Finding Freedom In Art

Through the works in this tour, we will explore and expand on the meaning of “freedom”. By understanding objects from various places and times in history, we will use these contexts to aid in the construction of our own perception of freedom through art.

1:30 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. EDT Registration is required through Embark via the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.

The Italian Program at Mount Holyoke College Presents: The Color Line: Art and Struggle for Freedom Across Continents Novelist Igiaba Scego in conversation with Candice Whitney ‘15 Moderated by Professor Ombretta Frau Igiaba Scego, born in Rome in 1974 to a family of Somali origins, is a writer and journalist. She is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, and her memoir La mia casa è dove sono won Italy’s prestigious Mondello Prize. She is a frequent contributor to the magazine Internazionale and the supplement to La Repubblica, Il Venerdì di Repubblica. Her latest novel is La linea del colore.

4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. EDT In English, free and open to the public.

Registration is required through Embark.

Friday, April 23

Mount Holyoke Review Publishing Party

Come celebrate the launching of the Mount Holyoke Review’s second publication! This gathering will feature readings of pieces newly published in the MHR. Refreshments will not be served.

4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. EDT Registration is required through Embark.

Saturday, April 24

Residential and Commuter Student Vaccine Clinic

This first-shot vaccine clinic is open to residential and approved commuter students only. The second will be on Wednesday, May 12, and faculty and staff will be invited to sign up for vaccination slots, although students are the first priority. As the clinic will be administering the Pfizer vaccine, students who sign up for their first dose on April 24 can get their second shot on campus on May 12.

Details available only to registered guests.

Registration is required through Embark.

Monday, April 26

Our Voices, Our Platforms: A virtual town hall with Congresswoman Cori Bush and Nina Turner

Congresswoman Cori Bush and former Senator Nina Turner will discuss Racial Justice in conversation with Carmen Yulin Cruz, Harriet L. Weissman and Paul M. Weissman Distinguished Fellow in Leadership at Mount Holyoke College.

4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. EDT Registration is required through Embark.

April 22, 2021

College creates Child Care Review Group

BY SOLEIL DOERING ’24 STAFF WRITER

Following a public clash over the closure of the Gorse Children’s Center and subsequent contract extension, the College announced the creation of the Child Care Review Group in an email on April 14. The group consists of 12 different faculty members and one student representative, Ananya Singh ’22.

The announcement email outlined the group’s mission, stating, “The CCRG will take a broad and forward-looking view of support for working parents — one aligned both with our mission to advance gender equity and the College’s resource constraints — and will make its recommendations no later than June 15, 2021.”

Gary Gillis, associate dean of faculty, professor of biological sciences and director of the Science Center, and Jennifer Jacoby, associate professor of

psychology and education and director of the first-year seminar program, will act as co-chairs of the CCRG. “We will be working for the next eight weeks to gather relevant data, survey members of the broader MHC community and synthesize research on child care options and programs for our final report, which is due on June 15,” Jacoby and Gillis said in a joint email to the Mount Holyoke News.

The creation of the CCRG is the latest development in Mount Holyoke’s attempts to remedy the harm caused by the Feb. 24 announcement that the Gorse Children’s Center would be closing within a year. The initial statement sparked outrage from the College community, leading to a letter of protest and a petition that gathered hundreds of signatures, as well as a protest at the gates. President of the College Sonya Stephens responded with an email apologizing for the stress caused by this an-

nouncement. The College followed up a few days later, announcing an “interim solution” to keep Gorse open past July 2021.

According to Gillis, the CCRG will develop a community survey “to better understand child care needs and the factors that underlie the choices people make when deciding how to meet those needs.” The group will focus on “the operations, enrollments and costs associated with Gorse” in addition to researching alternative child care resources offered by peer institutions, such as vouchers or scholarships.

As the student representative of the CCRG, Singh said that the group is currently in the initial stages of development. “We have divided into subgroups and also started to discuss some of the large issues that need to be addressed,” Singh said. “The current subgroups CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

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Students raise concerns over tuition increase, cont’d CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

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not be made on the basis of what other institutions are doing.”

Another issue that came up during the meeting was the $10 million donation the College added to its endowment in January 2021. According to the panelists, gifts to the endowment do not go directly to the operating budget for that year, and much of the endowment will be allocated to COVID-19-related expenses in the coming academic year.

According to Sopory, this is where a lot of confusion tends to arise. “The endowment doesn’t function like a pot of money that the College or specific members of administration can pull from as they see fit. It is more like a collection of different funds and assets that together have an approximate value,” Sopory clarified after the meeting. “Therefore, while MHC’s endowment technically stands at $789 million, 90 percent of it is restricted, meaning it cannot be used freely.”

Throughout the meeting, panelists were asked to provide transparency about the decision-making process that led them to raise the comprehensive fee. According to the panelists, student input was factored into this process through the Financial Review Group, a small committee created out of necessity in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown, which includes several students.

The FRG has not met since February.

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NEWS

. Mount Holyoke News

To Sopory, who attended the meeting both as SGA president and as a concerned student, the administration’s approach to student questions seemed to miss the point.

“I had hoped that this meeting would function more like a listening session or a dialogue, rather than a tennis match,” Sopory said. “Most of the panelists’ energy was focused on the explanation and defense of the fee increase decision rather than opening up a conversation to discuss a root problem: students feeling like they don’t have a say in the financial process that is a massive determinant of their educational career.”

Kvederas had a similar outlook.

“I personally felt that the panelists’ responses to students’ genuine and serious concerns regarding the comprehensive fee increases were very bureaucratic and did not properly address the real human impact of this decision,” Kvederas said.

“Looking at these concerns at the macro level does not provide an accurate picture of how this increase will affect students, especially international students and first-gen low-income students,” Kvederas continued.

“I felt that a lot of things were being talked about in circles,” Rivkin said. “I felt like we were going around a fish bowl,” she said, making a twirling motion with her finger.

As SGA president, Sopory is no stranger to open meetings such as this

one. Thursday’s ad hoc senate meeting was the third of its kind in Sopory’s three years of involvement with the SGA. After three years of watching these meetings come and go, Sopory feels that the administration and the student body are on two different pages when it comes to financial decision-making, and that this “dissonance” comes down to different understandings of the Mount Holyoke experience and how funds should be allocated to preserve and improve it.

“Students view Mount Holyoke as an interconnected community anchored by education, and the sense that at least I get is that [Financial and Administrative Services] treat it solely as a business transaction,” Sopory said. “Don’t get me wrong, I know that this is a business and students are paying money in exchange for goods and services, but that relationship seems to be understood differently by students, [Financial and Administrative Services] and other offices of the College.”

Thursday’s meeting, to Sopory and others, was another example in a long list of interactions with the College that left them confused and frustrated. “Every year, it seems like the same things happen over and over,” Sopory said. “Students are upset about a financial decision [or] aspect of the College, we come to senate with questions and arguments prepared, we hear the College’s responses, and yet we walk away feeling like nothing has changed.”

ResLife, cont’d

Graphic by Anjali Rao-Herel ’22

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

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ciation Week” during the week of April 12, during which each CA and RA was given a gift card to Thirsty Mind and sent appreciation emails from their area coordinators, according to the CA. Overall, with an increase in duty hours and no extra compensation, as well as having to follow new pandemic-related rules, current and future CAs and RAs feel they are justified in asking for a pay raise.

“Residents are going through a lot, both emotionally and mentally, and CAs are expected to be the first people that residents connect with,” the CA said. “For me, I’ve gotten by with the social support of friends and my staff. The support from the school is pretty minimal.”

In addition to the extra work hours, holding this job position during the pandemic has had its challenges. A current CA said that they have had to write “information reports” on some residents who had multiple people in their rooms when the current rule is for no more than two people to occupy a student room at a time.

Because they have to enforce stricter rules in residential halls, some CAs feel as though they are being avoided by other residents in their hall.

“In a way, I feel like I’ve taken on the role of someone who has to police other people’s behaviors, even though it’s not something that I want to do,” the CA said.

In the RA and CA job descriptions for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 academic years, it is outlined that the job duties of a CA can be changed or reassigned, and the CA’s job can be terminated “at any time, for any reason, at the College’s discretion, to accommodate the needs of the College.”

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NEWS

April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

Dining pauses measurement of food waste CCRG, cont’d CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

BY ELLA WHITE ’22 STAFF WRITER

Due to the many changes to on-campus dining in the spring 2021 term, food waste within Mount Holyoke Dining Services has become untraceable.

The changes to on-campus dining have included limited hours, as well as students being prohibited from serving themselves. Students are expected to empty any leftovers into compost bins in their own dorms. Previously, food waste and composting was funneled through the Dining Commons.

While some food waste is returned in students’ reusable containers, Dining Services requests that students empty out food privately. Now, with food being discarded in the various trash cans and compost bins in student housing, the College cannot track student food waste.

Assistant Director of Culinary Operations Shawn Kelsey said that the Dining Services’ menu and procedure is constantly evolving during the pandemic. In addition to the procedural changes, “We have had to change our menus at times when something becomes impossible to get,” he said. “Nothing has really been completely eliminated, as we have shifted our menus to include

Photo by Trinity Kendrick ’21 Dining Services previously kept track of campus food waste but has stopped due to COVID-19 protocols.

something from our whole dining program in some way.”

The limited number of students on campus has posed “a real challenge to our food waste efforts … when you have this much food for such [a] low volumes of diners,” Kelsey said. Using LeanPath, a technology company specializing in food waste data collection, Dining Services was able to correct some initial problems and better measure the pre-consumer food waste generated by the actual food preparation.

Dining Services presently tracks which stations waste food, what was wasted, when and why. “This allows us to make adjustments on what we are doing to correct any errors we may have with production, ordering, forecasting, cooking and even menuing,” Kelsey said.

College offers vaccine clinic to on-campus, commuter students

BY LILY REAVIS ’21 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Mount Holyoke has secured enough doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to fully vaccinate residential and approved commuter students before the end of the academic year, according to an email sent to students on Wednesday evening by Cheryl Flynn, medical director of College Health Services. The first-shot vaccine clinic will take place on campus on Saturday, April 24, and requires preregistration through Embark.

“The College will be holding two vaccine clinics on campus,” an MHC This Week email, sent later Wednesday evening, read. “The first clinic will be this Saturday, April 24, in Kendade Hall for residential and commuter students only.”

The private vaccination event is open to all residential and some commuter students, but there is currently no further information regarding off-campus vaccination eligibility.

When asked for a statement about the upcoming vaccination clinic, the College’s Director of News and Media Relations Christian Feuerstein said, “We do not have a press release about the vaccine clinic. Everything I know is in the letter that went out to students.”

“Faculty and staff will be invited to sign up for vaccination slots, although students are the first priority,” the MHC This Week email stated.

Students who sign up for this weekend’s vaccination clinic will be able to book their second shot appointment for May 12. The College will hold another on-campus vaccine clinic for second shot appointments.

Prior to the pandemic, Dining Services had plans to expand its food waste measurement by implementing a program which would allow it to measure food waste generated post-consumer and estimate the number of people who could have been fed with the excess.

“It would have been a way to educate the students on the drastic number of pounds of food waste, to hopefully encourage everybody to take a little less and reduce the overall waste,” Kelsey said. The program would have included infographics posted at the dish return area to remind students to waste less.

“After we find out how the dining program will move forward in the fall, we will see how to get back on track with that endeavor,” Kelsey said. At present, Dining Services has not announced any plans in this regard.

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include a survey group; a group looking at contracts, finances and things of that nature; and finally one that is looking at other institutions and how they offer child care assistance.”

Assistant Professor of Politics Ali Aslam, who was personally affected by the announcement of Gorse’s closure, took part in the ensuing protest. Based on his knowledge that the CCRG has met only once as of April 18, Aslam said, “I thought the urgency of our demand would have translated in[to] faster action in the form of more frequent meetings.”

“We know that Gorse, as an institution, resource and community of people, has touched the lives of so many at MHC,” Gillis and Jacoby said. “We know that all of these people want updates on the work of the committee. The committee recognizes this and has committed to providing periodic updates to the broader community on our work.

We have not yet decided what form those updates will take, but we anticipate providing monthly reports to the broader MHC community.”

Jury convicts Derek Chauvin, George Floyd’s killer, on all counts

BY KATIE GOSS ’23 STAFF WRITER

On Tuesday, April 20, Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who has been on trial for the murder of George Floyd, was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The murder of George Floyd last summer sparked protests nationwide against police brutality, and this trial was considered “one of the most consequential trials of the Black Lives Matter era,” according to CNN. After the verdict was read, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to the Floyd family and released public statements.

“Nothing is going to make it all better. … Nothing can ever bring their brother or their father back. But this can be a giant

step forward in the march toward justice in America,” Biden said, according to CNN. Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, also commented on the verdict. “Justice for George, it means freedom for all. … The world has sparked, and lit up with a blaze tonight. And it’s a celebration.

Business can be taken care of tomorrow, but it’s a celebration today,” Philonise Floyd said.

Judge Peter Cahill said that sentencing for Chauvin is expected to be delivered about eight weeks from now. According to Minnesota state guidelines, it is recommended that there should be 12.5 years for each murder charge, and another four years for a manslaughter charge.

State prosecutors will request a stricter sentence.

April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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‘Seaspiracy’ documentary exposes a capitalistic hellscape

BY ANIKA SINGH ’24 STAFF WRITER

“Seaspiracy,” a Netflix documentary released on March 24, attempts to draw viewers in as it takes them on a journey across the globe. It begins by explaining how ocean debris affects marine life, and the film soon transforms into an in-depth look at the corruption of the fishing industry and the destruction of the ocean it causes. Here’s what “Seaspiracy” explores through its investigative journalism.

The Industrialization of the Sea

Fisheries and their antics are well documented in “Seaspiracy.” While we see the highly controversial whaling activities that take place in Taiji, Japan, we also witness another baffling issue: the slaughtering of dolphins. This is revealed to be a tactic to increase fish production in the area, as fewer dolphins results in more fish due to a lack of predators. This strategy, set up by the fisheries, is used under the guise of overfishing. The fish species were then unable to replenish themselves and became underpopulated.

Similar unethical methods used to gain maximum profit from the ocean are shown to lead to detrimental effects on the ocean itself.

“Seaspiracy” highlights methods such as trawling, a practice in which massive nets are used to capture fish, which causes deforestation of the ocean floor.

Sustainability: Can We Trust Labels? approach certainly makes the labels less trustworthy.

Today’s market often promotes sustainable products, and although purchasing these products seems Organized Crime & Human Rights like the right thing to do, “Seaspiracy” questions the One thing that “Seaspiracy” makes certain is that validity of some sustainable fish certifications. the fishing industry is not as innocent as it presents The film shows labels that say “dolphin-safe” and itself to be. From accusations of slavery and forced “Marine Stewardship Council” to be unreliable, to an labor in Thailand to organized extent. “Seaspiracy” discusses crime assassinations, the fishthe ongoing trend of sustaining industry seems to have a “It sounds just mind-blowing, but ability and how it is unable to habit of shutting down people the power of animals moving up and who could hurt their dealings. be transferred into practice.

When asked in the film if The documentary dedown through the water column, in he could guarantee that every tails various cases of fishery terms of mixing, is as great as all the can of fish labeled “dolphinobservers who have gone wind, waves, tides and currents in the missing at sea, such as Keith safe” is actually dolphin-safe, Mark J. Palmer, associate diDavis, who went missing off seas combined.” rector of the Earth Island Inthe coast of Peru. Another stitute, the organization that method of keeping observers - George Monbiot manages the “dolphin-safe” quiet is shown through the label, said, “Nope. Nobody can. case of Gerlie Alpojora, which Once you’re out there in the occurred in the Philippines in ocean, how do you know what they’re doing? We have 2015. Alpojora was assassinated in her home by armed men after receiving death threats from the family of a tuna fisherman who was arrested for illegal fishing.

In Thailand, “blood shrimp,” named after “blood diamonds,” are now seeing the light of day. Fishermen were being exploited and forced into labor with little to no pay for the shrimp and prawns they caught. During an anonymous interview, a former fisherman alleged the horrifying treatment he had received, describing being abused and threatened at gunpoint.

Plastic Pollution: Who is Responsible?

Wildlife’s Role

Ocean wildlife is often not the main focus when it comes to addressing ocean conservation, but “Seaspiracy” urges viewers to see the need for the inestimable role wildlife plays in maintaining the chemistry and biology of the ocean.

“It sounds just mind-blowing, but the power of animals moving up and down through the water colGraphic by Gabby Gagnon ’24 umn, in terms of mixing, is as great as all the wind, waves, tides and currents in the seas combined,” environmentalist and journalist George Monbiot said.

observers on board — observers can be bribed.”

From the uncaring attitude of the label observers to the practice’s lack of transparency, the group’s fishy

Although our plastic waste has major impacts on the ocean, the majority of plastic waste stems from plastic nets and other fishing gear. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is said to be infested with microplastics, is primarily made of fishing nets, which make up 46 percent of the waste found in the patch. Even though this information is readily available, nongovernmental organizations such as the Plastic Pollution Coalition do not take action to reduce commercial fishing due to the systems that promote fish intake.

While “Seaspiracy” may leave viewers, struck by the urgent need to restore balance to the ocean, wondering whether they should shift from eating seafood to eating plant-based seafood, there is more to this story than one might think.

The documentary shows that the Plastic Pollution Coalition is a project of the Earth Island Institute.

The members of the institute are the ones behind the “dolphin-safe” tuna label. They are the people who work with the fishing industry to sell more seafood.

This system conveniently shifts the narrative toward plastic pollution caused by individuals rather than the grave actions of these corporations. This wellthought-out blue-washing, in which companies falsely publicize their eco-credentials, does more harm than a plastic straw.

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OPINION/EDITORIAL

April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

Western film reduces India to a misrepresentative caricature

BY JAHNAVI PRADEEP ’23 STAFF WRITER

The movie “Eat Pray Love” directed by Ryan Murphy situates the viewer in India through quick shots of crowded streets. Bikes and rickshaws furiously honk at each other over the evening traffic. Children run across streets with sheer abandon, and vendors prepare food for the gathering crowds. M.I.A.’s “Boyz” plays in the back as Julia Roberts enters the scene in a cab, eyes reeling at the reckless driving and noise around her. As the cab slows down, she offers her hand to the bunch of children gathered by her window, guarded. A sense of exasperation permeates both her and the audience at the sight of this chaotic surrounding. India, as seen here, is an impenetrable and uncivilized mess.

This peculiar depiction is reflective of the larger Western interpretation of India. Western media showcases South Asia as either an exotic and unfamiliar realm or a poverty-riddled subcontinent juxtaposed against the quintessential West. This caricaturing erases the complex sociopolitical realities of Indian people, misrepresenting their cultures and skewing the country’s issues with class to reinforce Western understandings.

“Eat Pray Love” follows the life of Liz Gilbert, an American woman looking to reinvent herself by traveling across the world to Italy, India and Indonesia. India becomes an exotic vacation spot where Liz can have a spiritual awakening, and the film centers primarily around an ashram where Liz takes vows of silence and heads prayer meets. But what a selective encounter this is.

Liz never interacts with the children on the street or attends to the unsanitary garbage piles that the film continually shows us glimpses of now and then. In one scene, when Liz is about to drink a bottle of soda, her American friend jokingly warns her that “the first rule in India is never touch anything but yourself!” They laugh at the unsanitary conditions of the country and leave it at that. The real-life experiences of Indians are pushed to the background as mere wall-hangings.

The sole portrayal of an Indian character is Tulsi, a 17-year-old girl Liz meets at the ashram, but even this amounts to little more than a caricature. Tulsi is forced into an arranged marriage by her parents, and in her interactions with Liz, woefully cries about it.

This depiction sets up all Indians as simply backward

and oppressive. The film portrays India as a strange land, much unlike the America that Liz comes from.

The overall impression is that the country is a place for Westerners to go only in pursuit of pleasures.

But “Eat Pray Love” is hardly alone in its skewed portrayal of the subcontinent. While it focuses on the American experience in exotic India, other Western films have made efforts to talk about the Indian experience in India with little success. An example is the critically acclaimed 2008 British drama “Slumdog Millionaire.”

While striving to be more authentic to the Indian experience, “Slumdog Millionaire” contributes to India’s narrow representation as a backward third-world nation. Daniel Boyle’s film stars Dev Patel as Jamal, an orphan from the Bombay slums who competes in “Kaun Banega Crorepati,” the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” The film weaves together harrowing flashbacks from Jamal’s life, which is filled with corruption, communal strife, child labor and gangsters on the prowl for orphaned children.

These dark and violent events are a well-documented reality of happenings that do occur in the country. However, the problem with “Slumdog Millionaire” is how it points this experience in a wholly Western direction. The portrayal of the slum is one-dimensional — everyone is terrible and out to get you.

This reaffirms Western understandings of India as a country of uncivilized people while failing to address the political realities that lead to poverty and crime.

Framed more around Jamal’s love story, “Slumdog Millionaire” ensures a happy ending in which he wins 20 crores and reunites with his childhood sweetheart.

The film is even subtitled “The Feel-Good Film of the Decade,” adhering to this lighthearted tone. In the process, the sociopolitical reality of poverty in India gets sidelined by the illusion that it can be overcome without any call for structural change.

This portrayal of Indian poverty without accompanying socioeconomic critique reappears in “Lion,” a 2016 Australian biographical drama directed by Garth Davis. Patel (once again) stars as Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who gets lost and separated from his family and village in India. An Australian couple eventually adopts him and, years later, Saroo returns to find his lost home. A significant chunk of the film follows the younger Saroo in Kolkata after he gets lost. We watch him run through landscapes that resemble those in “Slumdog Millionaire,” such as littered garbage

Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons Garth Davis, director of “Lion,” wins a Golden Lion award in 2015.

dumps, child trafficking sites and oppressive orphanages. “Lion” does not attempt to confront poverty, either, instead turning to Australia as a sort of solution.

Saroo’s adoptive Australian parents are portrayed as a calm and loving couple dedicated to helping underprivileged children like Saroo. In one scene, Saroo’s adoptive mother, Sue Brierley, tells him how it was always her dream to adopt, “to take a child that was suffering, like you boys were, and give you a chance in the world.” This depiction strengthens the white savior complex — the West is a sanctuary that can help the brown person become civilized and explore both the world and their own potential.

“Eat Pray Love,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Lion” all claim authenticity by being based on either real-life accounts or books by authors of the Indian diaspora.

For example, “Lion” is based on Saroo Brierley’s autobiography, “A Long Way Home.” Western media relies on this authenticity to retell the same tales and further preexisting assumptions about India. Western projects in the recent past have also tried to prove authenticity by including more Indian filmmakers as directors and producers. Prominent examples are Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari and Mira Nair. However, despite this inclusion, much of their content still suffers from lack of authenticity. While it is a step in the right direction to include a more nuanced perspective, future Western media must focus on confrontations of the sociopolitical realities of the people it represents rather than reaffirming its own viewpoints. This will do justice to the Indian people regarding the representation they genuinely deserve rather than their current caricaturing.

COVID-19 pandemic gives Christianity a chance to regain support

BY KAVERI PILLAI ’23 STAFF WRITER

For many, myself included, religion is deeply personal. What makes this type of faith so intimate is its promise for inclusivity and a sense of community. The history of religious faith can be traced back to the sacred texts we read today and the rituals and festivals we celebrate. Yet, this very faith has seemed to challenge its promise of longevity. The rapid decline in religious affiliation that started at the beginning of the last decade has sparked a conversation that addresses a simple question: What changed? When disaster struck, people would rely on religion for comfort and

as a source of sanity, but with time, this dependence on faith seems to have lessened.

This decline of religious affiliation is frequently connected to the recent evolution of the political and social landscape globally. The influence of religious institutions in many states and their controversial views on social matters are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the inevitable damage they have caused to their own religious membership.

While many believe that renewing this global faith in God might be a lost cause, the recent pandemic is being viewed by some as an event that will draw more religious believers in. A Pew study conducted in 2020 shows that in the wake of the pandemic, one-fourth

of Americans have seen their religious faith grow.

Because of this, an event that has wrecked lives and caused a disturbance to our daily routine, one cannot ignore how this time could be an opportunity for religion to regain people’s support.

During the last century, the world has experienced war, genocide, political and ideological shifts and incredible religious turmoil. With the world reduced to shambles, religion was the one anchor of hope that never seemed to diminish in value. Yet, now more than ever, we seem to be emphasizing the importance of diversity and inclusivity in our society, important CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

OPINION/EDITORIAL

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Early childhood nutrition education is just diet culture in disguise

BY KATE MURRAY ’22 STAFF WRITER

If you grew up in the United States, chances are you have been steeped in diet culture from a very young age.

American children are bombarded with messages from every angle telling them that there is an ideal way to eat and that being thin is both healthy and desirable. The education that children receive about nutrition from parents, schools and the media involves policing food choices, regulating exercise and monitoring weight, often via the inaccurate and misleading body mass index measurement. These practices place moral judgments on what children eat and what their bodies look like. While efforts from adults to teach the youth about nutrition are well-intentioned, they often end up laying the foundation for children to develop unhealthy relationships with food and their bodies.

Additionally, the behavior modeled by adults plays a significant role in whether a child develops an eating disorder in their teenage years, a struggle that may last a lifetime.

What many adults fail to realize or remember is that children are natural intuitive eaters, a term coined by registered dieticians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, who understand when they need to eat and when they need to stop. Babies are born with the innate ability to recognize their hunger and fullness, never overeating or undereating when nourishment is in full supply. It’s only when children get older that the adults in their lives begin to disrupt this natural process, labeling certain foods like fruits and vegetables “good” and things like cupcakes and soda “bad” or “special” treats.

Maggie Micklo ’21, member of the student organization Fat Acceptance Now!, highlighted how often-

Graphic by Trinity Kendrick ’21

times, encouraging kids to eat “healthy” foods sends the message that certain foods have more value than others. “Parents and even schools, also, may be adding morality to foods without realizing it, such as giving sweet foods only as a dessert, as a ‘reward’ for cleaning their plate,” Micklo said. “This makes the sweet ‘dessert’ foods more exciting to a child and devalues the foods already on their plate. This isn’t nutrition — it’s just diet culture.”

Many adults tend to intervene in children’s natural abilities to eat intuitively because they were raised with the same messages about food and body size from the adults in their lives, including nutrition “experts”

like medical professionals. Like today’s children, they were taught that being a higher weight is unhealthy and undesirable, and the recipe for thinness is simply regulating diet and exercise. Given a boost by popular culture, these beliefs follow them into adulthood, where they perpetuate these disordered behaviors by monitoring their children’s weight and policing what they eat. Additionally, parents receive shame from other parents, teachers and pediatricians for having higher-weight children, which further fuels the impulse to restrict their child’s diet. Even if adults don’t explicitly use body- or food-shaming language, children are very receptive. If a young girl sees her mother step on a scale every morning or decline a piece of cake, saying, “I shouldn’t eat that,” the child makes the connection that it’s important to monitor one’s weight and restrict certain foods.

While the idea of letting children eat whatever they want may initially seem contrary to everything you’ve been taught about health and nutrition, a growing body of research suggests that diet and exercise are not the key determinants of health. Weight stigma alone is an independent risk factor for poor health outcomes. Weight stigma, or weight-based discrimination, can manifest in a myriad of ways, from being bullied by peers at school to not being able to easily find clothes that fit in retail stores.

A 2017 study found that larger people, including children, who regularly endure weight-based discrimination, are twice as likely to have high cumulative stress on all body systems, which puts them at greater risk for developing Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In other words, the poor health outcomes that are frequently attributed to higher weights may be caused by weight discrimination rather than the CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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Romanticizing killers is dangerous and can motivate further violence

BY ANNABELLE MACKSON ’23 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article discusses racist violence and mass shootings.

I grew up in a very small Vermont town; at the time my high school had less than 700 students. I was a junior in February 2018, when Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Even in Vermont, I was scared to go to school some days, and that fear didn’t dissipate until I graduated over a year later.

People like Cruz, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold live in my head as murderers who took somewhere as innocuous as high school and turned it into a war zone for their own sick pleasure. Imagine my horrified reaction when I found out that people my age not only idolized and romanticized these killers, but also condoned their violence. As someone who felt that fear, who had to go into lockdown because a student made an empty threat and who attended the Washington, D.C. March For Our Lives demonstration, I cannot stand idly by and watch people support these killers.

The United States is reeling in the wake of one mass shooting after another, the majority of them racially charged. Gun violence is one of the biggest prob-

lems in America, and the 1999 Columbine shooting was unfortunately only the start. Another horrifying reality we have to face is that these idolizers are still out there, disguising themselves as fans of true crime and psychology.

What connects many of these idolizers is hybristophilia, a disorder characterized by having a sexual interest in, and attraction to, someone who has committed a crime. Historically, most instances of hybristophilia are present in women. Most people, even those not familiar with true crime, have heard of the women who wrote to serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Ramirez while they were in prison. Ramirez even married a woman who wrote him love letters while he was on death row. While the causes of this disorder are not set in stone, it can arise when the pursuer’s own mental health and self-esteem are in jeopardy, but it can also be attached to a savior complex — some women think that they would be able to turn these evil men into “good,” loving partners.

Hybristophilia was not associated with a younger demographic or mass shooters until the Columbine shooting. The shooters, Harris and Klebold, were romanticized by teenage girls, and a community of these “Columbiners” has emerged in the years since, especially on Tumblr. What distinguishes these “fans” of the Columbine killers from other hybristophiliacs

is that they can project whatever thoughts and emotions they want onto them, since Harris and Klebold died the day of the shooting. Since the killers are not around to contradict Columbiners’ opinions of them, they can be made out to be anything but the murderers that they were.

Projecting feelings onto murderers that died over 20 years ago is still hybristophilia and can still inspire dangerous acts, but I find it far less dangerous than romanticizing a killer still alive today. While I don’t know if fan pages will crop up about the killers we have seen so far this year, we have to remain vigilant in ensuring these murders resonate with the smallest number of people possible. The continued support of murderers not only gives vulnerable young people a warped sense of friendships and romantic relationships, but it also has the potential to inspire more violent acts.

If you are a follower of true crime, make sure that the content you consume is informative, not idolizing, and try to make the effort to call out people who express these harmful viewpoints. For the bigger picture, keep up with accounts like March For Our Lives. The organization itself was created by Parkland survivors, so the actions they promote can be done by young people. With so much evil occurring in this country, there are so many ways we can make our voices heard and invoke positive change, so let’s get on with it.

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GLOBAL

April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

Opinion: Hijab ban in France is another attempt to alienate Muslims sociation’s Co-Chair Nafeesah Ahmed-Adedoja ’23, “Many Western countries claim to want to liberate the Muslim woman from the hijab [or] headscarf but fail to acknowledge that every woman has the right to On March 30, the French Senate voted in favor of feel empowered and beautiful regardless of what she banning minors from wearing hijab in public spaces. wears. This proposal violates hijab[i]s all around the The ban proposal is part of French President Emman- world, attempting to silence and reduce us.” uel Macron’s vision of a “separatism bill,” which, acThe architect behind the “separatism bill,” Macording to Amnesty International, raises “serious con- cron, once described Islam to be a “religion in crisis.” cerns that the law will be applied in a discriminatory Through his hefty infiltration into daily life, Macron way.” Since its arrival, the prohopes to assimilate and secuposal has evoked controversy larize the Muslim population within French borders and beat the expense of civil liberties. yond — echoing France’s preAccording to Al-Jazeera, the The recent ban reveals that not vious Islamophobic legislation much has changed in the French so- bill disproportionately “sinand colonial past. gles out the minority Muslim ciopolitical psyche since its colonial Despite having the largest population,” both individually Muslim population in Europe and collectively. Beyond reperiod.

(5.7 million), the recent hijab stricting head coverings, the ban proposal is not the first bill would give the French govinstance where the French viernment the power to regulate sion of a “secularist state” specifically singled out the home schooling, deny hijab-wearing mothers from Muslim population as the imaginary opponent of the joining school trips and “deny or withdraw funds to republic’s secularist ideals. France was the first Euro- certain organizations.” pean country to ban niqab — a Muslim face covering According to NPR’s Paris Correspondent Eleanor — and burqa, as well as burkinis, women’s full-body Beardsley, the bill is an attempt by Conservative lawswimsuits. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, French makers to gain back far-right voters in the upcoming historian Philippe Portier pointed out that “the orig- presidential election. Meanwhile, the possibility of inal secularist law established in 1905 was intended the bill becoming a law puts a shadow of unease into to ensure freedom of religion for individuals.” For the lives of French Muslims, causing apprehension for Muslim women who choose to wear physical manifes- their future as people of faith. tations of their faith, having a government dictating Justification of Muslim persecution in the name of what they can wear does the exact opposite of ensur- “fighting extremism” is no novelty. From the war on ing freedom of religion. terror, the Uyghur genocide in China and the perseAccording to Mount Holyoke Muslim Student As- cution of Palestinians, Islam has been misinterpreted

BY LADIN AKCACIOGLU ’24 CONTRIBUTING WRITER

by various governments to justify human rights violations. The French quest to assimilate its Muslim population is just another example.

According to Mount Holyoke MSA’s Co-Chair Asmaa Chaudhry ’23, “Terror organizations like [IS] do not represent us Muslims in any way and yet, our faith is constantly being misunderstood and misinterpreted.” Constant distortion of Islam by calling terrorist groups “religious extremists” is a crime against Muslims worldwide who have suffered both for and from terrorism associated with Islam.

The French obsession with saving Muslim women goes back as early as its colonial era in the Middle East. In her book, “Do Muslim Women Need Saving?,” Lila Abu-Lughod aptly points out that the hijab has been weaponized by colonial powers to control, manipulate and occupy territories. In one instance in colonial Algeria, the French officials go as far as to “unveil women at a well-choreographed ceremony” to argue for the need for a French mandate.

The recent ban reveals that not much has changed in the French sociopolitical psyche since its colonial period. According to Marco Perolini, a Europe researcher for Amnesty International, “The French authorities have used a vague and ill-defined concept of ‘radicalization’ to justify the imposition of measures without valid ground.” The French government’s conservative war on Muslim women’s freedom signals the Western need for making Islam palatable — easily digestible for assimilation, manipulation and suppression.

Despite what the bill claims, the hijab does not “signify inferiority of women over men.” Instead, leaving the choice to wear the hijab brings equality and a sense of self-empowerment.

Nuclear deal talks resume after recent attack on Iranian nuclear facility

BY SOPHIE SOLOWAY ’23 GLOBAL EDITOR

Signatories of the Iranian nuclear deal have resumed talks in Vienna regarding a revival of the agreement. Despite a recent accident at Iran’s nuclear facilities, participants in these conversations have touted positive results and plans for re-signing the 2015 agreement.

The April 11 accident at the Natanz nuclear facility led to a widespread blackout and damaged electricity grid that halted facility operations. The alleged attack, which Iran has dubbed a form of terrorism, occurred just hours after actions were taken to speed up the production of enriched uranium. This return to an enhanced production process was initially viewed as a moment of progress for the country as it returned to nuclear deal activities.

Iran quickly blamed the Israeli government and its security agency, Mossad, for the attack. According to Visiting Lecturer in International Relations at Mount Holyoke Bryan Nakayama, this accusation follows a pattern of technological weaponry in Israel.

“Israel is known for developing advanced military technology, particularly … information technology,”

Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons A recent accident at the Natanz nuclear facility threatened to interrupt a Vienna nuclear deal, but talks appear to have resumed this week.

Nakayama said. “There have been some suggestions that this was cyber sabotage because of the Stuxnet virus, a joint venture between the U.S. and Israel to secretly sabotage Iran’s nuclear activities.”

If the accusation against Israel is confirmed, this action would follow a series of violent acts against the Iranian nuclear program. Most recently, Iran’s top

nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed in January. The crime was met with accusations of Israel’s involvement in plans to thwart Iranian nuclear development.

Mount Holyoke Visiting Lecturer in Politics Susanne Mueller-Redwood noted that “as in the killing of … Fakhrizadeh, Israel usually does not provide information and prefers to remain silent.

“This is consistent with Israel’s broader nuclear strategy — it likely possesses nuclear weapons but does not openly admit this,” Redwood continued. “So in this sense, the attack was not fully surprising, as it is consistent with previous behavior by Israel and its overall nuclear strategy.”

Israel has not denied these most recent allegations. In fact, Israeli public media reported that intelligence sources had confirmed links between Mossad and the cyberattack. While Iranian officials have committed to arresting the accused perpetrator, Reza Karimi, little has been said regarding possible repercussions for Israel.

In response to the attack, Iran has increased its political and scientific actions. In addition to meeting CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

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April 22, 2021

GLOBAL

. Mount Holyoke News

9

April 12 marks beginning of Ramadan Iranian nuclear deal talks, cont’d

Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons As Ramadan begins, observants across the world celebrate by fasting from dawn until dusk and focusing on building their relationships with God.

BY MADHAVI RAO ’24 STAFF WRITER

life kind of slows down accordingly, as most people are also fasting,” Akcacioglu explained. “It is much easier to know when Iftar is because you can hear the Adhan, On April 12, people around the world began ob- the call to prayer, from everywhere. Traditionally, we serving the Islamic tradition of Ramadan, which is even have drummer men walk around the neighborcelebrated on the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. hood during Suhoor to wake us up for the pre-dawn It is a time for Muslims to reflect, fast, pray and build meal.” their relationships with God. The ninth month is beDuring Ramadan, these meals are a time of tolieved to be when the Prophet Muhammad had a rev- getherness for families. “My family doesn’t always get elation about the Quran, the holy book of Islam. This the chance to have our meals together during the rest revelation is commemorated through Ramadan. of the year,” Maeesha Tasnim Naomi, a Bangladeshi “Ramadan is a month of regrounding, cleansing first-year, explained. “But Sehri and Iftar are always and recentering where, beyond limiting our water and special because we all sit together at the same time to food intake, we focus on strengthening our relation- eat.” Naomi went on to say, “It’s the same with prayers ship with Allah and becoming better versions of our- — we read prayers together as a family, and it’s sort of selves,” Ladin Akcacioglu ’24, secretary of the Muslim a bonding time for us, which makes me really happy. I Student Association at Mount Holyoke, explained. “In will definitely miss this when I am off to campus.”

Islam, our Niyyah — intentions — matter above all Ramadan is observed by all healthy adult Muslims else, and personally, during this blessed month, I focus — the fasting portion of the holiday is not required of most on making sure my intentions are pure. Yes, we people mentally or physically incapable of fasting. “I fast, but we also restrain ourselves on other levels.” wholeheartedly believe that everything that is asked Along with fasting, Ramadan is a time of prayer, of me in my religion is also for my own good. As stated acting selflessly and abstaining from cheating, lying, in the Quran, I know fasting is good for me, both my gossiping and other such negbody and my soul,” Akcacioative inclinations. During Raglu said. “So I guess if there madan, Muslims are required was one thing I would want a to abstain from water and food non-Muslim to know, [it] is that “For me personally, the month of from dawn until dusk.

Ramadan is about contemplation and you don’t need to feel sorry for “For me personally, the us for fasting. We don’t just do community.” month of Ramadan is about it because it’s asked — we do it contemplation and communibecause we choose to.” ty. Abstaining from food and The pandemic has affected - Nafeesah Ahmed-Adedoja ’23 drink for long hours is not how many communities are easy, and during this time, we celebrating Ramadan. Accordremember those who are not ing to Akcacioglu, “The panas fortunate and give in charity while demonstrat- demic has taken away part of the traditions such as ing gratitude even for the smallest things,” Nafeesah the prayer services in the mosque, but still, the spirit Ahmed-Adedoja ’23, co-chair of the Muslim Student of Ramadan is still there. It is a joyous time for us, and Association, said. “It is about focusing on how you can it has been really nice to get to spend it with my fambe a better person and also connecting with others in ily.” the process.”

Ahmed-Adedoja reflected back on how she celePeople who observe Ramadan eat a meal known brated Ramadan before the pandemic, saying, “We as Suhoor, or Sehri, before dawn, at around 4 a.m. would usually go to the mosque and observe extra eveThey break their fast after the sunset prayer with a ning prayers to devote ourselves more to God during meal called Iftar. this special month. Although it would be quite late, Akcacioglu described how in Turkey, Ramadan the feeling of us all being there together in the car is could be a time of bonding among the community. something I would treasure. Now, we all sit together “Being back home during this time has helped during and tell stories and enjoy being around one another Ramadan. For one, you don’t need to explain yourself; during this time.”

Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons Many countries, including major powers in the U.N., have returned to talks in hopes of restoring a nuclear deal with Iran.

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

with nuclear deal signatories, Iran announced plans to increase its production of enriched uranium. This action is considered a breach of nuclear deal regulations. However, as various countries reconsider their partnerships and agreements with Iran and the United States, little has been done to stop this plan.

Despite the cyberattack, Iran has continued to discuss a return to the nuclear deal that former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration abandoned in 2018. While the United States is not directly involved in these Vienna talks, some state officials have noted that the talks mark U.S. President Joe Biden’s plan to reengage with Iran after relations were loosened following Trump’s lead.

Several working groups have formed during the Vienna talks, all seemingly committed to reinstating legislation and agreements characteristic of the 2015 nuclear deal, including lifting economic sanctions. However, signatories of the deal warn that this process will likely take some time to complete.

Redwood said, “A return to the deal would obviously relax relations between Iran and the U.S. This is likely a concern for Israel, which wants to keep pressure and sanctions on Iran. So the deal could impact U.S.-Israel relations. A return to the deal could also signal a move toward greater multilateral cooperation between the U.S. and the EU. The deal could also affect Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia and Iran are rivals, but Saudi Arabia is a key U.S. ally in the region.”

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FEATURES

April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

Party life continues at UMass Amherst during COVID-19 when multiple fraternities were caught partying, they were placed on some sort of probation following an investigation. Nothing came of these investigations,” The process of reopening college campuses during Jeff Meyers, a senior legal studies major at UMass the COVID-19 pandemic has been complicated. Differ- Amherst, said. “When regular students were caught ent schools have provided different solutions to the dartying [day-partying] at a condo village weeks latkey challenge: providing students a way to safely live er, however, the entire student body received an email on campus during the 2020-2021 academic year. In the expressing the administration’s intent to immediately specific case of the University of Massachusetts Am- suspend all of those involved. Why weren’t the fraterherst, Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy initially in- nities given the same punishment?” vited undergraduate students back to campus with a The latter incident Meyers referred to was a hybrid program of remote classes and in-person labs. 200-person party thrown off campus during “BlarThis plan quickly adapted to fit the changing circum- ney,” a UMass tradition where students celebrate St. stances of the pandemic.

Patrick’s day on the first Saturday of March. The gathCompared to Mount Holyoke’s undergraduate stu- ering was broken up by the Amherst Police Departdent population of 1,915, UMass Amherst has 31,642 un- ment, who were called by Amherst residents in the dergraduate and graduate students to account for. On area. As a result of this incident, the UMass Amherst June 29, 2020, Subbaswamy sent an email to the UMass administration released an email to the student body Amherst student body describaddressing the large gathering ing the structure of the coming and the disciplinary reaction it academic year. By agreeing Despite the protocols and guidelines elicited. to live on campus, students “All students involved will put in place to prevent the spread consented to strict protocols have their appropriate due of COVID-19, students continue to including getting tested “on process, but under no circumdemand,” not allowing guests gather, whether those gatherings are stances will they continue as in residential halls and social a university student in the large or small. distancing on campus. interim,” Vice Chancellor for This plan was later revised Student Affairs and Campus in late August due to spikes in COVID-19 cases. In a Life Hephner LaBlanc said in an email. “The actions of follow-up email, Subbaswamy amended that only stu- these haughty few are not representative of the largdents enrolled in essential in-person classes such as er student population who consistently demonstrate labs, studios or capstone classes would be allowed ac- their commitment to public safety. This incident (and commodations on campus, limiting the number of stu- others like it) will be dealt with swiftly and effectively dents. By January 2021, UMass Amherst had allowed so those of you abiding by the rules can enjoy more 5,300 students into residence halls, approximately one- university privileges.” sixth of its cumulative student population.

The most recent social gathering on UMass AmUMass Amherst saw its highest number of record- herst’s campus occurred after the UMass Minutemen, ed COVID-19 cases for the fall semester on Sept. 28, the school’s ice hockey team, won the NCAA Nation2020, with 28 positive cases in a day. By Feb. 8 in the al Championship. In response, students took to the spring semester, its highest number of recorded cas- streets, “rioting,” according to Meyers, in celebration es in a day nearly quintupled, with 128 positive cases. of the Minutemen’s win. The Instagram account @ According to several UMass Amherst students, the zoomass posted videos of the students’ celebrations, continuation of pre-pandemic party culture seemed to showcasing students chanting and cheering in a largebe the cause. ly maskless crowd. “That was crazy. Just everybody In February 2021, the weekend before classes be- was outside, like, a huge swarm of people just without gan for the spring semester, the Theta Chi fraternity masks. … It’s, like, sometimes you want to be there,” was accused of hosting back-to-back parties and was the sophomore at UMass Amherst said. “That’s the subsequently placed on interim suspension while the most damaging thing about this past semester. None university conducted an investigation into their con- of us are supposed to be [partying] and everybody is duct. However, the disciplinary action against Theta telling you not to. … I’m still paying full tuition, even Chi was minimal. The Daily Collegian ran an article though I’m home, but they’re all just partying and about Theta Chi’s continuing recruitment despite the making it worse.” suspension. This was in direct contradiction with the According to Meyers, this is something that the school’s Code of Student Conduct. university should have expected and addressed to “I heard [Theta Chi] didn’t get in trouble for [the avoid the reality of the gatherings. “The university parties] because they showed old video surveillance shouldn’t expect to bring back thousands of students of their fraternity empty,” an anonymous sophomore and coop them up with nothing to do. This was exat UMass Amherst said. “I saw people posting about emplified when the school was placed on high alert being at those parties. I saw it on Snapchat and Ins- in the first few weeks of this semester and students tagram and I recognize the inside of that fraternity. I were laughably told they couldn’t even exercise outknow that [a] party was thrown there.” side,” Meyers said. “From this, the administration In the weeks after Theta Chi’s parties, Alpha Sig- learned that students are going to socialize on campus ma Phi and Phi Sigma hosted their own events and re- no matter what, so these interactions must be done in ceived the same interim suspension as Theta Chi. a safe and regulated way. They’ve since established “The administration has seemingly responded dif- events such as campfires by the pond. The same thing ferently to different partying situations. For example, should’ve been done with the riots in [Southwest ResiBY ZOË FARR MANAGING EDITOR OF WEB

Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons UMass Amherst has seen several campus COVID-19 outbreaks this year.

dential Area] after the championship. Dedicate an outside space with more room to roam than Southwest so people didn’t have to be shoulder to shoulder.”

So far, the COVID-19 dashboard on the UMass Amherst website has yet to show a notable increase in cases as a result of the riots.

“I think, truly, cases won’t spike again because, as I’ve heard it put by some of my friends in sororities, the people who were going to get [COVID-19] already got it,” a junior contract tracer from UMass Amherst commented. “The people willing to go riot are much more likely to engage in risky behavior, and they are more likely to have already gotten it. Things have also been slower with contact tracing lately, which supports that theory.”

Instead, the junior warned of a secret spreader: small gatherings. “Student gatherings of three and more are generally the cause of most new cases.

“There have been more travel-related cases lately with the warm weather, but overall, since August, this is the main driver,” the junior contact tracer said. “Parties are a big problem too, but it’s largely small- to medium-sized gatherings that are spreading COVID-19.”

Despite the protocols and guidelines put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, students continue to gather, whether those gatherings are large or small.

While some students speak out against it, there has been anxiety over openly objecting to these parties.

According to the contact tracer UMass Amherst, some students feel like they cannot criticize these parties without facing some sort of backlash. “One [student] made an article about how the frats are acting terrible,” said the student, “A bunch of frat brothers tried to get him expelled I think and started spreading rumors about him.”

Meyers mused on his own experience, providing possible insight behind these parties.

“I live off campus in Amherst where students have had a bit more freedom. However, many are feeling the boredom that has resulted from the rather mundane and monotonous weeks,” Meyers said. “Sitting in my room and staring at my laptop all day makes me want to break down the walls of my house and go do something. Anything. It’s exhausting and driving many of us who live off campus crazy to have online classes all day.”

The reality of COVID-19 is that these large parties and smaller gatherings can have severe consequences, causing superspreader events in small towns like Amherst. For now, it’s in everyone’s best interest to keep the gatherings to a minimum while the country works toward mass vaccination.

April 22, 2021

FEATURES

. Mount Holyoke News

11

Jac Essing ’20 talks community organizing, ordination

Photo courtesy of Jac Essing ’20 For the newly ordained alum, ministry work is rooted in community.

BY KELSEY THOMAS ’21 COPY CHIEF

“I was like, ‘I don’t really have a lot to do with my time. I’ll join this choir for this church, like, why not?’” the Rev. Rachael “Jac” Essing ’20 said, reflecting on her journey to the diaconate. “And then I find myself telling the bishop, ‘Yeah, I [can] commit my life to this, actually.’”

On Saturday, April 10, Essing was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons at Christ Church Cathedral in Springfield, Massachusetts. The service was livestreamed to the church’s Facebook page so all who were unable to attend the event in person could celebrate the milestone remotely. Though Essing jokingly described her religious journey as a “stumble,” the four years she spent in the formation process, actively contemplating and learning from professors at different theological schools, indicate otherwise.

“I was 23 when I officially started the process and entered as a postulant. … I got my psych evals done, [and] I met with a couple of committees for the diocese,” Essing, now 27, explained. “I was able to do that concurrently with [Province 1] School for Deacons.”

During this time, Essing read “Many Servants: An

Introduction to Deacons” by Ormonde Plater, which she said altered her view of ministry. She recalled thinking, “I don’t have to be a rector at a parish and deal with broken toilets … and try to also answer how the [Holy] Trinity is like, one God but three?” The realization that another option existed, one that more closely aligned with her passions, left a major impact on her understanding of holy servitude. “I can just focus on like, trying to help people understand that they are beloved children of God, and that we maybe all deserve food and shelter and belonging to one another? … That’s dope, I wanna do that,” she added.

Though the knowledge Essing gained during the formation process helped cement her decision to join the ministry, at this time, she had already spent years proving her commitment to the Episcopal Church. In 2015, she joined the Lawrence House Service Corps, a faith-based internship program sponsored by All Saints’ Episcopal Church in South Hadley, where she spent two years volunteering in the local community.

As a Lawrence House intern, she served as a peer chaplain at Mount Holyoke’s own Eliot House, planning interfaith events and offering students her unique spiritual perspective. Today, she works with Enlace de Familias’ House of Colors program in Holyoke but remains connected to Lawrence House as its pastoral assistant.

Essing described being “humbled” during her first year at Lawrence House. “I had two housemates who were just a couple years older and way cooler than me and, like, way smarter and more informed about … the happenings of the world,” she said.

In 2017, Essing transferred to Mount Holyoke as a junior from a community college in her home state of Iowa. She admired the “passion for social justice” that she saw in her peers and credits her time at Mount Holyoke for widening her perspective. “Everyone [at Mount Holyoke] is very eloquent and hard-working and quick to provide feedback,” she said. “I saw [that both] in the classroom and in conversations, especially with Eliot House.”

Essing graduated from Mount Holyoke in the fall of 2020 with a sociology major, a religion minor and a Nexus minor in nonprofit organizations. Sitting in her first sociology class as a “misty-eyed Iowan girl who just want[ed] to help people,” she came to recognize the importance of being not only well-intentioned, but well-informed.

“Being a sociology major [made] me realize even further just how little I knew and how much I could learn by just straight up listening to people,” Essing said. “Part of the diaconate is community organizing, and [the first step of] a lot of community organizing is … asking questions and shutting up and listening.”

Essing is a proud Western Massachusetts-transplant who considers all she does for the area not a “job,” but a form of “community organizing.” When she thinks ahead to the next step — being appointed to a parish — she has no specific preferences as long as she gets to stay with the communities she’s spent years getting to know.

“I really like serving the communities of Hampden County — Springfield and Holyoke, specifically — and would be open to others. And other than that, I don’t have, like, a preference over ministry of ‘I want to be in food justice’ or ‘I want to be in prison chaplaincy.’

Some deacons might have those preferences,” Essing said. “I don’t, just because, one, I am new, but two, like, that just doesn’t work for my understanding of the diaconate [as] community organizing.”

One day, when Essing was 14, she agreed to go on a weekend retreat with a friend — a “church thing” — a trip that ended up changing the trajectory of her life.

“What a weird, weird thing. If I didn’t say yes to my friend’s invitation, … I guess I’d still be in Iowa,” she reflected.

But the Venerable Janice L. Grinnell, archdeacon of the Episcopal diocese of Rhode Island, who gave the sermon at Essing’s ordination, expected nothing less of Essing.

“I wish that you could see all of the people who are watching you from afar so that you could know how many of us are here to support you not only today, but in all of your days to come,” Grinnell said to Essing in her sermon. “You have blessed all of us who you have touched in the time that we have known you — family, friends, peers in school and colleagues, now, in ministry.”

“It’s still very surreal, even after Saturday,” Essing confessed. But she expressed gratitude for where she’s been and hope for where she’s going.

“I don’t need to have it figured out,” Essing said.

“I don’t need to have this picturesque goal and, like, a guidepost along the way, as much as I would like that sometimes, if I just keep, like, waking up and trying my best.”

MoZone peer educators host More Than An Ally Week

BY ANSLEY KEANE ’23 STAFF WRITER

The Mount Holyoke College MoZone peer educators sought to help community members discover how to transform their values into action and practice allyship through their annual event More Than An Ally Week, which took place from April 5 to April 9 this year.

The MoZone Peer Education program is a social justice education program at Mount Holyoke College in which trained students — peer educators — facilitate modules and workshops for community members to discuss and learn about social justice and diversity. MoZone’s mission, which appears on their Mount

Holyoke webpage, is “to increase awareness of social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion issues on campus by providing students with shared language and knowledge.”

In addition to organizing More Than An Ally Week, the MoZone peer educators support the Mount Holyoke community through social justice education programming throughout the year. “Our work primarily lies in facilitating educational modules that tackle various issues such as race and ethnicity, nationality and nation of origin, religion and spirituality and gender and sexual orientation, to name a few. We also provide dialogues for student orgs and staff and faculty who request them,” Allison Ping-Benguiat ’22, one of the MoZone peer educators, said.

This year, the MoZone peer educators hosted their first-ever remote More Than An Ally Week, which featured the panel, “A Discussion About Allyship, Accompliceship and Advocacy in an Age of Polarization,” with keynote speaker and moderator JLove Calderón, a renowned social justice writer and educator. The panelists included Riché Barnes, associate professor and chair of gender studies; Gabriel Hall, assistant director of Campus Diversity Programming and LGBTQ Initiatives; Amelia Ender, chaplain to the College and adviser to the Jewish community; Kelly Lam ’22, cultural center assistant for the Asian Center for Empowerment; and Lucas Wilson, professor of Africana CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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ENVIRONMENTAL

April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

Carbon footprint calculator highlights personal responsibility

Graphic by Gabby Gagnon ’24

BY HELEN GLOEGE ’23 STAFF WRITER

After its popularization in the 1990s by oil and gas company BP in a $250 million advertising campaign, the term “carbon footprint” has been heavily discussed, particularly around Earth Day. In 2004, as a response to BP’s campaign, the first carbon footprint calculator was invented. Since then, the Environmental Protection Agency and others have released other carbon footprint calculators, promoting individual responsibility in reducing personal carbon footprints.

The carbon footprint calculator can allow individuals to take action in response to the global crisis, but research shows changes made by reducing one’s carbon footprint may not be enough. A 2020 study from the University of Michigan said that households consuming less energy in some states than the national average weren’t counted due to the grid’s method of producing electricity canceling the difference. Even with recycling, over 90 percent of plastics in recycling bins don’t end up being recycled.

It is nearly impossible to have a sustainable carbon footprint as long as fossil fuels are the basis of our global energy system. Personal carbon footprints focus on individual behavior rather than the systemic and structural changes required for addressing climate change.

Since the late 1980s, 100 large oil and gas companies, including BP, have been responsible for around 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. BP itself is responsible for over 34 billion metric tons of carbon emissions since 1965. An analysis of major oil companies including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ENI, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Repsol, Royal Dutch Shell and Total, between 2008-2019 revealed that none moved away from fossil fuels during the time frame of the study.

Instead, companies increased their natural gas production shares, and “not a single major oil or gas firm invested more than 0.1 percent of revenues into renewable energy,” the analysis found. BP even sold off its solar assets in 2011 due to financial difficulties in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Furthermore, major oil companies constructed new pipelines

and production developments. BP and other companies have also taken part in greenwashing, the process of providing misleading information about how a company is supposedly more environmentally friendly.

Fossil fuel companies have also employed tactics to control the narrative around climate change. The oil firm ExxonMobil has known about climate change since the 1970s and led efforts to block measures to cut emissions. Yet, there was a point back in the 1970s when oil companies in the U.S. appeared to embrace renewable energy by viewing themselves as energy companies. That changed in the early 1990s due to a series of oil crises and changing governmental leadership.

A study from 2020 pointed out that across 86 countries, the richest 10 percent of the population consumed about 20 times more energy than the poorest 10 percent of the population. The rich have more options in how they spend their money. High consumers live in a system that enables and rewards consumption.

Countries have been historically held responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, but richer and heavier polluting countries tend to back out of commitments. For the individual, products and energy consumption can be linked to an unsustainable or large portion of individuals.

A study from September 2020 found that efforts to get people to alter their personal behavior to battle climate change “decreased individuals’ willingness to take personal actions to reduce greenhouse gases, decreased willingness to support pro-climate candidates, reduced belief in the accelerated speed of climate change and decreased trust in climate scientists.”

FEATURES: MoZone peer educators host More Than An Ally Week

BY ANSLEY KEANE ’21 STAFF WRITER

studies and economics and chair of economics.

More Than An Ally Week concluded on April 9 with a workshop entitled “Are You Awake, Woke or Are You Doing The Work? Developing Strategies Toward Being More Than Just An Ally in an Age of Polarization.” This workshop was an opportunity for community members to develop their own action plans for how they can put their values into action and create meaningful change. The 2021 More Than An Ally Week also included an interactive social media campaign.

“More Than An Ally Week is organized annually by MoZone. The intention of this week is to provide events with info on the differences between allyship and accompliceship, as well as resources aiding the development of the latter,” Ping-Benguiat explained. “Our hope is that attendees and participants of our More Than An Ally Week not only better understand the crucial differences between allyship and accompliceship, but also have the tools

and knowledge to support their acthings [like] bookkeeping, legal tivism.” [help], graphic design, money, Ping-Benguiat hopes that by boosting events [and more],” partaking in More Than An Ally Ping-Benguiat said. week, participants have a better Practicing allyship also understanding of the active nameans listening and respondture of allyship and accompliceing to the needs of marginalized ship. “Understanding an ally or groups as they themselves exaccomplice is not an identity but press those needs. “Rather than rather a state of being is crucial. assume the needs of a marginalBeing involved with social justice ized group, sit back and listen to movements that do not specifically students and activists at MHC,” affect our own identities is an imPing-Benguiat added. “Be wary perfect lifelong process, not a fixed of virtue signaling. Allyship is identity,” Ping-Benguiat noted. dependent on real work, not on Ping-Benguiat also explained Photo courtesy of MoZone peer educators receiving recognition or gratiMore Than An Ally Week took place in mid-April. what members of the Mount Holytude.” oke community can do to further their allyship and Through events like More Than An Ally Week gave some examples of what allyship might look like, and the MoZone peer education program’s other reshowing that allyship is not a one-size-fits-all process. sources, Mount Holyoke College community mem“Allyship is mental and/or physical work. You can pro- bers can develop the knowledge and skills needed vide support by helping set up for events and attend- to practice allyship during and after their time at ing rallies and by offering non-physical services [and] Mount Holyoke.

April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

ENVIRONMENTAL

A brief history of Earth Day since the 1970s

Image courtesy of Pixabay Many Earth Day celebrations around the world include planting trees.

BY CATELYN FITZGERALD ’23 STAFF WRITER

Earth Day is the largest secular holiday celebrated across the globe. It originated at the cusp of the modern environmentalist movement, which began in the 1970s as Americans became more aware of the effects of unimpeded industrialization on the environment and human health. At the time, key events, including the fire on the Cuyahoga River and the success of Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring,” contributed to a growing fervor among mainstream Americans on environmental issues. Earth Day was originally meant to consist of a group of teach-ins at colleges across the country, an idea pioneered by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. April 22 was chosen as the event date to maximize student participation, as it was midweek and directly between spring break and finals.

Nelson recruited 25-year-old Denis Hayes to organize the event, but Hayes quickly realized that the anti-war movement had a hold on college students’ at-

tention and activist energy. As a result, support for the environmental movement came primarily from young mothers, who had extra time on their hands and a great concern for the environment that their children would grow up in.

With this in mind, Hayes sought to propel the event to a national stage, leading to the establishment of the name “Earth Day” and its transformation into a day of appreciation and action for the environment.

The first Earth Day celebration turned out to be a landmark success, with 20 million Americans engaging in protests and demonstrations to urge leaders to stop rampant industrial activity. There was a collaboration between citizens across class and party lines, and politicians from various levels of government participated and showed support. Seeing the sudden momentum and mainstream appeal of the environmental movement, the Nixon administration and Congress put key environmental policies and government bodies in place, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act. In 1990, Earth Day moved to a global scale, with people in 141 countries celebrating the holiday. Today, the tradition continues with over 190 countries participating in Earth Day celebrations. Festivities usually consist of individual acts of kindness toward the Earth, including tree planting, clean-ups of beaches and parks and environmental education opportunities.

At Mount Holyoke, an Earth Week will be held in lieu of a one-day celebration, with events such as Play Day, a discussion of the film “Gather” and a webinar on regenerative agriculture.

While Earth Day looks different for everyone who celebrates it, it offers an opportunity to reflect on how consumption and capitalism threaten the environment, serving as a reminder of the urgency to take action against climate change in order to preserve the beautiful planet we call home.

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Weekly Climate News April 22, 2021 Alaska’s boreal forests have experienced extreme damage from wildfires, but a regrowth of deciduous trees is helping to sequester more carbon than before.

Climate change has been altering the monsoon season in India, which poses threatening concerns for both Asian countries and the world.

Dust plumes from Africa, like the recent “Godzilla” pushed by winds in June 2020 from the Sahara across the Atlantic to North America, will shrink significantly due to climate change.

U.S. President Joe Biden will announce on Earth Day that the United States will cut carbon emissions in half by the end of the decade.

The “Climate Clock” in New York City’s Union Square now shows an estimate of how much of the world’s energy comes from renewable resources.

A recent study found that air pollution in India is costing Indian businesses $95 billion every year.

New carbon-capture technology indicates possible emission reduction

BY ABBY WESTER ’22 STAFF WRITER

New advancements have been made in carbon-capture technology, processes that trap carbon, a greenhouse gas that largely contributes to global warming and climate change, emissions at source and remove it from the atmosphere.

In March 2021, Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce company, announced its purchase of direct air capture from Carbon Engineering. According to a press release from Carbon Engineering, the service “allows customers to reserve capacity from a Carbon Engineering direct air capture … facility — providing the permanent removal of carbon emissions on their behalf.” Shopify is reserving 10,000 tonnes of carbon removal capaci-

ty from Carbon Engineering, making this the largest publicly announced corporate purchase of DAC. The industrial-scale DAC facility is scheduled to start operations in 2024, as construction is still underway. While DAC can effectively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it requires gas and electricity to do so, which ultimately reduces the effectiveness of the technology. Critics argue that carbon capture technology should be a last-resort effort to remove carbon from the atmosphere and that individuals should focus on changing their lifestyles to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons Carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning plants pollute the environment, exacerbate climate change and contribute to global warming.

Image courtesy Globe graphic by Anjali Rao-Herel ’22

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PHOTO ESSAY

April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

The MHN celebrates Earth Day with photos from around the country [1]

[2]

[3]

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[4]

[6]

[7]

April 22, 2021

PHOTO ESSAY

. Mount Holyoke News [8]

[9]

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Photos by Trinity Kendrick ’21: 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 15 Flannery Langton ’22: 4, 6, 11 Rosemary Geib ’23: 2, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13

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BOOKS

April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

Beloved children’s author Beverly Cleary dies at 104

Photo courtesy of Flickr Children read books from Beverly Cleary’s popular Ramona series.

BY AMELIA SCARPONI ’23 STAFF WRITER

On March 25, award-winning children’s author Beverly Cleary died in Carmel Valley, California, at the age of 104. She is perhaps best known for her series of books about sisters Ramona and Beatrice “Beezus” Quimby growing up in small-town America. The HarperCollins press release about Cleary’s death praised her for “setting a standard for realistic children’s fiction” through the publication of over 40 books, adding, “Cleary has also inspired authors, including Judy Blume, to deal with the real issues in young readers’ lives.”

On March 27, Blume expressed her condolences and admiration for the late author on Twitter, stating, “Beverly Cleary! My inspiration. I wanted to write books like yours. I so regret never having met you. You will not be forgotten.” Blume retweeted a statement she once gave emphasizing her inspiration, which read, “The closest I got was when our mutual publisher switched a packet of fan mail quite a few years ago.

She got mine, I got hers, and I admit I read a couple of

letters meant for her. Most of them were about Ramona. Who doesn’t love Ramona?”

An only child, Cleary was born in McMinnville, Oregon, to parents Mable and Chester Bunn. Until the age of 6, she and her family lived on a farm in Yamhill, Oregon, “a town so small it had no library,” according to Cleary’s website. Her mother arranged to have books sent to Yamhill from the State Library and served as librarian in a room above their local bank.

In 1922, the family moved to Portland, Oregon, where her father pursued work as a bank security guard. Following the move, Cleary tested into the low-reading program at her grammar school despite her early love of books, an experience that influenced her later work. However, by the third grade, Cleary was a confident reader and an aspiring writer. The Guardian reported that, decades after her first book was published, she wrote, “The discovery, when I was about 8 years old, that I could actually read, and read with pleasure, was one of the most exciting moments of my life. From that moment on, as I read through the shelves of the library, I searched for, but was unable to find, the books I wanted to read most of all: books about the sort of children who lived in my neighbourhood, books that would make me laugh.”

Her first children’s book, “Henry Huggins,” inspired by a young boy she met while working as a librarian in Yakima, Washington, was published in 1950.

Five years later, she published “Ramona and Beezus,” which readers immediately fell in love with, leading to an eight-book series. According to the Ramona and Beezus wiki page on fandom.com, “Ramona is a dreamer with an ‘overactive imagination.’” Ramona herself says her personality “makes the fun parts funner and the scary parts scarier,” adding that “it’s good to scare yourself once in a while.”

Writer Allison Hope explained the significance of Ramona as a character for CNN, stating, “Ramona is there for all of us pests who speak up in the meetings even when the men interrupt to talk over us. For us

pests who show up unabashedly sporting our soccer shirts and our short hair and our big personalities and our we-don’t-take-crap-from-anyone attitude.”

In 1938, Cleary earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, where she would meet her future husband. The next year, she received a second Bachelor of Arts degree in library science from the University of Washington’s School of Librarianship (today the Information School). Shortly after graduation, she took a position as a children’s librarian at a public library in Yakima.

Cleary won numerous awards and honors, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her substantial and lasting contributions to children’s literature, the Newbery Medal for her novel “Dear Mr. Henshaw” and the name of “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress. In 1984, she was nominated for the highly acclaimed international Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her website notes that “of greatest importance to … Cleary were the more than 35 statewide awards her books received, based on the direct votes of her young readers.”

Though Cleary is best known for her humorous and endearing children’s novels like “Runaway Ralph” (1970) and “Dear Mr. Henshaw” (1983), she also wrote two memoirs. “A Girl From Yamhill” (1988) recounts her childhood growing up during the Great Depression, and “My Own Two Feet” (1996) follows Cleary from college to the publication of her first novel.

In an interview for The Atlantic, Cleary said, “I hope children will be happy with the books I’ve written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.” Erica Hawes ’22 certainly was. She remembers Cleary fondly. She said, “I’m so sad to hear of her passing! Beverly Cleary was part of my childhood; her books definitely cultivated my love for reading. I first read ‘Dear Mr. Henshaw’ the summer before starting second grade, and I remember carrying it around in my backpack for the entire school year.”

Support small businesses by visiting these Pioneer Valley bookstores Amherst Books, Amherst

BY ANASTASIA BRANAS ’24 STAFF WRITER

As a first-year at Mount Holyoke, being able to handle the isolation of campus life during the pandemic can be difficult. My personal outlet has been finding places in and around campus to explore.

One of the many places to find comfort during the pandemic for me has been bookstores. To be surrounded by physical books and people in real life seems like such a fantasy now, but it is slowly becoming reality again. Luckily for me and other Mount Holyoke book lovers, there seems to be a surplus of bookstores around the Pioneer Valley. Whether you’re on campus or just happen to be in Massachusetts, here are some local bookstores to explore.

Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley

A classic choice for any Mount Holyoke student is the Odyssey Bookshop, located in the Village Commons across the street from campus. “Odyssey Bookshop reminds me of my own hometown bookstore and

makes me feel at home,” Mara Gregory ’24 explained. She’s found a safe haven there for all of her scholarly and recreational needs.

Graphic by Jieru Ye ’23 Odyssey even carries personal care items like toothbrushes and tampons to use in a pinch. From professors’ publications to independent books, Odyssey has a wide selection to appeal to every reader.

Another bookstore I’ve loved visiting while living on campus is Amherst Books in Amherst, just up the street from Insomnia Cookies. This bookstore is one 25-minute bus ride away from campus on the 38 bus — get off at the Amherst Common stop. Amherst Books closes at 4 p.m., so be careful how late you go.

The store has a great selection, including lots of indie books. Any possible niche is marked on their dark wooden shelves — from books about music to books about nature photography, they have everything. The entire basement has used books in all subjects. Amherst Books also has a wide selection of Shakespeare’s plays, so if you ever have to read Shakespeare for class, I’d recommend going there and buying a $5 copy of “Othello” instead of using Amazon. A great way to support a local bookstore is by buying your course texts from them.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

SENIOR REFLECTIONS

17

As our reporting begins to come to a close for this academic year, the Mount Holyoke News is preparing to say goodbye to several senior staff members. We’ve reserved space in each of our final editions for these graduating seniors to bid farewell to our readers and other staff members. Please enjoy our newest senior reflections here:

took on a new assignment each week, I fell in love with reporting. I was always impressed with the interesting and informative articles my editors came up with for us to write about. I remember

thinking, “How do they even do that?”

I must have been destined to find out because during my sophomore year, there was a position open for the Sports section editor and I said, “Why not?”

I had never used InDesign before or spent much time in the newsroom but it didn’t matter because the MHN staff was with me every step of the way. As I got adjusted to working in an editorial role, what I loved the most about the position was seeing the ideas I came up with materialize in print every week.

During my junior year I had an idea about starting an Environmental section for the newspaper and thankfully, Lily Reavis ’21 and Sabrina Edwards ’20 said OK! Taking on this project has taught me so much more than I could have ever expected about the world and myself as a writer. I am so lucky to have had this opportunity to not only grow as a writer but to engage with content that I am passionate about.

Over the course of the past year, I could not have been more proud to work with such an amazing group of talented

individuals dedicated to student journalism. Despite the unexpected challenges of a global pandemic, power outages, remote work and an unprecedented summer publication, MHN did not once give up the news! The consistency of our publication and the reliable quality coverage of world events week after week was truly a bright spot through the chaos and uncertainty of COVID-19. I could always rely on the MHN staff to show up to Zoom pitches even when the world was falling to pieces.

I am so grateful for the support and enthusiasm of my editors for always saying yes to everything, no matter how impossible it might seem. I cannot thank the amazing staff of MHN enough for their persistence, kindness and creativity! To my Environmental section writers, Sports sections writers, editors, copy editors, fact-checkers, graphic designers, Photos team and anyone whom I have worked with over the years: You are all rockstars and I am so thankful for our time together!

even had to drag me to the Williston Library for the first time, where I came to spend much of my time on campus alone in my favorite group study room.

Predictably, I felt removed from my peers. It turns out they appreciate — and deserve — some effort. My bad.

In my original application to the MHN, I wrote, “I would not apply to the MHN if I didn’t think my schedule allowed me to give it the attention it requires.” I meant it. I received an acceptance email from Copy Chief Nadia Babar ’19 only four hours after I sent my materials over. I was very proud of this fact, though I now know that email time is fake.

Like most things, I took this application very seriously. Many students use the copy editor role as a stepping stone, a chance to familiarize themselves with the newsroom, the publication cycle and the reigning editors before getting involved “for real.” I didn’t. I don’t believe in a newsroom hierarchy. I love behind-the-scenes work, red pens and seemingly insignificant style rules, and I like to think that every brilliant and hard-working person on my copy team does, too.

“To me, the MHN is a central source of both information and inspiration,” I wrote in my 2018 application. “I want to be one of the editors protecting its legacy by ensuring that every student-written piece is coherent and accessible. … I want to act as a guiding force that helps writers convey their own ideas as clearly and concisely as possible.”

Lately, I’ve been asking myself if I’ve successfully done all I said I strove to do in that 2018 email. One thing I do know is that I can now say, without exaggerating, that I feel like a part of the campus community I once didn’t understand.

Thank you Ilana Goldin ’21, the one who forced me to leave Ham Hall that first year, for bringing me tea during my shifts and teaching me how to take myself less seriously. Thank you to my copy team for all your careful fact-checking and diligent editing. Thank you Lily Reavis ’21, who invented writing, reporting and journalism itself; Flannery Langton ’22, who blows me away with their command of language and immaculate instincts; and Rose Sheehan ’22, whose endless knowledge of InDesign makes it look like a less painful program than I’m sure it is. You three blow me away with your creativity and insight.

I must extend a final thank you to you for your readership. I hope we meet again. In the meantime, thank a copy editor in your life, and take advantage of one lesson I’ve only just learned: Our words have power, but so does our punctuation — end your statements with a period, not a question mark.

MERYL PHAIR ENVIRONMENTAL EDITOR I started writing for the Mount Holyoke News during my first year as a staff writer for the News section. I didn’t have a serious interest in journalism prior to joining but thought it would be a great way to improve my writing. As I

KELSEY THOMAS COPY CHIEF I joined the Mount Holyoke News as a copy editor my sophomore year after I realized I had no ties to this “campus community” I kept hearing about. I spent most of my first year holed up in my dorm when I wasn’t sitting stiffly in classrooms with my lips clamped shut.

One of my first-year roommates and eventual lifelong best friend — she’ll love that I’m admitting that in print —

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COMMUNITY

April 22, 2021

. Mount Holyoke News

Problematic diet culture is learned, cont’d Visiting nearby u bookstores, cont’d CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

weight itself.

Christy Harrison, a registered dietitian and anti-diet nutritionist, wrote about the importance of sharing accurate information about health and body size. “If we’re delivering nutrition messages with a side order of weight stigma, we’re actually canceling out any benefit of the nutrition information and putting people’s health at greater risk,” she said.

Additionally, the framework of intuitive eating suggests that when a wide variety of foods are available and free of value judgments, children will be attracted to a diverse array of foods, not just sweets and chips. The key is for adults to send the message that all kinds of foods are in abundance and not contingent upon a child finishing their dinner or behaving well. Without external sources telling them what they should and should not eat at any given time, children can be more mindful of their hunger, fullness and desire for certain foods. Chances are, they are not always going to reach for the less nutrient-dense foods if they know that those foods are available any time they want them.

Adults, especially parents and child care providers, need to take the lead on combating diet culture,

starting with what they teach their children about nutrition. First, they should be mindful of what they say about their own bodies and food choices in front of children.

Micklo pointed out that this is especially true for white educators “because the foods deemed most ‘healthy’ are, for the most part, tied closely to a white American diet.” She continued, “Students of color likely are not eating plain chicken breasts, steamed broccoli and whole-grain bread for dinner every night.”

Additionally, adults should make a variety of foods available as often as possible to avoid placing a moral judgment on one type of food over another. “It is essential to give children the opportunity to make food decisions and learn from them without judgment,” Nicole Cruz, another anti-diet registered dietitian, wrote on her blog. “Our job as [adults] is to nurture that relationship and reinforce [that] they can TRUST themselves.”

While diet culture isn’t going anywhere any time soon, children deserve to be surrounded by adults who model healthy behaviors surrounding food and nutrition. Child care providers should not underestimate the power of their words and actions, for they control the supply of, and the narrative about, children’s food choices.

COVID-19 is changing Christianity, cont’d u

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values that were previously in a tremulous state. With the U.S. focusing on equality on multiple scales and engaging with a more heightened conversation about unity, religion has appeared to have fallen behind.

Social issues regarding gay marriage and LGBTQ+ rights, and even access to safe abortion services and contraceptives, have caused a divide between the secular state and the conservative church. According to a recent Pew study, Protestantism and Catholicism in the U.S. are experiencing losses of population share.

What was once 51 percent in 2009 was, in 2019, only 43 percent of U.S. adults who identified as Protestants, and only 20 percent of U.S. adults identified as Catholics, another drop from the 23 percent in 2009.

Conservative Christian values have also seeped their way into the walls of Capitol Hill, with religious conservatives quoting the Bible in Congress to defend their propositions that harm a great deal of Americans. Beliefs of Christian abstinence and homosexuality as a “sin” have proven to be the bedrock to sex education policies that still exist in many American public schools. While there is no explicit statement that denounces abortion in any verse of the Bible, many American radical evangelicals have equated the termination of pregnancy to a morally unacceptable homicide of an unborn child. This strong sentiment has resulted in states like Alabama restricting the number of abortion clinics in 93 percent of its counties, making this reproductive right highly inaccessible.

But many believe that some of these radical Christian views have hegemonized popular media, completely ignoring Christian efforts that aim to support these social issues.

“To say that Christianity doesn’t talk about social

issues … is a misnomer,” Emily Carle ’21 said. “There were Christian congregations [that] were activists in the AIDS epidemic. I know Christian churches [that] were out there in the 1960s and ’70s marching for women’s liberation and for LGBT[Q+] acceptance. I have three clergy friends who serve on Planned Parenthood’s Clergy Advisory Board. Heck, my national church denomination, the United Church of Christ, just held a webinar on why Christians should be prochoice. … This idea that Christianity is at odds with social issues is a relatively new phenomenon that came about during the 1980s, and it is really only prevalent in this neo-conservative Christian movement. … Being active in social issues is, for me at least, at the core of what it means to be a Christian and to follow Jesus.”

The rise to the popular conservative image has led to a decline in believers. Carle also said, “I think the pandemic has given the Christian Church an opportunity to evaluate what has been working for [it], what hasn’t been working and what [it] can do to change in order to carry Jesus’ message of love and justice more meaningfully out into the world.” Building on that, people from different walks of life seem to be at a crossroads with Christianity — religion has curated an image of being an instrument of hope, yet its relevance to a more liberal world is being questioned. The image that religion had once carefully created has been replaced by one that appears to exclude, divide and control. Religion can adapt and evolve to help guide individuals in this turbulent age and initiate conversations on social matters that deeply concern and worry communities. To pray for peace and harmony rather than make it an issue of religious superiority, Christianity has been given a chance to change its narrative for a more open world.

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Tim’s Used Books, Northampton

When you stop by Northampton, take a book break at Tim’s Used Books. Located near Pita Pockets at 183 Main St., Northampton, Tim’s is open Sundays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday through Saturday from “11ish to 6ish,” according to northhamptonlive.com. On my trip there, I was able to talk with the cashier about our mutual love of “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Ottessa Moshfegh, which I snagged for $7. Check out Tim’s if you’re looking for a cozy gem of a store with more books inside than you might expect.

Montague Bookmill, Montague

Another popular Pioneer Valley bookstore is the Montague Bookmill, a bit out of the Five College area, at 440 Greenfield Road in Montague. In 1842, it was a gristmill, but now the store contains thousands of books, two restaurants, an artists’ collective and a music and movie store all nestled into two buildings.

The bookstore itself takes up the majority of the larger building on two floors, each room home to a different genre. Every nook and cranny is host to something interesting — the day will easily fly by before you’ve discovered it all. With the tongue-in-cheek slogan, “Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find,” the bookstore embodies an indie aesthetic. The website proclaims, “If we can’t find the book you’re looking for, we’ll find you a better one you didn’t know you wanted.”

The Montague Bookmill has recently reopened, allowing 12 patrons in at a time Thursday through Monday. It remains closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

These four bookstores are just a few of the many located near Mount Holyoke’s campus ready to be discovered. Grab a mask and hand sanitizer and take the time to enjoy yourself and some books.

Happy Earth Day from the Mount Holyoke News!

Enjoy special Earth Day content from the Environmental, Arts & Entertainment and News sections, featuring stories about the holiday’s history and influence. Along with this content, there is a two-page photo spread by Trinity Kendrick ’21, Flannery Langton ’22, Ali Meizels ’23 and Rosemary Geib ’23, along with potted plant header graphics by Anjali Rao-Herel ’22.