The lighting at Mount Holyoke is due for an update

BY HOPE FRANCES SIMPSON ’24 STAFF WRITER

Sitting in my dorm room in 1837 Hall, I’m always struck by the lovely view of Lower Lake, especially at night when it is brightly illuminated by the lights of Blanchard Hall — lights that seem to remain on 24/7.

Mount Holyoke College feels like a community within itself. There’s little one would need outside of the campus grounds, and it’s a pastoral picture of campus living — during the day that is.

At night, the campus is lit up like a star by street lights and uninhabited buildings whose lights appear to remain on all night long. Even if the lights are kept on in Blanchard Hall all day and night, other buildings don’t get the same treatment. For instance, some buildings have motion sensors that leave these buildings in the dark during the night. For those night owls who find themselves in Clapp Laboratory or Kendade Hall after hours, this might be a plus, but I find myself wondering just how much energy this extra lighting uses and how much of my tuition is footing the bill.

While I appreciate being able to go into any building without having to worry about stubbing my toe in the dark, the environment is certainly paying the price for Mount Holyoke’s excessive use of electricity.

According to Thomas Robert,

Mount Holyoke’s Electrical Supervisor, “There are areas on campus that we require to have minimum lighting levels. In these cases, we try to install motion sensors with dimming sensors that dim down to a lower level to conserve energy.”

Robert also said, “We do have some buildings such as the Library, CDC, Health center, Sciences, Mary Woolley, Creighton, Skinner and Clapp that hallways/common areas are controlled by light switches that are turned off daily by staff” meaning these buildings have the lights shut off when unoccupied. Additionally, stairwells have the lights dimmed down to 10 percent when not in use as another energy-saving measure.

I have noticed that this is the case in dorm buildings, like 1837 Hall, where there is a mix of motion sensor lights and lights that stay on at all hours. This provides an environment that can be safely navigated by students no matter how light or dark it is outside. Although leaving so many lights on in different dorms across campus is not necessarily what’s best for the environment, I have to agree that this is what’s best for student safety in residential spaces. Academic buildings, however, don’t necessarily need the precaution of lights that are left on 24/7 because they are not constantly in use the way that dormitories are.

“Most offices and classrooms are covered by some sort of control system to turn lights on and off,”

Robert said. Mount Holyoke would be wise to consider using sensored or non-automatic lighting switched off during the night and other periods of inactivity in these buildings.

However, getting sensor lighting in academic buildings is a challenge due to their cost. According to an article by Sustainable Buildings Initiative, “[motion] sensors only provide optimal results if they are calibrated, wired, and placed correctly.” This means that they are not always the best fit for every space, and installation costs will be more expensive than regular lighting that doesn’t require the same level of calibration.

“There is a fine balance as far as cost, efficiency and payback goes,”

Robert said. While generally efficient, sensor lights are more expensive and not an optimal choice for all the buildings on campus.

I would then propose using non-sensored lights in academic buildings that are used less at night and simply turning these lights off as a way to curb energy use.

Furthermore, even within dorms, lighting efficiency is not as simple as installing motion detectors in every building so that the lights are off when there is no human activity. For instance, this doesn’t account for the critters that could be lurking around at night, which could trigger the motion sensors and turn the lights on. Furthermore, some spaces at Mount Holyoke, such as basement dwellings with rodent problems, might not be the best fit for this kind of lighting. Meaning it would be best to have non-automated lighting in these areas.

While I am no lighting expert, I would advocate for the wider use of motion sensor lighting. While it is more costly, the benefits in the long run, which include less energy use overall, would benefit the College and our wallets greatly.

“I do believe it would benefit the College efficiency-wise to do motion sensors,” Robert said. He agreed that this lighting benefits the school, despite some of its pitfalls. Overall, the efficiency of this type of lighting does outweigh its downsides. While the College’s lighting practices certainly aren’t perfect, Robert explained that they are always considering new energy projects for the school and trying their best to conserve energy. Who knows, in a few years the view from 1837 Hall may become a moot point at night.

Mount Holyoke hosts 100th annual Glascock contest, cont’d

u CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 an interview with Mount Holyoke News.

Chandler, who had memorized their poems, was the next to perform, delivering several shorter, energetic poems — which were all centered on the page — from their manuscript of poems “Too Wet To Take.” In an interview with Mount Holyoke News, Chandler stated that they believed “their performance went well” and said the judges and other contestants were “great.”

Next, Houghton-Harjo, who is a Mvskoke and Seminole writer from Oklahoma, read four longer poems related to her Native American identity. She put her poem “Hvtvm Cheheraces / The Poem is a Seance at my Nan’s Kitchen Table” in conversation with “Perhaps the World Ends Here” a poem by Joy Harjo — no relation — who she read with during the former Poet Laureate’s closing event at the Library of Congress.

“I tried to view it as just like any other reading,” Houghton-Harjo said in an interview with Mount Holyoke News. “I like to read and so I’ve tried to keep that in mind. … this morning I forgot that there was gonna be a winner. … it was really out of my mind, which I think [was] good for my jitters.”

Martinez read a series of poems that reflected her struggles with depression; before performing, she explained that there were three separate sections focusing on sadness, emptiness and joy. In her contestant biography, she stated that she’s “hoping [her] writing can reach out to those who are also struggling with depression and anxiety from an early age.”

Newbury, whose work, according to his contestant biography,

“provides unique insight into his experiences with moving across the country and all the change that comes along with it,” read two longer, narrative poems titled “Coat of Fur” and “I know the universe is testing me (so don’t try to tell me that it’s not).”

Trice was the final contestant to read and performed a number of poems, some of which explored intertextual references to “The Odyssey.” In a previous interview with the Mount Holyoke News, he explained how his “Penelope poems” originated from his fascination with the figure of Penelope when he did a research fellowship looking at “reimaginings of the stories of the women of the Odyssey in contemporary literature.”

Discussing the contestants’ reading in an interview with Mount Holyoke News, Myles said that they were “moved” and “even got weepy.”

They also stated that the fact that the room was so full was “a testament to how much people care about poetry around here.”

Nguyen and Myles, who had, as judges, been given access to the contestants’ poems about a week before the contest, both enjoyed seeing how the student poets read their poems aloud.

“I think everybody is so different when they read,” Myles said. “I had a take on the work but people delivered it in such interesting ways. … some people were seamless [and] the poems just ran right on top of each other, people had memorized their poems. So it was enthralling, it was really cool.”

Nguyen echoed this sentiment stating that “it was especially a pleasure because I had already read the poems [and] to both meet the person who wrote the poems but also to see how they animate their text, how they conveyed it, it was really impressive, the presence everyone had.”

The following morning, April 1, the contestants and judges reconvened in the Stimson room for the judges’ reading and announcement of the winner. Student members of the Glascock committee introduced the judges before their reading.

“I learned from [Nguyen’s] poems the power in admitting how little we know,” Kelsey Warren FP ’25 said while introducing Nguyen.

Nguyen read a selection of poems, multiple of which referenced her mother’s Vietnamese stunt motorcycle troop, from her latest book of poetry, “A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure.”

Myles then read from their latest book of poetry, “a ‘Working Life,’” and performed their poems with a sharp, fast, rhythmic cadence.

Shockley read last and performed a number of poems from “Suddenly We,” her most recent book of poetry. In one stand-out poem, she tied together Greek mythology – specifically the Furies –and a message of justice for Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed by police in her home during the spring of 2020.

Before announcing the winners, the judges read statements that spoke to each contestant’s strengths. They then announced that they would split the prize between Bosworth and Houghton-Harjo. “I feel like being a co-winner is the coolest way to do it,” Bosworth said. “And [I] love Portlyn’s work, I think ‘BIGFOOT 69’D MY WIFE’ is like one of the best titles I’ve ever heard. So yeah, so I’m super duper honored to share it.”

Houghton-Harjo stated that she felt that the judges had a hard decision to make and that she was glad to share the prize with Bosworth, stating that “he’s so talented.”

“We have some real heavy hitters in the space so it feels really good to be surrounded by that and by people who appreciate poetry and especially boundary-pushing poetry,” Houghton-Harjo said.

Shockley appreciated the students who came to the events and said that they don’t take the energy that students bring to these kinds of events for granted.

“I don’t know exactly what I expected, but the quality of the student poems, the level of community support for beginning-ish writers — I mean they all seem to be pretty far into using their gifts — it was astonishing and I feel honored to have been able to play a part,” Shockley said.